The Named Are Being Twits Again...

For purposes of fun and silliness, I have given the Named clan cat characters the ability to temporarily teleport from their home in the California Miocene so that they can peek into the human world and remark upon what they see. This, of course is not to be regarded as 'canon', i.e. in the storyline of the actual books. Think of it as sort of an alternate universe version.

Of course, the main event recently, was of course, the election. I was and am, an unabashed (though some may yet wish to bash me) Obama supporter.

Please note that I have added one or two introductory Tweets. Also, the words prefaced by a '#' (pound sign) were used as Twitter search categories. For more (dis) orientation, see my earlier blog post, "Ratha on Twitter".

So, without more author blather, here are Ratha, Bira, Thakur, Cherfan, Thistle-chaser
and last, but certainly not least, the clan's fiesty Firekeeper leader Fessran. She would have the audacity to fall in love with the prez elect.

Cats don't tweet, but they do chirp. Let the Chirps begin:


Who is behind all this prehistoric cat stuff? http://bit.ly/2n88x4 5:17 PM Oct 24th from TwitWall

Trying Twitwall. The pic is what Ratha will be for Halloween... 5:21 PM Oct 24th from web

For #Halloween, Thakur wants to be ... Joe Biden! 5:34 PM Oct 31st from web

For #Halloween, Cherfan wants to be....Joe the Plumber! 5:44 PM Oct 31st from web

For #Halloween, Fessran says she doesn't know squat about the #First_Amendment and wants to be....#Sarah Palin! 5:57 PM Oct 31st from web

Now, back to our regularly scheduled (hah!) transtemporal broadcasting from the Miocene....Fessran says Obama is one hot cat! Prrrrr... 11:46 AM Nov 5th

ClanChirps - For the newbie whitetippers (nice followers), the Chirps are by characters in my Ratha series about big prehistoric cats. 12:05 PM Nov 5

ClanChirps - Ratha: "Fessran, get your tail back here! We have a story to finish. 11:48 AM Nov 5th from web

ClanChirps - Fessran: "I don't wanna come back yet. I'm in love with #Obama-cat. Quit pulling my tail, Ratha!" 1:20 PM Nov 5th from web

ClanChirps – Ratha: “C'mon, Fessran. #Obama-cat already has a mate. A good one. And cubs. The clan needs you back home.” 3:28 PM Nov 5th from web

Characters doing the ClanChirps reside in #Ratha's_Courage, my new #book about #prehistoric big #cats. http://www.rathascourage.com 12:28 PM Nov 6th from web

ClanChirps- Fessran:“I know you're going to light fires under some deserving tails, Obama-cat. I gotta go back and light fires of my own...” ... 12:32 PM Nov 6th from web

ClanChirps – Fessran “Farewell, love of my life! May you eat of the haunch and sleep in the driest den, you cool Obama-cat.” 3:58 PM Nov 6th from web

ClanChirps - Ratha and Bira together: "FESSRAN!" 12:14 PM Nov 7th from web

ClanChirps – Ratha: “Bira, you take Fessran's scruff and I'll grab her tail. All right, back to the Miocene!” * poof * 4:50 PM Nov 8th from web

OK guys, enough...

CB

The 6th Ratha Tale and Brightspirit

The 6th Ratha tale - Idealism and its Discontents

Back in the days when all was rosy, Courage was written, turned in, eagerly accepted, and the Named Series appeared to be on the verge of a boom that could rival Harry Potter or Warriors, Sharyn November asked me to do a Ratha short story for her Firebirds Soaring anthology. So, I did. And she liked it and bought it. Firebirds Soaring will be out in December, and in it you will find, among many fine tales by Firebird Books authors, one called "Bonechewer's Legacy".

Actually, "Legacy" should be called the 4 1/2th Ratha tale, because, time-wise, it takes place after Challenge (#4) and before Courage (#5).

Why Bonechewer? I mean, he's long gone, since he died in the first book. But he was such a strong and unique being ("character" doesn't sound like the right word - as if I pasted him together out of construction paper and popsicle sticks) that Ratha can't forget him and I can't either. He was possibly my best creation in all the books, described by reviewers as as "brilliant", "irreverent", "flip", "sardonic" and unforgettable. So I decided to have some fun with him before I finally let him go, and the result is "Legacy".

