NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month)

Nano Anne Prather

Once upon a time there was a girl who loved to tell stories. She liked to lie in bed at night and imagine worlds full of space heroes and other fools...planets full of interesting flowers...and ordinary people who did extraordinary things.

She wrote her first novel in 1980 while a sophomore at Wheaton College. But after that, she was distracted by marriage and other things. She didn't write another novel until...

...she found a copy of Chris Baty's book in a Denver bookstore. Desperate to write fiction, she began her first 30-day quest, even though everyone else was out enjoying the summer, and even though it was three months until National Novel Writing Month.

She has never looked back.

2012 dateless winner badge

Wings of Joy: Songs and Stories of the Starmasters

For over 24 years, Aislinn the Bard has been regaling filkers with her songs of the Starmasters–starship pilots whose mysterious talent allows them to discover habitable worlds efficiently and effectively. Compelled to fly by a life-or-death addiction to the Beyond, the Starmasters are both a boon to society and a thorn in the side of institutions like major corporations and the military. These stories and their accompanying songs highlight the problems and conflicts faced by Starmasters and recount some of the subtle, but critical, points in the Starmasters' history.


Awakening

Song: Star Pilots' Hymn. This hymn has been sung at real funerals as well as fictional funerals. But another use–detailed here–is as the calling song for a star pilot or Starmaster at confirmation in the Lucaeri communities. Sanjele, the main character of Awakening, appears in many other Starmaster tales.


High Wings

Song: High Wings. "High Wings" was one of the first Starmaster songs written by someone other than Anne Prather. The song could tell the tale of anyone with more than average flight desire. Here the song is paired with the story of Beth Kramer's early life. The story was originally written for a "star-crossed lovers" writing challenge issued by the ChristSF e-group.


Ballad of the Windsong

Song: Ballad Of The Windsong. One of the hallmarks of truly awesome star flight talent is an early age of onset. Melinda Lee is just twelve and a half Standard years old when she discovers that she has the talent. Mistaken for someone's daughter in flight school, tormented by fear of failure during the long odyssey of her Starmaster test and ridiculed for her attachment to the Windsong, she at last finds help in the form of a Navy veteran whose training as a Starmasters' healer makes him instantly aware of her problems and whose training as a lawyer can help her solve them.