Caldryn Parliament

News

  • Island Authorities

    slightly surreal painting of many islands

    I’ve been reading and listening to marketing gurus’ best guesses on the impact of AI on communicating with and engaging people. One of their biggest concerns, naturally enough, is how to ensure that there is still a job for them. If the AI can do almost everything (if you’re curious Forbes has a good article on this automated vibe marketing), then what remains for a marketer?

    Since once of the hats an indie author wears is that of a marketing manager it’s a question that concerns me.

    The answer seems to be to step back from basic content creation and, instead, invite people to share your experience; that is, do something and communicate what you’re doing as you do it. This is what TikTokkers and Youtubers have been doing for years, so it’s not really a radical idea. I’m not even convinced it’s the right answer regarding how to assert our humanity against the rise of AI controlled communications.

    Perhaps, though, the marketing gurus are on the right path. Sharing their experience is a means by which someone who is an authority on a subject demonstrates that authority. We judge them, respect them, and follow them because we see what they can do.

    I actually think that authority (in the sense of being respected for one’s knowledge and experience) may be what causes some communications and communicators to stand out as islands in the sea of AI-generated garbage. These islands (authorities) can’t be moved by the latest fad, won’t wash away with the tide, and can’t be swamped. They endure because people trust them, and because they honor that trust.

    And now for an apology.

    I’ve had to delay the release of Hexes Fly. Originally, I scheduled it to come out June 26. I’ve pushed that back a month, and it will now release on Saturday July 26.

    Similarly, Rogues Lie will now release a month later than planned on Saturday November 29.

    2025 has been far more chaotic than I ever imagined it could be and I need to add some breathing space to my publishing schedule. I hate doing it (so much!) but if I’m advising other people to be kind to themselves I need to follow that advice, too. I’m so very sorry, though, that you’ll have to wait an extra month.

  • What a Beautiful World!

    a globe of the world and a red rose

    For me, writing my novels is a conversation with the world. I know that sounds weird. But it means that I “listen” to the world (read the news and commentary, and generally indulge my curiosity), think on what the world has said, and then, respond.

    Perhaps it’s different for people who fully plot out their books, but I’m a pantster. No matter how many notes I have to keep me “on track” I go wandering off as I write. The world is talking and it affects how my fictional world develops.

    This is why the same book (i.e. one with the same starting point and premise) written again ten years later would be very different.

    A few authors have done this.

    Robin McKinley wrote Beauty in 1978. In 1997 she wrote Rose Daughter. Both are retellings of Beauty and the Beast. The books are very different. (Beauty is my favorite.)

    On a sidenote, I enjoy Beauty and the Beast retellings. I haven’t read the old British romance The Mettlesome Piece by Anne Hepple in years, but I adored it. It’s not quite the traditional Beauty and the Beast in that the Beast rescues himself, and then, rescues Beauty, but it definitely has the theme of being trapped until love finds you.

    I even wrote a sweet fairy tale retelling novella myself, Beauty Conquers the Beast.

    Sometimes the world is simply telling us to believe in magic.

  • Card Decks – Beyond Fortune-telling

    painting of many fortune cards featuring flowers and planets

    I had no idea that card decks had become a thing beyond fortune-telling, but Jane Friedman reported on them being a new product market in publishing.

    I have no time, and therefore, no plans, to create a card deck, but I can imagine how simple it would be to feed something like The Lord of the Rings series into an AI, set specific prompts, and have it spit out quotations for themed cards.

    A little bit of me is wistful. I’d love to have the time and energy to create fortune cards for the website and some sort of widget that randomly gifted you all a fortune cookie when you clicked Giddy’s paw.

    Yes, authors’ dreams of what they’d do if they won the lottery are a bit different to other people’s. More time to write! Yay! But also more time to do side projects. Yay!!

    Side projects like finally—finally!—getting my ebooks into paperback and maybe even hardback.

    I was fascinated to read about the success of book subscription services where they curate the box of books they send their customers. And now, that curation is going to expand to include publishing.

    The wheel goes round and reinvents itself.

    Short stories for raconteurs are another example of the old being reinvented.

    I’ve long been a proponent of the idea that if you want to learn pacing and how to tell a story, practice retelling jokes and anecdotes. I know, it’ll probably bore your cat silly listening to you recount Joe Bloggs from the watercooler’s fish-that-got-away story, but you’ll become familiar with the rhythm of a story; its high points, tension, what you can leave out (oh yeah, a large part of story telling is removing the deadweight).