I got the advanced reading copy of Firebirds Soaring a few days ago. After a brief worry-flurry about whether my emailed corrections ("Bonechewer", not Bone-chewer") got in (they did, thank you, Sharyn), I checked out how "Legacy" looked in print. The accompanying artwork by Mike Dringenberg brings out the spirit of the story and is just plain beautiful, so thank you, Mike. I've seen Dringenberg's work in the various Neil Gamen "Sandman" comics and compilations, and admired it, but never thought that one of Mike's illustrations would grace one of my stories.

Though I am not new to short stories, most of my works are novels. I have had short non-Ratha tales in such collections as Tales of the Witchworld ("The Hunting of Lord Etsalian's Daughter") and Catfantastic ("The Damcat", "Bomber and the Bismarck", "A Tangled Tahitian Tale"). Putting the world of the Named clan-cats into a shorter format was a challenge. Luckily I already had a theme in mind based on some recent rough times in my life. I won't name the individuals or companies who gave me the bumpy ride, but their efforts to dishearten me ended up inspiring me. (Note: these guys were not in the publishing industry.) Funny how that works, isn't it?

I was raised as a progressive idealist and I have been one all my life. As a youngster, I went to the early 1960's anti-war marches with my then-stepfather Donald Stewerd. I now consider him to be my real father, and his ideas about peace, social justice, non-violence, and conflict resolution influenced me then and still do. The upside to being an idealist is that doing what you think is right for the world generates a sense of purpose and a huge amount of energy. I got a real high out of marching in the anti-Vietnam War Moratoriums, "bird-dogging" for peace candidates, such as Eugene McCarthy and George McGovern," and being professionally employed in developing various electric vehicles, such as the Think and Corbin Sparrow.

The down side of being an idealist is that other people see that energy and think only "how can I harness that to benefit myself and my company?" They will, and have, taken advantage of an idealist's good nature and tremendous drive. However, if idealism and money clash, you can bet who loses. "It will only take a $50 per car investment to make sure that the customer doesn't get a 156V DC electrical shock? No, I'm sorry. That will cut too far into my profits and my $100 bottles of wine at dinner."

Having been seduced down that road too many times, I quit the field and turned my experiences into themes in my fiction. Ratha is becoming a visionary, starting to look beyond the immediate needs of the Named. Instead of meeting the UnNamed or other outsiders with the fierceness of fire, she wants instead to extend friendship. It is her dream to gather in the struggling and suffering and become a benevolent leader who is loved instead of feared. That makes her (as it made me) vulnerable to exploitation by others who care nothing for her vision and want only to manipulate and destroy her.

Being victimized in such a way makes the wounded idealist think that his or her dedication was misguided. Depression, retreat and cynicsm follow. How does one recover and find the enthusiasm once again? Many never do, and their talents are lost. This is tragic, considering how badly such people are needed, especially now.

When someone else grabs you by your dreams and throws you into a pit, how do you struggle out? Read "Bonechewer's Legacy" and let me know what you think of the story.

In other news...

Please visit the Brightspirit Disaster Relief Fund Auction, which is being held in memory of the Warrior fan and Wands and Worlds member, Brightspirit,
Emily Cherry. She and her parents were both killed in a tornado and her grandmothers are honoring her with this event. The Erin Hunter authors of the Warriors series have donated many items to this auction. Other authors have also contributed. Here's the link:

http://brightspirit.cmarket.com .

I've donated a set of the Named series novels (signed and kitty-face doodled) to the auction and the direct link to those items is:

http://www.cmarket.com/auction/item/Item.action?_sourcePage=%2Fitem%2FbrowseImage.jsp&id=73969825


Check out the auction, do some good and get some neat books!

CB

Ratha's Courage E-Released on Baen!

This version is an electronic book, which means you purchase it, then download it into your laptop, Sony reader or other device. On sale now for $6.00.

To buy it from Baen Books, you need to get an account, which is free and easy.

Here's the link:

http://www.webscription.net/p-822-rathas-courage.aspx

Baen's homepage is:

http://www.baen.com

Baen will have an exclusive on the book during April, then Amazon and Fictionwise http://www.fictionwise.com will be carrying it.

If Courage does well as an E-book, the next step is print publication.

Eeeeyarooo!

The other books in the series are Firebird re-issues and are available through the net and at bookstores.

My deepest thanks to everyone who made this happen, including E-Reads, Baen, and my agent, Richard Curtis.

