(Was intended to be the...) Bumper Final Issue (for the year that is...)

Well, 2008 has come and nigh gone again (indeed, it is gone!) and all the while I have been wrestling through some book I am supposed to write *rolls eyes* ;P The previous two books of the Monster-Blood Tattoo series so far has been a distinct journey and this third is now different - as another author once said you never learn how to write your next book, just the one you are currently working on.

How true that is. Book 3 - the infamously long-to-wait-for Factotum - has been a process all its own, with its own momentum, its own surprises. It is frightening and wonderful to go out in the story on a hunch that it is the correct direction and have it rewarded with an unexpected unfolding of whole unforeseen and richer moments in the tale.

One of the hardest things has been facing the finish the text, fear fear fear; is this story good enough? Does it do what it needs to do? Will folks like it? The great thing is that now it is not even 18 months to release folks, so hang in there.

A recent high point was when Katie - a fellow metaphoric citizen of the Half-Continent - sent through images of a costume she has been working on. I won't tell you who it is of, 'cause you ought to know...

(c) Copyright Katie/ Spacetart 2008+9. Used with permission.

I could not help but ask Katie how it works as a functional piece of clothing to which she responded:

"As a functional piece of clothing, I'm not really sure. For me, it was fine, since I was at work and didn't have a huge range of movement,but for the actual characters, I'm not sure how it would stand up to the whirling fighting movements without the benefit of spandex/lycra.Though you can't see it, the sleeves do tie on like it's said in the book, so that wouldn't be an issue, but around the inseam, it might be a problem. The stomacher actually worked well, and stayed on fine with the ties. I have new respect for the seamstresses of the clave if they have to paint that diamond pattern, and even more if they have to quilt or sew them together."

My thoughts on that last statement are that the cloth comes dyed that way by request - still, it'd be a heck of a job for the dye house then and prodigiously expensive to boot. You can see the rest of the images of her astonishing creation and Katie's comments on them here! Thank you, Katie!

Next bit o' niceness (my how that word has change in meaning!) is this piece of superb well, I suppose you might call it "fan art" (somehow that does not seem to cut it with me) from our own curiousmouth - and again I shall leave you to figure who the two figures are...(c) Copyright Katie/ Spacetart 2008+9. Used with permission.

(c) Copyright Curiousmouth 2008+9. Used with permission.

Thank you all so much for another excellent blogging year, you all make writing and creating better, "funner", a bit more real; I hope I might do the same for you sometimes.

New Year's Resolution: to get the Varificon up and running fully - there are too many genuinely excellent new words in there, I think a couple might make it in to Book 3. I am hoping it might become a corporate cooperative dictionary we can all dip into, so help yourselves peoples (with proper credit of course).

Welcome to 2009!

On with the new year!

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If douchebags like Criss Angel and David Blaine are your type of heros, here is a video for you:


http://www.yourdailymedia.com/media/1230324928/Use_The_Force

Sensei Mike Capaldi breaks some wood pieces in shopping center's parking lot without touching them. Of all places, including his own studio and dojo; why would he perform this stunt on a sidewalk of some shopping mall?

By the way, even if the character 御 at the bottom right was not upside-down, the text still makes no sense in Japanese.

Alan's best guess is that they took the word Oseibo 御歳暮 (meaning "year-end present"), added a couple other characters for seasoning and mixed and mashed for a Japanese word-soup puree.

Tai-San style mind break, indeed.

I call it bullshit.

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Merry Thing!

Merry Jesus-birthday!

Bless you one and all, may this be an excellent day for you - and congratulations on reaching over 80 comments!
(I knew you could do it... I certainly gave you a read hot go by taking so long to post)

And welcome back Anna from your African adventure - hope all went well.

Bumper issue post coming soon.

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(Intentionally left blank)

It is about time I answer Pearlius' question: "About how old is Europe? She looks either a very tired young woman or a good looking old woman."

I have always thought of the Branden Rose as about 29, as we currently know her, more in the line of a tired, world-weary young(ish) woman who has seen and done about as much as there is to see and do in the Half-Continent. I have to admit I think I overdid the careworn-ness of her portrait in Lamplighter, just a touch too haggard perhaps - ah well, live and learn.

Pearlius was also wondering: "...does Europe have any heroic, awesome scar that she can show off?"

I reckon she would have the scars, yes, but would be unlikely to show away with them... not her style I am thinking. (Perhaps if you asked nicely..?)

I have been over to the Monster-Blood Cult on FaceBook started by Patrick Brooks. I have not said hello yet (on account that I do not have a Bookface account :) but perhaps folks from our neck of the woods could engage in a little cross pollination (or something) between here and there.

Finally, we have a new poll... check it! (said with cool street voice) You may have to plunder the Explicarium of both books to refresh you memories - wow, that is almost like homework - what am I thinking!

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A few years back there was a sitcom on NBC called Committed. In one episode, one of the lead character had some tattoo work done at New Orleans and it turned out to be something along the line of "of two men who love each other, you are the one plays the woman." Eventually he got the tattoo fixed to "Lemon Chicken."

www.hanzismatter.com/lemonchicken.mov (10.4MB)

Of course, that was only in a comedy sitcom.

No so!

Someone actually got Sesame Chicken 芝麻雞 tattooed on him and proud of it:


http://bmeink.com/A81211/high/owl8-ink-update.jpg

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Ompholascepsis [SPOILER WARNING]

I tell you, the navel issue has been baking my noodle for a few years now, but I am of the notion that our hero would possess an ompholic dent that would pass enough as a navel. With the often more rudimentary delivery of babies in the Half-Continent I am thinking that there would be such a variety of quality of "belly-buttons" that Rossamünd's little dent would not look too out of place.

As to theroid (or therian or theraphim) for monster but teratologist for monster-hunter (thank you, master portals):

~ "thera" and "teratos" are both Attic words for monster, so it is simply the use of different root words that accounts for this variation. More-over, it is common in both Attic and the English language (and therefore Brandenard too) that "t" and "th"are exchanged with each other in the development of a word, especially "th" being shortened to "t".

How's that for some answers?

BTW, ompholascepsis means "navel-gazing".

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Aurealis Awards 2008 Shortlist.

Hello, hello, long time no post...

Here is some happy news to put up - I just learnt today that Monster-blood Tattoo 2, Lamplighter has been shortlisted in the 2008 Aurealis Awards in the Best Young Adult Long Fiction category AND to add to that the fantasy series, The Sorcerer’s Tower (being
Thorn Castle, Giant’s Lair, Black Crypt & Wizardry Crag) written by the eminent Ian Irvine and illustrated by yours truly, has also been shortlisted in the Best Children’s (8-12 years) Illustrated Work/Picture Book category.

