We're sliding into the holidays, and there is prettiness to share! Behold, Dehong's latest lovely creation:


(Click the image to open a larger version.)

You can now preorder Lance of Earth and Sky on Amazon also. :)

It's truly an honor to have another cover from Dehong. I understand he's been very busy with Time Voyager (and their MMO coincidentally titled Chaos Gate!), so it's especially fortunate that he was able to make some time for Andovar. :)

Also, you can now pick up Clockwork Phoenix on Kindle for $3.99! The anthology was critically acclaimed and has some great stories in it from Laird Barron, Leah Bobet, Michael J. DeLuca, and others -- including my fableish thing "Root and Vein", which got a nice call out from this recent review at Dark Cargo.

Reviews continue to come in for Sword of Fire and Sea and I have been inexcusably lax in getting them all compiled onto my website. But That Bookish Girl says "Sword of Fire and Sea by Erin Hoffman was an incredibly exciting and compelling read." -- and SFFWorld.com weighs in on gryphons and more: "Through her characters, Hoffman imbues the Gryphons with a true sense of awe, and an initial feeling of them being the Other."

I hope you are all winding toward a great holiday season, and an even better 2012.

Poking my head in here since it looks like Goodreads has approved my giveaway -- must have missed the email!

On Halloween entries will close, so get it while it's hot! Three copies up for grabs.

More news... soon. :) The game is afoot! Also, in Andovar news, this past week I received the countersigned contract for Shield of Sea and Space, which means: IT'S A TRILOGY!!! Lance of Earth and Sky comes out April 2012, and I turn in Shield in June.

But I know you're really here for giveaway details. Let's see if this works!

It's been awhile since I last wrote for the Escapist, so I'm glad it appears I haven't forgotten how to do it. "1988: the Golden Age of Game Piracy", went live today. Many thanks to Paul Reiche for providing insights; in addition to his actual quotes, his perspective pivoted the article away from a first draft that had a rather different tone.

I had intended to post about the article with some "bonus features" in the form of a section that was ultimately removed (rightfully) for being too academic. Maybe I'll post that another time, since I'd really like to know whether I was properly applying some economic theory.

But instead I'd like to draw your attention to this post from Russ Pitts, "Goodbye is Still Goodbye".

As you might gather, Russ is moving on from the magazine, and while I've worked with a great number of wonderful folk in the last five years, I don't think any of them would disagree that Russ's departure in particular marks the end of an era.

My first article for the Escapist back in 2006 was a rather impetuous call to arms for the modern game industry, when the E was quite a different place. It had almost none of its current features and was instead "purely" focused on what would become its "feature" articles; there was a beautiful graphic cover and full spread art for each feature. Even then, in the magazine's youth, I thought it was a tremendous honor to write for them, and over the years I do believe they remained the best and most thoughtful source of game journalism in the US. They aimed to set a standard of excellence, and Russ was a big part of that success.

Joe Blancato and Jon Martin (both also by now departed) made my introduction to the magazine, but Russ was the consistent editorial steady hand on the wheel throughout -- even, interestingly, when he'd moved on to fresher pastures to grow the magazine's new video content. Where many game magazines have a very well-intentioned but limited tunnel vision view of the industry and the market, Russ had a worldliness that gave the magazine breadth and, I think, greater relevance. He published some tremendous stuff, and as the magazine grew and changed -- even when it transitioned away from some of the thoughtfulness and cultural forward-thinking that had first earned it my loyalty as a reader and a writer -- I always respected his ability to ride the leading edge of a wave that made new careers even as it destroyed many others.

So, as Leah would say, tip your hat, folks; the times they are a-changin'. There is little doubt that the Escapist will remain a powerhouse in game media for many years to come, and even less doubt that Russ will go on to even greater adventures. But among other things, Inside Job, the quality of life column I wrote from 2007-2008, wouldn't have existed without him, nor, I'm sure, would many of my feature articles. I am a better writer as a result, and I will always think back on the production of each -- even when edits and deadlines plus a "real" job resulted in all-nighter catatonia -- with great fondness.

