Rogue Magic Will Be Late

Posted on by Sarah A. Hoyt

I’ll try to get it up tomorrow.  For those of you wondering why/what is going on with me this week — I had the opportunity to audit the Superstars writing seminar.  I’ll write about it later but several lectures were very interesting and I’m very grateful to Kevin J. Anderson for letting me audit.

The seminar was only a couple of miles from me, which is good, because we ended up missing about half of it, as I came home to deal with the freezer.

Our 27 cubic feet deep freezer (aka the reason we can afford meat, because I buy it ONLY when on deep discount) gave up the ghost probably about 12 hours before 4 am on Wednesday, when I woke up saying “The freezer stopped.”  Now, this is bizarre unless I have ears like a bat — and a delayed sense of hearing — because a) it had to have stopped way earlier, since half the meat was defrosted.  b) the freezer is in the basement, two floors down from my bedroom AND across the house.  BUT I knew it, and it was a good thing.  Not that I did anything RIGHT then, but as soon as the guys were on the way to their finals and Dan to work, I carried up laundry baskets full of meat, sorted it into three piles: completely frozen (coolers surrounded by ice), mostly defrosted but cool — crammed it into fridge and started cooking what was left out right then — and completely defrosted and warm-ish or what I described as “manky looking” which went in the large trash bag.

Then I left everything cooking and went to the lectures I could not miss.  Then I came back and finished cooking, then I went to more lectures…  You’re seeing the pattern, right?

This went on till yesterday.  Today I woke up what is technically known as dead.  It’s as though the weight of the world JUST fell on me.  Also, I have a short story almost finished, and I’d like to finish it.  It’s grossly late, and probably won’t be used, but if not I have other things I can do with it.

I COULD probably write one chapter of Rogue Magic, but because of the way I’m feeling, that might be the only active writing I got done, and I’d rather finish the short story.  (Today is also what’s know as “a good day to edit” — which I need to do a lot of with Shadow Gods, so that’s fine. — it takes less energy than active writing.)

So, meanwhile, put your links to your indie (or otherwise) published books in the comments, for me to organize into a post tomorrow.  If I have recovered from whatever this is, I might even insti-link (they need a different thing done on the link for that.)

Speaking of which, Peter Grant, husband of our very own Dorothy has his first book Take The Star Road out.  Yes, that’s a quote from me.  Yes, I meant it.  I’m re-reading the book to review.  But I enjoyed it.

Also, I’m giving Never Look Back away free for the next five days.  Get it, get it for you, for your family, for your dog, for your friends, and for total strangers whose email you have. ;)  Spread the word.

I’m hoping to put up another collection or two this weekend, but no promises because the weekend has business of its own.

Also, two questions for you hunnish lot:

1 – Can one of you come up with a Pulpy “human wave” like title for a magazine that hasn’t been used before.  Yes, there’s a reason for it.  I have devious, devious plans.  To clarify: I want it to sound like something that would have been sold around the 30s, 40s, SF/f (it was actually not clearly parted then) and which did NOT exist (so I don’t have to worry about copyrights.)  It should carry the idea humans-good.  Or at least the idea that the future is better than the past.

2- There are a lot of lawyers either, and at least one non fiction medieval researcher.  Can one of you come up with a form of words VAGUELY signifying “Magical Britain” that sounds good as a series title?  See, Witchfinder and Rogue Magic are part of the Magical British Empire universe and have the same feel.  Once I er… clean MBE I’d like to put them all up and link them by a series name.  Since AFAICT all of these are set in Britain or have British citizens and span anywhere from regency to Victorian England in feel (some are in our time, their history just went different) Magical Britain sounds appropriate, but if I just use it straight it sounds like a travel/non fic book.  If we put it in Latin, it’s immediately fantasy.  Of course, if you guys think up other names that might work for the series like “Secret mages” or whatever, go for it.  Just shoot stuff at the wall, we’ll see if anything sticks.  (This is how I got the title Darkship Thieves.  I honestly had no idea what to call the book before.)

286 thoughts on “Rogue Magic Will Be Late”

    1. Legends of Lyonesse (a drowned land adjacent to Cornwall, or maybe Scotland – all very vauge and mysteriously sorcerouss-sounding)
      The Matter of Albion.
      No ideas for the magazine, though.

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      1. No, these books already exist. They take place all over the empire in several parallel and variously magic universes.

        BTW — there is one that presumes islands adjacent to the Azores, which never sank — but I’m calling that one Remnants of Atlantis. I want to write YA stories set in the village as it was when I grew up (well, except for magic and were creatures. There will be a few more of those in the stories ;) ) BUT the village is now nothing like it and I don’t want to argue. So… At some point, when things slow down for a moment and my health stabilizes (yes we ARE working on that) I shall ask Toni if she’s interested. Right after the YA SF which I want to do first.
        When did things get THIS busy?

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            1. OK. Tangent time. WHAT is high fantasy? The boring and tedious crap that George MacDonald peddled or E.R. Eddings? Morte d’Arthur? Sword in the Stone? War for the Oaks?

              And while we’re off on this tangent, will somebody PLEASE explain to me the appeal of James Branch Cabell?