Thank you very much the goodly folks and Aurealis! ... and to all of you too!

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Mark & Rachel pointed me to Victor Mair's recent post about the latest cover of Max Planck Institute's flagship publication, MaxPlanckForschung.

To honor the theme of the issue [China], the editors asked one of the journalists who worked for the magazine to find an elegant Chinese poem to grace the cover. This was the result:

No sooner had the journal fallen into the hands of Chinese readers than it set off a frenzy of indignation, uproarious laughter, and animated discussion.

This is a rough translation of what the text says:

With high salaries, we have cordially invited for an extended series of matinées

KK and Jiamei as directors, who will personally lead jade-like girls in the spring of youth,

Beauties from the north who have a distinguished air of elegance and allure,

Young housewives having figures that will turn you on;

Their enchanting and coquettish performance will begin within the next few days.

When the powers that be at MPI found out what the characters on the front of their journal actually said — they immediately issued the following heartfelt apology:

Dear Colleagues,

The cover of the most recent German-language edition of MaxPlanckForschung (3/2008) depicts a Chinese text which had been chosen by our editorial office in order to symbolically illustrate the magazine's focus on "China". Unfortunately, it has now transpired that this text contains inappropriate content of a suggestive nature.

Prior to publication, the editorial office had consulted a German sinologist for a translation of the relevant text. The sinologist concluded that the text in question depicted classical Chinese characters in a non-controversial context. To our sincere regret, however, it has now emerged that the text contains deeper levels of meaning, which are not immediately accessible to a non-native speaker.

By publishing this text we did in no way intend to cause any offence or embarrassment to our Chinese readers. The editors of MaxPlanckResearch sincerely regret this unfortunate error and would like to offer an unreserved apology to all of their Chinese readers for any upset or distress they may have caused.

The cover title has already been substituted in the online edition, and the English version of MaxPlanckForschung (MaxPlanckResearch, 4/2008) will be published with a different title.

We would ask you to forward this information to all Chinese scientists at your Institute. Please find attached the new version of the title. Perhaps you can distribute this print-out within your institute.

Here is the replacement cover:

(more at Language Log)

Update: The Independent UK - The original cover was a flyer from one of Macau's brothels.

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please interpret...

from: Jessica ***** <************@hotmail.com>
to: tiangotlost@gmail.com
date: Thu, Dec 4, 2008 at 7:32 PM
subject: please interpret...

OMG - I have been looking for your site for years! I am so glad that I found someone to interpret and tell me how bad my tattoo really is. This is suppossed to say "SMS" - my ex's initials. I have never really known what exactly it said and would love to know that my body doesn't hold his name. Can you please help me! I would be very greatful to finally figure this mystery out. Thanks.



Congratulations, Jessica! The tattoo is gibberish.


Related: Gibberish Asian Font

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"celebrate the knowledge of a dangerous, crazy father"

Reader Kat has emailed me yesterday this photo of her husband's back:



He got it done four years ago and the characters should be Knowledge, Loyalty, Courage, Warrior, & Father.

Since Alan just got back from Japan, I forwarded this to him. Here is what Alan concludes:

Besides the terrible calligraphy, the character 識 is missing a dot at the upper right-hand corner. Also, the stroke at the bottom center of 寿 is supposed to be a separate dot rather than the incorrect connected stroke pointing down and to the right that we see.

Anyway, the characters mean roughly as follows:
識 knowledge, consciousness
寿 congratulations, celebration, long life, sushi
危 danger, dangerous
狂 crazy, insane, mad
父 father

Is this supposed to mean "celebrate the knowledge of a dangerous, crazy father" or something?

I don't get the whole picture but it doesn't sound very complementary to the "father." The characters do not seem to mean anything like they think they do.

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Mirrored Death

http://www.rankmytattoos.com/tattoo-designs/chinese-symbol-tattoo-11776006292354.html

Another gem from Rankmytattoos.com, it is a mirrored 死 (death).

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Terre des Monstres 2: Marque de Sang

A hasty post to share the absolutely splendid rough for the proposed cover of the French edition of what we commonly know as MBT2 Lamplighter. Mr Lacombe you have made my day!

And I am liking the spontaneous character descriptions, too - will seek to do something with them in the new year I reckon...

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WBBT!

...& and here is the link to my Winter Blog Blast Tour interview at Finding Wonderland from yesterday. Thank you so much TadMack & Aquafortis for such excellent questions, they were a joy to answer.

Please make sure you check out all the other interviews this week past a present - so much authorly goodness... if I was not needing to get back to writing I'd say more on it. Only a short while left before I am handing the 1st draft in.

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Twilight for HP... or 75 comments! Woohoo!

My word, you folks sure got close to 80 comments. Impressive - but you are not a jedi yet... I certainly gave you enough time to have a red hot go, as "they" say. But alas, guilt has got the better of me and here I am posting after a bit too long not posting... um... I'm like, an excellent writer and stuff...

On with the show!

As much as the hype is off-putting, I am very glad the Twilight series has my niece reading; she would not look sideways at a book before. Now, who knows, she might venture out further into the realms of the written word and for that I can only be grateful.

The uber-series is an interesting creature - perhaps making reading cool again; I often marvel that without Master Potter's 7 tomes there would probably be no MBT, not through any influences (though I read a review today that suggested I was apparently employing the good ol' school-environment shtick a-la Harry P, to make Lamplighter work...) but because Ms Rowling has forged such ground that publishers are willing to give odd ideas like mine some listroom. For that I salute you, Ms Rowling!

For the funness of it all the Winter Blog Blast Tour begins! Organised by the tireless Chasing Ray, it is a veritable smorgasbord of author interviews. Mine own interview will be found on Tuesday 18th November (why else would I be telling you, right?) over at Finding Wonderland.

Oh, and shouts out to Portals whom I had the wonder of meeting in living flesh not last weekend but the one before, I hope it was not too underwhelming...

BTW the ever increasing vocabulary of the Varificon or "Word Varification Dictionary" is growing at an impressive and rather funny rate. Please, continued...

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"Spiritual Strength"

HS reader Anna sent this photo to our attention:


http://jjb.yuku.com/topic/418982/t/New-tattoo.html

Its owner, LuvBug, said she got this exact tattoo along with two other friends and it meant "emotional and spiritual strength. "

Besides the obvious botchery of two characters, the phrase is not 100% grammatically correct.

In my opinion, the proper version should be 精神的力量 or 精神力量. However, Alan is much lenient & thinks 精神的力 is good enough.

