Becoming Solo is one of my favorite little works because it’s rooted so strongly in my past experiences. No, I wasn’t part of a family spell matrix, nor did I undergo the sort of family dynamics that my character Yesenia did. Nonetheless, my county fair memories and life as 4H member, parent, then club leader intensely shape that novella. The role that the Bright Star Magic Fair plays in regenerating the local magical strength was in many ways reflective of a role that the old county fairs used to play (and, in some communities, still do play) in community life.
Back in the day, my county had a 4H program that was big enough to separate into a separate fair for the 4H program. As you can see from the pictures above, I eventually excelled in showing chickens. That’s a picture of me with a Grand Champion Poultry Showmanship trophy and the Araucana pullet who helped me win it. She was a friendly little hen, and in spite of me getting pooped on by the duck that my closest rival was showing in our division, we won big. This was also the days of “hands on” poultry showmanship, not guiding them with a stick as I believe is currently the situation, at least in my state.
Fair, even just the 4H fair, was a lot of fun. I learned about food service working in the Empire Builders (4H service club) booth. When my son showed an interest in having a pet rabbit, we joined the local 4H which was part of a much-scaled-down version of Fair, in a metropolitan area. Because there were no other clubs in our neighborhood, I became a club leader, first for small animals, then for a lot of other projects including electricity, rocketry, geology, forestry…you name it. The little metropolitan fair had an interesting mix of urban and rural elements, plus it was placed at an old amusement park, which added a further dimension to the whole thing.
I won’t get into many details of the power dynamics that popped up at that fair, however, based on adults with competing visions. Because a number of home schoolers used 4H for rudimentary science education (which, to be fair, those programs are pretty darn solid), I ended up learning about the Quiverful movement since several leaders were part of that cult. They wanted the kids to be wearing uniforms and, well, had other issues going on, generally related to controlling what they saw were problematic kid behaviors. Then there were the adults who wanted to remake the Fair into what it had been in the ’50s and ’60s, when the metropolitan area was much smaller and more conservative. Those were the louder voices and, unfortunately, they played into the agenda of more liberal county commissioners who wanted to cut county funding for 4H. But so much energy was going into the different struggles for control that….
Despite our organization and appeals, the program got cut. Members who wanted to remain active fled to other counties. I don’t know who went where, just that the group representing the Quiverfuls and some of the other factions didn’t end up in the county I went to. I ended up being the leader of an even larger club (Technobunnies!) who became part of an even bigger, even more traditional combined general and 4H county fair. And oh, were there some shocks.
One of our most talented members swept in and cleaned up in the sewing and artistic areas. The reaction to Shadow in Becoming Solo was based on how this one young woman calmly came in from outside and won a LOT. Granted, she had been regularly attending State Fair and winning there, so it shouldn’t have been a surprise. That was somewhat the foundation for the novella–what happens when an outsider challenges the Fair regulars?
It took me some time to develop the whole story. I knew it needed to be about sewing, because I originally devised the seed story for a witch-based anthology with sewing in the title. When the story got rejected, I let it sit for a while. Then…things began to stir. Shadow the Question and the sabotage of Magic Fairs started to play a greater element. I didn’t fully rough out the magic system because, frankly, I couldn’t see this story as being more than the novella it is. That got me dinged hard in a review that still makes me steam and got me booted out of a self-published novella contest in the first round, because I didn’t provide a detailed RPG-type magic system.
I still consider that review to be my worst so-called four-star review ever. It put me off of entering any more self-published novel contests and…well, a whole group of reviewers tied to said contests. But enough about that.
Becoming Solo is about choices. About the role of individual achievement over family needs. It uses a county fair competition structure set in a world where magic is a real thing, but under siege for various reasons, including the degree to which it is wielded by nonwhite practitioners. Where magic skills combined with technology provide little necessities and luxuries to the mundane, but heaven forbid if the witches reach out for any sort of real power or control, especially if their skin isn’t pale.
I still like this story. And now, for the month of October, it’s on sale for $1.99 at all ebook vendors. Check it out.
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Shameless self promo time! You can subscribe to my monthly newsletter here. As always, the Cookies Fund for the horses could use a coin or two. Contribute here. And The Cost of Power books are now all out in ebook and paperback–I hope to have the paperback links added soon, but for now, you can go to these links for a kickass science fantasy neoWestern with Carolingian elements. Click on each title for the link: Return, Crucible, Redemption.
