A Little Bit of Magic

What feels like a long, long time ago, I wrote two little stories called "Lastborn" and "Facsimile". They were released on May 31, 2018 within the sci-fi anthologies Holding On By Our Fingertips and Infinite Dysmorphia by Kristell Ink/Grimbold Books. I won't give any specifics on the plots of the stories here since I don't want to be a spoiler, but I will say I'm proud of them and I hope you enjoy reading them.

Photograph by Aline de Nadai on Unsplash

I finally finished a project I began three years ago, and I'm in the last couple steps before publishing it. Rain Falls on Malora is a collection of eighteen short stories set within the world of The Malora Octet. Each story is told by a minor, non-narrator, or entirely new character from the series who hasn't been able to share their own version of events until now. The stories begin with the reveal of what happened to a certain missing character in Mayfly Requiem, cover the Echoes of Oblivion years and their aftermath, introduce you to a couple of Bethel's children who lived between the trilogies, and close with a narration by Sora Thula sixty years after Arrow of Entropy. I'm also including some original character illustrations, maps, family trees (this got way more complicated to draw out than I expected. Thanks, Bethel), a Volle-Common translation dictionary, and some recipes and poetry I created while working on the series.

I'm waiting on my print proof copy now so I can do final edits and fix any formatting errors. Hopefully I won't have too much trouble converting this file to an ebook. I'm excited to give this little treat to my long-time readers, some of whom inspired specific stories within this book. So, here's to the characters who finally get to tell the world their own versions of the truth: Mirren, Delora, Ariana, Summer, Sharo, Rastaban, Mirazen, Rain, Aurelien, Solace, Maple, Zoli, Ulali, Laira, Terali, Eliani, and Sora.

I hope to release Rain Falls on Malora in July. I'm in the process of moving to a different state, so between that and the setback I had with my repaired ulnar nerve earlier this year, I'm a little behind where I wanted to be. I had an ulnar nerve transposition in my right arm in September and I have some permanent damage from the hourglass constriction that lead to it, so I've had to modify how I type, hold a pen, cook, etc. It has been a long and painful process, but I'm getting there.

Photographs via Unsplash: Nathan Dumlao, Christian Holzinger, Christopher Campbell, Steve Halama,
Tess Nebula, Jing Ang, Ricardo Gomez Angel, Nate Reyfield, Aline de Nadai 

Oh, look at that! The weird things I do when on migraine meds... I wanted to make the chronological order of The Malora Octet a little more obvious and tie the entire series to Rain Falls on Malora visually, so I redid all of the ebook covers. I love seeing them all together. I've left the paperback covers alone since it takes more time to change them than I have right now. You can still find all eight books on Amazon.

Last, but very much not least...

I finished Faelost!

I'm also awaiting the arrival of the Faelost print proof. I like to use a print copy to do my final edits, and this one will take a little while. Why? It's long, 145,000 words, so it's by far my biggest book (Mayfly Requiem was *only* 130k). And, I have no idea what to write for the blurb without spoiling something major that happens just a few short chapters in. I'll have to think on that.

Faelost is the sequel to Cavelost, and it continues immediately where Cavelost left off, but it should work as a stand-alone story. It's told by Rin's second son, Tessen, who finds himself on an unwanted adventure following the hatching of his brother Shan's two stolen dragon eggs.

Oh wait, there's just a little bit more. I'm working on The Bacra Chronicles Book 3 now, Spellkeeper. I'm way into it and hoping I can keep up my momentum on it over the summer. Spellkeeper is the first time in over ten years that I've written a novel in third person (the last being the Echoes of Oblivion trilogy). There are four point-of-view characters for this book -- two from the previous books and two who are new. I'm not sure yet how many books The Bacra Chronicles will end up being, but as of now I know where books 4 and 5 need to go.

Book Sale!

The Crystal Lattice (Emergence #1) is on sale for $0.99 on Amazon. The sale ends the morning of Wed., October 21, so grab your copy before the price goes back up. I may do Kindle Countdown Deals for the other two Emergence books if I have any success with this one.