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Freecon, Sydney Saturday November 8th & Sunday November 9th

Nothing like last minute information but here goes...

People living in or near Sydney will find me if they dare to look in at this year's FreeCon 2008 Science Fiction Convention, both on Saturday 8th & Sunday 9th, at the Norman Selfe Room of the Sydney Mechanics School of the Arts (SMSA) building, 280 Pitt Street, good ol' Sydenytown. No charge for entry or any part of it, which is nice.

Here is their website for even more detail.

Sorry for the very late notice... I sure hope I see some of you there.
(especially you, Anna, because you live soooo close and all...)

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A word by any other word.

This week's word is:

calimere.

I have no idea what it means yet, just found it today as the word verification code to place my comment on the previous post. It could either have something to do with potives - maybe a piece of equipment; perhaps some type of swamp, or the name for a place... hmmm.

It is always a joy to find new things that grow the Half-Continent and once I have settled on new word and its meaning, or developed a concept further, though it might be freshly minted it always feels like it has ever been that way far back into time. Odd, huh?

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Bushido Virtues Lost

User "Silat1" posted this photo in tattooartists.com:


http://www.tattooartists.com/images/asian%20tattoos/kanji-tattoo.jpg

The seven virtue of Bushido are so poorly done, many have left with missing strokes.

Rectitude (義)
Courage (勇)
Benevolence (仁)
Respect (礼)
Honesty (誠)
Honor (誉)
Loyalty (忠)

The character for rectitude 義 has been spited into two, 王 & 我. Instead of representing righteousness, it is "king me" which sounds more like a term from Chess. Or "The King and I", if he is a musical type.

Both respect 礼 & honesty 誠 are missing a stroke.

Any self-respecting samurai would have committed suicide long time ago to defend his reputation and honor.

These pseushido (pseudo+bushido) douchebags are such pussies.


Stuff White People Like #58 - Japan

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"Prostitute"

This photo's caption says "My girl's 'Bitch' tattoo. So fitting"


http://www.checkoutmyink.com/tattoos/grampagravity/bitch-2

However, 妓 means "prostitute".

Why would anyone want that to be displayed on their body?

Even so, she should at least tattoo a price list underneath. It is so hard (no pun intended) to haggle, when all the blood has left the brain and gone into the boner.

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Tit for Tat

From checkoutmyink.com:


http://www.checkoutmyink.com/tattoos/winkydinkink/30767

Not a good looking tit or tat 愛.

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'Tis The Season to be Chosing (for some anyway...)

Here were are, November and even though I am an Ossee (to use the American pronunciation ;) and having once been a keen student of US history, I have one question burning in my mind:

Obama or McCain?

I wonder what Europe would be like as the ruler of a state? and I wonder what life in a place ruled by the Branden Rose might be like for Joe the Plumber...? Who would you like from the Half-Continent to rule your own land? (Just to keep things a little on topic - is it terrible of me to be so topical?)

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"Wendy"

Facebook (remember the days when it was exclusive to students only?), aka. cum bucket of the internet, has so much to offer.

You can get reconnect with "friends" that you never had interest in real life, lose your privacy, get bombarded by clever data-mining advertisers, and blah blah blah...

It comes with no surprise there is a group called "CooLeSt TaTToo On FaceBook...." with this posted in it by Wayne Fright (go ahead and friendquest him):


http://photos-413.ll.facebook.com/photos-ll-sf2p/v236/165/18/624295413/n624295413_2973720_4222.jpg

Yep, it is an upside-down "Wendy".

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Enola's Tattoo in Waterworld

io9.com recently posted something about futuristic bad-ass tattoos, one that received much attention is on the back of Enola in Waterworld (it was a shitty movie by Kevin Costner, come to think of it, were any of Costner's movies good?).

From Engrish & Hanzi Smatter

I thought Enola was a dwarf when I first saw the movie. Perhaps that was because the camera's angle that made her head huge and shrunk her torso.



The characters on the left of the circular thing is "latitude" and "longitude" on the right. I don't know why the movie people decided to break two characters into three. It is not like they are saving any flesh space.



The characters inside of the circular part is longitude & latitude's actual coordinates.

Latitude = 27° 59' N
Longitude = 86° 56' E

Spoiler alert: it is the location of Mount Everest.

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Europe v 3.11

me was wondering: "It's nice to see that there are upgrades, add-ons, plugins, etc [Europe v3.11, perhaps?]. in the half-continent. Are these upgrades limited to internal organs only? Are there pugnators out there who figure an extra eye/arm/thorny-bark-like-skin-in-sensitive-areas/claw/magic-big-toe in addition to their modified innards might improve their trade [and fees]?."

You have hit the nail on the head about the "upgrades", (actually called scirrhitus) I do have a list of rare but existing outwardly editions to a person's self - not so much extra limbs but claws (actylls), thorns on back (which might even shoot out of the person- I forget their name off the top of my head and am not sure they quite fit the H-c "vibe"), different kind of teeth for a bit o' combat biting - known as sagital (sharp) or trenchant (blunt) maws, toughened skin, weird snapping jaws a bit like Aliens TM (called labiachus - though I am not so sure about this one, either), foul spit, and some other stuff. I have been thinking this might be a bit more in the Half-Continents future rather than right now in Rossamünd's time (HIR 1601) - we shall have to wait and see.

Interestingly enough I was just talking to Will and Mandii last night about how the Europe of Book 2 and 3 is a v 2.01 fulgar - she went and had her organs checked after vaoriating (spasming) in Book 1 and while the transmogrifer is there having a gander, she has the funds to have him do some major improvements... She gets to "kick butt" (as they say...) in Book 3... or was that too much of a spoiler?!

edwarrd asked: "With the spoors, is it something that a lahzar has to have, or is it something they choose to have to promote what they are? Also, can they have variations of the spoors?"

Some lahzars will chose to hide their nature, yes, or not make it obvious and so go without spoors or have them places not easily spotted. Others like to mark themselves with more than the usual signs, so that faces and bodies will be patterned with all manner of markings. As with our world such spooring is considered a step into the wilder side of society.

Just adding a bit more to anna's enquiries about literary traditions, I wrote this recently to a friend: The longest standing literary tradition is plays and folk songs... (I am thinking epic poems of the Attics and Tutelarchs would be included in this too) Novels - as Threnody reads - are a more modern innovation and are yet to be seen as a "literary tradition" as such.

