The Nile floods when Sirius rises just before the sun. And when the Priestess of Hathor and the Priest of Horus perform the Sacred Marriage ritual. Read it now.
Reprint from The Aether Age: Helios (2012).
Aether Age Sale
The Aether Age: Helios eBook is on sale today at amazon for $0.99. My short story “Bringing the Waters” is in it, along with a lot of great fiction
creating an alternative history of Egypt and Greece. Click here for the link.
Edits
Suddenly everything got busy. I just finished edits for the new edition of Under the Stone Paw, which will be published by Double Dragon in April.
I’m in the middle of finishing edits for Beneath the Hallowed Hill, also due out in April from Eternal Press. The cover art for Hill is just fantastic. I’ll show you as soon as I can. I’ve also written some promotional material for The Aether Age: Helios.
On top of all this writing stuff, I just found a second cousin who’s living in Denver and a friend is in from out of town. Then there’s work, full of papers and exams to grade and curriculum packets to read. Plus all the regular work of just life.
Not to mention all those revolutions to keep up with. Must be all those planets moving into Aries. Are you busy, too?
COSine first day
For the Theology Building panel, Carol Berg had some great questions for Sharon Shinn, Cynthia Felice and me. Carol said that religion or metaphysics became a way to deepen her characters and world. Sharon commented that in an early novel, she’d had no religion at all and it had been hard to come up with ways for her characters to swear. Cynthia agreed her focus is more on developing the character, and how that person relates to religion reveals much about them. Religion, metaphysics, magic are all sources of tension and conflict, the essence of storytelling.
The dangers? Offending people, of course, but none of us has ended up with a fatwa on our heads. No cult followings either, although Sharon Shinn admitted to trying one of the rituals she’d created just for fun. She did not have a great revelation or see God face to face—or didn’t admit to it, anyway.
I mentioned a concept that I’d heard about at Denvention 3—soft vs. hard fantasy. Similar to soft vs. hard science fiction. Soft being making up your own religion or magic, which is what many people do. Hard being using traditions that exist in the world. Which is the best? That’s like asking if it’s better to plot a book first or use the discovery method. It just depends on what works for you.
Critter’s Best of Poll
Every year Critter’s Writing Workshop has a reader’s poll of the best published that year. This year I have a story in one of the anthologies listed: The Aether Age: Helios. If you’d like to participate, you may cast your vote here.