Happy New Year with a Spiritwalker short story/coda

In honor of the last tiny bit of the 10th anniversary year of the publication of COLD MAGIC, a small end of the year gift to my Spiritwalker readers, up at @booksmugglers

This heartwarming G-rated coda story to the trilogy accompanies an illustration by @KelseyLegit

Please share widely! Trying to reach all Cold Magic readers!

https://www.thebooksmugglers.com/2020/12/when-i-grow-up-by-kate-elliott-a-spiritwalker-short-story.html

I finally finished this video I've been working on since April. 😩😩😩

I go in on why Still Star-Crossed failed.

I might make a video on sleepy hollow next.

Subscribe please.

Reblogging for the late crew

And because I worked really hard gathering the info for this video essay and you should watch it.

Pre-orders for the Siblings: An Illustrated Anthology Volume II are closed! Here’s the full illustration of my piece featuring Cat and Rory from Kate Elliott’s Spiritwalker series! 

Chiune Sugihara. This man saved 6000 Jews. He was a Japanese diplomat in Lithuania. When the Nazis began rounding up Jews, Sugihara risked his life to start issuing unlawful travel visas to Jews. He hand-wrote them 18 hrs a day. The day his consulate closed and he had to evacuate, witnesses claim he was STILL writing visas and throwing from the train as he pulled away. He saved 6000 lives. The world didn’t know what he’d done until Israel honored him in 1985, the year before he died.

Why can’t we have a movie about him?

He was often called “Sempo”, an alternative reading of the characters of his first name, as that was easier for Westerners to pronounce.

His wife, Yukiko, was also a part of this; she is often credited with suggesting the plan. The Sugihara family was held in a Soviet POW camp for 18 months until the end of the war; within a year of returning home, Sugihara was asked to resign - officially due to downsizing, but most likely because the government disagreed with his actions.

He didn’t simply grant visas - he granted visas against direct orders, after attempting three times to receive permission from the Japanese Foreign Ministry and being turned down each time. He did not “misread” orders; he was in direct violation of them, with the encouragement and support of his wife.

He was honoured as Righteous Among the Nations in 1985, a year before he died in Kamakura; he and his descendants have also been granted permanent Israeli citizenship. He was also posthumously awarded the Life Saving Cross of Lithuania (1993); Commander’s Cross Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland (1996); and the Commander’s Cross with Star of the Order of Polonia Restituta (2007). Though not canonized, some Eastern Orthodox Christians recognize him as a saint.

Sugihara was born in Gifu on the first day of 1900, January 1. He achieved top marks in his schooling; his father wanted him to become a physician, but Sugihara wished to pursue learning English. He deliberately failed the exam by writing only his name and then entered Waseda, where he majored in English. He joined the Foreign Ministry after graduation and worked in the Manchurian Foreign Office in Harbin (where he learned Russian and German; he also converted to the Eastern Orthodox Church during this time). He resigned his post in protest over how the Japanese government treated the local Chinese citizens. He eventually married Yukiko Kikuchi, who would suggest and encourage his acts in Lithuania; they had four sons together. Chiune Sugihara passed away July 31, 1986, at the age of 86. Until her own passing in 2008, Yukiko continued as an ambassador of his legacy.

It is estimated that the Sugiharas saved between 6,000-10,000 Lithuanian and Polish Jewish people.

It’s a tragedy that the Sugiharas aren’t household names. They are among the greatest heroes of WWII. Is it because they were from an Axis Power? Is it because they aren’t European? I don’t know. But I’ve decided to always reblog them when they come across my dash. If I had the money, I would finance a movie about them.

He told an interviewer:

You want to know about my motivation, don’t you? Well. It is the kind of sentiments anyone would have when he actually sees refugees face to face, begging with tears in their eyes. He just cannot help but sympathize with them. Among the refugees were the elderly and women. They were so desperate that they went so far as to kiss my shoes, Yes, I actually witnessed such scenes with my own eyes. Also, I felt at that time, that the Japanese government did not have any uniform opinion in Tokyo. Some Japanese military leaders were just scared because of the pressure from the Nazis; while other officials in the Home Ministry were simply ambivalent.

People in Tokyo were not united. I felt it silly to deal with them. So, I made up my mind not to wait for their reply. I knew that somebody would surely complain about me in the future. But, I myself thought this would be the right thing to do. There is nothing wrong in saving many people’s lives….The spirit of humanity, philanthropy…neighborly friendship…with this spirit, I ventured to do what I did, confronting this most difficult situation—and because of this reason, I went ahead with redoubled courage.

He died in nearly complete obscurity in Japan. His neighbors were shocked when people from all over, including Israeli diplomatic personnel, showed up at quiet little Mr. Sugihara’s funeral.

I will forever reblog this, I wish more people would know about them!

I liked this before when it had way less information. Thank you, history-sharers.

Tucked away in a corner in L.A.’s Little Tokyo is a life-sized statue of Chiune, seated on a bench and smiling gently as he holds out a visa. 

The stone next to him bears a quote from the Talmud; “He who saves one life, saves the entire world.”  