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Advice for young players

This weeks piece of folksy wisdom: do not stay up way past your bedtime, tap yourself a glass o' water when overtired, go to bed and have your wife/partner/flatmate wake up 3 hours later to find that said tap (faucet) has not been properly turned off and the kitchen bench, floor and draws are all swimming, then spend next hour+ ladling water out of draws that can not be removed and towel dry every stinking piece that dwelt in said drawers. If you can avoid this, I would recommend it.

Noelle asked: "Is it possible to be both a wit and fulgar? This just occurred to me and it's going to bother me."

Well Noelle be bothered no longer! It is indeed possible to be a wit and fulgar in one person - a super-lahzar, such maddened souls are generally called dexters and typically have short lives full of violence, pain and a whole lot of treacle-taking. Not recommended for any but "power players".

Anna asks: "By the way Mr Cornish, how is the culture-life in H-C? Authors, painters, genealogy ..?"

There surely are these things, I touch on such a little more in Book 3 - though Rossamünd not being overly cultural does not give me great play with such things. However a brief mention in the story does give me licence to go too far in the Explicarium, which is yet to be properly worked up. I tend to add brief entries as I write the main tale, points to be elaborated while the main text is in Celia's/Tim's most excellent hands.

Ah, Monday, you spotted my H.P! I feel like I have been caught with my petticoat showing ;)

Thank you all! for your encouragements last post, I clearly see you all know full well the personal insanity that is writing.

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Nov 2008 Wired - Lost, in Translation

In November 2008 issue of Wired magazine, there is an interesting article about underground (or should that be "under-net") volunteers that would add subtitles to popular American television shows for those who do not understand English.

The concept is interesting however the illustration accompanying the story is not so.





While both English and Arabic alphabets are up-right and correct, the four Chinese characters are upside-down.

認真爆笑 means "serious laughter" in Chinese.

This is second time I have spotted Wired magazine making similar snafu.

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Dad 9.15.94

Alan and I both can't figure out what this tattoo is about.


http://www.bmezine.com/tattoo/A81015/high/obkj-my-first-tattoo.jpg

Is it 伕, "common laborer", or 佚?


Update: This tattoo belongs to "Joker" in Rankmytattoos.com

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Going back to go forward...

Something I find frustrating when I write is those times when I am keen to press on with the story but it occurs to me that one of the characters (usually Rossamünd, bless him) is not being quite true to himself in an earlier chapter. Sometimes I will try to write on, enjoying too much the sensation of the word count increasing and chapters being marked off (especially with the hot breath of deadlines panting on my nape).

Inevitably, however, I can avoid it no longer and must put the advance of the words on hold and correct the earlier discord, work the changes all through the text until I am satisfied - which can cost frustratingly large amounts of time. Yet once the agony is grappled the text invariably is far improved and my sense of direction stronger, and I leap off once more into 'storm front' of the tale with fresh vigour.

Sometimes I also just get stuck...

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Scary Spice, tell me what you want?

While scanning through gossip site, The Superficial, I came across several images of Melanie Brown, aka. the former Scary Spice, modeling for Ultimo Autumn/Winter lingerie line.


http://thesuperficial.com/2008/10/scary_spice_will_frighten_your.php

I have no idea what the character circled in red supposedly to be.

Is it 女? Or, is it 太?

Oh, Melanie B, why can't you tell me what you want, what you really really want? According to the song, what she really wanted was "zigazig ha".

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Sharing the Misfortune

http://www.bmezine.com/tattoo/A81006/high/n77m-my-chinese-tatto.jpg

有難同當 is a Chinese idiom means "to share the misfortune together". If this was picked from a tattoo template book, I am sure there are many sharing this misfortune.

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BBC: The Kremlin Digger

Alan noticed something odd about the photograph in BBC's article about Russian journalist, Elena Tregubova.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3227666.stm

Alan says: "The Japanese in the background is obviously reversed. Perhaps the BBC published a mirror-image reversed copy of the photo. Although obviously intended to be Japanese, the text in the background is not exactly legible anyway and it does not seem to make any sense. Maybe the Japanese is reversed on the background image. Who knows? I’m not sure why such a journalist would want to be photographed in front of such a gibberish background. Is this fashionable in Russia or something?"

My guess would be it had something to do with paragraph 3 of the article:

"In one chapter, its author describes a flirty sushi lunch with Vladimir Putin, then head of the Russian security services, the FSB."

Sushi, #42 on list of things White people like.

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Map Prototype

Just a quick heads-up that there is a prototype version of the Zoomable Map of the Half-Continent up and functioning. My esteemed comrade G.R. Morton and I shall be working to make it a tad more Halfcontinenty over the next x period, but I figured folks had waited long enough, so sneak preview away!

(oh, and if it seems to stay blury, just give the map some time and maybe a click and it should focus)

Ok, back to writing, writing, writing...

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Words, Invented & Real

A great little post I found over at Whatever by John Scalzi (and its original source @ xkcd - thank you Tom) regarding word length of a book as being conversely proportional to is unreadability. The comments are illuminating too, MBT even gets a mention from a Seattle-based bookseller friend of mine in comment #51. Have a read if you will and come on back...

In reading the aforementioned blog and its associated comments, I too had the guilts for insisting on such circumlocutions as pediteer instead of "infantry" or leonguile instead of "cheetah" etc etc etc... though I tell myself I have good reason to alter these: sometimes the existing word/s are too our-world specific in their etymology or too modern-sounding to be appropriate in the H-c. I do not know the origin of every word but those I do I change - language is key when making otherworldliness, the dilemma is knowing when to reinvent, how much to reinvent and when to just go with the real stuff... I certainly won't be re-doing the parts for a flintlock, for example, they are perfectly acceptable as they are, cheers.

I recall someone railing at me once for daring to have a type of fly called a wurtembottle - "why can't he just call it a fly!" she said - to which I reply:
a/ know just how many species and therefore different names for flies there are in the real world; without even reaching for a textbook let us just try to name a few: house fly, blow fly, bluebottle, vinegar fly, horse fly, bot fly...
&
b/ why the heck not!

I tell you, the thoughtlessly contrary fun-crushers get a tad tiring; like Ayn Rand says, those who can't create, destroy.

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Quick Pointing to Other Place

I should probably say more but if I spend too long Rossamünd will get eaten by a very large s.... ah but that would be telling.

Just quickly Jack is asking over at the Unofficial MBT Forum if folks want a Q&A section to it. Given that I do tend to miss a lot of questions here I certainly am all for it - would make it very clear what I had and had not responded too (I hope). So, please please, head on over and give us your thought - if you don't mind, that is.

Cheers.

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A New Button to Push!

Folks might notice my rather enthusiastic response to Jack so excellently putting up an Unofficial Forum in the form a snazzy link image to that very same place! Thank you very much, sir!/... I guess that answers the poll question then...