              M

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                1. What we at theOrkshop used to call MEQF — Medieval European Quest Fantasy. Except for Tolkien, I don’t see much high about it.

                  But that’s just my bigoted opinion. I’m one of those who threw the Sword of Shanarra across the room.

                  M

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                    1. Oh yea– and the many times the MC is someone important– or will be important in some way (think prince in bad circumstances)– of course Tolkien did something different– ;-)

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                  2. Personally I wouldn’t make an exception for Tolkien.

                    The high part comes from the fact that you would have to be, to find it interesting.

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                  1. Cabell can be really, really good on the satire and wry humor fronts, and he has some great ideas and language. He also got the Great Big Series started, as he crossed over all his fiction with each other. Also, good poet.

                    The problem is that he really liked that “every woman is one woman/goddess, and she’s a bitch” stuff. Cynical, cynical stuff. Maybe it was a good corrective to gooey-sweet Victorian fiction, but nowadays, not so much.

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              2. High fantasy is generally pseudo-medieval tolkein rip-offs, so War For The Oaks, being set in modern-day Minneapolis, is Right Out. But it also will claim every book in a secondary world that doesn’t have adventure or straightforward plot (those, they sneer, go into the gutter of sword and sorcery), the ones that try to be literary, and the sprawling multi-generational epic stuff. In fact, if you listen to the critics, High Fantasy is the proper home for all epic fantasy… as long as they get to define what is an epic fantasy.

                Larry Correia, being a notorious troublemaker, went and found the criteria for epic fantasy, and fulfilled every single one… set in the ’20’s, with gangsters and guns. Yeah, if you read the Hard Magic trilogy, it’s Epic Fantasy. Which is a good bit of data to feed to the snooty nose-in-air critics who still claim he’s not a real writer, as he’s Baen, and crassly commercial and pulp, and guns evil and right-wing getitawayfrommeeeeee!

                Ahem. Idiot leftist critics (and my teasing them) aside, it’s really just like any other genre; Sturgeon was an optimist, but there are some nice ones in there.

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              3. Technically, High Fantasy takes place in a world that has no connection to ours (Middle Earth); Low Fantasy may have other worlds, but intersects with ours somehow (Narnia).

                I don’t remember where I read this, but the writer was quick to point out that it wasn’t a judgmental designation, no matter how much it sounded like one.

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                1. High Fantasy is the stuff that aims at eliciting high feelings of sense of wonder, God’s presence, love, glory, tragedy, etc. Doesn’t need to be at all epic.

                  Low Fantasy aims at the gritty and earthy, and has less idealistic goals. Doesn’t make it worse, just makes it different.

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                  1. This sounds great, but it’s not how it’s used as marketing categories. As marketing categories, High Fantasy just means “Tolkien like” and there’s no “low fantasy” — there’s urban fantasy, there’s historic fantasy which is sort of what I do, there’s parallel world fantasy which is also sort of what I do, there’s noir fantasy and there’s dark fantasy. There’s also “literary” fantasy which can cross with any of those. There is no actual marketing category called “low fantasy.”

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                    1. I wonder: would Low Fantasy involve tales of epic quests by dwarves?

                      Perhaps it would more likely entail pornographic punsters pantsing dwarves — I doubt you could get much lower.

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                    2. Don’t forget contemporary fantasy– urban fantasy is in the big city, while contemporary is everywhere else (country, small cities, etc). I write mostly contemporary.

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                  2. Oh, and High Fantasy AFAICT has nothing to do with G-d. In fact a lot of it is very anti-Christian, if veiled. (No, Tolkien wasn’t, of course, but that’s something else.)

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                    1. The definitions didn’t come from anyone in marketing; it came from an academic collection. So of course it was pretentious and PC at the same time.

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          2. Magic of Empire. Something on the Mother Country… ::sticks lower lip out in concentration:: Wizards of Empire. The Sonne Never Sets. I’m getting some vibe based around the mechanism of the magic and the two modes in conflict — the collective and the individual/primitive and sophisticated. Or maybe some resonance with Larry Niven’s The Magic Goes Away. drawing from the fears of the Africans in Heart of Light. The Dying Empire of Magic. Nah. Not mysterious enough.

            M

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              1. Which I just finished listening to on audio, man you can certainly tell Heinlein wrote that when he was in his socialist/capitalism=evil stage.

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  2. MBE = Sorcerous Albion (something ending in -ous Albion, anyway (mysterious, marvelous, etc. – as a play on the whole perfidious Albion trope)).

    I got nothing for the magazine title, though.

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      2. The BBC Merlin show (which I love) refers to Albion a lot. Albion is awesome and not necessarily too hard to recognize.
        Albion Sideways
        The Other Albion
        Parallel Albion
        Hunting Albion

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  3. Wow, and I used to own a bunch of 30’s – 50’s pulp SF&F. But with a cold my brain is mush.
    1. Amazing Possibilities; Future Realms; StarStruck; Fiction, Fantasy or Fact?; Unknown Paths.

    2. Avalon-on-Thames; Something with DOVER in it.

    That’s all I can come up with for now. Does the winner get special mention? Prefer not a Redshirt Award.