    Ratika Deshpande has some suggestions at Reactor for short stories suited to retelling around a campfire. I’d never considered choosing the short stories I read for their retelling value, but I guess it’s a natural extension of relating news and gossip from social media.

    We’re all storytellers.

    In what I’ve been reading news…

    Mariana Zapata has a new book out, The Things We Water. Although she started out as a contemporary romance author, The Things We Water is a paranormal romance. What I love about her style is that she takes her time to tell a story and while she doesn’t wallow in emotion, she doesn’t shy away from it either. Her heroines are often Cinderellas. They struggle, but they are always kind.

  • It’s May!

    cubist painting of a mirror

    ::looks in mirror:: Oh, that’s the silly person who thought April would be less busy than March. So much for grand plans. I only have a small update to the website this month; the addition of Major Fallon Tran’s bio.

    In better news, I read and loved The Ornithologist’s Field Guide to Love by India Holton. It’s a wonderful, witty, and imaginative romp. I’ve picked up the sequel, The Geographer’s Map to Romance.

    Hopefully next week I’ll have a longer post. Till then, happy reading!

  • Recommended!

    a painting of a fairy holding a golden heart

    Despite all the algorithmic nonsense that rules our online lives, the best marketing tool remains word-of-mouth recommendations.

    I’ve been thinking about this a lot because my books aren’t in bricks and mortar bookstores or libraries. Yes, I want to get paperback editions out, but that’s a 2026 goal and, even then, there’s a heap of hurdles before my paperbacks appear in-person (so to speak).

    You see, in bookstores and libraries the booksellers and librarians advocate for books. They stock them and they promote them.

    But when you’re online, your advocate is an uncaring bunch of algorithms and—vitally—real people.

    Reviews from real people (as opposed to those from Scammer-McScammer-Mucky-Faces) teach the algorithms and make them unbelievably more effective at putting an author’s books in front of the right readers. Consequently, reviews are angel feathers from heaven for authors, especially for indie authors.

    But even better than reviews are recommendations. When someone mentions my books to a new reader I swear, an angel gets their wings!

    Looking at what I’ve recommended recently—not just books—reveals something fascinating. It took a bit of digging and self-reflection, but I persisted with the question of why I recommend so few things.

    Recommendations require you to share part of yourself. A recommendation reveals what you value. If something left you happier, healthier, braver, or whatever the experience was, recommending it to someone permits them a peek into your life and soul. You’re inviting them to know you.

    For some people being known is a thrill. Chasing intimacy is a joy in their life. However, for others of us, being known is scary. The truth is, though, that being known is the only way to build genuine, enduring connections. So, take a leap occasionally and share something you value with someone you value. A recommendation is a gift.

  • The Blue Castle & Hope

    Recently I read Rachel Taylor Thompson’s Sasha vs the Whole Wide World (and Dragons) and was delighted to discover references to The Blue Castle by LM Montgomery. As much as I read and re-read the Anne stories as a girl, The Blue Castle is my favourite LMM novel as an adult. It has so much in it. The challenge is to discuss it without spoilers!

    I don’t think I can. ::wails::

    Okay, so I’ll share one thought I have about The Blue Castle and current world events. I think that one of the themes in the novel that will be brought out and explored in books and movies for the next few years is the question: when someone has nothing left to lose, what do they choose?

    This isn’t a bleak question. It’s a question that acknowledges the metaphorical deaths in our lives. When we lose, or feel as if we’ve lost, something vital, it’s like dying. Who we were before that point no longer defines who we will become. The starting point for these stories might be painful, but they are celebrations of rebirth. Who do we choose to become?

    One of the greatest gifts of a novel is that it reinforces our agency. As we identify with the protagonist we explore issues and environments which could be crushing, but which we (the combined protagonist and reader) have the agency to navigate and affect.

    The Blue Castle resonates with so many of us because Valancy is a courageous protagonist who dies to her old life to embrace a world of possibilities and love. And, I promise, it has a happy ever after.

  • A Space of Our Own

    Last week I mentioned Patricia C Wrede, her fantasy novels, and their brilliant world-building. If you’re an author, let me recommend her advice on writing and world-building.

    But I also want to talk about world-building from a different perspective. In creating Caldryn Parliament and its Realm I deliberately set about building a safe space. There is danger in it, as well as heartbreak and grief. Nonetheless, it is a space removed from real life; one where I can guarantee a happy ever after.

    The intriguing aspect of a created safe space is that it becomes a place where we can play. Novels are where we safely explore and test ideas. In reading we become different people in different worlds making courageous decisions and surviving (at least in my books) to go on to new adventures.