Plus: Carlita's expectoratingly insightful question: "If anything, happens if a leer catches a cold and still uses his sthenicon. And what would happen if a wit or a fulgar caught a cold? Would they just be miserable, or would their transplanted organs cause them trouble?"

Any of the H-c's more knowledgeable physicians would heartily recommend to any leer with a strong head cold to leave off using the sthenicon or olfactologue until the malady had passed. To ignore this advice can be both very messy (can you imagine a snotty sneeze inside a box), painful and will very likely extend the duration if not increase the severity of a cold. I guess that means, too, that hay fever suffers with dreams of leering best find themselves a new dream.

As to lahzars with colds, they suffer no more or less than everymen, though an exceptional fever might increase the risk of their mimeotes (inserted organs) vaoriating (spasming) - so again, a transmogrifier would suggest bed rest and avoidance of the use of one's potencies until better.

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Lebanese Tattoo by Moe Barjawi

Alan spotted this photo of what appears to be Kanji tattoo by Moe Barjawi in BMEzine's gallery:


http://www.bmezine.com/tattoo/A80922/high/n0t6-lebanese-tattoo-moe.jpg

Alan emailed me this after seeing it:

Let me see if I got this right. Some tattooist named “Moe” tattoos himself with his name in the “Gibberish Font” and, thinking this will be good advertising for his tattoo shop named “Lebanese Tattoo,” posts a picture of it on BMEzine.com… They never learn, do they?

What is even more astonishing is that someone has evidently tried to “improve” the original horrible calligraphy (especially on the partial 辶). Did they really think that bad calligraphy was the only problem? The mind boggles.

What is even more entertaining is definition for the term "Lebanese tattoo" in UrbanDictionary.com is the following:

A badly drawn tattoo, done at a 'professional' tattoo studio. The term first surfaced on the facebook group 'Actually, I think your tattoo is hideous'.

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A Forum for Horses

So, I am thinking I shall keep up with this blog (indeed, that was my hope and intention) - I very much look forward to a forum happening though (hint hint - am I allowed to do that...?) - probably a powerful benefit I see is having some kind of section where questions are asked of me so I can clearly see what I have and have not answered.

I am afraid to think of the number of questions that have gone unanswered here at Monster Blog Tattoo because I lose track of them in all the comments. Sorry to anyone who feels a bit snubbed by such an oversight, please, if you dare, ask again.

In light of this contrition I shall now attempt to answer a question.

Dear portals was axing a quekstion... "So far all the Haacobin Empire's armies seem to all be made up of foot soldiers and suchlike. from what I know about history, cavalry always seems to be a great asset to any army, so why does the Empire have none.Sorry if they do have some, but with the definition for the Armies of the Empire, the Battle of the Gates, and the different city states in the Explicarium, nothing was mentioned about cavalry."

An excellent inquiry. If you look in the Explicarium of Book 1, under the entry for equiteer you shall find the very reason why cavalries are so little used. The long and the short of it is many monsters find our equine friends rather toothsome making the fielding of a substantial force of cavalry a sure way to attract a monster or three right into the fray of battle. That is why horses go out shabraqued and covered in nullodour but this makes a large force of them even more expensive and high maintenance. In Book 3 (ie, Factotum) I introduce the concept of cabaline lands - regions tamed (cicurated) for so long that they are considered generally safe for horses. If battles occur in such regions you could well expect to see a greater use of equiteers, indeed, perhaps this is why the lords of the H-c like stouching with each other in their boutique wars, a chance to crack out the cavalry and give it a good run.

Oh, and there was an excellent article/interview over at the Galaxy Express about steam-punk, where good ol' MBT gets a wee plug - nice to have a home, though I still don't think I'm strictly true steam-punk (due largely to the absence of steam in the H-c)... but now I am being picky.

And for those a French-speaking persuasion I was gratified to find not one but two positive reviews of the French edition of MBT, Terre de Monstres ("GROUND OF THE MONSTERS") - if my understanding of the tongue of France is correct, though in correction to the first review: En fait, l'auteur a dessiné les illustrations internes.

For breakfast I had honied flakey things, Irish Breakfast tea and a good pray.

I nearly forgot the most shattering news of all! Today I shaved off my beard! Dun dun dunnnnnn....

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New Post, New Poll

So, to the question of a forum.

Do I? Don't I?

I shall be running a poll regarding this for the rest of the year. Just so folks know I will be unlikely to be able both blog and moderate a forum, and given the choice I would rather stay with the blogging (I wonder if I will have to eat my hat with that statement later...?) So if a forum did go up it would most likely be moderated by another party, with me appearing a little less frequently.

Looking forward to people's answers.

(And I blame MooseGuy for this... ;)

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Did someone say 'Release Date'?

Should I tell you..?

Do you really want to know?

...Want to know just how long you will have to wait?

Well... Monster-Blood Tattoo Book 3: Factotum (English language editions) will be released ~

MAY 2010

Please don't be too dismayed or beat up on me; it is a bit of a wait yes, but it will be worth it... he says in faith... =/

In the meantime I found this very cool bit of "fan art" - if I may call it that - by a young soul by the name of ponkkaa. I hope they do not mind me send folks their way.

Also there is the wonderful work of our very own E.N.Reinmuth - both MBT and non; I dig you work very much ma'am! - and yes, I shall attempt to put up just how a vialimn works some day soon (certainly between now and the release of Book 3).

Anyone else got a bit of MBT related (or not) stuff they want to show off?

Last but not least, a new poll, in an oblique response to portal's excellent question. (please be seeing the text to the right)

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The Handsome Grackle ... or, Spring is sprung and I missed it!

(Following to be read with some strange accent in mind - I have no idea why, just cause...)
Please being 'Hello!' to my good friend, the Handsome Grackle.
(Cease with accent, please.)

He is what is called nadderer - a sea-nicker, a water-dwelling monster - with neither head nor tail, but both at once, being able to walk on either end when he/she/it ventures on land. A very very robust creature, it recovers quickly from hurts, so much so that he has been swallowed more than once by much larger sea-beasts, travelled the length of their alimentary canals before being "poo-ed" (if I may use that word...) out again, relatively unharmed to get about his/her/its business. Oh what fun...

There have been many excellent questions put to me here over the last couple of posts. Unfortunately I do not have time right now to address many of them - but I hope a couple of answers might suffice for the mo...?

