Marie Brennan’s novella “Dancing the Warrior” in BCS #66-#67 is a prequel for her novels Warrior and Witch, set in the same world and featuring several of the same characters, including Mirage, Eclipse, and Jaguar.

She had the idea for a long time, as she mentions on her website swantower.com. It gradually meshed with the novel she was writing, as backstory for Mirage and world-building for the setting: “This gave rise to Temple Dancers and a host of other details that worked their way into the novel.” But the initial drafts of “Dancing” never quite worked right, and she shelved it.

The novel, Doppleganger (in a later print run, the title was changed to Warrior), and its sequel Witch were published, and nine years later Ms. Brennan returned to the “Dancing” manuscript and did a “ground-up rewrite,” shaping it into its current form.

To mark the fifth anniversary of the initial publication of Warrior, Beneath Ceaseless Skies is proud to present “Dancing the Warrior” in our April 2011 issues. We’re also giving away two pairs of signed copies of Warrior and Witch. Visit this thread in the BCS Forums for details on how to enter.

To read more about the journey “Dancing” took, and how it was influenced by Ms. Brennan’s own martial arts training and a book by Jackie Chan, visit the “Dancing the Warrior” page on her website, swantower.com.