You can keep up with Russ's rather strange blog here, and peruse records of his own odd internet notoriety.

Coming to you a bit late this week -- I kept picking this up late at night, then holding onto it for hours when folks are more likely to actually be awake. ;) Hope that you all have had a good week, and hope that all of you on the east coast are staying safe.

This week's Creature of the Week is one of the most widely known pet birds in the western world -- but some quick announcements first!

If you're into podcasts, interviews, fantasy, video games, gryphons, or fun hosts, you might want to check out this podcast interview courteously given by Shaun and Jen at Skiffy and Fanty. Origins of Andovar, and (I think) its place in the greater world of fantasy fiction, with nods to player rights, gryphons, escapism, and more.

A few reviews came in this week: rdansky's review is in the lovely latest issue of Bull Spec. It's not in the sample this time, but the issue (like the others) is well worth purchasing. Shaun of the aforementioned Skiffy and Fanty has also posted a review of Sword of Fire and Sea up at his blog, in which he says, in part:

In many respects, Hoffman's balance between adventure, manipulated cliche, and character make for a compelling novel that is a lot of fun to read. Personally, I am not an adventure fantasy fan, and I have a very short leash for the trappings of the fantasy genre. But Sword of Fire and Sea navigated those trappings in a way that allowed me to get lost in the excitement.

Finally, Jon Sprunk has some kind words for Sword, available on Amazon or GoodReads:

Erin Hoffman's debut shows a remarkable deftness in storytelling and beautiful language. Some of her descriptions are so good they actually made me stop and read them again just to appreciate the lilt of the prose. This is an adventure story with heart.

If you enjoyed Sword of Fire and Sea, you might also enjoy Jon's Shadow's Son, assassin-focused fantasy with a rich world and characters I liked and connected with immediately. (And really, who isn't down with the stabby-stabby? Jerks, that's who.) Amazon seems to like to pair our books together.

Now back to the budgie!

Chances are you already know what a budgie (formally "budgerigar") is, even if you call it a "parakeet" -- but there's also quite a lot you might not know about them. They're colony breeders, and remarkably tough for such little birds -- high survival attributes that also made them very adaptable to captivity. Their small size and relative ease of care also make them very common pets. Perhaps because they are so common -- and inexpensive -- their intelligence is not widely recognized, even though they're among the smartest birds in the world.


Larger African Grey Parrots (like Vasya) and performing Amazons are well known for their intelligence and ability to mimic -- but to this day, the bird with the largest human vocabulary in the world (an amazing 1,728 words documented by the Guinness World Records) was a budgie named Puck. By comparison, the famous Alex the African Grey -- who at the time of his death was learning to read and understood the concept of zero, among other feats -- had a vocabulary of only about a hundred words.

The use of the budgie's remarkable mimicking ability in the wild has also been studied with regard to communication in a budgie flock. Budgies in the wild live in gigantic colonies of up to thousands of birds. Considering each bird's amazing ability to communicate and express a huge variety of sounds, the patterns of sound communication through a budgie flock can be fascinating. Studies have been done on budgie flocks where scientists isolate a handful of birds, teach them a unique sound pattern, then release them back into the flock. The instructed sound pattern will be mimicked throughout the flock, passing through it like a wildfire -- for a certain time. The birds teach the sound to each other, but then one bird will modify the sound and pass along the modified version -- kind of like a game of "Telephone" -- and the sound mutates it, turning it into something else, and the old version dies out entirely. These morphing patterns of communication and sound have been compared to human slang, or could be compared to any sort of memetic communication (lolcat, anyone?). Not only can budgies rapidly learn sound patterns and teach them to other birds, they make up their own language tokens and spread those as well.


So, in addition to having some of the most amazing eyes in the animal kingdom (almost all birds are tetrachromatic in addition to seeing ultraviolet and having amazing motion perception), budgies in particular have amazing ears, and hear at a rate of approximately 10x faster than humans -- which is why their warbles sound so garbled to us! Slow that sound down and you experience it more like a budgie, the Micromachine Man of the bird world. Budgies also have a superhuman ability to recover from deafness if the cilia in their ears are damaged (in a human, such loss is permanent).