"The ocean sings to me. The deserts, the wind, the rivers whisper to my soul. The mountains and forests beckon to me, but they are not my masters. I embrace the fire above all else. Starfire and kindling, candlelight and infernos. I am not a disciple of fire – I am the fire. I am wings of flame and sparks on the wind, dampened only by the bitter winter rain and the coldness of an empty universe. I close my eyes and see blazing cascades and meadows of molten rock. I breathe deeply of the ash and char to refresh my spirit and subdue my elemental nature. I open my eyes and return to a far more serene place, the halcyon world of my physical home." - from The Crystal Lattice

Whose Story is This, Anyway?

My Maloran imaginary friends are still bouncing around my mind, especially when I sleep. My narrators aren't typically my favorite characters in the books, but they certainly are the loudest. Four of the books are told in first person, one is mixed first and third because Isen is relating Bethel's side of the story in addition to her own, and the six perspectives in the Echoes of Oblivion trilogy are third person.

Mayfly Requiem 

Lani - Mayfly is Lani's journal, a confession of over 2,500 years of his history. He is a fallen Aulor, a biologically immortal Time Child who both observed and participated in the rises and falls of the continent of Malora over his lifetime. He is the twin brother of the Aulor Dia and the son of Aucra and Eryagloris, Time and Stars. Lani is a romantic poet at heart and his narrative style reflects that.

Echoes of Oblivion trilogy

The Abyssal Night, Shards of Chaos, The Shattered Veil

Sevilen Achara - Sevilen is the younger brother of Rastaban Eryaucra, the tyrannical King of Ganebra. He begins the trilogy as a bookish eighteen year old and soon finds himself in a position of apparent power he can't escape from. He is gifted in both linguistics and swordsmanship, is fiercely protective of the people he loves, and is still trying to figure out how to deal with his narcolepsy.

Rhodren Briarwind - Rhodren is also eighteen at the beginning of the trilogy. He grew up in the green city of Heren, Maritor, and is the only child of a baker named Sharo Briarwind. He is finicky and often self-centered, but he occasionally also manages to be charismatic and compassionate. He has auditory-tactile synesthesia, a sensory quirk that is strange to everyone else even though it is his normal.

Ember - Ember is a Geophorian fire priest from the temple city of Reedwater, Anor. She begins the trilogy at age twenty-three. Like most fire priests, she is impulsive and destructive, but her inferno soul is cooled and balanced by her wind priest husband, Moth. She was found abandoned in the swamp as a newborn so has no knowledge of her parentage.

Lirit Narsimor - Lirit is the ten year old daughter of Lucienus Narsimor, a member of the King's Council. Her family belongs to Ganebra's privileged ruling class. She is an aspiring stage actress who, like all members of her social class, was taught to blindly revere and obey the King.

Tikaari Starsinger - Tikaari is a Tenjeri, the race of fox-like people who mostly live in the northern regions of the world. She is the mate of Seya and the mother of Miya, Theta, and Saruza. The Tenjeri were inspired by the Japanese kitsune.

Aridani Eryaucra - I won't give much away about Aridani since his perspective doesn't begin until Shards of Chaos. He's a scatterbrained dreamer with an interesting magical ability, and his point of view offers a new perspective on Rastaban.

Shadows of Absolution

Isen Layel - Isen is a ranger of the Baku, a post-cataclysmic community of mountain dwellers founded by the earth priests Thora Achara and Onyx. She is the daughter of ranger Lusa Layel and earthworker Zoli Achara. At the onset of her story, Isen is drowning in a fathomless ocean of depression after losing the man she loved. She is a strong, intelligent young woman whose talent for wilderness survival piques the interest of the Aulor, Bethel.

Bethel Masiona - As far as Aulors go, Bethel is a young one, just over 100 years old. He survived the cataclysm sixty years prior and is now watching his children and his friends grow old and die while he remains physically around thirty. He has spent the years since the fall on a quest to find any remaining Tenjeri survivors and is now collecting a small group of people to take across the ocean and into the wilderness of a new continent in pursuit of the legendary Tenjeri city of Trieskel. Bethel's lingering regrets are busy trying to drag his sanity into the Abyss.

