Queer Fantasy and Weird Tales for the People
This man’s eyes, however, were a bright, metallic gold, the color of a new coin.
“Welcome home, child,” he said in Khalim’s voice. “You’ve been wandering a long time.”
Interlude Six: The White City
We’ve arrived at the last Interlude of Journey to the Water, in which Khalim returns to the citadel for answers. You can read this chapter right now on Patreon.
HIM, “In Joy and Sorrow”
Good morning! It’s Monday again.
I’m starting the Great Rewrite of Journey to the Water this week! In the meantime, you, dear reader, are nearing the end of the serial version. There will be a new chapter up on Patreon tomorrow, and last week’s chapter will be here for free reading on Wednesday.
A couple of petitions I’ve gathered today:
Via Win Without War: Enforce US law and save lives in Gaza
Also via Win Without War: Skip Israeli PM Netanyahu’s congressional address
Via Action Network: The US must welcome Palestinian refugees
If you’ve come across any actions to help Sudan and/or the Congo, please leave a link! I haven’t been able to find any.
I think that’s all for today. Thanks for stopping by.
If I had gained nothing else from my term in the service of Deinaros the All-knowing, I had obtained several volumes of esoteric maps and the goodwill of the new master of the sorcerer’s tower. Both of these I gave to Hamilcar, in exchange for his aid on this most perilous of journeys.
We would sail west first, out of the Summer Sea and into the vast, unforgiving ocean. We would then turn south and sail as long as the Lady of Osona could withstand the wind and the waves. She was a sturdy vessel, reinforced with the best shipbuilding techniques known to all the peoples of the trade routes, but Hamilcar warned me that even she would not hold together in the waters at the end of the world. I would have to traverse the last miles over land, alone.
Bran, my faithful companion, the bravest of horses and the last gift that I still carried with me from Phyreios, would have to stay behind. He had already endured a number of sea voyages, none of them even a tenth of the length of the one I was about to undertake. He deserved solid ground beneath his hooves, green growing things to eat, and the open sky over his head. Confining him to the ship’s berth for so long would be little better than torture.
I wandered Marenni for hours in widening circles, delaying the moment of our parting. In the evening, I left the city proper and stepped out into the surrounding hills, where the late-autumn fields spread out bare and brown beneath a cloudless sky.
Continue reading “Journey to the Water Chapter LXIII: The Last, Lonely Harbor”The timbers creaked as the sail unfurled, but I trusted my boat. It would carry me to the gate of bone.
Whether it would carry me back remained to be seen.
Chapter LXIV: The Gate of Bone
Eske is off on what might be his very last voyage. You can read this chapter right now on Patreon.
Merci Raines, “The Devil Is a Gentleman”
Good morning!
I’ve finished the Great Reread of Journey to the Water, so I’ll be busy for the next couple of days creating a new outline. I wrote about this stage of my editing process here if you’re curious or think it might be helpful. Also, if you like that kind of content and want more of it, please let me know! Comments are open on every post. You’re all so silent, but WordPress tells me that you’re there. I don’t bite, I promise.
I still have a few more chapters of the original version of Journey to the Water for you, so there will be a new one up on Patreon tomorrow, and last week’s chapter will be up here on Wednesday.
Here’s the petitions I have rounded up today:
Via Demand Progress: Stop sending American-made bombs to Israel
Via the American Friends Service Committee: Act now for welcoming, dignified, and just immigration
Via Save the Children: Help child refugees survive and thrive
Via LeftClick: Pass the Trans Bill of Rights
I get a couple dozen petitions to my email inbox every day, so I’m focusing on sharing the ones that have to do with immediate or near-immediate threats to human life.
Thanks for stopping by! I love you, stay hydrated this week.
I’ve finished my reread of Journey to the Water! Next step to get it into shape is a new outline, and then the Great Rewrite begins. In the meantime, I thought I’d share a little bit about my editing process, in the hopes that it will be helpful, of interest, or both. I’ve mentioned a few of the steps of my process before, but it will be good to have it all in one place.
Here are three things about me:
In order to edit my own work, I need to first distance myself from it.
(This got long, so the rest is behind the cut:)
Continue reading “Some notes on editing”“So,” I said to Cricket, trying to appear nonchalant, “you’ve been reading.”
She regarded me with a look of utter disdain. Of course she’d been reading. “First, I read the safe books, and I learned to bind the monsters between the pages.”
As if in response, the bookshelf at her side shuddered, its heavy tomes shifting in place. I took an involuntary step back toward the stairs.
“Then I read the others,” she continued. “I didn’t sleep for four days. I know all of Deinaros’ secrets, and some he didn’t even know. He wasn’t all-knowing, after all.”
Continue reading “Journey to the Water Chapter LXII: Farther Shores”I had walked the tundra and the steppe. I had crossed the mountains of the North, starving, mad, and alone. This would be no different.
Chapter LXIII: The Last, Lonely Harbor
We are racing to the end of Journey to the Water! You can read this latest chapter right now on Patreon, or wait until next week for it to show up here.
Cassyette, “Dear Goth”
Good morning!
Not much to report this week; I’m working on rereading Journey to the Water and will have a new chapter for you on Patreon tomorrow. Last week’s chapter will be up here on Wednesday.
I’m also thinking about posting some of my editing notes, if that’s something you might be interested in? Editing your own work is a skill that takes time and practice to develop (and you should always, always have at least one other set of eyes on it before it’s done), and maybe my notes and commentary might be helpful–or you just might be curious. I won’t pretend that I have all the answers, but I spent several years in academia, and I’ve developed a pretty good critical eye. I’ll see what I can round up for Friday.
A few petitions for this week:
Via Amnesty International: End US Complicity in Global War Crimes
Via MPower Action: Stop Genocide in Gaza
Via 350.org: Declare a Climate Emergency
Via HIAS: Support the Rights of Asylum Seekers
Thanks for being here. Stop by again soon!
When Bran had healed, and warriors from other clans of the forest folk began to arrive in small bands from elsewhere, I turned south again, my hands empty. I had been unable to secure the ritual knife, and I had decided, for better or worse, not to try to take it with me back to Deinaros’ tower. I had contended with gods before, and on occasion even emerged victorious, but I did not wish to confront the god of the grove. The knife belonged to the people of the forest, whether it was being kept from them within the silver tree or not. It was their choice and their duty to take it by force, if they saw the need, and not mine.
My duty was to confront Deinaros. He had lied to me about the knife—it did not belong to him, and by all evidence, it was not the creation of his teacher Maponos. It was a gift of the god of the grove, to be given and taken away as his divine whim dictated. What other falsehoods had he told me? I had been so eager to follow his orders, to finally have someone to give me a heading on this directionless journey I had undertaken these past years, that I had swallowed his word whole. I had even received a warning from Ashoka, champion of Phyreios, reappeared after all this time. He had said not to trust Deinaros. I had dismissed him. Having been deceived by his gods, I thought, Ashoka was too wary and too willing to believe frightening stories told by superstitious townsfolk. I thought myself wiser, having seen more of the world. I had been wrong.
Continue reading “Journey to the Water Chapter LXI: The Empty Tower”
Space Whales Press 