Whirlwinds and Rollercoasters

With success in hand, I feel comfortable divulging the project I've been cramming the past several days:  a submission to Harper Voyager's open call for their digital imprint.

I had initially intended to give this a pass, for a couple of reasons.  First of all, I didn't have anything finished and edited within the desired word count, and second of all, being a die-hard lover of paper books, I was reluctant to put a project into a digital-only line.

Then the bug and inspiration bit at the same time:  I had Butterfly's Poison, which was the novel I finished before I wrote Flow.  It had seemed to make a strong showing:  Edge Science Fiction and Fantasy in Canada had requested the full manuscript. After so much time, I was dubious about the quality, but I figured I would attempt an editing pass and see what shape it was in.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that the core of the novel was solid and far better than I had expected.  Most of what I needed to alter was straightforward:  clumsy wording, clarified setting points, enhanced emotional response.  As I approached the end, I learned of more complications:  HV's idea of a "short synopsis" was a ridiculously brief 1500 characters - estimated 250 words.  Let's face it, it takes me 250 words to say hello.  What I ended up doing was taking my original query teaser and expanding it to include the ending ...

But not before I got an unpleasant jolt.  I had decided to keep working until late this evening, spending as much time as possible cleaning up the novel ... and then about two o'clock this afternoon, I found out submissions had been closed a day early.  I stopped dead in my tracks.  It knocked the wind out of my sails.  I had put in an incredible amount of hyper-focused work to no purpose.

A few hours later, when I was sulking, feeling sorry for myself (no, really) and trying to get through an hour writing exercise, a fellow writer on the same forum commented that the closure had been a technical error, and submissions had been reopened.  I stopped the free write where it was (33 minutes in) and dove back in.

So as of about an hour later:  success.  The submission is on its way, and I feel weightless.

I decided a few things from all this:

1)  The "cramming" edit turned out to be really useful.  The earlier parts of the manuscript were still fresh in my mind even when I got closer to the end.  This is something I think I should incorporate into my process.
2)  Butterfly's Poison is a surprisingly solid manuscript.  Assuming it is rejected by HV (I am aware of how long the shot is!), I will keep it in my files as something to show my agent when I have one.
3)  Never give up.  Never surrender.

Thursday Thoughts

With the World Fantasy Convention coming up at the end of the month, I'm going to continue to write about Flow in particular, and perhaps contemporary / urban fantasy in general - with the exception of The Next Big Thing, which I have been tagged for, and I will post about!  I promise.  But I am swamped with a project I'll post about if I meet my exceedingly crunchy deadline.

Lately, I've been thinking about a potential sequel to Flow.  This following post continues some spoilers as to the plot resolution (though I'm trying to phrase things to minimize such), so if you haven't read the novel and care about such things, pop over to:

Flow - Lindsey Duncan

All right, shameless plug over.  On with the show!

I'm still working out the exact details of a plot(s) for this - I want to do something a bit more complex and spread out than Flow, so it may indeed be plots, plural - but there are a few things I know are must-dos:

Scenes from Hadrian's perspective.  Flow was conceived as alternating scenes between Kit and Chailyn.  Much is made of Hadrian's hyper-accelerated perceptions, but because of the dual POV, the reader never gets into those eyes.  Back when I wrote Flow, I wouldn't have been confident of being able to tackle that level of detail without bogging down the narrative unduly.  Now it seems like a fun challenge.

The dissolving romance.  One core concept for the sequel started before I even finished Flow:  in this later volume, Kit would have a boyfriend of supernatural character who uses his powers to suppress her abilities and allow her to be normal, but as the story opens, this is beginning to chafe.  I've expanded this into wanting to show a romance as it ends, the staying-together-by-habit, the irritation, the dissolution.

The uncomplicated romance.  I actually wrote an exercise (from Ann Hood's Creating Character Emotions, which I highly recommend) which set up the direction for the other romantic element in the book, but I want this to be a happy, middle-of-relationship story.  No irrational jealousy, no wandering eyes, no strained secrets, no "you put your work first" accusations.  There's too much media out there treading the same tired ground of tension for the sake of it.

Evolution.  The sequel will pick up a couple of years after Flow - there are a few points I have to nail down to determine how long.  I want to give a clear sense of how the characters have changed in the intervening time.

And just one more teaser on a likely plot point:

What do you do with the body of someone whose soul has been drained?

Sunday Snippets

Can't promise I will keep up with this feature, because it's difficult to post snippets unless I'm at the beginning of a piece, but here's a writing exercise I did recently from a challenge provided by my dear friend Lauren:

                It was her last masquerade as queen, for what vestige of meaning the title retained in a conquered land.  She had commanded the Fire Hall to be decorated as time and tradition demanded, scarlet banners and a host of torches in sconces both jeweled and plain.  She dressed the part, a flowing black gown with a high waist and a wide neckline, dotted with obsidian – hair the color of ash set free.

                And she ached for it to be anything more than ceremony.

                She surveyed the Fire Hall from the concealment of a curtain, frowning.  Too many of the court had already adopted the style of the conquerors, pale, uncertain colors in winding, binding ties and stays.  It was a scramble for favor, pure and simple – since the queen herself was old and intractable, the empire would need a figurehead, and why not one of them?