Sand into Glass

Arden Masiona - We meet Arden about 7,800 years after the Fall of Ganebra, when the humans of Malora (now called Melor) have split into multiple races due to Aulor/Elemental interference and isolation. The youngest child of the Aulor Bethel Masiona is a gifted materials scientist with an explosive rage that has now landed him in a Drey prison awaiting trial for a murder he isn't certain he committed. Arden's mother is an Efi, a member of the race of long-lived forest guardians who live mostly in the western wilderness of the continent, and Arden's Aulor blood gives him additional longevity, so he is 407 years old when his story begins.

The Crystal Lattice 

Tesji Brier (Thula) - Tesji is a young half-Efi elementalist mage who was raised by his eccentric, reclusive grandfather Janakei Brier in the Efilon Wilderness village of Tiponia. He is both charismatic and socially awkward, a combination that renders him an outcast as a child and eventually leads to a career as a bard as he travels across Melor in pursuit of the locations that haunt his dreams and nightmares. Tesji is the eldest of my novel-dwelling imaginary friends since I wrote his story first, so he's quite special to me despite his excessive alliteration and tendency to exaggerate.

Arrow of Entropy

Zella Thula - Shy, serious, analytical light mage Zella is a contrast to her often-flamboyant father, Tesji, and her outgoing siblings, Sora and Ellis. After Bethel refuses to take her on as an Emergent student, she ends up under the guidance of Rassa, an Aulor whose ancient curse was broken forty-two years earlier. Zella loves physics, reading, and music, and she's much stronger than she believes she is.

My short story narrators can be found here.

...and, now here's a little teaser narrator from what will be my next book, which is set in Northeastern Michigan in the late 1990s. I don't have a title for this book yet, but it will come to me eventually. I'll let this narrator do their own introduction.

Casey Tallis - "I'm not one of the cool kids. I'm not a goth or a jock or one of the pretty ones. I'll never be popular. I'm the dork who plays trombone in the marching band and is two years ahead of everyone else in math. I have Science Olympiad medals on my bedroom wall, hanging off a hook I made in the blacksmithing shop at a Renaissance Festival. I watch The X-Files and Star Trek: Voyager instead of Friends and I still miss SeaQuest. I don't like pop music and I spend my weekends either reading or playing Dungeons & Dragons with the other dorks. I once fell out of a pine tree and sprained my ankle while pretending to be a halfling rogue. I don't want to be one of the cool kids. I want to be me. I won't apologize for being me."

Arrow of Entropy

It's over. It's finally over. The Malora Octet is complete.

12 years of work, 8 books, approximately 2570 printed 6"x9" pages, 10,500 years of history, 14 meddling and fallible gods, 4 reluctant demigods, 11 point of view characters, few survivors.

Arrow of Entropy published this morning for both eBook and paperback. 

I unleashed this final volume with a mixture of relief, elation, and sadness. I feel like I'm moving away from a familiar place, away from my friends and comfortable surroundings, and traveling into the unknown. I can always go back to visit, but I no longer live there. Home is somewhere else now. I think you'll see why when you read this story. There was a broad arc to this series, and Arrow reaches the end point of that arc. I'm playing short stories told by minor characters from the series, but those are just little treats for my loyal readers to give them some additional historical depth and some interesting twists in the canon that didn't fit into the main narrative.

Onward, and I'm waiting for the moving truck to arrive so I can unpack the elements of my new storytelling home. I already have a new imaginary best friend, and this one is straight out of my adolescence. I'm switching genres for a while and working on a concept for a horror novel set in Northeastern Michigan in the mid-to-late 1990s. I've already experiemented with this and had great results... my short story "They" is being published in a Halloween anthology soon.

I'll keep you updated on the anthology as I know more about the release date and title. I'm excited about it, since it's the first time I've submitted my work for consideration and the publisher snapped it up.

