Aurealis Felicitas et Bonum
Well, first things: I have just returned from Brisbane where the 11th Annual Aurealis Awards were held. MBT had the great fortune to be nominated then short-listed in the ‘YA’ category for 2006. Thank you to the judges! So off we went, my wife and I, to Brisneyland (one of the many affectionate appellations we none Brisbane dwellers have for that – as it turns out – wonderful city) I have to confess that I had only passed through once before – a days work at an army barracks a long time ago – and had a southerners prejudice: well I was SOOOOOOO wrong. We loved it there! A salient lesson against mindlessness there.
Anyway…
Off we went with a posse of my close ones who have all moved up to Brisy very recently and came out in support of MBT and me. We had a great night. I finally met with the radiant Kim Wilkins, our host for the evening and the author of the Fantastica: Sunken Kingdom series , which I illustrated and was also nominated in the Awards in the ‘Children’s’ section. I talked with Will Elliot – author of The Pilo Family Circus, the winner of both the ‘Horror’ category and the Golden Aurealis! and Juliet Marillier (very briefly as she signed her novel for me) author of the ‘Fantasy’ category winner, Wildwood Dancing – which I am reading and enjoying at this very moment.
I also had a chance to chat with Dr Katherine Phelps who herself lectures on such things as world building to aspiring writers – amongst all her many other achievements and activities. I have to confess I was a little dazzled, but there you go – I suppose I can not expect too much in the good social skills department when I spend so much time closeted away making stuff up about a place that is only real inside my own head. Indeed, I am woefully ignorant of many of my fellow “genre” authors and contributors, and to them all I apologise.
Equally brilliant was the deep conversations with budding writers, and other newly arrived authors, the brief but deeply encouraging brush with the folks of Small Beer Press – so hello particularly to Kelly and Gavin … and to Melaina too, a fellow word-lover whose passion is contagious.
But most brilliant of all was the fact that MBT won the ‘YA’ category. Yep, that’s right – it took the trophy. It is a very strange thing to go from the profoundly personal process of writing, the privacy of editing with publisher (Dyan) and editor (Celia) then find myself squinting into bright stage lights and fumbling out a few awed words of gratitude. It is a strange thing, and as Dr Katherine said on the night, to be short-listed is to be a winner. I am very grateful either way, and pleased and amazed at the recognition to even be short listed.
So to Kate and Ron and all those who made the night and everything leading up to it happen – bleeding brilliant and thank you!
(How’s that for a whole bunch of name dropping…)
As for my ever-patient posters, I have not forgotten your questions - oh no! Not at all. I have gathered them over the long hiatus and printed them off and all… and shall get on to them in the next couple of days. Also, you might want to pop along to Inside A Dog for the next month or so, where I am to be the writer in residence and learn how to blog a darn sight more frequently than I do here. Only good things can result ... Lord willing.
My word! life is just getting busier… Here was me thinking it would become a little quieter after Book 2 was done.
Also: I have just started a dietary change around so be prepared for a thinner DM.
And now: Half-Continent synonyms for real-world terms #007
Thank you to two of my regular blog-buddies for yet more of a challege!
sweat = the dribbles, aquicrina or "the quicks" in its vernacular form, or schwess (if you are from Gottland).
biro = in terms of an equivalent it would be either stylus or quill, though if you handed a biro to a learned person from the Hc they might term it a plenatris (the vernacular being rendered perhaps to plint) or atrement. (And thank you, Mark, for being at Mawson Lakes and for the heads up re: the old illustrated herbals currently on display at the Museum of Economic Botany in the Botanic Gardens)
NOTE: MBT = Monster Blood Tattoo, Hc = Half-Continent
Anyway…
Off we went with a posse of my close ones who have all moved up to Brisy very recently and came out in support of MBT and me. We had a great night. I finally met with the radiant Kim Wilkins, our host for the evening and the author of the Fantastica: Sunken Kingdom series , which I illustrated and was also nominated in the Awards in the ‘Children’s’ section. I talked with Will Elliot – author of The Pilo Family Circus, the winner of both the ‘Horror’ category and the Golden Aurealis! and Juliet Marillier (very briefly as she signed her novel for me) author of the ‘Fantasy’ category winner, Wildwood Dancing – which I am reading and enjoying at this very moment.
