A Reader’s Guide to Under the Singing Moon

Questions and Answers (Q and A)
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*This is subject to change All characters, settings and ideas are copyrighted 2021

Setting

Under the Singing Moon (USM) is a series of short stories that will build the world that is known to its inhabitants as The Garden. 

The stories are from various accounts of the inhabitants of The Garden. Time jumps and changes of perspective let the reader learn about the world a little at a time. 
The Preferred reading order is as follows:

Fancy the Small Pebble

Breakfast and the Promise of Spring

The Nature of Twigs

Dreams of Spring

On Spirits, Botflies, and Beetles. (The Hawthorne Tercet)

TBA

TBA

TBA

Novel: TBA

“”””SPOILERS AHEAD!!!”””””””

The Garden
The Garden consists of nine trees, with an Elder tree in the center of the garden, and 8 trees oriented in each cardinal or geographic location. 

North – Willow

Northeast – Apple

East – Birch

Southeast – Grape

South – Oak

Southwest – Hazel

West – Hawthorne

Northwest – Fir

Trees
Each Tree is a community, and each has its own culture and story.

When and Where
It is not yet known when chronologically USM is set. Though the setting may seem familiar, it is very different from the world we are familiar with. 

What IS known is that the moon presents its usual shining face with its far side shrouded in darkness, but now there is a belt of rocky debris encircling the moon, which the Inhabitants of the Garden call the Mothers Girdle.

Every 12 hours during the Lunar day, the Girdles rocky debris and the tides of the earth create an audible resonance that creates a gentle humming, which is called the Song of the Mother. Each song lasts approximately six hours and is the primary method of timekeeping. 

An Example of a typical day is as follows:

4:05 AM (0400 hours) Rising Song/Adhmhaidine/Father Sun Rises/Travel is done during this time/Breakfast/Water Pouches are filled/Daywatch

9:55 AM (0955 hours) Resting Hum/Antráthaigh/Unholy or Dangerous time/Resting under thick branches in the shade of a tree or rarely underground while traveling. There are emergency shelters called Hideholes on well-traveled routes./Humming creates a resting state in Sprites which is borderline catatonic/Young Sprites sometimes but rarely die if they fall in a lightly protected area

4:52 PM Rising Song/Iarnóin/Late Afternoon/Travel resumes, evening suppers are made, Sap is harvested, damp work ( gardening) is done

10:04 PM  Resting Hum / Am luí / Bedtime /Nightwatch/