Dear friends and followers,

Over the past little while, I’ve introduced a few of the characters from the novel. You may have noticed that all of them are male. This is perhaps to be expected, given the setting: there aren’t many female members in a gentlemen’s club, I think. Today, however, I’m pleased to introduce one of the women in the novel: Martha Garrett, wife of Edward Garrett.

Ladies’ clubs did exist, incidentally: just like gentlemen’s clubs, offering the same sort of services, but for women only. The University Women’s Club, founded in 1886 as the University Club for Ladies, is still "women only" today.

In the novel, Martha Garrett mentions having lunch at the Cavendish: that would be what is today the New Cavendish Club, founded in 1920 expressly for the ladies of the Voluntary Aid Detachment, or VAD. VAD nurses were not the same as military nurses: the latter were career women with stringent medical training, while the VADs were volunteers who might have had no prior experience. There was apparently some friction between the two at the beginning of the first World War, lessening as the war dragged on.

If the Cavendish was supposed to be for the VADs, would Martha Garrett, as a former military nurse, have been a member? I don’t know, but I’m sure she wouldn’t have let a trivial detail like that stop her.

Five days left!  Again, I am fully funded so this is just an extra special thank-you treat!  I intend to accept the Quill offer and get all y’all copies of this magnificent book just as quickly as I may!  Okay, so here are two more races for your reading pleasure:  Kalutai and Minotaurs.

Kalutai

Kalutai are definitively classified as a Hard or Uncivilized race, though their origins are widely disputed.  It seems they are a mutation caused by the fusion of some form of biped, such as an orc, and a primeval canid or felidae ancestor, or possibly they hail from the progenitor of both genus.  They have evolved into several distinct lines.  Collectively, they are called kalutai, and exhibit thick fur, a hunched back, a pronounced snout, teeth with a wide jaw like that of a hyena, and rounded triangular ears set parallel to their eyes and about four inches back.  They stand at about seven feet, though they hunch and so can straighten to be closer to eight.  Their legs and arms are thick at the base and thin at the tip, with wide hands and feet bent such that they can effectively scramble on all fours, though they primarily walk upright.

In general, a band of Kalutai is composed of between six and ten individuals and never intermingle with other races, though they will contract out as a unit for hordes and mobs.  They have thick hides and are largely impervious to fire, which has led to their propensity for using explosives.  Most exhibit no natural arcane talent and the race uses both sugelancas and arcane draining bombs very readily.  Of note, when one in a band goes into heat, the others almost always do so as well within a few weeks.  The entire band will retire to the deep wasteland to dig a temporary den.  They raise the collective young for five years before returning to their abandoned occupations.  The pups are left to find their way in the world and harbor no bond to their sires or dams.  Each female gives birth to a litter of between three and nine pups.

This race has a fascinating biology.  All are born female, and the least dominant in a band will become a male.  They tend to wear clothing approximating that worn by others in their range.  In cities, this means they wear leather breastplates and thick leather shorts, though they have no cultural sense of modesty. They do tend to enjoy the very young of most races, seeing them as no different from their own abandoned pups.

Minotaur

Minotaurs:  While this race usually is found in its greatest numbers on the great plains of other nations, the colossal figures do, occasionally, travel abroad.  They are generally even tempered as long as nothing threatens them.  At an average of twelve feet and well over a thousand pounds, very few things actually seem dangerous.

The omnivorous race is known to live for up to three hundred years, though they do not tend toward civilizations and are decidedly nomadic.  When they live in cities, they usually prefer regions with fewer individuals inhabiting them.  Thus, haunted, derelict or generally abandoned structures, especially those with broken walls and plenty of holes for sunlight are a preferred residence.

There are very few mutts of the race, as most females would not permit something so frail as a human male to impregnate her.  Those few human females who become impregnated usually either miscarry early or die before the second of five trimesters.  With considerable arcane expense and a fleet of healers, it is technically possible for a human female to bring a calf to term; a cesarean is the only way of extracting the young and the procedure renders the woman infertile ever after. 

Thank you. Thank you all so much for your support from the bottom of my bursting heart. Because of you, Flames in the Dark has rushed to the top of the Leaderboard today. I am over the moon excited to see such interest in my work. I hope we can keep up this momentum as we move on in the contest. I’m sure it will move around as the weeks pass, but my dream is a lot closer to reality. Thank you for your faith in me.