Dark Lighthouse Re-Issue
Added 2017-08-17 14:00:00 +0000 UTCSomeone couldn't find the Stardancer short "Dark Lighthouse" on Amazon and asked me about it, and I said, 'oh, yes, I took all my short fiction down so I could give it away to Patreon patrons' and... I don't think I did that with this one. So I brushed it up, added the one piece of art I did for it, and here it is! For the completionists who want to read all the Alysha stuff, and couldn't find this.
If you have the original version, you should replace it with this one, because it is prettier. >.>
You can either grab it as a file below, or go to this link: https://dl.bookfunnel.com/da2dveg5au
Anyway, enjoy! And reading order is here: http://mcahogarth.org/wiki/the-pelted/
Comments
Okay, try here! <a href="https://dl.bookfunnel.com/da2dveg5au" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://dl.bookfunnel.com/da2dveg5au</a>
M.C.A. Hogarth
2018-07-09 18:53:45 +0000 UTCHad an issue with my old copy and tried to redownload this, and I just got a "not found" error.
Ashtara
2018-07-07 18:26:33 +0000 UTCAgain, thanks for doing this. It is one of the stories that puzzles and interests me. So I wrote this on my lunch break: Thoughts upon rereading Dark Lighthouse, using the latest version. I am calling it prejudice. She is reduced to stuttering by the thought of being with someone who is otherwise very compatible. Can not do it even as a one night stand. She can work with them but not mate with them? Good enough for the Navy but not for normal relations? She should get help, she seems to me to need it. But will she? So this is one of maybe three stories that contain examples of pelted vs human prejudice. And maybe there is one going the other way. (A's Fall) So it is a theme in your work, one that you have intentionally woven in. People are not born hating/fearing/being awkward with others. They get trained, or have incidents or such. So her backstory is interesting to me. I regret that I likely will never know. I guess this kind of prejudice does not go away easy. But exactly some of that is being destroyed, in our real world, one person at a time, by a black guy willing to dialog with the KKK. It does make me wonder what the kittens would look like, though you have said that the pelted gene engineers can shape the kids anyway the parents want. It would feel like there should be some consequences of this for the human and Pelted alliance. Some unease being felt? Not sure how. But maybe that is why when the chips are down, the Pelted do not import human generals/admirals, when those would have a more aggressive stance and more experienced war background. “Everyone makes mistakes” like letting him get that close. But does she regret her prejudice? Her missed opportunity? It does not seem so. Which makes this a tragedy instead of an opening in an extended multi-act romance. She will want to forget, to repress this. But every time she sees a human that resembles him, every time she fights sword, she has a chance to remember. She could be haunted for the rest of her life. But! She regularly fights sword with other Pelted on ship for exercise and training, and no notice of this story. Which is why I was saying that this story is as though it is in an alternate universe. The lack of connection,of continuation, stands out. I really do not know what she feels as she looks back in the dark. But maybe she does not either. Changing topic. I have been thinking on Wing Gestures. And how to find an out for the lack of the same beyond mantling and (dis-mantling? (joke)) spreading. First the wing gestures would most likely be associated with flight. Thus the flightless but winged would not use them, nor understand them. And the flighted would not typically use them on the flightless, except as part of habit. Your dragons would use and understand them though. There is a way of slide slipping. I have no idea what it uses, but that would be a gesture. There is a way of landing, wings spread, feet coming down. Another gesture. The ravens I have seen can do barrel rolls, flying briefly upside down. If the dragons can do that, another one. The pump to gain altitude, yet another. There is the stoop to the kill, another for the claws come out in the last instance. Your bird watching friend, Ursula, could tell you more. A pilot of our mechanical wings could say much. Pilots, real world humans, 'fly' their hands when they talk about what happens. The Dragons would do the same, with wings at least twitching in memory. In all cases, the full gesture would involve the tail, so standing, but it could be hinted at by the wings while sitting. Or more subtly, by the tail alone. It is lucky that your space elf ambassador/spy learned these mind to mind as the lack would have given him away, even if not written in. Given a scuba tank and the instruction to use it a G. could learn to fly through water like a penguin, maybe. Certainly a better chance than of flying through air. Third topic. Given the prejudice noted above, how psycho would a human need to be to purchase pirate vended furs? Less so than a Pelted I would presume. Fourth topic: Bill the Galactic Hero and maybe even The Bug Wars might have been inspired by Heinlein's Starship Troopers. Neither one was ever called fanfiction. So one can have inspiration that is not fanfiction.
Godel Fishbreath
2017-08-19 13:31:36 +0000 UTC
