Alpennia Blog: On the horizon, I see a book approaching

The beta-reader comments for Mother of Souls have been coming in, and tomorrow I poke the remaining readers (except the ones I've already talked to about an extension) and start working on revisions.

But there's an even stronger sign that we have a real live book here: Mother of Souls now has a Goodreads listing where you can join the dozen people already proclaiming their plans to read it. (OK, there are also a couple of beta-readers there boasting that they're already doing so.) And you can pre-order Mother of Souls on Amazon now (the hard-copy, Amazon Kindle release is always a while after regular release to drive e-book sales to the Bella website).

And because I always seem to do these things in non-standard order, here's the cover not-really-a-reveal-because-people-have-already-seen-it. I really like how the design echoes the series theme (with the fabric drape) while being clearly distinct in color scheme. There are enough different things going on in the story that brainstorming for cover images was hard, but given the importance of music, I think this should represent it well.

Baycon: Monday report

Skipped a workout Monday morning because I wanted to get packed up and checked out before panels started. Went to a panel on "Bay Area's Separated Fandoms - Why?" which ended up being more of a "what" than a "why". We got something of a survey of the history of Bay Area fandom, and then a discussion of what the current significant thematic conventions are, and how various interests have moved and shifted. There was an acknowledgment that Bay Con, as an old-style "gen con" has tended to lose various segments of fandom to more focused events (especially ones also scheduled for Memorial Day Weekend!), in some cases leaving awkward gaps in the con experience, but in other cases simply acknowledging that those interests had been something of a separate con-within-a-con to begin with.

Next up, I was a panelist for a costuming discussion "make it accurate or make it pretty?" I thought it was a lively and nuanced discussion of how to balance the various possible costuming goals, with an understanding of venue, purpose, one's own role in the costumed function (e.g., staff vs. guest). Jean Martin was a fabulous moderator and my fellow panelists were all thoughtful, eloquent, and well-prepared.

Following that, I attended a panel on disability representation in genre that katerit was on (though I was planning to go anyway). Very good discussion, despite being set up as something of a standard "Disability 101" topic. (And despite the occasional obliviously derailing efforts of an audience member who was nursing some grudge from the '70s about feminism and kept trying to find some equivalence between disability marginalization and misandry...it was a bit hard to tell, given the level of incoherence. The panelists kept trying to politely re-direct. At one point I bluntly told him his question was way outside the scope of the panel.)

Finished up by having a leisurely lunch with katerit and a friend from File 770. It was a good thing we had lots to chat about, because the coffee shop staff were scaled way back and in the end I had to go hunting for someone to get us our check. And then it was back home to check on the riotous growth of the tomatoes and cucumbers (Yay! Cucumber!), to check out the two book deliveries that had arrived while I was gone, and to actually manage to unpack fully and put the suitcase away (something I hadn't managed after the Kalamazoo trip).

It was a good con for book promotion: the bookseller in the dealers' room who carried the Alpennia books sold out of what he'd brought, and all sorts of people came up to me randomly to tell me how much they'd loved them. (Including some totally unscripted and unpaid shills in panel audiences who saved me from having to promote my own work. It's so much easier to focus on promoting the books by other people that I love when I can relax about my own books.)

The next convention this year will be Worldcon, and I need to get working on the swag I plan to bring for it. I have some ideas I think people will enjoy.

Problematic Favorites: A Little Princess - Part 15 The Axe Falls

In the second part of Chapter 7, we see the depths of nastiness that the adult characters are capable of. Captain Crewe’s soliciter comes to tell Miss Minchin the news that Crewe has died--and died a pauper after the diamond mines failed. The soliciter does get one rather delicious line in this conversation. In the initial conversation where he is railing against the fantasies spawned by the diamond mines, he notes, “When a man is in the hands of a very dear friend and is not a businessman himself, he had better steer clear of the dear friend’s diamond mines, or gold mines, or any other kind of mines dear friends want his money to put into.” After dropping the bomb that the Captain has died from a combination of jungle fever and business troubles, Miss Minchin asks exactly what the business troubles were. “Diamond mines,” answered Mr. Barrow, “and dear friends--and ruin.”

But the shock of the thought of Crewe’s fortune having evaporated (and Miss Minchin being on the hook for the funds she’d fronted for Sara’s party, as well as ordinary expenses), seems to drive a number of things out of both their minds. It seems implausible to me that neither of them thinks to try to locate someone who will stand in loco parentis for Sara. The soliciter presumably had the means to follow up with Captain Crewe’s military superiors, who might have ideas about what arrangements might be made--even assuming that Sara truly has no remaining living relatives. (Whatever did happen to her mother’s family?) For that matter, he is quite aware of the existence of Captain Crewe's "dear friend" who--though presumably equally bankrupt from the mine debacle--might well be expected to feel some responsibility for Sara (as, indeed, we later see he does), and might very well have relatives of his own in England who could step in and provide assistance.

But even Miss Minchin is aware of Sara having at least one potential sponsor, because she knows that Crewe chose her school on the personal recommendation of Lady Meredith. And there’s a clear indication in Chapter 1 that Miss Minchin had personal correspondence with Lady Meredith regarding Sara’s suitability for the school. So why doesn’t it occur to her to contact Lady Meredith and let her know that her dear friend Captain Crewe’s daughter is now friendless and destitute? At the very least, Sara might be taken off her hands. At the most, Lady Meredith might feel a moral obligation to pay Sara’s debt at the school as well.

This aspect has always troubled me. There is no reason other than plot logistics for Sara to be considered genuinely alone and friendless in the world.

Miss Minchin is so personally affronted by the loss of Sara’s fortune that she leaps to the decision to throw her into the street, rather than considering following up on any of these possibilities. It is noted that this is an indiscreet intention to voice. But the soliciter, rather than chiding her for her hard-heartedness, only points out that it would reflect badly on the school and that it would be more practical to exploit Sara as an unpaid servant. If nothing else, this is one more piece of evidence that Captain Crewe was extremely incompetent in his business decisions. One might think that when he chose an agent to look out for his daughter’s interests in England, he would have chosen someone capable of empathy and compassion.

But, no.

So Miss Minchin calls her sister in to do the dirty work and devises a way of informing Sara of her father’s death designed for maximum trauma. In this chapter, any sympathy one might have had for Minchin’s position vis a vis her pampered pupil is trampled into the dirt.

It’s left to Becky--who has been hiding under the table while all these conversations have gone on--to think what all this will mean for Sara herself, and to beg for permission to help soften the blow and assist Sara in the transition. And it’s Becky who sees the tragedy as a story arc: “It’s exactly like the ones in the stories--them poor princess ones that was drove into the world.”

Next week, we’ll finish Chapter 7 with Sara’s reaction to the news.