So, That Happened To the Day!

Posted on by Sarah A. Hoyt

We had a routine medical appointment and Dan swears I’m misremembering this, but I SWEAR the receptionist was the sloth from the DMV in Zootopia… We were supposed to be out by eleven, noon at most. We didn’t even get in till three.

I’m so sorry.

Anyway, so here’s what happened today. First the good news: Volume 2 of book 1 is out. And if you’re very good sometime very soon I’ll give you the second chapter of book 2. (Because the first chapter gives way too much away for those who didn’t read the earcs, that’s why.)

No Man’s Land: Volume 2 (Chronicles of Lost Elly)

No Man’s Land

Sufficiently advanced science is indistinguishable from magic.
On a lost colony world, mad geneticists thought they could eliminate inequality by making everyone hermaphrodite. They were wrong. Catastrophically wrong.
Now technology indistinguishable from magic courses through the veins of the inhabitants, making their barbaric civilization survivable—and Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus Kayel Hayden, Viscount Webson, Envoy of the Star Empire—Skip to his friends— has just crash-landed through a time-space rift into the middle of it all.
Dodging assassins and plummeting from high windows was just the beginning. With a desperate king and an archmagician as his only allies, Scipio must outrun death itself while battling beasts, traitors, and infiltrators bent on finishing what the founders started: total destruction.
Two worlds. One chance. No time to lose.

Volume 2

Skip thought he’d figured out the rules of survival on Elly.

He was wrong.

Now his potential allies from the Star Empire are turning up dead, one by one. Spies and saboteurs have infiltrated every level of Ellyan society, and Skip is running out of people he can trust.

As he races to save the king and archmagician—his only remaining allies—disturbing secrets about Elly’s culture emerge alongside buried truths about his own family’s past. One moment he’s explaining the bewildering concept of binary gender to confused Ellyans, the next he’s making impossible choices that could strand him on this world forever.

His last gambit is reckless. The odds of success are slim. And failure means losing everything—his mission, his allies, his only way home.

But some fights are worth the risk, even when the deck is stacked against you.

Sometimes the most dangerous enemy is the one you never see coming.

And since yesterday I gave you the songs (I typed it the sins, first) of Britannia, these are the songs of Elly, which both the two-part one and the other one, show up in Volume 2.

The first set, Missa’s confession/lament is the story of their culture hero. Let me see if I can find the text…. Ah, yes, here’s the snippet: Skip, from Volume 2:
The day after that, we had an eighth circle cast illusions. Brundar had to do something to my mind so I could see it, and I understand from what he said that it was always a little thinner for me than for most people.

The story done was Amissar Mahar. And it was exactly like a mersi, except you weren’t in the mind and body of the character, but an invisible spectator, in the middle of the story.

Even so, it was powerful to see Amissar Mahar, an Ellyan slave, fall in love with his Draksall master and have his love reciprocated, so that the Draksall had taught Amissar magic and got him inducted into the Draksall brotherhood. It wasn’t until the brotherhood refused his oldest child and confirmed the child as a slave that Amissar fought it, creating a rebellion that allowed him to lead about half his people from Draksah back to Elly, and seal Elly against Draksalls for a hundred years. In the process, he’d killed his lover, who was the Archmagician of Draksah.

After establishing the Elly brotherhood and kingship, he’d killed himself by jumping into the sea in Lirridar, and the ruby teleported to his middle child, his apprentice.

The whole thing brought Missa’s Confession into sharp relief, and I could have done without Brundar performing it immediately after. Particularly since Brundar had explained “I let our souls become one” meant “we swore.” Which was part of his confession since at the time it was culturally frowned on for Ellyans. By the end of it, my tears were as abundant as everyone else’s.

