Lace & Blade 4: Interview at Deborah J. Ross's Blog

[hrj]

Deborah J. Ross, the editor of Lace and Blade 4, is posting a series of interviews with the contributors as a lead up to the book's release on February 14, 2018. (Have you pre-ordered yet?) This week, my interview went up. Check it out for some background on how I came to write "Gifts Tell Truth" and general chat about my writing.

I'm excited to have an Alpennia story published in a mainstream SFF context. Although I have a number of pieces of Alpennia short fiction planned, what I don't have is a clear plan for how to get them to readers. "Three Nights at the Opera" was always a free giveaway from the start, in part because I wanted to have an appetizer to offer people who'd never read anything of mine. And I have plans to make advance access to Alpennia shorts one of the benefits of subscribing to my mailing list, especially for the pieces that are more in the way of character sketches rather than free-standing stories. But the weird neither-this-nor-that nature of the series makes it hard to identify potential publication venues. In essence, "Gifts Tell Truth" was written specifically for the theme of Lace and Blade. The specific story wasn't one I'd been planning to write all along.

The eventual end-game, once the series as a whole is complete, will be to put out all the short fiction in a convenient collection, but that's quite a ways down the road.

What "fill-in" stories would you love to read about Alpennia? Especially if I'm not constrained to telling stories centering on the lesbian characters?

Comments

[elbren]

the dressmaker and her family!
more of the servants' stories!

[hrj]

Dominique and Celeste are major secondary characters in Floodtide, so you'll get part of your wish there. I want to do a short story that's just Celeste at some point. Probably about how she began learning to be a charm-wife.

[elbren]

yay! looking forward!

[katerit]

There are several characters I want to learn more about, and I will have to page through the books to get the spellings correct.

[hrj]

Let me know if you look them up.

[kareina]

I would love to hear Tavit's story--what kind of childhood did he have, and how and when did he obtain the training needed to become an armin when he grew up?

[hrj]

Hmm. That would be a tricky story for me to write. That is, for *me* to write as someone who isn't trans.

[kareina]

Would it help to tell it from the POV of someone(s) who knew him? I suspect that your research for the Lesbian historic project has had you reading enough about trans and possibly trans people to have a better grasp on how to write such a tale without living it than many. Alternatively, approach a trans co-author who you could work with to get the tale right?

[xrian]

This sounds like a great deal of fun! Personally, I'm a fan of world-building, so as much as you can tell about the history and environs of Alpennia I would happily consume.