Bone Walker
Page 27
By the time you read this, if all goes well, I’ll have played my flute on a stage that contains Alec, at Conflikt 2015. Which, I grant, is a very long-delayed answer to that invitation to play something, way back in 1997. Thanks for that, Alec. And thank you from the bottom of my heart for your help on the musical side of my Kickstarter!
Speaking of the Kickstarter, I’d once again like to thank all of the backers who chimed in at $50 or above: Scott Hawley, Daniel Strømmen, Alfvaen, Zeus Esbhani, Cliff Winnig, Lexie, Sally Rose Red Robinson, Stevie Carroll, Vixy, Lauren A. Haley, Yngvar Følling, Matthew McCloud, Lynn Gardner, Octavio Arango, Margaret M. St. John, Anonymous, Heidi, Rax, Beth Moursund, John and Cync Brantley, James Venes, Ann Mittelstaedt, the aforementioned bastion of awesomeness that is Susan Moseley, Sparks, Sandra Crump, Tiggy, Eli Huntington, Cynthia D. Price, Amy and Erin Schram, Glenn Stone, fellow Great Big Sea fan Sara Petersen, Paul Johnson, Juan T. Alvarado, Ellen Eades, Thom Watson, and Maria-Katriina Lehtinen!
To all of my Kickstarter backers, thank you again for your patience with my delay in getting this book and the other rewards you’re owed out to you. I hope Bone Walker is worth the wait.
And to all of my readers, whether of the Rebels of Adalonia books or the Free Court of Seattle, thank you for giving my stories a chance to entertain you. To everyone who’s taken the time to rate or review a book of mine or spread the word about it to a friend, thank you very, very much for your support.
Every last one of you rocks.
Author’s Notes
Bone Walker has been a very long time coming.
Part of the reason why, of course, was because in 2012, while I was doing the Kickstarter to support the re-release of Faerie Blood and the release of Bone Walker, I also got my offer from Carina Press to do the Rebels of Adalonia trilogy. So as all my long-waiting Kickstarter backers know, I had to divert a lot of energy into prepping Valor of the Healer for release, and then writing Vengeance of the Hunter and Victory of the Hawk.
But some of the delay has also been due to medical reasons. I’ve had to deal with a hysterectomy and removal of my ovaries. “Ability to generate precancerous tissue,” as superpowers go, kind of sucks. Particularly when it interferes with my ability to deliver novels.
Meanwhile, my wife Dara has had not one, not two, not three, but four rounds of eye surgery to deal with. Retinal tearing also sucks, and so do cataracts that develop from trying to fix it. All of this greatly impacted her ability to oversee the creation of the Bone Walker soundtrack, as well as putting her behind in being able to do the cover layout for the book.
Now, to our deep relief, we’re past all the medical turmoil. And I’ve also finished my obligations with Carina, now that Victory of the Hawk is in the can and moving into the final preparation stages before its release. (April 6, 2015! Watch angelahighland.com for details!) An important result of working with Carina, though, has been that I’ve completed editing cycles on two extra books before finally returning to this one. This in turn has made me more conscious of certain issues in my writing, issues I’ve sought to address before shipping this version of the novel out to you all.
First, those of you who’ve read Faerie Blood will recall that that book was entirely in Kendis’ point of view. If you’re reading this Author’s Notes section, you’ll have just finished Bone Walker, and you’ll have seen that certain parts of this story are in the points of view of other characters.
This is by necessity. In those scenes, action occurs that’s relevant to the plot, but which Kendis is not in a position to see. As a stylistic choice, I elected to keep all of Kendis’ narration in first person, while scenes from everyone else’s points of view are in third. As a point of interest, my example for this was the Amelia Peabody series, wherein the inimitable Elizabeth Peters used first person for all the scenes from Amelia’s point of view, and third for all the scenes from the point of view of Amelia’s son Ramses.
I made one exception to this in a scene where Kendis has a vision. That’s in first person rather than third, even though it’s technically from the point of view of a different character. This is consistent with how I treated similar dreams in Faerie Blood, so I left that specific scene in first person.
Secondly, I decided to minimize the amount of dropped letters and phonetic spellings when I portray accents. This primarily affected Christopher’s dialogue, but sometimes also Elessir’s and Millicent’s. I left in some of Elessir’s faked accent here and there, since he always uses that accent to exaggerated effect, whereas Millie’s and Christopher’s accents are their own natural speech. The reason for this is because I’ve seen quite a few fellow readers complaining about overuse of accent in other books (for example, in romances featuring Scottish characters, where you can’t swing a stick without somebody saying “bairn” or “lassie” or “ye”). This has put me squarely into the school of trying to convey an accent by proper word choice and occasional description of how an accented voice sounds.
In Christopher’s case in particular, I hope it worked for you all.
Moving forward into 2015, it’s my hope to deliver more works in the Warder universe, both to my Kickstarter backers and to the book-buying world at large. I plan to make the short story “The Blood of the Land” available once again, with commissioned cover art. And I have a total of three novellas on the way, including Millicent’s origin story, which may well blossom into a full-blown novel.
