This last week, I was immersed in reading page proofs for my forthcoming Gathering of Emerald Clouds. This did break into my pleasure reading time, but was fun in its own way.
And now for the ritual clarification… The Friday Fragments is not a book review column; it’s a list of what I’m reading and maybe a bit about my opinions. I always read the Comments section, because I enjoy learning what other people are reading. Oh, and I don’t usually list shorter works, unless in a collection, or articles. I also don’t usually list my scattered research reading.
Completed:
Master of Devils by Dave Gross. Book two in the Radovan and the Count series. Three plotlines. Many battles. Asian-inspired setting and story motifs.
Look to the Lady by Margery Allingham. Audiobook.
In Progress:
Queen of Thorns by Dave Gross. Book three in the Radovan and the Count series. Intriguing mystery.
Police at the Funeral by Margery Allingham. Audiobook.
Also:
Various catalogs, because they’re like windows into alien worlds. Also, the new AARP magazine.
The page proofs for Gathering of Emerald Clouds are off to the publisher. I’m turning over a new leaf and dealing with editorial comments on a short story I wrote a few months ago.
Autumn definitely is a season for turning. The leaves are turning from green to yellow—the reds and oranges aren’t common here in New Mexico, at least among native plants. This coming weekend we will turn the clocks back.
As the photo above shows, we still have plenty of flowers in our yard. In honor of Dia de los Muertos, today’s photo features some marigolds that volunteered in the bed alongside our back patio. I have a particular fondness for our volunteer plants. They remind me of story ideas that crop up from nowhere and thrive despite the odds.
However, the days of flowers won’t last. Every day we check to see if a killing frost is forecast. We’re not getting much in the way of harvest, but there are still a few veggies out there that I’ll cut at the last minute. As a finale, I’ll pick a quart or so of green tomatoes and celebrate the end of the harvest by making a green tomato cake.
Back ten or fifteen years ago, I read several of Dave Gross’s Radovan and the Count novel. Part mystery, part sword and sorcery, all great reads, if you like that sort of thing—which I definitely do. I interviewed Dave about his writing process for the Wednesday Wanderings. One thing I loved from that interview was how he explained that he’d treated the process of writing in the fictional world created for the Pathfinder RPG as if he were writing a historical novel.
And now for the ritual clarification… The Friday Fragments is not a book review column; it’s a list of what I’m reading and maybe a bit about my opinions. I always read the Comments section, because I enjoy learning what other people are reading. Oh, and I don’t usually list shorter works, unless in a collection, or articles. I also don’t usually list my scattered research reading.
Completed:
The Dabare Snake Launcher by Joelle Presby. Really good SF with a touch of magical realism. Highly recommended.
House of Many Ways by Diana Wynne Jones. Audiobook.
Prince of Wolves by Dave Gross. Sword and sorcery set in the Pathfinder setting. Book one of the Radovan and the Count series.
In Progress:
Master of Devils by Dave Gross. Book two in the Radovan and the Count series.
Look to the Lady by Margery Allingham. Audiobook.
Also:
Finally finished the most recent American Archeology. Found one glaring typo. I’ll be interested in seeing if it’s mentioned in the next issue.
Yet another way writing is like gardening, is that timing the harvest is nearly impossible. If you’d asked me in June whether my experiment with planting cosmos seeds in a pot had worked out, I would have judged it a failure. Even as late as August, I was extremely dubious but, here we are in October. As you can judge from the photo, the flowers are well worth the wait.
My forthcoming novel, Gathering of Emerald Clouds, has had a similarly delayed “harvest.” I began writing it in August of 2023, continued through March of 2024, then lost quite a lot of time due to rotator cuff surgery, and then catching up from said surgery, and then finishing off the book. But here we are, in October of 2026, and it’s about ready to blossom forth.
The official release date is January 5, 2027, but for those of you who can’t wait, you can purchase an e-ARC here. The ARC (short for Advanced Review Copy) is an uncorrected proof of the novel. For those of you who like comparing and contrasting, these ARCS are a way to see the novel before it receives its final polish.
This week, my part of getting this book ready is reading the final page proofs. After that, the novel will go off to the printers, and I will go back to working on Star Kingdom novel six so I can drop that on David Weber’s crowded desk.
Doubtless there will be other interruptions but, just as my garden manages to flower despite horrible weather and other challenges, I strive to prioritize writing no matter what life tosses my way.
Last week, while I was racing against time to get the copy-edited manuscript of Gathering of Emerald Clouds reviewed, all of a sudden, the power went out and stayed out for the next seven hours. When there was no longer enough light to read by, I checked what I had downloaded on my Kindle and chose The Dabare Snake Launcher by Joelle Presby. I first read this as an e-ARC, and still think it’s one of the best SF novels I’ve read in recent years.
