Surfacing and more

[mrissa]

1. I have a story up at Lightspeed today! Surfacing is available for your reading pleasure. They also did an author spotlight. Go, read, enjoy! The illustration by Elizabeth Leggett makes me very happy. You can also get the entire magazine in ebook format or subscribe so that you get every month in that format. All as you prefer.

(If you were wondering what happened after The Salt Path, this is one of the pieces next to it in the mosaic.)

2. Speaking of illustrations that have made me happy, Julie Dillon, who did the gorgeous illustrations for my two previous Tor.com stories that are sort of peripherally linked to this story, has a new Kickstarter!

3. I now have heard back from the editorial staff in such a way that I feel I can say that the story I sold and referenced obliquely earlier was “It Brought Us All Together,” which has found a home at Strange Horizons.

Originally published at Novel Gazing Redux

Comments

[brooksmoses]

Yay, story! And yay more of this world, too. I had read it from your G+ link earlier today, but I hadn't seen the accompanying interview, and I am pleased to see the "stay tuned for more stories set in ... this world" quote there.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Oh yes. These just fall on my head from time to time. They're the most demanding stories I have, in the sense that they usually want all 3-5K words written on the same day if at all possible. What this will do if I get settled down to work on the related novel, I cannot say.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Ah! I started reading the story before finishing the entry; now I see that there are other stories in this world.

Do you think you'll do more with these particular characters, with what happens next? And Does "The Salt Path" talk more about life under the sea? (ETA: I see the story title is a link, so I can find out!)

I really liked "Surfacing"--it was rich and unusual and immersive--which is funny, thinking of Mishy's past.

... and as a small note, I really liked the food.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad you liked it. Thank you for saying. And no, "The Salt Path" is earlier than that.

But yes, I really do think I will do more with these characters in particular. A lot of the stories in this world have been peripherally linked, but I'm pretty sure that these people are showing up again personally.

The Salt Path

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

A few lines in, and radishes have come up. I smiled. Mishy, it's a good thing you like, or can put up, with radishes! How do *you* feel about radishes, mrissa? I have a feeling you've had some good pickles in your day :-)

Re: The Salt Path

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I like radishes all right, but I live with timprov, who loves them.

But that's not actually why they're there.

With food in SF stories, I feel like there are...bands of alienation?...for the dominant English-speaking audience. When I'm creating a food culture, I don't want to be serving an alien society pepperoni pizza all the time, but I also don't want to do the "Oooh, exoootic" thing--at least not accidentally. Radishes are a food that almost everyone will have heard of, but they do vary a lot (living with timprov, I know this!), and their preparation also varies. And a lot of people just don't eat much of them, without there being a default "brussels sprouts are yucky/no wait they're gourmet" reaction. So the pickled radishes in "Surfacing" are because the planet they're on was settled by a lot of Japanese and Korean people--the pattern of rice and pickled vegetables will be one that the settlers reached for, especially when their ongoing food preservation and shipping power was/is limited.

In another story in this universe, but further out from these stories than they are from each other, the characters eat jerk krill, because they have weird ocean protein sources and they don't know why (but I know why! it's the undersea people affecting the ecosystem deliberately near that section of coast), and also because of the large number of people from the Caribbean who settled on this planet, so that jerk spicing is one of the default ways to do stuff. (That story is The Ministry of Changes (http://www.tor.com/stories/2013/07/the-ministry-of-changes).)

Almost everyone in this universe eats a lot of yams, but "the yam-eaters" refers to a particular social-political group because they lean very heavily on yams for the same reason the people in upland Southeast Asia do: because you can leave them in the field to store and not have them rot there, so it's easier not to interact with the government than if you have to have a storehouse for your foodstuffs.

I probably think wayyyy too much about the food these people eat.

Re: The Salt Path

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I am loving your universe more and more.

I agree with all your thinking! And I had guessed about the world, or at least the locale, of "Surfacing" by the thatching and paper walls of the house (well, and by the pickles, too).

Man, I'm hungry now....

Re: The Salt Path

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Then my work here is done. :)

[pameladean]

I was wondering! I love this story so much. I loved the discussion of names; it made me laugh out loud. I really appreciate the layers and layers of things you did with dialogue, people saying so many things without saying them. I loved the description of the house, especially of the thatched roof, both for itself and for all it says about what the situation is that these people are working so hard to live their lives in the midst of. The contrast between the pillars and the walls just stopped me cold, it was so amazing and full of information. And I am so fond of Mishy.

P.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Thank you thank you!