Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day

By Anne B. Walsh

Dig out the fuzzy slippers, turn on the Christmas songs, and settle in with a good story as author Anne B. Walsh presents her third collection of holiday-themed fantasy and science fiction:

"The Tenth Lady": Starsong, princess of the clan of Free Sky, is trying her best to get to a Christmas performance, but again and again she must stop along the way to help others. Will she arrive in time to dance for the baby in the manger? Or could her lateness, perhaps, be a still more precious gift?

"Wherever You May Be": In a world where belief powers magic, the ability to properly portray a Midwinter tale of hope could be the difference between one town's salvation and its doom. Can Khor, director of drama, and Libby, lady wizard, overcome centuries of custom to save their home?

"Not That Hat": All snowmen are created magical, but some snowmen are created more magical than others...

• Language: English
• Publisher: Anne B. Walsh
• Release date: Dec 9, 2014
• ISBN: 9781311128638

Anne B. Walsh

Anne B. Walsh was telling stories about magic and intrigue from the time she could talk, but it took her twenty years to realize she could make a living at it. Her first novel, historical fantasy "A Widow in Waiting", has its origins in a PBS special which changed her life; her second, family-focused fantasy "Homecoming", takes its inspiration from some of her other writing; and her third, soft science fiction "Killdeer", stems from her constant interest in the ways in which the future and the past coincide. Anne lives east of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with one roommate (Krystal), two black Labs (Buddy and Brando), and two black cats (Starsky and Hutch). Sadly, their Cane Corso mastiff, Bruce, passed away in mid-August 2013, and their first cats, Poppy and Sesame, who helped inform Anne's first collection of short stories, "Cat Tales", passed out of their lives after an accident on Christmas Day 2013. No one ever said life was fair. Anne's parents and siblings live two hours north of her, otherwise known as just far enough away. She has also been writing Harry Potter fan fiction for more than ten years and is known best in that genre as the creator of the "Dangerverse" alternate universe (which inspired "Homecoming"). Beyond writing fiction, Anne's preoccupations include reading fiction; singing anywhere that will have her, including her church and local galas; theatre, especially musicals; all forms of cooking; and her family and friends. Within writing fiction, her preoccupations are much the same, meaning most of her stories involve loving families, delicious food, and good music. Consider yourself warned. A number of projects continue to need Anne's attention as she writes her original novels. Among these are her ongoing fanfiction works in various fandoms such as Harry Potter and Frozen, and the themed fantasy anthologies she co-authors with her friend and fellow author Elizabeth Conall.

Book preview

Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day

Tales of cheer for Christmastime:

Holidays with Anne, Volume 3

Anne B. Walsh

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2014 Anne B. Walsh

Table of Contents

Title Page

Dedication

Foreword

The Tenth Lady

Wherever You May Be

Not That Hat

Also by Anne B. Walsh

About the Author

Dedication

To everyone who knew I could,

even when I thought I couldn’t.

I love you all.

Tomorrow shall be my dancing day:

I would my true love did so chance

To see the legend of my play,

To call my true love to my dance.

Sing, oh! my love,

Oh! my love, my love, my love,

This have I done for my true love!

– Traditional English carol

Foreword

I want to make one thing clear. This year’s Christmas collection is Not My Fault.

Okay, maybe it’s a little bit my fault. I did write it, after all. But I wasn’t intending to. After I’d finished my fan fiction epic the Dangerverse on Halloween, after I’d had so much difficulty getting my National Novel Writing Month project to behave itself through November, and most of all after I’d so completely struck out on the idea I’d been trying to get into shape to be my holiday story for this year, Twelfth Knight, I was certain that 2014 was going to pass me by without my releasing any original fiction except Week in Review, my little collection of Fiction Friday blog posts.

And then, on the first of December, my true love gave to me…a big shiny plot bunny!

(Cha cha cha.)

From there, I was off and running, returning to my theatre-loving roots and expanding a world I’d begun to explore in a story called Warrior Queen, which was published in my collection Cat Tales in the spring of 2013. The new entry in this universe went through a number of title changes before ending up with the one it has now, Wherever You May Be, which is something of a stealth pun as regards certain aspects of the story. This should not surprise anyone who has been reading my work for very long.

In any case, Wherever You May Be is the story of a beleaguered town on the edge of a vicious magical war, and the unusual measures Khor, the town’s director of drama, and Libby, the lady wizard attached to their militia unit, must take to protect their home in what ought to be a season of hope, joy, and peace. I enjoyed writing it very much, exploring it as it unfolded before me, but as I came near the end I began to see a problem. The story as I could see it would end most naturally a little under twenty thousand words, and I dislike releasing my holiday collections at anything less than 25K. Clearly I was going to need something else as well.