                She suppressed the feeling her people were about to dance on her grave.

Thursday Thoughts

I am pondering moving this feature to Tuesday Thoughts - my Thursdays are frequently insane.  On the other hand, maybe insanity is a good perspective to write from.

Today, I want to touch briefly upon on why I refer to Flow as contemporary fantasy rather than urban fantasy - even though it's set in 2007, so by now, it is very technically historical fantasy.  (Really, the only noticeable evocation of this is the rarity of mobile technology - or if you add up the travel times / dates / day of the week.)  Realizing that the distinction is often a marketing one, I still prefer the term because it gives a better snapshot of the focus.

First of all, the preconceptions that the term urban fantasy generates have in some cases become highly specific.  Besides the contemporary, real-world setting, the familiar type for these books is:  a first-person storyline, set in a big city (more on that later) with a dark tone and a strong romantic subplot.  Whether or how much of this is in any formal definition of urban fantasy is a different point - these are the books most people think of when you say "urban fantasy."  Flow fits none of these secondary attributes.  I might argue the story is a little dark, but I also will cheerfully admit that I don't know what I'm talking about where dark is concerned.

Second of all, the literal definition of urban fantasy is "fantasy set in a city."  It doesn't intrinsically imply a modern or even a real-world setting.  I think you'd find very few people using the term urban fantasy to refer to a secondary world city tale, but the connotation is there.  And well ... while Flow has some stops in cities - Cincinnati and Boston - it's primarily a traveling tale, a tale of small towns, suburbs and wilderness.

Contemporary fantasy, on the other hand, carries less of the baggage - and on the accuracy front, it says what it is:  fiction set in the present day.  Simple, clean, uncomplicated.

None of this is ironclad, of course, but it's the thought process behind my labels.

Anatomy of an Idea: Dancing Day

Dancing Day started out as a challenge over at fantasy-writers.org - and moreover, it was a holiday challenge.  To be specific, the challenge was to take five elements associated with Christmas and use them ... however the writer might see fit.

The elements were:

- An annual festival
- A normally earthbound form of transport that flies
- An unorthodox way of entering a house
- A tree that isn't fulfilling its usual function
- A special type of song
 
(I do realize, in hindsight, that I cheated:  my "earthbound" form of transport is more properly a waterbound form of transport.)

I knew as soon as I saw the challenge that I wanted to incorporate mouth music, a traditional Scottish music style that was invented when musical instruments were banned.  This historical backdrop heavily influenced the story I ended up telling.  There's also a bit of a bratty call-out to this in the story:  the term for this mouth music is "puirt a beul," while the setting is the (port) city of Abeul.  (The original title was Mouth Music, in fact.)

The unusual method of entering a house followed next - teleportation and the Hoppers.  I quickly decided I wanted them to youngsters who lost their powers as they aged, and I knew this element would be important to the story somehow.

From there, I built the rest of the story.  Some of the elements and details developed while I was writing, especially the other Hoppers, who almost created themselves as I wrote.  And I certainly wasn't entirely sure what was in store for Taris and how it would affect the ending until I approached that final scene - but it all came together.

Dancing Day in A&A!

Abyss and Apex has just released its 4th Quarter Issue, including my Dancing Day!  Check it out ...

Plasma Frequency and Mythocraft Now Out!

Plasma Frequency has just released its second issue, containing Mythocraft - best described as a (loosely) steampunk take on Greek mythology.  Check it out here:

Plasma Frequency Issue 2

Me and Cooking

So here's a confession:  I enjoy cooking.

I get a similar sort of satisfaction from it as I do working on a story or harp arrangement.  (I have a cooking blog over at Evil Overlady Cooks.)  On the face of it, though, this doesn't make much sense.  Sure, it's creation in the broadest sense - I'm making something out of raw materials - but it's not all that different from putting together an Ikea desk, and I'm sure most people wouldn't consider that a creative outlet.  At present, my substitutions, omissions and additions to recipes are fairly minimal.  I'm still a fairly by-the-book cook.

So I'm not sure what it is, precisely, that satisfies that creative urge.  Maybe it's the combination of recipes - I tend to throw together some fairly oddball menus.  Maybe it's the fact that (let's be honest) my ambition outstrips my skill, so I often find myself improvising to get back on track.

Or maybe it's less to do with the creative instinct as the emotions at the core of it.  I have a very Italian mother:  food is love.  And it's that sense of acceptance and contentment that I get every time I cook ... even when something ends up all over the floor.

Anyone else feel creative in the kitchen?

Thursday Thoughts

I'm baaaack!

Since we're on the countdown to the World Fantasy Convention (with its dual themes of urban and gothic fantasy) and since Flow has now been out for six months, I'd like to talk a little bit about what makes a setting work for me in contemporary fantasy.  (I do consider Flow contemporary fantasy rather than urban fantasy.  I'm aware this is largely a matter of nomenclature, but I have specific reasons for it - more in another post, probably.)

For me, the best reason to use our modern-day world in a story is the wealth of background available in the history - and the present! - of the occult, mythology and religion.  Strong contemporary fantasy takes these elements and builds the backdrop from them ... or if it starts from another concept, incorporates them in the development.  To me, to simply slap some magic invented wholecloth onto a private detective or ballet dancer or accountant misses the point.

