The book comes out soon! Soon. I am finishing up a great week of teaching at Viable Paradise. Every year I come back worn out and excited. The teaching load is heavy, but I get the rare chance to work with folks who are going to become the Hugo-winning authors of next year (or next decade), folks who will keep writing and putting their own particular energy into the world, speaking their truth and exploring the contours of their dreams. The work feels more vital with each passing year.

As the release of Dead Hand Rule looms, I realize that I may not have said in public what the Dead Hand Rule is, or at least what I understand it to be1. The Dead Hand Rule is another name for the Rule against Perpetuities, a legal principle so recondite that (I am told) attorneys cannot be sued for malpractice if they accidentally break it. Basically it works like this: in (for example) a will, you can’t control the entire future of a property. You can only control what happens to it up to 21 years past the death of a “life in being”—someone alive right now. You can’t say “this house can never be sold” (barring fun times with trusts) or “this castle belongs to the firstborn daughter of my daughter’s line, provided that they always wear a hat in public.” Life-in-being plus 21 isn’t a short time, but it’s far short of forever. The core idea as I understand it is that if we let the past control the present altogether, at some point it will dictate the entire present. Growth and change should be possible. But the dead hand tries to rule.

I have often thought, “I should write a story so far for the Craft Wars, particularly as people may want to catch up before reading the penultimate book.” The writing itself, however, has been hard to make work. Fortunately, fans come through! Hannah at The Hidden Schools website has put together a complete and exhaustively detailed Story Thus Far of the Sequence, which you can read here. I wasn’t involved in writing this, so don’t think of it as my name’s word on the subject—but Hannah reads deeply and well and this seems like a great place to start if you want to catch up. Hannah also has a character list, which will be updated between now and October 28. Thanks so much, Hannah!

And that’s what I’ve got. Come join me at an Event in the next couple weeks—at Porter Square Books on Oct 28, at Pandemonium in November! And if you want to help with the launch, well, I’m grateful. Talk the books up to your friends and family, get them from the library, buy them for yourself or as gifts: any book flies or falls through readership. That’s the honesty of this business. It’s folks passing books around. That’s what I’m doing here, too: I just have to write ‘em first.

Happy reading, friends. Take care of yourselves, and work for the liberation of all sentient beings.

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