Seanan McGuire (seanan_mcguire) wrote,
Seanan McGuire
seanan_mcguire
  • Mood: awake
  • Music: Talis Kimberley, "The Finding of the Feather."

There is a house in New Orleans...

To celebrate the release of Half-Off Ragnarok, it's time for some free fiction. Hooray!

When last we left Verity Price and her boyfriend, Dominic De Luca, they were setting out on an epic road trip in a rented U-Haul with a colony of talking mice. It's...hard to get much more surreal than that, but with Verity involved, you know we're going to try. She needs to get Dominic used to the idea of her family, and that means it's time to start introducing him to people.

People like Auntie Rose, who is smart, sassy, and takes no bullshit, and just happens to have died almost fifty years before Verity was even born.

Nobody's perfect.

You can download "The Ghosts of Bourbon Street" now from the InCryptid short fiction page. This story chronologically overlaps with Half-Off Ragnarok, and is better read after you've read the book. (Obviously I can't control this, but hey, I can give recommendations.)

This also serves as your discussion post.
Tags: incryptid, short fiction
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  • 61 comments

cgbookcat1

March 11 2014, 23:54:04 UTC 3 years ago

Thank you!

seanan_mcguire

March 14 2014, 03:03:04 UTC 3 years ago

Very welcome!

drcpunk

March 11 2014, 23:54:44 UTC 3 years ago

Yay! Fortunately, you've now written enough that I have a nice backlog, so I can read one book while I track down and buy another book so I can read it before reading the short story. Whee!

seanan_mcguire

March 14 2014, 03:03:36 UTC 3 years ago

Excellent.

My evil plan is working.

elentiriel

March 12 2014, 00:15:01 UTC 3 years ago

yay! I love you for posting all these free short stories!

seanan_mcguire

March 14 2014, 03:22:28 UTC 3 years ago

Very welcome.

reedrover

March 12 2014, 00:24:54 UTC 3 years ago

Thank you so much! And thanks for the new Aeslin mice ritual!

jenfullmoon

March 12 2014, 16:31:18 UTC 3 years ago

Holy Ritual of Look It’s Another Goddamn Cattle Ranch.

BWAH.

palsycorn

3 years ago

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seanan_mcguire

3 years ago

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lazzchan

March 12 2014, 00:32:10 UTC 3 years ago

The sound I just made wasn't quite human. YAAAY~! THANK YOU!

seanan_mcguire

March 14 2014, 03:25:54 UTC 3 years ago

Glee!

vulpine137

March 12 2014, 01:12:18 UTC 3 years ago

Yay for Aeslin mice. And sassy aunts that don't let death get in their way. And yay for you and free stories.

seanan_mcguire

March 14 2014, 03:42:12 UTC 3 years ago

All the yay.

lazzchan

March 12 2014, 01:35:21 UTC 3 years ago

Okay, now that I've finished said short story and corrupted my friend with half the quotes from the book... I just have to say HOW much I loved this. Rose! And you sneaky woman, giving us the scene with Rose and Verity and Dominic and it was fantastic. I loved the mice and their Cattle Farm ritual. The whole thing with the dead people (this is a very nice side trip to lead to Sparrow Hill Road) and I loved hearing the call from Alex from the other end. :D I SERIOUSLY am eager for Dominic to meet the rest of the family and I think I'd send you gold and think mints and a truck load of candy corn if Thomas Price really was alive and he got to meet the full bucket of weird.

Thank you again, Seanan. You have no idea how much this really made my week (and considering I just got booted from my job without warning, this REALLY totally made my week) and I can't stop grinning. ^___^

seanan_mcguire

March 14 2014, 03:42:51 UTC 3 years ago

I am so very, very glad that this was timed well to improve your week. It makes me very happy to hear that.

herewiss13

March 12 2014, 02:13:00 UTC 3 years ago

You are awesome and that was awesome and I'm very much looking forward to learning more about Rose this fall. :-D

seanan_mcguire

March 14 2014, 03:43:04 UTC 3 years ago

Yay!

spectralbovine

March 12 2014, 02:17:14 UTC 3 years ago

Yaaaaaaay!!

seanan_mcguire

March 14 2014, 03:43:10 UTC 3 years ago

Glee, says I.

arcaneblades

March 12 2014, 03:15:59 UTC 3 years ago

Thank you for that wonderful atmospheric piece! You are so generous, sharing all these short stories like this with your fans. Much appreciated.

seanan_mcguire

March 14 2014, 03:43:19 UTC 3 years ago

Very welcome.

jmward14

March 12 2014, 04:55:14 UTC 3 years ago

Thank you so much, Seanan. Your In-Cryptid stories never fail to make me smile, laugh, and occasionally dance a jig, not matter how bad I might be feeling. They're a wonderful gift to all of us. <3

seanan_mcguire

March 14 2014, 03:43:29 UTC 3 years ago

I am so glad.

triskelmoon

March 12 2014, 05:17:06 UTC 3 years ago

Eee Rose!

seanan_mcguire

March 14 2014, 03:43:41 UTC 3 years ago

Rooooooooose.

idancewithlife

March 12 2014, 05:58:08 UTC 3 years ago

Thank you so much. I've been waiting to re-read the Rose stories until the book comes out, so that extended my patience. It was awesomely twisty!

