Instead of a blog post today, we bring you some exciting news: Turtleduck Press is expanding, and we want YOU! Starting in May, we will be looking for new members. If you’re a writer of science fiction, fantasy, or speculative fiction, you have a polished novel manuscript, and you’re interested in joining a publishing co-op, we’d love to hear from you. We’ll be opening to submissions shortly — stay tuned for details!
Hi, folks! It’s your international correspondent here…except I’m not so international anymore. My big trip is over and I’m back in my own North American urban life. More or less, anyway. Travel changes the traveler. I’m not quite the same person I was when I left, and that means my sense of home isn’t quite the same, either. Everything’s just slightly off-kilter. For example, I no longer take for granted: electricity that works all the time — in Kerala, India, power outages were common, and in Kathmandu, Nepal, the power was turned off for eight hours a day sidewalks and sane traffic — throughout Asia, sidewalks were sketchy and traffic operated by no natural laws that I was familiar with equality of women — on a more serious note, in a lot of India we saw very few women driving vehicles, working with the public, or walking around after dark
Due to some health issues, I’ve been forced to take a hiatus from writing. To most people, that wouldn’t sound like a bad thing. It could be a chance to recharge and rest after working so hard for a year to release my debut novel, Fey Touched. But for me, it is huge. Ginormous. Life-altering. Because apart from illness, surgery, and vacations, I have written every day for 9 years. It is so ingrained in me that I couldn’t imagine how I’d manage it. It was beyond me. I have, but not without bumps and a bit of muse-fueled insanity thrown in.
Hm. I almost hate to break KD’s combo. Anyway, my dear friends, I’m going to let you in on a secret. Our December release? It’s mine. Shhh. Don’t tell anyone. (Yes, we have our releases planned out a year, year and a half in advance. That gives us time to do the editing, re-writing, marketing, etc., needed to make sure we’re putting out good books. And that’s before we let Siri at them.)
Alternatively titled Why the main character of Captain’s Boy isn’t gay when the rest of the main characters in the Dream’verse are. I’ve had a few readers express surprise at this choice, so I thought I’d address the situation here. Remember way back when, at the very beginning of Turtleduck Press? I wrote the “About Us” copy, and I said “writers don’t like to write in boxes.” That’s why. … Well, I guess I can expand on that. Looking at everything I’ve ever finished, I can see that I enjoy writing relationships where no one involved knows “the rules.” Or perhaps I should say, the roles. In the first and second (still unpublished) novels in the Dream’verse, Eve is the fierce protector of kind, nurturing Ben. In Captain’s Boy, the third novel† in the Dream’verse, Donte and Selene—well, carefully vague so as not to spoil things, but Selene is also the protector, though Donte is the more skilled fighter.
A novel of the Dream’verse Donte spent his teen years orphaned and homeless in a snowbound smuggler’s port. Now he’s a university student. The hot meals are nice and everything is warmer on his new planet, but life among people is so much more complicated. With only two friends—young Jordan whom Donte tutors and the fiery Selene who shares his table in the coffeehouse—Donte has things somewhat under control, but still he struggles with both unfriendly and friendly people, and he can’t shake the feeling that he’s getting it all wrong.None of that matters after Jordan is stolen by slavers. Donte enlists Selene to help rescue the boy, and when Jordan is taken off-planet Donte and Selene follow. But determination and luck can only get them so far, and the closer the pair come to Jordan, the nearer they get to Donte’s deepest fears, and a past he’d worked to hide from everyone—especially himself.Donte knows all too well the horrors Jordan faces, but when his secrets are dragged into an open courtroom, will Donte find the strength to speak the truth and save the boy?