Rules for Anchorites

Today is a rest day a day for Fairyland treats!

There is a prequel novelette up on Tor.com as of now called The Girl Who Ruled Fairyland--For a Little While, illustrated by Ana Juan, the original Fairyland illusrator!

It is a tale of Queen Mallow, and how she became Queen, and I would ask you not to put spoilers in the comments of the original story, for those who have not read Fairyland yet. And if you haven't--kindly high ye over to your nearest bookseller and get a copy!

If you wish to discuss the story with spoilers, leave your comments on this post--I may even answer some questions!

I'm so excited, and hope you like this (rather beefy really) slice of Fairyland. Perhaps it will tide you over til the sequel.

The story begins like this:

In which a young girl named Mallow leaves the country for the city, meets a number of Winds, Cats, and handsome folk, sees something dreadful, and engages, much against her will, in Politicks of the most muddled kind.

History is a funny little creature. Do you remember visiting your old Aunt that autumn when the trees shone so very yellow, and how she owned a striped and unsocial cat, quite old and fat and wounded about the ears and whiskers, with a crooked, broken tail? That cat would not come to you no matter how you coaxed and called; it had its own business, thank you, and no time for you. But as the evening wore on, it would come and show some affection or favor to your Aunt, or your Father, or the old end-table with the stack of green coasters on it. You couldn’t predict who that cat might decide to love, or who it might decide to bite. You couldn’t tell what it thought or felt, or how old it might really be, or whether it would one day, miraculously, decide to let you put one hand, very briefly, on its dusty head.

History is like that.