And then, on the sixth of December, my true love gave to me…another shiny plot bunny! In the middle of Saturday evening Mass, I might add, which is decidedly inconvenient for someone sitting in the choir seats on the altar, in full sight of the entire congregation. Still, it could have been worse. It could have happened on Sunday evening, in which case I would not have been able to stay up until three o’clock in the morning, hammering out what I knew from the start would be called The Tenth Lady, another in my series of Christmas-themed short sequels to my sci-fi novel Killdeer. A question from a fan about my favorite Christmas carols helped shape it along the way, so thanks go out to Elizabeth Anne Nield. (Hi to Donut the seagull as well!)

As for the third story, Not That Hat, I plead not guilty by reason of Internet-induced insanity. Anyone who has experienced the chaos on my Facebook page, or the Dangerverse group, should know exactly what I mean.

But however it came to be, O readers, whoever or whatever inspired the writing in its pages, you have it in your hands now. The Anne B. Walsh Christmas and holiday collection for 2014, Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day. I hope that you enjoy it, and that it helps to warm and inspire you through this most joyful and maddening season of the year. May it be a safe and blessed one, for you and your families and friends, and may 2015 bring only good things to you.

Like another novel, or two, by Anne B. Walsh.

Here’s hoping.

The Tenth Lady

In the center of the forest clearing, ten white-garbed young women danced. Two by two, they spun and posed, ducked and wove, four pairs cavorting around the perimeter of an invisible circle but careful never to intrude upon the space of the final, perfectly matched set. Hands locked together, dark hair streaming out behind them, the twin princesses Sundance and Starsong of the Free Sky clan whirled one another about in a laughing, eye-blurring rotation, attended by their clanmates in this dance for a joyful day.

Moving counter to the dancers, ten young men of Free Sky kept time with rattling sticks and stone-filled gourds or plucked chords and melodies from gut-stringed instruments, all the while leaping into the air at random, in their own expression of the dancers’ joy. Like most of their clanfolk, the dancers and musicians belonged to the human strain known as the Aelur, modified long ago with strands of feline DNA, so that furred and pointed ears poked up through manes of hair, and here and there soft-pelted faces and hands bore subtle patterns of stripes or spots. Still, as the unseen watchers of the dance could avow, the reputation the Aelur bore as some of the greater galaxy’s finest entertainers was fully deserved, and only accented by their occasionally unusual appearance.

The music rose to a crescendo as the dancers moved ever faster in their orbits. Then, with a shout from twenty throats, it ceased.

Whew! Sundance laughed, catching the towel one of the other girls tossed her and blotting sweat out of the short golden fur which covered her face and neck, then finger-combing some of the worst tangles from her mahogany-brown hair. That was perfect! If we do it just like that for the celebration, it will be the best gift anyone could possibly bring to the baby in the manger, and we’ll win for sure!

I thought it wasn’t about winning, Starsong objected, dabbing at her own face, which gleamed in the afternoon sunlight as her sister’s did not. It’s supposed to be about making the baby happy, isn’t it? Bringing our very best to him, because he’s the very best that ever came to us?

Well, yes, of course. Sundance shrugged. But winning wouldn’t hurt us any.

Free Sky forever! shouted one of the boys, and others joined in, the girls trilling a high call of gladness and anticipated victory atop the shouts. With a laugh, Starsong pulled her sister into a hug, and they held one another for a long moment before separating, smiling into one another’s long, narrow brown eyes.

We should go, said Sundance when the ruckus had died down. It’s a long way to walk, and we have to be there before the sun has fully set or they won’t let us into the performing grounds. We can clean up when we get there—everyone have your gear? A chorus of affirmatives answered her, from everyone except Starsong, who was peering doubtfully into the forest behind them. Star? What about you?

Me? What? Oh, my dress. Yes, I have it, it’s over there, and everything else I need, too. Starsong nodded towards a thicket, on which was draped a lovely gown of deep, rich green, an embroidered bag lying on the grass nearby. Go ahead without me, I’ll catch up.

If you’re sure. Sundance turned ceremoniously to her left. Free Sky, she commanded, very much in the style of her mother, Duskdance, who bore the title of queen to her clan by right of birth, personality, and because no one with two working brain cells would choose to get in her way. We go!

One of the boys began to rattle his sticks together again, setting a brisk walking pace. Another

Reviews for Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day

[Brie Donning · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This has a brilliant sequel to one of the stories in Cat Tales.

[lilyginnyrose · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

As an early christmaspresent I got back to scribd, and read the 2014 holiday collection. It manages to weave fantasy and christmas perfectly