Sherlock Holmes has his mind palace, which sounds rather grand. My Muse has an old Victorian mansion—a little dusty, a little weathered, with enough rooms to make things interesting. One room has a meadow for the unicorns and a mountain or two for the dragons. Another has battlefields and dark possibilities for the future. There’s even a spaceship around here somewhere. So come in and have a look at what the Muse and I have shaped over the years. Don’t mind the creaking floors and stiff doors. There is always a way out, even if it’s not always the way you came in.
You noticed the curtain on the top floor that looked like it had been pulled back by a pale hand? Don’t worry about that. The ghosts are playful.
Most of them, anyway.
Let’s start with a room I’ve returned to many times over the years. The Fairy Tales were among the earliest stories I wrote because retelling a fairy tale in a different way is like painting a room a different color and rearranging the furniture. The frame and the walls are already there, but when you explore something a little bit different within those boundaries, a familiar tale becomes something new. My tales have ranged from the horrific to the light, but all of them are about the heart.
The Black Jewels is another room where I’ve spent a lot of time with the Muse, enjoying the company of powerful men like Daemon Sadi and Lucivar Yaslana, as well as sassy witches like Karla (kiss kiss) and Surreal—and Jaenelle Angelline. I began writing their story in 1990, and I don’t know if I have told the last story about the Blood and the Realms and the SaDiablo family. The door is closed for now but not locked.
Over here are the Landscapes of Ephemera, where I explored love, hope, and sacrifice in a broken world. The Den of Iniquity, that carnal carnival, was a fun place to visit, but the landscapes aren’t always easy to find. Then again, stories aren’t always easy to find until you’re ready to find them.
Ah. Here’s a place where the Muse and I played for many years. Wolves, vampires, blood prophets, Elementals—and the ponies, who are a personal favorite. This is the world of the Others where Meg Corbyn and Simon Wolfgard live in the Lakeside Courtyard; Vicki DeVine lives in The Jumble on the shores of Lake Silence; and Jana Paniccia and Virgil Wolfgard are the law and order for Bennett, a western town. The newest characters in that world are Corvo and Dett, who sail the Mediterran Sea and keep their own kind of sharp justice.
As enjoyable as it is to spend time with old friends, sometimes you need to make an effort to meet new friends, like I did when I opened the door to Neuterville and met Cecily Blanque, a woman who has the interesting—and sometimes smelly—job of catching corpses who ignored a few obvious signs about their physical condition and scampered off.
The Potpourri room has the worlds that were shaped for a single story. You’ll find a ghost there, and a god, and a second chance. These stories range through the years I’ve been writing and still touch me when I read them.
The last room is locked because that is where the Muse is currently residing—in the uncharted countries of a new place that wants to be shaped and filled with people who will laugh and love and cry—and die. Like any new world, it demands, and I am opening all the wardrobes and drawers to see what I can use to give it shape and color and texture. Eventually I’ll be able to share that place with the rest of you. For now, we’ll back away quietly and not disturb what is coming to life behind that closed door.
I hope you enjoyed this tour of the Muse’s mansion. If you want to visit again, you’ll find most of these rooms contained in the story collection THE LADY IN GLASS AND OTHER STORIES. I’ve been dancing with the Muse for over thirty years, and the stories in the collection are a look at where I’ve been. Now I’m looking forward to finding out what other rooms will open as the Muse and I continue our dance.
A magical collection of stories new and old spanning across all of Anne Bishop’s most beloved fantasy worlds.
Here, together for the first time, the shorter works of New York Times bestselling fantasy author Anne Bishop are included in one dazzling volume.
A master of bringing fantasy worlds to life, this collection showcases Bishop’s impressive range, from rarities of her earliest writing to the Realms of the Blood, from darker fairytale retellings to the Landscapes of Ephemera, and from standalone stories of space exploration and fantastical creatures to the contemporary fantasy terrain of the World of the Others.
Includes previously published and unpublished tales, as well as two brand-new stories, written especially for this collection: “Friends and Corpses,” a murder mystery in which the corpse has some decidedly unusual qualities, and “Home for the Howlidays,” a heartwarming return to the Blood Prophet Meg Corbyn and the shapeshifting Simon Wolfgard from The Others.
Fantasy [Ace, On Sale: February 27, 2024, Hardcover / e-Book, ISBN: 9780593639054 / eISBN: 9780593639061]
Complete collection of short stories of fantasy phenom Anne Bishop will delight and captivate
A definite recommended read for all people who love fantasy and Anne Bishop!
Anne Bishop is the New York Times bestselling author of twenty-six novels, including the Black Jewels Trilogy, for which she received the RT Book Reviews Pioneer Award. She is also the winner of the RT Book Reviews 2013 Career Achievement Award in Fantasy and the 2017 Career Achievement Award for Urban Fantasy for her Others series. Her stories have been translated into several languages including Dutch, French, German, Portuguese, and Polish. When she’s not writing, Anne enjoys gardening, reading, and music.
No comments posted.
© 2003-2024 off-the-edge.net
all rights reserved Privacy Policy