At carabosse's request, I created a "music" tag, and made a "welcome to bordertown" one as well for discussion of the new book! What other tags would people like?

As the story deadline approaches, the New Bordertown Authors' Googlegroup is heating up with panicked requests for details and definitions. And who better to answer them than series creator Terri Windling? With her permission, I copy here Terri's explanation of Border Rules.


Border rules:

1. Elves born in the Realm can cross the Border, but must jump through some official hoops to do so -- stating their business and obtaining permission from both elvin and human Border authorities. (There are probably Very Important elvin persons, however, who can go back and forth with ease.) Permission to cross is almost always granted.

2. Elves born in Bordertown can cross the Border, but must jump through an even larger number of official hoops to do so. Permission is usually granted, but is sometimes denied for reasons that are arbitrary or obscure. As far as we can tell (since we don't know exactly how the Realm operates), Bordertown-born elves do not have quite the same legal rights (or social status) as those born in the Realm, even if they are full-blooded.

3. Halfies born in Bordertown can, in theory, cross the Border into the Realm, but it's much harder for them to get permission to do so. The Halfies who are allowed to cross generally have one or more of the following things in their favor:
-- They have a good reason for doing so
-- The are descended, on the elvin side, from a high-status family in the Realm
-- They are sponsored by a respectable full-blood elf with family and connections in the Realm

As for Halfies born in the Realm, I don't think there have ever been any. (Unless your Eli was, Midori? If so, that's pretty unusual.)

4. Humans cannot legally cross the Border into the Realm. No human, ever, no matter how powerful, rich, or well connected.
It is virtually impossible to cross over by illegal means because the Border is made of very strong magic. In the exceedingly rare cases where illegal entry is attempted, the punishment is severe.

(cross-posted from my LJ)

As the story deadline approaches, the New Bordertown Authors' Googlegroup is heating up with panicked requests for details and definitions. And who better to answer them than series creator Terri Windling? With her permission, I copy here Terri's explanation of the fine distinctions of the Border and the Borderland:

( Read more... )So the party continues! I'll post more notes from the Googlegroup when I can. And maybe this is a good time to mention my 1-hour public radio show on the topic of borders? It's called Borderlands - scroll down til you find it, and hit Play.

Just to bring you up to date: blackholly & I met last month with our Random House editor, who's still planning a Summer 2011 launch of the new Bordertown anthology. Authors' stories are starting to come in (we need them reeeeal early so we can coordinate & calibrate) and, well, the Magic has not left the Border. It's terrifically moving to be reading new stories by writers who were actual teens who read the first books when they came out, watching them come to B'town and make it their own now. Those of us who were in our 20s when we wrote the first stories, and are so no longer, are finding it a strange and wonderful experience to revisit the Border. Some of us are fighting the urge to make our stories be about what happens when you're not 20 anymore - this is a YA anthology, after all! But we're all having Thoughts . . . . I'm very aware of how much the world has changed. The very deliberate multiculturalism of the original series, so cutting-edge in its day, is now just the world we all live in (yay!). On the Bordertown Authors' Googlegroup, there's lots of discussion about immigration rules in the World vis a vis B'town & the Realm - something that would not have crossed our minds back in the day! Sobering, that. We've also commissioned some poems & song lyrics from more writers. I'm not naming any names as yet, since I'm Old School, where you don't ever announce a deal until the contract is signed. But I think you'll be pleased.

[Cross-posted from my original LJ entry]

A plea to any of you that have mix CDs I've sent you over the past...many years. If you have any track lists handy, could you post them here? I have two purposes in mind:
1) Make a new mix CD without duplicating previous entries at all.
2) Make a very good iTunes playlist that I can use to update my Last.fm account.

I managed to find the very first Bordertown cassette tape I ever made because someone gave a copy to someone who a copy to someone, and so on, until the final recipient posted about it online. :-) Anything after that, though, is lost in the sands of time...

hi everybody! 

i've been enjoying the borderland books for about 4 years now but i had never fully gotten into the fandom. (needles to say harry potter ate my soul a while ago. ^_^) could any of you guys be so kind as to recomend any good fanfiction.

I'm on Last.fm as DJ_Carabosse, possibly because I signed up as Carabosse ages ago and forgot all my login information. :-) If any other B-Townies want to friend me, I would be pleased.

...I was just a bit grossed out to discover that apparently I DON'T have a copy of On the Border, but I do have the rest of them...what's on the music list in there, if anyone would be so kind as to tell me? And of course if anyone has a copy to give away to me, or sell to me cheap, that'd be very kind...thanks!

I just read Bordertown, and saw no lists of music there either, so it's got to be not-in-all-of-them...

Anybody hear the new Shooglenifty album? Well, new-ish: "The Arms Dealer's Daughter." Great Bordertown-flavored music. I highly recommend it.

I've found a song that, to me, encapsulates a Bordertown story so perfectly that I just had to share it.

Mystic Journey by James Rider

Just me and a friend roamin' around
Him a magician and I was a clown
Playin' the streets for a dollar a day
Waitin' for the right time and a sign to lead the way

Crossed over the border to a mystical land
Sort of unexpected, didn't quite understand
On a razor's edge, on a grain of sand
Onward we wandered to the gates of oblivion

On a roll of the dice we headed out west
Where the sage and and the spice attracted us
Shadows fell down like a dark groping hand
Saw the teeth of the wolves and the blood of the lambs

On a turn of the cards I lightened my load
Throwing off fear for the weakness it holds
On target and calm the vision was clear
Beyond the mirage I took for granted was here

Crossed over the border to a mystical land
Sort of unexpected, didn't quite understand
On a razor's edge, on a grain of sand
Onward we wandered to the gates of oblivion

On a flip of the coins we rode the coast
Thryin' to make the most of every situation
That we witnessed near at hand
On a drifter's crusade all over the land

Could it be in the stars in the passing of cars
At a table in the bar in a turn of the cards
In a change of your mind in the passing of time
In a ribbon of rhyme just down the line

Just me and a friend roamin' around
Him a magician I was a clown
Playin' the streets for a dollar a day
Waitin' for the right time and a sign to lead the way

So, does anyone else have a song that says 'Bordertown' to them?