Project Elfhome - eARC

Advance Reader Copy
Unproofed

Pittsburgh: a sprawling modern Earth city stranded in the heart of a virgin forest on Elfhome. Sixty thousand humans, twenty thousand black-winged tengu, ten thousand elves, an unknown number of invading oni, four unborn siblings of an elf princess, three dragons, and a pair of nine-year olds geniuses.

For every story written, there's a thousand others not told. Lives interweave. Fates intersect. People change one another, often without realizing the impact they've made on others. They come together like a mosaic, little pieces creating a greater picture.

Project Elfhome tells the stories of those impacted by Tinker and Windwolf as they struggle to make Pittsburgh a safe haven. Some of the characters are familiar: Stormsong, Pony, Blue Sky, and Lain. Others are new to readers.

Law forages for wild plants and fish to sell to elf enclaves. A social misfit, she drives a hundred-year-old Dodge, has a pet porcupine, and saves damsels in distress in her spare time. A mysterious phone call sets her on a collision course with danger as she races to save a young female elf.

Jane Kryskill is the producer for the popular TV series Pittsburgh Backyard and Garden. She spends her days keeping her host, Hal Rogers, from getting himself killed as he takes on man eating plants. She's not happy when the network drops famed naturalist Nigel Reid and his cameraman in her lap to film Chased by Monsters.

Olivia is sixteen, a runaway wife of a religious cultist, illegal immigrant, and soon to be mother. As Pittsburgh plunges into war, she makes a desperate bargain with the mad elf lord, Forest Moss.

As the war between the elves and the oni builds to a head, these three women struggle with their own problems, supported by a circle of unique friends, yet entangled with each other.

Cover Art by Dave Seeley

Hardcover

This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.

First printing, September 2016

Distributed by Simon & Schuster
1230 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10020

Printed in the United States of America

ISBN-13: 978-1-4767-8180-8

Copyright 2016 by Wen Spencer

Foreword, “Singing Storm of Fire” (“Fire Fanned by Wind,” “Storm Front,” and “Meeting of the Storms”), “Little Horse,” “All the King’s Horses and All the King’s Men,” “A New Day Dawning,” “Storm Winds,” “Fleeting Impressions,” “Chased by Monsters,” “Three Ways Do Not Meet …,” “Price of Peace,” “Threads That Bind and Break,” “Harbinger: Blackbird Singing in the Dead of Night,” and Afterword © 2016 by Wen Spencer; “Wyvern” first appeared in Faerie Tales © May 2004; “Bare Snow Falling on Fairywood” first appeared at Baen.com, © February 2014; “Pittsburg Backyard and Garden” first appeared at Baen.com © March 2013; “Blue Sky” first appeared in Jim Baen’s Universe © August 2006; “Peace Offering” first appeared at Baen.com © January 2012.

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form.

A Baen Books Original
Baen Publishing Enterprises
P.O. Box 1403
Riverdale, NY 10471
https://www.baen.com

Electronic version by Baen Books
https://www.baen.com