In the meantime, I hope you enjoy Arrow of Entropy. A lot of love went into this book, and although it ended up being a totally different animal from the previous books, I believe it is a fitting conclusion to the Malora Octet.

The Proof is on the Bookshelf

Little preview of the final book in the Malora Octet. It's just a proof, but I like to have a hard copy in my hands for the last few rounds of edits. I'm waiting on two beta readers to get back to me before I mess with it, but it's definitely one of my prettier babies, both inside and out. It's coming in at about 340 pages in a 6x9" trim, but that may shift a little depending on edits or formatting.

Meanwhile, I'm writing short stories. I've already completed stories told by Mirren Kelta, Delora Narsimor, and Aunfrey Aloret, and Moth. If you only recognize Moth out of those four, don't be alarmed. The other three were only mentioned once or twice in the books. Mirren is the High Commander of the Ganebran military in the years following Sunder's Mage Wars (Mayfly Requiem), Delora is the mother of Lucienus Narsimor, and Aunfrey is the servant woman who helped Rastaban raise Sevilen. I'm in the middle of a story told by Solace Achara, which takes place in the year immediately following The Shattered Veil. These stories are just snapshots into the lives of some of these characters, but I'm finding they reveal an awful lot about the world that didn't make it into the octet.

I've also started meandering about my new project, which has nothing to do with Malora at all. I'm playing around in a new genre, so this story will land somewhere between psychological and supernatural horror. It is told by a teenager who lives in Northeastern Michigan in the late 1990s, so I'm pulling from my own adolescence for this one. I've never played with pop culture references before, but this story definitely needs some. I'll eventually find a name for this new book, but for right now it's just "my Huron project".

The End

I've done it. I've reached the end of the first draft of the final book in the Malora Octet. Arrow of Entropy is out of my head and translated into words on a screen.

Even though I've had this story in my head for several years, it still managed to surprise me. It goes beyond epic fantasy and reaches into other speculative fiction genres, but ultimately, it is about the characters. I've lost some imaginary friends who have been with me for twelve years, but I've also given two of them the redemptions I always thought they deserved.

Now I put this draft away for a couple weeks and let my mind reset before I head into rewrites. I have a stack of to-read books and a new idea bubbling in my mind. I'm going to slip away from epic fantasy for a while and explore a new genre or two.

Zella's Wild Rice

Occasionally, I feel compelled to make a recipe or project that one of my characters comes up with. It's my way of making sure what I wrote in the text actually works. One day I'll get around to making Arden's tomato pie again so I can take pictures and write it down. It's quite wonderful, kind of a light deep dish pizza.

This is the wild rice dish that Zella Thula makes for the Metavanya family's Imbolc party in my work-in-progress, Arrow of Entropy. It only has six ingredients, because not much fresh food is available in early February (Erany in the Meloran calendar). When I wrote this into the text I needed to make sure that the ingredients she used could be found in the pantry of the northern highlands. The preserved lemon is the extra touch, a little luxury item from Vanora. I think this particular jar of lemons was Faron's little gift to Rassa, a peace offering, perhaps. Rassa keeps fresh herbs growing in in the kitchen windows all year, so Zella would have had plenty of fresh rosemary to snip and add to her dish.

There are two other recipes mentioned in this passage of the book, and I hope to make both at some point so I can write them out. One is a poppyseed bread, and the other is a cranberry relish. Seeds and dried fruit are traditional Imbolc foods, so I'm going to utilize them in all three dishes.

This is a simple recipe, but I am enjoying the results. It's sweet, savory, and a little nutty, an unlikely combination reminiscent of the two characters who inspired it.

I dipped a spoon into the pot on the stovetop and offered it to him. “Here, try this. I feel like it's missing something but I can't figure out what.”

“Wild rice, currants, roasted pumpkin seeds, what else?” Rassa asked before taking a bite.

“Shallots and rosemary,” I replied.

He swallowed and said, “Salt and acid. When you feel like something is missing, it's usually acidity. We have some preserved lemons in the cupboard. Those cover both the salt and the acid so I think if you mince them up and toss them in it will be perfect.”