    Underpinning this concept of a safe space is Foucault’s notion of heterotopia, of “other spaces”.

    Writing this post I took a deep breath, and then, opted for the sensible decision of providing you with a link to his thoughts on heterotopia rather than trying and failing to summarise them. This isn’t just intellectual inability or laziness on my part. The article I’m linking to gives so many jumping off points for understanding how the setting we choose for a novel frames the otherness of the story and contributes to what we explore.

    So, thank you to MIT for sharing the article. It is a pdf and will probably download automatically, so please be aware of this before clicking the link: https://web.mit.edu/allanmc/www/foucault1.pdf

  • Website Updates & Book Recommendations

    frog wearing a top hat

    I’ve added a trivia page to the site and I’ll update it sporadically. Some of the trivia will be relevant to future books. Other bits of trivia are just an overflow of world-building energy. Also up is the May 993 collection of snippets from Forum City News.

    Once again I’ve wildly overestimated the amount of time/energy I have in a day. Consequently, many of the things I’d hoped to add to the website haven’t happened this month. Fingers crossed that April is kinder to my plans.

    But I have managed to read some great books, including:

    Crown Duel by Sherwood Smith. I have no idea how I’ve missed reading this till now. It reminds me of Patricia C Wrede’s books; young, female protagonist in a brilliantly developed fantasy world. If that’s the kind of book you enjoy, I also recommend Andrea K Host’s Hunting.

    The Beast of Gloomenthrall by Jane Cousins – a romantasy with a lot of action and some violence.

    Spark the Flames by Ivy Asher – an even hotter romantasy!

    Grave Situation by Louisa Masters – gay romantasy with the crankiest, sweetest teacher/mage/reluctant hero protagonist.

    Return of the Runebound Professor series by Actus – progression fantasy (and another teacher hero)

    I also bought digital copies of a couple of my favourite books: House of Many Shadows by Barbara Michaels (also wrote as Elizabeth Peters – and if you haven’t discovered her Amelia Peabody books you’re missing out) and Year of the Griffin by Diana Wynne Jones.

    What have you been reading?

  • New Subgenres

    a cat flying a biplane watched by a cat on the ground

    Continuing my musing on what we can discover if we follow trends in the publishing industry, there’s currently a bit of chatter about the decline in the number of historical romance novels being acquired by traditional publishing. Apparently, historical romance authors are having to add other elements; that is, a bit of mystery, some paranormal shenanigans, even fantasy.

    Genre blurring has existed for ages in historical fiction.

    Look at steampunk, which never took off the way I thought it would. I don’t understand it. Re-imagining history is fascinating!

    But maybe steampunk added too much. Maybe the key to weaving history into a novel isn’t to ornament it with new things, but to hack away at it till a new vision emerges.

    Could the next big thing in historical fiction be important events told through an animal’s eyes? There is a lot of potential there. Say a cat intent on its feline activities but interrupted by its owner’s attempt to ::insert famous event, whatever it might be::

    Speaking of books from history…

    Janet Neel’s mystery novels are now available in ebook (she was also a British lawyer and a Peer in the House of Lords). They’re from the 1980s and 1990s, and so, they’ve become historical or vintage or retro or whatever you want to call the PAST THAT I REMEMBER! …ahem. Her books are beautifully written as well as well-plotted. I like some more than others. If you’re curious, you can dip into The Complete Wilson & McLeish Set.

    Similar blasts from the recent-ish past now available in ebook include mystery novels by Charlotte MacLeod and Marian Babson.

  • Heroic Revelations

    a wizard rescuing a kitten from a tree using magic

    If you study the publishing industry you can identify fascinating trends that reflect wider societal concerns. Romance novelists are important to watch. They’re astute analysts and forecasters of trends. Their heroes are an expression and response to readers’ hopes and fears.

    Alien heroes stand outside (human) society, unconstrained by our social norms.

    Paranormal heroes (werewolves, wizards, vampires) are a less extreme version of aliens. The paranormals challenge society and its systems (legal, political, and social).

    Farmers, cowboys, and doctors sustain and heal society. Theirs is a life of sacrifice, routine, and endurance.

    Mafia (anti) heroes navigate the corruption in the system. They aren’t outside society, but they play by different rules.

    Police and military heroes defend society.

    Hockey players and other sportstars and celebrity heroes express escaping ordinary life while staying true to it.

    I suspect there’ll be a new type of savior hero soon, one who redeems society by enforcing a moral code. I’m really curious what form this hero will take. Religious monk? Cult leader? Political activist? What’s your guess?