I also had a chance to chat with Dr Katherine Phelps who herself lectures on such things as world building to aspiring writers – amongst all her many other achievements and activities. I have to confess I was a little dazzled, but there you go – I suppose I can not expect too much in the good social skills department when I spend so much time closeted away making stuff up about a place that is only real inside my own head. Indeed, I am woefully ignorant of many of my fellow “genre” authors and contributors, and to them all I apologise.
Equally brilliant was the deep conversations with budding writers, and other newly arrived authors, the brief but deeply encouraging brush with the folks of Small Beer Press – so hello particularly to Kelly and Gavin … and to Melaina too, a fellow word-lover whose passion is contagious.
But most brilliant of all was the fact that MBT won the ‘YA’ category. Yep, that’s right – it took the trophy. It is a very strange thing to go from the profoundly personal process of writing, the privacy of editing with publisher (Dyan) and editor (Celia) then find myself squinting into bright stage lights and fumbling out a few awed words of gratitude. It is a strange thing, and as Dr Katherine said on the night, to be short-listed is to be a winner. I am very grateful either way, and pleased and amazed at the recognition to even be short listed.
So to Kate and Ron and all those who made the night and everything leading up to it happen – bleeding brilliant and thank you!
(How’s that for a whole bunch of name dropping…)
As for my ever-patient posters, I have not forgotten your questions - oh no! Not at all. I have gathered them over the long hiatus and printed them off and all… and shall get on to them in the next couple of days. Also, you might want to pop along to Inside A Dog for the next month or so, where I am to be the writer in residence and learn how to blog a darn sight more frequently than I do here. Only good things can result ... Lord willing.
My word! life is just getting busier… Here was me thinking it would become a little quieter after Book 2 was done.
Also: I have just started a dietary change around so be prepared for a thinner DM.
And now: Half-Continent synonyms for real-world terms #007
Thank you to two of my regular blog-buddies for yet more of a challege!
sweat = the dribbles, aquicrina or "the quicks" in its vernacular form, or schwess (if you are from Gottland).
biro = in terms of an equivalent it would be either stylus or quill, though if you handed a biro to a learned person from the Hc they might term it a plenatris (the vernacular being rendered perhaps to plint) or atrement. (And thank you, Mark, for being at Mawson Lakes and for the heads up re: the old illustrated herbals currently on display at the Museum of Economic Botany in the Botanic Gardens)
NOTE: MBT = Monster Blood Tattoo, Hc = Half-Continent
Merry New Thing!
Well soooooo long has past and not a peep from me and all I can say to that is Book 2 is done!!! It is in the hands of editors! ... and it is definitely much longer than Foundling – currently 33 chapters (though Celia, my editor here in OZ, may have something to say about that … we shall see.)
So I am back to blogging and thank you so much to all the questions and encouragements. I shall endeavour to answer all queries put to me in the very near future.
So I wish a Merry Late-Christmas & HAPPY NEW THINGY! to you all and I look forward to more frequent posting from me - so you can too.
Oh, and before I forget, this morning for breakfast I had Nutri-Grain [TM]
Watch this space for more Half-Continent words for every-day items, returning very soon...
So I am back to blogging and thank you so much to all the questions and encouragements. I shall endeavour to answer all queries put to me in the very near future.
So I wish a Merry Late-Christmas & HAPPY NEW THINGY! to you all and I look forward to more frequent posting from me - so you can too.
Oh, and before I forget, this morning for breakfast I had Nutri-Grain [TM]
Watch this space for more Half-Continent words for every-day items, returning very soon...
Monster Blog Tattoo.
A new entry at last! ... also, I reckon I should have called this page the above - except that people might find it harder to discover.
MBT Act 2: Lamplighter is certainly coming along, will be of greater girth than Foundling, but i warn all those who hated the 'Explicarium' - it is the plan to have another, so watch out at the rear parts of the tome: the story will be ending sooner than you think... and for those who love it, well there will be more.
