A.B. Channing

❖ “I haven’t slept in a day and a half, but any chance of a nap vanishes the moment I cross the reef into the bay on the island of the yellow fish.” ❖
          
          Hello friends! I come bearing chapters. There’s a chapter up from last week, too; I just forgot to announce it. This week in Kels, bad news and a happy reunion come hand in hand.
          
          https://www.wattpad.com/1516549044-listen-to-the-water-full-series-wattys-2022
          
          ❖ Fun fact of the day: Many sea creatures camouflage themselves with countershading: their bodies are darker on top and lighter underneath, so they match their backdrop better when observed from above or below.

❖ “I knew precious little about the ocean at the time, but I recognized that mountain. It had the same shape as Tanalogochi.” ❖
          
          Hello friends! I come bearing chapters and a writing-adjacent announcement: I have a website! www.abchanning.com has become my new internet headquarters, home to a public blog and (eventually) copies of my books for purchase. My first blog posts are up, if you’re interested. Some of you may recognize them, as they’ve been posted before on Wattpad: a seven-post series on representation, and especially queer rep. Head on over for:
          
          12 Ways To Worldbuild Queer Inclusion In Fantasy
          Tips For Writing They/Them Pronouns in Third Person
          The Strengths and Shortcomings of “Just Write A Person”
          When Should You Reveal That Your Character Is Queer?
          10 Ways To Identify Your Queer Characters Without Labels
          How To Write Casual Representation
          … And a more personal post that I’ll let you find yourself!
          
          ❖ Admin over, time for chapters. This week in Kels, an eruption sends shockwaves through both the alliance and their gathering plans.
          
          https://www.wattpad.com/1516548233-listen-to-the-water-full-series-wattys-2022
          
          ❖ Meanwhile in Rocks Can Dance, a rescue team finally tracks down who Tobias has been looking for. 
          
          https://www.patreon.com/posts/41-tobias-128097981
          
          ❖ Fun fact of the day: I have over a hundred fully-written, partly-written, or heavily planned blog posts that I’ve hoarded over the years just kind of… sitting in a google doc on my computer. Did I just build an entire website motivated by the fact that I wanted somewhere else to put them? Maybe.

❖ “If Andalua arrives, I don’t know if people will even be able to start the song.” ❖
          
          Hello friends! We are back on schedule, and I come bearing chapters. This week in Kels, the new alliance’s precarious situation bubbles to the surface in a different way than before.
          
          https://www.wattpad.com/1516548187-listen-to-the-water-full-series-wattys-2022
          
          ❖ Meanwhile in Rocks Can Dance, the tail end of the storm leaves Lingmei with a newly clear view of what needs to happen next—and it has to happen fast.
          
          https://www.patreon.com/posts/40-lingmei-127482736
          
          ❖ Fun fact of the day: The oldest definitively dated rocks on earth are part of the Acasta Gneiss Complex in northern Canada. At 4 billion years old, they predate the first signs of life by 300 million years.

❖ “When we emerge into the village center, people gasp.” ❖
          
          Hello friends! I come bearing chapters and an announcement that there will be NO CHAPTER UPDATES next week. I’m getting married, so I’ll be a little busy  ^_^  Both books should be back on schedule the week after that!
          
          ❖ This week in Kels, Taiki learns what happened in his Karu village since he left so many years ago. 
          
          https://www.wattpad.com/1516548139-listen-to-the-water-full-series-wattys-2022
          
          ❖ Meanwhile in Rocks Can Dance, Alex stages a dangerous rescue and an even riskier survival plan as a storm bears down. 
          
          https://www.patreon.com/posts/39-alex-126594037 
          
          ❖ Fun fact of the day: The lightest rock on earth is pumice, a volcanic rock type that looks like a sponge. It floats on water.

❖ “The first of Lix’i’s guards that I encounter has her spear in hand, pointed out towards the open water.” ❖
          
          Hello friends! I come bearing chapters. This week in Kels, Taiki returns somewhere he hasn’t been in almost a decade. 
          
          https://www.wattpad.com/1516548063-listen-to-the-water-full-series-wattys-2022 
          
          ❖ Meanwhile in Rocks Can Dance, an evacuation order confirms a far more sinister storm pattern. 
          
          https://www.patreon.com/posts/38-lingmei-125961996
          
          ❖ Fun fact of the day: Neptune and Uranus’s blue color comes from a layer of methane in their atmospheres, which absorbs red color from the sun's light.

Hi, August! I came across your profile on the NaNoWriMo website and I’m curious as to why you’ve created something called ‘everything but words’ on the (soon to be shut down) counting words website? I’d sent an invitation but my account has my real name (and again, it’s shutting down.)

❖ “The next wave of Karu evacuees arrives already asking where their kin are.” ❖
          
          Hello friends! I come bearing chapters. This week in Kels, Sar gets a worrying tip-off from the stone forest’s edge.
          
          https://www.wattpad.com/1516548013-listen-to-the-water-full-series-wattys-2022
          
          ❖ Meanwhile in Rocks Can Dance, a fortuitous phone call finally reveals what’s going on beneath the ground on Jenu, and why it has eluded the researchers all this time.
          
          https://www.patreon.com/posts/37-alex-125424216
          
          ❖ Fun fact of the day: During a severe solar storm, Earth loses about 100 tons of its atmosphere into space.

❖ “We’ll want to be at least halfway back to the island of the yellow fish before our work is discovered by anyone who can do anything about it.” ❖
          
          Hello friends! I come bearing chapters. This week in Kels, evacuations of the Sand-Coral islands officially begin. 
          
          https://www.wattpad.com/1516547970-listen-to-the-water-full-series-wattys-2022 
          
          ❖ Meanwhile in Rocks Can Dance, a nighttime trip to somewhere they’re not supposed to be finally confirms the team’s suspicions.
          
          https://www.patreon.com/posts/36-yahvi-124905030
          
          ❖ Fun fact of the day: Despite being the closest to the sun, Mercury is NOT the hottest planet in the solar system. That title goes to Venus, which gets superheated by its thick atmosphere of heat-trapping greenhouse gasses.

❖ “I sneak all the way up to the top of the reef and peek through it into the lagoon. Below me used to be bare sand for sunbathing. Now seaweed beds stretch as far as I can see.” ❖
          
          Hello friends! I come bearing chapters. This week in Kels, the first village in the proposed evacuation area weighs in on Taiki’s proposition. 
          
          https://www.wattpad.com/1516547821-listen-to-the-water-full-series-wattys-2022 
          
          ❖ Want to read further? This book posts a month ahead on Patreon! 
          
          https://www.patreon.com/collection/624437?view=expanded 
          
          ❖ Meanwhile in Rocks Can Dance, Lingmei finally identifies the storm pattern.
          
          https://www.patreon.com/posts/35-lingmei-124389169 
          
          
          ❖ Fun fact of the day: A comet’s tail is caused by solar radiation vaporizing materials (like ice) in the comet itself. These stream away from the comet body, carrying dust with them.

❖ “No eruption,” murmurs Yaz when we wake on the third day. ❖
          
          Hello friends! I come bearing chapters. This week in Kels, the infiltration of the Sand-Coral Cluster has begun.
          
          https://www.wattpad.com/1481295255-listen-to-the-water-full-series-wattys-2022
          
          ❖ Meanwhile in Rocks Can Dance, an anxious toddler and a strengthening storm prompt a sober round of contingency plans among the camp’s leaders. 
          
          https://www.patreon.com/posts/34-tobias-123954031
          
          ❖ Fun fact of the day: Neptune’s winds are the fastest in the solar system, reaching 2,100 km/h (580 m/s; 1,300 mph).