Stardancer News

It’s Comics Day!

Mon, 20 May 2013 11:16:49 GMT

We finish up the negative art story.

***

The Kickstarter got new backers over the weekend! We’re now at 241% funded, with 70 backers (!) and $1692, just $8 shy of $1700! Amazing! I’ll have to draw some more pony-jaguars squeeing. :)

***

Also of interest: I’m starting a quarterly newsletter! This will be a very brief summation of my latest offerings and what I’m currently working on. If you’re too busy to keep up with the blog, this will be a way to get four emails a year with just the news, and nothing but the news. At the end of the year, I’ll also give away a selection of goodies to a handful of randomly selected folks from the mailing list. Go on and sign up if you’re interested! I’m going to send out Spring’s newsletter (a month late!) this week.

Mirrored from MCAH Online.

Inside Voice, Outside Voice

Sun, 19 May 2013 18:16:34 GMT

Child’s eating is beginning to drive me crazy. She is rejecting more and more of the foods she used to eat, and when she asks for food half the time it’s candy or cookies or ice cream. While she’ll cheerfully leap on mangoes and blueberries and other fruits, getting her to eat some form of protein that doesn’t involve breading a chicken is like pulling teeth.

This is on my mind when we are waiting to be seated at a breakfast restaurant, fresh from picking blueberries. We’d spent a half hour at that, and Child had been interested for the first fifteen minutes and then spent the last complaining that she was tired and could we do something else. Mommy told her briskly that the more she complained, the longer it would take for Mommy to pick berries and why didn’t she pick some more of her own?

So, we are hungry and tired. And as the hostess collects menus for us, Child says stubbornly, “Do I have to eat eggs?”

“Yes,” I say.

“AwwwWWWW but I don’t WANT to eat eggs!” she cries.

“Too bad,” I say. “You can eat eggs or nothing.”

We sit and are rewarded with crayons, and she starts doodling while I order for us both—the eggs, because she used to like eggs and they’re good for her and by God, I hope if I just keep putting them in front of her she’ll forget that she decided to hate them and eat the things. We spend a companionable fifteen minutes drawing together on the paper and are interrupted by the waitress with our meals.

I start eating because I am ravenous, and I am a third of the way through my meal when I realize… Child is eating her eggs. Has, in fact, eaten them all. “Now can I have my toast?” she asks.

“You ate all your eggs!” I exclaim, stunned.

“I know,” she says.

“But you didn’t complain once!” I say.

“I was complaining,” she tells me and nibbles on her toast. “I just did it in my head.”

This startles a laugh from me. I say, “You know what?”

“What?”

“I do that too, all the time,” I say. “Complain in my head instead of out loud.”

“I complained a LOT,” she confides.

“Well,” I say. “Since you did all your complaining in your head and ate your eggs anyway, why don’t we walk next door and get a cookie?”

She lights up. “Ooh, yes!”

So we finish breakfast and walk hand-in-hand to the health food store where they sell the gluten-free baked goods. I wonder a little at my buying her a cookie as a reward for not whining. Surely this is bribery? And then I think: But that’s the way the world works. The people who aren’t unpleasant get rewards more often than the people who are nasty or whiny or unpleasant to be around. Is it sad that we learn we can’t always say what we feel? I think it must be a little. But part of growing up has to be learning how not to say everything on your mind… learning that your speech has consequences, and you can either manage those consequences or constantly wonder why life keeps punching you and how it’s not fair and what did you do to deserve it.

“Pick me up!” she cries when we get to the case, and I bend at the knees as if I’m about to lift a very heavy box, because my almost-six-year-old girl is no longer the easy armful she was at three or four. I hold her up and we put our heads together, and practice our reading skills on the labels. She wants the chocolate chip cookie, so she gets it.

And then I buy myself a cookie, too. Because I spend a lot of time biting my tongue, and once you get to be grown up the only reward for good behavior is the knowledge that you were good, and Mommy is no longer around to pat you on the back.

We share out the goodies in the car and to make sure I don’t undercut my message on self-restraint I give us both only half, and we’ll save the rest for later. She sighs—one complaint—and then eats her cookie. So do I. We make crumbs and it’s all good, and on the way home, she sings.

Mirrored from MCAH Online.

And We’re Live!

Sun, 19 May 2013 00:52:41 GMT

Come by, say hi!

Mirrored from MCAH Online.

Livestream in an Hour and a Half!

Sat, 18 May 2013 23:24:26 GMT

Start Time: 9 PM EST! Probably until 11 PM or 12, depending on when I collapse.

URL: http://www.livestream.com/mcah

What do I do? Go to that URL, open the chat window, choose a name for yourself and say hi! If you have a Flash/script blocker you will need to unblock the page to see the stream.

What I’ll Be Up To: Probably comics, or other art. We can talk about the Kickstarter, the Wingless audiobook, or forthcoming projects (or just chat!).

Do stop by if you’re interested! I love having the chance to chat with you, or watch you chat with one another! Quick, I need more exclamation points!!

Ahem. See some of you in an hour and a half!

Mirrored from MCAH Online.

All at Once or the Moment It's Ready

Fri, 17 May 2013 16:53:41 GMT

So I am pondering a matter of book scheduling: in specific, the scheduling of sequels, when you know there's going to be a final book. In the old days, these would come out every year (or more, depending on how fast the writer wrote them), so you'd get book one, and then a year later you'd get book two, and then at some point, a year or more later, book three.