-- From Arrow of Entropy

Zella's Wild Rice

1 cup wild rice, rinsed and drained

4 cups water

1/2 cup currants (or raisins or cranberries)

1 Tbsp minced fresh rosemary

2 Tbsp minced preserved lemon

1/2 cup raw pumpkin seeds

2 shallots, sliced thinly

(all measurements are approximate)

Place the rinsed wild rice and water in a pot and bring to a boil. Cover and let simmer for 45 minutes, or until rice is tender.

While the rice is cooking, toss the rosemary, lemon, and currants together in a bowl and allow to sit so the flavors mingle.

Caramelize the shallots in a dry skillet, adding a tablespoon of water at a time if the shallots become too dry or stick. When they're soft and browned, remove them from the heat.

Toast the pumpkin seeds until lightly browned.

When the rice is finished cooking, drain the rice in a colander. Dump the cooked rice into a serving bowl or casserole dish. Add the currant mixture, shallots, and pumpkin seeds, and combine.

 

Clockwise -- wild rice, rosemary, preserved lemon, shallot, raisins, raw pumpkin seeds

Minced rosemary and preserved lemon.

Preserved lemon and rosemary mixed with raisins/currants.

Sliced shallots.

Nearly-caramelized shallots.

Toasted pumpkin seeds.

All together one last time before the big mingle.

Everything tossed together. The dish is complete!

Snippet: Sand into Glass

I sit up and press my right ear against Aucra's sternum. Her heart is steady, unchanging. She is clockwork, but I wonder if her gears are made of glass or of metal. If she is glass, I can reshape her with just a little heat and stress. I feel the buzz of her voice in her chest. I have no idea what poison she whispers to me, and I don't care.

“You present yourself young and beautiful,” I say, “but you are neither. You are Time, as old as the universe, and as twisted and deceitful. You are responsible for far more murders than I am. You are the worst mass-murderer in all the universe. Every single living thing falls to you eventually, and you savor it, drink up every bit of that death and then piss on the next generation while waiting for it to come of age so you can drink again. While you're waiting, you take little sips and kill off the fragile young and the accident-prone and the infirm to keep your appetite from fading. You are a murderous abomination, and it's no wonder you have fallen in love with someone just a fraction as loathsome as yourself. I will leave your love unrequited, because I am better than you. I do not kill for my own entertainment. No matter what I am better than you, and I will win. Watch me win.”

-Sand into Glass

Sand into Glass

Sand into Glass is now available on Amazon!

I am going to die here. The rage in my soul has finally defeated my mind and now I'm on trial for a crime I'm not certain I committed. Atalor is a festering pit of a city and it has declared me its most reprehensible victim. 

My name is Arden Masiona. Yes, those Masionas, the perpetually magical family headed by the immortal Time Child, Bethel Masiona. I am mundane, however. I'm the only non-mage in a family of extraordinary people and they've never let me forget it. No... I can't acknowledge my heritage anymore. I am no longer part of my own family. Rage has rendered me an exile. 

Time wants to claim me, but I am not hers to claim. I am an apprentice of the Desert, a child of eternity, a prisoner of my own soul. I am the Glassmaker, and Atalor is where my story ends. 

Sand into Glass is a stand-alone prequel to The Crystal Lattice and falls 6th chronologically in the Malora Octet.

My seventh baby has flown from the nest. Arden Masiona's story unexpectedly became personal for me partway through the first draft, so I'm a little nervous about introducing both him and my psyche to the world. I've always created art as a means of coping with pain, and this book exemplifies that. It took me three years to complete the first draft, but now it's not just a draft, but a completed book. I had a little trouble leaving Arden's headspace when I switched over to writing Zella's story, Arrow of Entropy, and you may see why as you get to know him.

This book isn't a typical epic fantasy. It does take place in a fantasy world, but it ends up being an intimate glimpse into the mind of a very troubled person, who is on trial for a crime he's not sure he committed. If you've read The Crystal Lattice, then you've already met Arden, but in that story he only hinted at the darkness lurking in his own soul. I won't say more, because this is Arden's story to tell, not mine.

