New Market

Thanks to reader ClothDragon for this tip: The magazine crossedgenres.com has announced an upcoming issue around Science Fiction/Fantasy and Eastern settings. If you’re interested, submit after March 2010. Publication is in May 2010. Their submission rules clearly ask writers and illustrators not to submit before March.

How to Behead Etc. Your Characters Cont’d

So, you’ve found who you want to kill. Whether your character beheads them, snaps their neck or wooses out and only maims, please be sure to inform the reader what’s happened. Leave no room for doubt. Is there blood, tissue, etc? What does your character see, smell, taste and touch during this scene? They must be hypersensitive to their surroundings in order for your reader to feel anything at all.

“Open!” The door rattled. “Damn door.”
Aiyu risked another step. The traitor kicked the locked door. Aiyu edged closer. He couldn’t believe one of Xien Ye’s citizens would do this. The familiar odor of pig wafted toward him.
Voice and smell locked into place and Aiyu knew this man. This was a butcher from Xien Ye’s marketplace. When Aiyu and Zhang picked up their supplies, this man had sneered at and then insulted Zhang.
Zhang had hoisted up the little man by his lapels and shook him like a captured rodent until Aiyu had thought the man’s neck might break. The butcher had stammered an apology and Zhang released him.
The traitor was part of Zhang’s guild.
“Why won’t you open?” The merchant rattled the door. “Six strings of cash-“
In Aiyu’s mind, Liu Yoh’s white face, and Haga’s lifeless eyes flashed. Those men died for the people of Xien Ye – for this traitor.
“Grrraa!” Aiyu launched. He wished he hadn’t shouted. Too late.
The enemy whirled and blew tallow in Aiyu’s face. The flash of light let Aiyu glimpse the butcher’s thin, corded arms. One of them flailed and Aiyu’s knife clattered to the floor.
The boy ducked as the candle guttered out. Aiyu crouched on the floor until he found the traitor’s feet. Aiyu kicked up and smashed his foot into the man’s crotch.
The butcher collapsed with a grunt.
In a fury of searching fingers, Aiyu grasped the traitor’s head. He twisted hard. The neck cracked, and Aiyu leg go of the wobbly, detached head in his hands. The butcher slumped.
Aiyu struck the tunnel wall. Again. Again. He’d split his knuckles. His sobs of pain sounded distant — disconnected from himself. Rage surged again and he screamed. He took aim where he thought his victim lay and spat.
Aiyu thought he heard the spittle smack the butcher’s flesh. He stumbled the way he had come in.

Beheading, Neck Snapping and Mayhem: 101

Do you have what it takes? Learn the art of beheading, neck snapping, etc. in three quick courses:

Class One:

Don’t kill the wrong person. The following is an example of waiting until you know you’ve found a suitable person to murder.

Not that I actually practice these things. Not in real life. You got that, right?

Seriously, this is a brief scene I’ll post over the next few days. Hopefully it’s a nice, violent Christmas offering. Hmm. Maybe I should have done this for Halloween?

“The plan’s working, Haga,” Aiyu called, slowing. Haga was speechless as Aiyu passed. Then the boy smelled blood. He stopped and looked at his friend. They had played sixes on their journey west, but Haga was a huge, childlike man, near-sighted and a poor lookout, so he always drew guard duty. Since Aiyu’s age made him everyone’s messenger boy, he had developed sympathy for the simple-minded giant.
“Haga, do you want a rematch when we get to the caves?”
Haga stared at the ground. Aiyu knelt and touched Haga’s chest.
Haga slumped to the ground, dead. Why would anyone in Xien Ye kill Haga? It couldn’t be an enemy from outside the city or Xien Ye would already be overrun.
Behind Haga’s body the thick board used to bar the door fell, too. Aiyu glanced at the shut, but unbarred postern door. His answer exploded like a firecracker in his mind. A traitor from within the city was inside the passageway, breaching Xien Ye’s defense to allow the enemy inside.
“Alarm!” Aiyu clapped his hand over his mouth. Had Haga’s murderer heard him shout?
Aiyu rushed into the tunnel’s darkness, then stopped. His gasps filled the air around him like the rush of wings. The enemy would hear him. He slowed his breath and let his vision adjust to the light provided by the open door behind him. In tiny, silent rat steps, he ran.
Aiyu’s fingers twitched for a weapon. His dagger was a short eating utensil and his sword was no friend in this confined space. He pulled the knife. His arms brushed the cold walls on either side. Here at the base, the city’s wall was as wide as four oxen carts laid side-by-side. The light dimmed until his hand before him was only visible if he moved it. He slowed to a walk, then stopped.
A dim light glowed ahead, flickered and all but disappeared. He strained to hear if he had been discovered. No. The candlelight returned. He saw the partially hidden silhouette of a man and heard him struggling with rusted locks.
At last, Aiyu had found his quarry.