CB

A Taste of Ratha's Courage

Update 2: The book wasn't up as of 4/3. E-Reads has done the E-Book file, checked it and has sent it to Baen. As well as herding the book to E-publication, I am currently writing the kickoff announcement article that will appear on the E-Reads Blog (http://www.ereads.com).

Ratha's Courage to be released 4/1/08 on Baen Books (http://www.baen.com) along with E-Reads (http://www.ereads.com)

Ratha's Courage
by Clare Bell
Excerpt copyright 2007

Chapter One

A shiver of excitement went through Ratha. She began her stalk, belly fur brushing the ground. Grass whispered past her legs as she felt the slow controlled power of each muscle. Her tail-tip tingled with the urge to twitch, but she held it still.

The horse the Named called a striper tossed its head and flapped its tail, eyes widening. Ratha slowed her down-wind stalk so that she seemed nearly frozen, yet was still moving. The striper swung its neck around, jerking its head and ears back.

Ratha stilled until the herdbeast settled, then quickened her stalk, easing her weight from one foot to the next, placing each directly ahead of the one behind and moving so smoothly she felt as though she were flowing across and through the grass, a green-eyed river of tawny gold.

Nearing the striper’s dancing rear hooves, inhaling it’s sweat-sharpened scent, Ratha trembled with the impulse to dash, spring and wrestle her prey to the ground. She took a long slow breath, as the herding teacher, Thakur had taught her, mastered her urge and crept around the striper, circling in front of it.

Stripers were new to the Named herds. This horse was dun, with dark brown mane and tail. Ratha turned her head to bring her gaze down along its banded forelegs to the three-toed feet. These feet differed from those of the smaller dappleback horses that the clan had long tended. The striper’s center toe, sheathed in a single hoof, was larger, the side toes further off the ground. That hoof had far more power than the four and three-toed feet of the dapplebacks. Ratha had dodged it many times and other herders had been sent sprawling.

The striper grunted and whinnied, its nostrils flaring with her smell. From her crouch, Ratha lifted her chin and stared up at the horse, trying to catch and hold its gaze. As if sensing her purpose, the striper reared, its forefeet cutting the air, its tail whisking its flanks. She froze again; waited.

When the striper dropped down, she pounced on its stare with her own. Again it evaded her, closing its eyes and ducking its head, showing her only its bristling mane.

She knew the stripers were smarter than the dapplebacks; by now her stare would have a dappleback helplessly imprisoned.

Thakur had warned her that the stripers were clever; that the larger head held a more alert and cunning mind. Suppressing her frustrated growl, Ratha made several rasping snarls that were almost barks.

The sounds had the effect she wanted. The striper’s ears swiveled, the head came up, the eyes opened. Again her eyes sought the striper’s gaze and this time she captured it. The animal stiffened, as if about to fight, but snort and stamp as it would, the striper couldn’t break Ratha’s stare. It stilled to near-immobility, only its hide shivering.

Ratha felt triumph strengthen her heartbeat and deepen her breathing. She was so close; she could reach out and tap one of the horse’s forelegs with a front paw.

Again came the rush of desire that threatened to propel her up onto the horse’s shoulders, driving her teeth into its neck. In her imagination, she was already atop the striper, feeling the stiff upright mane bristle into the corners of her mouth. Part of her already felt the velvet-furred skin resist, stretch and then tear through beneath the points of her fangs, her neck muscles pulling and twisting in just the right way so that her fangs would slip between the neckbones and skillfully separate them while the prey’s blood flowed in pulses over her tongue. . .

Outwardly Ratha shuddered, yet kept her eyes fixed on those of the horse while inwardly she swiped the feelings aside. No, such a fevered attack was not the way of the Named. She had fought this internal battle many times before, when she trained as a cub under Thakur, and later when she began her duties as a herder. Even when she culled herd-beasts, she would not let instinct run wild.

Ratha used her frustration and desire, pouring them out savagely through her eyes. The horse was now as still as if it were already in her killing embrace. The muscles and tendons atop her forelegs quivered with the need to drive her claws out and deep into flesh.

She lifted out of her crouch, rearing up on her hind paws to lay one foreleg almost gently over the horse’s shoulders and up along the back of its neck. In spite of her care, the beast started, but before it could begin its escape flurry, Ratha slapped the other forepaw around the underside of its neck.

