Novels:
The Willow Knot (fairytale fantasy) has been thoroughly revised and sent off to various editors.
The Willow Knot is a retelling of Grimm tale 11, Brother and Sister. Retelling means filling in a lot that a fairytale can leave blank, like why the wicked people do wicked things, and how the characters fall in love, or just giving the characters names. I've set the story about the time the Grimms were collecting folktales, in the late 1700s, but the country it takes place in isn't Germany, or France, or Hessia.
Myl and Tyl are the children of a disgraced and executed official, who run away from the unloving home of their aunt, only to be ensnared by magic in the Maerchenwald. Tyl is transformed into a deer, and he and Myl must survive the dangers and wonders of the forest. When young king Alard finds Myl, are their troubles over, or doubled?
The Cost of Silver (historical dark fantasy) under revision. I put the opening chapters up on my LiveJournal and had a positive comment on the first from TNH, which made me very happy.
I'm in the process of adding a modern-day storyline, for which I've pulled together this blurb (and you can see why blurb writing is done by professionals and not by writers): The discovery of a bog body in ancient fenland brings together troubled teen Rob Holly and young archaeologist Joy Marriott in an investigation that rapidly awakes dangerous interest from modern magicians and vampires, and stirs up a long-buried story of loss and revenge from the English Civil War.
The main storyline is set in 1640s England, when witchcraft was feared and even a king's head was not safe. Runaway apprentice Tom flees the master who wants not only his magic but his blood, and takes refuge with herbwife Nan Moray. Caught up in anti-enclosure riots, and conscripted into battle by the Roundheads, Tom survives to find precarious happiness with Nan. With the arrival of Matthew Hopkins, Witchfinder General, even that is threatened. To protect himself and Nan from the threat of the living, Tom makes a perilous bargain with the dead.
The Fate of the Dead (historical fantasy) Set in mid-1800s East Anglia, it's an episodic story of ghost-laying based on local legends. Molly the wise woman, Griffin the cunning man, his apprentice Jem, and the mountebank Rainey are called on to deal with an epidemic of ghosts. That's trouble enough, but can they stand against the Black Shuck's return, or will England become a land of the dead?
The Frary Luck (juvenile historical fantasy) I put it together for a contest by Fidra Books, who reprint classic children's books, though it wasn't finished in time to enter. Twins Jon and Kate seek the Frary Glass that held the Luck their family so desperately needs. The search takes cautious Jon through the Alongside Country where the Tattercoated Man gives riddling answers, and traps impatient Kate in a house besieged by vengeful Fairy Folk.
Not a Fairy Princess (suburban fantasy) starting from a synopsis I wrote mostly as a joke, which became more serious as I worked on it: For twelve of her sixteen years, Princess Tasria's life has been governed by the Prophecy that she would destroy the Dark Queen, ruthless enemy of Evermorna. Now the Dark Queen is dead--at the hands of a common foot-soldier--and Tasria's royal parents break the news that the Prophecy was a lie. She is no Chosen One, not their daughter, and they are returning her to her real home: the quiet North American suburb they stole her from. Reunited with her birth mother, who calls her Heather and is worried by her 'wild stories', Tasria tries to learn the ways of her strange home, where machinery takes the place of magic, and high school hierarchy calls on all the skills she acquired from court intrigues. With painful mis-steps, she learns to live for herself and not for a kingdom's destiny. Her mother contacts Heather's estranged father, hoping to rebuild their broken family. Then, on the eve of their reunion, her father disappears, just as little Heather did thirteen years ago. Her mother believes he has deserted them, but Tasria knows the truth. Evermorna is not finished with her. And this time she doesn't need a Prophecy to tell her what needs to be done.
Bookwyrms (modern comic fantasy) is based on the situation invented for the short story "Spellcheck", where Magic has returned to our world, but no one can control or exploit it. Deposits of Magic rest in ancient trees and hills, old books and talismans that sheltered it before. An unscrupulous foundation plans to destroy books in order to harvest the magic, and only two library assistants stand in the way. Oh, and dragons.
Sack of Lies (urban fantasy) began as a NaNoWriMo novel based on a dream. A harried grad student's life is interrupted by the appearance (exploding through her wall) of a dubiously-angelic young woman carrying a stunted devil in her backpack, and claiming to be on the trail of an 'old and hungry thing' that means to destroy all the storytellers of humankind.
Children of Mercury (historical mystery) I put it together for the Debut Dagger contest, over two weeks (travelling both weekends), because my husband dared me. In 1300s Florence, master painter Agnolo is called to help his old friend Gaudenzio with the massive decorations for his patron's tournament. Before the tournament is over, the patron lies near death and Gaudenzio is accused of poisoning.
Short Stories:
Spellcheck (workshopped on OWW) is online at Mindflights.
The King of Elfland's Stepdaughter (workshopped on OWW) is online at Coyote Wild.
Fluke has run out of possible markets because of its length. The solution may be to pull it as a novelet and revise it into a novel.
Foretold (workshopped at VCon) won the Rannu Prize for Fiction. Maybe that will help sell it!
Bride of the Vampire (workshopped on AW) is probably going to be trunked or posted online for free.
Chimps on a Blimp (workshopped on OWW) has been retitled On the Transmontane Run with the Aerial Mail Express and sold to Beneath Ceaseless Skies.
Climbing Boys (workshopped at Potlatch) continues on the rounds.
Gods-Meat (workshopped at Potlatch) has started off on the rounds.
Bluebeard Contented (workshopped at Anticipation) has been accepted by Cabinet des Fees.
Elementary Magic is waiting on more research and a new title.
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