Sasha from New York in Miami Ink

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...

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"Kyan"

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...

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So who in the Half-Continent would you be?

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...

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Folding-money & more

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...

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Introducing Jay

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...

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Different Covers for Book 2

Above is the US Edition cover for MBT Book 2: Lamplighter.Below is the ANZ Edition hardback cover. Thoughts any o...

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Lamplighter

Oh, and btw ...Lamplighter (ANZ Edition) has gone to the printers!Woo-stinkin'-hoo!(I am sure other editions will be following short...

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ALAN Review

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...

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Remarkable! Illustrations of the Half-Continent

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...

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DeadlyViper.org

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...

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Time for a bit o' fun

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;...

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An objectionable question

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...

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Objectionable Book

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”...

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