But that's the old days. In these shiny new days, I can release them as I finish them, or I can wait until I'm done with the series and release them all at once! This is much on my mind since I just did an all-at-once (with the Stone Moon Trilogy, a few months ago), and I am getting close to the end of Mindtouch, which needs a Book 2 I need to write immediately. But the question then: do I wait until Book 2 is done to give you Book 1?

I ask!

View Poll: All at Once or The Moment It's Ready!

And please, do elaborate in the comments if you have opinions to share!

It’s Comics Day! And Car Doodles

Fri, 17 May 2013 11:16:15 GMT

Marketer explains the effect of audience expectations on sales.

***

Reminder that tomorrow I am hosting a livestream get-together at 9 PM EST! I’ll be drawing comics and chatting with people who stop by (or listening to you chat to each other). Tomorrow I’ll put up instructions on how to join.

***

The Kickstarter’s doing well! Today we’re at 207% funded, whoot! Pony-jaguar will be taking a break posting updates over the weekend, as has become customary, but look for more fun on the project blog Monday.

***

Finally, some car doodles:

Tired jaguar is tired. I liked how the colors in this one came out. And the flopped over ear.

One of the best quick sketches I’ve ever done of the Chatcaavan Emperor. How about that!

Don’t cry, emo jaguar. Tomorrow’s another day to keep trying!

Mirrored from MCAH Online.

Livestream Planned for Saturday Night

Fri, 17 May 2013 00:52:30 GMT

I keep forgetting to mention this! But I am planning on a livestream Saturday night around 9 PM EST. I’ll probably be drawing comics, but we can chat about the Kickstarter, or the new audiobook, or just casually. I hope some of you will stop by and keep me company. :)

Mirrored from MCAH Online.

Random Health Stuff: Back to the Gym

Thu, 16 May 2013 17:18:27 GMT

So the eating seems to be going well, or at least, I am tamping down on as much of the unhealthful influences as I can. Doing that has given me a lot more energy, and a steadier energy, than I had while I was eating crazy stuff I shouldn’t. Also, making vegetable juice has had absurd results: like, so absurd I went from “I am skeptical about this hippie back-to-nature stuff” to “omg, everyone needs to drink this now and we will have world peace.”

Okay, maybe not that extreme, but close. I feel more alert and calmer and I have a host of other strange but pleasing side effects, like the shape of my face changing and my skin getting better. One of my coworkers, on finding out how long ago I originally worked for the university, exclaimed, “You can’t possibly be that old.”

*preen*

Anyway! The piece that’s missing is exercise. I now stand at a desk for six to seven hours a day, and by the time I get home from that, I am exhausted and what I really want is to sit in a chair and feel the blessed relaxation in my limbs as I take the weight of gravity off them. And this is good, because I’m tired… and bad, because I love exercise. While fencing‘s out of the question still, for time and money reasons, running is still in my grasp and I haven’t had the physical energy for it since I started working the Day Hobby.

But this is no good. I might need the exercise as much as I would have had I been sitting at my desk all six hours, but I miss it. I miss the long stretches of time doing nothing but working out thorny plot problems while listening to music. I miss the pleasure of feeling like my body works, that it can work, that if I throw it on a treadmill for half an hour it will obediently jog until I’m done. I miss watching the muscles develop as they grow and then reshape the skin above them.

Recently, my old gym sent me one of those “offers you can’t refuse” in an attempt to get former members to rejoin. Since it was a 66% discount off the already discounted price I originally paid them, I couldn’t say no, particularly since they have a sauna. I don’t love gyms the way I love sports, but I have fond memories of this gym: it was on their elliptical that I came up with Spots, and walking in there makes me think, powerfully, of creative rushes, and the adrenaline highs of “OMG I KNOW WHAT COMES NEXT”.

Tonight, then, I go back to running and weights. I’m not sure how I’m going to manage my energy level so that I can get through an entire routine, but the only thing for it is to experiment. If you have suggestions for getting through end-of-day work-outs (no, doing it before work is not feasible), I’m all ears!

Mirrored from MCAH Online.

