Archive | November 2015

Distributing Self-Pub books via Little Free Libraries and the like?

Nov5

I was thinking the other day (while passing the Friends of the Library book sale building), that many people advise getting your book out there by donating it to libraries, which is problematic – library donations often just end up at book sales like that (and then sometimes in dumpsters from there); libraries have limited space and the books they keep on their shelves are curated, and so on. There is a five-post guest article on this in my archives – http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/tag/info:+library and scroll down a couple posts – by eseme.

But!

Little Free Libraries have none of that, including a budget. If you had a map of their libraries in your area and a stack of your books, you could seed them throughout the area. Road trip and slide ’em in on the way. Like very map-based suburban/urban geocaching? “Oh, we’re going to be in boston, let’s check out their little free libraries while we’re there.”

…I need a book to drop off at the local LFL.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1005124.html. You can comment here or there.

Edally Academy Chapter 10A: Gather Round Now Children, Hear My Song

Nov5

Saydrie looked at Taikie and Enrie with a look so worried and so desperate, it made Enrie’s chest clench and her throat tighten. She nodded slowly. “We trust you, Sayrie. I promise I won’t doubt you.”

“I – I trust you.” Taikie sounded less certain, but she had been the one following Saydrie

Read on:
http://www.edallyacademy.com/2015/11/04/10agather/

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1004339.html. You can comment here or there.

Into Lannamer First and Last lines, 4th day of nano

Nov4

First line of today, Into Lannamer:
He gaped at her. “I want to go home. I’m the-”

Last line of today, Into Lannamer:
“It’s like throwing a blanket over a goat and pretending it’s a table. But if you add enough blankets, even a goat-herder might be fooled.”

628 words today, 3292 words running total on Into Lannamer.

A grand total of 1,283 words today, bringing the total to 7,585.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1004847.html. You can comment here or there.

Into Lannamer First and Last lines, 3rd day of nano

Nov4

First line of yesterday, Into Lannamer:
It was a good choice

Last line of yesterday, Into Lannamer:
She settled cross-legged with her knees nearly touching his, so that she, at least, didn’t need to raise her voice.

808 words yesterday, 2664 words running total on Into Lannamer.

A grand total of 1,655 words yesterday, bringing the total to 6,302. Whee!

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1004059.html. You can comment here or there.

Through Another Door

Nov4

There were people waiting for them when Alexa opened the door.

It was certainly not the first time that had happened. They’d run into hostiles a time or two, scientists on one memorable occasion, and there had been the time the door had opened into someone’s bathroom.

(If Door-hopping ever became a proper mode of exploration, there would have to be some sort of note sent around about remodeling.)

But this time they opened the door into an attic and two children, one snatching her hand back as if she’d been about to open the same door. They were dressed in school uniforms; the boy had a black eye and the girl two scraped knees. They were, not surprisingly, staring at the team.

“You are most definitely not Aslan.” The girl had a working-class London accent and a very withering glare.

Alexa opened her mouth, momentarily at a loss for a reply.

“No.” Josie stepped forward, her voice carrying gravitas like Alexa had never heard. “One of the truths about such portals as this is that they rarely, if ever, open to the same world twice. But there are other portals out there, and they will take you to many places.”

“Be careful-” Cole began, and then trailed off, at a loss for once in his life.

Aerich stepped up, his voice stentorian and serious. “-for there are monsters and dangerous people through many doorways, and you will not always be given a guide.”

Peter said nothing. His meters were beeping and whirring away.

“Good travels.” Alexa bowed to them. “And may the Door always lead you home when you need it to.”

Peter’s meters clicked; they had all the data they needed. Alexa shut the door firmly, holding the girl’s eyes until the door and the world was closed.

“HQ would have loved them.” Cole’s voice was surprisingly bland.

Alexa was equally surprised to find her own voice vehement. “HQ can go fuck themselves until those kids are adults. Let them explore while they still have wonder.”

“They might die, you know.” Josie was back to sounding stoned and dreamy. It made the sentence she’d uttered even more creepy.

For once, it was Aerich who defended her. “They might. And they will then have died exploring. Let them live, as Alexa said. Time enough for HQ and such things later.”

“Makes you wish, doesn’t it?” Peter finally looked up from his machines. “Sort of makes you wish we were young enough to see the world like they do.”

Facets of Dusk has a landing page here

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1003850.html. You can comment here or there.

Into Lannamer First and Last lines, 2nd day of nano

Nov3

First line of today, Into Lannamer:
“The remaining army will need translators and, mm, cultural interpreters.”

Last line of today, Into Lannamer:
… or risk his own life by starting to complain again.

803 words yesterday, 1856 words running total on Into Lannamer.

A grand total of 1531 words yesterday, bringing the total to 4647. Whee!

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1003711.html. You can comment here or there.

