Here we are folks the year almost at an end, big projects up ahead: Lamplighter's release imminent, Book 3 to finish, further books to ponder and plan (see how Book 2 is received first, shall we...), get that Half-Continent map up and running at last - a bit of a theme with a couple of posts ago, things to do, planning ahead, getting my scattered brain in some appearance of order.Might try rambling...
Minggu, 30 Desember 2007
Kamis, 27 Desember 2007
15.13
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Winter was asking:"...can we submit sketches for the character studies? Or will it all be text?"A most excellent idea. Indeed, the thought did cross my mind to have illustrations of your characters. It should work so why don't we give it a bash. Send your picture of your character to dm.cornish@halfcontinent.com and I shall see what I can do to include them the featured profile.Lawrence ponders:"I'm...
Minggu, 23 Desember 2007
15.34
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It has been a most excellent year and I thank you all who have put your thoughts here and entered into the dialogue - a very healthy and helpful thing from my point of view, and I hope for you too.The posting of the preview chapter seems to have gone down alright - I was a little worried there that I had done the wrong thing by putting it up - and I cannot wait until April/May and onwards either,...
Rabu, 19 Desember 2007
18.22
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Just in time for Christmas I bring you... the first chapter of MBT 2 Lamplighter, ready for you to download from...HERE!My word, I sure hope you all like it - consider it a Christmas present.Merry Jesusbirthday (as I like to call it) and may it be a brilliant new year for everyone of you. I am being very UP here - might need to include a few bah-humbugs next po...
Kamis, 13 Desember 2007
14.25
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Here is the front cover of the UK Edition of Lamplighter. Lovely, lovely, lovely; I am liking it a whole lot - it has a wonderful flavour all of its own. Your thoughts?Go here to see the US and ANZ covers if you have not glimpsed them before or just want a refresher.And please keep the answers to these questions coming - I cannot enthuse enough about...
Rabu, 12 Desember 2007
16.04
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Not too long ago I was honoured with an inclusion in the SA (South Australia) Great 2007 Rising Stars program. It included a whole range of younger folks: business people, scienticians, athletes, teachers, inventors and other clever clogs all from this home state of mine. It was truly an honour to be included, though I felt inferior to the rest - but whatever.They produced a magazine to go with the...
11.36
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Apparently the big story across the pond in UK is a girl's tattoo. A young girl named Joanne Raine got her boyfriend's nickname tattooed on her with Chinese characters at a dodgy tattoo shop. Of course, they have since then broke up & the tattoo is not exactly the boy's name.News links via BBC, The Northern Echo, & video via LiveLeakThe phrase...
Minggu, 09 Desember 2007
15.32
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I received an email query recently from a certain Beverley McKay:"I have just finished reading Monster Blood Tattoo and have a question I was hoping you could answer for me… Could you tell me from where you derived the name you gave to the Imperial language?"I can certainly answer that question for you. It was a few years ago now but the word was derived from two things: firstly, that I like the sound...
Jumat, 07 Desember 2007
06.06
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Johan and I had a good laugh at this website called Kanjix, where its motto is "A good KANJI name for you."Besides the Engrish plastered all over the site, their kanji examples are not what I would call professional quality.We are both curious who would pay $19 for 800 pixel size jpeg & additional $9.50 for PDF (Why not just use PDFCreator, it...
Kamis, 06 Desember 2007
16.33
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Yesterday I received from Tim Travaglini - my US publisher-man - what in the US publishing industry is called a galley (here in Oz we called them ubers, or somesuch - not sure why, probably an acronym) of Book 2, Lamplighter. This galley is what most folks would call an uncorrected proof. Indeed, that is what it says clearly on the front: "UNCORRECTED PROOF NOT FOR RESALE"... and uncorrected it is:...
Jumat, 30 November 2007
21.30
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An anonymous reader emailed me this screen capture from episode 12 in season 4 of Miami Ink.It starts at 38:30, some person telling her story:"Hello. I'm Sasha from New York and I've got this really cool tattoo on my back of a crescent moon surrounded a kanji, which is Japanese symbol and it's all me, it's my initial. And crescent moon is there basically...