The Ai-Naidari Guidebook, Part 3: Food

Thu, 16 May 2013 14:46:39 GMT

The Ai-Naidari Guidebook
Part 3

FOOD
      Like us, Ai-Naidar are omnivores. Their primary meat source is fish, which they cultivate in the city as well as catch outside it (glance in any of the many pools in the city and you are likely to find fish there). They also serve game meat. You’ll find occasional birds, but it’s fairly rare; most birds served as food are those that stay grounded most of the time, things like quail and ducks. Of vegetables and fruits you’ll find a plenitude. Kherishdar is a rice culture, so you can expect to see some of the familiar forms of rice dish there, from sticky sweet rices to rice paper rolls. Food is almost invariably light, however; heavier dishes are reserved for people doing rigorous physical labor. You will not be considered one of them, however you feel about spending all day on your feet!
      Eating customs have varied historically. In the modern period, the heaviest meal of the day is dinner, which is eaten in late afternoon, in the company of the rest of the family. Breakfast is usually a catch-as-catch-can affair, and very light, eaten before people dress/prepare to go out. Whether or not they have that light breakfast, people will often eat a meal an hour or so afterwards, and that meal is taken “at work,” in the company of peers. Interestingly, my observation is that most people stand while taking that meal, or do so at a small table in the workplace for that purpose. If the Ai-Naidari works at home, they may skip that meal if they’re alone, or take it with coworkers (usually family members) if they’re present. It’s also very common to go out for that meal.
      A fourth “meal” is sometimes taken before sleeping, but this meal usually consists of something very light, or just a liquid. Fruit is rarely used for this meal: if there’s eating involved, it’s usually a vegetable, not too starchy or sugary.
      I should re-emphasize that the Ai-Naidar do not eat as much as we do. No doubt part of this is biological: they don’t seem to need quite as much fuel as we do. But a lot of it is a cultural emphasis on minimalism. It’s not that gluttony is disapproved of—though if taken to an extreme it merits Correction—but it is considered bizarre, or an excess of the young. This tendency toward eating judiciously probably helps them with longevity and quality of life issues. While they have shorter lifespans than us, they are healthier until the point of their abrupt senescence.
      It is polite to enjoy a meal, and to praise it. Try not to ask for seconds though. If you’re given the task of serving yourself, then put enough on your plate to prevent going back for more.

MEAL COURSES AND ETIQUETTE
      Most meals have courses, even if abbreviated: for instance, breakfast will begin with something warm to drink (tea or clear broth) and then the main dish is served. Sit-down meals with family usually involve several courses; different families will choose different ways to move through the meal, but the intent is always to allow sufficient time between small courses to feel replete, and to digest and savor what you’ve had. Even meals without courses should be lingered over. Eating slowly is important, especially since you’ll be expected to make conversation over the food. It’s not uncommon, for the family meal, for there to be an interruption between courses long enough to sit back from the table and talk, or even leave the table entirely.
      You may spot an herb now and then served as its own course: this is frafra, a digestive stimulant. It has a flavor like mint, or pepper (or both? It’s both piquant and refreshing), and it’s often used as a palate cleanser.
      Food is inevitably served family style when served to a group. The elderly pick first, and then pregnant women and children. Adults go last. Guests are slotted into this hierarchy based on caste and rank, and so I can’t give you specific rules for that: for your part, you should eat last unless you have a health issue, since I’m fairly certain that’s what the food order is designed to support. People whose nutritional needs are less strenuous are put at the end of the line, which means there’s no shame in it; you might even consider it a position of honor, because it implies you’re able to help support the parts of the family who have special needs. I’ve observed that the principals of the House often go last, as if reaffirming that they’re hale enough to look after everyone else, and committed to going hungry if there’s not enough for everyone.
      In terms of handling the food: Ai-Naidar eat with their hands, and food is designed for that: it’s in small pieces, or wrapped in something easy to pick up. There are no knives—from what I can see, needing a knife is an insult to the person who cooked, because it indicates they didn’t cut the food correctly. Soups and broths are drunk from small bowls. There’s something like a spoon for porridge or risotto-like dishes, but it’s flatter than we’re used to, and is more a way to hold a portion in place when you eat it from the bowl. Gathering the food into your spoon and then lifting it from the bowl to your mouth is considered a bad idea… it’s much easier for the food to fall and splatter, so why wouldn’t you bring the bowl to your mouth and circumvent the inevitable accident?
      Sauces for food are served as dips, and if a food is designed to be sauced it will be long enough to get into the dip without also getting your fingers wet.
      And there are napkins: a wet napkin (fathra bej) and a dry napkin (fathra dili). The wet napkin is more towel-like, and is served twice: once at the beginning of the meal, to wipe your hands, and then is taken away; and once with the first course. The latter comes in a small ceramic dish, covered, and you can use it throughout the meal if you feel your fingers are sticky, or you spill something. The dry napkin is for tapping your fingers dry, or for wiping your mouth or the lips of plates, and is usually kept on your lap, or folded and to one side.
      All the dishware is going to be smaller than we’re accustomed to, except the serving platters.
      I should also note that Guardians and Landworkers eat differently from other castes! But it is unlikely that you’ll be dining with either.

***

I know this is going to be a favorite topic… and I have more to say about it, which we will hear next time! Thank you, also, for the people who listened to me chew through the whole “what kind of utensils do these people use agh!” thought process on twitter. That was fun! :D

Mirrored from MCAH Online.

It’s Comics Day! and Assorted News

Wed, 15 May 2013 14:26:06 GMT

It’s time for fancy coffee break.

***

Kickstarter’s doing well! I’m getting an unexpected number of browsers off the site. Wonder if that will continue. We are at 160% funded!

***

I am thinking of doing a livestream Friday or Saturday night. Probably drawing comics and talking about the Kickstarter or the audiobooks (or whatever you ask!). Any preferences on which day?

***

Finally, the gorgeous unclaimed Jokka shinies made by Kythryne are now up! Beautiful shell-and-spiral pieces, including one I might have to buy later when there’s money. >.> Go visit and enjoy the pretties!

Mirrored from MCAH Online.

Daughter at 5 Years: Why?

