This is where I hope to chronicle my process of continuing the work of my late sister, Kage Baker. It was one of the last things she told me to do – use her notes, her plots, the thousands of drives up and down I-5 with her telling me stories, and keep those stories rolling out to the world. And that’s what I intend to do.
First, though, all thanks to our brilliant, staunch and invaluable friend, Neassa Skold. Neassa was our buddy for years, companion in all manner of historical recreation nonsense and delight. She saw us through Kage’s final illness, keeping me company in waiting rooms and helping me smuggle goodies in. She let us stay in her family’s house when we needed a place to shelter while Kage had surgery. She came to help me clean out the house when Kage died, and kept me sane for the month it took. And she set up this blog and is enabling me to follow through on this project.
Praise her with great praise!
Now: I’ve been working since February 2010 on the sequel to The Women of Nell Gwynn’s. The going has been tough, but it’s getting easier. Last night, I had a dream – Kage, directing my view out a window to a river full of islands, all thickly grown with flowering reeds. As we watched, the river began to rise and the islands began to float. They broke up like ice floes, and all rushed forward; people appeared in the flood, and began to stack the free islands into a causeway. I asked Kage if the causeway would not get too wide and block the river – but she said: ” No, they’re taken off again at the further edge and the river runs free. And it can’t run free unless the islands are moved and stacked: so get to it, kiddo.”
Sure seems obvious to me …
Tomorrow: a first glimpse of how one takes up the reins on a writer’s hobby horse: the soundtrack
Kathleen, Kage and the Company 
Praise indeed, and plenty to go around.
Plenty of those little islands, too, come to think of it.
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Hi there. My partner and I like to play a game in which we each go to the library and choose a book or two that we think the other person would like to read and then bring it home. (He’s much better at it than I am.) One of the books he brought home for me last time was House of the Stag, a book that I’d never even heard of, although I love both sci-fi and fantasy. I had never heard of Kage Baker, either. I started to read it with some trepidation, but was hooked within the first ten pages. I’m now eagerly reading my way through the rest of her books.
I read her bio on the book jacket and thought she sounded great, googled her, and discovered that she had been gone for five years, and cried to read her last words to her fans. But I did find this site, and I wanted to write you to let you know that I wish I had discovered her work before, I am glad that you are still writing yourself, and that it’s really a shame that her marvellous, sardonic stories are not better publicized.
I hope you feel better soon (I’ve been reading up) and that you continue to write, here and elsewhere.
Thank you for all that you do,
Brooke
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Thank you for your kind words, Brooke. I hope Kage;s stories continue to give you and your partner joy. She had a wonderful time writing them all.
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has Kage’s story “The Ruined Vacation” ever appeared anywhere besides fictionwise.com — some place I can buy/read it?
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No, it has not. But you can buy it at fictionwise.com. If you have any problems doing that, please let me know and I will see what I can do.
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Fictionwise.com “died” in 2012…
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Fictionwise is gone? Gosh, I didn’t even notice. Well, in that event, drop me a line at my own email – materkb@gmail.com – and I will see about getting you a copy.
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