Birdsong in particular has been studied by several genera of scientists for centuries, both for its communication insight and for sound processing. Studies have shown that not only can small "twittering" birds hear at radically different rates than we can, their brains enable them to sift through types of sound much more efficiently than ours, enabling them to hear each other and communicate across long distances even in noisy environments. Think about that the next time you consider calling someone "bird-brained"!

While its ubiquity in homes all over the world makes it easy to underestimate, the budgie is an amazing creature, worthy of consideration and care. Sometimes the most amazing features of nature are right where you least expect them!

This week's creature comes a little later in the evening than usual, but it's still Friday! Hope you all are having a good one.

Third place on the World of Andovar voting page was "Something from the Sea", so here this week we have the immortal jellyfish!


Usually when a creature has an evocative name like "immortal" it isn't intended literally -- not so in the case of the biological-rules-defying immortal jelly! These critters are thought to be literally immortal, cycling their life phases from mature back to youthful infinitely.

All jellyfish belong to the Cnidaria phylum and have at least two life phases: mobile swimming medusae (which we recognize as the iconic jellyfish) and stationary polyps. The jellyfish life cycle typically starts as a little cyst ejected from a mature swimming jellyfish that latches onto the sea floor, grows into a polyp, possibly multiplies, and then the polyp breaks up into multiple layers, each of which becomes a mature medusa.

Once the adult medusa has lived out its life and spat out some eggs (or sperm) to create the next generation, it usually winds down -- reproducing a few times and then dying. Some medusae live only hours. The bizarre and amazing immortal jellyfish, though, does something different: once it has cruised around as a medusa for awhile, it skips that whole death thing and turns back into a polyp.


Scientists have verified this transformational ability -- which is similar to a starfish regrowing its arm, but unique in the known biological world in that the entire animal is regenerated -- in the lab, but because jellyfish are so migratory (and because Turritopsis nutricul is so tiny -- only about 1cm in adulthood), determining one's full age in the wild has not yet been possible. BUT all the immortal jellies around the world are genetically identical. And they're spreading.

So here we have one of the strangest things in the sea, a single species of jellyfish that has not only figured out how to defy death, but may be the biological equivalent of grey goo. Sorry nanotech -- nature beat you to it! I have a feeling Philip K. Dick would have loved this creature.

We have had this 20% off Bed, Bath & Beyond coupon sitting around. I usually ignore them, but in this case we were looking for a better laundry bin solution (to give you some insight into the Exciting Life of the Writer-Game-Designer), so yesterday we got some brunch and headed off to the Pleasantville-mart that is BB&B. Only there were no adequate laundry bins to be found! Gasp! So, naturally, we had to buy an ice cream maker. They had this one on sale, and I had been taunted by Dansky's sorbet posts FOR TOO LONG.

I don't read appliance instructions (it's a religious thing), so I had whipped up the base for some pineapple-lychee sorbet and poured it into the machine before I realized that the liquid-filled vessel for it has to be frozen before you can set about making sorbet. Sadness. So my delicious lychee-pineapple mixture (recipe below) went into the fridge and the ice cream tumbler went into the freezer and we went to bed.

Then, while Jay was making breakfast this morning, I dug it out, put it together, and about half an hour later there was pineapple-lychee sorbet.

And I have to say, it's freaking amazing. As expected there is little replacement for taking very fresh ingredients and letting the cold machine have its way with them. I was a little worried that the lychee would get smothered by the pineapple, but it comes through very strong, with an explosive but amazingly light flavor that bears a striking resemblance to the most tasty thing you can imagine.

