Newsletter: Late October...2020 Was Many Things...

 

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2020 was many things... Some we expected, some took us utterly by surprise. Some quickly passed -- and others we are still grappling with. Now that I've had a chance to settle back home after being evacuated for a month due to the California CZULightning wildfires, I am filled with gratitude for the friends, readers, neighbors, family, and strangers who were so unfailingly kind and supportive.  As the season turns from summer's brutal heat toward winter's equally brutal (think mudslides!) but different weather, I am personally focusing on what has sustained my family and myself through the ordeal that has been this year. You, my fans and friends. My wonderful editor and publisher and agent. The beautiful (if a bit singed) place in which I love. And especially the stories that fill my mind and my life. Those I write. Those I treasure by other writers. Many thanks! Deborah First things first: Here is (Red) Sonja smooshed against Shakir. Considering that the first time they were introduced, she a mere wee kitten, she threw herself on her back and screamed, I'd say they have established trust, if not outright affection for one another.

What's new on Darkover?   My agent once told me that waiting on publishers was akin to watching the movement of glaciers. I suspect this has never been more true than now, when my publisher's offices are closed due to the pandemic, and everyone is overloaded. In the meanwhile, here is a snippet from The Laran Gambit, in which Bryn, our viewpoint character, crashes on Darkover with her father and mentor. The title is a working version and will probably be changed. And this is unedited text, so it, too, may undergo the alchemical transformation of editing.   ~~~~~~~ Bryn forced herself to lay back down and breathe slowly. It was harder than she expected. She imagined the inside of the tent — their pocket of air — turning stale. What were the symptoms of anoxia? She couldn’t remember — didn’t that mean her brain was deprived of oxygen? A part of her, that terrified monkey at the back of her brain, yammered at her to get out now. Panic will only use up the air faster. Think!

Short Book Reviews: The Diabolist's Apprentices Get Into Trouble

Creatures of Charm and Hunger, by Molly Tanzer (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

This third volume in the “Diabolist” series focuses on a family of diabolists – magic workers who draw their power from pact-bound demons. There is, of course, always a catch and always a price. To minimize the danger, diabloists through the centuries have kept meticulous notes on the names, temperaments, and histories of the known demons. Nancy Blackwood is one of a lineage of librarians guarding these and other critical documents. While her sister, Edith, engages in the larger world (in this case, the end of World War II), Nancy lives in a remote British village, along with her Hollywood-obsessed daughter, Jane, and her ward, Jewish refugee Miriam, both student diabolists about to embark upon the “Test” that will lead to full privileges and their own demons. After passing their Tests, each embarks upon perilous paths in violation of the rules: Jane, eager to hide that she has in reality failed her Test, creates a familiar by placing a demonic spirit into her pet cat, but lacks the experience to truly bind it to obedience; and Miriam goes searching for her parents, captives of the Nazis, by taking over the bodies of animals and then people, at a terrible cost to her own spiritual self. What could possibly go wrong?

Tanzer perfectly captures life in a secluded, rambling house in a small British village toward the end of the Second World War, weaving in a story of brash youth, tested friendships, treacherous demons, and consequences. If this is truly the last of the series, I will be sad to see it end.

Creatures of Will and Temper reviewed here.

Creatures of Want and Ruin reviewed here.

Book Reviews: Two Takes on Fictional Characters Coming to Life

I love stories in which my favorite (or anti-favorite, most despised as opposed to most-loved) fictional characters interact with the real world. It's the counterpoint to imagining myself as a character in a fictional world. Recently I read two very different novels using this technique. Of the two, Raven's Moon is lighter and is self-contained. It helps to have some passing acquaintance with English literature to appreciate the nuances of The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep. On the other hand, if you haven't read David Copperfield, Wuthering Heights, The Portrait of Dorian Gray, or Elizabeth Gaskell's Cranford, this is a great time to do that! (You'll recognize a few other friends along the way.)

The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep, by H. G. Parry (Redhook)

In this literary book lover’s delight, a “summoners” has the ability to “read” a fictional character into real life. And to alter the very fabric of reality. Charles Sunderland is one such, and from the time of his childhood has been accompanied by the likes of Sherlock Holmes. His characters-companions are not literal transliterations but based on his interpretation of them: fiction is not photographic but relies on the understanding and life experience context of the reader.

At the beginning of the book the narrator, Charles’s older brother, attorney Rob, is heartily tired of the whole thing and wishes Charles’s talent would go away, especially when Uriah Heep, the odious villain of Dickens’s masterwork, David Copperfield, makes an appearance, along with the Hound of the Baskervilles. Soon Rob is drawn even deeper into the world of literary creations with his introduction to “The Street,” a secret haven where characters can live safely in a modern world. One of the more amusing touches was the presence of not one Mr. Darcy, but six, since readers of different eras saw him in different ways. Since I am a fan of Elizabeth Gaskell’s Cranford, I took special delight in the occasional appearance of Miss Matty, whom everyone adores as much as I do. Dorian Gray, exquisitely beautiful and just as untrustworthy, teams up with the Artful Dodger. And Narnia’s White Witch can always be depended upon to look out for her own interest.

