Seanan McGuire (seanan_mcguire) wrote,
Seanan McGuire
seanan_mcguire
  • Mood: geeky
  • Music: Dar Williams, "We Learned the Sea."

It was many and many a year ago, in a kingdom by the sea...

I promised you a treat to celebrate the impending release of Ashes of Honor, and here it is:

A brand-new story about the Luidaeg, "In Sea-Salt Tears," has been posted on the equally brand-new Toby Daye short fiction page. It is available in ePub, MOBI, and PDF formats, and is free for download. (So far, this is the only free Toby-universe short story. We'll be adding listings for the published-in-books shorts in a little while, but it's not hyper-high priority.)

This story is best read after One Salt Sea, and it further details the relationship between the Luidaeg and Elizabeth Ryan, the Selkie clan leader we met at the very end of the book. Please download rather than trying to read locally; my server will thank you.

Cover graphics are by Tara O'Shea. All short story electronic conversion thus far has been done by scifantasy. As both of them are awesome, we applaud them now.

Go forth, read, and please feel free to use this as a discussion post, which means there may be spoilers in the comments. Tread carefully.

Enjoy.
Tags: ashes of honor, short fiction, toby daye
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phoenixsansfyr

August 23 2012, 18:06:02 UTC 4 years ago

I can think of no better gift than this, especially as I just returned from a visit to the sea. Beautifully written and oh, oh, poor Luidaeg....

seanan_mcguire

August 23 2012, 20:47:54 UTC 4 years ago

Thank you.

argonel

August 23 2012, 18:07:57 UTC 4 years ago

Yay,
also Only dress code in the kitchen is ‘don’t be on fire while you’re eating,’

seanan_mcguire

August 23 2012, 20:48:07 UTC 4 years ago

Well, yeah.

Fire distracts the chefs.

rymenhild

August 23 2012, 18:36:10 UTC 4 years ago

It's lovely, and also heart-wrenchingly sad. Thank you for sharing your story with us.

I know you wouldn't -- shouldn't -- confirm or deny this, and I don't actually want any more information anyhow. But I hope that, when the bill comes due, whatever changes for the Selkies makes it better for poor Liz -- and for the poor, poor, hasn't-caught-a-break-in-five-thousand-years Luidaeg.

seanan_mcguire

August 23 2012, 20:48:19 UTC 4 years ago

You are very welcome.

semperfiona

August 23 2012, 18:59:52 UTC 4 years ago

Lovely and sad and I should not be crying here at work, I really should not, but how could I possibly help it?

seanan_mcguire

August 23 2012, 22:05:53 UTC 4 years ago

*hug*

anne_d

August 23 2012, 19:01:43 UTC 4 years ago

Oh, Seanan, that was one of the most beautiful, heartbreaking things I've read in many a long while. Thank you.

seanan_mcguire

August 23 2012, 22:11:58 UTC 4 years ago

You are very welcome.

mpoetess

August 23 2012, 19:01:56 UTC 4 years ago

NOT FAIR.

I know fairy tales never really are, but NOT FAIR.

Poor both of them; she made her own choice and broke her own heart, but secrets and sins of the fathers stacked the odds against Liz from the start.

seanan_mcguire

August 23 2012, 22:12:15 UTC 4 years ago

No. Not fair.

Liz never could have won. But Annie wished she would...

jenfullmoon

4 years ago

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seanan_mcguire

4 years ago

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jenfullmoon

4 years ago

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seanan_mcguire

4 years ago

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jenfullmoon

4 years ago

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professor

August 23 2012, 19:08:40 UTC 4 years ago

Every time you write about the relationship dynamics between Maeve, Oberon and Titania, and how those dynamics affect the Firstborn, I always want to know more. And possibly smack the everloving SHIT out of Oberon.

seanan_mcguire

August 23 2012, 22:12:25 UTC 4 years ago

Oberon did the best he could.

vettecat

August 23 2012, 20:11:10 UTC 4 years ago

Yay! Thank you!

seanan_mcguire

August 23 2012, 22:12:34 UTC 4 years ago

Very welcome.

mariadkins

August 23 2012, 20:19:45 UTC 4 years ago

thank you.

seanan_mcguire

August 23 2012, 22:12:42 UTC 4 years ago

Welcome.

biguglymandoll

August 23 2012, 20:38:34 UTC 4 years ago

Yay!!! I love the Luidaeg!!!

seanan_mcguire

August 23 2012, 22:12:50 UTC 4 years ago

Me, too.

celticdragonfly

August 23 2012, 20:41:15 UTC 4 years ago

OH.. wow.

I want to ask - Liz is given the choice, when she's told the full story. And she can choose to take the skin - or her mother will be burying her. I wonder - are there occasionally selkie children who choose not to take it? Surely there must be some. What gets told to those teenagers on the beach in those cases? What would have been told to them if Liz's mother came back, still with her skin, to choose someone else to pass it to?

I'm trying to imagine giving up fae immortality to go inland and die. Hard to imagine what would drive them to that.

seanan_mcguire

August 23 2012, 22:13:32 UTC 4 years ago

In those cases, they're told that the skin refused to bind properly, and the one who was initially chosen drowned. Very sad. Very untrue.