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    1. Whilst I remember. Maybe years ago I worked on a storyline based on the Enchanted Western Isles. I’d read America BC by Barry Fell, dealing in Pre-Columbian finding in North America. He mentioned that the Celtic term for the Western lands was Iargalon, meaning Land Beyond the Sunset.
      I was enchanted by the possibility, and did tons of research on the subject and possibilties. That might be a title for a magical Britain.

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  4. I Like Albion too. It seems to me that the term “Hermetic” has its uses, as does Esoteric (Esoteric Stories?). Are you contemplating something Steampunky?

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      2. I have to admit – I don’t think I’ve read any steampunk. Got any examples worth trying that won’t be like Brussels Sprouts or Coffee? (Both acquired tastes.)

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        1. I enjoyed Cherie Priest’s “Boneshaker”. And my daughter loved Westerfeld’s “Leviathan” series, though my understanding is that those are more bio- and dieselpunk.

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        2. They refer to it as “gaslamp fantasy” rather than steampunk (it doesn’t perfectly fit the genre), but the Foglio’s Girl Genius is fantastic. Adventure, romance (several of them!), alt history, maybe-magic, character growth, royalty, skullduggery, heroism, and MAD SCIENCE!

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          1. Gail Carriger’s Soulless was pretty fun– and I liked her second book as well… And then I started to have problems with her stories… but the steampunk gadgets are great.

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          2. Well, if it’s magitech, that’s something completely different!

            Maybe call it the Technomicon. (Originally I typed Technonomicon, but that’s a bit ridiculous. Unless ridiculous is the goal (a la Pratchett’s Necrotelecomnicon).)

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        5. The first real one was _The Difference Engine_, which was worth the read, and the one I liked the best was _The Bengal Lancers_ by Sterling (which is odd since I usually won’t read him)

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  6. “I Would Like My Bailout in Bacon” — Satire, politics, geekery, dogs, and no DRM!

    $2.99 for Kindle and a currently strangely discounted $11.69 for paperback at Amazon.

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    1. Amazon will match the price if it is sold cheaper somewhere else, ex B&N. My understanding is that Amazon will still pay you for the price you set. Anyone able to confirm that?

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      1. A paperback through CreateSpace pays the same royalty for all sales through Amazon.com, regardless of the price it’s actually sold for. This is just the first time I’ve seen that particular discounted price from Amazon itself. Struck me as kind of odd and a little funny, though it’s still early in my time zone. (My sense of humor definitely changes with the time of day.)

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    1. As Doederlein’s book on “Latin synonymes” [love that Victorian spelling] puts it, “Arcana denotes secrets, in a good sense, such as are so of themselves, and from their own nature, and should be spoken of with awe; thus arcana, as a popular term, denotes secrets of all sorts; on the other hand, mysteria, as a learned term, denotes religious secrets, like the Eleusinian mysteries; lastly, secreta denotes secrets, in the most ordinary sense, such as are made so by men, and which seek concealment from some particular fear.”

      (In case anybody was wondering, Christian patristic writing often talks about religious mysteries in terms of the word “sacramentum,” to make matters clear about which religion; but sometimes some of the other terms get in. Greek Christian patristic writing talks about the Mysteries, IIRC.)

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    2. What about “Outward Bound:Tales from the High Frontier”. Otherwise I’d be worried that the group owning the copyright on OutwardBound would get tetchy.

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  10. Beyond Infinity
    Conquer the Galaxy
    Diaspora Unbound

    Mystic Blighty
    Brit, Book, And Candle
    Ensourced England

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    1. Ensorcelled England?

      Brit, Book and Candle would be the one where lots of people get excommunicated by a squad of flying bishops. (Heh, no, I saw that movie too. I just kept wondering where the bishop was.)

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      1. As a fan of the human settlement of space, I really like that one. Or, how about Diaspora Coined (like coining a phrase or, in this instance, a tale)?

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  11. British magical steampunk .. . hmmmm

    Is the word “gramarye” too obscure?

    Clockwork gramarye
    Iron gramarye
    Tales of the Iron Isle

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  13. I just published a science fiction novel on Kindle, The Sky Suspended. It is DRM free.

    A novel of asteroids, crowds, lawyers and a starship.

    It’s the twenty-second century. Decades in the past, the people of Earth faced extinction by asteroid. After barely escaping the cataclysm, humanity sent out a single starship in response. Now the ship’s return galvanizes the population of Earth. The starship has discovered a new world, Earth-like and beautiful, and a clamor rises to build more ships. But bureaucratic barriers and secrets from a time of crisis threaten the dreams of those who also want to travel to the stars. Two lawyers and a boy from Alaska uncover old rivalries and more when they seek answers to arcane questions others do not want answered.

    Laura Montgomery

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          1. As any of us who has attempted posting more than one YouTube link has discovered, WP can be … irregular in its treatment of links.

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            1. How very persnickety of it–not that I want to anthropomorphize WP or anything (although I have been known to anthropomorphize my children).

