Queer Fantasy and Weird Tales for the People
Daniel Hart, “Blome Swete Lilie Flour” (from The Green Knight)
Happy Monday!
It’s a holiday, so just a quick note. Tomorrow: The Book of the New Moon Door on Patreon; Wednesday: Journey to the Water here on the blog. Also on Wednesday, the May edition of the newsletter will go out around noon Central time, so make sure you’re signed up before then if you haven’t already!
I hope you’re enjoying your day. I appreciate you!
As promised, garden pictures! Here are some things growing in our garden this fine May day.
Marigolds
Roses
Pumpkins
A peach?
And of course, Max the neighbor cat.
Circles
Father Pereth is, in fact, still alive. The novice with the smudged face escorts Isabel through the sanctum, where the priests in prayer don’t look up to acknowledge her, and down the narrow hallway to the high priest’s office. The door is closed, and someone has carved the sigils of the seven gods into the wood with a pocketknife, in an attempt to ward the room against the dead, should they have breached the outer doors. There had only been one body in the morgue, and the rest seem to have been repelled by other means. It’s fortunate that this warding wasn’t put to the test. Isabel doesn’t know what might have happened.
The novice knocks, and the sound of furniture being moved and the lock disengaging follows. The door swings open to reveal Father Pereth, his cassock dusty and his hair disheveled, but otherwise unhurt.
He takes one look at Isabel and says, “You.”
Continue reading “The Book of the New Moon Door: Part Three, Chapter Three”“I’ll warn you once,” I said. “This city may be an illusion, but my harpoon is not, and neither is the arm that wields it.”
Chapter XXXV: Outside the Temple
At last, Eske finds out what’s going on in Svilsara, but he’s still in danger. You can read this chapter by subscribing to Patreon, or by waiting until next week when it will make its appearance here.
Tom Morello, “16 Tons” (American folk song)
Good morning! Here’s a song with a lot of history.
I’m banging out the end of The Book of the New Moon Door this week! I’ll also have a new chapter of Journey to the Water on Patreon tomorrow, and the latest chapter of New Moon Door will appear here on Wednesday.
It’s getting toward the end of the month, so I have to plug my newsletter–don’t forget to sign up if you haven’t already! I send it only once a month, and it has writing and publishing updates as well as pictures of my garden and my cats. Put your email into the box at this link and then check your inbox for a confirmation link.
There won’t be a new episode of The Well Below the Valley out this month/June 1st, as I’m focusing all my writing time on finishing New Moon Door and staying on top of Journey. I’ll be getting back to it soon.
I think that’s all for this week. I think I promised some garden pictures last week and then forgot? So I’ll try to post some this week.
As always, I appreciate you! Stop by again soon.
Alas, my mind was not like water, as the Dragon Temple acolytes had encouraged. Almost as soon as the illusion had been drawn away, it fell over my eyes again, and the filthy, smoke-filled room became clean and bright again, and its occupants were once more dressed in fine white silk and showed no evidence of their long starvation.
I had seen enough in my brief moment of clarity. This place—the whole of Svilsara, as Fenin had acquired health and beauty upon entering the city—was under the sway of a powerful magic-worker, for whom the whole city was a ritual chamber. Such a feat was beyond my experience of magic, but I did not doubt it could be done. It had been done, one way or another, and here were four wizened men ruling Svilsara from their secret throne room underground. I looked around, searching for sigils on the walls, but there were none to be seen.
“Please, wise elders,” Fenin said. “Help me to understand. I saw the serpent, but it vanished. I swear I did only as I was instructed.”
She knelt at the feet of the men, upon the rich rug that I now knew was only a faded, moth-eaten scrap. If the stone beneath it hurt her knees, she made no indication. Her rich hair fell over her shoulder, catching the torchlight like volcanic glass, and it looked perfectly real.
Continue reading “Journey to the Water Chapter XXXIV: The Garden House”Pereth’s bloodless mouth draws itself into a tighter, paler line. “Heresy,” is all he says. He reaches for the door.
The Book of the New Moon Door
As the world crumbles around her, Isabel tries to seek guidance. Spoiler: it doesn’t go well. You can read this chapter right now on Patreon, or wait until next week to read it for free here.
Tori Amos, “Sweet the Sting”
Good morning! It’s Monday again. It’s also planting day for me, so stay tuned for garden pictures.
I’ll have a new chapter of The Book of the New Moon Door up on Patreon tomorrow, and the latest chapter of Journey to the Water will be up here on Wednesday. My sprint to the end of New Moon Door continues: as of today, I’ve finished 17 of the 26 chapters in my new outline.
Thanks for stopping by! As always, I appreciate you.
Chaos
At the head of a column of ghosts, with Risoven and the dead priests of Ondir at her side, Isabel approaches the crumbling wall. It buckles outward, looming toward her, holding back the weight of the thing behind it by faith and force of will. The many eyes, clustered together like sprouting fungus, roll in unseen sockets to appraise her, pupils contracting to pinpricks.
It’s foolish, what she’s doing. At best, it will stave off the destruction of the world for only a little while longer. She hopes it will be enough time for someone wiser than she to find a more permanent solution.
Another step, and an ear-splitting whine shakes the shattered sky. Isabel puts her hands over her ears, but it doesn’t help—neither the sound nor her hands have a physical presence here in the world beyond. Ripples form in the mud beneath her feet as the high-pitched note goes on and on, stabbing through her spirit form like a hot knife. Stones fall loose from the wall and dissipate upon hitting the ground.
There is triumph in this horrible song, and a warning, and something else Isabel can’t name, a sort of mad, painful delight at causing the world itself to tear apart at the seams, as it screams with both love and hate of the task. If ever this thing possessed the power of reason, the ability is long gone. It is a creature—a structure, an all-pervasive thought—of pure chaos.
Continue reading “The Book of the New Moon Door: Part Three, Chapter Two”How cruel, I thought, to create the image of a shimmering pond and a bounty of trees gleaming with ruby-red fruit, here in the middle of the sea of dust, and surround it with emaciated people who could only look and never enjoy them.
Chapter XXXIV: The Garden House
Eske is just trying to find his boyfriend, but people keep doing evil magic and oppressing others around him. You can read this chapter on Patreon right now, or wait until next week to read it here.
Space Whales Press 