​The Wind-Witch returns to print and e-books!

Warp and weft must cross, or there’s no cloth…
   The orderly threads of Druyan’s life are dyed the colors of duty and obedience: to father, mother, family, husband, custom. So she does not whistle up the wind, though she knows she has the gift. So she pretends that Valadan is only an old black horse, not the fabled Warhorse of Esdragon her grandfather Leith rode. She marries a farmer, and weaves fine cloth from the wool of his sheep.
   Now a wild thread intrudes into the tapestry of Druyan’s quiet life: raiders from across the Great Sea, pillaging the towns of the Duchy of Esdragon, make her a widow. One raider, captive, offers the chance to save all she holds dear—her farm at Splaine Garth and the lives on it, her freedom from forced re-marriage, the land of Esdragon itself. But Kellis is a tangled thread of secrets, guilt and enchantment, not to be trusted.
   Druyan has spent her life doing what others said was right. Now, obedience may cost dear. Storm winds will come to her call—but will she dare what she must, to save Esdragon?
 
   This is the book that made the Long List for the Tiptree Award, in 1993. I only heard about that late in 2017, when someone googled me and mentioned it offhandedly.  At the time it first came out, there was no social media, and few reviews of genre books. I knew it got at least five printings, but I really had no idea whether anyone was reading it, liked it. It still went out of print, despite having the best cover art of any of my Del Rey books—I saw the original Don Maitz painting in the World Fantasy Art Show, and was appropriately blown away. It’s the book I’d be happiest to live in, myself.

   I really didn’t think I was doing anything unusual—or Tiptree-worthy—when I created Druyan. I have always had female characters who respond strongly to being told what to do: Elisena in Wizard’s Destiny simply lifts her chin, and Tristan steps back to watch the show from a safe distance. Lowise in Thistledown cries “No!” and runs away. Kess in The Prince of Ill Luck will cry “No!” and hand you your head. I was very intentional about following up Kessallia with a woman who would have driven Kess absolutely crazy. Druyan, as youngest daughter to her father’s succession of three wives, has always had endless people with the right to order her behavior: father, mother, all of her older brothers and sisters, aunts, uncles, husband. “You can’t have that horse.” “Women don’t whistle up a wind.”  “Don’t open that root cellar.” “Don’t trust strangers.” Druyan is used to backing down, to saying “yes” when she means “no.” And then…I put her back against the wall. I made her…not Esdragon’s last hope—but the rider of the Warhorse of Esdragon. And I watched with delight to see when she’d finally be forced to say “No!”

   I had to recreate a digital file of a book done originally on my IBM Selectric, preparing for the novel’s re-release, and some of the editing is wondering why I didn’t choose this word over that…well, what’s effortless and endless and undo-able on a computer was another thing entirely on a typewritten manuscript. Sometimes it was more.  For instance: I could tell that when I wrote The Wind Witch, I had only woven on my Better Homes & Gardens 18” rigid heddle loom, as I had not yet purchased my floor loom, a vintage Union 36 carpet loom. (I call her Penelope, after my favorite mythical weaver. Which makes the rigid heddle, which travels easily, Odysseus, of course.) So I gave Druyan a loom I had seen in the Otter Creek Store, but had certsinly not woven on.
   Now, I have much more weaving experience, and any weaving in this book is informed by that. My Union loom is pine or possibly maple. Druyan’s is cherry, and has eight harnesses where my Union has two. That’s why she can weave fancy patterns I can only describe. She has a small wheel for spinning flax and a Walking Wheel for wool-spinning, besides her drop spindles.
   I have never actually spun on a wheel, but my drop spindling is worlds beyond what it was in the 1990s. I am a veteran of two Spinzillas now, and have gone from ¾ of a mile spun and plied the first year to a mile and a quarter—the Derby distance—in 2017s week of handspinning. Since discovering the Lake MetroParks FarmPark in Chardon, Ohio, I’ve had access to fleeces of all sorts, which I process and dye and spin. I love spinning Jacob wool, and a Cheviot-cross that’s a new ram for the FarmPark flock. (I just purchased Chevvy's 2018 fleece--all 10.5 pounds of it!)

