All Posts By

Angela Korra'ti

Boosting the Signal: Asylum, by Various Authors, Post No. 3

Welcome to the third post in this special Boosting the Signal feature week for the 2015 NIWA anthology, Asylum! This post is featuring NIWA member Madison Keller, who I hope to feature in another forthcoming post for her novel Flower’s Fang. Till then, she’s in the anthology with her story “Clary’s Asylum”. And if I had to hazard a guess about Clary’s goal, based on this snippet, I’d say she’s got a real tough time on her hands protecting a certain book!

Asylum

Clary struggled against the straps of the gurney as the paramedics lifted her into the ambulance. The girl she’d saved, Rael, had already been taken away by another ambulance, which had sped off lights flashing and siren blaring, only a few minutes earlier.

Her friend Gunny, a retired Marine, watched from the dock, a broken cigar clamped in his teeth. Water still dripped from his diving suit and the spear-gun he still had a death grip on. Clary could see her watertight diving bag, which contained her spell book, potions, and protective amulets, lay abandoned on the dock behind him.

Gunny shifted, spat out the remains of the cigar into the ocean. “Clary, don’t you worry. These nice men will get you better, get you making sense again.”

The straps that held her arms thwarted most of her spells. She chanted anyway, feeling the magic surge through her like burning night. At the height of the surge she bit down hard on her tongue. The spell snapped out, inflicting the pain she was feeling ten-fold on the paramedic closest to her. He cried out and fell back, blood dripping from the side of his mouth.

“Gunny,” Clary screamed, twisting her head to keep his face in view. “Blue water black night hides their eyes. The stars are still right. Protect the book-”

While she’d been talking a paramedic had inserted a needle into her arm. Clary’s speech slurred and she drifted away into slumber. Her last thought before she went under was escape.

Buy the Book: Amazon (Kindle) | Amazon (Paperback) | Kobo

Follow Madison Keller On: Official Site | Facebook

Follow NIWA On: Official Site | Facebook | Twitter

December 9, 2015 by Angela Korra'ti

Nethack

Immediate things observed in Nethack 3.6 (mild spoilers)

With the news of Nethack 3.6 releasing this week, I naturally had to scamper home and plunk that puppy onto my Macbook. And wake up Natil the Ranger again!

The general buzz is that the featureset of the game has not changed hugely. However, just by a couple of casual runs with it tonight, I have noticed some obvious changes. Spoilers behind the fold if you don’t want to know and would rather figure these things out by playing yourself!

December 8, 2015 by Angela Korra'ti

Nethack

Holy crap Nethack finally put out a new version!

For those of you who didn’t just see me gasp about this on the social networks, Dara just gave me the heads up: Nethack, which has been lying apparently idle for years, has actually released a new version. 3.6.0. NETHACK LIVES!

Those of you who have followed me long enough to have seen me post on LJ or on my annathepiper.org blog may recall that I have played this game off and on over the years, ever since 198-freggin’-7. I’ve beaten it only twice, once way back on version 2.something-or-other, before they even implemented any stats besides Strength, and back when all you had to do to beat the game was get out of the dungeon with the Amulet of Yendor. And I beat it once after that, as chronicled on LJ here, in the saga “Norse Girl Makes Good”.

I’d been wondering whether we were actually going to see a new version, since earlier this year, I saw nethack.org get updated with a notice from the Dev Team that unauthorized versions had leaked into the wild. And now apparently the wait is over. From what I’m seeing on the download page, we have official binaries available for Windows (modern versions of Windows, 7 through 10), and OS X (which they’re saying should include 10.7 and later). I’m not seeing references to official Linux binaries or packages yet, but I daresay it’ll be inevitable that packages will start showing up in Linux releases, and the source code is also available for those of you who are ambitious enough to do your own compiling.

RIGHT THEN. Looks like I’m going to have to break out Natil the Ranger again. Those grid bugs ain’t gonna zap themselves!

(And yay I get to break out my Nethack LJ and Dreamwidth icons again!)

(Does Nethack count as a casual game? Technically it might, but as anyone who’s ever played this thing knows, there is not a damn thing casual about a serious game of Nethack. ;D )

December 8, 2015 by Angela Korra'ti

Boosting the Signal

Boosting the Signal: Asylum, by Various Authors, Post No. 2

The special Boosting the Signal feature week for the NIWA 2015 Anthology Asylum continues! Today’s post is a piece from author William J. Cook. In his story “The Last Refuge”, Qunbula, a splinter group from Al-Qaeda, has destroyed Seattle in a nuclear holocaust. A firestorm of anti-Islamic hysteria is sweeping the country, and the newly established Patriots Administration is rounding up Muslims on the west coast and confining them to prison camps in Montana and Wyoming. Hamza, the registrar at a community college near Portland, is on the run with a very straightforward goal: trying to survive as he grapples with the growing virulence around him, even from children. A very timely story, I feel!