And now, the songs/videos. As an aside, Dan badly wants a movie of this, but judging by how hard it is to render Ellyans so they don’t look WRONG (Part of the issue I had with the cover and then with this) …. I don’t think it’s possible.
Oh, this cycle: Missa’s Confession/Lament is usually played at swearings (their equivalent of weddings, if you haven’t read the first.) Also, as above, family/clan reunions. (For those who’ve read the e-arcs, the singer (eh) in Lament is Kahre Sarda, Myrrir’s Lord of the Land Sireling (One of them.) Still not willing to shell out for software that will do lip movements. Maybe it will get better. I mean midje. They’re always improving.

Missa’s Confession:

Missa’s Lament:

The next one is Master of Illusions. I did an earlier rendition of it, but the clanker does NOT understand that you don’t shake babies.

Um… what you need to know…. Their power bends (not levels, though they correlate to levels AND abilities) Eight Circles, in their brotherhood of Magicians (which sits in spiral “circles” is people good at illusions and mind manipulation.
Ellyans are barbarians, living close to the bone. Babies take a huge toll on the birthing parent, to raise till weaned (usually one or two years, though most people go longer.) So they cull defective children, and the occasional single sex sport is “defective” because it won’t fit with Ellyan society. The directive is enforced with varying zealousness by the elders of the clan. (More enforced if they don’t like you.)
This is the story of an eighth circle who was very, very good at illusions, not very well liked, and pays the ultimate price to save his female child when the clan elders catch up to him just as the babe is weaned. (Yes, I know it says “he” because they only have one pronoun for humans. And I chose to render that “he” for reasons of mental image and lack of breasts.)
Inexplicably — to me at least — they mostly use this as a dance tune for a very fast dance.
Anyway, without further ado, Master of Illusions:

And now I’ve showed you my pretties, I’m going to try to finish the chapters for Witch’s Daughter. Needless to say, having spent the day in the doctor’s office, I feel like I’m coming down with something.

25 thoughts on “So, That Happened To the Day!”

  1. About 1/4 through book 2, and was struck by a bunny thought. Given some of what Skip sees them able to do, hints on genetics, and smidge of a “throwaway” comment in book 1 about that other planet whose people have the ability to make ships go where you want to in time instead of randomly past/future….

    What if the founders of Elly were from Skip’s far future and used the ability to control “when” a ship comes out to go way back in time?

    Ahem. *Sheepish G* Bunnies. What can you do….

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  4. Waiting until all 3 available in one ebook volume.

    Other news. Home. No, we did not pet the fluffy cows. Bad time of the year to do that even if we were that stupid, which we are not. Rut season for the fluffy cows. Bison are so common that we typically bypass because we’ve been to Yellowstone and Tetons many times.

    Also saw elk, although they were further away than normal. Hubby did get some pictures. Did catch a couple bugling back and forth. Saw wolves for the second time. Saw a lot better than the first time. Still too far to get good pictures. Three little black bears. Two grizzlies. A coyote. A fox darting across the road.

    Long drives to get there and back. Three nights in Yellowstone, two in Tetons. Weather system moved in on Tetons the last night and the morning we left.

    Liked by 2 people

  6. Speaking of problematic workers at the place you visited…

    For those who haven’t heard, Trump visited the UN to deliver a 15 minute prepared speech. Then the teleprompter was “accidentally” turned off, no doubt in an attempt to embarrass him. Because, after all, what sort of dummy can speak for 15 minutes without a teleprompter?

    BWAHAHAHAHAHA!

    55 minutes later…

    The escalator also mysteriously stopped just as he and his wife stepped onto it.

    Liked by 2 people

    1. Both “odd incidents” figured prominently in the speech. Which wasn’t quite as impressive as one of his earlier ones, but still very “in your face” amazing. Debunked “green energy” and “borderless countries” as nonsense, but also pretexts. And the last several minutes were in praise of what iId have to call a “universal nationalism” — that is, nationalism for everybody everywhere. That, just wow. Worth the watching, it’s probably online recorded, as it was live. (Maybe even from the UN itself?)

      Oh, yes, Trump did have a big book to read. And apparently add-libbed outside it much.