And now for the ritual clarification… The Friday Fragments is not a book review column; it’s a list of what I’m reading and maybe a bit about my opinions. I always read the Comments section, because I enjoy learning what other people are reading. Oh, and I don’t usually list shorter works, unless in a collection, or articles. I also don’t usually list my scattered research reading.
Completed:
Greenwitch by Susan Cooper. Third book in Dark is Rising series. Plotlines from prior two books link up here.
The Grey King by Susan Cooper. Fourth book in the Dark is Rising series. We lose the Drews and add in Bran.
Silver on the Tree by Susan Cooper. Fifth book in the Dark is Rising series. Final chapters contain several serious continuity issues that sadly weaken an overall strong series.
Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones. Audiobook.
Castle in the Air by Diana Wynne Jones. Audiobook.
In Progress:
The Dabare Snake Launcher by Joelle Presby. Really good SF with a touch of magical realism. Highly recommended.
House of Many Ways by Diana Wynne Jones. Audiobook.
The fourth of the Over Where novels, Gathering of Emerald Clouds is now in production. This week, I’m reviewing the copy-edited manuscript and doubtless wincing as the copy editor catches things that were missed in prior reviews (by me, by Jim, by beta readers, by editor).
The current scheduled release date is January 5, 2027, so save some of your holiday gift money to get a copy! Or put it on your holiday gift list or…
What is it about? Let me share the cover copy, which focuses on only two of the many complications your friends from Library of the Sapphire Wind, Aurora Borealis Bridge, and House of Rough Diamonds will encounter.
Secrets Cast Long Shadows
A lost soul. A box of mysteries.
While visiting the city of Lioll, Peg and Vereez hear a song composed by Peg and her true love, Jackal, in 1960s San Francisco—a song the couple shared with no one. Jackal died young, and now Peg is haunted by the desperate hope that his soul reincarnated Over Where. With time running seven to one, centuries may have passed, and he may have lived many lives since. Even if she finds him, will he know her?
After the crew returns to the Library of the Sapphire Wind, they learn that Xerak’s mother, Fardowsi, has brought them a box with a secret compartment. Within the compartment is a curious assortment of items. Knowing that Xerak and his associates are regularly traveling to Lioll and impressed with their knack for unraveling mysteries long believed unsolvable, Fardowsi hires them to establish the provenience of her purchase.
But secrets can be dangerous. Magic plays by its own rules—and may even kill. And a storm of emotions threatens to tear the House of Rough Diamonds apart from within.
I’ll have more to say as the release date comes closer but, if the book is to come out on time, I need to review that copy edit!
Hope you enjoy, and let us know what you think of the different cover approach!
It’s been a very rough week, and re-reading helped. Photo is of Cayenne, who rarely holds still long enough to be photographed.
And now for the ritual clarification… The Friday Fragments is not a book review column; it’s a list of what I’m reading and maybe a bit about my opinions. I always read the Comments section, because I enjoy learning what other people are reading. Oh, and I don’t usually list shorter works, unless in a collection, or articles. I also don’t usually list my scattered research reading.
Completed:
The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper. Second book in the series usually called by this book’s title. Only connected to the first (Over Sea, Under Stone) by one character, although several others do have cameos or smaller roles.
David Bowie, All the Songs: The Story Behind Every Track by Benoit Clerc. An amazing birthday gift from my friend, Gail Gerstner Miller. Trust a librarian to find a book that fits so many aspects of my character! I’m just done with Tin Machine.
Year of the Griffin by Diana Wynne Jones. Audiobook. A standalone sequel to The Dark Lord of Derkholm, set about seven years later. This wizard school story provides a creative and vibrant cast of students—including a griffin.
Fire and Hemlock by Diana Wynne Jones. Audiobook. One of her darker, less humorous books, this plays off of both the tales of Thomas the Rhymer and Tam Lin. But it’s far more than a retelling. Don’t read if you have parental divorce PTSD. She gets irresponsible, self-centered parents all too well.
In Progress:
Greenwitch by Susan Cooper. Third book in Dark is Rising series. Plotlines from prior two books link up here.
Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones. Audiobook.
I’ve been a tabletop roleplaying gamer since I was eighteen and a freshman in college. Well, seventeen, actually, since I started shortly before my eighteenth birthday. I’ve lived through the “What’s an RPG?” “D&D is Satanic!” Through when writers felt they had to hide their hobby as making them seems too nerdy. Through various fashions in gaming. Right up to the present day, where I belong to a group that’s been meeting once a week (when life lets us) for over fourteen years.
As I’m often the referee–a term I prefer to gamemaster because I don’t think of myself as the “master,” except possibly in the context of “master of ceremonies”—I’m often asked if I don’t find it a “waste” to be coming up with stories that I won’t be publishing.