As in any other fantasy, the magical element needs to be an integral part of the setting; it needs to feel organic to the history and beliefs of the people practicing it.  If the magic is divorced from the rest of the world, it becomes unconvincing.  Now, I've focused on real world "magic" here because it seems the most obvious and easiest source, and to me it's also the richest, but it's not the only option:  it's also possible to build modern-day supernatural on scientific concepts.  (It's why I was so fascinated by Rachel Caine's Ill Wind and her very climatically sound weather wardens, though I was less interested in the other concepts she introduced.  Those felt less organic, to me.)

Another nice benefit is that a reference to history makes the magic feel suddenly authentic.  I handle the arcane elements of an online roleplaying game where the Great Depression was the creation of a group of dark mages intent on feeding off the despair and emotional pain of the victims.  History often seems so random - providing an occult explanation can be very satisfying.

On the other hand, contemporary fantasy doesn't need to select a mythological beast, divination method, historical legend and use it one hundred percent by the book.  A twist, interpretation change or new direction can give a writer new options ... and offer a pleasant surprise for those readers versed in the base mythos.  Of course, these changes can't throw the baby out with the bathwater - there had better be an explanation for why the bulk of folklore says something different.

So that's my take on the best way to incorporate the supernatural in a modern setting.

GoodReads Review: A Coalition of Lions

A Coalition of Lions by Elizabeth Wein
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The quasi-historical story of the daughter of King Arthur, A Coalition of Lions sends its heroine, Goewin, to Africa and Aksum to face a perilous political situation and a hostile would-be bridegroom. My initial impression of this novel was negative for a reason that was only partly the fault of the writing: nowhere on the book does it clearly indicate that this is the second novel of a series, so when the first several pages were consumed by a rapidfire, rather dry summary of what had gone before, I was irritated and felt the author had started the book in the wrong place. Finding out that this was a sequel, I let go of my indignation - but I still feel that the recap was hamhandedly handled for new readers.

As a personal aside, I was further disconcerted by the initial names. In Welsh mythology (which meets / intersects with Arthurian) Goewin is the foot-holder (and later, the wife) of high king Math, and Lleu is the son of the king's subsequent foot-holder ... anyhow, this tangent to explain why, among the mythologically-saturated opening, I was dearly confused to find Goewin and Lleu as sibling children of Artos.

Once past this rocky start, however, I found myself absorbed in the characters and conflict. The narrative is lyrical yet in many ways, minimalist - the descriptions are evocative yet sparse, prompting the reader to fill in the blanks without noticing that the gaps exist. And despite the fact that almost the entire novel is a series of conversations, often political and sometimes stiltedly formal by the necessity of the venue ... it was never dull, always absorbing. Telemakos flashes through here as an absolutely superb portrait of brilliant childhood.

This is a rich and distinct narrative, a striking read ... but not without its flaws. The love story implied within leaves me unconvinced. While I am the first person to bang my head against the wall over romances too-obviously wrought, this one goes in the other direction: it was so subtle and poorly supported that I didn't believe it. Similarly, Goewin's later change of opinion towards Constantine didn't seem supported by actions in the narrative - and since that very much affected the outcome of the book, I found it weakened the plot.

Overall, this was an absorbing read despite its flaws. I don't feel completely satisfied by the novel and its resolutions, but it was an enjoyable visit to another time and place.

View all my reviews

Now over at Every Day Poets ...

My poem "The Rivers of Nowhere" is now up and available for your reading and voting:

http://www.everydaypoets.com/the-rivers-of-nowhere-by-lindsey-duncan/

Enjoy!

GoodReads Review: The Last Alchemist

The Last Alchemist: Count Cagliostro, Master of Magic in the Age of Reason by Iain McCalman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is my second time reading this book, the exploration of the fascinating, enigmatic Count Cagliostro - of many other names and just as many roles, from charlatan to spiritual guide. Rather than present a balanced, chronological biography, the book provides a wealth of setting, detail and strategically placed "snapshots" surrounding seven key episodes of Cagliostro's life. The years before and after these episodes are summarized in brief, interwoven when needed for context. Each chapter is about more than Cagliostro, although he is the star: one learns a great deal about his friends, victims, antagonists, kings, queens and luminaries, the social history of the times ...

There is very little dry about this book: it is presented with flourishes that sometimes resemble those of a gifted fiction writer. It is a joy to read, comprehensive without being dense, presenting its subject matter without apology - thoughtfully, but without trying to interpret too much for the reader.

Highly recommended, and not just as a biography of its subject. It does a great job of touching upon the period world and some of its central figures (Casanova, Catherine the Great), as well.

View all my reviews

Sale!

MindFlights just picked up "The King's Passing" - actually a rewrite of the first story I ever wrote, set in the same world as "Burning The Midnight Oil" (which NewMyths printed).  Publication date when I have it!

Now Available ...

My "Didn't I Mention ...?" is out in the Summer issue of White Cat Publications - and it's their own flash piece!  Check it out ...

http://www.whitecatpublications.com

The inspiration behind this story was an hour writing prompt to tell a story out of sequence.  I decided to approach it backwards ... sort of ...