Portals was wondering, "I have questions about lahzars' weapons. Is a fulgar's fuse used as a kind of spear, or more like a lightsaber from Star Wars? Do wits have any kind of weapon that they use? Thanks"

A fuse is used more as a quarterstaff than anything else, a way to extend reach (though with a the wire wrapped about a pole of cane or wood I am actually not so sure a magnetic field would occur as has been suggested elsewhere - sorry whoever posted, I thought the wire needed to be coiled about metal to achieve this - but please correct me if I am wrong, physics at high school was my weakness).

Wits would generally see it as being beneath them to resort to weapons, the control and manipulation of frission is everything to them. Saying that a pure wit would probably look down on a bane, and in turn a bane would probably see a purist wit as lacking versatility.

Another question was regarding the status of the Gottlands, which are in fact not a part of the Haacobin Empire but an empire to itself - a hegemony of kingdoms, duchies and the like allied and treatied to the Sigismundian dynasty that currently rules the Gottskylds. They are protected from the Haacobins by the great big threwdish swamp of the Ichormeer, though battles have been fought between the two giants, with little gain for either side. The Haacobins regard the Sigismunds with sullen respect.

I shall get to the problem of lamps as soon as I might, honest - time is really crimping me now...

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Name-dropping in American Philosophical Society's Publication

Reader Bryan points me to the latest issue of American Philosophical Society's publication, where this humble little site was mentioned on page 54.

The main article is titled "How Maya Hieroglyphs Got Their Name: Egypt, Mexico, and China in Western Grammatology since the Fifteenth Century" by Byron Ellsworth Hamann from
Department of Anthropology and Department of History, The University of Chicago.


http://www.aps-pub.com/proceedings/1521/1520101.pdf

The illustration shown above had this caption:

Car ornamentation with “Chinese” characters, photographed in Almería, Spain, in August 2006. The third character from the left is dao (“way” or “path”); the rest are nonsensical (or, as James Mathien put it, “Fakenese”). Mayanists might refer to these as “pseudo-glyphs.” Photograph by the author [Hamann].

The article is sixty-eight pages long, so be patient or get a few liters of beer in you before proceeding.

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This is cool...Wing

My fren dhivager's tattoo.

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"Lotus"

Every time I see signs for Sierra Mist, I laugh. It is because "mist" in German slang means "[something] with terrible quality".


http://www.bmezine.com/tattoo/A80804/high/n2j8-lotus.jpg

This person probably think his/er tattooed 荷 means "lotus", but that depends how it is read.

In Japanese, it means "burden".

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Sinful

I was showing a visiting friend parts of northern Arizona over the weekend, when we encountered this young lady at Sedona.



She probably has no clue what the three characters 猛威勝 on her t-shirt meant, nor the fact there are mirrored.

Update: August 24, 2008 - Reader BH pointed out that Sinful is a brand of women apparel & this particular shirt is available for US$40.

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A post at last! (Would you believe it?)

So much commenting goodness with the last post! I was going to respond there but thought maybe it might work just as well here... (given I am feeling a tad stuck with post ideas right now because a certain 3rd book has most of my attention).

Amongst all the excellent ideas batted forth and back I wanted to answer two things:

Firstly, to fulgars using swords: well, the idea is feasible - it has certainly crossed my addled thoughts (especially the reverse, ie. the dangers of using a metal weapon against a fulgar). The conclusion I am running with is that most fulgars would regard to use of a sword as some kind of admission of weakness - that their ability with their eclatics is not quite up to rigours of the stouche. It also strikes me that the more sword using pugnators (sagaars, sabrine adepts) might look a little darkly on such a practice - a kind of "demarcation dispute", that's our technique! Get your own! - and in return a fulgar would never stoop to admitting that another profession's technique might be worthy of use... Note that I say most, not all... I am trying not to be painful, but, you know, I have been thinking about how the H-C works for a little while now...

As to wire-swords (barbed or otherwise) well there is a concept though aforementioned demarcation would still be a problem here, and as far as "charged" bullets go, well the nature of electricity is that once the source of the current is no longer present then there is no current = once the ball had left the firelock it would no longer be charged (am I being annoying yet?) Having said that, it certainly is a snazzy idea, though I reckon you've got to allow pistoleers and scourges and the like their own specialty.

This leads rather niftily into my second topic of choice, technicality v fastasticality (is that even a word?). Some rules from our own world are fun to break (we cannot even do with all our technology what the transmogrifers do with lahzars or the masacaars with gudgeons), others I like to adhere to (certain laws of physics, for example). What I think makes for good ideation is not the consistency with our own world but the internal consistency of all the ideas together. Unfortunately I am no genius so I live in a fairly continuous concern that I am not being as internally consistent as I could be with the H-c - but I do try. Probably my main guiding factor is feel - does this idea feel like it could work? Does if feel right? Does it fit the feel of the H-c overall?

Part of that feel is the sense (I hope) of plausibility within the construct of the H-c itself. After years and years of laying down layers on layer of ideas I have begun to develop a kind of "box" of rules, a space - a vibe - in which it becomes easier to fashion ideas that fit well within the whole. This I reckon is the best thing to aim for (if world building is your thing of course) to take your time and let your ideas collect and meld and create their own distinct feel that is your own.

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FREE RICE - A worthy undertaking, surely.

Here is something worthy that Will has brought to my attention: Free Rice - a vocabulary guessing game where every word you get correct has the organisers donating 20 - yes 20! - grains of rice to the hungry and disadvantaged. Better still I suppose, is to help folks fend for themselves but they still need to eat in the meantime.

20 rice grains does not sound like much but it all adds up if you get into it, I found the challenge to my vocab very stimulating indeed and they give you a VOCAB LEVEL (a stat!) which for old role players who like numerical levels like me is a great incentive to keep getting words right (as if helping others was not...)

Does anyone here dare post up their best Vocab Level?

I hope folks can forgive me for going off topic in this way... and cheers very much to you all for the very stimulating discussions regarding the social status of teratologists.

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Poor, Down-trodden Teratologists

Taylor - by email - asked this recently:

"I have a question that has been rankling at me for a bit as I've become immersed in Monster Blood Tattoo, and it is this: In a world as monster-ridden and monster-phobic as the Half-Continent, why do people tend to have a negative view of lazhars, skolds, scourges, and any kinds of terotologists? I realize people might be a bit afraid of them due to their powers, but, for example, why does Felicitine refuse to allow Europe to stay at the Harefoot Dig? Or why, when Europe comes to see Rossamund at Winstermill, do most people "habitually disapprove of her trade"? It always seems that people are disdainful of those who have altered themselves for the protection of the Half-Continent, and in a land where showing the slightest bit of sympathy for monsters gets a person exiled or worse, this seems a bit narrow-minded of the population. What do you think?"