I reckon a sneek preview might be in order, so here is an illo (that's what we call them in 'The Biz'...) of a new character. Let me introduce Threnody... but that's all I say on her.
Madbomber asks: "I have a question, what games do people play in HC? I'm thinking particularly in Taverns, when they want to gamble with one another. Dice or cards, or something else?"
Well, first the rivet counting: there are no such things as 'taverns' in the Hc, there are ale-houses, wine-shops, rum-stops, and of course way-houses - amongst other places. But as to what you are actually asking, checkers is a popular pass time - played for money, of course - many types of card games: casino, lesquin, rustic dig; plus, at the right places billiards is provided. More illicit 'games' include the fighting of various animals against each other, a pass-time which has connexions with the dark trades.
For breakfast I had Vita Brits [TM] and sultanas, swilled down with a delicious pineapple and strawberry smoothie my spectacular wife made for me. Yes marriage agrees with me indeed - and not because of the food! but the care, the new life-lessons.
And now: Half-Continent synonyms for real-world terms #006
Thank you to two of my regular blog-buddies for yet more of a challege!
rainbow = well, just rainbow, sorry, though if I wanted to get really technical, a habilist might term it a luxicromatofornix.
university = hmm, as a broad term you might have a collegium or bibliotheca where many kinds of habilist will go - for example: a tungolatrium for the study of tungolitry (what we would call 'astronomy'). Add to this, however, that skolds and some dispensurists train at a rhombus, and physicians and surgeons at a physactery, mathematicians will study at an abacus, and concometrists at an athenaeum... and so it goes.
Here is a challenge for those who want to take it on: give me a word and I'll attempt to render it into Half-continent speak.
NOTE: MBT = Monster Blood Tattoo, Hc = Half-Continent
MBT Act 2: Lamplighter is certainly coming along, will be of greater girth than Foundling, but i warn all those who hated the 'Explicarium' - it is the plan to have another, so watch out at the rear parts of the tome: the story will be ending sooner than you think... and for those who love it, well there will be more.
I reckon a sneek preview might be in order, so here is an illo (that's what we call them in 'The Biz'...) of a new character. Let me introduce Threnody... but that's all I say on her.
Madbomber asks: "I have a question, what games do people play in HC? I'm thinking particularly in Taverns, when they want to gamble with one another. Dice or cards, or something else?"
Well, first the rivet counting: there are no such things as 'taverns' in the Hc, there are ale-houses, wine-shops, rum-stops, and of course way-houses - amongst other places. But as to what you are actually asking, checkers is a popular pass time - played for money, of course - many types of card games: casino, lesquin, rustic dig; plus, at the right places billiards is provided. More illicit 'games' include the fighting of various animals against each other, a pass-time which has connexions with the dark trades.
For breakfast I had Vita Brits [TM] and sultanas, swilled down with a delicious pineapple and strawberry smoothie my spectacular wife made for me. Yes marriage agrees with me indeed - and not because of the food! but the care, the new life-lessons.
And now: Half-Continent synonyms for real-world terms #006
Thank you to two of my regular blog-buddies for yet more of a challege!
rainbow = well, just rainbow, sorry, though if I wanted to get really technical, a habilist might term it a luxicromatofornix.
university = hmm, as a broad term you might have a collegium or bibliotheca where many kinds of habilist will go - for example: a tungolatrium for the study of tungolitry (what we would call 'astronomy'). Add to this, however, that skolds and some dispensurists train at a rhombus, and physicians and surgeons at a physactery, mathematicians will study at an abacus, and concometrists at an athenaeum... and so it goes.
Here is a challenge for those who want to take it on: give me a word and I'll attempt to render it into Half-continent speak.
NOTE: MBT = Monster Blood Tattoo, Hc = Half-Continent
I am the nerdiest nerd that ever did nerd.
Hello deliberate friends and accidental visitors, "Well betide you", as is often said in the Hc. Thank you to those who have offered well-wishes at my nuptials. Sure am a lot calmer since that sweet, strange day... so much so people are commenting. Enough of that.