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                2. Ummm… Neanderthals are kind and caring people. Although a little bull in the china shop, but basically– /runs before she thinks of the carp

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        1. Thanks. That was my older boy’s first, and perhaps only, modeling gig. I dragged him down to the Lincoln Memorial and asked him to stand up straight and put his shoulders back. Then, the MacBook, FX Photo Studio, PowerPoint, a three dollar alien planet imported from dreamstime and about ten hours later, I had a cover. I love tech.
          Also, when you figure the “lunar ambassador” is selling a lunar acre for about $20, a whole alien planet is really cheap. :)

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  14. Thanks very much for mentioning my book, Sarah. It’s very encouraging to be recognized by big names like yourself and Larry Correia. (Perhaps I should change my name to something Portuguese as well?)

    Looking forward to seeing you at Libertycon. Still can’t decide what shootin’ irons to bring along for you and the boys to play with. How about a .88 Magnum? It shoots through schools!

    ;-)

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  15. For a magazine, I like Ansible, but I want to strongly second Pam’s High Frontier.
    For a series, I have a hard enough time naming my own stuff. For example:
    I have one book out at Amazon. Crown of Exiles: Battlehymn. It’s my little story about giant robots, princesses, forbidden love, and the power of rock and roll. (I’m working on the sequel – CoE: Lamentation. And a new cover.)
    I also have a small collection of weird west short stories: The Sinner’s Trail is about a man trying to buy his soul back from the devil. It has werewolves and silver bullets, deals with the devil, and apocalyptic horsemen.

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  16. Please include in your next promo post:
    Hitchhiking Killer For Hire is available for Kindle on Amazon.

    Hitchhiking Killer For Hire (Sharper Security)

    Brief highlights:
    A story of local corruption, human smuggling, kidnappers, and border truckers in the near future west. If there was no time to summon the Feds, would you turn vigilante and fight corrupt cops? What if the CIA was after you at the same time?

    Thank you.

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  17. For #1– also looked up pulp covers lol – now my mind is blown
    a. Astounding Stories from the Outer Galaxy
    b. Robotic Futures
    c. Robotic men from Mars
    I am stuck on robots right now–
    d. The two-ringed traveling circus

    For #2– much harder
    a. Remnants of Elfheim

    I see a lot of good titles for this one– I think I am done now–

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  20. Arcane Britain
    Commonwealth Magic
    British Esoterica
    Victorian Sorcery
    Empire Arcana

    Pulps:
    Wondrous Futures
    Optimum Tales
    Jacksonian Adventures :-)
    Tales from the Future
    Future Federalists
    Populist Destiny
    Wonderous Destiny

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      1. Taking whats above, I arrived at Arcane Empire of the Victorian Commonwealth. Probably too wordy though it looks cool.

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        1. And the acronym is cool: AEViC. Sounds like a spell.

          For the ‘zine? Manifest Destiny: Diaspora.

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  21. In regards to #1 why not just call it “Human Wave”? If you want a ’30s feel (which is going to be distinctly different from the 40s) you can achieve that through the type treatment and cover art. I can demonstrate if you wish.

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        1. Something with “Tide”. Maybe “Human Tide” as in “it is the human tides that lifts all ships: All ships LIFT!”

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              1. Well – not much experience in dealing with magazine titles ;-) Story titles, article titles, and poetry titles– used to be a typesetter many many moons ago–

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            1. To an extent. The idea is to use this fake pulp e-zine (to begin with) to put out a few free short stories (by any of you who want to put it up that way for a month or two) and the beginnings of books by other authors in our circle, with a link button to buy (both from the stories and the starts of novels.) If I get enough money from my writing that I can afford it — we’ll see — I’d also print a version to give away at conventions, kind of like those “samples” that mainstream houses used to give. That’s the idea, and you see why Human Wave won’t work. I want it to have a pulpy retro feel title and all so people will pick it up out of interest. Human Wave is a good definition as a reply to “New Wave” BUT NOT a “selling title” for a giveaway promo ezine/zine.

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              1. This is a good idea. I’ve always thought that the main purpose of a newspaper for example was to sell advertisements. News is secondary. I also figured the real purpose behind writing for the magazines was so authors could get a wider presentation to the reading public. This should get the ideas put into the reading public wrapped in free-ish stories acting like they are promo-ing a new magazine.
                You’ve turned old ideas on their head and re-purposed them. I love it.

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                1. Umm– brainstorming magazine titles
                  Nickle magazine
                  Brass and knuckle magazine
                  ‘Zine magic
                  Storm and Thunder (lol–off of the Strum and Drang) magazine

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                    4. Fatigue and scotch have granted me rare creative ideas for the pulp mag title:

                      Wondrous Horizons
                      Expanding Horizons
                      Extraordinary Vistas
                      Realms of Wonder (may have seen that before)
                      Cosmic Adventures
                      Radioactive Dreams
                      Dark Matter
                      Dark Energy
                      Dark Nebula
                      Stellar Gateways
                      Planetary Nebulae
                      Revolutionary Science Fact and Fiction
                      Robotic Sheep and Electric Dreams (for a play on the book title)
                      Strange Matters
                      When Black Holes Collide
                      Spacetime Discontinuous

                      Ok, and as I was typing that, a neighborhood stray cat just ambushed a rabbit on our back porch. The wife is making yuck faces over it.