Wed, 15 May 2013 13:57:25 GMT

We are sitting together on one of the chairs at the kitchen table, and she is no longer an easy lap-ful, this five-year-old child with her sun-bronzed legs and stretching torso. She has her head on my shoulder and the rest of her curled untidily on my thighs, and we are playing the inevitable “Why?” game, which begins when I tell her that we can’t have the lights on at night because we’re sleeping (“Why?”), because she should sleep because then she can grow (“Why?”), because growing is good for you so you can eventually become an adult, (“Why?”), because being an adult is neat, (“Why?), because you can do lots of things that little kids can’t do, (“Why?”), Oh, because I suppose you have so much practice at them that you can do them when small children can’t—

“Why?” she asks.

“I don’t know,” I say finally. “Why would we want to do anything at all?”

She looks up at me, head nestled on my shoulder… makes a screwed-up thoughtful face, and pops out, “To make money!”

And then I burst out laughing. And she laughs too, and I say, “We don’t do everything because we want money! We do things for love, sometimes, and fun!”

She allows that that might be true, but only after I tickle her and pretend to eat her arm, until she’s used up all all her squealing. And then I go to get dressed to go to work, and think ruefully, “To make money, indeed.”

It occurs to me later that I didn’t tell her that sometimes we do things for duty. But then, what is duty, but a form of love? For ideals, for justice, for the right thing, for people as part of our civilization, our community. So, I think, that’s all right. She’ll understand when she’s older. Why is a big question. We’re all still answering it ourselves.

Mirrored from MCAH Online.

Free eBooks!

Tue, 14 May 2013 14:58:15 GMT

An anonymous fan had fun recently giving people books off their wishlists, and wants to do it again! They’ve set up a page here with instructions, so if you’re at all interested in being the recipient of someone’s generosity… by all means, go over there and ask! :)

Mirrored from MCAH Online.

Ten Hours, 100% Funded

Mon, 13 May 2013 22:44:24 GMT

…and $0 to $760 in ten hours. Pony-Jaguar is excite!

We’ve got two weeks to go, though, so we’ll see where we end up! I’ll be doing regular updates over there, talking about the inspiration for the series, some of its history, and giving people screenshots of the layout and design.

Someone on Twitter, on hearing how quickly we funded, said I was inspirational. I answered that it wasn’t me that was amazing, it was all of you! You’re the ones supporting other artists—not just me, but both of my freelancers as well—and you deserve the credit. Thank you for joining me on the adventure. :)

Mirrored from MCAH Online.

Pony-Jaguar Says: The Kickstarter is Live! Check it Out!

Mon, 13 May 2013 13:21:22 GMT

The Earthrise Kickstarter is live! Two weeks, $700! Help me pay for the graphic design and the cover art!

(What’s with Pony-Jaguar, you ask? I figured since I sound like a pony in the video, I might as well run with it. You’d never know I sing alto in a choir from that narration. I get nervous and my voice goes up half an octave. -_- )

Mirrored from MCAH Online.

It’s Comics Day! And Impending Kickstarter!

Mon, 13 May 2013 11:16:16 GMT

We begin a storyline about audience expectations.

***

In a few hours I’ll be launching the Earthrise kickstarter! Join me to raise some money to pay my contractors for their hard work in issuing the print edition. Two weeks, $700! Watch for that in a bit!

Mirrored from MCAH Online.

Car Doodles: Dragons, Elves, Exploded Jaguars

Sat, 11 May 2013 18:39:08 GMT

I’ve been remiss, not posting these. I sort of feel like… my life has become a car doodle: all quick things, stolen from my day, and not enough time to sink into any of them or relax. This is not good for me, but I have no sense how to correct it yet.

But enough complaining. We do what we can with what we have!

The Slave Queen. She’s not pink, naturally, but it’s what I had to work with.

Sehvi, Vasiht’h's younger sister, whom we meet in Mindtouch.

Exploded Jaguar. Too many thoughts lately about the transformation of art across media.

Meta-conversational: Jahir chiding me for Pandora’s soundtrack. I spent a while remembering his face. He has a squarer jaw than the rest of him. (And yes, his hair gets trapped in his coat. Doesn’t everyone’s, with hair long enough?)

And there you have it, for bad photographs of art drawn too quickly. Maybe I will win the lottery and I’ll be able to cease rushing around like a chicken without a head. Though for that I should probably buy a ticket.

*shakes head*

Mirrored from MCAH Online.

The 24-Hour One Card Draw Offer

Fri, 10 May 2013 18:44:58 GMT

If you missed the free one card draw at 11 AM today, you have an option to receive a card for a donation until 11 AM EST tomorrow, Saturday the 11th.

To do that, use this Paypal button. Please use this button! It tells me that your donation is for a post-window card. If you do not use this button, I will not realize you need a card!

It should give you a chance to say what your card is for when you pay. I've left the amount up to you, but the minimum is $2. :)

I will reply to your Paypal email with your card, so look for that in your inbox. If you've linked Paypal to an address you don't usually check, please remember to do so to receive my response!

Once the 24 hour period has elapsed, the single card readings will go back to a $6 fee until the next free card draw. Then I'll do a wrap-up for all the cards I've drawn.

Remember: please don't send me separate emails or comments on Livejournal entries! I will respond to your Paypal email.

Surprise! The Unexpected One Card Draw!

Fri, 10 May 2013 15:03:39 GMT

Edit: The One Card Draw is closed as of 1 PM EST! I will get to the remaining cards after lunch and then post the 24-hour offer. Stay tuned.