Had a great session with Dyan (my wonderful, pain-in-the-posterior, insightful slave-driving publisher at Omnibus here is South Terra Australis - which is a tautology, actually) a few days ago, feeling uber güt about Book 2 - certainly more happening now Rossamünd is at Winstermill. Hope people dig it when done.
A friend of mine, Andre, asked me by email, "maybe it's answered in the last couple of chapters, but what is the importance of wearing a hat for travellers? maybe I missed it..." Good question, I say, and here is an answer:
Hats are worn a) for protection as most have at least a proofed headband in them, and b) because it's the done thing for polite people to do, see as bad manners to not to have a hat upon your pate when out of doors. No other significance. (at this stage...)
As to the football 'league' of the Hc (madbomber) : it is actually more like soccer or Gaelic football - more European, and a fully fledge 'league' does not exist in Rossamünd's time, but is an advent of later centuries, though there are smaller, privately organised competions hereabouts. The whole idea is not fully formed yet - beyond team names (need to dust this stuff off and revisit, one of the MANY loose threads that await more fiddle-faddling.) As for black-&-red (sable and rouge = "shrewdness & eagerness") mottle for the best team, well of course - though rouge and leuc ("justice & integrity") might have something to say about that... Hmm, project!
(Get your orders in now for team names and colours, while idea is still coagulating in my soul!)
Kaollaku asks: "If MBT grows in popularity, like to where it is a well know book with a large fan base, will you consider a movie?"
Well, truth is, it is currently under consideration for an opption but it is very early days - so breath holding is unadvised. Still, I'm excited. Will keep you posted on this'un.
Two questions from random missfit:
1/ "I was just wondering, does Hc have its own number system?"
I am sure there were (may still even are) cultures surrounding the Hc that have unique or unusual methods of counting (my favourite is prime numbers 1 2 3 5 7 11 13 17 19 23...), but the standard number system in the Hc itself as of the time of Rossamünd is as our own, perhaps with a little more use of what we call 'Roman' numerals (or capital-numbers in Hc)
2/ "if the Hc was on earth what sort of time is it set in?? (or the main type of weapons used)"
I always hesitate to answer what time on earth questions, simply because I am keen for things to be about the Hc in and of itself - making corollaries with our own world surely ruins a little of the charm. Yes? No? Let's just say that, for reasons of plausability, I use 1815 in our world history as a technology cut off for my ideation - to check if certain mechanisms or systems are 'allowable'. But don't be going "oh so it's 1815 our time, cause you would be off there, that's just my "no greater than" mark... Am I making any sense??? As to main weapons - well, read on. If it is not clear already after book 1, I hope the sense of most used anything will become more apparent over subsequent volumes.
Which dovetails rather nicely into the next and most commonly asked question.
"When can we expect the next instalment of Monster Blood Tattoo?" Inez
"How long till the next one! i dont think i can wait! :(" Andre
"Does anyone have any word on when the sequel to Foundling is coming out? My crew keep hounding me, and I can't find any word online." Jessy Griffith from yslsa-bk
In answer to this, I'll do my majic revealing trick right here, right now (and you were there to see it happen!):
May 2007 MBT Book 2 - ANZ/ US with other regions to follow
(indeed, I strain away at this very work even now... poor little Rossamünd...)
May 2008 MBT Book 3 - ANZ/US with other regions to follow
*blare of trumpets*
*crash of drums*
There y'are.
For breakfast today I had Granola [TM] with this wierd maple syryp flavouring - hmm, a journey into the culinarily bizarre.
And now: Half-Continent synonyms for real-world terms #005
Just one today, only one person stepped up to the challenge since the last post.
honeymoon = well for a start, this is not a common event in much of Hc culture; marriage certainly happens, just not 'honeymoons'. When they do they are typically called congigoes or nuptial-rests.
... and no problems Mr Missfit for any misspelling - I'm an unspecified age above mid-twenties and I still can't spell to save myself.
Here is a challenge for those who want to take it on: give me a word and I'll attempt to render it into Half-continent speak.
