Featured Book: The Elvenbane

This week, I'm going to talk about one of my all time favorite books. The Elvenbane is a book by Andre Norton and Mercedes Lackey that captured my attention back in high school. It was my first big exposure to Elves, talking dragons, etc. (no, I still haven't got through The Lord Of The Rings... in fact, after this series, singing elves just flat out did me in).

This series starts with a pregnant dragon (a shaman of her people) coming across a concubine in active labor, dying of exposure in the dessert. A free thinker amongst her people, she is also deeply compassionate and can't just leave the baby to die after helping her into the world, so she brings her back to her people and passes her off as a pet for her older child, her son.

This fantasy story bounces between characters in the third person, revealing, bit by bit, a world that began as an Earth parallel (with the exception that ESP is real there--telepathy, telekenesis, etc. are all quite possible), but was invaded by extradimensional travelers. Not a lot is revealed of the past in the first book (this is actually a trilogy--I warned you that I'm not big on stories that end in one book), but the present is populated by superior and typically cruel Elven Lords and their human slaves. Laws are strict, but none stricter than one: Humans and Elves may not breed together. The resulting 'wizards' have magic much stronger than their parents (which is contrary to Elven succession, leaving the child no stronger than the most powerful parent).

The dragons, too, are alien to the world they share and have kept their presence hidden, doing nothing to stop the subjugation of the native inhabitants (although they have no problem meddling in the two-legged affairs where it amuses them). The baby that the dragon shaman rescued just happens to be a halfblood (possibly why she was spared).

The Halfblood Chronicles features a strong female lead (and reluctant revolutionary leader), interesting, diverse characters and a fascinating take on all three races. There are politics, historical fun, magic, romance and adventure galore. It was my first adult fantasy series, but wasn't so thick of the genre as to be hard to read at all. I highly recommend these books.

Have you read them? What was your feelings on the books?

Hi, everybody

Sorry about dropping off the face of the earth, but I've been a bit busy... creating life.

I'm 7 weeks, 5 days pregnant. Remarkably, I got pregnant on the first try. We didn't think that would ever happen. My first little girl took 18 months of trying before I gave up--right after getting pregnant ;) My second was 8 months with two losses in the meantime and required supplements. So, I'm going to be a nervous Nellie for who-knows-how-long while I go from pregnancy milestone to milestone.

I'm having a yucky first trimester, but since a friend has hypermesis gravardium (where you puke endlessly, end up having to go to the hospital to be hydrated, etc.), I don't really see it as that bad. I take morning sickness vitamins and have only puked once, even if I spend about 80% of my waking time feeling like I'm going to and being afraid of it, because I'm exhausted, weak and can barely tolerate much food.

On the night I ovulated, I had a dream. This dream was so interesting that I overslept and had to tell a friend all about it. I wrote it down as a micro-fiction and that friend told me I should make it into a book. I laughed, because that seemed so silly, but the worm was in my head and I decided to write a short story.

Exactly 3 weeks later, I had over 100,000 words--a full novel. I wrote an average of 5,000 words a day (my daily goal) and put in 8-14 hour days on it. I was driven and I enjoyed it. I felt so fulfilled and productive. I've never written like that in my whole life. All the while, this little bean in there grew, implanted and started the road to becoming a baby. My little muse. My muse has always taken maternity leave when I get pregnant, so having him go into overdrive was strange and welcome.

So I've neglected my blog, dramatically and I'm sorry. But I'm also not sorry, as I had quite legitimate reasons. I don't know how active I'll become, since not a lot has really come up, parenting-wise, lately, that isn't already super-blogged. I'll eventually cover car seats and the new recommendation, but that's for another day. Today, I want to go lie on the couch and veg out, trying to forget about the ever-present nausea and overwhelming cravings for potatoes.