Song of the Spring Moon Waning is scheduled to be released January 15th 2014
Upon waking up one morning, Wen Yu is surprised to find a note asking him to return the song thrush given into his care while the owner was sick. The only problem is that Wen Yu was never given a song thrush.
Though he has no time for distractions from his studies for the palace examination, Wen Yu goes in search of the unknown Liu Yi who left him the note. What he finds is a beautiful imperial eunuch, a talking tortoise, and a collection of mysterious moon poems that force Wen Yu to question what path in life he is truly meant to be walking
Much like Zi Yong and the Collection of Secrets which is set in the same universe, I wrote Song of the Spring Moon Waning specifically to read like a fairy tale. There are talking animals, mistaken identities, lovers forced apart by fate. The story draws heavily upon Chinese folk lore as well as some history from the Norhtern Song Dynasty, but there is also a good dash of pure fantasy thrown in there as well.
A Matter of Disagreement comes out in March 2014, (warning: very unofficial blurb)
As a scholar of spell craft and literature Lord Ashcroft de Bourbon, Andrea, has been watching his funding drain away due to the rise of mechanical animation. Now he faces the possibility of no longer being able to peruse his own research and worse having to let go of his research assistants, some of which rely on him to support their families. Mechanical animation, the source of Andrea's problems, combines mechanical engineering with spell craft. It has become the darling of the Emperor's court garnering enthusiastic support at the expense of every other discipline. In retaliation Andrea begins a very public campaign to knock the mechanical animation field down a few pegs via the pages of academic journals and publications. While his intellectual attacks earn him notoriety they do not solve his financial problems.
When Andrea is dragged to a court party by his social latter climbing brother, Mathis, he finally comes face to face with the man who pioneered mechanical animation, Léon Gregory de la Marche VI, Marquis de la Marche. The Marquis is not what Andrea expected though, handsome, interesting and surprisingly reasonable Andrea is immediately attracted to him. Yet as soon as the question of academics is raised sparks of the all together angry sort fly between the two. Mathis is angling to marry the Marquis' sister though and Andrea knows that continuing to antagonize the Marquis will only make his position worse, so he begins trying to rebuild some of the bridges he has burnt. While the Marquis seems just as eager to put their differences behind them progress is slow going as tempers flair and personalities clash. When things go from bad to worse in Andrea's professional life the tensions between him and the Marquis reach a head and something will have to break.
A Matter of Disagreement is about rival academics who, when they meet for the first time face to face, do not know who the other is. Suddenly sparks of the romantic sort fly, now if only they could figure out how to put their differences behind them ... This is a fun romp though a vaguely Regency steampunk world full of gentleman scholars and lady scientists.
Although they are both very different I enjoyed writing both of these stories. They both have wonderful casts of characters and universes I could easily write more in.
Selume Proferre and Your Happy End both feature main characters who identify in different ways as genderqueer. A Matter of Disagreement and Song of the Spring Moon Waning though will be my first with characters who identify as transgender. Both feature two very different trans men as main characters.
All in all 2014 is shaping up to be an exciting year already.
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