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                    5. Pardon the outbreak of bad humor there. Ah, How about “Rising Stars” for the title? Play on SF and on the appearance of it to be promoting the authors therein, setting up a nice bit of misdirection for the reader’s internal censor.

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                    8. Monetize… oh, QR codes set in the page with printed link beside, possibly with an affiliate link for the amazon and a regular for the B&N/Smashwords/Kobo/Itunes (pick any 3, so you have one for each corner of a page), to buy it on ebook / check out more work by the author.

                      First one’s free, after all…

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                    12. Paul Howard – Good catch, thanks. I completely missed that comic. We could get around that by the very pulpy nature of the cover: it’s obviously not ripping on the comic… but hmm. Or maybe go with the overblown pulp nature, and Rising Superstars? Strange New Stars?

                      Hmmm. Think, brain, think… oh, wait, that’s the low-caffeine alarm. Excuse me.

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                    14. New Stars Rising?

                      Need Tea… no, wait, that’s me. Good night, Sarah, and sleep well. We’ll mostly likely see you in the morning.

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                    15. Potential Pulp titles:
                      Amazing Stars Rising
                      Marvelous Stars
                      Sarah’s SF Digest
                      Blazing Stars
                      Futurian Fixtion
                      Strange New Galaxies
                      Future Societies

                      For the series:
                      Grimoire Britannium

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                  1. But you turned it upside down and now the writers are advertising vehicles for the idea. That’s the brilliance.

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                    1. I was wondering when I’d see a group of like-minded authors get together and add something into the back of their ebooks like the old mail-order “If you like this, then you’ll like these authors. If you liked that, then you’ll like this other list of authors.”

                      Seems you’ve taken the form and run with it as a carrier for learning and meaning… while it’ll also possibly make money for the authors on the side! Bravo!

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                    3. Ah, this is where we all chime in together, finishing that sentence with “in my copious spare time.”

                      And that would be why I will be pleasantly surprised when I finally see it: without an editor calling the shots for everyone, it’ll require more spare time than most of us are blessed with to get done.

                      I thought I’d have spare time today. Instead I got about five square feet of basement cleared, roughly that volume in stuff donated to goodwill, and that same volume of trash thrown out. Don’t ask me how it doubled in size while cleaning it out, it just did.

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                    5. Oh, does it ever. It’s even worse than a teenager whose idea of “cooking from scratch” involves a hamburger helper box trying to make “a fancy meal” from recipes. And somehow, despite not having very fatty meat, the kitchen ends up under a layer of grease to boot… *whimper*

                      I’m in awe of you getting the cleanup done while still recovering from running brain and body at full speed multitasking! Take care, and rest up!

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                    6. I think Tamora Pierce had it right in the first Song of the Lioness book “Free time is what the gods give you after you die . . . if you’ve been good.”

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  22. Thank you for the mention!

    I am pretty excited for my dear man, as well as relieved to finally have called wrestling with formatting and copyediting done. (This go-round. I’ll let it sit a while before picking it back up for the print edition, because I am certain that even if I can’t find anything, I must have missed something.)

    Ugh, emergency salvage cooking – my sympathies! Did you try to do recipe batches (I actually know someone organized enough for that), or was it more like my response of “stick this in the crockpot, it can be shredded whatever when it’s finished, and that large lump of meat in the oven, and these I’ll fry on the stove, and oh, I guess I should have thought about spices. Oops. Oh, well.”

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    1. Your approach. I cooked a LOT of stuff in tomato sauce. But we have dinners the guys can thaw out and heat and make a salad, if I’m too far under writing, and that’s good, right?

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      1. That’s great! I never really appreciate the awesomeness of “The cook is exhausted/sick/busy/out of the house/Must Not Be Interrupted… hey, there’s microwave-ready, just add seasonings and salt, meal in the freezer. No big deal.” At least, I don’t appreciate it until we’re out, at which point I’m staring at the Wheel Of Doom (Vending Machine), trying to decide if hunger is better or worse than paying high prices for something that is going to taste bad and make me feel worse, or if I should exist on coffee alone until dinner.

        Besides, a nice tomato base means it can be cacciatore, goulash, minestrone, ragout, gumbo, or chili, depending on the spices and vegetables added.

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        1. After one too many vending machine meals with the flight crew, some wag put a sign over the pilots’ desk saying: If you are what you eat, I’m fast, cheap, and easy.

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          2. I recently found a pretty good deal on nuts-by-the-pound at my local store, so several of my meals the past few days have been a mix of peanuts, cashews, almonds, and walnuts.

            So if you are what you eat, then these days, I’m just plain nuts.

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  23. To me, nothing says pulpy goodness better than:

    Sword & Planet

    Other ideas:

    Riding the Fire
    Escape Velocity
    Solar Stories

    I’m sure I could think up some more, but it’s time to go see Star Trek.

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      1. Escape Velocity is also a book in (prequel to) Christopher Stasheff’s Gallowglass Family series.

        Planetary Development might work as HW and sorta 30s, with the right typeface.

        Assuming the shifters elements continue in the M.B.E. (Have you considered that as a title of nobility/knighthood, perhaps “Magician of the British Empire” and using the name of a significant character with M.B.E. appended for the book title? Horatio Hornblower, M.B.E., Aubrey Maturin, M.B.E.?) I suggest Were-Beasts of Empire as suited to the field.