21.12
hadir untuk berbagi
My friend Jon Rahoi (who runs a fantastic site about mangled English spotted in Hong Kong and various locations in China) has recently sent me a photo of his personal trainer's tattoo.Jon says:Hi Tian - my personal trainer showed me his tat today. He thinks it says "Kyan" which is his son's name. He said his Taiwanese-Okinawan friend wrote it for...
Kamis, 29 November 2007
17.40
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It occurred to me that it might be really rather interesting to know that if folks were citizens of the Half-Continent what type of person they might be?What would be your name?What part of the Half-Continent would you live in? What would be your social station?What profession might you choose? Would you be a sedorner (monster-lover) or invidist (monster-hater) or somewhere in between?What would you...
Senin, 26 November 2007
15.22
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This is a replica of the 10 sou folding-money note (sometimes called a folder) that Rossamünd received from Europe just before he departs for Winstermill - actual size is about A5.The red stamp in the top left corner is the Imperial Sigil made as deep-dye mark. Pressed into the bottom right corner is the Sovereign Marque - made using a form, a metal...
Kamis, 22 November 2007
16.14
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Today, I would like to introduce a fine fellow I have met in email-land, via his mum (the stellar Rita Faye):Jay, from Cocoa, Florida.Howdy, sir, how are you doing? I hope better today.Now Jay was doing a report on Monster-blood Tattoo for school, which went basically:"*Research and write a report about the author of the novel. Include information about their life and books they have written. Also...
Senin, 19 November 2007
Kamis, 15 November 2007
15.47
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The U.S. edition of MBT: Foundling has made it on to the cover of the ALAN Review, along with Laini Taylor's Faeries of Dreamdark: Blackbringer - she and I are stablemates at Penguin.Laini has an excellent site on the struggles of writing over at Not for Robots - I found myself agreeing and encouraged by almost all she says. Writing is hard - I certainly...
Minggu, 11 November 2007
06.27
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May I invite you all to head over to the Spanish MBT website, Tatuaje de Monstruo. There they have run a drawing/painting competition and the results are just - well - wow!It is hard to describe the feeling of seeing such a response from others to my own ideas - it is a very very good feeling, that is for certain: community, sharing, connection - these are all there.A los que han hecho este trabajo...
Jumat, 09 November 2007
23.31
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Sacha G. has emailed me about a website called DeadlyViper.org. I tried to understand what the site is about by reading its About US section, then quickly got bored by all the vague catchy phrases.http://deadlyviper.org/However, both Sacha and I were curious about the significance of all the characters plastered on the site. For example, 加西生學由天誼 does...
16.30
hadir untuk berbagi
It is getting a tad serious here. I am afraid I might be exhausting people with all the heavy pondering. Therefore, in response I'd like to show how I look - if I were on The Simpsons [TM].An intriguing likeness. I wonder what I might do in an actual episode - get shot through and acid factory like Luke Perry perhaps? Hmm...I am probably waaaay behind;...
Rabu, 07 November 2007
15.28
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After the last post I have some questions rolling about my head.If a book that truly was objectionable is published would it be best to ban it (no doubt increasing focus on it and therefore sales) or leave it be and hope it evaporates into obscurity?If a child you knew (son, daughter, niece, nephew, younger sibling and all the rest) wanted to read a book you had doubts about do you let them just read...
Jumat, 02 November 2007
17.45
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Discovered this little gem not so long ago - found here and written by THE HON. DR GORDON MOYES.'I knew Scholastic also had an Australian Book Club. I later found in some of their promotional material: “Welcome to Scholastic Book Clubs, where you’ll always find fabulous books, terrific value and wonderful resources! The most affordable books!” They were advocating the sale of “Harry Potter”, “Halloween”...
