As I receive contracts and final edits from authors, I’ll post a teaser from their story here and on our Facebook page. You know where to get the rest, right? Comments are welcome.
Ocean Daughters
By
Six coins–all the money I had left in the world.
I let them fall, copper and silver bright against rum-dark cloth. Madame Kasa scooped them into her long fingered hand, claiming payment before I’d time to change my mind. Her eyes were blue, not with the brightness of summer skies, but dark as storm tossed waves. Flickering candles and smoky oil-lamp light darkened them to shadows in a rouged and powdered face.
“I can’t tell you what to do, Lina,” she said. “I look for signposts of what you might try, nothing else.” Candlelight glinted off jet buttons down the front of her dress, painted ghost-shadows on the wallpaper behind her. She shook her head; gold earrings jangled. “I can’t give you a way to bring Ilya back. Truth is I don’t think you can.”
So, why did we take this story? This one was a unanimous selection by all four editors. We like the tone of it; we like the twist it brings to a “standard” idea. We particularly like the character portrayals. The problems we had were in its pacing, particularly early on, and in a bit of withholding that weakened the later reveal. Jaime fixed these issues in revision and here we are. The original was 3730 words; the final edit is 3660 words.
Tune in tomorrow for our next tease. The full Table of Contents is here.
Have you checked out our Kickstarter project yet? 14 days and roughly $700 to go. Thanks to everyone who has donated so far.
