5 Dragons Daniel M. Ford’s Adept Wizard Could Beat in a Fight

July 12, 2023July 10, 2023a cat

Dragonslayers have been around almost as long as dragons, but what makes a dragonslayer? Truthfully, a dragonslayer can be anyone. Your nephew, that street performer, your mail carrier… But what about a young necromancer, fresh out of school and with a chip on her shoulder? Yes.

For more on that, we bring you Daniel M. Ford to discuss the dragonslaying capabilities of Aelis de Lenti, the main character of his fantasy novel The Warden.

Aelis de Lenti, the main character of my book The Warden, is, well, a warden, which is to say a wizard with a specific mandate to protect an area or group of people, as a kind of marshal/investigator/magistrate. And as my readers will know, her magic is not generally of the explosive, openly powerful, full-of-offensive-potential kind. So if Aelis was to go hunting dragons, she’d have to be very careful, select her targets well, prepare, and look for weaknesses other people might not see. Thankfully for her, Aelis is, while not a world class planner, really good at making it up as she goes along, and she has a couple friends—Tun, the half-orc woodsman, and Maurenia, the half-elven adventuress—that can generally be convinced to help her out.

Fáfnir

Reaching way back into the origins of European dragons here, I think it’s reasonable to say that Aelis could come up with the idea of digging a hole and waiting for the wyrm to slither over it so she can stab it in the belly. There’s also the fact that eating the heart of this particular dragon is said to bring knowledge, which combines two things Aelis can’t get enough of; fancy cuisine and knowing things other people don’t.

The Sleeping Dragon from The Sleeping Dragon by Joel Rosenberg

Right away, the Sleeping part is a giveaway for exactly how Aelis will approach this fight.

Quietly.

But there’s more to it. In Rosneberg’s Guardians of the Flame series[1], dragons have a pretty well known and debilitating weakness. There is an herb known as dragonbane—a little on the nose—that is commonly found and widely known to interfere with a dragon’s magical metabolism. This generally keeps dragons of this world from messing with humans too openly. Once Aelis gets her hands on some of this herb, a few hours in a decently stocked alchemical lab—even the not very well stocked lab in her tower would probably do—and she can definitely refine it into something extra lethal. Then it’s just a matter of getting close enough, quietly enough, with some crossbow bolts or arrows to get the job done.

Or, more likely, convincing Tun and/or Maurenia to get close enough to get the job done. After all, an Abjurer’s job in a fight isn’t necessarily to deliver the killing blow so much as it is to cover those who are better prepared or equipped to do so. At least, that’s what she’d tell her friends while she talked them into it. Can her wards stand up to dragon breath? Of course they can! Probably. But we won’t even need to find out, right?

Verimthrax Pejorative, from Dragonslayer

A classic fantasy film dragon that proves very dangerous to even an experienced wizard, as seen in the film, Vermithrax Pejorative is tough to take via a conventional approach to dragon-slaying.

Aelis de Lenti is anything but conventional.

In the film, Ulrich the wizard is able to discern that Vermithrax is affected by a disease that bothers all dragons as they age, a scale-rot that causes constant pain. Aelis could certainly diagnose this, and after coaxing the dragon to get close by staking out the goat[2]to provide a free meal, and then offering to treat her scale-rot. Once she does start treating that disease, her Necromantic abilities will teach her all about draconic anatomy and weaknesses, giving her something she can surely exploit. Maybe Vermithrax dies quietly in her sleep, maybe her firebreath is suddenly disabled, maybe the next time she flies she finds that the muscles of her wings have mysteriously atrophied and she crashes into a hill. There is no equivalent of the Hippocratic Oath in Aelis’s world.

A Dracolich, any Dracolich

Sure, sure, Dracoliches like Daurgothoth the Creeping Doom are a menace to fantasy worlds. When you marry the magical power and resistances of a lich with the thousands of years of experience, intelligence, and magical abilities of a dragon, you get something fearsome.

And not one of them has ever dealt with something like a Lyceum trained Necrobane. Aelis is at her best and most powerful when fighting the undead. Once she’s got some practical experience against living dragons and is able to put that together with her Necromantic power, she can surely find a way to take down a dracolich.

Rand al’Thor, The Dragon Reborn[3]

Yes, I hear you. Rand is catastrophically powerful. If he’s got any of his angreal or sa’angreal around, like Callandor, he can probably destroy the world, or close enough as makes no difference. Aelis can’t match him with magic. She probably can’t match him blade to blade, either, as Rand is a confirmed blademaster and she is competent. Her friends wold surely know better than to even try. So why do I think Aelis could take him?

Quite simply, (at least in the early books) Rand is terrified of women, especially one that acts even a little bit interested in him. And later books Rand flat out refuses to fight a woman. Is this cheating? Fine! Aelis isn’t above cheating to achieve a goal! She can easily take Rand al’Thor[4]based on these two data points alone.

So, there you have it; the Top 5 Dragons Aelis de Lenti can take in a fight. It requires a little unorthodox thinking, because Aelis doesn’t flash the kind of power you might expect from a fantasy wizard. But she excels at getting the most out of what she does have; her wards, her Necromancy, her friends, and her willingness to cheat[5].

Order The Warden Here:

[1] A portal fantasy where a group of college students get transported to the world they play a fantasy RPG in and decide to Do the Industrial Revolution in order to end slavery. It shows its age in spots (it began in 1983) but it’s worth a read.

[2] If you’ve read The Warden you know exactly which goat I mean

[3] I do not suggest that Aelis could handle the armies surrounding Rand, the Far Dareis Mai who guard him, or Elayne, Aviendha, and Min. Just Rand.

[4] Provided we ignore all the stuff about his world-shattering power and the massive armies, incredible resources, and similarly powerful people who’d be invested in his victory.

[5] Please understand that I have great respect, even love, for all the dragons mentioned here.