Character Interview: Sefa Metavanya

By the request of one of my readers, I have with me today Sefa Metavanya. Sefa first appears as a minor character in The Crystal Lattice, but he is fairly prominent in both Sand into Glass and Arrow of Entropy. It is difficult to interview him without giving away too many spoilers, but I'm going to try.

Good afternoon, Sefa. Let's start at the beginning. What was your childhood like?
Sefa: Huh. Starting right out with a hard one, aren't you?

Just tell me what you want. You don't need to go into detail.
Sefa: All right, then. I was born in Lina but I mostly grew up in Watulya. I had an older sister who died when I was six months old, and that set me up for a lot of childhood stress. My father ended up walking out on us when I was still a toddler so my mom raised me on her own. I was mad at my father for a long time for leaving me, but now I'm more ambivalent because he explained to me why he did it. Won't get into that now. Anyway, I didn't have a lot of friends because my lightning talent displayed early and frightened away most of my playmates. I spent a lot of time reading. I did have a couple friends, but they lived in Lina and I didn't see them much. They were the younger children of Barchal Vun, who was the closest thing I had to a father when I was growing up.

Magical abilities, especially the likelihood of becoming an Emergent, tend to run in families. Are there other Emergents in your family, or are you alone in that regard?
Sefa: There is a long history of Emergence in my family. My mother is Aerlya Metavanya, the clairvoyant Emergent. Nearly everyone in my father's family is an Emergent. My daughters are both Emergents. Uli is a mimic and Catta is a metal mage.

Were you and your daughters trained by the Aulor Bethel Masiona, then?
Sefa: I was, but my daughters weren't. I wasn't about to send my girls to Bethel after the brutal education he put me through. By the time they were old enough to train, I found a better option for them. Bethel's brother Rassa moved to my village several years after Kirad Pass and after I watched him transform my sulky little brother into a healer Emergent, I decided my girls would be his next students.

Your little brother? Do you have other siblings?
Sefa: I have three younger half-brothers. I'm not going to talk about them, so don't ask.

Can you tell me a little about where you live?
Sefa: Sure. I never felt like I belonged with the Watulya Efi. A few years after my Emergence, my wife and I were having trouble finding a place that would accept us. I'm mostly-Efi and she was Toli, so our marriage was seen as distasteful in most places. We heard about this beautiful lake in the Alata Highlands, north of Argenor, so we went up there and scouted it out. It seemed like a perfect place to settle, but we didn't want to live there alone and be stuck entirely self-sufficient so we invited some other families similar to ours and soon we had a settlement. Rye Lake, the name of both the village and the lake. Other misfits trickled in from all over Melor and now we have a village with a population of about 250. Most of us are mixed-blood and we have a large number of mages and Emergents. This has led to some interesting combinations. For example, my younger daughter is married to a man with a Drey father and a Toli-Mero mother. I think in a couple generations Rye Lake will blend into an entirely new race, a conglomerate of all the other races in Melor. I love it here. The winters are brutal, especially for a southerner like me, but the summers are wonderfully mild and we have a spectacular view of the Athuals over Rye Lake right in our front yard.

Do you mind explaining the goggles to me? I'm a little unnerved by interviewing someone whose eyes I can't see.
Sefa: Sorry about that. [pushes goggles to top of his head] They're corrective lenses so I wear them all the time. My vision is terrible and I'm light sensitive, which is why they're tinted.

I wasn't expecting your eyes to be gray.
Sefa: They weren't before my Emergence. I used to look a lot like my mother - brown eyes and auburn hair. Rare coloring for an Efi, but Watulya Efi are a bit different from Efilon Efi. Now I have gray eyes and white-blue hair.

The last time I saw you, you were visibly electric and we were warned not to touch you or we'd be shocked. Now you look more approachable. Why is that?
Sefa: Well, I have two states and you must have seen me in my charged state. If you touch me when I'm charged, you'll get electrocuted. I'm normally not like that, but I turn into a bundle of static energy when I'm wound up. Normally I'm like this and I'm fairly normal, at least as normal as an Emergent can be.