        Empire of Albion
        The Albion League (hotay – these days that suggests semi-pro Cricket teams.)
        Charlemagne’s Heirs (presuming you keep Chuck’s swiping the stones at the root … pun unintended.)
        Their Majesty’s Magicians
        Their Majesty’s Mystics
        Their Mystic Majesties
        Noble Mischief
        Noblesse Oblige (incorporate a geas forcing those under it to advance the MBE)

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        1. Magical Hornblower & Aubrey? So Maturin would be some sort of wizard with a scalpel (see what I did there?) Actually that would be cool. The Noblesse Oblige sounds cool. Though Advancing what? DIslike Albion Leage: for some reason it screams far right nazi scum.

          Related, if it’s sort of steampunk, will the RN in this still use wood and ships of the line? I’m rather imagining a steampunk HMS Victory. Oh hey I want the two to meet: Hornblower and Aubrey- with Sharpe. Yeah Now THAT would be awesome. Dammit. Alright off to go watch Master and Commander and read some more of Lucky Jack’s adventures. Re reading book 2 now.

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  24. Pournelle used High Frontier for a collection of shorts.

    Probably not what you are looking for for the magazine, but it leaped into my head and won’t get out. “Manifest Destiny”. At least it would make progressive heads explode even before they read it.

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      1. It was, athough that was an advocacy book rather than a fiction book so I don’t think it counts under trademark rules at least.

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        4. Oh great, now I have this story idea about Destiny (the ship’s AI) vs. Free Will (actually a Space Carthusian brother, Fré. William, but everyone mispronounces it).

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      2. Brilliant. “Manifests” makes everyone think of ships, which is always a good thing.
        I was liking Manifest Destiny, but the inversion is awesome.

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    3. Mainfest Destiny was an anthology by Barry Longyear that had the original story for Enemy Mine in it.
      I’m not charmed by the term since it has picked up a lot of baggage since the Polk administration.

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    4. Okay, now I’ve got a story idea in my head that won’t get out. The plot’s been done before — cargomaster detects smuggling by ship’s captain by realizing that the weight-to-volume ratio of the cargo is completely different than what it would be if the cargo manifest was truthful — but it’s the title that just jumped into my mind:

      Manifest Density.

      You may now proceed with the hurling of fish — I need more ingredients for my supper.

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  25. Here’s an idea for your “pulp”:

    WHEN
    HADRONS
    COLLIDE!!!!!

    I have an idea for a story already…

    As for Magical Britain, Celtic Curses. Use a large Celtic cross somewhere on the cover, with a bloodstained kilt draped over one arm.

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  26. If you have the equipment and the time you can do a lot of canning in an emergency. Well, for that sort of volume you need to own several canners, a spare stove and gobs of jars and lids. It might be cheaper to just buy fresh meat I guess.

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  27. Geoffrey of Monmouth wrote the Historia Regum Britanniae where he set out the settlement and lineage of the kings of England…including the Arthur legends. I lilke
    _Historia Magicum Britanniae_ , or
    _Historia Magicum Albion_ (or Albionon or Albionae, I suppose)

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    1. Ooops! Translation: Magical History of Britain. It is broad enough to put on a series of anthologies and you can always subtitle it for each collection.

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      1. Albion is feminine, 3rd declension. So yeah, Historia Albionis Magicae or Historia Britanniae Magicae for Magical History of Britain, but Historia Magum Britanniae for History of the Magi of Britain. :)

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        1. Could it be Historia Magicae Abionis/Britanniae instead?
          The eye (well my eye) blips from the first word to the last and can miss the middle word, and if Albion is used it has a better connection than magicum, perhaps.

          Maybe history of the magics of britain (Historia Magicis Albione?)

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            1. I like Historia Magica Britanniae, but how do I make Britanniae plural?
              There’s a reason for the Latin — it serves warning it’s historical, the Magica means both fantasy and “not this world” and if I have plural for Britain in there, it will do very well. (Yes, you have to think in terms of “who will this attract?” Albion makes it way more “serious/legendary.”

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              1. Britannium? Britanniums? Britannii?

                On Fri, May 17, 2013 at 9:45 PM, According To Hoyt wrote:

                > ** > accordingtohoyt commented: “I like Historia Magica Britanniae, but how > do I make Britanniae plural? There’s a reason for the Latin — it serves > warning it’s historical, the Magica means both fantasy and “not this world” > and if I have plural for Britain in there, it will do very well” >

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              2. I don’t think you can get there without forcing it. My studies of Latin are well back in life’s rear view mirror, but the solutions coming to mind — the classic changing of -us into -i — would not be likely to be interpreted properly by a contemporary audience.

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              5. If you want to say “History of the Magic of [the] Britains” (pluralizing Britain itself), that would be Historia Magicae Britanniarum.

                “Of the Britons” would be Britannorum.

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                1. Thank you. I never took enough Latin to get GRAMMATICAL in it. It’s on the list, you know, for when the kids leave the house. (Sends meaningful glance down the hall.)