NOTE: MBT = Monster Blood Tattoo, Hc = Half-Continent, ANZ = Australia/New Zealand
Had a great session with Dyan (my wonderful, pain-in-the-posterior, insightful slave-driving publisher at Omnibus here is South Terra Australis - which is a tautology, actually) a few days ago, feeling uber güt about Book 2 - certainly more happening now Rossamünd is at Winstermill. Hope people dig it when done.
A friend of mine, Andre, asked me by email, "maybe it's answered in the last couple of chapters, but what is the importance of wearing a hat for travellers? maybe I missed it..." Good question, I say, and here is an answer:
Hats are worn a) for protection as most have at least a proofed headband in them, and b) because it's the done thing for polite people to do, see as bad manners to not to have a hat upon your pate when out of doors. No other significance. (at this stage...)
As to the football 'league' of the Hc (madbomber) : it is actually more like soccer or Gaelic football - more European, and a fully fledge 'league' does not exist in Rossamünd's time, but is an advent of later centuries, though there are smaller, privately organised competions hereabouts. The whole idea is not fully formed yet - beyond team names (need to dust this stuff off and revisit, one of the MANY loose threads that await more fiddle-faddling.) As for black-&-red (sable and rouge = "shrewdness & eagerness") mottle for the best team, well of course - though rouge and leuc ("justice & integrity") might have something to say about that... Hmm, project!
(Get your orders in now for team names and colours, while idea is still coagulating in my soul!)
Kaollaku asks: "If MBT grows in popularity, like to where it is a well know book with a large fan base, will you consider a movie?"
Well, truth is, it is currently under consideration for an opption but it is very early days - so breath holding is unadvised. Still, I'm excited. Will keep you posted on this'un.
Two questions from random missfit:
1/ "I was just wondering, does Hc have its own number system?"
I am sure there were (may still even are) cultures surrounding the Hc that have unique or unusual methods of counting (my favourite is prime numbers 1 2 3 5 7 11 13 17 19 23...), but the standard number system in the Hc itself as of the time of Rossamünd is as our own, perhaps with a little more use of what we call 'Roman' numerals (or capital-numbers in Hc)
2/ "if the Hc was on earth what sort of time is it set in?? (or the main type of weapons used)"
I always hesitate to answer what time on earth questions, simply because I am keen for things to be about the Hc in and of itself - making corollaries with our own world surely ruins a little of the charm. Yes? No? Let's just say that, for reasons of plausability, I use 1815 in our world history as a technology cut off for my ideation - to check if certain mechanisms or systems are 'allowable'. But don't be going "oh so it's 1815 our time, cause you would be off there, that's just my "no greater than" mark... Am I making any sense??? As to main weapons - well, read on. If it is not clear already after book 1, I hope the sense of most used anything will become more apparent over subsequent volumes.
Which dovetails rather nicely into the next and most commonly asked question.
"When can we expect the next instalment of Monster Blood Tattoo?" Inez
"How long till the next one! i dont think i can wait! :(" Andre
"Does anyone have any word on when the sequel to Foundling is coming out? My crew keep hounding me, and I can't find any word online." Jessy Griffith from yslsa-bk
In answer to this, I'll do my majic revealing trick right here, right now (and you were there to see it happen!):
May 2007 MBT Book 2 - ANZ/ US with other regions to follow
(indeed, I strain away at this very work even now... poor little Rossamünd...)
May 2008 MBT Book 3 - ANZ/US with other regions to follow
*blare of trumpets*
*crash of drums*
There y'are.
For breakfast today I had Granola [TM] with this wierd maple syryp flavouring - hmm, a journey into the culinarily bizarre.
And now: Half-Continent synonyms for real-world terms #005
Just one today, only one person stepped up to the challenge since the last post.
honeymoon = well for a start, this is not a common event in much of Hc culture; marriage certainly happens, just not 'honeymoons'. When they do they are typically called congigoes or nuptial-rests.
... and no problems Mr Missfit for any misspelling - I'm an unspecified age above mid-twenties and I still can't spell to save myself.
Here is a challenge for those who want to take it on: give me a word and I'll attempt to render it into Half-continent speak.
NOTE: MBT = Monster Blood Tattoo, Hc = Half-Continent, ANZ = Australia/New Zealand
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