Minggu, 28 Oktober 2007
15.29
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I must say the thorough-going discussion in last post's comments about what evil might or might not be was deeply interesting and thought provoking and I thank everyone who had a word in it. A most excellent debate. I hope it was edifying to both commentators and readers alike.It makes me wonder whether open questions are better than closed answers - by which I mean is it better to always be searching?...
Kamis, 25 Oktober 2007
19.48
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The Sun recently printed an article about a man named Vince Mattingley and his tattoo. Since The Sun is a tabloid newspaper, I don't really believe the story. Then again, look at all the people I have documented here in my own site.http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article369654.eceAccording to the article, 屈臣 means "Coca-Cola". That is absolutely...
Selasa, 16 Oktober 2007
05.34
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This will be, from now until I change it I suppose, is to be my new profile image (along with a new title graphic too, it seems). It looks more like me than the previous illo - and it also happens to be a sneek peek into Book 2.Which makes think of a question for you all:What or who is your favourite monster of all ti...
Sabtu, 13 Oktober 2007
17.09
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Just a quick post to say that there is an interview with Miss Erin over on her blog. Thank you to her for the opportunity!Also, it was Coz I believe who asked me a little while ago about illustrators in the Half-Continent. Sometimes they are called imagineers or fabulists (a name they happen to share with artists and sleight-of-hand men) but typically they are called simply illustrators. As it might...
Selasa, 09 Oktober 2007
21.37
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In a bit of a private conversation madbomber asked me "Is it wierd to be considered a professional writer now...?" to which I answered:"As to being "professional", an "author" and all that - yes it is weird. Indeed, I think my struggle through the entirity of Book 2 (Lamplighter) has been coming to grips with seeing myself as a writer, as being able to truly consider book writing as an actual future...
Senin, 01 Oktober 2007
18.39
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Well, I am back from a break in Sydney-town - should anyone be asking where I have been you may say I have been there, with my wife, re-energizing.But now I have returned.So there we go...Given that I was born and raised on the south central coast of Australia (and that I am an indoorsy kind of fellow) I have never seen the marvel I saw on Foresters Beach on the New South Wales central coast. There...
Rabu, 12 September 2007
17.36
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Kanye "George Bush Does Not Care About Black People" West has just released a new album called Graduation.videoAlan and I both have watched the video, and he has documented the following errors:Tian,That's pretty funny. Some of it seems to make sense, but it is all written in katakana, which is rather hard to read, especially as it flashes by so quickly....
Rabu, 05 September 2007
17.37
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Dustin Chinn of Comedy Central (All Hail to Jon Stewart) spotted this giant 春 (spring) on ESPN's website.http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/indexNeither of us understood what ESPN's intention of plastering this particular character on their site, especially when Spring is NFL's offseason.After reading the site, the only I can think of is the "haiku"...
Minggu, 02 September 2007
21.46
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Merry Fathers’ Day to all you dads for yesterday.I am going to take a moment this Monday arvo to answer some of the lingering questions. I do not think I will get all of them but I hope this handful will cut it for those interested persons.To start, a few of Mr giantfan’s many inquiries:“As asked a while ago I was wondering about the religions…”Hmm,...
Minggu, 26 Agustus 2007
17.35
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I just wanted to happily and gratefully acknowledge the CBCA Junior Judges for also nominating MBT as an Honour Book. A double honour in the CBCA is so brilliantly encouraging (I know I use these words a lot but it just so true, what else can I say?). Thank you Junior Judges, I hope your Participation Certificates look snazzy on the wall.This might be a good place to note that I am a tad disappointed...
Rabu, 22 Agustus 2007
17.32
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For those who are not familiar with Australian parlance, "Melly" is short for Melbourne, and I have returned as the title of this blog suggests.As to the CBCA Awards I am so very very pleased to declare that not only was MBT 1 short-listed, it actually managed to make it as an Honour Book - which means silver, 2nd place!Woo-stinking-hoo!Now the book will get little silver stickers on it (well here...
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