A Tale of the Circled Plain (beginning): Meeting

Nov3

The woman who bought Saffron had sat behind a screen for the questioning and auction process. She had insisted Saffron be blindfolded once purchased and bound, wrists to thighs, so there was no chance of messing with the blindfold as she led Saffron by the arm to her home.

Thus, Saffron had very little to go on. Her voice was smooth and sweet, her laughter easy and not so unkind as some. Her diction was easy to understand, her words simple, not the convoluted mess many inner circle people spoke. And she lived close enough to the auction center to walk home, which meant she was either in the Second circle or very close of the walls in either First or Third.

Most importantly, she owned Saffron now. She’d bought the contract, and for the next ten years, Saffron would be her Servitor, to do whatever she wished, whatever she commanded.

“Stairs,” she murmured. They were the first words she’d spoken since leaving the auction hall. Saffron let a shin hit the first stair and climbed up carefully, trying not to lean on the woman. “Just a couple more. There.”

Was she going to leave the blindfold on forever? The inner circles had some odd habits, Saffron had heard. The Flow changed them, the way it changed everyone, but some people said that the Inner circles were more twisted, far further from normal than the outer circles. Was she afraid he would freak out? Afraid he couldn’t handle her? It was far too late for any of that now.

“And here. And a few steps.” She steered Saffron down a hallway, or what could be assumed to be a hallway at least. A door opened. “Here, sit.”

Saffron sat. There was a chair there, soft and cozy. From the sounds of things, the woman sat as well.

“Saffron Techon. Normally by the time people get to four syllables, they’ve picked a gender for at least one of them.”

Saffron coughed. “Hadn’t decided yet.”

“Well, I suppose that’s a sort of decision in itself. Tell me, Saffron, why did you decide to become a Servus?”

Saffron’s gesture was cut short by the chains. “Like this, I wouldn’t survive long out on the Tenth Circle. Too skinny, too weak.”

“Mmm.” Her tone of voice suggested she agreed with that assessment. “And do you think, then, that the Second Circle will be that much safer for you?” There was danger in her voice that hadn’t been there before.

The blindfold was suddenly a shield, suddenly all that stood between Saffron and terror. A swallow did nothing to clear the lump in Saffron’s throat. “Ma’am?”

If only running was an option.

The Circled Plain has a landing page here

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1003442.html. You can comment here or there.

Priorities

Nov2

Laurelia was in the library when the lady found her. She was deep into the science section, reading up on botulism and how to avoid it when your only food source was Mystery Cans Of Food From Before The War, taking notes and wishing (privately, because she’d never admit it out loud), that she’d paid more attention in class before the school blew up.

The polite clearing of a throat was so out-of place, she didn’t register it as real at first. It was her imagination, a librarian who was offended at her note-taking or the way she’d made a nest out of the books. It was that teacher she’d been ignoring back in classes – Mrs. Enil.

The second throat-clearing made her look up. There, in clothes that were clean and tidy – brown pants and a white silk shirt, boots and a jaunty hat – with her hair pulled back in a low bun and even her make-up perfect, was a librarian, offended at her note-taking.

Laurelia went back to her book. Clearly, she was going nuts.

“Laurelia Dziedzic, daughter of Amie Sanchez-Dziedzic?”

“Hallucinations are not supposed to know my name,” she informed the librarian. “Much less my… do you know where my mother is?” If it did, she could forgive it being a clean and well-dressed hallucination.

“I’m afraid not. However, your mother, when you were born, signed you up for an exclusive school some distance away from here, and, as fate would have it, the school is still intact.”

She looked up at the hallucination. She might not have imagined a librarian with such a wild look about her, just held in by the professional outfit. She might not have imagined an exclusive school. “Slavers.”

“I promise you, there are no slavers working for or employing my school, nor working with them.”

Promises were important. “Is there food?”

“There is good food. Safe food.” The librarian looked both amused and concerned. “Will you come with me, Laurelia?”

“You promise on the food?” She was already shelving the book on botulism.

“I promise there is good and safe food where we are going.”

“Then let’s go.”

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1002799.html. You can comment here or there.

A Bear in Winter – a story of the Aunt Family for Patreon (free to everyone)

Nov1

A Bear In Winter



Rosaria is known in the family for her fairy tales, in all of which you can find a thread – or sometimes a hole tapestry – of truth. On occasion, Rosaria deigns to write down one of her tales. This is one, and I won’t say that it’s true or that it’s not, simply that this is how she chose to write it.

The bear had been coming around for quite some time before he vanished.

Nieves and Rosa called him that – at first it had been their private joke, but as time went on, they liked to tease him with it. It wasn’t that he was so very hairy, but he’d been wearing a dark brown coat when they first found him wandering in the snow, and his hair and his beard were long and tangled.

They lived alone with their widowed mother…

Read on…

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1002690.html. You can comment here or there.