Author Features / Dragon Week / What's New

How to Worship Your Dragon: Julia Vee & Ken Bebelle Advise

July 11, 2023April 15, 2024a cat

Julia Vee & Ken Bebelle wrote a book that’s like female John Wick with dragon magic and it’s called Ebony Gate and guess what! It’s out TODAY. We actually have Julia & Ken with us as special guests for Dragon Week, so check out their scholarly article on rituals of dragon worship, and then check out their high octane urban fantasy full of magic and assassins!

Check it out!

A Brief Description of Rituals to Worship Chinese Dragons by Julia Vee & Ken Bebelle

Make Your Annual Pilgrimage to a Local Dragon King and Dragon Mother Temple For Blessings

Dragon King and Dragon Mother temples dot the Asian countryside. If you are in the northern reaches of China, get yourself to the Heilongdawang Temple (literally “Black Dragon Great King”) located in Longwanggou (“Dragon King Valley”) in Shaanxi province where you can njoy six days of festivities.

Modern Chinese scholars note that folkloric traditions and religions are having a revival.¹ And why not? Festivities for the Great Black Dragon King include opera, dancers, circus performers, games, fireworks, and of course, gambling. This particular dragon king is more highly regarded than other local dragon kings because of his imperially conferred official title–the Marquis of Efficacious Response (Lingyinghou, 灵应侯).²

The Heilongdawang festival draws hundreds of thousands of pilgrims, all ready to donate generously to the temple coffers, burn incense, and otherwise eat copious quantities at the food stalls.

Or you can participate in a rain-summoning ceremony. In the drought-prone north, one ritual to summon rain included “casting tiger bones into a pool of water in order to scare dragons into flight, thereby creating rainclouds.”³

If you are in southern China, on the eighth day of the fifth month on the lunar calendar, you can join in with over a hundred thousand pilgrims to visit the Dragon Mother Temple in Guangdong. This temple sits along the Xijiang River and leans against Wulong (Five Dragons) Mountain. The area is known as the Pearl River Delta, and Dragon Mother devotees are spread widely across the West river and into Hong Kong and Macau. The Lung Mo temple on Pengchau island (Hong Kong) is situated on the beach.

The origins of the Dragon Mother reach back longer than the established official story, which goes something like this:

There was a young woman named Wen from Wuzhou. One day while washing clothes in the West River, she found a giant stone. From the stone sprung five lizards, who grew into dragons. She raised them tenderly and when her village had drought, the dragons brought rain. When the river threatened to flood, the dragons were there to divert the floodwaters. When she was quite elderly, the Emperor summoned her to the capital. Her dragon sons prevented the arduous journey (which was by river of course). When she passed away in 211 B.C. her dragon sons were devastated and transformed into five human scholars who held her funeral rites and buried her in Jiangwan.

Later, she was elevated in status to a deity, rising to the heavens as an immortal.

Pilgrims consider this eighth day of the fifth lunar month the Dragon Mother’s birthday and observe time-honored rituals. First, they wash their hands in the Dragon Spring to clean off the worldly dirt. The pilgrims then burn incense and present gifts at the temple. They bow, then kneel on the floor, and pray to the goddess. After this devotion, they light off firecrackers to respectfully invite the Dragon Mother to receive their gifts and fulfill their wishes.⁴

As one scholar notes, “It is not a coincidence that the pilgrimage to the Dragon Mother Temple falls on the eighth day of the fifth lunar month, as the fifth lunar month was the time when the danger of seasonal flooding of the West River (which is commonly known as “xiliao 西潦,” literally “west flood”) was the most imminent. The West River therefore was both a lifeline and a constant threat to the local people, who felt a real need to appease the river as well as to express their gratitude to the river goddess on this annual festive occasion.”⁵

The Dragon Mother and other water goddess (“Shuimu”) traditions go back millennia and it’s not hard to see why. The specter of drought, famine, or flooding was constant. Seafaring populations too, had multiple goddesses they sought blessings from for their safe voyage (Dragon Mother, Sea Goddess Mazu, and the shuimu (“Water Goddess”).

In 1861, John Henry Gray observed a ceremony to the Dragon Mother:

“…On a small temporary altar, which had been erected for the occasion, stood three cups containing Chinese wine. Taking in his hands a live fowl, which he continued to hold until he killed it as a sacrifice, the master proceeded in the first place to perform the Kowtow. He then took the cups from the table, one at a time, and, raising each above his head, poured its contents on the deck as a libation. He next cut the throat of the fowl with a sharp knife, taking care to sprinkle that portion of the deck on which he was standing with the blood of the sacrifice. At this stage of the ceremony several pieces of silver paper were presented to him by one of the crew. These were sprinkled with the blood, and then fastened to the door-posts and lintels of the cabin.”⁶

It wasn’t just sailors and locals to the West river who observed such pilgrimages and prayer rituals. When there was a drought, even government officials were tasked with conducting prayers to the Dragon King.

Failure to Worship the Dragon King, or Worse, Destruction of a Dragon King Temple, Can Lead to Heaven-Sent Disaster!

During the Great Flood of 1931 in Wuhan, one official lamented that the people blamed the flood on the destruction of a Dragon King Temple.⁷ The Dragon King Temple in Hankou had been demolished in 1930 to make way for a new road, so the timing of the flood was uncanny.

This flood affected 53 million people. The officials of Wuhan had to repent. Several prominent officials of Wuhan participated in rituals designed to placate the Dragon King, including the mayor. They kowtowed to the Dragon King altar, beseeching the deity to spare Wuhan from the flood.

Citizens of the region also blamed officials for outlawing the singing of “spirit operas” traditionally performed to assuage flood dragons.⁸

To those who worshiped the Dragon King, destroying his temple that sat atop the dyke was clearly a bad idea.

Maybe a River Near You Has a Dragon Deity.

Even if a Dragon King or Dragon Mother temple isn’t available, you can still make a pilgrimage to the rivers. At least forty rivers in China are named for dragons including these rivers in Shanghai: Shanghai: Longquangang He 龍泉港河 (Dragon Spring Port River), Bailonggang He 白龍港河 (White Dragon Port River).⁹

Just be sure to be properly deferential, and perhaps offer a song to the river dragon.

