Block Party

Block Party

Bread Alone collection, including Block Party

• A heartwarming holiday piece presented at Baen.com (free for now) http://www.baen.com/blockparty
• Also published in Bread Alone, a collection of related stories
• Also published in Liaden Constellation volume 4
• Follows Degrees of Separation: Adventures in the Liaden Universe #27, with the same main characters but a different setting
• Also follows Fortune's Favors, a short story set on Liad
• Block Party is set on Surebleak, where the family moved after Korval and allies attacked The Department of the Interior on Solcintra

• see The Books (and other stories)

Characters

• Don Eyr fer'Gasta, a pastry chef /baker, originally of clan Serat
  • He left his nasty clan behind on Liad
  • Now he’s been dubbed Donnie Wayhouse
• Captain Benoit, called Serana
  • formerly, Captain of the Watch in Lutetia (a place like Paris)
• Don Eyr and Serana’s made-family, a gaggle of clanless kids and youths originally from Low Port, Liad:
  • Elaytha, a child, she’s been with the made-family since a baby. She has talent akin to the Healers
  • Jax Ton (“Jax Ton tel'Ofong —- or Jack O'Fong, according to my boss.")
  • Ashti, Kevan, Ail Den, Cisco, Velix, Cal Dir, Kae Nor, etc.
  • Fireyn, their medic. She trained with The Mercs

Surebleak locals:

• Algaina / Gaina, the local baker, a good neighbor
• Roe Yingling, an angry local neighbor, married to Marie
• Luzeal / Luzee: a local from the neighborhood. She goes down to Boss Conrad's territory to work on the archive project (the Surebleak Culture Study). “Luzeal's family, they'd been in the way of managing the Office of the Boss, 'way back when the Agency was still on-world, and the Boss —— the really big Boss, who oversaw it all —— was called The Chairman. Even though they'd left her just like they left everybody, Luzeal's great-grandma'd organized a rescue operation, and moved all The Chairman's papers, and files, and memory sticks and, well —– everything, down the basement of their own house, so it'd all be safe.... including Human Resource binders.”

And tertiary characters: Boss Conrad and Kareen yos'Phelium

Themes

Block Party, first line

• orphans, family, neighbors, hope, and warm pastry with hot tea
• A cultural piece, portraying immigrants from Low Port, Solcintra making a home on Surebleak

— highlights many differences beween Liaden Culture and Terran.

• Somewhat similar to Skyblaze
• Contributes to the Surebleak Culture Study plot thread
• Contributes also to Healers culture on Surebleak
• Includes several wintry idioms (see Bleaker Buzz: Language Play)

Excerpts

Block Party excerpts

Don Eyr / Donnie, thinking:

He had the knack, but his bread-heart was lost in the shambles of Low Port, with his ovens, and the library, and the homey things they had amassed over the years. Algaina had spoken of a larger house at the far end of the street, beyond the gate. It had been part of the former boss's estate. There were ovens, she said, and quarters above that were more spacious than those of the Wayhouse. They might, so he understood, petition the Council of Bosses Circuit Rider to relocate to this other house. He would have to show that the property would be put to "use and profit," so it was even more important that this venture with Algaina prove successful.

________

Algaina the baker, thinking about Roe, an angry Bleaker:

Worse, he didn't see any reason why they should move into the old catering house. If they needed more space, they could find some other street to live on. Sleet, they oughta buy their own damn place up on a hill somewhere; everybody knew the newbies was rich. Look at the Road Boss, bringing his own damn house with him, on account of nothing on Surebleak was good enough!

Well, fine, they could do what they wanted -— somewhere else. Chairman Court hadn't asked for 'em, Chairman Court didn't need 'em, Chairman Court was better off without 'em -— and that, by sleet, was exactly what he was gonna tell the council's circuit rider, next time she was by.

Algaina shook her head. Roe was only one voice, after all, she told herself. There was still the whole rest of the street who liked Don Eyr and his kids just fine. All they had to do was say so.

__________

Baker Quill's offer:

"There is a baker in Boss Conrad's territory, with an established shop, who is interested in adding Liaden delicacies to her offerings. I may have shared one or two of your chernubia with her. If you would be willing to provide these to her, nonexclusively, she will pay you a percentage of the profit, and will seal the contract with a portion of her mother-of-bread.”