It was also really simple to make. I took:
- Half a pineapple, diced (about 2 cups)
- Half a bag of fresh lychee (about a dozen) -- peeled of course
- Half a cup of sugar
- Half a cup of water

Sugar and water went onto the stove to make simple syrup while I prepared the fruit, which went into the blender. By the time I was done the simple syrup was also done and cooled, so it went in also. Puree the whole thing, then pour into the ice cream maker. I suggest you skip the part where I poured it in, realized the drum needed to be frozen, poured it out, cleaned everything, and froze the drum overnight. Then the machine does its work, and voila! Amazing summery deliciousness.

Welcome to Creature of the Week #6! First a public service announcement: Sword of Fire and Sea is live on Amazon Kindle! It's been up for about a day and has popped onto a "top 100" list, so many of you have found it already, but this is a more persistent heads-up. :) Two nice reviews have also come in, one from Scott Barnes at NewMyths.com, who calls SWORD "a swashbuckling fantasy adventure reminiscent of the golden age of high fantasy dominated by the likes of Terry Brooks and Tad Williams." He also offers up an observation on fantasy politics:

Hoffman has created a fun world populated by gryphons, elemental witches, pirates, and goddesses. I greatly enjoyed the maritime setting, the salty air and cry of gulls never far from my imagination. Many high fantasies ignore commerce all together, as if the economies of their worlds ran on warfare alone and food grew in people’s bellies. But Hoffman’s world is based on politics and trade and the correct assumption (very relevant in today’s political climate) that people in power have the most to lose from change and often will accept a worse fate for their countries in exchange for the status quo.

Thanks, Scott!

This week's creature was also chosen by voting on the the World of Andovar page! It is, in a way, a hybrid of the two top vote-getters, being both "something from the sky" and "something from down below the earth": the fabulous little burrowing owl. These guys are so cute that it's hard to pick just a couple of photos of them, but I did my best.


Burrowing owls have attracted recent attention from conservationists as habitat destruction has driven them into endangered species status in Canada. They're threatened in Mexico, and under observation in the western US, which comprises the rest of their range. According to Defenders of Wildlife, their wild population is estimated at less than 10,000 breeding pairs.

The burrowing owl isn't the smallest owl in the world (that'd be the elf owl, but it's pretty close! With length averaging between 6-10", males and females being the same size (unusual in raptors). Unlike most owls, burrowing owls are not completely nocturnal, and hunt (insects and small rodents mostly) during the day. They strike prey with their feet, and makes its nest in holes dug out of the ground. Baby burrowing owl chicks can fly at six weeks of age, and make a rattlesnake-like hissing noise when threatened.

Cute enough for the silver screen, the latest highly recognizable Hollywood burrowing owl is Digger, first appearing in Kathryn Lasky's The Capture, and one of the main characters if the stunning Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole AnimalLogic film.



What do you think? Would you want to meet an owl gryphon?

Just saying... ;)



(Okay, can't help it. Some more photos, these guys are too cute.)

What, you didn't catch the last fourteen creatures of the week? They were stealthy, ninja-like creatures, beneath the reckoning of the lugubrious internet.

...Okay, I was finishing Lance of Earth and Sky, in addition to work and blah blah blah blah, so there was a bit of a creature pileup. But it's back, and better than ever! Thank you to those (surprisingly many of you) who emailed or messaged asking when the next one would be. <3

This week's creature was chosen by the World of Andovar! You wanted it, you got it! The race was a close one, but "Something from Down Below the Earth" edged out "Something from the Sky" by two votes. So, this week, meet the mighty Olm!

As you can see, a photograph of the olm (Proteus anguinus), a blind cave-dwelling amphibian from southeastern Europe, could easily be mistaken for a sighting of Falcor, the dragon from the Never-Ending Story (the film anyway; if you haven't read the book, you really should, it's wonderful!). In Slovenia, when flash flooding from rains would fill the caves and wash helpless olms (also appropriately called "white salamanders") to the surface, people thought that they were baby dragons.

