…A Xuya story about chess and lava planets, out in Nick Gevers Extrasolar. Every day is the same: Song Ha gets down to the refectory and spoons rice porridge into her mouth, feeling the salty taste of fish sauce against her palate–there used to be something subtly wrong with it, wasn’t there? But now it’s a familiar beat like a syllable in a poem–a daily counting out–she’s not sure exactly what, but it’s important that she doesn’t lose count….
…Came back from Brittany, slowly digging my way out of emails and various stuff. The novel is now at 68K words; I’m taking a brief break to research a city my main character has to visit, and hopefully I’ll swing back into the spirit of things. (I think I’ve figured out why Brittany works out so well for me: nothing to do but write, since there’s no Internet. New Year’s resolution for 2010: cut down on the WWW addiction…)…
…t be on another planet. On the phone, your aunt’s voice is breezy, telling you not to worry–that she’ll find a visa and a plane ticket, that she knows someone who knows someone who can give her a hand with the formalities of the High Commission for Refugees. Behind her, you hear the dull thud of bombs falling like rain on a tin roof–the same sound that swells and roars within your dreams until you wake up in a room that feels deathly silent. Where…
…es of mandarin ducks and kingfishers—the symbols of a happy marriage. First Spouse Liang Pao has gathered the whole household by the high gate, from the stewards to the cooks, from the lower spouses to their valets. He’s standing slightly behind Husband, with his head held high, with pins of platinum holding his immaculate topknot in place—in spite of the fact that he’s been unable to sleep all night. The baby wouldn’t stop kicking within his womb…
…dded sword. Xochipil, who had been scavenging for tech at the mouth of Mictlan’s Well, caught that glint in her eyes–and stopped, watching the stranger approach, a growing hollow in her stomach. Beneath her were the vibrations of the Well, like a calm, steady heartbeat running through the ground: the voice of the rails that coiled around the shaft of the Well, bearing their burden of copper and bronze ever downwards. Er. An Aztec steampunk story,…
…e was sometimes hard to read. But, new body or not, he still should have known better. “Thoi, you’re not meant to come here,” Huong Giang said. “I made it clear–” “I know,” Thoi said. “But you need to come, elder sister. Now.” And, after a pause that was rife with implications– “There’s a man that has come here to Celestial Spires–a Galactic.” Where to Buy Amazon US Buy Now…
…mation of Mars, the flooding of the Mekong Delta, the celebrations of New Year’s Eve–and how far a young woman will go to help her idol… Shortlisted for a Locus Award, 2014 Where to Buy Amazon US Buy Now…
…ation that could easily become fraught, given the depredations of the colonists, who had a tendency to get everything that caught their eyes (seriously. Read a history of colonial Indochina sometimes, and try not to smash something. The sheer arrogance and entitlement is nauseating), and part of this story is an attempt to go against the rosy-eyed cliché of a woman lifted from poverty by the power of love– whereas in real life, this would have bee…
…Where to Buy TTA Press Buy Now…
…and drink. The drink is herbs gathered from the surfaces of ponds, tears taken from the eyes of children, scales shed from old, wise dragons. To drink is to forget, for no soul can come back into the world remembering past lives, or the punishments meted out to it within the other Courts of Hell. No soul. Save one….