   Remember fidget spinners? Well, my fidget spinner makes yarn!

Just in time for Confluence, Thistledown is now available in trade paperback. Teddi Black did an amazing job of transforming the e-book cover into a front and back, still featuring my pastel painting of a unicorn. I will at least have proof copies at the convention, but I stand in awe of the leap forward in technology that allowed me to have the book in my hand nine days after I uploaded the interior file to Createspace.

Moonshine came to be because a well-known children’s publisher told my agent they’d consider a mid-grade book, preferably with a unicorn in it. They had liked Thistledown rather well, but felt it was “too old” for their readers.

I won’t pretend I studied up on just what a mid-grade book was, or set out to write one. I chose to tell an early adventure of Tristan’s, of the time when he and Thomas first met. And the well-known publisher decided the time wasn’t right to add a hardcover fantasy to their line. So Moonlight became an early Print On Demand book from Wildside Press in 2001.

I hope you will agree that it’s a tale readers of all ages will enjoy!
Kindle edition launched April 3, with a cover by Teddi Black. Wildside Press will be doing a new paperback edition, before this year's World Fantasy Convention.

Sidebar: if you bought any of my e-books right after they came out, are maybe just now getting around to reading them  and are disappointed in the covers or the formatting--please know that those issues have been addressed, and all the books have new covers. Download the updated version.

   I have improved the formatting of Thistledown for Kindle and Nook and since I just painted a large pastel of a unicorn, I’m going to add a new cover by Teddi Black. We plan to have new, really cool promotional bookmarks ready for the Bridgewater BookFest on September 14th.

   I still believe in my heart that Thistledown can find traditional YA publication—even in these days of teen vamps, were-everythings, avatars and Game of Thrones wannabes, there is room for the kind of Fantasy that led me into the field in the first place. (And let me just say here, I am a huge Game of Thrones fan—the books, and the HBO series, not entirely the same critter at all, no indeed. Books, always give the fuller experience. TV can rise and fall on the casting and costumes.) Not every reader likes to read the same thing

No fanfare. I had the proof ordered before I went to New York, and Teddi and I did such a good job on the pre-production, there were no changes. I approved the proof, and for the first time Book Four of The Warhorse of Esdragon is available in print! Look for it at my signings, or on Amazon.

   I don’t even remember where my first Confluence was. I know who hooked me up with con programming: the Keith brothers, Bill and Andrew. I met them at a mass signing in Greensburg, and it was sometime around the time Pittsburgh Magazine interviewed me. My first Confluence may have been 1996.

   Anyway, I’ve gone with the con to Mars (Cranberry), Moon (township) Downtown (expensive parking), Mars (Cranberry again), Moon (off Enterprise Drive in the RIDIC Park) and Moon (University Boulevard)

   I regret to say, this year’s Confluence, the 25th, has been cancelled. (Hotel was sold out from under them, to become dormitory space for Robert Morris University.) Will Confluence be back next year? Almost certainly. But I’m sad for this year: Bill Keith was set for Guest of Honor, I finally have both a website and a blog, and I was going to launch The Wandering Duke there with a draft cider klatch. (No, I did not inflict a curse upon the con when they left me out of the con program book last year!)
   I am very close to bringing The Wandering Duke out on CreateSpace. Here's the map!

   Can’t wait to share this! After a couple of years available as an e-book, The Wandering Duke will be coming to Amazon CreateSpace. I am preparing the interior file now, the map is taking shape in my head—and most importantly, the cover is done!

   I can’t thank Teddi Black enough for steering me in a fresh direction. Since my intention is to bring out the other Warhorse of Esdragon books, we knew we needed a series look, something distinct from the Wizard’s Destiny trilogy—though those books also contain Valadan, Tristan’s story is their true focus. Scene specific art wasn’t working, and so I designed a graphic I call the Warhorse Wheel. It’s based on a banner design I made years ago, versatile enough to use many ways. Here’s its first appearance.