Julia Vee & Ken Bebelle

We would like to thank Dr. Yasmin Koppen of University Leipzig for her friendship, and generously sharing her expertise and scholarship in East Asian dragons.

Order Ebony Gate Here:

Chau, Adam Yuet “Mysterious Response: Doing Popular Religion in Contemporary China” (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2006) 88.
Fan Lizhu and Chen Na “Resurgence of Indigenous Religion in China” (2013) 11.
Courtney, Chris “The Dragon King and the 1931 Wuhan Flood: Religious Rumors and Environmental Disasters in Republican China” (University of Cambridge, Twentieth-Century China 40.2, May 2015) p. 88.
Tan, Weiyun “Dragon mother temple keeps legend alive for 2 millennia” Shine, Nov. 12, 2021 https://www.shine.cn/feature/art-culture/2111128066/
Poon, Shuk-Wah. "Thriving Under an Anti-Superstition Regime: The Dragon Mother Cult in Yuecheng, Guangdong, During the 1930s." Journal of Chinese Religions 43, no. 1 (2015): 34-58. muse.jhu.edu/article/708611.
Poon, pg 41.
Courtney at p. 83.
Courtney at p. 100.
Zhao, Qiguang Chinese Mythology in the Context of Hydraulic Society Asian Folklore Studies Vol. 48, No. 2 (1989), pp. 231-246.
cindyxiong. “Ancient Bronze Dragons Carving in the Ancient Dragon King Temple along Yangtze River,China. Foreign Text Means King. Stock Photo.” Adobe Stock, stock.adobe.com/images/ancient-bronze-dragons-carving-in-the-ancient-dragon-king-temple-along-yangtze-river-china-foreign-text-means-king/100861913?prev_url=detail. Accessed 6 July 2023.

Author Features / New Releases / On Writing

Inspiration and Mrs. Plansky’s Revenge by Spencer Quinn!

July 11, 2023December 21, 2023Ariana Carpentieri5 Comments

Mrs. Plansky’s Revenge is bestselling author Spencer Quinn’s first novel in a new series since the meteoric launch of Chet and Bernie–introducing the irresistible and unforgettable Mrs. Plansky, in a story perfect for book clubs and commercial fiction readers.

Mrs. Loretta Plansky, a recent widow in her seventies, is settling into retirement in Florida while dealing with her 98-year-old father and fielding requests for money from her beloved children and grandchildren. Thankfully, her new hip hasn’t changed her killer tennis game one bit.

One night Mrs. Plansky is startled awake by a phone call from a voice claiming to be her grandson Will, who desperately needs ten thousand dollars to get out of a jam. Of course, Loretta obliges—after all, what are grandmothers for, even grandmothers who still haven’t gotten a simple “thank you” for a gift sent weeks ago. Not that she’s counting.

By morning, Mrs. Plansky has lost everything. Law enforcement announces that Loretta’s life savings have vanished, and that it’s hopeless to find the scammers behind the heist. First humiliated, then furious, Loretta Plansky refuses to be just another victim.

In a courageous bid for justice, Mrs. Plansky follows her only clue on a whirlwind adventure to a small village in Romania to get her money and her dignity back—and perhaps find a new lease on life, too.

Read below to see where Spencer Quinn drew his inspiration from when writing Mrs. Plansky’s Revenge!

Inspiration and Mrs. Plansky’s Revenge

Uh-oh. Inspiration is the topic. I’m a little afraid to even go there, in case the gods of inspiration are disturbed by my presence and vote to blacklist me. But unlike with any of the other novels I’ve written, the idea for Mrs. Plansky’s Revenge (my 45^th), came directly from a real life event, so maybe the gods will give me a pass.

Five or six years ago, my dad got a phone call. At the time he was in his early nineties. He died two weeks short of his 97^th birthday and was in excellent mental shape and very good physical shape until the end. I want to emphasize that mental part. He was a very smart guy: quick, sharp, clear-headed. Back to the call.

Caller: Hey, Grandpa!

My dad: Jake?

Caller: Yeah, Grandpa, it’s me, Jake.

Cut To: My dad’s wife, noticing he’s putting on his jacket.

Wife: Ed? Where are you going?

My dad: To the bank. Jake’s in trouble and he needs some money.

At that point it was decided to call Jake (living in another city), and he had not called my dad and wasn’t in any trouble. “Jake” never got a penny. But I was amazed that someone like my dad could have been fooled.

And then I got back to writing the Chet and Bernie novel I was working on and thought no more about the two Jakes. Then one day on a bike ride the idea for Mrs. Plansky’s Revenge—indeed the whole set-up, including the Romanian part—came to me in one fell swoop. Shall I summarize that now, or go on and on about bike riding, which I do all year round even though I live on Cape Cod where winter temps can dip into the 20’s or even lower, and how I actually prefer the cold days because no one else is on the bike path, so it’s like I’m in one of those dystopian Last Of Us stories, except it’s a utopia? No, that would be boring, so instead the set-up of Mrs. P.

Mrs. Plansky is a seventy-one year old retiree. She and her husband Norm sold a successful small business they built from nothing and moved to Florida for their sunset years, but Norm soon died. Mrs. P has a 98-year-old father in a fancy assisted living she pays for, plus a grown daughter and son with big dreams but not enough money to realize them. Mrs. P is the kind who helps out. She also has two grandchildren, one of whom is Will, out in Colorado. Late one night Mrs. P gets a call from him—a Jake type call—and, following his precise instructions, she sends $9726.18. She can afford it. Her grandson is in trouble. Case closed.

But it wasn’t Will. And because Mrs. P uses the same password for everything, the scammers have cleaned out not just her checking account but her retirement accounts as well, everything. The FBI tells her the scammers are probably in Romania, but identifying them would be almost impossible and the chances of getting her money back are nil. Mrs. P is humiliated. How stupid she’s been! And even worse: she’s let Norm down. She goes to Romania to recover her self-respect, the trust of a dead husband, her money.

