requested Carter Hall excerpts

[mrissa]

One of you asked a very easy question: "Are you going to post an excerpt from one of the Carter Hall stories so we can see what they're like?" Well, yah, okay:

From "Carter Hall Lights the Lamp," in which Petersson is infested with Jolasveinar and turns to his teammates for help with the Icelandic Christmas mischief-makers:

So there we were, sitting around the fire eating hazelnuts and gingerbread and whacking Christmas goblins whenever they stuck their noses up over the couch. "This rocks," said Antozewski.

The rest of us stared at him.

"No, seriously. What has Christmas been missing all this time?" He clobbered Stick-Splinterer and grinned at us triumphantly. The stick emerged mostly intact, still good enough to whack with. "Violence, man!"

"Oh, yes," said Janet, sticking a thumb in her magic book. "Just what Christmas always needed. A good brawl."

"But it's not a good brawl. It's kind of like an arcade game, but, y'know, a better workout."

"You are insane," said Petersson distinctly.

"Oh, chill, man. Janet will figure something out like she always does --" Janet glared at him. " -- and then they'll start leaving tomorrow! We should do this every year. I hope they come back."

"They can come back to your house," said Petersson.

Janet said, "I've found some protection circles, but they're pretty temporary. We should all be able to sleep. Beyond that -- I'll keep looking. And they'll start to go home, right?"

"Sure," said Petersson. "They always have."

And from "Carter Hall Judges the Lines," in which three strange, beautiful Greek ladies with kids in the peewee league where Carter is a volunteer line judge are showing an inordinate interest in him:

"Who do you want to help, Carter?" said Jasmine.

"Yes, Carter, tell us which you prefer," said Wendy.

Ellen folded her arms.

And the weird part of all this? Was that they didn't seem mad. It was scarier than if they'd seemed mad.

"I -- I want to help the kids, of course," I stammered. "That's why we're here, isn't it? For the kids? Come on now, fellas -- let's do sprints. From the blue line to the blue line. Go!"

Like I said before, it is a pity and a crime not to teach a kid to skate until this age. Nick Konstantinopoulos made the best showing, skating doggedly back and forth. He managed to stay on his feet. His turns were ragged, and he wasn't going to set any records, but we could maybe make something out of that kind of determination. Benedict Kephalas fell several times, but he kept getting up with his little jaw set. I liked that kid.

Eli Petalas fell, ripping his wool mitten on the way. He wailed like a little kid. I mean like a littler kid. The other two boys barely glanced at him in their scorn, but his mom was on the ice in an instant, sliding awkwardly over on her boots to hold his hand in her own. She crooned something over it. Eli kept hollering.

I skated over. "Kid, you gotta cut it out. The other kids are going to think you're a wuss if you carry on like that just 'cause you fell. Look, you're not even bleeding."

"Then why is there blood on the ice?" Jasmine Petalas snapped at me.

I looked down. There was. I looked back up, straight at her gorgeous black eyes. "You tell me," I said.

She opened her mouth and closed it again. "It must have been something else," she said finally. She gave the kid a shove. "Go skate with the others, Eli." He gave her this betrayed look, but she was only paying attention to me. He went.

Comments

[reveritas.livejournal.com]

Sweet, thanks. OK, see, for one, I never knew Carter was an "I." :)

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

For the short stories, yep. The True Tale of Carter Hall will almost certainly need to be in third person -- the parts of it I have written are already -- but Carter's voice was just there, without prompting, and so here we are.

[jenett]

Have I mentioned recently how unreasonably much (or reasonably, actually) I like these stories?

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Good thing. Because you're in "... Judges the Lines," or at least your kindred spirit is: Carter goes into the library to find out about the Trojan War, and the librarian won't stop being youish in my head.

[jenett]

Oh, goodness. I am absolutely delighted. This totally made my day!

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Whew!

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

And you're not the only librarian I know, nor even the librarian I'm closest to -- my brother-substitute greykev is a librarian -- so it's not that my brain thinks all librarians are you. Just, um, this one. In a long blue flowy skirt.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

There are more. There are: two finished and sold
one finished and waiting on the editorial desk
one half-finished
seven planned for before Tam and Janet's kid is born
two more planned for after, possibly more.

So essentially there is a book worth of these short stories, aside from the book that will precede them. All of the stories mentioned above have titles and plots, and Carter's voice flows, so mostly it's a matter of finding time between other projects to sit down and let them out. (Also, since On Spec has so kindly bought the first two, I don't want to send the rest anywhere else before giving On Spec a crack at them, so I don't have a strong incentive to sit down and write them all before other things and then dump them on the editors' desks and say, "Here, figure out which of these you want for the next decade.")

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

[happy icon speaks for itself]

[anniegee.livejournal.com]

Those are just wonderful. I especially like the "Judges the Lines" excerpt, because it sets me to thinking and trying to figure out which kid belongs to which goddess (Eli is obvious, but the others less so).

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Glad you like 'em! Does it help if I tell you that "Kephalas" comes from "head"? I found that out just looking at random Greek surnames. It amused me muchly.

[anniegee.livejournal.com]

It does help! (I found out by googling. Also I could have asked my co-worker, who is Greek and speaks Greek.) And that sorts it all out by process of elimination, though it still leaves me wondering which kid belongs to which mom. But that's ok, I like having puzzles to solve.

I don't suppose either of these are published anywhere? I would love to read the rest.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

"Carter Hall Judges the Lines" isn't even finished yet. "Carter Hall Lights the Lamp" is on the editorial desk at On Spec. On Spec has already published "Carter Hall Recovers the Puck," the first in the series, and they've bought "Carter Hall Sweeps a Path," so that'll be coming out this year.

Judging from e-mailed comments and from reader reactions as I was reading "Carter Hall Recovers the Puck" last year at Minicon, other people are enjoying figuring out the puzzles in at least some of these stories, too. Which makes me happy.

[talimena.livejournal.com]

Oh, so cool. I've been curious about them for ages.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[intrepida.livejournal.com]

Yay! More Carter Hall! *does the happydance*

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[aet.livejournal.com]

Oh, that was fun!

Also, on topic of Xmas. At odd moments my sense of smell flickers in (and out again, unfortunately. I so miss sense of smell!). Couple of days back it was when I were in process of ripping an old cardboard box into stove-suitable bits. I smelled the cardboard-that-has-been-in-not-heated-storage-room smell and my mind perked up: "Oh, Christmas!"

It amused me so much, that for me Christmas smells of old cardboard boxes! But it makes sense - the ornaments were stored in the attic in those cardboard boxes and opening those boxes and decorating the tree WAS important and exiting part of the experience.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Glad you liked!

I know the Christmas smell of cold cardboard. Yes. Definitely.

[aszanoni.livejournal.com]

( from Carter Hall Lights the Lamp: )

I remember reading this. I thought I was gonna hurt myself laughing.

I want to play this video game - no, no. I want the goblins and I want a hockey stick. This just rocked.

I love these stories. I wonder if On Spec does collections... -goes off in a happy haze-

Whoops, I have to escape the resident feathered goblin now.

- Chica

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

So far as I know, On Spec is a magazine not allied with any book publishers, so any collection speculation in the future will probably not feature them prominently.