We are getting closer and closer to Monster Blood Tattoo Book 3/The Foundling's Tale Book 3 Factotum getting into your hands, but until then I hope this interview at The Enchanted Inkpot will tide folks over (just a little). Thanks to Ellen and her comrades for such great questions.
Oh, and I hope you all will be happy to note that the next Half-Continent book is slowly forming even now...
... and there is a new poll, at last! (just over on the right)
Tropes & ...
Now, in my experience (not necessarily that broad, but there you go), the word "trope" is usually thrown about in a supercilious manner by folks who have themselves never dared to bare their own soul in story to an often unkind world to show how superior they are. In this example, however, over at TV Tropes, the use of the term in so thorough and gleeful a manner has been a revelation, and very helpful to boot! I had no real notion - for example - that MBT was a "world of no grandparents"; this was certainly not intentional but probably reflective of my own real life experience. It is funny how hard it is to fit such things as a granny and/or grandpa into an adventure story - I shall be on the look out for such omissions in future...
That said, neither do I want to include things just because. Either way, thank you TV Tropes, a/ for liking MBT, b/ for helping me see my tale in so succinct a fashion - a great aid to learning this whole writing game.
Speaking of which, I have begun what will , Lord willing, be the next Half-Continent story, and this in turn raises an interesting dilemma:
...Along with the change of the series name in the US from Monster-Blood Tattoo to Tales from the Half-Continent and the (Oh, I surely hope so!) creation of more H-c tales, what on earth do I change the name of this blog to?
Oh, and cheers very much for your comments last post - has anyone got their hands on a copy of Corsers' Hinge (as found in The Legends of Australian Fantasy) yet?
... and happy new financial year.
That said, neither do I want to include things just because. Either way, thank you TV Tropes, a/ for liking MBT, b/ for helping me see my tale in so succinct a fashion - a great aid to learning this whole writing game.
Speaking of which, I have begun what will , Lord willing, be the next Half-Continent story, and this in turn raises an interesting dilemma:
...Along with the change of the series name in the US from Monster-Blood Tattoo to Tales from the Half-Continent and the (Oh, I surely hope so!) creation of more H-c tales, what on earth do I change the name of this blog to?
Oh, and cheers very much for your comments last post - has anyone got their hands on a copy of Corsers' Hinge (as found in The Legends of Australian Fantasy) yet?
... and happy new financial year.
Legends of Australian Fantasy

For all of you wanting/needing a bit of Half-Continent action as we wait for October/ November/ some time not toooooo far away, Legends of Australian Fantasy has hit the shelves and it has a story of mine in it, a whole new non-Rossamünd, Half-Continent story of 90 pages long! If you can not tell, I am very excited...
Unfortunately it is currently only an Australian release, but we hope to reach the world with it soon.
Rossamünd Married?! ... or, Questions Answer'd #120302
Actually I have no idea what number of "question answering" this is, but, you know, just having fun...
Alyosha asked a little while back why there seem to be few/no married folks in the MBTs, and I have to admit myself a tad perplexed by this. I too have realised such a (Freudian?) anomaly, and can only think that it is for the same adolescent reason that many spec fic novels deal mostly with the filially/conjugally unattached - it is simpler; no ties, no needed to refer back home to sooth anxious loved ones, just freedom to go and do and be as the adventure proceeds. Having said, I have quite pointedly had Rossamünd writing and "keeping in touch" with Verline, and refer in his thoughts to her and Frans and Pin, have tried (after committing the cliche of all cliches by making him an orphan) to give him filial connections that require tending - for I see Verline and the two one-time foundlingery masters as an ersatz family to our little adventurer.
... Maybe the non-married thing is a product of my own un-married state at the time of beginning MBT (a state happily reversed at this present time!), or the desire that I think many men of Western culture possess/have inherited: to do their growing on their own - but that is a whole can-o'-worms [TM] that I do not want to open here...
After all this, I am hoping/endeavouring to have a main character (yes, at least 1!) who is attached in the matrimonial way, though whether said attachment comes along for the ride is another matter. Anyone have thoughts on this?
An Annony Mouse was wondering: "Will the movie be filmed in Australia?"
