by Shannon Page
Had they been done away with? Or did they live still?
Before my sweat could cool in the night air, I began digging again. I had a good pile of dirt, but I’d need more for Petrana’s thick, solid arm. I should probably rebuild it from the shoulder. In fact, could I make other modifications to her as I did this? Maybe I could make her a little less freakishly tall. Maybe I could even improve her face a bit, though I remained no artist.
I dug, still thinking. These mysterious witches: they would be my allies, if they lived. And their hybrid children. They would know things about the world that had been kept from the rest of us.
Could I find them?
After another hour, I had enough dirt, or at least enough to get started. I dropped the shovel and began shaping Petrana’s new arm, careful not to rush with the fingers, and the elbow and wrist joints. She lay passively as I worked. It was a challenge to stay focused; my mind kept flitting back to the mysterious hybrids, and their mothers.
Now that I knew what I was looking at, I would recognize the traces in their DNA; the epigenetics would be more telling still. A number of vials of donated blood remained in my lab upstairs. Though it was probably too much to hope for that the witches I sought would be members of the San Francisco community, it would be a place to start. I could develop and test an assay working with the blood I had, while figuring out how to get my hands on more blood samples…perhaps propose a larger research program to the Elders, pretending that I was searching for a way to ensure that someone like Flavius Winterheart could never attack us again…Gregorio would be suspicious, of course, but I could put him off, tell him I was looking for ways to strengthen my hybrid daughter, to help carry out the deception…
I would find my allies. No matter how long it took.
Meanwhile, I had a golem to reanimate.
Elnor sat beside me as I laid my hands on Petrana’s chest. The first rays of dawn touched the three of us as I began the incantation:
Merenoc gee’a folco Essūlå…
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS AND OTHER MATTERS
In 2006—twelve years ago—I sat down to write a book.
I knew nothing.
In my happy ignorance, I cranked out a 250,000-word opus featuring a witch in San Francisco (where I then lived), and her human boyfriend, and a sexy warlock, and some bitchy coven sisters…and a whole lot of meandering plot lines, internal inconsistency about how magic (and everything else) works, excessive adverbs, and dreadful overwriting.
Then I gave it a little polish and marched out into the world with it, quite certain that a big New York publisher—oh, probably Farrar, Straus & Giroux, don’t you think?—would offer me a major book deal before the month was up.
Reader, that did not happen.
So many other things did, though. Out there in the world, I met other writers. I learned that what I was writing was called “fantasy,” not “a witch novel.” I wrote, and published, dozens of short stories; and a different novel, Eel River; and several collaborative novels: Our Lady of the Islands (with Jay Lake), and the Chameleon Chronicles series (with Karen G. Berry). I wrote, and did not publish, four or five other novels.
But Callie and her story would never quite let me go. So I worked on this too. And, over the years, it got better. It was even slated to be published a time or two…but never made it all the way to the finish line.
Until now.
This novel has outlived a marriage, two crit groups, a serious relationship, and two small presses. It outlived my being represented by an agent (though as far as I know, the agent herself lives on). Sadly, it has also outlived much of my recollection of the many, many, many people who advised and helped in its creation, though I have done my best to reconstruct what I can. My deepest apologies to the folks I have inadvertently left out.
In something like chronological order, I would like to thank: My first crit group, the Critters (Todd Edwards, Kenne Morrison, and Mayuri Mandel), who read such early drafts, helping me see how much was wrong with the book while somehow not discouraging me; my second crit group, the Zombie Club (Scott Browne, Heather Liston, Lise Quintana, Keith White, Ian Dudley, Amory Sharpe, and Cliff Brooks—Cliff also drew a fantastic picture of Callie and her world). My mom, Donna Salonen, who reads so little, made it all the way through that first 250,000-word draft. Paul Cameron, who reads only serious nonfiction books about serious business things (or sometimes serious literary fiction), also read that first doorstop draft, and gave me so much generous encouragement to continue. Eric Murphy read an early draft and annotated it with marvelous suggestions.
