In which Selkie talks about her new book...

[selkie]

...in hopes that I will thusly be motivated to chug along and finish it. Chuggily.

It  has a Holocaust survivor who has to learn that the only safe thing to do is to go back to Russia.  It has the lost city of Kitezh. It has global warming! And the previously mentioned cheirophant pickpocket. It is my attempt to write a clearly Jewish fantasy that doesn't sound dumb and isn't dated quite the same way as a Hasidic folk story. It has a subterranean medical school.  It has a prison, a garden, a parking garage, a gearworld feel to it, and some gay.

Okay, yes, it still has the gay.

I think I can,  I think I can, I think I can, I think I can....

Comments

[lonespark.livejournal.com]

You can! Does it have a publisher? Can I pre-order it?

[muchabstracted.livejournal.com]

Have you read The Old Country by Mordechai Gerstein? If you haven't, I think you should. YA novel (possibly children's novel, I can't tell the difference) which sounds Yiddish and folktaley and fantastical and Jewish. Very well done.

[muchabstracted.livejournal.com]

(That was almost entirely unrelated, since your plot and his plot are radically different.)

[shirei-shibolim.livejournal.com]

Could you define "cheirophant" for this poor collectible stuffed animal and his spouse?

[sovay]

Could you define "cheirophant" for this poor collectible stuffed animal and his spouse?

A Chasidic hierophant.

(I have actually no idea; from its component roots (χείρ / χεῖρον, φαίνω), it looks either like someone who knows sign language or someone who always has bad news. Neither of which, I'm quite sure, is correct.)

[strange-selkie.livejournal.com]

You shut up with your proper spelling.

:P

[strange-selkie.livejournal.com]

Well, as S pointed out below, I misspelled and it's hierophant, so yes, I may still have been thinking of Hasidic folk stories... It's a person who serves as a guide somewhere.

[sovay]

I misspelled and it's hierophant, so yes, I may still have been thinking of Hasidic folk stories...

You could still use the word. How do you know how the language has changed in this world?

[strange-selkie.livejournal.com]

Well, it can't have changed so much, etymologically, since it is our world, plus fifty years or so....

[sovay]

since it is our world, plus fifty years or so....

Ah. I wasn't sure if it was slightly alternate.

[strange-selkie.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure yet. The monsters may have arisen organically following the current US administration.

[kraada.livejournal.com]

. . . as a direct result of the No Child Left Behind legislation . . .

[sovay]

I think I can,  I think I can, I think I can, I think I can....

I am only looking forward to this.

[fizzylizard.livejournal.com]

You think you can?

I know it. Now Selkie - work your magic!

[dramawench.livejournal.com]

That sounds great! I can't wait to read it.

And Happy Belated Birthday, btw! I hope it was fantastic!!!

[sibylla.livejournal.com]

Rocks fall, everyone dies?

[strange-selkie.livejournal.com]

Not everyone this time! In fact, as far as I know, none of my protagonists die in this one. *feels accomplished*