It's been a long time since I last wrote. The response to the coronavirus has changed everyday life dramatically. Here in Washington state, the stay-at-home order has kept us indoors for more than two months, even as spring has transformed the outside world into a vivacious temptress. There are a lot of things I miss. Visiting family. Seeing movies in the theater. Stepping past the doorway of a bookstore and conversing with the staff; not just exchanging curt hellos from a curbside pickup checkpoint.
Is it perverse to say there have been upsides as well? I don't think so. My fiancee and I may have more time to spend with each other. Without the obligations of a traditional workday, I can prioritize the most important tasks and knock off when they're complete. I exercise regularly. The conversations had with cashiers and homebound neighbors, even muffled behind our masks, are sweeter. Life has marched on.
The normalcy we knew receded into a pinprick in our rearview mirrors long ago, but we'll drive up to a new normal--maybe even a better normal. Human beings, on the whole, are resilient creatures.
I'd like to let you know that I have a new book coming out next week. It's called "The Knife," and it's a novella about love, family, and violence told from the perspective of a common kitchen knife. The book will release on June 2, and it's available for preorder now at this link.
Here's the description:
Born in the womb of the Earth and reborn in the flames of the factory, the knife was told it would be given purpose. That purpose was clear: help humans prepare food, nourish themselves, and nourish their families. So when the knife was purchased by homemaker Gina, it thought it was set for life.
But when Gina's son decides the knife would be better suited to darker deeds, the knife's entire reason for being is called into question.
Equal parts comedy and tale of existential dread, "The Knife" is a philosophical novel about best intentions and what happens when others decide our purpose for us.
Because everyone gets used sometimes.
This is a different story from my usual fantasy fare—far stranger, for one thing, but also more personal. At its core, “The Knife” is a parable about what happens when we seek validation from our jobs above all else.
More fantasy is on the way, though. I'm currently in the final stretch of a new Kurik'har the Orc story I'm calling "The Scavenger and the Parasite." It's a fantasy-horror set in the jungle, where Kurik'har—a young military recruit in this story—is stranded and reliant on the help of a strange and malevolent hermit.
When we last saw Kurik'har, he was older and captaining a pirate ship in "The Rag Kings of Vanais." The anthology that housed that story, "Fantastic Realms," ended its publication run recently, and the story will be available as a standalone as soon as I can arrange for a cover.
Cheers,
Mark