Chapter 4. A Dead Shelt’s List
Chapter 5. A Traitor and A Child
Chapter 6. Mystique
Story-so-Far is by Nathan Lowell of the irresistible Solar Clipper novels. He’s also got a young adult fantasy coming up called Ravenwood. Definitely check him out.
Voice Credits
Nathan Lowell
Ryan Stevenson
Chris Lester
Kimi Alexander
Justin Macumber
Rish Outfield
James Durham
Hughes Hilton
Sound Credits
Beth Quist – Grace
Amoeba – Moonlight Flowers
Diana Rowan – Your Soul Is A Chosen Landscape
Kevin MacLeod – Gagool, Road to Hell, Aftermath
Digital Juice
Sound Snap
The Free Sound Project
Click the link below to see the whole illustration by Sarah Cloutier
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This episode answered a question I had from Prophet. I had always wondered if different classes of shelts could produce young. Great writing, keep it up!
Ah, yes. Like horses and donkeys or lions and tigers, closely related shelt species can often interbreed. However, like mules or ligers, the offspring are usually sterile.
In _Prophet_, Syrill tells Corry that there’s a whole culture of wood faun/cliff faun hybrids living in the border towns. They’re called satires. They’re beautiful and sterile and often become prostitutes. Laylan is also a half-breed – foxling/wolfling cross. (This is a problem later when he’s supposed to produce an heir.)
So faun/faun and canid/canid can readily interbreed, but not produce fertile descendants. As the pairings become less closely related, the likelihood of producing any offspring becomes smaller. Canid/felid, for instance. They’re both panauns, but not closely related. Then you get into the really tough crosses like faun/panaun. Successful reproduction in those pairings is incredibly rare.
None of this has anything to do with race. There are races of shelts. However, in a world with multiple sentient species, race doesn’t get much attention. There’s a mountain grishnard race (tall, darker hair, skin, and fur) and a lowland grishnard race (smaller build, blond fur and hair, paler skin). They can easily interbreed and have remained somewhat distinct only for geographical reasons. Gerard is of mixed mountain/lowland grishnard descent. Thessalyn is a classic lowland grishnard.
I understand. This is hinting to me that you will continue with the Prophet characters. Are you going to do a short story about this?
Oh, I don’t know. I’ve got more stories than time.
Abbie – I have discovered a fault with the promos – they do not give the launch date! I am embarrassed that I wasn’t paying attention and didn’t know until now.
On the up side, I have two episodes to listen to right away. Oh, I’m looking forward to it.
I love the long reply above, where we get a glimpse of how much thought you have put into this universe.
Gail – Whoops! Sorry! I don’t think it’s a good idea to release a promo before content is available, so I didn’t ask anyone to play it until I was ready to release the first episode. Norm got mixed up and said it was coming out next week, which is probably why you thought so. No harm done. I hope you enjoy the first two episodes!
As you say, no harm!
Whoosh! these two episodes went by really fast, the pace is phenomenal. I learned a lot about what to expect here, and “Catchers” has a *very* different tone from “Prophet.” I get chills wondering how dark it will get before the end!
It’s very good.
Thanks, Gail! Yeah, this is definitely a different book. Just talking composition (not re-writes), my major projects have gone like this:
Hunters Unlucky (not released) – product of my childhood
Prophet of Panamindorah – production of my high school yrs
Walk Upon High (not released) – production of my college yrs
Guild of the Cowry Catchers – production of my post-grad yrs
Those two stories are separated by time and experience. They are quite different because I was quite different.
Thanks for that list, I thought it might be that way, from what you’ve said before.
If I’d written the story 10 years ago, it would almost certainly have been from the point of view of Gwain and his fauns.
An interesting point.
Another interesting point is how you date the stories by education. I used to figure dates by location – we used to move every couple of years. It’s handy.
Norm makes Silveo meaner and scarier than I could have imagined. He used to be such a nice boy.
Hee. Norm does a great job with Silveo! That roll is going to really test his range.
I totally love the story – so please don’t take this as criticism, it’s just meant as a remark – but thinking of when you said that the book gets disturbing as it progresses (implying that it isn’t at the beginning) I have to say that it already IS disturbing (and I’m a grown man).
I really had a knot in my stomach when I listened to the scene with Paiter being interrogated. Being an uncle of a young boy approximately that age it really made me uncomfortable and I would have switched channels if this was on TV (I am that wimpish). Thank goodness you chose to have a grown man speak the part of the little faun, I don’t know if I would have been able to listen to it if a child played that poor, frightened and abused kid.
Alex
Alex – No offense taken. One of my goals when I started writing this story was not to pull any punches. I try to let the story unfold as it seems most likely to me that it would unfold, given the characters’ culture, personalities, and situation. Nothing is off-limits. Sometimes that takes the story to dark places.
However, I’ve given up trying to figure out what people will find disturbing. Many readers do not seem to find violence to children disturbing, but they are terribly disturbed by consensual sex between adults. Some people are not disturbed by sex, but are disturbed by the way religion or politics is handled. Some people are disturbed by the redemptive elements of the story – maintaining that certain crimes are unforgivable. I am routinely surprised by what bothers readers and what doesn’t. The only thing I can say for sure is that this story gets under most people’s skin at some point.
Paiter’s scene is a good one to be disturbed by (IMO). I intended it to be disturbing, anyway. I’ve got several kids in this story, and I’m not comfortable asking kids to play those roles. I’m still trying to figure out how to cast some of them. Fortunately, there aren’t many, and they don’t turn up until later, so I’ve got time.