Another Sale - Every Day Poets ...

... picks up "The Rivers of Nowhere," which I loosely classified as a fantasy poem, but may be more in the slipstream (did *I* just use that word?  Woah) vein.  It was originally intended to use only the letters in the title; it drifted from that design, but there's still some careful choice of words to produce a certain sound.

Mythocraft sold to Plasma Frequency

Plasma Frequency Magazine (http://www.plasmafrequencymagazine.com/) just picked up Mythocraft - my (loosely) steampunk take on Greek mythology.  Stay tuned here for details, as ever.

Dancing Day sold!

My short story, "Dancing Day," just sold to Abyss and Apex!  This is my third sale to A&A, and ... they seem to keep getting longer ... clearly I need to send them a novella next time ...

Anyhow, this one was originally an FWO challenge.  Gotten so many good stories (and great feedback) from that, I ought to try it again ...

Interview

I'm interviewed over at Lee-Ann Graff-Vinson's blog:

Author Lindsey Duncan Shows Us Her "Flow"

Sunday Snippets

Here is the opening of Just The Messenger, hopefully soon available from Darwin's Evolutions.  As a note, this is my version of the story - the editor hasn't taken a pass yet - so may differ somewhat from the final version:


In the borderlands binding the northern kingdoms together, babies died frequently and were only named on their sixth birthday, usually for traits they showed.  Thorn had just such a name.

The rider crouched, stretching out worn leg muscles from the trip through the shadow realms.  The guardpost had been burned down to its foundations, if it could be called that - it was only a hut, occupied when the village beyond could spare an able-bodied man.  The scent of smoke and charred flesh stirred dread in the rider, unwelcome visions of the scene.  The tethered mare did not react to the stench, but there were reasons for that.

The figure rose, then hesitated.  Under the hood, one dark eye flickered with apprehension.  Easier to keep walking, not confirm the carnage.  Thorn had a mission, one that did not call for detours.

Yet forward into overhanging trees, through the arch cut by frequent passage.  The crows had beat the rider there, as had other scavengers.  Impossible to guess how many homes, though probably not more than thirty.  Just enough that every farmer could walk to his land.

"Scion?  Are you real, or is my mind finally betraying me?"

Thorn might have initially mistaken the figure for a corpse, so grey was his skin, so unkempt his appearance.  The man straightened, flashed a smile that missed half a tooth.

He strutted closer, poked Thorn in the chest.  "Real, then," he said, "or I'm poking a tree I never noticed growing here before."

Thorn resisted the urge to bat the hand away, irritated.  "What happened here, old man?"

"Old?"  Blue eyes swept down, and he chuckled hoarsely.  "I suppose I am, at that.  Thank you for the reminder.  You can call me Squirrel."

"I'm Thorn.  Are there any other survivors?"

Squirrel sighed gustily.  "None.  The raiders came, they slaughtered everyone like animals - except the animals.  Those they set loose.  Some came back to their barns."  He smiled without mirth.  "I would be eating well, except it's beyond my ability to kill a pig on my own."

Thorn placed a gentle hand on his shoulder and started to lead him up the path.  "I'm sorry for your loss.  I'll escort you to the next town, where you'll be provided for."

Squirrel cocked his head, an inquiring gleam in his eyes.  "Where are you bound, young Scion?"

"Coerth's capital.  Dangerous things are happening," Thorn said.  "The king needs to know before it's too late."

Thursday Thoughts

I wonder if I would be able to cheer myself out of my allergy funk by writing a story about evil flowers, poisoning innocent industrialists?

I wonder if people would flame me horribly for writing such a thing?

Natural pollution is terrifying.

How about a flowering tree that produces curses instead of buds?

Or a race that wins a war by planting trees on the opposing territory.  Spy trees?  Stealth trees!  Poisonous trees.

I'm not even going to get into ambulatory trees.  That would be terrifying.

I've gotten good ideas from my misery before.  Maybe it will happen again.

Sunday Snippets

I've finally been writing again, rather than editing or working on blog posts, etc.  Here's a recent bit from "The Base of the World," the short story I'm now trying to finish about a healer dealing with a mysterious disease:

"Liva!"
 

It was the second time she had been awakened from a sound sleep by shouting; she dreaded it before she even fully recovered to consciousness.  She blinked her eyes open to see Viresi.
 

"Liva, why are you sleeping?" the girl persisted.
 

She drew herself up, stung.  "I'm exhausted.  I can only do so much.  It will have to wait."
 

"What about Garra?"
 

She shook her head, irritated, about to snap at the child.  The resemblance to - the memory of - Islu stopped her.  "Garra?  She's fine - not fine," she amended, "but she'll be my next target.  She might complain even more when she's cured, but she will be."
 

"Did you really not look at her?" Viresi pressed.
 

Liva sank back on her heels.  Though still bleary, she focused on the words rather than reacting.  "Her cough was worse … almost overwhelming … I didn't look at her colors," she admitted.  "I didn't have time."  Though she offered the justification, she didn't focus on it as the first part of her statement sunk in.  "I didn't look.  I didn't see how badly off she was …"
 

"No," Viresi agreed.  "You didn't."
 

How had the child known?  She wasn't there … Liva pushed it off in the face of a sense of foreboding.  She rose in a rush.  "I should go."
 

