She just wanted her mother to love her a little bit less

September 20, 2016 10:02 PM

Ursula Vernon (Hugo Winner and Nebula Winner) has started posting a serial novel, Summer in Orcus.

It's a portal fantasy (warning, TVTropes link) that will be updated twice a week, no matter what happens to the author (so there is no fear of it remaining uncompleted). Ursula Vernon Previously.

posted by Hactar (14 comments total)

"And that was that, at least until tomorrow."

"Oh, I wish it was true", I thought. And my wish was granted! It's true! (It was posted on Tuesday and the next update is due on Thursday).
posted by hat_eater at 1:28 AM on September 21, 2016 [1 favorite]

Thanks for posting this! Chapter One was great -- I'm looking forward to the next installment!
posted by ourobouros at 5:59 AM on September 21, 2016

Only 4 paragraphs in:

"it would have been nice to have somebody to share the burden of her mother’s love"

God this is a home truth. My mum is insufferable at times.
posted by trif at 6:37 AM on September 21, 2016 [1 favorite]

...but goodness that is a nice read. Damn foolish of me to read it now without any chance of getting an ending any time soon. Thank you for the post!
posted by trif at 6:59 AM on September 21, 2016

I'm glad I read the FAQ.

Is there an RSS feed?
I’m working on that now!

I'd been hunting for a feed so I could be sure not to miss a chapter, and lo! my concern is already being addressed.
posted by Karmakaze at 7:28 AM on September 21, 2016

I used to love Ursula Vernon when I was but a wee lass surfing the interwebs a decade ago. She'd slipped my mind, like many things did after college, but wow. I hadn't realized I'd missed her.

Thank you!
posted by lydhre at 7:35 AM on September 21, 2016

The RSS feed is live; I just subscribed.
posted by MovableBookLady at 7:59 AM on September 21, 2016

Yeah, I'll definitely be reading/following this, once I'm in cosier environs. Was just going to chuck in a drive-by LOLORCUS comment, but I made the mistake of R'ing TFA.

When I was young and reading the Narnia books, I detested (as I was supposed to detest) Eustace Clarence Scrubb, who did not enter into the spirit of Narnia at all, who was sulky about grand adventures and had to be turned into a dragon in order to learn his lesson.
I'm massively biased, as my first and favourite Narnia novel was The Silver Chair, featuring a reformed Scubb. I loved him in Voyage Of The Dawn Treader though, for exactly the reason Ursula Vernon gives for detesting him. What a wonderfully miserable self-centered little git of a diarist! My favourite character in the classic '80s D&D cartoon was Eric too, spot the pattern. Whatever happened to him he almost deserved it.

Won't veer further offtopic. Looking forward to reading this.
posted by comealongpole at 8:40 AM on September 21, 2016

Antelope Wives was so good, and the story about the wood-carver was also so good, that I am a little afraid of Ursula Vernon.
posted by jamjam at 10:36 AM on September 21, 2016 [1 favorite]

I love that she mentioned the Neverending Story Book, the second half of which has never made it satisfactorily into film. A good chunk of my ethics come from that book - the idea that the choices we make shape who we are and the world we build around ourselves. Sometimes I wish more people knew about the film in the context of the book that inspired it.
posted by Deoridhe at 11:26 AM on September 21, 2016

What's that URL, MovableBookLady?
posted by endotoxin at 2:17 PM on September 21, 2016

Antelope Wives was so good, and the story about the wood-carver was also so good, that I am a little afraid of Ursula Vernon.

Earlier, Ursula tweeted "Whoa, the coffee shop is playing "Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition." My grandmother used to sing that one!" One of her followers went on a riff:

'Course, Ursula Vernon don't need no ammunition. She can knock a hole in a wall by spitting on it.
Used to be two moons, but Ursula loaded her varmint rifle with one'a her toenail clippings and blew it up.
She said a second moon just made her planting almanac too dang confusing.
[Ursula: Made the tides nice and even, too!]
True nuff. That's why every ocean ship has a shrine to Ursula hidden inside the keel.
Don't ask a sailor. It's bad luck to talk about, and they won't risk her wrath.
Ships used to have figureheads on the front, but then Ursula finally arrived.
Vikings thought maybe you'd be a dragon or wolf, but they'd never been to the Carolinas nohow and didn't know we're short of both.
The Carolinas do got lots of coral snakes. Used to have more, 'til Ursula started usin' em as shoelaces.
Y'all don't want to get kicked by Ursula Vernon when she's got her dress shoes on, no ma'am.

posted by Lexica at 9:42 PM on September 21, 2016 [2 favorites]

Oh god, I relate so hard to being the only child and being loved so hard that you wish you could be loved a little less.
posted by jenfullmoon at 10:15 PM on September 21, 2016

New chapter's up, and Summer's life feels more and more familiar to me, especially the "hold her while she cries again" kind of stuff.
posted by jenfullmoon at 5:59 AM on September 22, 2016