It's the unexpected One Card Draw! As usual, if you arrive during the free window you can request a card whether you tip for it or not... but if you feel moved, you can use the button at the bottom of this entry to do so. If you miss the window, please stay tuned for an entry explaining how you can take advantage of the 24-hour discount window.

The Rules

1. This draw is capped at two hours. Any request that falls outside that window will be ignored.

2. Anyone can ask for a card, Friend, friend, stranger or unfriend. No matter who you are, I will shuffle the deck with a honest prayer to the Universe to give you what you need. If you think you're on my bad side but still want a card, ask. I will do my best by you—I promise.

3. You may repost your results anywhere you like as long as you point back here so that people can investigate and perhaps watch for the next One-Card Draw. If you wish to help me promote the cards, you can also link to my page on the Balance Cards, but it's not necessary.

4. When you talk about the cards, remember to call them by their proper Name: they are Balance Cards, not Tarot, not Psycards, not I Ching cards, not runes or anything else. Names are important!

Suggested Use
1. As a theme for meditation or exploration.

2. As a reflection of your past month.

3. As a reflection of your coming month.

4. As a way for the Universe to tell you what it needs from you.

Warnings
1. I do not cherry-pick the card for you. What I draw is random. You may get a bad card; be prepared.

2. My one-card reading for you does not constitute legal or medical advice, or any other formal form of counsel. What you choose to do based on the card is your responsibility, not mine.

How do I get my card?
Comment on this entry and only this entry; I will not respond to emails, tweets or PMs. (If you have no Livejournal, you may comment anonymously or use OpenID). If you feel comfortable, tell me what you're planning to use the card for. I'll reply to you with your card. You may get the same card as someone else, since I re-shuffle the deck for every querent—if this happens I will pay extra attention to the mental image that accompanies the card to give you an individualized account.

What is this all about?
The Balance Cards are a personal revelatory deck I created to address the imbalances in the world and bring them into harmony. The One-Card Draw is a service I offer as frequently as I have the energy, but I also do full readings. Consult the Balance Cards website for more information.

Ask and receive.

The Balance Cards Web Page

An Excerpt from “Mindtouch”

Fri, 10 May 2013 12:33:38 GMT

It is completely unedited, so forgive any errors! But I thought you might enjoy a bit of it. KindlesFlame is the head of the student medical clinic, professor and former dean of the medical college, and he and Jahir have lunch every week.

