miss DEE meaner

Davinia the author (The Burnished City trilogy, starting with Notorious sorcerer - see http://viscerate.com for more!) Dee the fangirl (an absolute fandom miscellany) she/her, Australian, old enough to not care (cookie, I still think you're tame)

[cupiscent]

btw guys I have a book... 👀

In a city filled with dangerous yet heavily regulated alchemical magic, a man from the slums discovers he may be its only hope to survive certain destruction in this wickedly entertaining fantasy. 

Welcome to Bezim, where sword-slinging bravi race through the night and rich and idle alchemists make magic out of mixing and measuring the four planes of reality.

Siyon Velo, Dockside brat turned petty alchemist, scrapes a living hopping between the planes to harvest ingredients for the city’s alchemists. But when Siyon accidentally commits an act of impossible magic, he’s catapulted into the limelight—which is a bad place to be when the planes start lurching out of alignment, threatening to send Bezim into the sea.

It will take a miracle to save the city. Good thing Siyon has pulled off the impossible before. Now he just has to master it.

A dazzling fantasy bursting with wild magic, chaotic sword-fighting street gangs, brazen flirting, malevolent harpies, and one defiant alchemist.

Out 13th September 2022 from Orbit in the US and UK!

[ Add on GoodReads | Buy US | Buy UK ] (Support your local bookstore!)

[cupiscent]

Greetings, same person as here, thought you’d like to see my description of Rebel Blade to a friend while liveblogging Zagiri & Balian in chapter 7

Also you had my jaw on the floor of my workplace on page 125, thanks

Thank you, I did really enjoy seeing this! Indeed I am laughing so hard, because my gosh, you sum up them all up so ruthlessly and so accurately, but especially Zagiri. Read for filth and deserving it, that girl! 😂

Double thanks for the reaction on page 125, that was exactly what I was going for, and it gives me a lovely warm glow of satisfaction to hear that it hit. 😁

Hope the ending satisfies! 🤞💖

[cupiscent]

Absolutely devastated that I can't play a game of carrick it sounds so fun

Funny thing: A friend of mine who's mad into card games demanded early proof pages of Shadow Baron for the carrick parts so she could try to put together the rules. I really wish it were complicated and clever enough to warrant it! She was a bit disappointed when I explained that carrick is basically poker (with various rulesets depending on the setting and possibly some variation) with additional planes-related weighting. (As demonstrated by Anahid with her big win... 😁)

I had real trouble figuring out what to do with carrick when I was planning. I knew I wanted it to be a gambling game (obviously) but also one where skill mattered (which is not very common in gambling / casino games). I considered going for complicated trick-based games like skat or French tarot, but then partnerships matter and I'd have to explain too much about the rules when the game itself wasn't suuuper important. So in the end, I played it simple and stuck with poker. And was a little bit sad about it, but it did the trick!

[feralkwe]

give your characters exes.

give them a variety of exes. give them relationships that shaped who they are but did not last. give them people they tried very hard to love but it didn't work out. give them situationships that taught them things. give them something deep that was real but could not endure. things that hurt. things that ended amicably. people with whom hot passion cooled to warm affection and became undying friendship.

no more first and only. give me the context of what made them know the next or one after was final and right.

[cupiscent]

Breaking a long silence because oh boy, this one right here, yes very much so.

And in fanfic, yes, absolutely, it's important! But also, I did this in the Burnished City trilogy and it was the making of it.

Jaleh, Siyon's (type-A go-getting totally justifiable) bitch of an ex? She didn't exist in any version of Notorious Sorcerer until the very last. I sold the book without Jaleh. When I mentioned "Siyon's ex" to my agent, she said, "WAIT WHO??" because she had never read a version of the book that had Jaleh in it. But when I was doing the final round of revisions that my editor had asked for, I had half a dozen tiny moments where I needed a character to do a thing, and then I realised all those characters could be the same character, and that character could be Siyon's ex.