Asylum

Lunch in the Burger King was terrifying. He knew his American history. A dark-skinned man huddled in the corner with a suitcase? He imagined sitting at the counter of a whites-only diner in 1950 Alabama. Children were the worst. While grownups would usually look away when they saw his darker skin and hair, children would stare at him and point. They had already been taught profiling by their parents.

“He’s one of them, Momma, I just know it,” a tow-haired boy about his daughter’s age whispered loudly, while tugging at his mother’s sleeve.

Hamza hunkered down lower and rushed to finish his sandwich and fries. This is my country! he thought helplessly, eager to get out from under the watchful gaze of the unforgiving child. I’m an American citizen! I served in the Army! But something vital had ruptured, some organic kinship with this boy and his mother had dissolved. The threat these people felt from all things Muslim was projected onto Hamza. Soon someone would stand up and point an outstretched arm at him, shouting imprecations at the stranger in their midst. He envisioned uniformed Patriots crashing through the glass doors, guns raised.

Through it all he imagined his daughter’s confused face, her eyebrows arching, her lips quivering. “Why Daddy? Why don’t they like us anymore? I go to school with them. We play jump rope and volleyball together. They came to my birthday party.”

“Why Daddy?”

How could he have explained this dark secret, this violence at the heart of things, to a ten-year-old girl—or to his wife for that matter? Despite his grief, he was glad he would never have to.

In a moment, he was up and hurrying out of the restaurant. In his haste, he caught his suitcase in the double doors and the clatter drew all eyes to him. He saw several people reach for their cell phones.

Again he ran.

Buy the Book: Amazon (Kindle) | Amazon (Paperback) | Kobo

Follow William J. Cook On: Official Site | Blog

Follow NIWA On: Official Site | Facebook | Twitter

December 8, 2015 by Angela Korra'ti

Publishing

Barnes and Noble is not filling me with confidence

Over on Dear Author this morning, on their morning news roundup post, I spotted this New York Times article about the new CEO of Barnes and Noble and what his goals are for the chain. There are two general points of interest for me in this article, both of which make me look askance at B&N’s entire modus operandi these days.

First one:

To that end, Mr. Boire is leading a push to rebrand Barnes & Noble as more than just a bookstore by expanding its offerings of toys, games, gadgets and other gifts and reshaping the nation’s largest bookstore chain into a “lifestyle brand.”

As one of Dear Author’s commenters pointed out, exactly whose lifestyle is B&N aiming to represent here? Do they have anything more specific in mind there than “people who are actually willing to set foot in our stores and give us money”? Because I certainly haven’t seen much in the way of actual focus here.

And the other bit I want to call out:

Still, the company’s struggles are probably far from over. Barnes & Noble has been battered by Amazon, its powerful online rival, and has incurred big financial losses from its largely failed attempt to carve out territory in the e-book space with the Nook. While the company posted lower losses in its Nook division in the most recent quarter, sales were still disappointing, as the Nook segment tumbled 31.9 percent to $43.5 million, primarily because of lower digital content sales.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: look, B&N, your ebook sales might not have tanked if you hadn’t unilaterally screwed up the entire experience of buying ebooks on your site when you overhauled it this past summer. I haven’t bought a single ebook from B&N since that site update. It is directly responsible for me shifting the majority of my ebook purchases over to Kobo, with a side helping of Smashwords and Amazon for indie authors.

In other words, if you make it teeth-grindingly impossible for customers to buy digital content on your site, you know what’s going to happen? They’re not going to buy digital content from you.

The Digital Reader had some recent B&N news too. And what made me raise my eyebrows there was that apparently, B&N is now selling pasta. Pasta. Seriously?

Because, as one of the Digital Reader’s commenters pointed out, when I want to buy pasta, I think B&N!

If you need me, I’ll be over here facepalming.

And, for that matter, buying all my future print book purchases at Third Place Books.

December 7, 2015 by Angela Korra'ti

Boosting the Signal

Boosting the Signal: Asylum, by Various Authors, Post No. 1

Normally I run Boosting the Signal posts on Fridays when I have them to run. But since I’m a member of NIWA, and NIWA does a yearly anthology, I’m running a special feature week to highlight the 2015 NIWA anthology! It’s called Asylum, and features stories by both NIWA and non-NIWA authors, all along the theme of the anthology title. Today’s Boosting the Signal post features a piece from Jeffrey Cook and Katherine Perkins to highlight their story “Bedlam Asylum”. Of this story, Jeffrey says that it’s set one month after their novel Foul is Fair, and it’s a strategic analysis of the emotional needs of disabled pixie Ashling. And as you might guess, Ashling’s goal is pretty much what the anthology says on the tin: asylum.