seanan_mcguire

March 14 2014, 03:44:38 UTC 3 years ago

I...I really hope you didn't save the original Rose stories. I had asked everyone to delete those for a reason. They're non-canonical at this point, and they sort of embarrass me.

idancewithlife

3 years ago

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vincentursus

March 12 2014, 10:15:27 UTC 3 years ago

Ooh, new InCryptid is always good..

seanan_mcguire

March 14 2014, 03:44:47 UTC 3 years ago

Yay!

listicath

March 12 2014, 10:38:53 UTC 3 years ago

Hooray for more Verity, with extra Rose! I loved Half-Off Ragnarok, now I'm looking forward to reading Sparrow Hill Road in June. :)

seanan_mcguire

March 14 2014, 03:45:05 UTC 3 years ago

Hooray!

acelightning

March 12 2014, 10:46:07 UTC 3 years ago

Thank you for the latest freebie! I have Sparrow Hill Road pre-ordered from Amazon, just like I had Half-Off Ragnarok pre-ordered, and I can't wait! Although now I know that those ghosts can be nasty...

seanan_mcguire

March 14 2014, 03:45:21 UTC 3 years ago

Ghosts often can be.

acelightning

3 years ago

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anne_d

March 12 2014, 15:25:10 UTC 3 years ago

Thank you! I'm waiting eagerly for the release of Sparrow Hill Road, too!

seanan_mcguire

March 14 2014, 03:45:30 UTC 3 years ago

Yay!

jenfullmoon

March 12 2014, 16:38:11 UTC 3 years ago

Can I ask how Rose is related to the family? Or is she just kind of an adopted ghost?

Anyway, fun story, and it's nice to see scenes from the road trip. Hope there's more to come....but I'll also be amused if Verity does stop in in Ohio :)

seanan_mcguire

March 14 2014, 03:46:01 UTC 3 years ago

You can ask, but I won't answer at this point—even when we're approaching the timeline from two directions at once, I have to be mindful of spoilers.

museclio

March 12 2014, 18:35:14 UTC 3 years ago

That was awesome. I love Amelia. Thank you!

seanan_mcguire

March 14 2014, 03:46:13 UTC 3 years ago

Very welcome!

palsycorn

March 12 2014, 18:49:20 UTC 3 years ago

Can there be several shorts about Verity and Dominic's road trip???? Like there were with Jonathan and Fran??? Pretty please with curry on top??? (I'm channeling my inner Sarah)

"I didn't defect, I was born defective."

For some reason this made me laugh even harder than Australia's danger rating. It may have had to do with the fact that it was 1 AM.

And Verity messing with Alex during the phone call.....priceless.

Basically it was all kinds of wonderful.

seanan_mcguire

March 14 2014, 03:47:30 UTC 3 years ago

If something else comes up, there will definitely be more stories. I'd love to check in with them periodically for their whole trip, but a) I can't derail the past timeline stuff (or it'll never be finished), and b) I'm not going to write "Verity and Dominic go to the 7-11 and nothing happens." So it has to happen organically.

I do adore them, though. And I love having multiple windows to the world at once.

jane_dark

March 12 2014, 19:26:32 UTC 3 years ago

Is it just me, or has Rose's voice changed A LOT since the original Sparrow Hill Road stories?

seanan_mcguire

March 14 2014, 03:47:50 UTC 3 years ago

It has, which is part of why I've begged people to delete the originals if they had them saved locally.

vettecat

March 13 2014, 02:22:04 UTC 3 years ago

Yay! Thank you! I've been wishing we could learn more about what Verity and Dominic were doing in New Orleans...

I'm a bit confused by one thing, though. First it says that Verity borrowed Jermaine's coat so she could climb the house. Then it says Verity gave the coat to Rose so she could become solid - but does that work if the owner isn't living? Then when Rose takes off the coat, and again when Verity picks it up, it's referred to as Dominic's coat. Am I missing something?

jenfullmoon

March 13 2014, 03:50:58 UTC 3 years ago

I think Verity gave Rose her coat first (living to dead = dead temporarily embodied). Jermaine is dead, so Verity was borrowing his coat to presumably have an opposite effect. After that, I forget exactly what went down with the coats other than Rose said she could only have the power of the living coats go on once per coat per night, so they had to use someone else's coat to embody her. Presumably it was Dominic's at that point. Plus I recall that at one point they bought a coat off a homeless guy....

vettecat

3 years ago

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vettecat

3 years ago

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jarissa

March 14 2014, 02:19:55 UTC 3 years ago

Thank you so much! Best story for a long car ride tomorrow!

Happy St. Patrick's!

seanan_mcguire

March 14 2014, 03:49:19 UTC 3 years ago

Hooray!

filkferengi

March 17 2014, 13:58:49 UTC 3 years ago

I sent ze spouse cross-country to a week of spring training [baseball & desert hiking], so I'd have a whole week to read new Seanan things: Pumpkin Kings, Indexing, Half-Off Ragnarok [which makes too much eerie sense]. With wonderfully impeccable timing, here come further delights!

Thank you very much! And also, squee!

seanan_mcguire

March 23 2014, 18:06:58 UTC 3 years ago

Hooray!

scarletandjade

March 21 2014, 17:58:02 UTC 3 years ago

OOOhhh, I LOVED this story. I am now completely anticipating the Sparrow Hill Road book. Come on, May!

seanan_mcguire

March 23 2014, 18:07:11 UTC 3 years ago

Soon! So soon!