Soon it becomes apparent that not only the denizens of The Street, but Charles himself, are under attack by another “summoner” whose agenda is nothing less than remaking the entire world into the criminal underworld of Dickens’s London.

As the story progresses and the threat becomes more urgent, Rob peels back layers of the past, facing injustices and resentments – not only others’ but his own. The relationship between the two brothers reveals itself before a background that is no less than a love affair with fiction and its underlying language. Rob says, “I could see all of it. And the city glowing with the light of pure meaning was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.”

What begins as a “your favorite character come to life” romp evolves into a profound examination of how stories make us human, and what that means to those we love.

Raven's Moon, by J.B. Dane (Burns & Lea Books)

Our first-person narrator wakes to a world of never-before experienced sensations, only to discover that he is a fictional character brought to life: Bram Farrell, “The Raven,” the hero of a wildly popular urban fantasy series. His author as well as the witch who brought him through to the real world wants him to locate her literary heir, a talented young woman writer to take over the series after the original author succumbs to the cancer riddling her body. He, on the other hand, soon sets his own mission: to investigate and make right the murders of innocent supernatural creatures slain by his fictional self. Aided by a hellhound demon in the shape of a Dachshund, he begins his search with a group of succubi working as prostitutes. But the clock is ticking, for Bram’s author has given him a deadline: Halloween, only four days away.

One of the most interesting aspects of this fast-paced story is how Bram-in-the-real-world perceives his fictional antecedent, even as he remakes himself into a different individual. His appetite for beef – the greasier the better – doesn’t change (much to the despair of his creator’s health-food vegan-is-better personal chef), but his ability to judge the ethics of his character’s choices sets him on a different path -- a path that will be revealed in subsequent volumes.

Wildfire Journey, Part III: How To Rescue a Refrigerator

Once the mandatory evacuation order was changed to a warning

Home Sweet Fridge

(aka “it’s okay to go back, just be ready to skedaddle at a moment’s notice”) we went back to our place several times to check things out and make plans on priorities before moving back. Although we were immensely relieved to have a house to come back to, we noticed the light coating of ash on the foliage and the smoky odor inside. Our insurance adjuster came out to the house a couple of days later and we did a walk-through. He pointed out a little ash here and there on the inside window sills, and among other things offered the cost of a professional smoke damage restoration company as part of the settlement. After speaking with several local companies, and returning to take a more careful look inside and out, we decided to clean it ourselves, with the help of local house cleaners, and use the difference to buy a HEPA filter vacuum cleaner, a shop vac, and several air purifiers.

The refrigerator and chest freezer had been without power for three weeks by this time. We hauled the refrigerator on to the back porch and, armed with rubber gloves and doubled trash bags, emptied it. This was a bigger operation than it sounds because we had to take the refrigerator freezer door off in order to fit it through the sliding glass door. The smell, while qualifying as “stench” was not as bad as we’d feared. More “funky” than “rotting carcass.” Most of what was in the fridge was either in glass or plastic containers or vegetables. Our friend up the block, a strict vegan, said hers didn’t smell that bad, more fermented than putrid. Within a short time, the freezer interior was covered with black flies. We left them to their work, freezer door open, and went back to our hotel. When we came back the next day, the smell had largely dissipated and the flies were gone.

The next step was to sanitize and deodorize the refrigerator. Up and down the block, folks were just trashing theirs, but we wanted to at least attempt to salvage ours. My husband did a first pass on the interior with pressure spraying full strength degreaser/cleanser, rinsing with (non potable) water, then wiping it down with dilute bleach. With the doors open, there was no smell, but when we closed the doors and left it for a time, the funky smell returned, albeit not as intense as before.

On social media, neighbors were comparing experiences cleaning their refrigerators. I felt heartened that some had had success. We did some research and found the following resources:

Cleaning Your Refrigerator After a Power Outage (University of Florida)
How to Get Rid of Funky Refrigerator Smells (Consumer Reports)
Beyond Baking Soda: The Best Way to Deal With a Stinky Fridge (Serious Eats)
The Best Tools for Keeping Your Fridge Odor Free (Epicurious)

[shameless self-promotion brag] More Reviews of Collaborators

Collaborators -- the revised version, with maps and supplementary materials -- came out at the beginning of the month. Here's what reviewers had to say about it:

From Warren Rochelle: 

This rich novel, with its “first-rate world-building from a writer gifted with a soaring imagination and good old-fashioned Sense of Wonder” (C.J. Cherryh, back cover) asks the reader to think and think again. Read Collaborators again, if like me, you read the first version. You will be rewarded with a stronger, more nuanced, and a more passionate story. Read the Bonus sections at the end—and experience world-building, and species construction. Take the time mull over gender and power and collaboration. Be prepared to keep reading. This novel is a real page-turner.

Highly recommended.

From Susan F:

I loved this book. Deborah [Ross] has created a full world in which the aliens are truly alien due to their ultimate lack of permanent gender, yet essentially human in terms of their emotional development. Each individual is complex and fascinating, stranded human or Bandar native, and exquisitely real.

The story is fascinating and the plot carries you along. [Ross] is one of those rare authors who can make what is essentially a political story completely about its characters.