April has been packed with work, art, proofing and finally, a much-needed holiday.
ARCs of Our Ways Unmasked
A reminder that I will be releasing an eARC of Far Removed’s sequel around mid-May. If you signed up during the cover reveal, thank you! I’d like you to sign up again below as I hadn’t set limits on the form to keep the bots away. Sorry about that – I still have a lot to learn about the promotion and distribution of books.
The ARC won’t have all the illustrations of the final book, but it’ll be as close to finished as can be.
Together is a Distant Star
My entry in this anthology is called Flight of the Guildmaster. Like all my stories, it takes place in Knyadrea. We follow Gyl Duna, a disillusioned resyncrafter (or “flesh alchemist” as the other contributing authors call her). She is highly accomplished, well compensated for her work, and no longer able to justify the darker aspects of her profession. A chance encounter with someone from her past presents her with a way out, but the Transmutation Guild doesn’t take kindly to defectors. Gyl will also make a brief appearance in Our Ways Unmasked, but this short story takes place years before that book.
I designed the cover, title typography, and interior for this anthology, but the other authors contributed all sorts of skills to this project. I’m so proud of this team. All the art was drawn from scratch on Photoshop, and we went through rounds of feedback on the sketches.
Struisbaai / Agulhas Slideshow
I was on holiday at Cape Agulhas with my family last week. It’s the actual southernmost tip of Africa. I arrived after a storm and saw all manner of interesting sea creatures had washed up on the beach with the foam. It’s a shame many didn’t survive. In the slideshow are argonauts or paper nautiluses. The females, which are many times the size of the males, have delicate shells that they use to hold their eggs. The argonauts photographed here had slipped out of their shells in the waves, but you can see one behind them. I also discovered an amazing place called the Shell House Museum. It’s an educational facility with a guest house attached. The outside is so charming and distinctive (the shells on the wall were attached over the course of 8 years). The owner was also involved in producing an educational book on rockpools.
C B Lansdell 