Official Reader Poll, New Moon Door edition

Part Three of The Book of the New Moon Door is about to start! I hope to have it finished in a couple of months, after which I will begin the editing process to publish the whole thing later this year. The book will be published one way or another, because no one can stop me, but the question remains whether to maintain the current chapter-by-chapter posting schedule. It is quite possible that, at the rate we’re going, the book will be ready for publication before all the chapters have been posted.

So, I’d like your thoughts! Here’s a poll:

This poll will close on April 1, so let me know your thoughts! ETA: I think it needs to stay up a little longer, so let’s say the 7th.

The Book of the New Moon Door: Part Two, Chapter Twenty-Five

Faithful

The Book of the New Moon Door cover image: A book with yellowing, wrinkled pages lies open on an old wooden desk, with a sprig of lavender lying in the center.

Table of Contents

 Isabel’s feet hit the ground, sending a shock from her heels into her knees and all the way to the joints of her hips. The palms of her hands burn as she removes them from the coarse linen sheet and exposes them to the air. A pair of raw patches marks each one, livid red where the skin has peeled away. 

She looks back up toward the window. She could have fallen much, much farther. The improvised rope drifts in the afternoon breeze, its end brushing against the street. Berend’s face is framed in cut stone before he moves away from the window and disappears. 

Continue reading “The Book of the New Moon Door: Part Two, Chapter Twenty-Five” →

Song of the Week

Kate Rusby, “The Witch of the Westmorland”

Good morning!

Unfortunately, I was sick all last week and wasn’t able to write a new chapter of Journey to the Water, so this week we’ll just have the latest chapter of The Book of the New Moon Door up here on Wednesday. Sorry for the delay; I’ll be back on my usual nonsense next week.

Also, we are very close to the end of Part Two of The Book of the New Moon Door! I’ll be starting Part Three very shortly, but I wanted to ask you, dear reader: would you rather keep reading chapters every other week, or wait until the book is finished and published? I’ll be posting an official poll later this week, but you can also leave your thoughts in the comments.

Thanks for being here, and have an excellent week.

The Howler

A little metaphysical fairy tale

Continue reading “The Howler” →

Journey to the Water Chapter XXXI: Black Desert Night

Journey to the Water cover image: three evergreen trees stand on a hillside, shrouded in bluish fog. Subtitle reads: the sequel to Beyond the Frost-Cold Sea.

Table of Contents

In between tiny, nibbling bites of the offered barley and dates, my strange companion provided something of an explanation for the circumstances in which we found ourselves. Her name was Fenin, and she was a maiden selected from birth with the dubious honor of being offered up as a meal to the great worm of the desert. To that end, she had been taken from her home and placed here, loosely tied to this rock, just that morning. For the preceding seventeen years of her life, she had been kept apart from others in a small house in the center of town, permitted to leave only with three escorts. “Svilsara is the greatest city upon the earth,” she insisted, though from her description, it only took an hour to complete her daily, supervised circuit of its inner wall. In that small house, she was provided with everything she could want: the finest of clothes and delicacies, a room full of books, and next year’s sacrifice as a companion. Why she looked as though she had been starved for a year and was dressed only in a threadbare, dust-stained robe, without even straw sandals to protect her feet from the sunburnt rock, she did not say.

Continue reading “Journey to the Water Chapter XXXI: Black Desert Night” →

New Patreon Post/ The Book of the New Moon Door: Part Two, Chapter Twenty-Five

Its clothes are rags, filthy with grave dust, and one of its eyes is a hollow socket. Yellowed bones show through both bare forearms.

It is very dead, and it isn’t alone.

The Book of the New Moon Door

We are still in the thick of the zombie apocalypse. You can read this chapter on Patreon now, or wait until next week for it to appear on the blog. In my view, all readers are good readers, especially you.

Song of the Week

Kostia Konstantinoff, “Sand and Water”

Good morning!

This album was a staple of my childhood, and based on the half-remembered image of a violin on the cover and something resembling the names of a couple of tracks, I finally found it again. The internet can be pretty great sometimes.

Normal chapter posting this week: The Book of the New Moon Door on Patreon tomorrow, and Journey to the Water here on Wednesday.

As a bonus, I’ll be posting an old short story (flash fiction, really) on Friday! I figured we could all use a break from the longer projects. Stop back again soon!

As always, thanks for being here, and have an excellent week.

New Patreon Post/ Journey to the Water Chapter XXXI

Her huge, sunken eyes blinked twice as she gave me a blank stare. “The serpent provides all we need,” she said at last.

Chapter XXXI: Black Desert Night

Eske is just trying to get to the sea, but trouble finds him wherever he goes, this time in the form of a strange person remarkably unperturbed about being fed to a giant serpent. You can read this chapter right now on Patreon (a subscription is only $3 a month), or wait until next week for it to make its appearance here on the blog.

Also, if you’re enjoying what you read here, the best way to support my work, without spending any money at all, is to tell your friends about me! Word-of-mouth is still where I get all my best book recommendations.

The Book of the New Moon Door: Part Two, Chapter Twenty-Four

Barricade

The Book of the New Moon Door cover image: A book with yellowing, wrinkled pages lies open on an old wooden desk, with a sprig of lavender lying in the center.

Table of Contents

Berend watches the window. He shouldn’t; he should be fortifying the doors, maybe figuring out some way to get Warder out of the direct path of danger. The nurse’s stockinged feet touch the ground, and she takes off running up the street. Isabel’s climb is slower, the soles of her boots scraping against the masonry wall and her arms unsteady. Berend checks the knots again. 

The younger nurse approaches the door to the hall, one hand on the pair of shears in her pocket. She puts her ear to the door and listens. 

“One of the doors is broken, but they can’t get through yet,” she says.

Her companion, a woman of about thirty with pale yellow curls escaping her cap, pushes past her and turns the latch. “Not yet. Soon, though.”

“Should we barricade the door in here?” asks the first. “What about the other patients?”

“We can’t just leave them,” argues the second. 

Continue reading “The Book of the New Moon Door: Part Two, Chapter Twenty-Four” →

Song of the Week

Sufjan Stevens, “Casimir Pulaski Day”

Happy Monday! Sometimes you just need a good, cathartic cry, and if that’s a time you’re experiencing, please enjoy this song.

This week’s Patreon chapter of Journey to the Water will likely be a day or so late, due in equal parts to my poor time management and my husband injuring his back (he’s okay, he just needs to spend a day or so lying flat with an ice pack). The latest chapter of The Book of the New Moon Door will post here at its usual time on Wednesday.

I think that’s all for this week! Take care of yourselves.