White as Bone, Red as Blood – The Fox Sorceress

I want to thank Mirella Patzer for allowing me to re-post this on my website. Please see The Historical Novel Review’s site for an interview with the author and an excerpt from the book.

White as Bone Red as Blood – The Fox Sorceress is much more than a vivid portrayal about a turbulent period in Japanese history. It is a gentle coming of age story, one that explores sexuality in all its forms, and the passions of relationships of all kinds. The author, Cerridwen Fallingstar, has weaved an intricate tale of treachery and love that is so realistic, it feels as if the reader is actually a living witness to the tale.

What I found most intriguing, is the fact that the author drew on her own experiences as a shaman and time-traveled to this past life where the story of Seiko was unfolded to her. Because of this first-hand view, coupled with intense research, the author was able to write the story with amazing clarity and a level of detail that held me enthralled from beginning to end. It is historical fiction at its very best, depicting a time and era in history rich with conflict and emotion.

A sequel named White as Bone Red as Blood – The Storm God is scheduled for release in the spring of 2010 and is one I am eagerly awaiting.

Book Review: "I Rode a Horse of Milk White Jade"

I RODE A HORSE OF MILK WHITE JADE
by Diane Wilson
The book opens with the main character as an elderly woman telling her tale to her granddaughter. So while there is never any question as to the main character’s survival, this YA book nonetheless captured my imagination and I am not someone who routinely reads YA. Ms. Wilson’s fantasy is fluid, descriptive and unobtrusive. You’ll never realize she holds the reins.
If you rate by the tears-o-meter, it is by far the best book I’ve read in months.

When Oyuna of the Kerait tribe is mamed – her foot crushed – by a black mare, she is marked forever. Her parents try every treatment imaginable, but there is no cure for her foot, her life or her luck. Still, Oyuna knows she is meant for more than stirring mare’s milk into ayrag. She dreams of speed and freedom, but needs a fast horse to win the next great race and make her dream come true.

Yet when her father allows her to pick a horse, her choice is Bayan, a mare well past her prime. But Oyuna cannot turn away when she hears the horse’s plea for help. Reluctantly, Oyuna rescues Bayan and their friendship changes Oyuna’s life.

The soldiers of Kublai Khan take riders, food and horses from Oyuna’s tribe, including Bayan. Rather than lose her mare, Oyuna masquerades as her stepbrother and leaves with Bayan and the soldiers. Oyuna is discovered and she and Bayan are dismissed from military service. They now serve as a currier to the great Khan. This is good news to Oyuna, who knows the Khan has a herd of ten thousand white mares. If she and Bayan deliver his precious message in time, perhaps he will give her a fast horse.

She and Bayan brave many dangers crossing the Gobi, but at last reach Kublai Khan’s court. Received well, Oyuna develops a friendship with the Khan, but he wants Bayan for his own. Rather than leave her friend or trade her for the mount she wants, Oyuna stays in her ruler’s service. Then tragedy strikes the Khan’s herds including Bayan. Only Oyuna can save her beloved mare, but time is faster than any horse.

You must read “I Rode a Horse of Milk White Jade” to discover the ending. Nothing will induce me to tell, but be prepared when you read this book. Pack a lunch so you won’t have to get up and have tissues close by. You’ll need them.