Olms are troglobites: they live exclusively underground and have adapted to completely dark environments, in the olm's case to the point of getting rid of eyes entirely. Most troglobites are spiders, fish, and insects; in addition to being unusual as an amphibian troglobite, the olm is an unusual amphibian in that it is exclusively aquatic. With its pink external gills and stubby almost useless legs (it has only ten toes on its entire body; six in front, four in back), it spends its entire life in underground pools (making it also a stygobite, a sub-class of troglobite that is aquatic).

The study of cave biology in western culture is relatively recent, but still fast-growing, and, like creatures that live in the deep sea, valuable in that it broadens our standards for the environmental conditions that can sustain life. The phenomenal pressure and coldness of the deep sea was for centuries thought to be empty and sterile, but chemosynthetic life and ecosystems thrive around hot vents in the earth's crust. Similarly, one of the most recent expansions to our 'standard' for habitable environments comes from chemosynthetic cave life. In Romania, not far from the olm's habitat, there is a cave called Peştera Movile ("Movile Cave"), discovered in 1986, containing life that has been separated from the rest of the earth for the last 5.5million years -- an underground Galapagos! And because there was CO2 and hydrogen sulfide, but almost no oxygen, the life there -- all 48 species of it -- is chemosynthetic.

The discovery of chemosynthetic life, and species that exist and thrive in environments we mammals can't imagine, has fueled speculation that there may well be life within our solar system, beneath the ice of Europa or, most recently making the news, in recently-discovered flowing liquid saltwater on Mars.

One of my favorite fictional explorations of this expanding-boundary expression of biology is Michael Swanwick's "Slow Life", which, because it was nominated for (and later won) the Hugo in 2002, you can read on Analog's website (or in his superb collection The Dog Said Bow-Wow. Looking at the olm, ghostly subterranean dragon, it isn't hard to imagine that life can be stranger than our wildest alien expectations.

This is a very quick post to call your attention to Thalnarra, who waits for you in the magical land of ebay! Thalnarra is one of Melody Pena's Windstone griffins, hand-painted to look like your favorite gryphon fire priestess. In many ways Thalnarra is the centerpoint of Andovar as a world; I hear frequently from readers that she was their favorite, so it's amazing to see her "in the feathers" here.

Melody did such an incredible job. If you've ever seen a Windstone in person you know that photos don't do them justice, even when the photos are amazing (there are more in that album, and on ebay). I want to gush about this for thousands of words, but I also want you to actually read this and then click right over to the ebay auction and try your luck.

Honestly. If you had told me five years ago that Melody would be painting one of her amazing griffins to look like a character I'd invented, I would ask you to share whatever you were smoking.

Stay tuned next week for a post about the making of Thalnarra, and to congratulate her new owner. :)

For those of you kind and intrepid and incredible folk who have been interested in signed copies of Sword of Fire and Sea, here are some answers!

First, you can come to the next signing, which will be July 23, 2011 at Borderlands Books in San Francisco. If you can't make it there, I'll be at Westercon July 2-4, Dragon*Con September 2-5, and World Fantasy Con October 27-30. I may be adding a couple of more trips; when I have them finalized I'll be updating this page with them.

Secondly, you can order signed copies anytime from Mysterious Galaxy! Mysterious Galaxy is a fantastic independent science fiction, fantasy, mystery, and horror bookstore in San Diego (my hometown!). They've been around since 1993 and have been keeping genre alive and building one of the best genre fiction communities in the country.

I have many memories of peeking into Mysterious Galaxy's windows (there's a Japanese restaurant in the same center that my family has been going to for years), so it was particularly awesome to "launch" Sword of Fire and Sea there officially. And despite it being my first signing, I don't know how you could ask for better support: they advertised the heck out of the event, and Maryelizabeth provided terrific advice over facebook before I came down. Patrick and David were wonderful throughout, making sure everything ran smoothly and providing a convention's worth of stimulating science fiction and fantasy conversation in just a couple of hours.

So there are your answers! Go forth and buy books from a terrific San Diego institution! There are more photos from the signing on the Andovar facebook page (but you're already a member there, right?), and on Flickr.


Kiba, fresh in her summer coat, says: shop from sources who put good things into the world!