"Child of a Hidden Sea"

A.M. Dellamonica is the author of Indigo Springs, which won the Sunburst Award for Canadian Literature of the Fantastic. Her short fiction has appeared in Asimov’s, Realms of Fantasy, Sci-Fiction and Strange Horizons, and in numerous anthologies; her 2005 alternate-history Joan of Arc story, “A Key to the Illuminated Heretic,” was shortlisted for the Sideways Award and the Nebula Award. Dellamonica lives in Vancouver, British Columbia.

She applied the Page 69 Test to her new book, Child of a Hidden Sea, and reported the following:

From page 69:

"Sofe, you're starting to scare me a little."

"Sorry, Bramble." She pulled herself up, feeling heavy-limbed, and hauled her stuff into the house. She pulled out her camera, popped her battery into a charger and the chip into the laptop computer that lived by the kitchen island. Then she opened the fridge.The yogurt was green and the only thing that looked edible was an apple.

Haven't had fresh fruit in a week, she thought, and yet what I want is pizza.

I was thrilled to see that page 69 of Child of a Hidden Sea is a scene between Sophie Hansa and her little brother, Bramwell, because their relationship is very much the heart of the book.

The scene occurs after Sophie has just returned from another realm, a world called Stormwrack. She found the place mysterious and exciting, but she had just begun to explore it when she was essentially deported back home to San Francisco by bureaucrats in the capitol city, a sort of United Nations at sea called The Fleet.

Bram's a scientist, and he was so wrapped up in research that he didn't notice she was gone. He's feeling guilty and working to hide it. Theyre both a little freaked out, but as they reconnect you can see the affection and mutual goodwill between them. It's warm; I like it.

Is this representative of the whole book? Some of it, definitely. It doesn't show off the encounters with monsters or clashes with scheming homicidal pirate types, or the near-sinking of the sailing vessel Nightjar in a magically-induced storm at sea (Nightjar and her crew also appear in my prequel story, "Among the Silvering Herd", but it's a good snapshot of these two characters together in a safe moment.

Visit A.M. Dellamonica's website.

--Marshal Zeringue