Y'all, the heavens opened and a beam of golden illumination surrounded me. It was so perfect. It made Siyon and his whole lived-in world so much deeper. More layered and nuanced, more tangled and messy, more real and true. I straight up do not know how I ever thought the story was whole without that tangible element of Siyon's prior fuck-ups, not to mention someone who knew all his bullshit, was possibly even fond of his bullshit, but absolutely was not having any, not anymore. (Also, of course, we all know that unless the man has canonically dated specific examples of both genders, people will insist he's not bi. And even then...)

Anyway, that's my too verbose (as always) co-signing of this sentiment. Give your characters real, lived history, and that includes exes. 👍

[cupiscent]

Hello hello, wanted to say first of all that I am currently obsessed with your books!! The fact that they aren't more popular is absolutely criminal. One of my favorite hyper-specific little things about your world building is, because Bezim is a trade based city, how many boat/water based idoms/metaphors/turns of phrase the characters use in their narration. It makes me smile every time, and I was wondering if you had any favorites, because I'm listening on audiobook and I know I've forgotten all the best ones!

Aaaah, thank you so much! 🥰

I had so much fun with all the little details of language and outlook that came with Bezim, so I'm doubly thrilled that you're enjoying them too. I've forgotten a lot of them too, because I'd throw them in as I was writing and then move on, but my recurring favourite and one I'm really proud of was "gullshit" instead of bullshit. Because ain't no cows! (And also bulls never sit on the gutter above you and do their business on your hat... and then try to steal your lunch.)

[theotherpacman]

not all ships are For wanting them to be in a happy healthy relationship together. sometimes shipping two characters means you want them to be erotically obsessed with each other and become entwined in a mutually toxic love affair for a few months and then horrifically break each other's hearts and never speak again. sometimes you want them to be codependent best friends with enough repression to explode a submarine who only make out/have sex when they're at their worst. sometimes you want them to pine after each other for years, never say anything, and then die. sometimes you want them to kill each other. this, too, is shipping

[cupiscent]

hey so thank you for breaking my brain on shadow baron page 357

I had to go and look up what I did on page 357 of Shadow Baron because I, ah, pull a lot of shit in the latter stages of that book (and honestly, I'm not sorry). But I was very happy with that particular malarkey, I had been planning it since the beginning, fighting to keep small bits of foreshadowing from being copy-editorially tidied away in Notorious Sorcerer. So pleased it paid off!

In short: THANK YOU, happy to help! 😁🫶

[cupiscent]

I FINALLY FINISHED THE BURNISHED CITY SERIES!!!! i wont post any spoilers but OMG every time i think something is going to happen, something bigger, better, and crazier happens and im blown away!!! im just honestly so in awe of ur style and ur ability to keep me hooked thru the WHOLE STORY. izmirlian will always be one of my fav book characters of all time. cant wait to see what u come out with next!!💞💖

YAY 💖💖💖🥰

I am genuinely so thrilled to hear this: the best part of publishing stuff is hearing that people love it. I am replete. Thank you!

(And I am wrestling with something new just as hard as I can, but it's still going to be a while...)

[kissed1996]

If you had to sing a child to sleep RIGHT NOW what would you sing and it CANT BE a lullaby it has to be a regular song

[marinella-ela]

[cupiscent]

Just picked up Rebel Blade in Sydney! (It wasnt actually on the shelves yet, but apparently I was the second person in quick succession to ask for a copy so they brought a whole stack out from the back of the store haha) So excited to read it over Christmas!

That is so delightful, thank you! Keep the bookshop people on their toes! I hope you have a lovely time - with the book and over the silly season! 🫶

[cupiscent]

i just read the first notorious sorcerer and shadow baron and now i'm crazy, so thank you

(like actually you have just inspired so much world building, characters and dynamics in me so thanks but also a tiny screw you cause now i'm even more insane and screaming at my walls)

Honestly, I am so thrilled about this. Because Notorious Sorcerer started from my being inspired and crazy and screaming a million things I loved at the walls of a little story I didn't think would ever really have an audience beyond me and the person I wrote that story for.