"And I will come with you."
 

Healer and girl moved swiftly through the camp.  This time, Liva didn't notice the eyes upon them, breaking into a sprint.  She was stunned to find she had the energy.
 

She burst into the infirmary to find Delis and Nethin clustered at the dour woman's bedside, soothing her with words, conversing in wary whispers.  She placed a hand on the boy's shoulder and nudged him aside with a strained smile for Nethin.
 

"We were just debating if we should send for you," Nethin said, "but we figured you knew her condition before you left."
 

Liva pressed down the stab of guilt as Garra turned her head to stare, eyes flitting back in her head.  "You finally decided …"  Another coughing spasm took her, a full-body shudder.  She gripped the sheets to steady herself.  Lina reached out to hold her shoulders and delved into her healer's sight.  What she saw chilled her:  the blue mire had spread out through the bulk of Garra's body, thinning only towards the extremities.
 

Liva was not fully rested, but there was no time to build up her reserves - and as with the wounded man earlier, she could not begin with the subtle, delicate work, for the disease had twined thickest around Garra's lungs, twisting hard.  At best, permanent damage that would make the woman's current occupation impossible; at worst …

Strip Mauled by Esther M. Friesner

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Part of a series of anthologies set in suburbia, each looking at the trials and tribulations of a particular brand of supernatural species (or occupation, in the case of the witches), Strip Mauled is the werewolf part of this set. Unfortunately, while most of the stories have humorous moments and are at least worth a smile, most of the authors in turn sacrifice tension and interest in favor of levity. Sometimes, it's hard to suspend disbelief; other times, it's hard to care. When the characters aren't emotionally invested, how can the reader be?

There were some aspects of the anthology I enjoyed. For instance, some of the stories - but not all - link to the tales in Witch Way to the Mall. The sense of continuity was nice. And of course, some of the humor is enjoyable enough that it doesn't matter that the attached story isn't the most gripping of tales. Superlative in the volume - no surprise - was Friesner's own contribution. Incisively witty and hilarious, the satisfaction and suspense in the tale is to see how the odious narrator is outmanuevered. Usually, I object to editors including their own stories ... here, I just can't.

This is a serviceable anthology - only one or two of the stories are actually bad. With the exception of Friesner's, however, I can't really say that any of them stand-out, either.

View all my reviews

Guide to Style

So first of all, a public service announcement:

Comma placement is important!

If you can view that without giggling, you are made of sterner stuff than I.  I've gone back multiple times in the past few days just to look at it.

Secondly, I've brushed up A Dose of Aconite for future submission.  Because I keep a rolling submissions list of a specific number of stories - which remain in as close-to-continuous circulation as I can manage - it won't be hunting for a home until I either sell or retire something else, but it is next up on my list.  It's a very dark story - one of my darkest pieces.  It was originally written for a "villain POV" challenge over at FWO, and got some comments that reviewers weren't sure which side was which.  That's intentional when it comes to the Borderwatch versus the water-witches ... but Mannix himself is a cold, calculating piece of work.

What's interesting is I occasionally come across phrases that I don't think I would write now - but I don't feel the urge to change them.  They're not bad or inferior, just different from my present stylistic approach.  Has anyone ever encountered this?

Another story available!  Voices is now out in Kaleidotrope:

Kaleidotrope

Check it out!

Flow now available in ... print!

Flow is now - huzzah! - out in print. Can order it from here:

http://www.double-dragon-ebooks.com/single.php?ISBN=1-55404-936-9

Crazy excited here. Bounce!

Blog Tour: Bonus Stop!

Thought I was done? Guess again! I've got a bonus stop over at Diana's blog:

Guest Post: Lindsey Duncan on Unusual or Strange Sources of Inspiration

Sunday Snippets

Today, I thought I would share a fragment from a Flow-verse story, "A Dose of Aconite." This is the opening of the story, which is about to get some editing out of me prior to submission. So please pardon any "rough" here.

As an aside, the SleepRite here is vaguely modeled after a real hotel (chain name removed to protect the guilty) outside of Oberlin, OH ...


Crouched over his laptop in a dank SleepRite motel somewhere southwest of Cleveland, Mannix Tippet waited for the werewolf to call.

The beast was not expecting Mannix to answer. The room three doors down was temporary residence of the water-witch Tala Blight, who had offered him sanctuary and a cure - as if that could absolve him of the blood he had shed. It had been simplicity to tap the hotel phone system. When the beast called Tala's room to confirm where they would meet tonight, he would not reach her.

Mannix shifted on the bed, starting a minor fugue in the springs, and pulled up his file on Blight. There before him, all the electronic details of her life: her saving habits to her tastes in fiction to how many times she had purchased lavish presents for friends who never reciprocated. Something more precise and useful than magic. Witches relied on it too much; she didn't even own a cellphone.

He knew, without asking questions, that he would kill her. His malice was not for her personally, but it was also immutable. His superiors in the Borderwatch had told him there was informal peace and the supernatural threats both organizations had to face were more important than any difference in methods. The word 'peace' was hollow when a good man like his cousin died on a mission - and the unidentified witch who guided him emerged without a mark on her.

His cousin had drowned.

