Toys, cats, an interview, and the Locus poll.

Let's go in reverse order, shall we? Because sometimes linearity just doesn't cut it. Anyway, the annual Locus Magazine poll for the best speculative fiction has been posted, covering those items published during 2010. Many excellent things are on the list already, and there are write-in slots for excellent things which you feel should have been included there, but weren't. The poll is open until April 15th, and everyone can vote, although votes cast by actual subscribers count for double. (This is one reason, among many, that it is awesome to have a Locus subscription.) Go, take a look, and help paint an accurate picture of what people loved about the speculative fiction of 2010!

I recently did an interview with the charming Katie Babs, who has posted our conversation for everyone to see. Being more sophisticated about these things than l'il ol' me, she even included graphics and other such awesome bells and whistles. It was a fun interview, with good questions, and I highly recommend taking a peek, if only so she'll feel that her site traffic justifies having me back someday!

Why, no. I do not have any pride. Why do you ask?

The cats continue healthy. Alice is a bit heavier than I want her to be, since recovering from her illness included a lot of gooshy food and spoiling, so we're trying to feed lightly for the moment. This might work better if a) Thomas weren't a growing boy, b) Lilly were more willing to be pushy about her food, and c) Alice didn't flop in the middle of the floor wailing about how she's starving to death and I am the WORST MONKEY EVER. Although, to be fair, Alice's flopping would be more believable if she didn't shake the floor when she did it. Yes, yes, you're starving, my little tauntaun. And next time there's a cold snap, I am going to crawl inside you to keep myself warm.

Thomas is growing at a truly staggering rate; it's like he's taken Alice's size as a personal challenge, and is determined to beat her before the next time he sees Betsy (I always assume my cats are trying to impress their breeder with their spectacular awesomeness). He's still the sweetest thing on four feet, which is good, since otherwise, I would be in trouble. He's very smart, and very curious. He's also stubborn as hell. Last night, he was on my lap, trying to play with the popcorn I was eating, so every time he reached for a piece, I would flick his paw. A normal cat would have grown annoyed and stalked off, furious at such callous treatment. Thomas started flicking me back. I love my Maine Coons.

I also love my Siamese. Lilly remains the lickingest cat in the entire known universe, as the patch of skin she licked off the inside my elbow last night while I slept will cheerfully attest. She's a little daunted by suddenly being the smallest cat in the house, but she's dignified enough (in all regards except for the licking) to hold her own against the fluffy tide.

And now...toys. As you may know, I love toys. My bedroom is like a terrifying cross between a set built for the Halloweentown movies and a toy store. I have well over a hundred My Little Ponies (and am collecting more every day), the entire current Monster High toy line, and a bunch of random assorted dolls, action figures, and weird things, including an anime-style Emma Frost, a hungry flesh-eating wasp-woman, and the Impala from Supernatural. It's a fun room to sleep in sometimes.

Anyway, yesterday, I got home to find a box on my porch. And inside that box...PONIES. Lots and lots of lovely Ponies, including Baby Racer (a yellow Baby Brother Pony with blue hair and a race car on his rump) and Applejack and some beautifully ringletted Candy Cane Ponies...

And Oakly. The My Little Pony Moose. Who has been on my Top 10 Wish List for ages. And now? NOW SHE IS MINE.

It's a good week to be a Pony geek.

Tara is making me a Barbie version of Alice Price-Healy, which has given me an excuse to go shopping for lots and lots of 1/6th scale weapons on eBay. This is incredibly soothing. It's shopping with purpose, and that purpose will result in my having the best. Barbie. EVER. The other Barbie she made for me, Lt. Anis Bihari of the USS Rutan, is currently off-site having her uniform tailored. I expect much joy when she returns. Oh, and they just announced the second wave of the Monster High Dawn of the Dance line, which will include two of my favorite dolls (Draculaura and Ghoulia).

It's a good week to be a toy geek, period. I am a happy blonde.

Because You Asked: Who The Hell's In Charge Here?

I recently volunteered to make five detailed blog posts on things people wanted to know about the Toby universe, and provided a dedicated thread for them to make their suggestions. While these posts will not be specifically spoiler-y for published books, they will provide background material on the universe, and can be viewed as part of my functional canon. This is the second such post, and is taken from multiple related questions.

faithfulcynic asked, "Can you break down Court hierarchy for us and talk a little about title inheritance? I know that the King of Cats has to be won but is that the same with other courts? Would a changeling ever have a shot at ruling a court? Could Sylvester ever rule them all? Does relationship to the Big Three play a part?"

hanabishirecca said, "Toby's universe has a complex system of fiefdoms and courts that have been seen to be caught in a supernatural version of real world politics. Sovereignty seems to be shaky in many cases...I don't necessarily want an entire political history lesson, but I'm fascinated with the division of territory. I'd love to know what it takes to be appointed your own title and piece of land, to what lies at the very top of the feudalistic rankings. Really, anything on this would make me happy."

And drakos_inferno said, "I'll echo a few other people—can we get a who's in charge flow chart of some sort?"

Let's talk politics! Yaaaaay!

So first off: who's in charge? Oberon. Dude doesn't even need a title. He's just, you know, Oberon. He's also missing, and has been for several hundred years, along with both Maeve and Titania, who are also in charge. When the three of them fight, watch out. They're collectively known as the King and Queens of Faerie; that's their territory, that's their fiefdom, and that's where their word is law. Again, however, missing, and even before they went missing, they needed the equivalent of local governments to save them from spending all their time telling their kids to stop hitting each other. Enter the fae system of governance. Now, the main thing to remember here is that all these people essentially serve at the pleasure of the President. If Oberon says you lose your throne, you lose your throne. If Titania says you're finished, you're finished. So fae monarchs are always, always aware that they could be deposed just for wearing shoes that Maeve doesn't like. For the most part, they muddle through anyway, because power is neat.

