Behind "Tools of the Trade"

One of my steampunk stories, titled "Tools of the Trade", will be in the upcoming anthology of elf stories, The Book of Sylvari, from Port Yonder Press.

Notes coming back from the beta-readers looking over the anthology had comments and questions about "Tools..."  Since I don't know who the beta-readers are, I'm answering a few of the questions here, not really in any particular order.

"Tools of the Trade" is set in 1899 Kansas City, MO.  When I created the story, I wanted to make it as historically accurate as possible to make the Russian elf battling demons more believable.  Research was inevitable.

Fiction: Sophie (the MC) and her brother Bruce were adopted as children.

Fact:  The Orphan Trains from the east coast carried hundreds of orphaned, abandoned, and parent-surrendered children west to be adopted.  Some of their stories turned out well — the children were cherished and cared for by their adopted parents. Others didn't fare so well — they were treated as little more than extra farm hands and servants. 

Some of them processed through a church orphanage called "The Little Sisters of Mercy Asylum" in New York City.  Nowadays, we think of the word "asylum" in terms of mental institutions, but the broader meaning is a place of refuge, a shelter, a haven.    

Fiction:  One of the minor characters is taken to St. Luke's Hospital in Kansas City, while another is taken to a children's clinic.

Fact:  This hospital did indeed exist back then but at that point it was called All Saints Hospital (est. 1885).  It didn't actually change names to St. Luke's Hospital until 1903, four years after this story takes place, but the shift of time is creative license.
The other clinic mentioned was founded by one of two sisters (Dr.  Alice Berry Graham and Dr.  Katharine Berry Richardson) who set it up to help children of those too poor to afford medical treatment.  At the time, women doctors weren't common and there was some (a lot!) bias about hiring them to work in hospitals — another reason for founding their own.  That clinic a few years later became Children's Mercy Hospital.

Fiction: The elf cauterizes a wound with an "untinned" brazing bit.
Fact: "Untinned" means that it hadn't been covered with the solder mixture of tin and lead which helps transfer the bit's heat so the solder will flow properly to make a good joint.  Essentially, the elf is using the equivalent of a bare-metal branding iron to cauterize the wound.

Fiction: The elf has an instrument called a dioptra in his toolbox.
Fact:  A dioptra is an astronomical as well as a surveying instrument.  Its earliest use dates back to about the 3^rd century B.C. for astronomy, but the armillary later became the more favored instrument — greater accuracy, more detail.  For surveying, the dioptra was later replaced by the theodolite.   Because the elf in the story has a traceable lineage going back several centuries, he's also inherited tools &  instruments (even obsolete ones) from his ancestors.

Fiction:  Sophie thinks "Wake up, prince" as she kisses the elf to disrupt a demon's hold over him.

Fact: The elf character isn't a prince, nor is Sophie particularly infatuated with him at this point in the story. But published fairy tales had been around for quite a while, so Sophie would've been familiar with them. The Brothers Grimm published their first volume of collected fairy tales in 1812 and a second volume in 1815.         

Fiction: Sophie, Bruce, and Kazimir set out from the Kansas City Yacht Club building to battle the water demons.
Fact: This one surprised me!  As I was researching the railroads running through KC, I happened upon a sketch showing a building with the sign Kansas City Yacht Club.  After some archive digging, I found it really did exist and had a lively membership among the local boaters.  They held regattas and fish fries, and they even bottled their own beer. There were a number of smaller clubs in and around the city, but the KCYC seemed to be the largest.

Too cool not to include in the story!

Behind "Ley of the Minstrel: Spider Dance"

"Ley of the Minstrel" appeared in the second issue of The Cross and the Cosmos (aka TC2) ezine.  It was a fun, swashbuckling story that let me use my love of ships and sailing as I wrote.   

But a new challenge came not long after "Ley..." was published.  A sequel.

"Ley of the Minstrel: Spider Dance" wasn't the story I set out to write when I decided to follow Nerelos into the lands of the Spider Lords. I had a vague idea of a bunch of evil spiders similar to Tolkein's Shelob or Ungoliant. It was very, very vague.

The setting material for Dias Domhan (provided by TC2's editors) reads as follows: "...Within these lands live various magical creatures, the worst of which are the Spider Lords...large intellect spiders who have created web cities and hate humans..."

Spiders.  Hmm.  Things I know about spiders: they spin webs and they eat other bugs. They have lots of eyes and legs. They can move fast and some of the stubby ones jump. A spider frightened Little Miss Muffet. An itsy-bitsy one climbed up a waterspout. I played with daddy-long-legs when I was a kid; and I still capture the occasional wolf spider in the house to set it free in the garden so it can eat other pestiferous bugs that annoy me.

Not enough to fill a story. 

The trouble with research is that sometimes you find yourself fascinated by the subject totally aside from finding what you need to write a story.

My foray into arachnology left me amazed and humbled by the little creatures that inhabit our world. Did I think I had imagination? Hah — what a puny joke! One look at the anatomy of a spider, at the microscopic photographs of the tiniest hairs or the fangs on them boggled my mind. A table of spider silk's tensile strength compared with other materials (such as rope, nylon, or steel) blew my feeble creativity away.

Things I now know about spiders:

Their blood is somewhat clear and faintly blue-tinted because it contains copper rather than iron as ours does.

They can regenerate body parts, even vital organs under some circumstances, during subsequent moultings.

Some spiders can rearrange their retinas as they look at different things.

Some have more intelligence than others. The little jumping spiders can change strategy when they are hunting according to what the prey is doing; sometimes they watch us, seemingly with interest.

There are pirate spiders that prey on other spiders by mimicking web-touching rituals of courtship or prey.

Some spiders fast for incredibly long periods prior to moulting.

Clean cobwebs can be used for impromptu bandages for cuts.

Spiders hear by interpreting air movement touching the complex hairs on their legs. 

In some parts of the world, spiders are kept for the sport of spider fights. 

The list goes on.

I discovered respect for these tiny creatures that made it difficult for me to present them as nothing more than spawns of hell. Their complex nature and amazing structure revealed one small glimpse of God's artistry and creativity. Think of it — real creatures stranger and more astounding than any fictional alien. We usually only notice them when they startle us or when we clean their abandoned webs from corners. I found myself reluctant to vilify them. So, the spiders of my story are not the worst of the magical creatures; and Arctos represents a potential new chapter in the spirits of the Dias Domhan spiders in which they, too, might sing of Dé-Fär. 

Two final notes:

"Ley of the Minstrel" and "Ley of the Minstrel: Spider Dance" will be appearing in TC2's  upcoming anthology from Marcher Lord Press later this year.  Stay tuned for the announcement when the anthology is released.

And, in spite of all I learned, I'm not rushing out to purchase a pet tarantula any time soon. Probably not ever.