Fallen Leaves (October 29)

.

"Once It's Over Life Is No Big Deal"

Lud-en-Brume -- Illustrated!

.

Look what came in the mail! It's Lud-en-Brume, a new French edition of Hope Mirrlees' fantasy classic, Lud-in-the-Mist.  Better yet, it's fully illustrated with some eighteen ink-wash (I'm guessing) drawings by artist Hugo de Faucompret. The illustrations are, by my interpretation, not of the sedate surface of Dorimare and environs but of the wildness that lies underneath all existence in Mirlees' universe.

This book, from Editions Callidor, is the first illustrated version of Lud-in-the-Mist ever and a real treat for Francophone fantasy lovers. It part of the L'Age d'or de la fantasy, a series that (so far) also includes Le Loupe des steppes, Vol. 1 by Harold Lamb and Les Habitants de mirage by A. Merritt.

Kudos to editor Thierry Fraysse for making all this happen.

Cover above and representative illustration below.

And where, you ask, is Ask Unca Mike...?

Ask Unca Mike is on hiatus until such time as new questions are received.

*

Fallen Leaves (October 28)

.

"I Lived My Life For Lust"

The Second Thing To Do After You Make Your First Sale

.

This post is addressed at as-yet-unpublished writers.

Sometime in your future your first professional sale is going to appear in print. The absolute first thing you're going to do is whoop loudly, jump up and down, fling things about, grab the nearest person of appropriate gender and attractiveness and plant a big kiss on his or her lips, brag to all your friends, call your mother, explain to her why it's a big deal, accept her congratulations, get drunk (unless you're a teetotaler, in which case you'll go wild by pouring yourself an extra cup of Lhasa Apso), dance, sing, make a nuisance of yourself, and roll into bed either alone or not depending entirely on personal preferences.

Etcetera.

Yes, the whole sticky mess of reaction may be considered one thing because, let's be honest, it's all of a piece.

The second thing you should do is to start a bibliography.

I know this sounds silly, but trust me. Look up the formatting, write your name at the top of a blank sheet of paper, and below it type the information. As for example:

“The Last Smurf”, Lazarus Long, ed.,  Dangerous Smurfs, NY: Tor, 2016.

Only not in italics, of course.

For a terrible bleak instant, your first publication is going to look pretty pathetic. One bare line on a vast expanse of white. Suppress that feeling. Print out a copy, file it where you can find it, and save the electronic file.  Not long after (because you are a particularly fine writer), the story is picked up for a resale anthology.  Now your entry looks like this:

“The Last Smurf”, Lazarus Long, ed.,  Dangerous Smurfs, NY: Tor, 2016.

        Reprinted in: Ender Wiggins, ed., Smurfs of Wonder, 
        San Francisco: Toad Press, 2017.

A year passes, during which you've sold another story, and your maiden effort has been reprinted in a best of the year anthology and translated into Elbonian.  Meanwhile you've sold another two stories. Now your bibliography looks like this:

“The Animus of Inwit”, Bisson's Science Fiction, Vol. 25: Nos. 10 & 11, 
         October/November, 2017.

“The Last Smurf”, Lazarus Long, ed.,  Dangerous Smurfs, NY: Tor, 2016.

        Reprinted in: Ender Wiggins, ed., Smurfs of Wonder, 
        San Francisco: Toad Press, 2017.

        Genly Ai and Hari Seldon, eds., Year's Best Smurfs, NY: 
        Albuterol, 2017.

       Translated as: "Zygnadj Szmrf", Wznstn Szmth. ed., Smrgf 
       Oof, Gyznyd, Elbonia: Yngvy Press, 2018

"Son of the Last Smurf", Susan Calvin, ed.,  Again Dangerous
        Smurfs, NY: Tor, 2016.

Now you're getting somewhere!  More importantly, since you've only got one entry to make at a time, the task of assembling a comprehensive and reliable bibliography is an snap.

Provided only that you made it the second thing you did after after receiving your first publication in the mail.

Above: A flower. For you. In honor of your first professional sale.

*

Fallen Leaves (October 27)

.

"I Flew Halfway Across The Forest"

Jack-O-Turnip

.

There are so many serious things I could post about today...

But the heck with that! Samhain is coming!

In honor of my Irish ancestors, I carved a jack-o-lantern the same way they would have -- out of a turnip. The hollowing out and carving of faces into roots and gourds of various types is, I remind you, a Celtic invention, and one that goes way back. Don't you go believing any of that malarky the Web will tell you about Stingy Jack, either. The original story is a terrifying one and not to be shared with children.

It turns out that carving a turnip is not as difficult a task as you might think. I'm definitely adding it to my Halloween repertoire. In fact, as of now, it's an official household tradition.

If you're crafty, you might want to consider doing this yourself. Get as big a turnip and as small a candle as you can.

Enjoy the holiday! Don't let the boggles get you. And remember to keep a stone with a hole in it with you at all times, as a charm against glamour.

*

Fallen Leaves (October 26)

.

"I Was A Poet -- It Made No Difference"