Most importantly, this will not be the last story featuring Kendis, Christopher, and Elessir, either. Book Three of this immediate story arc, some of which will be set in Newfoundland, is eventually coming. So is a story starring Christopher’s young cousin Caitlin Hallett, future Warder of St. John’s, and Gabien Desroches, from the Quebecois branch of the Warder lineage. And if you listen to the soundtrack, in particular to the song “Anarchy Now,” there are hints of things to come in Kendis’ distant future. I’m going to be writing those, too.
I can’t wait, and I hope you all will stick around to read those stories!
About the Author
The very first thing Angela Korra’ti ever wrote, at age 8, was a short story about a girl spirited away to rule over the leprechauns for a day. She progressed rapidly to pretending to take notes in class when she was actually writing novels, and writing fanfic before she had any idea what fanfic was! Music has been a part of her life almost as long, thanks to six years playing flute and piccolo in school band and an adulthood dabbling in flute, guitar, bouzouki, and mandolin. Music is likely to make an appearance in anything she writes. Particularly music that involves Elvis, bouzouki-playing Newfoundlanders, or Quebecois trad.
Angela (Anna the Piper to her friends) lives in Kenmore, Washington, along with her wife and their housemate, two cats, and a whole heck of a lot of computers and musical instruments. Despite the fact that she is a mild-mannered former employee of a major metropolitan newspaper, rumors that she is a superhero are exaggerated. (Even if she did pull the door off a refrigerator.)
As Angela Korra’ti, she writes the Free Court of Seattle series and other works in the Warder universe. As Angela Highland, she writes the Rebels of Adalonia trilogy for Carina Press. You can find out more about all of her works under either name at angelahighland.com.
Faerie Blood
If you like your urban fantasy with music, magic, and computer geekery, then don’t miss Book 1 of The Free Court of Seattle!
Kendis Thompson of Seattle thinks she’s as normal as the next computer geek, and up till now, she’s been right. But her world is about to turn on its ear, for she is the daughter of a Seelie Court mage and her mortal husband—and her faerie blood is awakening. Suddenly the city she’s known all her life is transforming before her eyes. Trolls haunt the bike trails. Fairies and goblins run loose in the streets. An old woman who is not what she seems and a young wanderer running from his past stand ready to defend Seattle—and Kendis—from magical assault. She will need those allies, for the power rising within her is calli
ng her fey kin to the Emerald City to find her. And kill her.
Find out more at Faerie Blood’s official page:
http://www.angelahighland.com/books/faerie-blood/
Bone Walker: The Free Court of Seattle Original Soundtrack
You’ve read the book—now hear the music! A new release from Crime and the Forces of Evil!
Featuring Special Guest Artists
Alexander James Adams
Ellen Eades
Sarah Kellington
Sunnie Larsen
Leannan Sidhe
Klopfenpop
Available January 30, 2015
music.crimeandtheforcesofevil.com
Valor of the Healer
Also available from the author, writing as Angela Highland for Carina Press: Book 1 of The Rebels of Adalonia!
The Rook
An assassin hired by vengeful elven rebels to kill the calculating Duke of Shalridan, Julian walks into a trap and barely escapes with his life. Healed by a beautiful captive in the dungeons, he’s enthralled and vows to free her from the duke’s clutches.
The Hawk
A Knight of the Hawk duty-bound to cleanse elven magic from Adalonia, Kestar has a secret—and heretical—ability to sense the use of magic from afar. He knows something suspicious is happening in the duke’s keep, but he has no idea how deep the conspiracy goes.
The Dove
A half-elven healer with no control over her magic, Faanshi is the goddess’s to command. She’s always been a pawn of the powerful, but after healing two mysterious and very different men, she faces a choice that may decide the fate of the whole kingdom…
Find out more at Valor of the Healer’s official page:
http://www.angelahighland.com/books/rebels-of-adalonia/valor-of-the-healer/
Vengeance of the Hunter
Also available from the author, writing as Angela Highland for Carina Press: Book 2 of The Rebels of Adalonia!
The Knight
After nearly being destroyed by a conspiracy within his Order, Kestar faces a crisis. The Knights of the Hawk have always stood against elven magic, but how can he proceed after discovering his own elven heritage? How will his Order react when they discover the truth?
The Healer
Free of the shackles of the Duke of Shalridan, Faanshi sets out to pursue her destiny with the elves—and finds herself at the head of an open rebellion. But her goddess isn’t done with her yet, and controlling her magic turns into the fight of her life. One she cannot win without both Kestar and Julian by her side.
The Hunter
Rattled to his core after Faanshi healed his eye and hand, and haunted by guilt and a growing love for the elven healer, Julian flees. As he seeks retribution against shadows of his past, convinced of his own unworthiness, he’ll need all of Faanshi’s faith to turn him from the path of vengeance to help save Kestar, and the whole of Adalonia.
Find out more at Vengeance of the Hunter’s official page:
http://www.angelahighland.com/books/rebels-of-adalonia/vengeance-of-the-hunter/