At the top of the non-Three fae government food chain, you have the High Kings and Queens. There's usually one of them to a region, with "region" being determined by a combination of population density, amount of time the fae have been living in the region, and whether anyone's gone to war to schism off a new High Demesne. (Note: This is a dangerous proposition. If you don't have the buy-in from the majority of the current reigning High Kings and Queens, no one's going to help you do it, and you're going to get your ass kicked.) There are currently quite a few High Demesnes, but the one we're primarily concerned with is North America, the royal seat of which is located in Toronto.

The original High Kings and Queens were chosen by Oberon, Maeve, and Titania, and were a fairly broad representation of the races and ideals of Faerie. In the modern era, most of them are Daoine Sidhe. Make of this what you will (and hint, "we like assassinating people for their thrones, it's fun" is a perfectly reasonable line of thought). At this point, the title is hereditary, unless you manage to get yourself deposed. High Kings and Queens have absolute authority over those Kingdoms contained in their High Demesne, unless contradicted by one of the Three, which hasn't happened recently (for obvious reasons). They mostly don't mess with things, unless those things are threatening to mess with them.

Once the original High Kings and Queens were chosen, they proceeded to choose Regional Kings and Queens. Think of it as sort of like the relationship between the President of the United States and the Governor of Oregon. Yes, the President is technically the boss of him, but odds are good that he can do almost anything he wants, short of killing his constituents, before the President gets involved. Again, these positions started as a good racial and idealistic mix, and have managed to maintain a bit more of their diversity, largely because a sitting monarch can only be deposed by a) the Three or b) actual warfare—taking a throne away from someone without a good reason is one of the only things the High Kings and Queens can't do. So once the Daoine Sidhe started deposing the High Kings and Queens, the Regional Kings and Queens got a lot more passionate about maintaining large armies. It's fun! Again, once given a throne, the throne is hereditary, and will remain with a family until that family is wiped out, deposed, or manages to piss off the Three.

Now we hit the tricky part. See, not all parts of a High Demesne will be part of a Regional Kingdom. In North America, for example, the High King and Queen maintain Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland and Labrador as their own private holdings; the first Regional Kingdoms are Frozen Sun (Manitoba and Minnesota, roughly) to the west, and Lakes to the south. That means that all crimes committed in the private holdings of the High King and Queen go straight to them, with no intermediate monarch. Sort of like going to the Supreme Court over a traffic ticket. Oddly, this doesn't make their populace any better-behaved.

Let's keep things getting trickier. Dukes/Duchesses, Marquis/Marquessas, Counts/Countesses, Viscounts/Viscountesses, Barons/Baronesses, Earls, Lords/Ladies, Knights, and a variety of other lesser nobles fall under the Kings and Queens. Most of the time, it'll follow the ranking of the list above. But not always. In some areas, a Marquis may be considered to outrank a Duke (not many, however). This is basically the local ruler's to decide. There are quite a few unlanded nobles at this point, thanks to Faerie's many, many wars, and an unlanded noble will always be outranked by a landed noble of the same title. So...Sylvester, a Duke, outranks Evening, a Countess. Simon, an unlanded Baron, outranks Toby, a knight, but would be outranked by a landed Baron. Again, all these titles tend to be hereditary...

Unless, of course, your children are changelings. Changelings cannot inherit lands or titles from their fae parents. They can be granted by the crown, but that is the only way for them to rise in fae governance, and even then, it's going to be very local. Toby was knighted by Sylvester. Most people in the Mists will respect that, if only to avoid pissing off Shadowed Hills. If Toby were to travel to the Kingdom of Angels, who knows what would happen? A changeling can, of course, take a title by force of arms, but any changeling who chose to do that would need to be prepared to have a lot of people gunning for them. A lot of people.

Titles are passed either when the title-holder dies, as in the case of King Gilad Windermere, the former regent of the Mists, or when the title-holder chooses to step down and cede all right to their place. This prevents assassinations, at least most of the time. The only way a forsaken title can be reclaimed is if the current holder dies with no named heir, and the former title-holder is judged entirely without blame in their death. This doesn't happen very often. There are some "lost" titles, connected to objects, family lines, missing knowes, or ancient mysteries. It's doubtful whether those claims could be proven if they were brought forth, but wouldn't it be fun to try?

You'll note that the Kings and Queens of Cats are not covered here. This is because they are considered, by Oberon's edict, to essentially have diplomatic immunity in any of the "noble" Courts, so long as they don't go interfering. They settle their succession in completely different, and usually quite bloody, ways.

So that's the quick and dirty version of politics in Toby's world. If you have any follow-up questions, feel free to ask them here.

Word count -- BLACKOUT.

Words: 9,190.
Total words: 33,533.
Reason for stopping: finished chapter seven/book one. Time to watch some TV.
Music: random shuffle, lots of goth and punk.
Cats: Alice, unknown; Lilly, curled up on my bed; Thomas, curled up behind my chair, making chirping noises. Again.

As of tonight, I am a) done with chapter seven, b) done with Book I, c) officially over 30,000 words, and d) officially over 100 pages. Since this book is projected at 145,000 words (welcome to Stephen King territory, please keep your hands inside the car at all times), this is kinda awesome—I really needed to be moving into these regions. This also means that I am now at the top of the first big hill, and can begin to PLUMMET RAPIDLY DOWNWARD. Woo!

I'm terribly excited about this book, and terribly dismayed about the fact that I can't really discuss it with anyone, beyond "well, there are words on pages, and the pages are turning into a manuscript, and it's all very exciting," since it's basically one big REDACTED FOR SPOILERS at this point. Ah, well. Soon enough.

When will you rise?