      In other developments, just finished watching JimmKimm’s ~20 minute monologue, over a very ratings-proof medium. He did apologize for imputing the Kirk shooting to “the Right” saying in effect it was one person, alone, no others or ideology to blame (uh, no, Jimbo, not).

      He was quite vocal and explicit in blaming his suspension on (FCC’s) Brendan Carr and Donald Trump by name, because we live in an “authoritarian country.” So, pivoted by doubling down. (Uh, Jimmy, if we did you’d be talking to the bathroom mirror in your cell, not a network camera.)

      The narrative continues. As does the rebellion by ABC’s affiliates…

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      1. As described in his speech itself, all this “random” chaos did delay his speech. Which led to a chance meeting with the leader (officially at least) of (IIRC) Brazil (which just put its opposition candidate in jail, again, for not-supporting their probably-rigged last election). And scheduling a much longer meeting next week between them.

        “Sophomoric UN hijinks lead to minor diplomatic coup for Trump” was not on their bingo cards…

        Liked by 2 people

        2. Well, naturally, all ‘Election Deniers!’ belong in jail. Well, besides Queen Hillary, Stasi Abrams, Kackling Kamela… Basically, any Democrat that loses an election gets to cry ‘Illegitimate!’ without consequences. By extension, so do communists in other countries.

          But let any Republican point out blatantly obvious election fraud, the dead voting Democrat forever, the constant rabid attacks from the Left, and that’s all just ‘Conspiracy Theories!’ and sour grapes.

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    3. Not that mysterious, when you’re dealing with people who hate you.

      https://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattvespa/2025/09/23/there-might-have-been-acts-of-sabotage-during-trumps-un-visit-today-n2663846

      Yet, there might have been acts of sabotage, something that White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said must be investigated. These aren’t unfounded accusations; some UN staffers were joking about screwing around with the escalators, which stopped working as soon as the president and First Lady Melania Trump hopped on them. The microphones were also not functioning correctly, and the teleprompter was malfunctioning. 

      Links in the article.

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      1. “Oh drat. The check printer jammed. And right before printing the UN’s checks. Oh well. this may take a few months to fix….”

        Liked by 2 people

        1. Personally. Permanently broke. UN payments by the US needs to be stopped. Permanently. Along with a Property Tax Bill delivered by the appropriate New York state county. With threats of (eventual) confiscation that any property owner, private, corporate, etc., faces on non-payment.

          Threats of UN moving out of US? Do not threaten with promises! Or “Promise? Do not let the door hit your asses on the way out!”

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    4. I 🤣🤣🤣so hard. They don’t know President Trump at all. They had a chance at 15 minutes (ish) teleprompter prepared speech where there was a chance (ha ha) of President Trump staying within message and time (again, ha ha). Instead they get a 55 minute speech/lecture.

      Heck. If I could give a speech to a large crowd (thanks to Toastmaster, I can. Do not like it. Do not want to. But I can.) I’d have a printed list of points of the speech at a minimum. Trust teleprompter? Please. Not an idiot.

      FWIW I thought when the teleprompter went down President Trump was gleeful. “Try to sabotage me? Ha!”

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      1. They have convinced themselves he was the demented one, and Biden was better.
        Look, I haven’t talked to someone since the 2020 campaign because she kept trying to convince me Trump was the one acting like he had alzheimers.

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      1. Mine’s kind-of “meh”, sorry. Book 2 is a giant chapter; it’s hard to review.

        The head-hopping started driving me nuts until I figured out what you were doing with 1st vs 3rd person – about 20% through. Then it read smoothly. I mentioned it in the review because once it was conscious, I was fine with it.

        Liked by 1 person

  8. I’m happy to say that I figured out an important physiological aspect of Ellyan pregnancy about a full volume before Skip did. I’m terrible at mysteries, but apparently I can sometimes do better with scientific mysteries. At least if the logic behind them makes sense.

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