***

      “So how are you feeling?” KindlesFlame said. “If I’m to take my readings at face value, I’d say you’re adapting handily to the world. Any more bouts of fatigue?”
      “No physical ones, at least,” Jahir said. “I’m not fond of cold, however, and I am so deeply involved with my studies that I’m surprised by such novelties as food and sunlight.”
      KindlesFlame chuckled. “Well, another two weeks and you’ll be done with it, and you can rest between terms. How are you feeling about the material now?”
      “Fairly confident,” Jahir said. “Though God and Lady know I may be deluded as to my competence on the matter. The subject remains alien to me—if you’ll pardon the expression.”
      “It’s apt,” KindlesFlame said. He leaned back in his chair, hands resting on his knee and his cider cup steaming between them on the table. “And it’ll get easier, the deeper you go into it.”
      “That’s encouraging,” Jahir began.
      “Unless it doesn’t, and then you’ll drown,” the Tam-illee finished, and laughed at his expression. “Oh, rest easy, alet. I’m teasing. Once you get to be my age you’ve seen so many mournful faces near finals that they all blur together and you stop being able to take any of them seriously. ‘This too shall pass.’ ”
      “Yes,” Jahir said, thinking of all too many things here that would. He glanced up. “Do you know, Healer, that I still have not a notion what to do with what I’m learning?”
      “Is this about the decision on what track to take?”
      “Only inasmuch as my lack of imagination gives me no guidance,” Jahir said. He cupped his gloved hands on the walls of the mug. “I have to imagine, though, that one does not enter into a degree at this level without some idea of how to employ it.”
      “You’d be surprised,” KindlesFlame said dryly. “But here now. Let’s assume that you came here for a psychology degree so that you could use it in some way. Is there something you could do at home with it?”
      The thought was risible. A license to practice therapy among people who were riddled with secrets and vicious fears. He would never be done with the work, were he allowed to begin it at all, and he wouldn’t. No one would talk to an heir to a seat in the royal House, unless they wanted to manipulate the situation somehow. “I’m afraid not.”
      “So that limits you to practice here, in the Alliance,” KindlesFlame. “If ‘limit’ is the right word with all the known worlds available to you, and all the starbases and ships linking them besides.” He tapped his finger on the desk, as he was wont to do while thinking. “Have you any interest at all in the research track?”
      “I think not,” Jahir said. “At very least, it has not drawn my attention at all.”
      “So your choices are medical or clinical.”
      “Just so,” Jahir said. “And I find the clinical route attractive, in a pastoral way; it’s something I could imagine sustaining save that I wonder if I would not become overmuch involved.”
      “That’s always a concern, of course,” KindlesFlame said. “But I’m not sure how you’d avoid it in the medical track either. If anything, it’s more extreme there: acute cases tend to incite acute feelings.”
      “Mmm.” Jahir looked away. “I suppose. But at least those cases are severed from you decisively.”
      “Maybe,” KindlesFlame said. “But I think you’d find the clinical setting a better fit for your personality. And I think you’d have an advantage there, being Eldritch, one that would work against you in an acute care setting.”
      “Ah?” Jahir asked. “How so?”
      The Tam-illee grinned. “Everyone’s going to want to tell you their problems.”
      Jahir frowned at him. “If that is more teasing, Healer—”
      “No, not at all. I laugh at it because it’s true.” He took up his cup and sipped from it before saying, “There’s something about you that inspires confidence. I think part of it is that people are aware at how many secrets Eldritch keep, and assume that their own secrets will be just as safe. And people will think… ‘he’s lived so long, he’ll have seen everything already, so my personal shame won’t be so shocking.’ There’s a psychology, you see, to a therapist’s appearance: species, comportment, dress. Some part of that you can control, and some part of it you don’t. And you just… have it. That thing that makes people want to talk.”
      “Are you serious?” Jahir asked, startled.
      “Oh yes,” KindlesFlame said. “You listen well.” He smiled. “Probably to keep from talking too much. Yes?”
      “Perhaps,” Jahir said, and the Tam-illee chuckled. “But surely these things don’t make up for my being able to read their thoughts. Would that not distress patients?”
      KindlesFlame snorted. “With you gloved and keeping your distance all the time? Not at all. No, I think you’d be a very successful therapist, if you committed yourself to it. Not to say you wouldn’t excel at the medical application, if that’s really where your heart lies…?”
      “I don’t know,” Jahir admitted. “I find chemistry easy, at least. Probably the easiest part of my studies.”
      “That’s handy, particularly if you want to specialize in pharmacology.” KindlesFlame nodded. “That’s not a bad thing for a practicing therapist, as well. In fact, if it interests you, you can always take the pharma courses as an adjunct to the clinical track. It’ll make a little extra work for you, but you’ll use it.”
      Jahir shook his head minutely. “You aren’t making the choice any easier, Healer.”
      “It’s not my job to make the choice easy. It’s my job to make the potential choices clearer, so you know which one you want.” KindlesFlame stirred his cider, inhaled the steam. “You still have one more semester to decide, anyway.”
      Jahir attended to his own drink, watching the students pass on the sidewalks below their perch on the glassed-in balcony. Their posture had changed as the weeks had worn on, and now with finals approaching he thought he could read their nervousness, their late nights, and their focus in their body language and the speed of their walk. “If an Eldritch therapist inspires confidences, what of a Glaseah? I don’t see many of them.”
      “In the medical campus?” KindlesFlame shook his head. “You’ll catch some of them in the research labs, but for the most part they’re not often practicing any form of medicine. You’ll find the exceptions, but the culture tends to turn out scientists and teachers. Which is a pity, because they’re a friendly species… they put people to ease. And they’re hard to faze, emotionally.”
      “I see,” Jahir murmured. At KindlesFlame’s inquisitive look, he said, “My roommate is a Glaseah, and two years into his psychology degree.”
      “Ah! Well.” KindlesFlame grinned. “There’s a gem. I bet he’ll never want for work. If he’s going clinical. Is he?”
      “He’s not sure,” Jahir said.
      “I hope he does go into practice,” KindlesFlame said. At Jahir’s glance, he said, “Like I said earlier, once you get to be my age, you’ve seen so many students that the patterns become obvious. I like to see a student break the mold. They’re usually the ones that go the farthest.”

***

Those Tam-illee names can get awkward. Anyway! Page 231, and we continue. I am teasing Vasiht’h for falling in love with Jahir: “You keep trying to figure out how to describe the color of his eyes.” “Yes, well, you do that with all those woman actresses on TV and it doesn’t make you in love with them.” “I’m an artist. We fall in love with everything beautiful.”

Mirrored from MCAH Online.

It’s Comics Day!

Fri, 10 May 2013 11:16:58 GMT

The end of this story-line. Or is it!

***

Book’s up to 231 pages. Expect an excerpt later!

Mirrored from MCAH Online.

The Ai-Naidari Guidebook, Part 2: Packing, and Accommodations

Thu, 09 May 2013 11:00:35 GMT

The Ai-Naidari Guidebook
Part 2

Packing
      Kherishdar is a lighter gravity world. I’m no scientist, so I don’t have the exact numbers… but you’ll notice it. Some people find it a relief, others distracting or unsettling. It’s not so big a difference that you’ll be floating with every step; just enough that you’ll feel… well, different. Additionally, the air feels thin to a lot of people. If you’re sensitive to that, you may want to prepare as if traveling to a high altitude location.
      You will almost invariably be visiting the capital. From a climate perspective, the weather in the capital is mild and dry, with temperatures ranging from the low 40s (Fahrenheit) in winter to the low 80s in summer. It doesn’t snow and rarely storms. Some of this is location, but some part of it is, I suspect, an effect of the World Gate, which is tall enough to cut into the atmosphere and which emits a cold wind along its entire height. (Or at least, cold to my southern skin; thicker-blooded readers might find it cool.) Whatever the case, pack for mild weather.
      Ai-Naidari streets are paved, and you’ll be doing a lot of walking. There’s not a lot of detritus to cut yourself on, but you’ll be on your feet most of the day. Wear comfortable shoes. There are benches and places to sit scattered all over the city, if you get tired, and it’s not impolite to ask if you can rest. The average Ai-Naidari is going to be in better condition than many modern humans for all-day walks, but even they take breaks.
      If you are prone to allergies, bring whatever you use to medicate them. Ai-Naidari cities are full of flowering plants… and when the wind isn’t blowing the smell of them into the air, they’re carrying incense smoke. The Ai-Naidar are far more critical of smells and take more effort to scent things. While I wouldn’t go so far as to call most of the things they use “perfume,” it’s going to be a rare place you don’t go that’s not going to smell distinctly like something.
      I should also note that on the human side, you’ll be vaccinated, more from habit than anything else. We haven’t found any diseases yet that cross the human/Ai-Naidari line—it’s a little like humans and animals that way—but just like there are exceptions here, we might run into exceptions there.

