Mary Soon Lee

Snippet! Thank you for the snippet! :-)

The Glass Project looks good to me!

Ah, cat disagreements, a very physical affair. When I had two cats, one (always the same one) would sometimes attack his brother. Fur was shed.

The injustice of it all....

#TSOTD_note Journal

- one of the few poems in the book written in first-person, a journal entry from an unnamed soldier

New orders from His Imperial Envoy:
we're not to talk about who's dead, how many.

- ah, censorship

yelling,
bowels hanging out of him
like a giant worm.

- war is not pretty

✏️

FYI, I'm on the Poetry, Flash, & the Power of Hybrid Storytelling panel at Quasar on Sunday....

#TSOTD_note Collaboration

One hundred and fourteen men.
No women. Complicit, corrupt.

- I wrote this poem in 2016

- then and now, I am riled both by those who actively do Bad Things and by those merely (!) complicit in the Bad Things

✏️📖🐉

Ordered :-) That is a lovely cover :-)

Update from the reading front. It took me most of the year, but I finished Dante's Inferno, Italian text as well the English translation. My grasp of Italian was inadequate for this undertaking, but I don't regret it.

www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

📖

#TSOTD_note How the Battle Turned

Xau's turn to write,
to send a letter to accompany
Atun's sword, his silver armbands.

- Atun, Heng, Dao, Chong, Shazia, Connol, Nya, Tsung, Khyert all dead now, and before them, important to Xau though readers may be indifferent, Xau's brothers, his parents

✏️📖🐉

I'm looking forward to reading more with Jen Sin :-)

Over here, I am having an unusually glad time with my writing life. That is, I am happy and glad to be writing this particular set of poems and happy and glad to anticipate writing more of them over the next few weeks? Months?

#TSOTD_note The Imperial War: Second Battle

- in which the story skips past the first battle and Xau's arrival in Ritany

- fighting Donal, years earlier, the enemy horses (Donal's horses) stopped still and were slaughtered

- this time, the enemy horses throw their riders and come to Xau

✏️📖🐉🐴

#poetry. Belatedly reporting that my poem "Eating with the Dead #2" appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, Sep/Oct 2025 :-)

For the curious
- written 4/2023
- accepted in 84 days on its first time out
- this is my 15th poem to appear in Asimov's
- they paid $27 ($1 per line)

✏️📖

#TSOTD_note First Lesson

- accompanied by Gary McCluskey's superb art

- first published in Silver Blade

- ah, my dragon, who leans on Machiavelli a bit here

- an aside: in my esoteric(*) numbering system for my stories and poems, this is number 1000

(*) I have 119 haiku clumped under 1 number

#TSOTD_note Impostor

Three hours with the man so far,
a whole weary week ahead.

- Gan has retired from being a king's guard by now, but I liked being able to give him this poem and his own adventure

- no more of that adventure is shown in the book, but Gan himself reappears very near the end

✏️📖🐉

Reposting for the Sunday lunchtime people. Hmmm. That may be a small set.

I'm sorry the unfortunate event occurred at 4:15 AM, but it is very moving how Rook trusted you to help (and a testiment to your good stewardship).

I'm doing well, hoping and expecting to get some reading time today, which is right and proper for the weekend.

Thank you again :-)

I confirm that "Solace" isn't part of "The Sign of the Dragon, but lives in a sister universe. For me, it exists in an alternate unfolding of events where a man very like Xau lived to an old age. The men in the poem would then be four of Xau's former guards, by now retired.

Thank you!

I plan to make them available. It's a question of when and how. Since I am contemplating writing more of these, and since I think that will take me quite a while(*), it isn't likely to be very soon.

(*) for the same reasons I delayed before writing this first mini-sequence,

I had held back from returning to Xau but I am glad I did so, even if it is just this once.

[There's a world in which I exceed my own expectations and write more such sequences. If I write enough, which currently seems unlikely, I could assemble them into a short book/chapbook.]

✏️📖🐉

Not yet sure what I shall do with these poems. Only the first one stands alone, the others being aimed at people who've read the book, know the characters, and would enjoy spending more time with them. It's a quiet interlude without battles and demons and such.

#poetry. #TSOTD_note.

For the first time, I returned to the world of "The Sign of the Dragon" and wrote a mini sequence of 8 poems that take place near the midpoint of the main book. I finished today after an obsessed flurry of activity while I had an empty house (barring Sir Cat's good company).

May your work go well, following Science or otherwise. Over here, I had an empty house (barring Sir Cat) for a week, which led to me writing something I probably wouldn't have undertaken otherwise. I was able to go a little crazy for the last 4 days, finishing the thing today. Folks return tonight.

#TSOTD_note Boatman

- first published in Mithila Review

- the fourth and last of the prose poems in the book

- I am fond of this mini-story within the story, the only part we see of Xau's journey to war

- I like Shu noticing how the quiet man (Li) watched after an even quieter man (Xau)

✏️📖🐉

#TSOTD_note The Imperial War: Onset

- first published in Grievous Angel

- the Imperium has a gigantic logistics advantage, communicating across vast distances almost as if they were using telephones

- this is reined in slightly because the beast cannot control/bespeak unlimited numbers of people

#TSOTD_note Daunted

- first published in Dreams and Nightmares

- I like this poem: Li facing down the dragon; the dragon telling Xau to stop wallowing in guilt

- during it we learn that the dragon hatched 1400 years ago

- from an earlier poem we know she started choosing kings 1100 years ago

✏️🐉

Wishing you all the luck and a tailwind....

I did have a satisfying day :-)

I wrote something I've been failing to write for a long time; hoping I will be able to write more to go along with it.

Plus I had the pleasure of my zoom book club (we discussed What Moves the Dead, which I found creepy)

Update from the reading front: I forgot to say that I picked "Death by Silver." I can report that I have now finished, and much enjoyed, said book :-)

www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

I will now progress to "The Gentleman and his Vowsmith."

#TSOTD_note Wounded

- one of several poems in the book that alternates between Hana and Xau's point of view

No reassurance to offer her.
He might not return.
Might not win.

She reached for him,
said the words she hadn't said
last time he left for war.

- N.B. they do meet again

Wishing you fair winds under your writing sails :-)

Part 3 of the Reddit Readlong of "The Sign of the Dragon" is underway, for those who would like to play along:

www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/co...