Hello to all the kids I met today, who invented wonderful stories for me
– the handsome prince with bed-wetting issues
– the flying dog with a taste for leg of schoolboy, and
– the horrifying – but delicious – sludge monster, Jim.
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The tropical world of the story is called Rahana. Rahana is populated by humans, and many are born with magical ability – roughly one-third of the population.
The three types of magic are:
Quickensmith/Quickener (like Captain Sol): Can move any kind of object – including humans (very crudely, eg she can make part of their body cave in, or send a person flying across the room as if they’ve been punched super hard).
Healsmith/Healer (like Oldy – not that it’s been mentioned yet): Can heal people (although a poor healer sometimes makes things worse).
Feelsmith/Feeler (doesn’t come up in this story): Can read or transmit emotion.
All three magic skills require physical touch – but the lightest brush of a hand is enough.
There are a few other (extremely rare) types of magic on Rahana, but they are not well understood.
In Captain Sol’s time, using quickening to make a ship sail is considered extremely bad luck.
One thing sailors and writers have in common is that sheer luck has a huge influence on our lives. That makes both groups either neurotic, superstitious, or both. But writers’ bad luck only makes them poor. Sailors’ bad luck gets them horribly killed. There’s a REASON people say worse things happen at sea.
Any day now, Harper Collins will respond to my young adult book, “Stormhunter”. I know it’s good enough (partly because they themselves have told me so). I just need a little luck.
Guess I’d better conduct my entire work day on one leg, in case THAT helps.
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Incidentally, here’s the YouTube video of the “Worse Things Happen at Sea” launch (a flashmob):