So: that all dropped into my mind on the bike path but at first I didn’t connect it to my dad! Then I started wondering why I’d chosen the name Plansky. Bingo! Tony Plansky was a legendary track coach at Williams College, where the Navy had sent my dad in WW2 as part of their program to get officers (my dad commanded a sub chaser hunting Nazi U-boats in the Atlantic). My dad had run cross country at Williams and he had some funny stories about Tony Plansky. And when I went to Williams in the 1960’s he was still there! Therefore Mrs. Plansky’s name was the bridge to where my story had come from, even if I was too blockheaded to put it together myself. Just one more reason to love what my grandmother always called “the writing game.”

Above: Tony Plansky

Above: Ed Abrahams

Click below to pre-order your copy of Mrs. Plansky’s Revenge, available 7.25.23!

Author Features / What's New

Chasing the Nine Sons of the Dragon

July 9, 2023July 7, 2023a cat

Ebony Gate is a high-octane urban fantasy full of assassins and dragon magic, and set in San Francisco’s Chinatown. To prepare themselves for this thrilling series-starter, authors Julia Vee & Ken Bebelle had to hit the books before they wrote one. Now they’re here to talk us through some of their dragonic research!

Check it out!

by Julia Vee & Ken Bebelle

We went looking for a creature of fire, but what we found was a water god.

When we started writing Ebony Gate we knew we wanted to weave in dragons, but as children of diaspora we also wanted to incorporate the mythology of Asia, and the fantastic worlds that we learned of through our parents. In Chinese literature, Lóng is the closest analog to the Western dragon. Although it is visually similar to the Western dragon, Lóng occupies a different space in Asian myth and took our world-building in new directions.

Researching Chinese dragons presented a few challenges:

The sources were in Chinese and we couldn’t read them;
The sources were translated but super expensive university press books;
The sources were at a university library but it was lockdown; and
The sources were in the public domain and suffered from orientalism.

So we had to filter quite a bit and what struck us were all the differences between Western and Eastern dragons.

The dragons we grew up with (Dungeons and Dragons, et al) were predominantly fire-breathers, although tabletop gaming brought us ice, poison, and acid breathers as well. Lóng are almost exclusively water and weather gods, with the power to control both. Good and bad weather was often attributed to the moods of dragons.

The research we were able to access was filled with water imagery.

“Like the deities of other countries, the Chinese dragon-god (and the Japanese dragon) may appear in different shapes—as a youth or aged man, as a lovely girl or an old hag, as a rat, a snake, a fish, a tree, a weapon, or an implement. But no matter what its shape may be, the dragon is intimately connected with water. It is a “rain lord” and therefore the thunder-god who causes rain to fall.”

In Western fiction, the dragon is either a terrifying antagonist (Smaug, Maleficent) or a beast companion (Dragonriders of Pern, How to Train Your Dragon). There is no such occurrence in Chinese culture, though. Chinese Dragons are gods and don’t casually interact with mortals. Instead of villains raining fire and swooping in to steal cattle, Chinese dragons were the symbol of the emperor.

In ancient China, the power attributed to the dragon reads as both awesome and lyrical.

“The dragon dwells in pools, it rises to the clouds, it thunders and brings rain, it floods rivers, it is in the ocean, and controls the tides and causes the waters to ebb and flow as do its magic pearls … and it is a symbol of the emperor.”

The Chinese Dragon is typically serpentine, with a long body, four small legs, and sometimes wings. The dragon’s face usually has long whiskers. Chinese dragons are also very specifically referenced by name. The Great Dragon Father has nine offspring who are referenced by name, even before the Ming dynasty. They are fantastical hybrids and they can be seen all over Chinese architecture today.

For Ebony Gate, we loved the imagery of Yázì, which is a wolf/dragon hybrid. Yázì is depicted on a fan that leads our protagonist, Emiko, to a mysterious auction for a lost artifact. Cháofēng is a dragon/phoenix hybrid that is used on rooflines as a protective talisman and adorns the cornices of Emiko’s house as part of her magical security system.

We took all these differences between Western and Eastern dragons and used them as a framework for the worldbuilding of Ebony Gate. One similarity that we found and kept was their trait of hoarding treasure. Instead of distant deities or passive statues, our versions of the Nine Sons of the Dragon were actual gods living amongst their followers. They hoarded people, in addition to treasure, and imbued them all with their various magic. These people call themselves Lóng Jiārén and are living descendants of the dragons they served.

Lóng served as the genesis for our world and the magic of its people. All the rules that Lóng Jiārén live by, and their conduct flows from being in service of Lóng. But it’s the nature of man to twist things, dragon magic or not. After populating our world with dangerous people with the power of dragons, we knew our hero had to break the mold.

Emiko is diaspora, like us, but magical diaspora. Born without dragon powers, she doesn’t fit in either the world of the Lóng Jiārén, or with regular people. She only has her swords and tenacity to survive amongst her deadly peers. And in our world of dragons and monsters, it’s not the dragon who you should be afraid of—it’s Emiko.

Order Ebony Gate Here:

Author Features / Behind the Scenes / On Writing

On Writing In Constraints by Jacqueline Carey

July 7, 2023July 6, 2023Rachel Taylor1 Comment

Writers love a challenge and today Jacqueline Carey, author of Kushiel’s Dart and the upcoming companion novel, Cassiel’s Servant, joins us on the blog to discuss the constraints around writing. Check it out here!

By Jacqueline Carey

I enjoy writing in constraints.

I’m not talking about the kind that come with straps and buckles and blindfolds… although to be fair, I’ve written about those constraints more than your average fantasy author. When your heroine has been chosen by the angel of punishment to experience pleasure in pain, you’ve got to expect a healthy dose of spice.

No, literary constraints are what I’m talking about. CASSIEL’S SERVANT is a companion novel. It mirrors KUSHIEL’S DART at every step of the way. From the outset, we see our protagonists embark as children on parallel paths, growing into the roles that will define them. And once their paths merge, the entirety of Joscelin’s actions and dialogue in CASSIEL’S SERVANT is constrained by the framework of KUSHIEL’S DART. And since that novel was narrated by Phèdre nó Delaunay, who misses little and forgets less, there wasn’t a whole lot of wiggle room in terms of events.