Now Ratha used her claws, but only enough to maintain her hold as she pushed backwards with her hind feet to unbalance the striper and pull it over. She was so close to the horse now that she couldn’t hold its gaze, but she no longer needed to. It was falling into the daze that doomed prey often assumed.

Instead of digging into the striper’s nape with claws and teeth, Ratha used the pressure and friction of her pads combined with her weight and her experience in knowing exactly how and where to push in order to topple the beast.

As if in a trance, the striper sank to its knees. Ratha climbed further onto it, using her weight to press the horse down onto its belly. She draped herself across the animal, one forepaw keeping the horse’s forelegs, with their dangerous hooves, at a distance. She wrapped the other forepaw around the top of the horse’s head, twisting it up so that the throat lay exposed.

Feeling the striper's heartbeat thudding through its ribs and into her own body, Ratha bent her head, jaws starting to open. The heart’s beat was strong in the creature’s neck, visibly jolting the skin over the great vessels and releasing a deep temptation in Ratha to bite deeply and hard.

Instead she opened her mouth to its full gape and set her teeth in position for the instinctive throat bite. With the horse’s sweat-smell hot in her nose, she squeezed her eyes shut with the effort not to bite, feeling the jaw-closing muscles beneath her eyes and on the sides of her forehead tremble with the strain.

The onlookers, Thakur and the young cubs learning herding from him, had grown quiet, as if they sensed the conflict within her.

Slowly, deliberately, she pulled her head up, feeling the skin of her muzzle slide
back over her teeth as her mouth closed. She swallowed the saliva that had flooded her mouth, staying atop the striper while the youngsters shrilled their praise and Thakur added his deeper note. Their cries sounded strangely muted to her, as if they were distant or her ears muffled...

(End of excerpt)

Courage galloping toward 4/1/08 release

My agent, Richard Curtis, has just confirmed today that everything is on-track.

Courage will be released on 4/1/08 as an E-Reads/Baen Books selection.

Baen's website is www. baen. com. (Note - you can buy individual titles as well as the subscription.) E-Reads is www. ereads. com.

After all this time and grief, it really is happening.

Yarrrooo!

"Get the blood off the book. You can leave the sweat and tears..."

Ratha's Courage to appear on Fictionwise and Amazon

I got an email from my agent Richard Curtis that Ratha's Courage: the Fifth Book of the Named, has completed processing as an e-book and will be appearing on Fictionwise and Amazon in a few weeks.
I haven't been posting much lately, due to weather, infectious bronchitis, and waiting for the book to come out. I'm much better now, and feeling more chipper, since Courage is actually going to appear soon.
Look for more "Ratha's Creatures" explorations in the critters of California's Miocene period.

Thanks again to all my fans and blog readers for all your support during a difficult time.

Clare

Ratha's Courage - Hope Burns Brighter

Author interview webcast with webjay Steve Sikes-Nova premiers tomorrow (Friday)!
To find out when it airs:
http://www.live365.com/stations/virginiaprograsser/schedule

To listen:
http://www.live365.com/stations/virginiaprograsser
Feedback: ratha13@earthlink.net


Dear patient and devoted Ratha fans,

I am pleased to announce that Ratha's Courage will be released, both as an E-book and a physically published print book. I got some projected dates from my agent, Richard Curtis, in an email this morning.

Courage will be available for download on www.fictionwise.com and other retail sites by the end of the year. The print edition is scheduled to appear by or before February. Amazon will be carrying both. I will be posting more details as I get them.

Viking-Penguin decided to cancel their hardcover and apparently didn't tell Amazon. They also did not respond to my queries about what was happening with the book. The only notification I got was a series of short emails. For that reason, my agent and I decided to move the book to another publisher.

It has taken a bit of time to make all the arrangements, but things are sufficiently in place so that I can now make this announcement.

This has been a difficult interval for me, as you can probably imagine. Instead of crawling into a black hole after I got the cancellation email, I decided to continue publicizing the reprints and working with Richard Curtis to get Courage published. I was determined, and still am, to make sure that everyone who wants a copy of Ratha's Courage can get one.

Firebird Books is still handling the reprints and they have plenty in their warehouse. E-Reads will be doing a promotion that will launch Courage. I know it was hard to wait, but E-Reads has acted very rapidly to get everything set up.

I deeply appreciate your loyalty, patience and understanding during this time.
Because of you, hope burns brighter, both for me and the Named.



May you get your heart's desire and find delight.

Clare