Jak Koke and Karawynn Long, dear friends and the publishers of Per Aspera Press, took the book on and were planning to publish it, before Per Aspera closed its doors. Jak made several deep editing passes to the book, making it so much better each time. Karawynn stood in for Callie: that is her lovely image you see represented on the book’s cover.
Jay Lake gave me so much helpful feedback, and introduced me to a whole community of genre folk—pretty much everyone I know in the field today traces back to Jay, in one way or another. I am so sorry Jay is no longer here to see this book finally emerge into the light of day. I know he would be so pleased.
My dear friend and Best Person Chaz Brenchley has edited this book mightily, and so generously provided a cover blurb. Any elegant bit of language you read probably has Chaz’z fingerprints on it.
My darling friend and collaborator Karen G. Berry read this book several times over, wrote copious notes, and has killed more than one bottle of wine with me as we brainstormed what really needed to happen in the story. This would not be the book it is without Karen.
My dear Barb Hendee, who read and loved the book, and tried so hard to help me get an agent. Barb also generously provided a blurb, and she feeds and houses Mark and me when we travel through Portland.
In the above-and-beyond department, several of the students in a weekend workshop Mark and I led for Cascade Writers volunteered to read and provide feedback: thank you to Kelley Frodel, Jill Webb, and Marit Hanson. Their insightful comments sent me back to the drawing board on a number of things, and the book is so very much better because of it.
Thank you to my “outlaw” Jay Ham for his encouraging, insightful comments. Thank you to David Levine for getting me out to the café to write on a regular basis, when I was ready to give up on my own writing altogether. Thank you to Lyla Payne for letting me steal the name “Graciela”. Thank you to Alana Abbott from Ragnarok Publications for contracting to publish the series and being so excited to be its editor, even though that didn’t come to pass either. Thank you to the entire team at Book View Café, and particularly Vonda McIntyre, for help and support in bringing this book out.
Thank you to the swimming pool at the LA Fitness in Portland for being such a crucible of creativity. Many important story elements appeared to me while I swam. Must be something in the water.
And, of course, thank you so much to my beloved husband and chief collaborator, Mark Ferrari. Mark not only read version after version of the book; he edited, brainstormed, and even role-played scenes with me. He conceived, drew, and designed the beautiful cover (and three more to come). He has challenged and encouraged me more than words can convey, from the moment I met him up to this very day—and beyond. He has my undying gratitude, for this and everything else.
Shannon Page
Eastsound, WA
April 2018
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Shannon Page was born on Halloween night and spent her early years on a back-to-the-land commune in northern California. A childhood without television gave her a great love of the written word. At seven, she wrote her first book, an illustrated adventure starring her cat Cleo. Sadly, that story is out of print, but her work has appeared in Clarkesworld, Interzone, Fantasy, Black Static, Tor.com, the Proceedings of the 2002 International Oral History Association Congress, and many anthologies, including the Australian Shadows Award-winning Grants Pass, and The Mammoth Book
of Dieselpunk.
Books include Eel River; the collection Eastlick and Other Stories; Orcas Intrigue and Orcas Intruder, the first two books in the cozy mystery series “The Chameleon Chronicles,” in collaboration with Karen G. Berry under the pen name Laura Gayle; and Our Lady of the Islands, co-written with the late Jay Lake. Our Lady received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and Library Journal, was named one of Publishers Weekly’s Best Books of 2014, and was a finalist for the Endeavour Award. Forthcoming books include A Sword in The Sun, second book in The Nightcraft Quartet; a sequel to Our Lady; and more Orcas mysteries. Edited books include the anthology Witches, Stitches & Bitches and the essay collection The Usual Path to Publication.
Shannon is a longtime yoga practitioner, has no tattoos (but she did just get a television), and recently moved to lovely, remote Orcas Island, Washington, with her husband, author and illustrator Mark Ferrari. Visit her at www.shannonpage.net.