The Sword and Laser discussion

The short story "The Radiant Car Thy Sparrows Drew" is what Valente expanded/altered to create Radiance, and it's available for free on Clarkesworld, in both text and audio format. The audio is her reading it!

http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/valen...

http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/audio...

I really want to read it (as in now), but since I'm 40% into Radiance I'm also afraid it might be spoilery? You can see right from the beginning that Severin is named Bysshe here, but Percival Unck is Percival Unck and the central mystery of the novel seems to the story's focus, so I think I'll have to wait til I finish Radiance - fascinated to check it out then!

Huh, never knew! I'm far enough into Radiance, too, that I'll wait to read it but this is a good find!

She mentions it in the acknowledgements. I was going to go look for it.
You have saved me the time. Thanks.

Oh cool thanks J-L.

I don't know if I want to read it because it might alter how I see Radiance :s

Eleanor wrote: "I don't know if I want to read it because it might alter how I see Radiance :s"

No Spoilers here:

It won't. I listened and almost all of the short story material is in Radiance. It is a shortened form of one part of Radiance. It is worth listening to, (or reading) to see where it grew from. I enjoyed it.

Severin's name is different. She is called Bysshe in this story.

I came across an interview (from the site Jlawrence links to) where Catherine M. Valente explains why she chose the name Bysshe for the short story, and then why she changed it for the book.
http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/valen...

Why did you change the name of Bysshe in the short story to Severin in the novel?
*laughs* Well, I suppose this is a little embarrassing. Initially, my idea for the aesthetic of the short story was more “romantic poet” than art-deco. So Percival’s daughter was Bysshe, after Percy Bysshe Shelley.
But I did a couple of readings of the story, and once I started writing the novel and reading bits aloud (something I think all writers should do), I noticed I was wincing when I said her name. Because it doesn’t sound as nice as it looks on paper? It sounds soft and flaccid and like it’s sort of apologizing for being said. That’s not Severin at all. And also sounds a little like you’re saying “bitch” with a lisp?
So I figured, if you wince saying the protagonist’s name, that can’t be good, because girl, you are gonna have to say that name a lot. So I chose Severin because it, too, is a traditionally masculine name, and it shares a root with severe. Plus, I can say it without wincing.