Book of the Week: Twice as Dead.

I’m going to be brutally honest, here: Harry Turtledove’s recent dive into undisguised commentary on contemporary politics and mores has aged incredibly badly. I used to buy his books in hardcover; I didn’t even bother picking up the last couple. That being said… I’ll give him one last chance with Twice as Dead. I fully understand it if other people don’t feel obligated to give him that chance, but I hate just the thought of a final break with the author who gave me Videssos and Ruled Britannia. If that makes me a sap, so be it. I will own the moniker.

#commissionearned

Snippet the last, SEVEN FLAGS, Part 1.

I have to break this one in half, dagnabbit. Sometimes I can wrangle the novellas, and sometimes I cannot. This is a ‘cannot.’ So part one this month, and part two the next.

That stopped Jan. “…Yes. Fair point. Anyway, Blank’s still waiting for me to relax before she starts going through my papers, or whatever else she’s going to do. I haven’t decided whether or not to let her see the real ones.” She laughed. “I should. We’re not actually trying to hide anything from her. But old habits die dirty.”

“What about Cabot?”

“Oh, he’s a professional; he had whatever information he was looking for before we left Gallstone. Not from me, mind you — although I offered to quiz him on the intelligence he had gathered.” She shook her head. “He scored seventy-four out of a hundred, would you believe it? He should have only gotten sixty.”

“I really do not understand how the Carnivores think, Jan.”

“Ha! At least we’re still doing that properly.” Jan shook her head. “The game is different when you’re spying on an ally. He wasn’t supposed to get any information that we didn’t want to give him, and we weren’t supposed to notice that he had gotten it. So, good hits all around, and we’ll probably set up a cross-training system at some point. Which would be nice. I hear the North Atlantic is pretty, if you like freezing rain.”

My interview for the JRR Tolkien oral history project is up.

Specifically, this interview was for Marquette University’s J. R. R. TOLKIEN FANDOM ORAL HISTORY COLLECTION, and it was a lot of fun to do! I did it last year, and they just let me know that my transcript is up. Tolkien’s always been a very important figure for me, both as someone to read and someone to emulate, so getting the chance to focus my thoughts on him was helpful.

If you’d like to do it, too, they’re still looking for people to interview. Sign up here!

Messing about with my Flying Koala Discord channel.

:sardonically: Quiet morning, huh?

I’m spending part of it working on my Discord channel. And by working on it I mean ‘staring at the blessed thing.’ It feels like it could be useful, but I’m not sure exactly where, or how. Thoughts?

Moe Lane

PS: I want it to boost interest in my books, sell my books, and get good leads on local conventions and whatnot. So I want the Flying Koala Discord to be commerce-oriented without being annoying about it. I think this can be done.

06/26/2024 Snippet, SEVEN FLAGS.

I may need to break this story in two parts, because it’s really a damned novella. Hell, I’m worried it’s a damned book.

“I’m wondering about the decanus,” Liza admitted to Jan afterward. They were back in Jan’s office, but this time they were drinking broth, not bourbon. “What’s her background?”

“Aside from the alchemy?” Jan chuckled. “Decanus Karen Blank used to be a damned rebel and guerrilla. The records say she’s killed everybody from overseers to Legionnaires. Even bagged a mage apprentice, once.” She sipped more broth. “She came in from the heat when we took Gallstone, and hanged every son of a bitch that her rebels didn’t see to themselves during the fighting.”

“So can we trust her?”

Jan gave her a steady look, over her cup. “‘Trust’ is one of those words that has a weird meaning in my line of work, Tribune. We need alchemists, and we were killing the same people at the end. It’s everything that happened before the end that’s the problem.” Jan’s mood got visibly heavier. “If somebody’s still holding a grudge over what we all did back then, God knows I can’t blame them.”

So I *think* the podcast went well.

At least, the sound was good and I’m pretty sure I didn’t err and umm the entire way through. I’m just… well, not worried, per se. I’m just wondering whether “I started out reading Stephen King, back when he was good” (or however I put it) was the most diplomatic thing I could have said, during the podcast. I mean, it’s objectively true and everything, but was it particularly kind?

Well! I’ll let you know when it’s up.

Moe Lane

PS: My books are here. In case somebody comes wandering in later, belike.

#commissionearned

Patreon Microfiction: Off to Space Once More.

“Off to Space Once More” is not one of the glamorous magitech universes. You’ll get your hands dirty — I mean, like physically dirty. There are smells. But when you do the Procyon Run by the seat of your pants and the skin of your teeth, you can say afterward that you’ve done something.

Book of the Week: Buried Deep.

I had this entire post ready to explain that it’s been a weird week and I didn’t get a chance to finish any of the three, four, five? books that I have open — but then I checked, and it turns out Naomi Novik’s Buried Deep anthology is coming out in September. So, you know, never mind*.

Pre-ordered. I know I shouldn’t reward them for that, but what can you do? Naomi Novik.

*Includes this tidbit: “The first glimpse of the world of Abandon, the setting of Novik’s upcoming epic fantasy series—a deserted continent populated only by silent and enigmatic architectural mysteries.

#commissionearned

06/22/2024 Snippet, SEVEN FLAGS.

I don’t particularly care to go into much detail about the old Imperium Orci. It was not a nice place.

“You don’t want to hear my suggestion about to what to do about Marcus, Liza,” Jan told her privately, back at camp. Liza wasn’t sure when they had gone to being on a first-name basis, but it seemed to be working out. “I don’t even know if I want to offer it.”

“Would it involve breaking the– ” Liza paused to count, in her head “–Sixth Commandment? Because if so, no, I don’t want to hear it.”

“No, actually.” Jan grimaced at Liza’s start. “I wouldn’t suggest that to another Carnivora, let alone you. It wasn’t just the army where things happened, you know. We had our own problems, too.” She clenched her jaw. “It’s a miracle the Dominion didn’t break us.”

“Yes.”

The matter-of-fact tone in that made Jan start. “Ha! I walked into that.”

Gonna record for a podcast (Todd Talks) Sunday! (I am available for other podcasts.)

It’s called Todd Talks. I know the guy from Fright Reads, and he’s just starting it up, so I get to get in at the ground floor, as it were. I should note that we’re supposed to be recording Sunday, so I don’t know yet when it’s going to be actually on. But you know me: I’m always happy to natter on for fifteen, twenty minutes about my books.

Speaking of

Moe Lane

PS: Again, I am available for other podcasts.

#commissionearned