Mannix had read the official report, which claimed it had been an accident. That meant nothing when a few bytes could erase any truth.

"Take the beast," were his official orders from the Borderwatch. "Use her to find him if you have to, but make sure you can deny it."

There was more than one way to accomplish that. He had already decided if he could not find the real culprit behind his cousin's death, then he would destroy the next witch he encountered. Pity Tala that it was her.

Blog Tour: Stop #6!

My sixth and final stop, over at Daniel Ausema's blog:

Blog Guest: Lindsey Duncan

Sale!

White Cat (www.whitecatpublications.com) just purchased my "Didn't I Mention ...?" for July! This is a rather quirky flash piece: a sideways-and-backwards recounting of a tale by a rather forgetful storyteller ...

Thursday Thoughts

And now I trundle towards the end of my blog tour ... I somehow survived and I don't think I made too much of a fool of myself with my posts. Thanks to everyone who stopped by and commented.

This means I can finally get back to writing ... or ... shoot ... no. Editing. I'm still doing a readthrough on Scylla and Charbydis. Debating whether or not I'm going to do the random page review I did on Journal of the Dead. It will depend on how much stamina I have, as I have yet another novel waiting for its closeup ...

How does everyone else deal with having a lot to edit when you'd rather be writing?

Blog Tour: Stop #5!

Early post - for Wednesday, I'm over at Barbara's blog! Check it out:

Guest Post: Lindsey Duncan, Author of Flow

Happy Tuesday!

I had a crazy St. Patrick's Day and spent most of Sunday recuperating, so I missed having a Sunday snippet this past week. So instead, I've decided to intersperse my blog tour with a bit from later in Flow. Ergo ... meet Hadrian, as the girls are trying to find a source for a fake ID for Kit - who can't yet legally drive ...


Sigvard Repair was north of the city near Norwood. It sat sandwiched between a secondhand record shop and an all-night grocery. There was no closed sign, but the darkened windows said it all. Not for Kit. She caught the handle and braced. The door jerked open into stale darkness. Dimly, she sensed the saurian shadows of metalwork and machinery, some with guts splayed all over the room's low tables. An anemic strand of light escaped from underneath the door to the next room.

"Hello?"

So fast she couldn't track the movements, someone caught them both around the shoulders, opened the door, and ushered them through it. His hand was deft on her right shoulder as he pulled them into the back hall and turned the light up.

"So," that unmistakable baritone said, dropping a few lazy syllables into the bass range as he continued, "what can I do for you ladies?"

Kit blinked as she got a good look at him. Tall and attenuated, he was thin almost to the point of the macabre, nothing helped by arched cheekbones and a high-bridged nose. His skin was ghoulishly pale - she felt as if she was staring at a ghost. His intensity was overwhelming, pulsing out of him in waves she could almost touch.

"Uh, a friend of mine said you could help with something unusual," she said.

Of course he was still in business, why else would he be so calm with two women in his backroom at this hour - but she had to be careful.

"We are looking for false identities," Chailyn said brightly.

Or not. "Something like that," she said, trying not to grimace.

He grinned, an expression that made him look more human, glacial dark eyes catching a spark of warmth.

"Have no fear; I've completely forgotten what numbers to dial for the police," he said. "Hadrian Sigvard, at your service."

He looked severe, even priestly with the hard angles and the way his hair was pulled back - and it was faintly blue in this light, deeper than black - but the lingering, sardonic mode of his words made it easy to forget that image. There was something off about him, but Kit couldn't put her finger on it.

Blog Tour: Stop #4!

I'm over at Angie Lofthouse's blog today:

Lindsey Duncan Discusses Short Fiction

Blog Tour: Stop #3!

I'm over at Nyki Blatchley's blog today, talking about worldbuilding:

Flow Guest Blog By Lindsey Duncan

(First time Nyki has ever had a guest, too!)

Thursday Thoughts

In the middle of this blog tour, I take a moment for my regular feature ... which hasn't been regular for a while, but I now vow to restore it to its rightful place.

That said, there hasn't been much writing of the past week. Instead, I've been busily working on my posts for this here tour. But I've found that serves its own purpose: it reawakens some of the joy of the initial act of creation, something I've been far away from with the last edits of Scylla and Charybdis (and the first edits of Who Wants To Be A Hero? still to come). Don't mistake me, I love the editing process, at least the fine-tuning, word tweaking, reshaping, part ... but there's nothing like the first encounter with an idea.

It's a universe that will hopefully see more stories in the future - besides the one forthcoming and the three I want to get sold, I have a few other ideas sitting in my file. One of them is just a sparker, to have a secret stop on the DC Metro that somehow links to the water-witches. Others were exercises I did from The 3AM Epiphany (which is absolutely the only writing exercise book I would ever recommend - great stuff) or other sources, snatches of dialogue and conflict. All of them need some fleshing out before I'd be ready to write ...

But isn't that the fun of it?

Depending on how Flow does, there's also a few sparks in my head about a potential sequel ...

Blog Tour - Stop #2!

Today, I'm over at Aubrie Dionne's blog:

Interview With Lindsey Duncan, Author of Flow

What's In A Name?

A rose by any other name, etc, etc ...