To which I responded:

I think you have hit the nail firmly on the head - people are inconsistent, and no less so in the Half-Continent. I found this very tension an excellent vehicle to quietly explore this inconsistency, which is essentially: people do not want the problem but neither are they happy about the solution.

What-is-more, while we certainly have Madam Felicitine being snobbish, Master Billetus is not; Madam Oubliette has established an entire wayhouse for the patronage and support of the teratologist (albeit because they are generally not wanted in the towns). There I go again: Why are they not wanted in the towns when they do such a service? Teratologists with their much-needed yet dangerous powers are seen as the "necessary evil", like a rat catcher or a garbage collector. They kill the monsters but have to have contact with them in order to do so, placing them in a kind of half-way status.

Skolds will receive the best reception (indeed in some parts of the H-c they are truly revered), then pistolleers, laggards, lurksmen, peltrymen, tractors - your more unaltered types; followed by scourges (who, while appreciated for their efforts are mistrusted for the deadly power of their chemistry and that they look so odd wrapped so completely in their fascins) and then falsemen (no one likes to think that the person they are talking to knows what they are thinking).

Of lahzars, the disapproval goes much deeper, for there continues a rigourous debate as to what exactly they are - some hold that through the surgeries they have become a kind of gudgeon - and no one likes gudgeons - something other, whose capacities make them hard to control, place them outside the existing caste system, therefore upsetting the status quo, and very few in the H-c appreciate this (especially those of the higher situations, or with aspirations of social climbing).

So what we find in the Half-Continent is a lot of ignorance riddled with rumour; add to this "classists" snobbery - like Felicitine with her airs and graces - and the fact that a large proportion of the population are naivines (ie: never seen a monster) - and I reckon such inconsistency is valid (and a bit fun too - for me at least).

And never fear, there are those who are indeed fans of the lahzars - the obsequines, some of whom you might meet in Book 3.

Thank you Taylor!

... to this I might add (more in response to the query from Ben Bryddia) that the strange status lahzars have - the position of needful and powerful outsider - is an excellent mechanism for women to improve their lot in the commonly more patriarchal H-c / Haacobin society; hence there being a greater proportion of girl-lahzars. Never-the-less there are still plenty of boy ones too (the black-eyed wit, the Boanerges, the Knave of Diamonds - all in Book 2), it is just that they have not become the focus of my tale yet.

A question to the lady readers (if I may): how would you feel about changing your eyes by becoming a leer?

Breakfast = Vita Brits [TM] with Milo [TM] sprinkled on it and a cup of free-trade tea.

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Amor, Dios, Familia

A couple of days ago I received this photo link in Flickr from Sara in Canada.


http://www.flickr.com/photos/24732264@N07/2619349327/

Its caption in Spanish said:

Amor, Dios, Familia
Traduccion literal
Ama a Dios cmo a tu Familia

Which means,

Love, God, Family
Literal translation
Love your God & family
Love God the way you love your family

Nice sentiment, however there probably will not be much love for the tattooist. Love 愛 & Family 族 are mirrored.

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Allergic to Tattoo Ink

Allergic reactions to tattoo pigments are fairly uncommon except for certain brands of red and green (with which some many people have a slight problem with itching, swelling, redness of the skin, oozing). People who are sensitive or allergic to certain metals may react to pigments in the skin by becoming swollen and/or itchy, oozing of clear sebum is also common. People with allergies should think carefully about getting a tattoo because of the risk of anaphylactic shock (hypersensitive reaction), which can be life threatening. Some tattoo artists give small tests, by marking a small amount of ink behind the ear to determine if that person has an allergic reaction.

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Monster-Blood Tattoo & YouTube

Well, it has finally happened - a YouTube [TM] book trailer of MBT!

Made by the skillfully deft and technically versatile Courtney Wood over at Putnam (my US publisher). (A bit of trivia about Courtney; she set up this blog in the first place for me to go on with - if you go right back to the beginning of it all you will find a test post from her...)

I must say it is rather odd to see MBT out there in "That's what they - those other people do" computer land.

Also: for an extra bit of linkage fun here is a post about the panel I joined at the Sydney Writers' Fest. a couple of months ago, written by the most excellent Judith Ridge.

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"Leah"

Here is another reason why it is a bad idea to tattoo a person's name onto your own flesh:


http://www.bmezine.com/tattoo/A80714/high/nr1e-mes-tatouages.jpg

利娅 is the Chinese transliteration for "Leah".

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Monsters & Music

Do you know (in response to a couple of posits last post on the titular notion above), my firsts thoughts about the monsters is that musically they are largely quiet. They sing softly to themselves, to Providence, in sympathy with the cosmos, in sorrow; perhaps some of the more feral might gather together to spontaneously hoot and jabber at Phoebe, while others might chortle off some rhyme or ditty they heard once when secretly watching children at play or people at a dance or stalking some unwary band of happy, vigil-day picnickers.

Monsters' own music will be impromptu, vocal, rolling, raw yet often oddly complex, wild and disconcertingly alien unless informed by everyman tunes previously encountered.

My sense of it is that the making of structured musics is the domain of everymen, based on the notion - the historied order of things - that monsters make life, everymen make things.

IMHO.

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Europe and Sebastipole fall in love?

Well, that was a (tongue in cheek) offering last post. Could it be possible? Would it be probable? If ever they married I would expect Sebastipole to get eaten at the end of the wedding night like some poor male praying mantis.

Monday had a question (similar to one I received via email from Nick Nitsch of Nashville):

"What kinds of music are most prevalent on the h-c?"

Such a topic is indeed not distracting but fundamental to my conception of the H-c - there is a beautiful piece by Strauss (the younger I think) Invitation to a Dance which though actually truly too new, has been an abiding inspiration to me. Monday rightly deduces that there are regional and social differences, but in the main when I think music for the Half-Continent I think late Baroque (as it is called in our world) and early Classical - Handel, Vivaldi, Bach, counterpoint and the private chamber ensembles merging with and developing into Boccherini, Mozart, Haydn - essentially what is sometimes called a Rococo style. (I have as yet to come up with the H-c names for some of these music styles - an interesting and I hope rewarding diversion!) This of course would be the more citified musics, out in the parishes it would more strident, the instruments more antiquated, the pieces more folk style or popular balladry. Hero of Clunes for example, in her tour of Sulk End and the Idlewild (as seen in MBT Book 1 & 2) would be doing a combination of popular shanty (albeit taking it to a more sophisticated and sonorous level) and high-brow choral numbers written by the current and more popular/fashionable composers (such as Stumphelhose of Witzingerod, Cappelluto of Seville, or Attic Nehme or Brandenbrass).