Accommodations
During your stay you will be a guest of the Noble or Regal Household sponsoring you. The Ai-Naidari who secured your permit will be your guide, and will either accompany you personally everywhere, or assign a close family-member (also a Noble or Regal) to show you around. In addition to this guide, you’ll have a Guardian escort. Two to four are typical; it’s polite to acknowledge them once and then ignore them. Your questions, comments and conversation should be addressed to the guide. I don’t recommend trying to talk to anyone else; first, because it’s unlikely they’ll understand you unless you’re speaking Ai-Naidari, and second, because it may put them in an awkward position. Because you are human and outside their caste system, they won’t have a polite way to talk to you, which is a rather painful thing for an Ai-Naidari.
Your Noble or Regal sponsor will be accustomed to dealing with humans. It’s best to let them translate any questions you might have, if you have them. For instance, if you want to compliment a shop-keeper, or ask them a question about something they’re selling, tell your guide that you’d like to ask about it and let them put the question to the shopkeeper (or educate you directly, if they already know something about it). This creates a layer between you and the rest of society that the Ai-Naidar will find comforting… or at least, as comforting as they can find anything involving aunera.

      In terms of accommodations, you will be issued a private chamber at the home of your Noble or Regal sponsor. Noble and Regal Households should not be considered personal homes, precisely, as much as administrative centers that happen to employ and house a large, extended family (“nepotism” is a concept I have failed to explain to Ai-Naidar). These Houses will be large buildings, and have plenty of private spaces for visiting Ai-Naidar who are bringing staffs of their own.
      Beds are going to be tall, compared to our own. Even their low beds are high to us! You can request a stepstool to get onto them; I have. Likewise, most furniture is scaled for people who average seven feet tall or more; cabinets are very high. It was historical custom to sit on the floor for social activities, but this doesn’t seem so much the case anymore. You’ll more likely find yourself sitting on divans and chairs, if tall, light-framed ones.
      When at all possible, make sure you are sitting on furniture designed to keep your head level with the heads of your Ai-Naidari hosts, even if you’re too short for it to actually serve that purpose. While it’s true that there are Ai-Naidar who sit or kneel on the floor while others are sitting, this is generally a sign either of a close relationship, or the act of a caste-lesser, neither of which should apply to you. (If it does, you will have to tell me the story. And I will be jealous!)

***

Questions? Comments? I will use them to incorporate more material into this as we go. And a tip button, because several of you poked me rather much last time!

Mirrored from MCAH Online.

Voice

Thu, 09 May 2013 00:22:29 GMT

So I have been thinking.

(A dangerous pastime, I know.)

One of my duties as an artist, and I use that word very purposefully, is to learn wherever I can find the learning. When a new avenue opens to me by which I might do that, I tend to plunge into it and drown. This is probably because I’m change-averse, so in order to avoid balking, I throw myself into the deep end.

So I am drowning now, and seeing what comes of what I’m learning from listening to other people read my work aloud.

Now, the advice that you should read your own work aloud has been around forever, and I have ignored it because I tried it once and it didn’t work for me. I’m too close to the material, so listening to myself is like being in an echo chamber. I don’t hear the mistakes, I just hear the voice on the inside of my head outside of it. But listening to other people has finally driven home some gestalt I wasn’t getting from doing it myself… which is that rhythm is as big a component of prose as it is for poetry. Not just important, but as important.

I’m always chasing rhythm when I write. The other day, I had a tweet make the rounds, something I wrote after explaining that some sorts of creative passion feel painful, like fevers. Several people seemed to like my single sentence comment afterwards: I will breathe, and make things, and burn.

And that I wrote while feeling for the rhythm:

What made it work well enough for me to set it down was the abruptness of the halt at the end, because the pattern was teaching you to expect something, and then truncated the ending. I didn’t even realize that until now when I was staring at it, in fact. I am not much of a rhyming poet. But visual poetry, that relies on how it falls on a page, and rhythmic poetry, that I grok.

But as with everything, it’s not as simple as “use rhythm in your writing.”

It’s about changing rhythm. And changing voice. And how you can help readers glide through things, slam to a stop, bounce uncomfortably as if riding an angry horse. And how you don’t necessarily need to use those things for emotional ends: you can use them to signify things like character as well.

For instance, I am writing Jahir and Vasiht’h right now. You ask them both a question they don’t know the answer to and they answer differently:

Vasiht’h: “I’m not sure. I could ask around, though.”
Jahir: “I’m not entirely certain, though I could perhaps find out.”

