Homecoming Waltz

[mrissa]

I have a new story up at Tor.com, Uncle Flower's Homecoming Waltz. Go for the prose, stay for the pretty picture! Seriously, I love the illustration they gave me. It is awesome. It is simultaneously well-executed and--get this--directly relevant to the story. I have been sitting on this lovely illustration all month and hugging it gently to myself, because it popped up in my Google Alert at the beginning of the month.

Yet to come today: reporting in on the Official Rest Period and books read therein. (Short version: vertigo sucks and books do not.)

Also it is my grandfather's birthday. I miss him so much. I'm glad to have good things happening on his birthday.

Comments

[genevra.livejournal.com]

It's a lovely story, like all of yours! It feels more like the introduction to a novel than a short story - there's more there and I want to read it. :)

[tiger-spot.livejournal.com]

Yes, that's just what I was thinking -- it's a fascinating world, I want to know more about it!

[carbonel]

My reaction as well -- really nice story, interesting world-building, but I want more.

Also a great illustration.

[alecaustin.livejournal.com]

"Uncle Flower's Homecoming Waltz" is really good.

I'm glad that Tor.com decided to give you a present for your grandfather's birthday.

[jenett]

That is a really lovely thinky story. (And the art is totally gorgeous, you're right...)

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Gorgeous illustration, and such a cool story. I'd love to see more in that world.

[miz-hatbox.livejournal.com]

Happy Grandpa's Birthday. I hope you can find a way to make it good in spite of missing him.

Grandma's birthday is coming up soon. Sigh.

[miz-hatbox.livejournal.com]

That was a beautiful story, and a very nice illustration too.

[davidgoldfarb.livejournal.com]

Loved both the story and the illustration -- I agree with some of the above, I'd like to know more about that world. (Just for starters: are all names gender-reversed from what our society would have, or just some? Is "Zal" short for something?)

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Well, here is what I can tell you: Zal is just named Zal. "Flower" is a name I would be surprised to see in our culture at all, male or female, but I agree that it is not a name we would link very strongly with traditional masculinity. Somewhere about two to three hundred years ago, names came decoupled from gender in that world because soldiers wanted to name children after themselves while they were still around, and babies were not always obliging with appropriate bits, so--whatever, kid, your name is Braeden or Jinivra or Jon, deal with it. Grandfather, for example, is named Alwyn, which would again be not a common name here but one we would skew male; Zal's mother was Dessa, again not a common name but one we would tend to read female. But they don't really pick names from segregated pools.

As for Aunt Albert:
1) Albert is her birth name.
2) She identifies as female or "aunt" and "she" would not be used.
3) Aunt Albert is a very private person, and it would be rude of me to inquire into the configuration of her bits, whether she is what we would call a transgendered person or whether she is a bio-woman who was given what we would consider a male name. I don't know all my characters equally well; Aunt Albert is one of whom I know more public and social information than private.

[vcmw]

Thanks for this note! I loved the names. They felt, in-story, like you'd thought about them at least as much as you clearly have. They fit into place as if they didn't draw any attention to themselves in-story, even if they might to us readers out-of-story.

[matociquala.livejournal.com]

I am so pleased for you. And not so much for the bad stuff, but.

Frog.

Anyway.

[goer.org (from livejournal.com)]

Just got the Tor.com email with the official, "We've got a new story for you from Marissa K Lingen..." *and* a copy of the pretty picture. So exciting! An outstanding story, too.