Oh, and as requested, for breakfast I had Vita Brits with sultanas and a cup of tea sweetened with honey.

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Shouldn't I be Writing?

Two possible thoughts for further Half-Continent stories:

- roving the vinegar seas hunting pirates and kraulschwimmen and any other tasks required in the Emperor's service = sea battles, vinegaroon life, wider politics;

- some kind of expedition (ala. King Solomon's Mines H. Rider Haggard - a most excellent book!) for lost and longed-for secrets in monstrous places = monsters, history, more monsters.

Should I be telling you all this?

Given certain revelations of admiration for a certain leer and lamplighters' agent, should he have a story of his own, too?

Maybe I should just get on with finishing Book 3 of MBT - enough with this presumptuous whimsical dayfancying! Back to ADWC (see previous post)...

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Nereida Gallardo's "Ass-Guard"

Nereida Gallardo, the hot girlfriend of football star Cristiano Ronaldo, has some characters tattooed on her lower back.


http://thesuperficial.com/2008/06/nereida_gallardo_still_wearing.php

I would assume there are more characters tattooed below her bikini bottom, otherwise the exposed portion of 戎友 means "armed friend", or in this case: "ass-guard".

It sounds like a punchline for some anti-anal-sex joke.


(Thanks, John)

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Average Daily Word Count

... or AWDC - as I have just cunningly coined it.

I am going to reveal this knowing full well there are many authors out there who do a goodly bit more in a day - and my publishers will be crying "Write faster, dang it!", yet since fellow word-wrestler R.J. Anderson has asked I shall dare to admit:

1000 words/day

*wince*

I have had brilliant days of 1500+ (even 2700 one day) but when all is averaged, time searching through all my notebooks for the right snippets of information and periods a.f.k. (away from keyboard) are included (including several trips interstate) it works out to the above.

If you want to go on the usual word count I achieve on the days I actually write it creeps up a little to about:

1300 words/day or so.

I feel a bit better about that.

I hope this helps Ms Anderson - how does it compare?

Dare I ask what ADWCs do you other writers achieve?

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Still here...

... writing... writing... writing... writing... writing...

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The Key to Harmony

I went by a local Blockbuster store today to rent There Will Be Blood (good character development, a bit slow for my taste, could've be an hour shorter) , and saw this plaque in the garb section:



The first two characters 福 and 愛 are correct, but I don't know why the character for "key", 钥, is referred as "harmony".



Odd.

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Young Writer braves germ-warfare to offer a solution to my problem

I was at the Young Writers' Night last night (with my ragging lurgy and all - doing my best for germ warfare by spreading it around). It is an event where authors sit with a group of 10 children or so from around the state (that being South Australia for all you out-of-towners) and listen to them read out their prose or poetry then give encouragement - I am not sure how much use I am to the brave souls who expose their souls through there writing so, I always feel like my comments are a tad thin.

Anyway, one of young lady wrote a fine piece about a magical quill that when the character picked it up amazing ideas filled their head and stories wrote themselves. I am thinking this would be an excellent solution to Sam Hranac's proposition, "Crank yourself up out of your deathbed and put quill to parchment." If it could just be that magical quill we'd be set.

So a shout out to all the children who took part last night, I am sorry if I gave you my cold... :(

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Get out your violins...

Just letting you all know that I am still here folks... I have a bad head cold, am madly writing and trying not to feel sorry for myself. As femina recently admitted, I cannot decide whether to wear my cranky pants or my grumpy trousers.

I hope you all are doing well, though - sunshine and cheer will return soon enough, Lord willing.

Anyone else out there got the dreaded lurgy?

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L'édition en Français

I very excited - nay! I am le plus merveilleusement excité!! - to see a sneak preview of the French cover of Foundling over at Monsieur Benjamin Lacombe's excellent site (English translation version here).

As you will see, Mr Lacombe has illustrated so much more than just a gorgeously maudlin Rossamünd, but Europe, Licurius (ahhh, old Boxface!) and a rather serious looking chap who I cannot decide is Sebastipole or Gosling (apologies Benjamin - I am not very bright but I can lift heavy things...)

As if i was not before I now am trés, trés! excited about getting my copy of the French edition now - from Mr Lacombe's comments it is a very beautifully produced edition indeed!

Merci, Monsiuer Lacombe! Merci, Milan! (my French publisher)

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Hippo Birdy Two Ewes!

Today in the Queen's Birthday Holiday and I would like to say Happy Birthday! to our dear Queen, bless her and the fact we get a day off here Oz.

On a lighter note ;) I found this review thingy over at OF Blog of the Fallen the other day and just wanted to share because I so love it when a fellow soul is on the same wavelength - don't we all...

Oh, and I am as yet to have breakfast.

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Lost Soul Tribal Tat

Alan points me to one of the latest photos in BME:


http://bmeink.com/A80602/high/nr4v-tribal-tats.jpg

The caption suggests this is a tribal style tattoo, however it is not true. This is just another ill-informed individual got quasi-Chinese gibberish tattooed on his arm.

Interesting enough, this same tattoo design has appeared before. We are not certain if it is the same person who likes to flaunt his tat or great minds (or lack of) think alike.

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The day after...

So the Official Launch [TM] happened last night, and I believe it went rather well - public appearances are difficult things but deeply rewarding at the same time (which is a tad frustrating when all you want to do his hide away and write... or procrastinate). I was very gratified (happy in fact - even delighted) to meet MadBomber - one of "the gang" here at Monster Blog Tattoo (if I may use that term), a fine fellow - thank you for making yourself known Mr Bomber, a face to the name and better sense of the goodly soul you have already shown yourself to be here at MBT.

Thank you to all who could be there at the short notice I ended up giving you.

Looking back to the Sydney Writers' Festival I must say what an excellent thing it was to be on the panel with David Kowalski, Stuart Mayne and Judith Ridge and wax as clever as we knew how on genre and truth and editing and all that. Thank you to the three of you for an excellent evening. A shout out too to everyone I talked with afterwards, including Jeremy Gordon - fellow writer/illustrator/dreamer - with whom I had a good though too brief chat afterwards about possibilities and keeping true. He has put something of the night up here - including an odd little image of me, for those of you who want to spoil the visions you might have of the "dashing young author" ;)

Another part of the Syd. Writs'. Fest. 2008 was a couple of workshops with students where we tried our hand together at world building. I would ask folks for a few of their favourite things and from that we began to build our own distinct world settings. What was astounding is just how different the ideas and directions each group took - I had a great time and I hope the others there did too!

So joy and thankfulness all round.

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