One a staccato, quick and brief… the other a kind of rambling rhythm. This is not just personality, but language: Vasiht’h grew up speaking Universal, and Jahir grew up speaking the far more deliberate Eldritch tongue. Interestingly, Jahir before meeting Vasiht’h and Jahir after years of knowing him… very different.

Pre-Alliance: “I’m not entirely certain, though I could perhaps find out.”
Post-Alliance: “I’m not certain. I might find out, however.”

Because he begins to pick up his partner’s speaking rhythm. And of course, you can use this to indicate agitation, or languor, or any number of emotional states… if you know the character’s normal speech patterns well enough.

But the fact that different people have different speaking patterns isn’t new, either. I remember a friend who was taking acting classes. She was given an assignment to record someone talking, and then learn their pattern well enough to extemporize a speech in that speaking style to the class. She asked me if she could do my voice, so I obliged her and thought she did very well! Though maybe she was a touch dramatic? I couldn’t tell. But she told me later that she performed for her class to their great engagement, and that the professor was so skeptical that anyone actually talked that way that he demanded to hear the recording she’d made of me. Which she played him, and then he said, “Well, all right. You got it spot on.”

That stuck with me. But it wasn’t until listening to the Wingless audio that it began to occur to me that these patterns can stick, and should, through third person narrative too. Wingless switches viewpoints, from Slave Queen to Lisinthir, scene by scene. The voice actor gave all the main characters their own voices, so you can tell them apart. But he also gave the narration the same treatment: so the Slave Queen’s scenes are narrated with just a touch of her speech rhythm, and Lisinthir’s with his. (And it makes my throat hurt to hear him switching from the Emperor’s guttural growl to the Slave Queen’s gentle voice for the “he said” before returning to the bass. Crazy!).

So this sense that the description should also have the pacing and speech patterns that the viewpoint character has, while not new, is really with me right now: some of you tell me that you can easily tell the difference between all my first person narrators, and it’s because of this, because I am straining to hear how they pace their speech, the words they choose, how quick or slow they go. And you heard it too in Earthrise, a bit, the difference between Reese’s scenes and Hirianthial’s. I want to find the beat of their heart, of their words, and be able to tap it out. This is why I can’t listen to music while writing… I start writing to the music’s beat, and not the characters’.

This makes me very cognizant of my own tone, and the way I prefer to have my sentences rise and fall (and it gives me a hint of why I prefer some voice actors over others: I like the ones who either use my speech pattern themselves, or have intuited from the text how it would sound if I spoke it).

Insomuch as I succeed as a writer, I think it’s because I get out of the way of the poetry in my prose. I am becoming more and more aware of it, particularly listening to other people read my work aloud. Words have a music in them, a rolling rhythm. A tempo. And oh, God, I am in love with it. The song in a human voice. We don’t need sirens. We bewitch ourselves.

Mirrored from MCAH Online.

Dancing Centauroid Aliens

Wed, 08 May 2013 15:35:11 GMT

“Which one of you listens to pop?” I ask. I’m not quite appalled, but… really? 80′s alternative pop? When compiling a soundtrack for this book, I was not expecting Tears for Fears, Erasure and pony music.

“Jahir’s the musician,” Vasiht’h says.

“Yessss,” I say, sensing this for a dodge. “But?”

Vasiht’h fidgets, then says, “He likes it too!” And then, in a spirit of confession, “Well, he listens to everything. I like listening to dance music.” He flexes his toes. “It’s fun to dance.”

Well, there was nothing for it, but to car-doodle him bouncing to the beat. As Stryck noted, Glaseah can pronk:

All of them dance, though. The Eldritch are taught as a part of deportment, though Lisinthir dances like someone dangerously male, and Jahir dances like a musician—naturally, when allowed. So I did all of them together:

Thank God I’m not an animator, because that scene would break my back. From left to right: Jahir, Sediryl, Lisinthir, Vasiht’h.

The book is going well, and is generating a lot of odds and ends, like this one: grids of the characters’ school schedules.

Yes, sadly, I did research on what classes come out of typical psychology and nursing programs.

“Jahir can dance,” Vasiht’h says. “I’ve seen him do it. I can tell you about it.”

“Did that happen when you first met?” I ask. “The discovery, I mean.”

“No…”

“Hold that thought,” I say. Sincerely, because the case study where Vasiht’h and Jahir end up dancing has to be recorded.

Mirrored from MCAH Online.

It’s Comics Day! and Pending Kickstarter.

Wed, 08 May 2013 11:31:57 GMT

It’s comics day! In which we are fairly sure Artist is just doing this to tease Business Manager.

***

The Earthrise Kickstarter’s been kicked upstairs for approval! Assuming it gets the all-clear this week, we will be launching on Monday! You can have a preview of it here, in case you want to plan for shopping! It’s a two-week project with a low budget ($700), so hopefully it will go quickly.

Also, I sound like a pony in the narration. *sigh* -_-

***

I sold an article on writing serials to the SFWA Bulletin, which is good news! I think it’s supposed to run sometime this year. When the issue’s available, I’ll tell you.

***

Otherwise not much to report! Tomorrow we get another snippet of the Guidebook, and I’m still working on Mindtouch, which is 205 pages and growing.

Mirrored from MCAH Online.

The Wingless Audiobook

Tue, 07 May 2013 11:52:16 GMT

OMG

Mirrored from MCAH Online.