That it's now inspiring you in turn is immense to me. It's wonderful. It is everything that a piece of art should be. And so I am delighted, I am screeching victory at the moon, and I am very much encouraging you to scream, and to shape, and to write your own amazing inspired words down. Because that too is art.

Also: 💖

[cupiscent]

IM SO EXCITED FOR THE FINAL BOOK OF THE TRILOGY. ive literally been waiting (preordered it the second i could) with SO MUCH EXCITEMENT. i just know u wont disappoint! 🙂‍↕️

Thank you so much! 🥰 I am really hoping it hits the spot.

For everyone else - REBEL BLADE, finishing up the Burnished City trilogy, hits shelves next week! (3rd Dec in the US, 5th in the UK, 10th in Australia.)

Get more info and buy links for your territory here: https://viscerate.com/?page_id=396

[cupiscent]

Will Rebel Blade be the finale to the Burnished City series, or will it continue past a trilogy?

This is it! The big finish!

Not that everything is utterly wrapped up, because life continues, that's partly the point. But REBEL BLADE is going to wrap up the story of Siyon, Anahid and Zagiri, and indeed of the city of Bezim. (I have no specific plans at the moment, but I might come back to the wider world later. There's a lot of fun things - in the Khanates, in the North, and especially in the New Republic - that I never got the chance to really dig into. But those are very much Other Stories.)

So if you've been waiting for a complete story, yes! This is it! You can get started now! :)

[cupiscent]

I just finished Shadow Baron and I'm really excited for the third book! I read a lot of fantasy and your setting feels like a breath of fresh air + I really love the tension related to a certain character... Can't wait to see how things turn out!

oh, thank you so much! It's just the best part of this whole business to hear that someone's really enjoying my work. REBEL BLADE will be hitting shelves in early December (pre-prder now from your favourite local bookstore!) and I hope it really satisfies! 💖

[emmasternerradley]

I shouldn’t do this here because this is the “no marketing” website and I want it to stay that way but… I have just snuck into the realm of traditional publishing and my weird book about assassins (aka The Murder Siblings TM) focusing on stupid jokes, sword fights, masked balls, 🏳️‍🌈gay sex🏳️‍🌈, mental health issues, and rebelling against the rich isn’t being seen in the jungle of hetero TikTok picks and Sarah J Maas books. (Even tho it’s been sold as Six of Crows meets The Princess Bride.)

If Snowblooded doesn’t start getting noticed by people, I think my career in trad pub might be over just as it started. So during this our pride month could I perchance ask you to signal boost this post to support a lesbian and poly author trying to break in to the trad pub jungle? (Also, the book can be bought HERE )

Blurb:

Valour and Petrichor are esteemed members of the Order of Axsten, an assassin’s guild tasked with keeping order in the rough city of Vinterstock. Plucked from the streets as children and raised to compete for their guild’s approval, Valour uses her brawn to survive, while Petrichor strives to be a gentleman assassin. When they’re given their biggest job yet—to kill Brandquist, the mysterious leader of the city's illegal magic trade—it’s a recipe for disaster. If they can quell their rivalry long enough, the reward will be enough to settle their debts with the Order and start new lives.

If this job wasn’t dangerous enough, Valour is saddled with looking after a famed hotelier, Ingrid Rytterdahl. Valour finds her dangerously attractive, but the aspec Petrichor can’t wait to be rid of them both. He begrudgingly accepts Ingrid’s knowledge and connections as they navigate the city’s criminal underbelly in pursuit of Brandquist.

As secrets bubble to the surface, the duo must outwit the thugs on their tail, keep Ingrid alive, and—hardest of all—work together without murdering each other.

[cupiscent]

back again making emo connections to notorious sorcerer (bc im insane); hav u ever noticed that lowkey izmirlian reminds u of vampire william beckett in the 16 candles music video? i cant help but think of him every time i see the mv it plagues me 😍

Very valid. Yes. 😂 (One of my favourite flavours of Bilvy; he's such a snooty bitch in that.)

And thank you so much for letting my work continue to take up your mental and emotional energy, & doubly so for sharing it with me! 🫶