To that my answer is unfortunately at this stage brief - I do not know. You all will be among the earliest to know when I do (my wife, close friends etc will probably get to know first, but after that it will be you.... at least that is my intent!)
chana was wondering: "How old is Rossamünd?It's been bugging me incessantly for quite a while now. Since Threnody must be at least fourteen, that would mean Rossamünd would be twelve/thirteen years old? It makes it just a little hard to relate to him."
Well, I have always found the "fact" of his age a slippery one, but for me it floats around 12ish - remembering of course, that he is small for his age. It is a bit odd I suppose that I should be a little hazy on his years, but the fact of his own "entry" into the world are hazy themselves. I hope this makes him a tad easier to know...
Oh, and me, as to that "something more to the olfactory presence of MBT books", is is I who make that happen, sitting in my lounge room with a crate of bottles of specially made book-cologne spraying every page - it is why you have to wait so long for them to come out; I actually finished writing the MBTs years ago, it is the spraying of this literary perfume that takes the time *looks sadly at tired cologne-spraying finger*.
Alyosha asked a little while back why there seem to be few/no married folks in the MBTs, and I have to admit myself a tad perplexed by this. I too have realised such a (Freudian?) anomaly, and can only think that it is for the same adolescent reason that many spec fic novels deal mostly with the filially/conjugally unattached - it is simpler; no ties, no needed to refer back home to sooth anxious loved ones, just freedom to go and do and be as the adventure proceeds. Having said, I have quite pointedly had Rossamünd writing and "keeping in touch" with Verline, and refer in his thoughts to her and Frans and Pin, have tried (after committing the cliche of all cliches by making him an orphan) to give him filial connections that require tending - for I see Verline and the two one-time foundlingery masters as an ersatz family to our little adventurer.
... Maybe the non-married thing is a product of my own un-married state at the time of beginning MBT (a state happily reversed at this present time!), or the desire that I think many men of Western culture possess/have inherited: to do their growing on their own - but that is a whole can-o'-worms [TM] that I do not want to open here...
After all this, I am hoping/endeavouring to have a main character (yes, at least 1!) who is attached in the matrimonial way, though whether said attachment comes along for the ride is another matter. Anyone have thoughts on this?
An Annony Mouse was wondering: "Will the movie be filmed in Australia?"
To that my answer is unfortunately at this stage brief - I do not know. You all will be among the earliest to know when I do (my wife, close friends etc will probably get to know first, but after that it will be you.... at least that is my intent!)
chana was wondering: "How old is Rossamünd?It's been bugging me incessantly for quite a while now. Since Threnody must be at least fourteen, that would mean Rossamünd would be twelve/thirteen years old? It makes it just a little hard to relate to him."
Well, I have always found the "fact" of his age a slippery one, but for me it floats around 12ish - remembering of course, that he is small for his age. It is a bit odd I suppose that I should be a little hazy on his years, but the fact of his own "entry" into the world are hazy themselves. I hope this makes him a tad easier to know...
Oh, and me, as to that "something more to the olfactory presence of MBT books", is is I who make that happen, sitting in my lounge room with a crate of bottles of specially made book-cologne spraying every page - it is why you have to wait so long for them to come out; I actually finished writing the MBTs years ago, it is the spraying of this literary perfume that takes the time *looks sadly at tired cologne-spraying finger*.
Factotum typeset and ready to go! ...or... Still around!
Hey folks, a bit of an internet blackout period for me or what!
Great news, having just done the last tweaks on the typeset pages the text for Monster-Blood Tattoo/Foundling's Tale Book 3, Factotum is very very soon for the printers! (You've all had to wait so long I thought every little bit of information might help the wait...)
Some questions/points in last post needing to be answered, as I have to shoot off now I will just say of my intention to endeavour to get to them tomorrow.
Great news, having just done the last tweaks on the typeset pages the text for Monster-Blood Tattoo/Foundling's Tale Book 3, Factotum is very very soon for the printers! (You've all had to wait so long I thought every little bit of information might help the wait...)
Some questions/points in last post needing to be answered, as I have to shoot off now I will just say of my intention to endeavour to get to them tomorrow.
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