So why write it?

A number of years ago, I wrote a poem on commission for a benefit. I pledged an Elizabethan sonnet and polled readers. Overwhelmingly, fans wanted a love poem from Joscelin, my stoic warrior-priest, to Phèdre, the daring courtesan who stole his heart. For the first time, Joscelin spoke. Not just lines of dialogue—he opened up his inner narrative. And it turns out that my taciturn hero given to letting his blades talk for him is more thoughtful and self-aware than I knew, with a keen sense of the absurd.

I wasn’t sold on it right away. I took a detour into the desert with a different warrior brotherhood in STARLESS, but it wasn’t enough to silence Joscelin’s inner voice. It was stuck in my head like a refrain. Finally, I allowed myself to imagine what Phèdre and Joscelin’s journey might look like through his eyes.

A lot different.

One thing about constraints, they force you to be creative, patient and diligent. My Sundering duology was constrained by the concept—LORD OF THE RINGS reenvisioned as epic tragedy. It was constrained by copyright issues that meant I had to recreate Tolkien’s plot structure and build a world to support it in forms that were at once original and yet recognizable as mirrors of the source material.

More recently, MIRANDA AND CALIBAN is a retelling of Shakespeare’s The Tempest which was wholly constrained by the original source material. There’s a lot of empty space between the beginning and the ending of that play. Like twelve years’ worth! It allows room for creative improvisation.

Side note: Renaissance magic is wwaaaayy more boring than you might expect. My commitment to historical authenticity forged some surprising constraints. Renaissance magic is mostly astrology and casting horoscopes. Kind of like a slumber party for gouty mathematicians and their wealthy patrons.

In some ways, CASSIEL’S SERVANT might be the tightest literary squeeze yet. I had to adhere to my own original source material. Once we left the Prefectory of the Cassiline Brotherhood, there were very few opportunities for improvisation within the strictures of the plot.

But it doesn’t necessarily take a lot of space to land a knockout.

One thing (among many) for which Bruce Lee was famous was the “one-inch punch,” featured in various Southern Chinese martial arts styles. According to Wikipedia and the countless kung fu movies I watched in college, this is a skill which generates tremendous amounts of impact force at extremely close distances. MythBusters registered the impact of a one-inch punch at 153 lbs with a force gauge. Uma Thurman one-inch punched her way out of a buried coffin in Kill Bill.

For me, writing with constraints requires a similar skill. It forces me to concentrate on extracting the maximum dramatic impact from any pivotal scene. And the one place of freedom, of expansiveness, of infinite possibility, within the story as it unfurls is inside of Joscelin himself.

There’s a lot of intrigue in KUSHIEL’S DART. Picking apart the tangled threads is one of the pleasures Phèdre’s perspective as a courtesan, spy and pawn in this ongoing game of crowns and thrones affords.

Joscelin, on the other hand, would be hard put to care less about political intrigue. It’s not just that he’s uninterested in it—it takes a shocking turn of events for him to fully grasp the fact that this frivolous-seeming assignment is deadly serious. It’s also due to the fact that House Verreuil is basically a D’Angeline version of “old money”. Political maneuvering and speculation are considered gauche. If you have some interesting thoughts on dog breeding or hydraulics, they’re all ears, but money and politics are things one does not discuss in polite society.

Fittingly, Joscelin’s life is circumscribed by constraint. As the middle son of an old aristocratic family, he’s pledged from birth to the Cassiline Brotherhood, bound by tradition and filial duty. He’s bound by his vows and his own sense of honor. Falling in love with Phèdre is the one-inch punch that turns his world upside down and shatters his heart to pieces. Writing in constraints has its rewards!

There are plenty of fight scenes in CASSIEL’S SERVANT and I loved writing them from Joscelin’s view in the thick of the fray—even during the numerous times he went down swinging in captivity. But for me, nothing lands as hard as that one-inch punch of true love.

Jacqueline Carey is the New York Timesbestselling author of the critically acclaimed and award-winning Kushiel’s Legacy series of historical fantasy novels. Recent novels include the Shakespearean adaptation Miranda and Caliban and the epic fantasy standalone Starless. Carey enjoys doing research on a wide variety of arcane topics, and an affinity for travel has taken her from Iceland to China to date. She currently lives in West Michigan.

Pre-order Cassiel’s Servant Here:

Author Features / Extras / What's New

Howl Along to TJ Klune’s Official Wolfsong Playlist

June 30, 2023May 17, 2024a cat1 Comment

Once upon a time—in the quaint, idyllic summer of 2016—I released a book called Wolfsong. I hoped people would like it as it was a little…different than what I’d written before. I wasn’t necessarily thinking about how this would turn into a four-book series, although that was at the back of my mind.

I didn’t expect the reaction it received, or for the subsequent books. A fierce and protective fandom sprouted up around these characters, and I was delighted by it. People took to Ox and Joe and Carter and Kelly like they were real, and it blew my mind. Granted, that meant every word or turn of phrase was dissected within an inch of its life, but hey, I’m good with that.

Music has always been a major part of what I do. I think, one day, I might even have a musical in me, though that’s probably far away. (Can you imagine?!) I made a playlist for Wolfsong back when it was released, but that was on my old Blogger site (how young I was! How starry-eyed!) that is now defunct. Over the years, I’ve been asked over and over again to put the playlist together once more.

Here it is.

Enjoy!

TJ Klune

(and a brief aside from a Tor marketer to let everyone know that TJ has some other Green Creek playlists on his blog: Ravensong, Heartsong, Brothersong. Check them out, and while you’re at it, check out these cool Green Creek acrylic charms made by Mavilez Art that you can receive when you upload a copy of your Wolf / Ravensong receipt here!)