I had no idea it existed until a few weeks ago, but it’s since become one of my favorite pieces of public art. 

Chiune Sugihara.  Original antifa.

always reblog Chiune Sugihara. I have his picture over my desk at work to remind me what’s important.

heroic

Here’s a small crop of my piece for the Siblings: An Illustrated Anthology Volume II zine!

I’m very fortunate to be a part of this anthology, it is filled with so many amazing art and artists! Be sure to check it out! http://sibzine.storenvy.com/

The Sisters of Court of Fives

by Kate Elliott

I like to call the Court of Fives series “American Ninja Warrior meets Little Women in a fantasy world inspired by Cleopatra’s Egypt.” It combines two of my great loves, epic fantasy and athletics, in an adventure of revolution, love, and family that centers girls both as heroines and, in Jessamy’s case, as a competitive athlete.

Writing a trilogy centered on a single main character (Jessamy) means just that: the spine of the story has to always support her point of view. The reader sees only what Jes sees, and Jes’s experience of the larger ongoing events is restricted to what she directly lives through. She negotiates numerous challenges in the first two books, and I think readers will agree that she fights through even more dramatic and shocking events in the final volume, Buried Heart (coming July 25!). But when I finished writing Court of Fives, I knew I wanted to tell two stories that Jes hadn’t experienced and couldn’t know.

With Night Flower, I tell the story of how Jes’s parents meet and how they come to defy the social conventions of their world.

But what about Jes’s three sisters, Maraya, Bettany, and Amaya? While the Court of Fives trilogy isn’t a retelling of Little Women, it does offer a nod to Louisa May Alcott’s iconic novel about four sisters who come of age in a world that isn’t friendly to their hopes and dreams. “Pretty little sister” Amaya grabs a lot of screen time in Book 2, Poisoned Blade (where we see what she’s really made of), and calm, intellectual Maraya gets her moment in the spotlight in Buried Heart.

And then there’s Bettany, Jes’s twin. People who’ve read Little Women know what happens to her analogous character, Beth. In the Court of Fives world, Bettany also begins a journey that will lead her to a place her sisters can’t follow. Her story, Bright Thrones, is available now as an ebook novella.

This is one of my most personal stories, not because it reflects anything that has happened to me (except for getting a poison oak rash), but because I feel as if I wrote this story with my heart on my sleeve, with both anger and compassion.

I hope you love it as much as I do.

Thanks, Kate! The complex family bonds at the heart of the Court of Fives series are one of the many reasons these books are such immersive and captivating reads. We’re beyond excited to find out how it all ends when Buried Heart comes out in July—and until then, we’ll be re-reading the first two books and bonus novellas in anticipation!

Learn more about the Court of Fives series here >>

Here’s a small crop of my piece for the Siblings: An Illustrated Anthology Volume II zine!

I’m very fortunate to be a part of this anthology, it is filled with so many amazing art and artists! Be sure to check it out! http://sibzine.storenvy.com/

OMG guys, CAT AND RORY

Cover Reveal: Bright Thrones

The votes are in, and this was a super close one. We’re talking a 50/50 split on the last day that the poll was open! Thanks again to all you rockstar NOVLers for voting - you guys are the absolute best. In the end, only one can win, and the purple Bright Thrones cover rocked the vote. Here’s what it’s all about…

YESSSSS. This Court of Fives novella is the perfect thing to tide you over until Buried Heart comes out on July 25th, and we adore Kate Elliott for transporting us back to Saryenia a little bit earlier. Get ready to read Bettany’s story in Bright Thrones when it releases digitally in just a few weeks on June 27th!

Cover Vote: Bright Thrones by Kate Elliott

If you’ve been anxiously waiting for Buried Heart, the finale of the enthralling Court of Fives series (coming July 14th), we’ve got a little something that will help with the wait! Kate Elliott wrote a companion novella that links Poisoned Blade and Buried Heart, and it’s Bettany’s—Jessamy’s twin—turn to tell her side of the story of what happened in the mines and how she gets entangled with the foreign doctor introduced in Poisoned Blade. 

It’s called Bright Thrones and it releases digitally on June 27th! But first, we need YOUR help in choosing the final cover. What do you think of the options?

Cover #1

Cover #2:

Cast your vote for your favorite look HERE, and stay tuned to see which winning cover rocks the vote on Tuesday, May 30th! 

We are in love with Wendy Xu’s illustration of Jessamy and Kalliarkos from Kate Elliott’s Court of Fives series! 

“Jessamy, a competitive general’s daughter, gets more than she bargained for when she disguises herself to compete in a famed sport in her country… cue political tensions, court intrigue, ancient magic, and a handsome prince whom she must take on directly.”  

h/t: Sparklife (9 YA Ships You Didn’t Know You Needed)

I’m in love with this Court of Fives art too!

from POISONED BLADE by Kate Elliott

Enter here for your chance to win a copy of POISONED BLADE (Court of Fives #2), by midnight EST October 1 (US Residents only).

(via yaseriesinsiders)

Fanart of Jessamy, the main character from Kate Elliott’s excellent YA series, Court of Fives. 

<3 <3 <3