For those not on the Reader’s List*, and just so you know, First in the Laws of Power Series,The Long Look, is having a special for the next five days, wherein it is completely free. This should be the case for all markets, but my login doesn’t let me verify whether it’s set properly for the UK, Canada, and Elsewhere. It should be, and I’ve queried Amazon to check.
For those who already own the book, I’ll try to make it up to you somehow. Probably by finally finishing the last book in the series as soon as possible.
*What I’m calling the mail list, because it’s what I’m hoping is a more accurate description of its intent and function…and if you’re not on it, why not?
Sometimes everything turns into a story. Even a meditation on a pet peeve. So…
Wasted Words
“I don’t understand it.”
She looked up from her book. “You don’t understand a lot of things: other people, quarks, qubits….”
He interrupted. “I understand qubits. Could I build a quantum computer? No, but I get the idea.”
She shook her head. “Beside the point. I simply meant that the set of things you don’t understand is a very large set. Could you be more specific?”
He almost said, “Could you be less contemptuous?” but decided against it. “Why do people waste so many words on the obvious?”
“Example?”
“People who insist on saying idiotic things like ‘blue in color” or ‘rectangular in shape.” For heaven’s sake why? Are they afraid we’re going to assume ‘blue in shape’ or ‘rectangular in color’, so they feel the need to clarify?”
“Could be synesthesia.”
“Unlikely. The most common manifestation is in people who perceive colors as sounds, not shapes. Or associate numbers and letters with colors. I do that sometimes.”
“What color is zero?”
“White, of course, but I don’t have synesthesia.”
“Then how did you know what color zero is?”
He sighed. “Because you asked me. Ask me about any single-digit number and I can tell you what color I associate with it. That’s not synesthesia, that’s just imagination. Eight is orange, by the way.”
“You’re right. Eight should be orange, but we’re getting off track here. You say it’s a waste of words?”
He shrugged. “So? It’s obviously redundant, except for those rare people with perceptional differences. I hate wasting words. It offends me.”
“You fritter away emotional capital generating anger over trifles. That’s a waste that offends me.”
“So? It’s not as if I’m going to run out of emotional capital. It’s an infinite resource. In fact, the more we use, the more we have.”
She glared. “That’s neither here nor there. It’s the waste that bothers me. The redundancies in the language you pointed out might be inefficient, but you can’t say they’re not precise. Don’t you like precision?”
“Not when it’s inappropriate. When I say I hammered a nail, no one should be asking me if I used a hammer. It’s not exactly a secret at that point.”
She looked at him, expressionless. He knew that look. He waited, but not for long.
“You’re getting worked up over what amounts to a speech tic. We all have them, and you’re only responsible for yours, not anyone else’s.”
“I don’t have a speech tic.”
“Then why do you start so many sentences with ‘so?’”
“So what?” he said, before he could stop himself.
She just shook her head. “I’m out. I shall go back to reading my book, leaving you to stew in your own obsessions.”
“I always do.”
“I meant quietly.”
“Fine,” he said, and thought about it. “After all, silence is golden in color.”
This sort of thing doesn’t happen all that often, at least in my part of the writerverse. My fae fantasy, Little Fire and Fog, is part of a push to encourage Kindle Unlimited (KU) signups. The list includes a selection of fae themed books, like LF&F, that are available in KU. If you’re inclined, check out the web page. There’s a button up there somewhere. There’s no obligation, so it doesn’t hurt to look. If you’re already in KU, you might get some ideas for your next read.
The Ten Thousand Doors of January, Alix E. Harrow, Hachette Book Group, 2019.
January Scaller is a young girl living in the mansion of the insanely wealthy William Cornelius Locke, a mansion packed with valuable collectables from all over the world…and some that apparently don’t belong in this one. Her father, Julian, is an employee of Mr. Locke charged with traveling the world in search of said wondrous objects, so he isn’t home very much. Sometimes Mr. Locke has to travel himself, and sometimes he takes January with him as a treat or distraction.
On one such trip, January finds a doorway between worlds. So much for plot summary, because what happens doesn’t actually tell you what’s happening. That’s a separate issue altogether. Suffice to say there are more doors where that one came from and January’s discovery of them leads into all kinds of trouble, and not just for her.
I picked this one up on the recommendation of people whose taste and judgment I trust. I’m also a sucker for portal fantasies, probably ever since I came across George R.R. Martin’s “The Lonely Songs of Laren Dorr” in Fantastic Stories years ago. This is one of the best ones I’ve ever read. From the first page I knew I was in for a treat, for it was clear the author was a person in love with language, specifically language in the service of story. A sentence might be as long as it needs to be, and sometimes it may be convoluted, but it’s never clumsy. A sort of wordy precision which is almost but not quite a contradiction in terms, and so rare to find.
I don’t think I’m giving too much away to note that January isn’t quite what she seems, but then neither are most of the rest of Harrow’s cast. Of course their secrets are tied to the existence of the doors and the astute reader will winkle most of it out before book’s end, and that’s half the fun. There are elements that wouldn’t be out of place in a horror novel, but this isn’t one. There’s contemplation of the nature of story itself and its role in the world. Not to mention one adventure after another, which are all part of the same adventure: growing up, and self discovery.
Not inaccurate but incomplete. I’m thinking more of an addition rather than a change (although I’m likewise considering some tweaks to the website. Lord knows it could use a refresh).
Ahem. Excuse the tangent. The point I’m getting to is I’m seriously considering starting an email newsletter. And by “seriously considering” I mean yeah, it’s very likely going to happen. Not today, but not the distant future either. Such things require planning to do right which requires time which you’d think I’d have tons of, being largely confined to the house except for necessary errands, and you’d think wrong. There’s always something else I need to be doing aside from what I want to be doing. So it goes…
Sorry. Tangenting again. So here’s the thing: Why a newsletter? What’s wrong with the blog?
Well, lots of things, but that’s not the point, even if the blog isn’t going away. There are advantages to a private email list that a blog doesn’t have, and not just for me. For a start, what if I want to give actual readers a heads-up on a special promotion or giveaway or preliminary book cover, but am not ready to or don’t want to broadcast it to the world? That’s a newsletter’s job.
I’ll give you another example. When I sold “The Fox’s Daughter” to Beneath Ceaseless Skies, I announced it here and over on FB. One of the biggest fans of the Yamada series didn’t see the post, even though we’re FB friends (FB is like that). It took a share from another reader to bring it to their attention. Whereupon they were somewhat put out that they weren’t immediately informed, and can’t say I blame them. When I mentioned a newsletter? They demanded to be signed up first, and when the time comes, so I shall. People are less likely to miss stuff that might interest them that way.
Frequency? Probably once a month or so, at most. And when I say “private” email list, I mean exactly that. I will not sell it and I damn well won’t share it. This is just for you and me, for however many iterations of “you and me” there are. That’s for you all to decide.
There will likely be some bonus for signing up. Haven’t decided what yet. Likely an original work before it’s available anywhere else, that kind of thing. Something else to think about.
So what do you think? Hate newsletters? Love them? What’s a newsletter? Speak now or I’ll likely just do what I want. Very dangerous, that.
Richard Parks 