“I’ll Walk Alone” // Dinah Shore

I’ll walk alone
They’ll ask me why
And I’ll tell them I’d rather
There are dreams I must gather

“Chasing Twisters” // Delta Rae

What little soul that I have left
And oh, my God
I’ll take you to the grave
The only love I’ve ever known
The only soul I ever saved

“Nervous” // X Ambassadors

But I get nervous
When I’m happy
I get nervous
‘Cause what comes up must come down

“Running with the Wolves” // AURORA

But we’re running out of time
Oh, all the echoes in my mind cry
There’s blood on your lies
The sky’s open wide
There is nowhere for you to hide
The hunter’s moon is shining

“Beloved” // Mumford & Sons

Before you leave
You must know you are beloved
And before you leave
Remember I was with you

“Sugar Mountain” // Neil Young

Oh to live on Sugar Mountain
With the barkers and the colored balloons
You can’t be twenty on Sugar Mountain
Though you’re thinking that you’re leaving there too soon
You’re leaving there too soon

“A Long December” // Counting Crows

A long December and there’s reason to believe
Maybe this year will be better than the last
I can’t remember the last thing that you said as you were leaving
Now the days go by so fast

“Carry On” // Fun.

You swore and said we are not
We are not shining stars
This I know, I never said we are
Though I’ve never been through Hell like that
I’ve closed enough windows to know you can never look back

“I Feel Home” // O.A.R

To me it’s so damn easy to see
That true people are the people at home.
Well, I’ve been away but now I’m back today,
And there ain’t a place I’d rather go.

“Rolling in the Deep” // Adele

The scars of your love remind me of us
They keep me thinking that we almost had it all
The scars of your love they leave me breathless
I can’t help feeling

We could’ve had it all

“Six” // Sleeping at Last

I want to take shelter, but I’m ready, ready to fight
Somewhere in the middle, I feel a little paralyzed
Maybe I’m stronger
Than I realize

“Pale Yellow” // Woodkid

Pale Yellow
Unrip the flesh and let the damage grow
Like a blade in the chest bones
Pale Yellow
Relieve the weight and give it a last go
And make it your best shot

“Island” // SVRCINA

I am an island
You are the ocean
You’re so close we’re touching, completely surrounded
But I cannot have you the way that I want to
‘Cause I am an island you are the ocean
No, I cannot have you, I cannot have you without drowning

“Dead in the Water” // Ellie Goulding

‘Cause I can hardly breathe
When your hands let go of me
The ice is thinning out
And my feet brace themselves

“Get Up” // Barcelona

Five days after black and red collide
The motion sickness past, I’ll be the first to stand
Behind that weathered door, I thought it would be safest
My head is dizzy now, I thought we’d overcome
We might not make it home tonight

“Everywhere I Go (I’m Not Alone)” // Halcyon Skies

No destination on my mind
We’ll take our time we’ll take our time
We’ll go get lost so we can find
The things we thought we left behind

Order Wolfsong Here!

Author Features / What's New

Love & Wolves: TJ Klune on Writing the Green Creek Series

June 28, 2023April 8, 2024a cat

Plans often go awry. Most werewolves understand this, as do most authors. Today we’ve got TJ Klune here to discuss the initial direction he plotted for his Green Creek series, and explain how reimagining that story with wolfish creatures helped him connect with its very human characters.

Check it out!

In 2014, I set out to write a big story, one that would cover many years following the same people, and the angst and drama of growing up in a small mountain town in Oregon. It wasn’t fantasy—no, this was going to be real and hardcore with tears and heartbreak and whatever else I could throw in.

It was…meh. I got maybe a quarter of the way into it, but it wasn’t setting my world on fire.

As sometimes happens, my brain decided I was going about it all wrong. It wasn’t working. It wasn’t going in the direction I wanted it to. I couldn’t figure out why.

Until my weird brain said: Okay, but what if they were werewolves?

I scoffed. Werewolves? I don’t write about werewolves. I am a serious author with serious ideas!

(Yikes.)

Eventually, I got over myself and decided: What the hell? The worst that could happen would be the story was a mess and wouldn’t go anywhere. It’s happened before. It’ll undoubtedly happen again.

Except the story became something more than I expected. Yes, there are werewolves, but in the pages of Wolfsong, I found a home with a pack of ridiculously wonderful people who make bad decisions for mostly the right reasons. They’re so painfully human, even when they’re not. They make mistakes, they grow, they learn, they win, they lose, they suffer, and they fight for themselves and each other.

Wolfsong is the first book in a four-part series about how far people will go to protect the ones they love. There is love and romance and danger and action and a fandom who loves these characters as if they were real people because they are packpackpack.

Welcome to Green Creek.

This isn’t going to go how you think.

TJ Klune

TJ KLUNE is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling, Lambda Literary Award-winning author ofThe House in the Cerulean Sea, The Extraordinaries, and more. Being queer himself, Klune believes it’s important—now more than ever—to have accurate, positive queer representation in stories.

Pre-order Wolfsong Here:

Author Features / What's New

Thorns & Fairy Tales: T. Kingfisher on writing Thornhedge

June 15, 2023June 15, 2023a cat

T. Kingfisher is a busy writer. She’s got books with Tor, and books with Nightfire, and today she’s on our blog to talk a little about the creation process of her latest novella, Thornhedge.

Check it out!

Way back when, in 2015, in my other life as a children’s book author, I had a book published called Harriet the Invincible, the first of the Hamster Princess series. Harriet, the hero, is very fierce and very confident, and she’s also the princess at the heart of a “Sleeping Beauty” retelling (also a hamster). It was a fun romp and I enjoyed writing it enormously, and a lot of readers liked it, too.

But as inevitably happens when you retell a fairy tale—or at least when I retell one—I found myself with all these extra possibilities in my brain afterward. Directions that I could have gone but didn’t. Characters that I could have written but passed over in favor of others. Themes that went unexplored, ideas that never got fleshed out, all the usual writing baggage. And yet somehow, this time, it was different. It didn’t go away.

Apparently, I was not quite done with “Sleeping Beauty,” or perhaps the story wasn’t quite done with me.