Today, I wanted to talk briefly about the names in Flow. All three characters had their origins in (short-lived) roleplaying venues, so I had chosen the names independent of each other.

For Enid Katrine Morgan / Kit, I merely knew that I wanted a female name that could plausibly abbreviate to "Kit," and something that had a Welsh background. I decided on Katrine as a more interesting of Catherine, and to "justify" the interpolation of the i (over the more obvious a), I decided to shuffle the names around and have it come from a first name the character would hate.

For Chailyn Lang, I was browsing the internet - ah, of all things! - when I came across the name and thought it had the perfect look and feel. As to Lang, I knew that her father was "some European businessman" (this developed further, of course). I wanted something short and sweet, and how could I pass up the reference to those fairy tale compilations, the (Color) Fairy Books?

For Hadrian, I honestly don't remember any thought process going into the name choice. I simply got the first name picked out and trawled my name book - the highly recommended Character-Naming Sourcebook, by Kenyon, Blythe and Sweet - until I found an appropriate surname to match.

So you can see that I'm not much inclined to choosing names by meaning, instead narrowing on look, feel and sound, with secondary concerns for the ethnic origin of the name and connection to backstory. I tend to avoid meaning-based names, in fact, unless the character for some reason named themselves - or were named by someone who was in a position to predict / comment upon that attribute.

One notable exception, not in Flow but in the same setting, is from "A Dose Of Aconite," where every single character is derived from taking the common names of aconite - wolf's bane, monk's hood, etc - and then picking names with those meanings. For a short, compact work with no intended follow-up, I thought it worked well - a sort of Easter egg for the name-inclined. (Or ... those who follow my blog, now.)

But names are very important to me. The Borderwatch agents are all named in my background material, even though their real names (with one exception) don't appear in the book, only their handles. I needed to know what they were "really" called to properly write the characters.

And Charity, well ... that name was pure irony ...

Anyone have any interesting name-origin stories?

Blog Tour: First Stop!

Today, I'm over at Cherie Reich's blog. My interview is here:

Book Chat Special: Interview With Lindsey Duncan

Sunday Snippet

To kick off my forthcoming blog tour, I thought I would post a snippet from a little later in Flow than the teaser available on Double Dragon's website. Here's the opening of chapter three, as Kit returns home:


Most of the lights were off, but Kit found the gloom more comfortable than the gingerbread warmth of normal light. She made her way down the front hall by feel.

"Hey, Terri?" she called. She found the wood handrail into the living room, trying to shake off a weird sense of tension, as if someone were looking over her shoulder. "I want you to meet…"

The sensation deepened as the shadows gained color, a blur of muted hues that closed in and hit her hard. A fist smacked her chest and her body went awry in response, arms flying, spine cracking into the rail. She howled; her second muscles coiled in readiness, all wild animation and adrenaline poisoning. Instinctively, she tried to place where her attacker stood. Something slammed into her left leg.

She twisted with it, trying to roll over the blow, but a flare of pain sent her mind screaming - not the tendon, not when it had taken so long, not when another pull could damage it permanently - and she surrendered, collapsing in a puddle on the steps. A long white-gloved hand caught her chin and knocked her head back against the rail. Hooded grey eyes played over Kit's face, neutral, assessing. She saw a flash of metal out of the corner of her eye and flinched. The point of a knife replaced the hand.

"I know what you can do," the woman said. "The first false move will be your last."

Thursday Thoughts

Well, by now everyone has seen my big news for the week, and I've been consumed with the tour aspect - writing answers to interview questions and incubating what I want to say for the more open-ended blog posts. I want to thank everyone who was all right with having me visit them. You folks are awesome.

Now that Flow is out, I've made a mental note to shift my story editing priorities - next goal to get out the three unsold stories in the setting: A Dose of Aconite, Splinter Cell, and an untitled third story. A fourth story, X-Mas Wishes, has already been sold for Gypsy Shadow Publishing's charity holiday anthology - originally intended to be released this last December, now due next year.

Two of the short stories involve werewolves, a facet of the setting unseen in Flow, but a logical extension of what I've already built. Two are written from the POV of a Borderwatch character. Splinter Cell takes a sympathetic course; A Dose of Aconite is one of the few (if not the only) stories I have written from the perspective of a character intended to be interpreted as the villain. At least one of these stories (I won't divulge which!) involves a fairy halfbreed ... and in all of them, I've had tremendous fun playing with different species of fairies and their traditional strengths and weaknesses.

And Splinter Cell is the story in which I have far and away the most fun with modern pop references ... even a crack about Kirsty MacColl's "Darling, Let's Have Another Baby." (Easily one of the funnest dumb songs ever.)

Blog Tour!

For the release of Flow, I'll be taking a tour of some blogs, either with interviews or guest posts. My hope is to have other information / material on my own blog for the intervening days. Here's the lineup:

Monday, 3/12: Interview by Cherie Reich
Wednesday, 3/14: Interview by Aubrie Dionne at Flutey Words
Friday, 3/16: Guest post over at Nyki Blatchey's blog on worldbuilding for Flow
Monday, 3/19: Guest post over at Angie Lofthouse's Notes From The Writing Chair about writing short fiction and how it helped my writing / career
Wednesday, 3/21: Guest post over at B.A. Barnett's Writerly Wackiness, tentatively entitled "Three's A Crowd"
Friday, 3/23: Guest post over at Daniel's Ausema's Twigs and Brambles, where I'm thinking of discussing the use of scent - but this may change

And further ahead ...