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                  1. Your timing’s good: this is a much easier decade to learn Latin in than any previous one. You gotcher online translation dictionaries, you gotcher mailing lists with other learners, you gotcher bazillions of works in Latin (on either dead trees or online), you gotcher resources of all kinds.

                    (The Internet is a great work of the world. Quite possibly the greatest work ever created by humans working together.)

                    One thing that occurs to me about Latin: it can be intimidating to pronounce. Is that a factor when choosing a title, I wonder?

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                    1. Probably the best time in a century and a half to learn Latin. It used to be taught as part of basic curriculum for those with aspirations to being thought educated, and a couple millennia ago it was even taught to the lower classes in some parts of the world.

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                    2. Jaed, Latin is not that hard to pronounce, once you sort out if you are using classical or ecclesiastical Latin. And even there the differences are in diphthongs for the most part, and pronunciation of the letters “C” and “V”. (Note, I’m not getting into different national pronunciations. I’ve had to sing ecclesiastical Latin with a German pronunciation, per a conductor’s orders. It’s confusing if you are used to a different style.)

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                    3. It’s not hard to pronounce if you know how – certainly easier than English – but it doesn’t look like pronounceable English, so it can frighten English-speakers who don’t know Latin at all.

                      I’m mostly imagining someone trying to say the name and coming out with “Historia Magik-ay? -ah?.. Britan-ee-aah… umm…-ah-room? ah-rum?” They probably end up with a reasonable pronunciation, but it doesn’t exactly trip off the tongue, and it’s self-consciousness-making to say it out loud.

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              6. Britanniarum is “of the Britains.” There’s already more than one — Great Britain and Little Britain (ie, Brittany) — but obviously it can have other uses. And “of the Britains” sounds like Arthur, King of the Britons, which is a decent pun although pretty obscure.

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      2. It’s not an anthology, a series of anthologies, or a series of collections. It’s something to connect my books — like Witchfinder — which are clearly set in a series of parallel universes with travel between them. You know, like my first trilogy is magical Shakespeare and I have the Shifters series and the Musketeer Mysteries. Amazon asks for a series title and that makes it easy for people to find the books with the same touch/feel.

        I actually like “Magical History of England” — though as I said it’s actually the empire, not England as such.

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  28. “Isle of Gramarye”

    Puck’s Song by Rudyard Kipling.

    Trackway and Camp and City lost,
    Salt Marsh where now is corn–
    Old Wars, old Peace, old Arts that cease,
    And so was England born!

    She is not any common Earth,
    Water or wood or air,
    But Merlin’s Isle of Gramarye,
    Where you and I will fare!

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    2. Not if she wants to peddle it to Baen, since they are currently publishing a Kratman book by the same name. I doubt they would publish two under the same name in a short period of time.

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  30. Part 1 of my first book, the Western Front, is perma-free on Amazon. Economic collapse, border chaos, civil unrest, big bad gov’t and maybe a few more headlines that I snatched off Drudge last Tuesday.

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  33. I just saw a you-tube video for a Crazed Killer Camel– so now I think crazed and killer should be in the pulp magazine heading. ;-)

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      1. Clarke Lindsey over at HobbySpace tracks what he calls “Solar Sci-Fi” set in our own solar system. I don’t know if you plan those kinds of limitations, but riffing on that might work:
        Sol System
        Solar and More
        Solar Destiny (’cause “Destiny” has a big fan base)

        Still thinking Destiny’s Manifest is the best, and that RES should be declared the winner of the internet for the day.

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    1. It’s not just one world. It’s various universes. In some universes magic is forbidden, in others expected. So, it’s hard to say. The only thing I could think to unite it was “it has magic and is British.”

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      1. So– I like *** (can’t remember name’s) suggestion of Magic of Empire,
        or–
        Empire’s magic
        Magic’s Empire
        Imperial magic
        Empire’s mages

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        1. It’s NOT particularly about “mages” — but I called the first trilogy Magical British Empire. I’d like to extend that to well… Arcane Empire might work… More generic… because some stuff is set earlier, some later, etc.

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                    1. Cosmic Conjurations.
                      Not especially British.

                      Conjurers of the Cosmic Commonwealth
                      Occult Albion
                      Albion’s Realms Transcendent
                      Occult British Empire

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              2. High Class? You’re asking the wrong crowd for getting “High Class”. [Evil Grin]

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              4. Wands is not Enough
                (non suficit magii)
                The Children of Morgana
                Aenus to Brutus to Merlin
                Otherwhens (though Michael Kurland may kick a bit)
                and of course a bunch to throw against the wall:
                Ordinalls of Arcanias
                Magistries of Empires
                Albion Miribilis
                Mirrors of Magery (very Baconian that one)
                Reigns of Magery
                Albions’ Wands
                Wands of Empire

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            2. Since Sarah’s talking about several “universes”, then Empire/Commonwealth should be in the plural. IE Magical Empires not Magical Empire. I’d also think British/Britain/Albion should be part of the “series” title.

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      2. Hmm… can’t remember who I’m ripping this off from, but “Magic in Dimension” might go with that.

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  35. Something with Commonwealth.