I usually find my way through a fairy tale by questioning all the assumptions in it, starting with who the hero and the villain are. The wicked fairy that curses Sleeping Beauty is supposed to be the villain, of course (and yes, I did love the movie Maleficent, but even then, the princess is one of the good guys). So in this case, I started thinking, what if the princess was the villain? After all, why would you trap someone inside a hedge of thorns, anyway? Because you wanted to contain her. Because there was some reason you didn’t want her to get out. Because she was dangerous, and maybe you weren’t a very skilled fairy, so you did the only thing that you could think of to do.

I wrote about three paragraphs with this idea in mind, and Toadling more or less dropped into my lap, fully formed. I rapidly found myself writing the diametric opposite of the book that I had just written. (It’s hard to think of two characters less alike than Toadling and Harriet, although I love them both.)

Once I had Toadling, the whole thing just flowed. It’s lovely when that happens (also, sadly, rare). Many characters bolt off with the story, and I am left staggering behind them, frantically trying to take notes, but Toadling was very polite. Her backstory unfolded pretty much as I typed it. I learned she was raised by greenteeth as I wrote the sentence about them; I learned that she could turn into a toad when she did it on the page—all the little discoveries that you always make writing a book, of course, but happening at my usual typing speed, without sitting and staring at the wall for an hour, or nearly rupturing my wrist tendons trying to keep up.

It was really very sweet, and so if someone asked me about Thornhedge, I would probably say that it is a sweet book, and then presumably someone would point out that the heroine is raised by child-eating fish monsters and the villain is torturing people and animating the dead, and I would be left flailing my hands around and saying, “But it’s sweet! Really!” because I am not always the best at judging the tone of my own work.

. . . I still think it’s sweet, dammit.

The other amusing thing about Thornhedge is that it was the first book I sold to Tor, though it has come out after a couple of others, because publishing. I had written most of it, had it lying around in my mental trunk, and wasn’t sure what to do with it. Novellas were hard to place at the time. There was one magazine that told me flat out that they couldn’t afford to pay me anything like what it was worth, which I respected, but which left me with this weird wrong-length . . . thingy.

And then I saw that Tor had an open submission period for novellas coming up.

Huh, I thought. I should send this in. When is that, again?

Then, a few minutes later: Waaaaait a minute—I have an agent! Agents don’t have to wait for that! They can just send in books!

(I have written more than forty books now, and I am still sometimes not entirely clear on this whole “being a professional writer” gig.)

So my agent sent in Thornhedge, and Tor very kindly came back and said, “Yes, we will take this, and also, what else you got?” which is why Nettle & Bone and What Moves the Dead have also come out by the time you’re reading this. So I am very grateful to them for taking the chance, and also to Toadling, weird as it is to be grateful to a figment of your imagination, for paving the way.

T. Kingfisher

North Carolina

June 2022

T. KINGFISHER (she/her) writes fantasy, horror, and occasional oddities, including Nettle & Bone,What Moves the Dead, and A House with Good Bones. Under a pen name, she also writes bestselling children’s books. She lives in North Carolina with her husband, dogs, and chickens who may or may not be possessed.

Pre-order Thornhedge Here:

Author Features / What's New

Fantastic Cartography: David Edison on Maps

May 23, 2023May 23, 2023a cat

You don’t need a map to find this one! Today we’ve got the awesome interior map of David Edison’s Sandymancer here to share. We’ve also got David himself to talk about the meaning and impact of maps, both as fantasy art, and in the personal sense—their impact on him.

Check it out, and preorder Sandymancer!

By David Edison

Like most map-loving readers, I have an origin story. Sometime in April of 1987, I cracked open the spine of Guardians of the West, the first book in David Eddings’ sequel series to The Belgariad, which was called The Malloreon. The new series’ expanded map didn’t just blow my mind, it blew it wide open. The Belgariad had lovely, intricate maps of the lands explored therein, and I had committed them to memory so I could adventure there in my daydreams. The Malloreon’s map, however, pulled back the camera to show a vast, two-continent spread of imposing nations and territories, all as detailed as the original, with the storied lands of The Belgariad cramped into one tiny corner. I ripped through those volumes as they were published, desperate to learn every story that could be plotted across The Malloreon’s mysterious mountain ranges and scar-like borders.

After all, maps tell stories, and stories draw maps. Both are powered by mystery.

In Jim Grimsley’s excellent, queer, one-volume saga, Kirith Kirin, a map spans two pages, its lines sparsely drawn in a style that’s almost childish, crocheted with regions and locations but also missing important cities, temples, etc. At first glance this seems odd, maybe even misleading, but as the tale builds, the map becomes a cipher—an old toy decoder ring, offering the reader insights and playgrounds while tempting them with delicious, succulent mystery.

Tell me a story. Draw me a map. Readers of speculative fiction are astral travelers – we have packed our kit, set out clean water for the pets and then, nested in our reading nook, we slip out of this world with our spellbook in hand. To paraphrase Sarah Chorn: the real world is plywood and drywall, but SF/F worlds are obsidian and sandstone. Many of us find that unearthly plenitude to be irresistible; what’s the case for drywall?

The same forces pull us into the maps of other worlds: Kansas is a goner, these are Quadling lands now. St. Leibowitz is long-dead and Brother Francis Gerard wanders a Utah the borders of which are less than a memory. Númenor has fallen, but we know to look to the west. (Or turn to Christopher Tolkien’s Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth, and find the gem that is the Númenórë map.)

Like the text itself, a map tells a story by what it shows and by what it doesn’t. Think of Númenor, or of Eddings’ original, unexpanded map in The Belgariad. That’s mystery fuel.

The world of Sandymancer, once the Land of the Vine, now 800 years removed from an environmental cataclysm, is a decrepit and desiccated version of its former glory. There are too few people and too much territory to bother with borders, names and places have shifted over the centuries, and the land itself has buckled and eroded as it slowly dies. An ever-expanding wasteland has swallowed most of the world, while folk cling to life on the rind of the continent, watching their sky darken and the sandstorms inch forward, year by year.

