September 2021 Dispatch
Big news! I finished a draft of The Price of Thorns, my fantasy novel that’s about stories and fairy tales and also some animal transformation. The idea for this book has been kicking around in my head since at least 2011. Here is the oldest set of notes that I have, sent to myself in November 2011 via AIM of all things (AIM handle redacted):
[08:54] : Magic fantasy-ish setting where hero has encountered this queen who has lost her kingdom, lost everything, and hero is trying to help her. And the queen keeps insisting that they go to this fairy for help, and the hero is like "I don't know, everyone says she's evil" and the queen is all like "no, no, she's misunderstood, she'll help us."
[08:54] : And they eventually go, and the fairy throws them into some horrible prison place, of course.
[08:54] : And the queen is devastated and the hero is like, "I *told* you she was evil, why did you think she would help you?"
[08:54] : and the queen says, "well, she always did before!"
[08:55] : And lo, it is revealed that the queen was actually an EVIL queen and so the hero is now caught in the dilemma of "oh shit do I keep helping her or what?"
[08:55] : Because she seems like a much nicer person now.
The book has changed somewhat since then, but the bones are still recognizable. Here’s the current summary/blurb/whatever, just off the top of my head (it will need some workshopping):
Nivvy, a down on his luck thief, meets Bella, who claims he can become rich beyond his wildest dreams if he helps her steal a magic ring that will help her regain her kingdom. But the fairy who owns the ring turns Nivvy into a weasel, and his only chance of becoming human again is to help Bella regain her power. The only problem is, he’s now pretty sure Bella was not a good queen—like, she’s had fairy tales written about her, and she’s not the hero. So now Nivvy’s got a real thinker on his hands—er, paws. Does he resign himself to life as a talking weasel, in a world that is not friendly to talking animals, or does he chase his humanity at the side of a woman who might end the world if she gets what she wants?
And that’s just the first part of the book! I’m really happy with how the whole thing turned out. It’s now sitting for a month while I work with Unfinished Business and Curse of Lone Pine Gulch, but I’m looking forward to getting back to it.
Those two books are mostly done; I’m doing final edits on Unfinished Business, and creating queries for Curse of Lone Pine Gulch so I can send it out to agents (it’s a straight-up mystery so I need to find another publisher). So I’m gonna be doing that this coming month, and around the end of the month I’ll go back to Price of Thorns and do my first edit pass on it.
I dialed in to Megaplex to do some panels as a remote GOH, first time I’ve done that, and I think it went pretty well! I enjoyed seeing some people and doing a remote reading, and the pre-recorded panel I did with Rukis was good, I think.
I don’t know when I’ll get to another convention. Given the way the epidemic is going, BLFC is looking less likely and MFF is iffy. FC is probable given that I don’t have to fly to it, and I’d love to get back to TFF buuuuut it is in Texas, so who knows? I hope by February I’ll feel better about going to Dallas. I miss my friends there.
Streaming: We finished The White Lotus and really liked it. I’ve read criticisms of how it handled the native Hawaiian people and I think those are justified, but I liked how it talked about privilege and highlighted its effects on people, even those trying to do the right thing. It’s also got some great awkward humor in it.
We’ve also gotten into the British game show Taskmaster, which has lots of tasks on YouTube. They’re usually between 8 and 12 minutes (look for ones that say “Full Task”) and they are a lot of fun to watch.
Brooklyn Nine-Nine is back for its last season. I only mention it here because we were very curious how they would change in response to the Black Lives Matter movement and police protests in 2020, and the season opener handled it I think about as well as a show about police can. Since that one, it’s shied away from police work and focused on the private lives of the officers, which is probably a good way to go. The writing and acting is as sharp as ever.
I’ve watched a couple seasons of The Kominsky Method, and I gotta say I like Michael Douglas a lot more as an old man than I did in his younger days. This show is fun in that it brings back a lot of older actors I remember from their youth. It’s so good to see them again. It also talks about issues older people (mostly white men) face, and tries to find the humor in them, because you gotta laugh at it, right?
Hope you’re all having a decent summer and staying safe and healthy! If you’ve got writing questions, send ‘em my way and I’ll answer them in a week or two here.