February 14th, 2013

writing palencar horrid glory

it's all done with mirrors. never fear.

A certain amount of excitement prevails in Bearland today, as I have the cover and preorder info for Book of Iron, an Eternal Sky novella starring Bijou, of Bone & Jewel Creatures fame. It will be out from Subterranean Press in September, and preorders are available here.

Book of Iron concerns itself with what happens when a much younger Bijou and her companions meet up with an immortal, amoral, and powerful sorceress from a distant land, the legendary Maledysaunte. (First introduced in my Morgan le Fey apologia story* "Abjure the Realm," available at Coyote Wild.

These stories take place in the same world as Range of Ghosts, Shattered Pillars (out next month!), and Steles of the Sky, which I am just finishing up a draft of now.

Cover art for Book of Iron (Maurizio Manzieri)(I've just hit the beginning of the big tensiony bit before the actual climax actually starts, and I am not writing tonight because it turns out it had been ten days since my last day off, and tomorrow I have to go to Boskone, which is also work, though fun work.)

Also, there will be an Eternal Sky story in Jonathan Strahan's forthcoming anthology Fearsome Journeys: the New Solaris Book of Fantasy , where I share a ToC with Trudi Canavan, Daniel Abraham, Kate Eliot, Saladin Ahmed, Glen Cook, Ellen Klages, Ellen Kushner & Ysabeau Wilce, Jeffrey Ford, Robert Redick, and KJ Parker--and for the first time, my dear Mr. Lynch, who will also have an original story in the volume.

The  drop date is May 28, 2013.Here's the publisher's info page, and here's Jonathan's post at Coode Street on the book.

Here's the table of contents:

  1. Introduction, Jonathan Strahan
  2. “The Effigy Engine: A Tale of the Red Hats”, Scott Lynch
  3. “Amethyst, Shadow, and Light “, Saladin Ahmed
  4. “Camp Follower”, Trudi Canavan
  5. “The Dragonslayer of Merebarton “, K J Parker
  6. “leaf and branch and grass and vine”, Kate Eliot
  7. “Spirits of Salt: A Tale of the Coral Heart”, Jeffrey Ford
  8. “Forever People”, Robert V S Redick
  9. “Sponda the Suet Girl and the Secret of the French Pearl”, Ellen Klages
  10. “Shaggy Dog Bridge: A Black Company Story”, Glen Cook
  11. “The Ghost Makers”, Elizabeth Bear
  12. “One Last, Great Adventure”, Ellen Kushner & Ysabeau Wilce
  13. “The High King Dreaming”, Daniel Abraham

The Eternal Sky world is pretty damned thick with necromancers, now that I think about it.

Phew.

Also, there is a shiny new episode of the SF Squeecast up! It's episode 21 (Cripes, how did THAT happen?!) "A Very Scary Bedsheet," and our special guest this month is author, singer, actor, all-around amazeballs Amber Benson.

In other news, as previously noted, I will be at Boskone starting tomorrow. My training schedule has been pretty well nonexistent since last weekend--there was, shall we say, an epic amount of snow, and then I slipped on the ice, and I have been working a lot. Hopefully I will pick that up on Monday, and spend some time in the pool and the gym at the con. Really, I just go to hotels for the swimming pools.

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*This is not, some will note, my only Morgan le Fey apologia story. So be it.