Home 2010

Year: 2010

Should Old Acquaintance Be Forgot?

  Knight Errant is available for sale. Wow. It’s hard to believe. Taro has been with me a long time, you see. More than…wow. More than fifteen years. He first appeared under a different name and far more bland aspect, in the book about his sister Eve Marcori, former Marine. It wasn’t until years later that he came alive. Oh, I tried. I changed his name. I invented a background for him, more than just “Eve’s long-lost adopted little brother.” I investigated his family, and the years between Eve losing and finding him. I changed his name again. I said he was sneaky and mouthy, but I couldn’t seem to make him be either. So I followed time-honored avoidance techniques, and I moved on. He didn’t matter that much anyway. Minor character. No big. I finished the book. Over years, I edited the book. In my new novelist happy shiny glow, I sent that book off to DAW–all 249,000 words of it. Guess what happened. It took them a week–and some of that was transit time. I got angry. I got determined. I got to writing.

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Don’t Judge a Gift by Its Wrapping

I love Christmas.  It is my favorite time of the year: family, friends, gifts, magic…the snow, the tree, the lights… What isn’t fun for me, though, is wrapping gifts.  In fact, it is so not fun that my gift wrapping skills are legendary.  Mind you, my gifts look fine, but I was born without the Gift Wrapper gene because my gifts are never wrapped perfectly.  There’s always some bumps and the seams aren’t perfectly straight and sometimes my bows are lopsided.  Sometimes, I use handmade tags (from the wrapping paper) and apparently that’s not done.  Oops.  Anyway, my mom and I were discussing what else? but gift wrapping and how awful mine is.  She and my sister have double the Gift Wrapper gene because their gifts are always wrapped perfectly.  There are no ragged seams; the bows are perfect; there are no bumps.  They’re gorgeous.  Works of art.  See, they are into the whole “presentation” thing and it shows.  And that’s really cool…if you’re them.

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Welcome to Turtleduck Press!

  Welcome to the inaugural post of the Turtleduck Press blog! Here we hope to divert, horrify, amuse, and shock you (pick two). We’ll be blogging for your entertainment five times a month. There will also be free short stories going up elsewhere on the site at the beginning of each month when we’re not putting up longer works for sale.

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Who is Siri Paulson?

Siri Paulson writes all over the fantasy and science fiction spectrum, including (so far) secondary-world fantasy, urban fantasy, steampunk, Gothic, historical paranormal, spaceships, and various unholy mashups of these. Siri grew up in Alberta, Canada, but now lives in an old house in Toronto. In her non-writing life, she is an editor of non-fiction. Her other current passion is contra dance, a type of folk dance done to live Celtic and roots music. Her favourite places in the world are the Canadian Rocky Mountains and a little valley at the end of a fjord in Norway. Siri is the chief editor at Turtleduck Press.

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Who is Erin Zarro?

Erin Zarro is an indie novelist and poet living in Michigan. She’s married to her Prince Charming, and she has a feline child named Hailey who she’s convinced is part vampire. She loves all things scary and spooky, and is on a mission to scare herself, as nothing lately has scared her. She writes in the genres of sci-fi, fantasy, and horror. Her first published novel, Fey Touched, is a blend of sci-fi and fantasy. She is currently working on Book 3 of her Fey Touched series, Ever Touched, and is trying to stay out of trouble. Mostly. Her website is at erinzarro.com.  

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Who is Kit Campbell?

Kit Campbell used to be an aerospace engineer, but it turns out that there’s a lot less launching of awesome things into space and a lot more paperwork than one would think. She figured that if she was going to be dealing with all that paper anyway, she would rather work on her own projects instead. Kit writes science fiction, fantasy, and related speculative fiction when she’s not terrorizing the Internet with landsquid and folding plesiosaurs. Which she often is. The Internet deserves it.

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Hidden Worlds

  The greatest part of belonging to the Spork Room – a magical writing community – is the Door, through which all stories ever written and yet to be written come to life. There is only one rule: Always tell someone before you go through. But Margery is in a tough place in her story and she really needs to know how this scene goes. No one’s around. Surely it won’t hurt anything to go in by herself just for a few minutes… Click here for a short from the same universe.  

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Life as a Moving Target Excerpt

ESSENCE I ask myself:what is the essence of me? Is it in each heartbeat and breath I take,or is it the invisible, the intangible, the something, my soul?They probe every darkened corner of my brain,they navigate the vast map of neurons, synapses, memory. They record every beat of my heart, my voice, my echo. They search for that something, the elusive malfunction,what resonates within the vessel walls, what reverberates,what stops. They use big words to describethe most mundane of things. But within each new word lies not one clue,not one answer to one very important question. To map and study my internal workingsis not an accurate representationof the essence of me. My something. So, I walk through shadows, and watch thelights dance for me in the most mundane places. I live my days always falling, never stilled, never without motion. I collect names of ailments and bury themalong with soured fragments of hope I once carried. I watch as my world gets dimmer and my balance fails me. I wrap myself in promises that snap shut, answers that may never reveal themselves. I hope to find the one thing that I cannot touch: the Truth.     Return to Life as a Moving Target page.

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Life as a Moving Target

    Life as a Moving Target is a poetry chapbook that explores living with fibromyalgia and intractable vertigo, from onset of symptoms to getting a diagnosis. Also the aftermath, learning to cope and manage the condition. Poems of hope, courage, and strength of spirit. Read an excerpt here. Buy the softcover here. Purchase the Kindle edition here. (If you do not own a Kindle, the software is available for free.) View the estore here.

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