At a certain point in the book, Caralee’s nemesis and tutor shows her his left palm, and asks her to imagine that it is a map of the world. He shows her where they have been, and where they are headed. He is ancient; perhaps in his day the land did look like a human hand. Does it still? And if so, are we looking at a sculpted continent, or an uncanny coincidence?

I’ve been holding my breath, waiting to see for myself how the visual art would support the story. This beauty was certainly worth the patience.

Map artist Rhys Davies hugely uplifted Sandymancer with his stunning interpretation of my scribbles and descriptions. The architectural style of the frozen Northen Authorities blows me away – are those windows? – as do the craggy mesas just to the south. Out west, Rhys took Oldmuck, the last of the seasides, and its petrified Stone Navies, and spun a little visual story that’s inspired future storylines. In the southeast, towns like Comez and Grenshtepple’s look just as I described – astonishingly so.

Sidestepping any major spoilers, the Metal Duchy rises, imposing, with its conical steel palace, while the Sevenfold Redoubt towers over the surrounding land, built by magick atop the slope of a red-dirt mountain. The Wildest Wood looks overgrown and impassable, and the settlement at its heart does indeed seem as if it’s been hidden away from the rest of the world.

Rhys didn’t just nail the map by land and by sea, he did a brilliant job of suggesting the larger setting without spelling it out. I won’t ruin that, but the deliberate oval shape of the world, the stark border, and the blackness beyond tell just the story I’d hoped they would. I don’t trust myself to say anything more.

I can’t wait for you to meet Caralee and her friends, mortal enemies, friendly beasts, and the occasional steel harpy. I wish that the cover, the map, and the text spin you a yarn you’ll appreciate. I hope you’ll follow me into the thickets of mystery, an unmappable place where anything can happen—and often does.

David Edison is the author of The Waking Engine and Sandymancer. Born in St. Louis, Missouri, he has spent most of his life living in New York City and California. His passions include rescuing pit bulls, leveling up, and all things queer.

Pre-order Sandymancer Here:

Author Features / Lists / New Releases / What's New

Listen Up: The Quantum Solution Playlist by Eric Van Lustbader!

May 19, 2023May 17, 2024Ariana Carpentieri

Evan Ryder is an extraordinary intelligence field agent now working for the security arm of Parachute, a private company and the world’s leader in the application of quantum technology. In the past, Ryder has done lethal battle in the modern global wars of power politics, extremist ideology, corrosive disinformation, and outrageous greed. But now she finds herself in a battle arena whose dangers, while less obvious, are greater than anything the world has seen before – the present and future war of weaponized quantum technology.

When an elite Russian scientist and the American Secretary of Defense die, at the same time half a world apart, of inexplicable sudden catastrophic brain damage, the world’s intelligence services realize that the quantum war has truly begun. Ryder and her long-time partner, Ben Butler, will risk their lives to discover who the true combatants are, racing against the doomsday scenario of all-out war between America and Russia.

Eric Van Lustbader is giving Evan Ryder fans everything they want in The Quantum Solution, the fourth action-packed installment of this pulse-pounding series. And he’s put together the perfect soundtrack to listen to as you dive in to this hot summer thriller. Check out Eric’s hand-picked playlist here!

Category: Author Features

5 Dragons Daniel M. Ford’s Adept Wizard Could Beat in a Fight

Fáfnir

The Sleeping Dragon from The Sleeping Dragon by Joel Rosenberg

Verimthrax Pejorative, from Dragonslayer

A Dracolich, any Dracolich

Rand al’Thor, The Dragon Reborn[3]

Order The Warden Here:

How to Worship Your Dragon: Julia Vee & Ken Bebelle Advise

A Brief Description of Rituals to Worship Chinese Dragons by Julia Vee & Ken Bebelle

Make Your Annual Pilgrimage to a Local Dragon King and Dragon Mother Temple For Blessings

Failure to Worship the Dragon King, or Worse, Destruction of a Dragon King Temple, Can Lead to Heaven-Sent Disaster!

Maybe a River Near You Has a Dragon Deity.

Order Ebony Gate Here:

Inspiration and Mrs. Plansky’s Revenge by Spencer Quinn!

Inspiration and Mrs. Plansky’s Revenge

Click below to pre-order your copy of Mrs. Plansky’s Revenge, available 7.25.23!

Chasing the Nine Sons of the Dragon

Order Ebony Gate Here:

On Writing In Constraints by Jacqueline Carey

Pre-order Cassiel’s Servant Here:

Howl Along to TJ Klune’s Official Wolfsong Playlist

Order Wolfsong Here!

Love & Wolves: TJ Klune on Writing the Green Creek Series

Pre-order Wolfsong Here:

Thorns & Fairy Tales: T. Kingfisher on writing Thornhedge

Pre-order Thornhedge Here:

Fantastic Cartography: David Edison on Maps

Pre-order Sandymancer Here:

Listen Up: The Quantum Solution Playlist by Eric Van Lustbader!

Click below to order your copy of The Quantum Solution, available now!

Fáfnir

The Sleeping Dragon from The Sleeping Dragon by Joel Rosenberg

Verimthrax Pejorative, from Dragonslayer

A Dracolich, any Dracolich

Rand al’Thor, The Dragon Reborn[3]

Order The Warden Here:

A Brief Description of Rituals to Worship Chinese Dragons by Julia Vee & Ken Bebelle

Make Your Annual Pilgrimage to a Local Dragon King and Dragon Mother Temple For Blessings

Failure to Worship the Dragon King, or Worse, Destruction of a Dragon King Temple, Can Lead to Heaven-Sent Disaster!

Maybe a River Near You Has a Dragon Deity.

Order Ebony Gate Here:

Inspiration and Mrs. Plansky’s Revenge

Click below to pre-order your copy of Mrs. Plansky’s Revenge, available 7.25.23!

Order Ebony Gate Here:

Pre-order Cassiel’s Servant Here:

Order Wolfsong Here!

Pre-order Wolfsong Here:

Pre-order Thornhedge Here:

Pre-order Sandymancer Here:

Click below to order your copy of The Quantum Solution, available now!

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