As for why they give it up...they give it up because they don't want to outlive their children.

cerulean_sky

August 23 2012, 20:58:03 UTC 4 years ago

Oh goodness! I can't wait to read this!

seanan_mcguire

August 23 2012, 22:13:39 UTC 4 years ago

Yay!

cerulean_sky

4 years ago

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kay_gmd

August 23 2012, 21:19:58 UTC 4 years ago

Sweet! I just downloaded several great books, and this bumped them. I'll start it today!

seanan_mcguire

August 23 2012, 22:18:29 UTC 4 years ago

Yay!

idancewithlife

August 23 2012, 21:56:06 UTC 4 years ago

Awesome as always...thanks so much!

seanan_mcguire

August 23 2012, 22:18:40 UTC 4 years ago

Very welcome.

arcaneblades

August 23 2012, 22:52:36 UTC 4 years ago

Such a beautiful and poignant story. I feel so sad for the both of them. I think they were both so trapped by tradition, that it broke what was between them.

seanan_mcguire

August 24 2012, 16:51:21 UTC 4 years ago

Sad but true.

cgbookcat1

August 23 2012, 22:53:56 UTC 4 years ago

Thank you!

seanan_mcguire

August 24 2012, 16:51:28 UTC 4 years ago

Welcome!

vincentursus

August 23 2012, 23:11:34 UTC 4 years ago

*sniffles*

That was sad, no, that was heartbreaking. And beautiful.

Poor Luidaeg.

Thank you for sharing this.

seanan_mcguire

August 24 2012, 16:51:35 UTC 4 years ago

Very welcome.

shiyiya

August 23 2012, 23:32:54 UTC 4 years ago

I screamed joyfully. Downloaded. Started crying after the first HALF A PAGE. Was sobbing my eyes out by the end.

YOU ARE MAGIC.

(Also my brain decided to produce related words to that, rather than words in any of the stories I'm trying to work on. Okay then, brain.:

And how could you hate her for it? Selkie child without a skin, forever dreaming of the sea… How much would you give to go home? What would you do to feel yourself slide into the shape every particle of you had longed for since your first breath?
Can you say you would not have chosen the same, in her place?
)

jenfullmoon

August 23 2012, 23:58:15 UTC 4 years ago

I would have, no question. It's kinda unfair for ah, Annie to even think she could do otherwise.

shiyiya

4 years ago

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seanan_mcguire

4 years ago

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redbird57

August 24 2012, 00:58:38 UTC 4 years ago

That was beautiful and heartbreaking and my icon is fitting right now.

seanan_mcguire

August 24 2012, 16:52:26 UTC 4 years ago

Aw.

I am glad you liked it.

notalwaysweak

August 24 2012, 02:51:37 UTC 4 years ago

Tara's cover is beautiful; I've set it as my desktop background.

The story. Wow. The story. It was, as others have said, heartbreaking and beautiful. I tend to associate stories with music, and the first thing that came to mind was Darren Hayes' 'Taken By the Sea' (video is a bit iffy but audio is pretty good for a live performance). (The second was Talis Kimberley's 'One Big Sea'.)

I want an e-reader now so I can put this on it and take it places with me and make people read it.

seanan_mcguire

August 24 2012, 16:52:41 UTC 4 years ago

There will be actual wallpapers very soon!

notalwaysweak

4 years ago

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Sean Robinson

August 24 2012, 03:13:09 UTC 4 years ago

That was beautiful.
I also love that it was about two women--but the love was the center of the story rather than the fact that it was two women.

While this is going to probably be a spoiler thing--when Oberon "leaves the sea" to Annie, does it indicate that she's actually in charge of the undersea in some sort of large-scale way? Or was that just a strongly suggested option for her from Oberon?

seanan_mcguire

August 24 2012, 16:52:56 UTC 4 years ago

That's a good question.

dragonsally

August 24 2012, 03:32:52 UTC 4 years ago

*squeee*

Thanks you.

seanan_mcguire

August 24 2012, 16:53:03 UTC 4 years ago

Welcome!

groblek

August 24 2012, 04:59:02 UTC 4 years ago

Thank you! I'd wondered about the backstory between them since reading One Salt Sea. Very nice.

seanan_mcguire

August 24 2012, 16:53:22 UTC 4 years ago

Oh, awesome. I am glad to have answered your questions.

joeyeah_right

August 24 2012, 08:52:19 UTC 4 years ago

Thank you Seanan! Such a heartbreakingly lovely story, and nice to get back into Toby's world after a few months living in the Newsflesh universe :-)
You really are such an amazingly talented writer!
Looking forward to Ashes Of Honor even more now!

seanan_mcguire

August 24 2012, 16:53:32 UTC 4 years ago

Yay!

starmalachite

August 24 2012, 09:42:04 UTC 4 years ago

You always take such good care of your fanbase. For which we thank you very much.

seanan_mcguire

August 24 2012, 16:53:42 UTC 4 years ago

I am happy to.
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