Asylum

Humans mistake pixies for butterflies and sprites for moths. Pixies travel and work in glimmers; sprites, in murmurs.

Pixie magic focuses on locations, and sprite magic focuses on events, but the important thing is that it’s always done together.

Ashling’s wings were torn years ago. She relies on a service crow just to fly at all. Her glimmer left her behind a long time ago. She’s worked mostly alone with her crow, or with people fifty times her size. She says she’s fine. She’s lying. Who knows if her friends can tell, but any pixie or sprite could.

An outcast sprite and an outcast pixie will understand each other in ways a half-human sidhe princess and a half-menehune will never fathom, no matter how good of friends they all are.

But Ashling is friends with the princess. The princess whose little clique in Seattle is safely off-limits from Faerie conflict for the rest of the season.

Ashling needs not to be alone anymore, and that’s all the ‘in’ a sprite looking to be granted asylum could ask for.

Buy the Book: Amazon (Kindle) | Amazon (Paperback) | Kobo

Follow Jeffrey Cook On: Official Site | Dawn of Steam Trilogy Facebook Page | Facebook | Twitter

Follow NIWA On: Official Site | Facebook | Twitter

December 7, 2015 by Angela Korra'ti

Boosting the Signal

Boosting the Signal: Vicious Circle, by Elle E. Ire

If you pay regular attention to my postings, you know I’ve got a bit of a soft spot for female assassin characters (two words: Black Widow). And if you’ve been following Boosting the Signal, you also know that QUILTBAG books are highly relevant to my interests as well. What happens when you put these two things together? You get today’s featured book: Elle E. Ire’s SF romance Vicious Circle. The author has an excerpt from the work for your consideration today, introducing the assassin Cor–whose goal is to decide between fleeing her Guild, and seeking a life with the woman she’s coming to love. But things are complicated, for Kila’s hired Cor to kill her abusive brother, and surely she won’t want a relationship with the woman who carried out that death for her. Or will she? Check it out!

Vicious Circle

I spent a restless night on the too-firm couch with a couple of neon pink throw pillows under my head. In the darkness, the house creaked and groaned with each gust of wind off the bay, and I wondered how many generations of her family had lived here. Kila left the window open, and the smell of salt air carried on the breeze. Desert-raised as I was, the ocean attracted me as any novelty would, and I strained my ears to hear each lapping wave against the village docks.

The moonlight shining through the shutters lit the entire suite in shades of bluish white. Kila’s shadowy form tossed and turned on her wide mattress, and I resisted the urge to go to her and offer comfort from her nightmares. After all, there was a good chance my upcoming mission here caused them. She might reject or resent my concern. At last, she settled and snored lightly in a most endearing manner.

I strangled in my own needs, inner voices of reason and desire arguing amongst themselves until I wanted to shout them down regardless of waking the household. What in all religions’ hells was I thinking, anyway? Suppose Kila did want me, with all my violent traits and psychological failings. Suppose I slipped into bed beside her right now. What then? I came to do a job. Though I didn’t intend to be seen or get caught, once that job ended, I couldn’t exactly take off with the girl in tow. She didn’t deserve a life of running with me, hiding from the Guild’s punishments.

And I certainly couldn’t stay on Lissex.

Could I?

For years, I belonged to the Guild. They provided a sense of family and stability. I needed that, wanted that, and hadn’t had it since I’d left. Kila’s parents might accept me if I proved myself to them. It was just another type of trial, not so much unlike those the Guild subjected me to. Less painful, less physical, but no less challenging.

I stood and paced in the darkness, bare feet sinking into plush carpeting. I’d lost my mind. I couldn’t stay here. Kila wouldn’t want me after I killed her brother, no matter how much relief that act gave her. I’d still be a painful memory. And what if the Guild found me here? They’d out me as an assassin, make it obvious I was the one who killed her brother. They’d ignore Kila. They didn’t harm innocents. But she’d watch them hunt and capture me, perhaps kill me before they could haul me back to the underground fortress to execute me there. I didn’t want her to see that.

Throwing myself on the couch again, I buried my face in the pink pillows and covered my head with my arms.

Follow the Author On: Official Site | Facebook

December 4, 2015 by Angela Korra'ti

Older Posts

Newer Posts