    And someone really needs to write the Mo Lon in Lab E story…let me add…’Moe’….the Spartan mad scientists try to create the perfect fighting man….he’s durable, he’s aggressive, ….and he’s stupid and likes to poke people in the eyes.

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    1. Magic Commonwealth
      Commonwealth’s magic
      Mages of the Commonwealth

      Just doing some –*arg forgot the word again–
      BRAINSTORMING–
      or is it barnstorming ;-)

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    2. okay– FF–
      Fantastic Fiction
      Fantastic Science
      Fiction Fantastic
      Fantastique —
      Fetzig Fiction
      lol — I had to throw in some German after the French

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      1. Easy fix, give Jonathan a cat, and name it Arthur. If the cat is magical and can pass through worlds you give him cameo appearances in Witchfinder and your first trilogy while you are editing them.

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        1. Or use “Merlin’s Children”. Anyone who has read the Arthurian tale knows that Merlin had no physical children, but why not children of his Magic — people who learned from him, and who performed magic in his future?

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  40. Pondering a magic based technology, I thought of a society illuminated by mass produced magical light and the name Luminous Albion sprang into my head.

    As for a pulp title; there used to be Thrilling Wonder Stories and Science Wonder Stories (Gernsback), so how about Hermetic Wonder Stories?

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  41. Magical Anglecynns
    Jute Arcana
    Brythonic Empires

    zine titles

    Fantastical Science
    Other Worlds
    Swords and Space
    Galactic Gallivanting (Galactic Vacations is probably better)
    Space and Sorcerers
    Future Magic
    Life and Lies (okay that doesn’t signal fantasy or sf, but it rolls off the tongue)

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  42. Epic Wonder Tales

    And here’s one of my many ebooks available for the Kindle:

    Somewhere Obscurely

    Murder. Kidnap. Slavery. Then the real trouble began.

    Mohado — vulgar term applied to timeslipped workers. Living as virtual slaves, these desparate workers move back and forth through time at the whims of their employers. This is Aramond Smith O’Reilly’s life. Witness to his mother’s murder, kidnapped, and sold into a life of misery… He will never know where – or when – he will be. After escaping wretched conditions, Aramond purchases a timeship, only to become the very thing he used to dread and fear: a coyote–one of those who transports and delivers the workers to those who would exploit them.

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    1. People are strange, aren’t they. The book looks interesting, so I clicked over to Amazon to take a look, and read the one, rather snippy comment. So I opened the book to read the free portion. It reads, well, really really well. I didn’t see the dreaded typos your friendly reviewer spoke of, and the characters/story seemed interesting. If I had any spare cash to spend on books (sorry) I’d be happy to try this one out.
      I had kind of the same feeling about one of my reviews, it was negative, but I could instantly see why a reader might make the complaint he did. Bummed me out, but, gotta keep going.

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      1. I saw that Victor Davis Hansen has a new book out, with a one-star review. The reviewer looked at the Table of Contents, and since Hansen did not include the reviewer’s favorite general in the book, well, “How dare you not list Patton?!? Patton was the greatest general in WW II! This must be a terrible book!” and so on.

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  43. ‘Zine title idea: Excelsior! (with or without the exclamation mark).

    According to Wikipedia, it’s been used as a title for a Mexico City newspaper, is the state motto of New York, and Stan Lee uses it as a catchphrase. That latter fact is the only one I can see potentially causing problems for the use of it as a ‘zine title. But the meaning fits perfectly with the Human Wave concept.

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    1. I admit to a few qualms about naming a ‘zine for shredded dead tree packing material. Probably a better title than Bubble Wrap!, I s’pose.

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  44. “Aenus to Brutus to Merlin”

    Do I really need to point out what the modern affinity for low comedy and lack of affinity for Latin will do with that title?

    And A Few Good Men to the contrary I doubt our hostess is aiming specifically at that particular ummm… niche.

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  45. You know, I don’t think anybody’s done a fantasy retelling of Layamon’s Brut. Joy Chant did a fantasy version of Historia Regum Britanniae, and of course the Green Knight gets plenty of play and somebody’s done some Marie of Brittany retellings because of the werewolf romance, but Middle English is pretty much unplundered.

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    1. Not long ago I got possessed by an urge to read everything I could find on War of The Roses. I now own almost as many non fiction books about that time as about Tudor England. I have CLUE ZERO what will result from this. it scares me a little.

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      1. Margaret Beaufort as a mage? She was certainly strong-willed enough. Richard the III being injured by a failed (or successful) magical attack? *sees flying orca inbound from the northwest, flees*

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          1. Weirdly, I liked her ideas. Did you know that one of the things they said about Katherine (?) Woodville (the mother of the princes in the tower) was that she was beautiful and had “eyes like a dragon.” So….

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            1. Wellll, since it has been proposed that Henry Tudor or one of his supporters had the princes disposed of, let’s say that Elizabeth Woodville, working with Richard, was trying to deflect an earlier mage attack against her sons, and something failed, or she miscalculated, and Richard took part of the damage. If a later attack succeeded and she blamed Richard for the failure, changing her support to the Beauforts and Tudors . . .

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          2. There’s an SNL parody? I really like A game of Thrones, almost as good as I liked the books. Toss up which is better.

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