I’ve never really been able to explain why I don’t find my gaming a “waste” or why gaming actually makes me a better writer. Saying that it’s “fun” or “relaxing” or “a great distraction” doesn’t quite capture it. Then, this week, as I was reading the massive tome David Bowie: All the Songs by Benoit Clerc, I came across a quote from musician, producer, and all-around creative Brian Eno that did a pretty good job of explaining how I feel.
Eno was talking about his Oblique Strategies decks, which he used to get the musicians to loosen up during recording sessions. In the following quotation, he was talking specifically about the deck he used for the recording of Bowie’s album 1. Outside.
“…it occurred to me that the great thing about games is that they in some sense free you from being yourself: you are ‘allowed’ forms of behavior that otherwise would be gratuitous, embarrassing or completely irrational. Accordingly, I came up with these role-playing games for musicians.”
That sense of being free is a crucial part of gaming for me—and why I like to consider myself referee, not “master.” A good group needs a lot of mutual trust. I’ve been in groups where the ref—or a player—becomes a bully, but I don’t stay with those groups long. At the end of a session, I’d like everyone leaving feeling refreshed and invigorated, ready for the challenges of the week to come.
As for me, I turn to my writing feeling creatively primed and ready to go.
The edited Gathering of Emerald Clouds, aka Over Where 4, was turned in on Monday. But life doesn’t just have stress from work, so re-reads remain very popular right now. I’ve also had a lot less time for reading as I deal with unexpected issues.
And now for the ritual clarification… The Friday Fragments is not a book review column; it’s a list of what I’m reading and maybe a bit about my opinions. I always read the Comments section, because I enjoy learning what other people are reading. Oh, and I don’t usually list shorter works, unless in a collection, or articles. I also don’t usually list my scattered research reading.
Completed:
The Dark Lord of Derkholm by Diana Wynne Jones. Audiobook. Here the evil is corporate, rather than disincorporated.
In Progress:
The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper. Second book in the series usually called by this book’s title. Only connected to the first (Over Sea, Under Stone) by one character, although several others do have cameos or smaller roles.
David Bowie, All the Songs: The Story Behind Every Track by Benoit Clerc. An amazing birthday gift from my friend, Gail Gerstner Miller. Trust a librarian to find a book that fits so many aspects of my character! I’m just done with Tin Machine.
Year of the Griffin by Diana Wynne Jones. Audiobook. A standalone sequel to The Dark Lord of Derkholm, set about seven years later. This wizard school story provides a creative and vibrant cast of students—including a griffin.
Also:
The new Smithsonian. There are some good articles here, including one on mollusks and another on research into long Covid.
The manuscript of Gathering of Emerald Clouds is off. So now I will tell you how my garden did grow this past several months.
The answer is terribly and wonderfully. We had over a month where temperatures were over a hundred, and the much-vaunted summer monsoons dribbled, fizzles, and went away.
Most of our tomato and squash plants died. As an act of desperation, Jim put up a shade cloth shield that let some struggling plants establish, but whether this will be more than an academic exercise in the effectiveness of shade cloth—answer: quite effective—remains to be seen. A great deal will depend on whether our frost early or late this year.
We’ve pretty much lost the squash, but the tomatoes might manage a late crop. However, one of the three Sun Gold cherry tomato plants decided to grow taller than me and sprawl so much that I gave it three cages as support and it took over a cage intended for another plant.
Our sweet basil did okay. Our Thai and cinnamon basil plants did astonishingly well. I’m freezing some to make an exotic pesto later on. The mint screamed and hid, and is only now showing up again.
The liana (aka yard long) beans did well. The greatest discovery with them occurred once I put down some straw mulch to cool the ground in the west bed close to our shed. We discovered that wind currents, not heat, were what was messing up that particular bed, which was a new development.
The pomegranate shrub, after not producing for two years, has provided at least 60 fruit. The tepary beans have done well, depending on location. I’m still harvesting, as these are used dry, not fresh.
We had a few carrots, but these were slow to grow and mostly provided greens, which the guinea pigs do like, so it’s not a waste.
The out and out winner were the Black Beauty eggplants, which provided so much fruit that (with the beans) we ate stir fry at least twice a week, and had leftovers to freeze. The Asian eggplants did okay. However, they slowed down in August when the heat continued much longer than usual.
The remaining wild card is rain. About two weeks ago, as if ashamed for missing summer, a monsoon pattern moved in. The battered remnants of the garden are surprised and grateful, so we might get a late harvest.
The picture above was taken before the rains hit—about two weeks ago.
I’ll let you know! (And I’ll spare you the allegory about how gardening is like writing… But I’d be amused if you offered your own thoughts based on the data provided.