Do you have a best friend?
Sefa: Two right now, actually. They're both completely insane, but that's what I love about them. Exi Achay and Rassa Buananor. It's a little funny that I get along so well with Rassa because I'm not fond of either his brother or his nephew.

Nephew... Arden or Theron?
Sefa: Arden, mostly. I've only met Theron twice and he's decent enough. Arden's the one I'd be perfectly happy never seeing again. Bethel, too, but he keeps showing up around here looking for Rassa.

What talent would you most like to have?
Sefa: I'm not interested in possessing another magical talent because the one I have is troublesome enough, but there are some skills I would like to learn. My younger daughter is a blacksmith and she's actually taken me on as an apprentice. I'm not very good at it yet, but I'd like to be. I also find Rassa's skills as both a luthier and a musician fascinating, but I suspect my innate electrical energy wouldn't allow me to do either without unintentionally destroying something.

What is your most treasured possession?
Sefa: My daughters. I certainly don't possess them, but I do treasure them.

What is your greatest fear?
Sefa: Losing another person I love. I know it's inevitable that someone close to me will eventually die, but just contemplating it makes me feel ill. I also fear the tremors that have rattled the universe on occasion the last twenty years or so. I'm not sure what they are, but they can't be good.

Do you have any interesting hobbies?
Sefa: I have hobbies, but they're not that interesting. I read everything I get my hands on. I like to hike up in the mountains. I have a little cabin up there. Lately I've been zapping rychan because their population has gotten out of control and they don't have enough carrion to sustain their numbers.

Zapping rychan? That seems like a strange thing for an Efi to do.
Sefa: Remember, I'm a Watulya Efi. We're forest guardians like the Efilon variety are, but we also understand that sometimes we have to kill things for their own benefit. I'd rather zap a few rychan to keep their numbers down than watch the beasts slowly starve to death.

I just have one final question before I let you get back to work at the forge. What was the last gift you gave someone?
Sefa: Seriously? That's an oddball question. Physical gift... I gave Exi a piece of jewelry a week ago. Non-tangible gift... I told another friend that he needed to stop denying that he was in love and just go for it. That bit of advice seems to be doing him some good for the moment.

Holding Sand in my Palm

Closer, closer, drawing ever closer.

I have in my hands a proof copy of Sand into Glass. It's a mess because my PDF conversion decided to take a block of about 50 pages and change the formatting so the first character of each paragraph was a different font. I've fixed that error and now I'm reading through to make sure all other errors are corrected. Once that is done, I'll try again with the PDF upload and hopefully I can do that one little thing I've been waiting three years to do -- hit the "publish" button.

I am going to die here. The rage in my soul has finally defeated my mind and now I'm on trial for a crime I'm not certain I committed. Atalor is a festering pit of a city and it has declared me its most reprehensible victim.

My name is Arden Masiona. Yes, those Masionas, the perpetually magical family headed by the immortal Time Child, Bethel Masiona. I am mundane, however. I'm the only non-mage in a family of extraordinary people and they've never let me forget it. No... I can't acknowledge my heritage anymore. I am no longer part of my own family. Rage has rendered me an exile.

Time wants to claim me, but I am not hers to claim. I am an apprentice of the Desert, a child of eternity, a prisoner of my own soul. I am the Glassmaker, and Atalor is where my story ends.

Yolane

I took a short journey through Yolane Forest today. I moved to Northern California in January and all I have to do is drive fifteen miles and I'm in another world. This is how I always envisioned Bethel's Yolane, so I hope you enjoy the tour.

Yolane was like stepping into a distant past. Massive trees studded the landscape and the permanent cool damp ignored the raging summer that baked the nearby plains. Mist clung to moss, and animals scurried from branch to branch and bush to bush. It was a green world coated in the thick perfume of organic decay and living cypress, and I thought it was wonderful.

-from Arrow of Entropy (first draft)