Sunday, 4/29: Interview with Lee-Ann Graff-Vinson at Writing Commando

If anyone wants to talk to me during intervening or subsequent days, please let me know! I'm up to rambling about just about anything.

Flow released!

It's official:

Double Dragon Publishing has just released my contemporary fantasy novel, Flow. Take a journey with Kit, Chailyn and Hadrian through the eastern United States, hunting fairies (or is that being hunted by them?), evading the Borderwatch and unraveling mysteries along the way.

Publisher's website: Double Dragon Publishing
Direct link to Flow

First scene teaser available on the site ...

Sunday Snippets

This is the first time I've had a Sunday snippet in a while. I've not been writing as much as I'd like, mostly editing Scylla and Charybdis - and I'm far enough into that manuscript that it's difficult to pick out sections that work out of context without spoiling plot.

This, however, is the opening of a short story I'm working on entitled "The Base of the World," about a grieving healer and her new assignment ...


Turgid artic waters rushed about Adris Isle, swept by low currents towards the icelands and the base of the world. From here, Liva could see the dim shadow of the immense column that anchored the world in the field of stars, but that was not her destination.

She clutched her cloak tighter, a speck of brown in the small boat: a figure no smaller than a child, though girlish amber curls had been given a hatchet job before she applied. She had been the first healer to do so - the only healer to do so. No one wanted this post.

The boatman rowed without glance or sound, but his apprentice kept peeking under his elbow at her. "Why are you doing this, miss?" he asked finally.

The voice did not match the woman, resonant, midnight-deep. "Someone has to."

It was more complicated than that, but Liva allowed herself enough vanity to be pleased with the way it sounded. The moment of delight passed as the encampment came into view, tents and temporary wooden lodges pressed together like a pile of dead leaves. She had come here to prove to herself she didn't have to be trapped in her past, but had she simply exchanged one prison for another?

"On a clear day," the apprentice whispered, "they say you can see the dead descending the pillar to visit their relatives on earth."

Liva shook her head. If such apparitions were possible, she would have had company months ago. Her chest tightened as she thought: if Islu didn't blame her as the others had. Some said children could forgive anything, but in her experience, they held blame more fiercely.

The encampment's dock was as rickety and dull as the tents. The boat oozed to a halt, bumping against the wood. Liva squinted, but saw no one waiting for her, not even as a cleverly disguised shadow.

"We're here. Go." It was the first thing the boatman had said since they departed.

Anatomy of an Idea: Three Great Loyalties

This post is (more or less) spoiler-free, but you might get more out of it if you click the link below to Niteblade and read Three Great Loyalties first. It's only a suggestion!

This story started as an hour writing prompt - from which I've gotten a lot of my best work, but these also tend to be the stories that need the most front-end editing to remove slowness. The prompt was to turn a bad day at work into a fantasy story. I chose a wedding I had played for where I was contracted three weeks out and ... well, the logistics of setting it up were a mess, and then it was a September evening wedding and the bride was upwards of forty minutes late - so our thirty minute prelude went on a lot longer than that. While it was getting dark. And cold. I distinctly remember a bridesmaid in a sleeveless gown with a massive rose tattoo on her shoulder.

Very little of this actually appears in the story. In hindsight, I should have at least included the tattoo. But the configuration of musicians - harp, dulcimer and flutist - is accurate, though the genders were flipped and the personalities given a makeover. That is to say ... any resemblance to real-life figures is coincidental.

But for me, stories rarely come from a single source, instead resulting in a collision of two unrelated ideas. In this case, the opposing force was the idea of ghost brides (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_marriage_(Chinese) ). I had just seen an episode of Numbers which featured this concept, and I wanted to tackle it in my own fashion. Very well, then - a bride for the afterlife. But in a fantasy setting, the dead don't necessarily remain mute ...

So a late groom, in this case - in both senses of the word. But that was just the setup ...

This story is slightly unusual for me in that the point of view character is more of an observer - it's not her story. The main characters are the flutist and the bride ... and with that, I run back into spoiler terrain, so thanks for reading and enjoy your day.

Now available!

The March issue of Niteblade is now available, with my story, "Three Great Loyalties":

Niteblade

Thursday Thoughts

Working hard on my Flow galley. After an initial readthrough, I decided to go over it a second time for other tweaks. There were two substantive things that needed alteration - a better explanation of what a "Crescent" is (a rank, or rather lank thereof, amongst the water witches) and a deletion of a minor element that I ... uh ... wrote into the story and then completely forgot to bring back. Also a few tweaks to the use of computers / cellphones to make it less obvious how long ago the manuscript was written ... but decided to leave it on the subliminal assumption that events happen in 2007.

(You have to read the manuscript fairly closely to figure this out - look at the starting date, look at the number of days the book covers, and then note that the confrontation scene happens on a Sunday. But it's there.)

When I return the galley to the editor, I will be wrangling such information as schedules, cover creation, and the policy of review / gift copies ... and doubtless other things that I haven't considered.