Michelle Sagara/‘s Chronicles of Elantra, more widely referred to as the Cast novels, has been an on-going favorite of mine since they launched several years ago. They’re the stories of the perpetually hungry, perpetually broke Kaylin Neya, a police officer (more or less) beleaguered by magic markings that make her life much, much more complicated than she would like it to be. There are a number of excellent supporting characters, ranging from one who happens to hit all my my favorite character trope types to an intensely quiet, complex love…
Category: CEMurphy
a reader poll
This is a general post, but specifically aimed at people who don’t necessarily read fantasy books as a first choice (I know, I know, in my friends, that’s a self-selecting group, but bear with me): My publishers are looking for what we’ll call “mainstream fantasy”, or books that will appeal to the occasional, rather than the regular, fantasy reader. They’ve cited THE HUNGER GAMES and HARRY POTTER as examples (both of which are problematic, IMHO, as they’re young adult books rather than aimed at the adult market, but we’ll overlook…
ValleyCon writeup!
First I had the Adventures in Airline Tickets, which I will not go into except to say I’ll be making an early-season batch of fudge to send off to people who, while admittedly doing nothing more than their job, did it with grace and humour and helped me immesurably. Next I got safely into Fargo, where the con-runner (Tony) awaited me along with another of the guest’s handler (Holly). While we waited for my luggage, my friend E, whom I haven’t seen in nigh unto a decade and who was…
Infinity Key Kickstarter!
If you’ll recall, a couple of years ago I wrote a delighted and relieved report regarding my friend Chrysoula Tzavelas‘s first book, MATCHBOX GIRLS, which I really loved. Her second book, INFINITY KEY, also out from the small press that did Matchbox Girls, has just launched its Kickstarter for the print edition. I read INFINITY KEY a couple of weeks ago and, this time, expected a terrific book rather than going in with the trepidation of reading a friend’s novel and hoping it would be good. And I was rewarded…
many days at once
I had a rather good dream that had the bones of a MG/YA thing, in which there was a (difficult to access) window that led to another time period, and in which Amanda Palmer was the rather alarming Queen of Faerie. The sort you don’t mess with. I can’t, of course, remember any details, which makes me wonder once again if one could achieve dream recollection through hypnosis… We arrived safely in America, after the excitement of discovering, the night before we left, that my US passport had expired five…