Fantasist's Scroll

Fun, Fiction and Strange Things from the Desk of the Fantasist.

11/2/2004

Inspiration from Strange Places

Filed under: — Posted by the Fantasist during the Hour of the Hare which is terribly early in the morning.
The moon is Waning Gibbous

I got this in a spam the other day:

“He soon came to a stop, however, and saw that another of the monsters had
come upon him from the rear and was now, with its mate, circling closely
around him, while both uttered continuously their hoarse, savage cries. Rob
wondered why the Garment of Repulsion had not protected him from the blow of
the bird’s wing; but, as a matter of fact, it had protected him
For it was not the wing itself but the force of the eddying currents of air
that had sent him whirling away from the monster”

Now, golly, what an interesting thing to have in spam to make it seem like a real message. I almost feel like I should work it up into an actual story. Oh, I’d have to edit it some, but it’s not a bad start.

11/1/2004

Conlang Grammar Issues

Filed under: — Posted by the Fantasist during the Hour of the Hare which is in the early morning.
The moon is Waning Gibbous

A conlang without a grammar is just a cipher.

Think about that for a minute. If you’re just transposing words, you haven’t created a new language so much as you’ve created a new code. Maybe that’s all you’re after. If so, that’s fine and you can stop reading now, but if you want more than that, think about your native language and your conlang for a minute.

Still with me? Great. I can make up words, either by hand or by machine, but making a grammar takes a lot more thought and work. Last month, I was reading the blog over at Langmaker.com, the Ultimate Constructed Language Resource which is maintained by Jeffrey Henning. He had several links to conlang grammars there, including: The Sixteen Rules of Esperanto Grammar, Syntax for Artificial Languages, and A Training Device for Translation Theory and Practice. Any of them are good places to start looking at what goes into a grammar. If you’re a little more advanced than that, and feeling brave, you can try reading Describing Morphosyntax : A Guide for Field Linguists. But, as good as it is, I have to warn you, this is NOT for he casual reader or the easily intimidated. It is a daunting book that damn near put me into a coma! But, if you can make it through this bad boy, you will have a really good grasp of what can go into a language’s grammar. You will also be able to endure incredible, mind-numbing torture as dosed out by mothers-in-law. Or, you will be a gibbering idiot. Either way, it’s all great fuel for conlanging.
I often find myself getting stuck in the “research phase” of my many creative projects. Sometimes, I get so caught up in the research that I never get the project started. This is where I’m at with my conlanging. I need to get past that. I hope that the inspiration from Langmaker, and Jeffery Henning will help me get started on those projects. As they say on the street, ‘aint nothing to but to do it. So, let’s all take some inspiration from those links up above and get started on that conlang that we’ve been putting off.

10/29/2004

How To Write A Fantasy Novel

Filed under: — Posted by the Fantasist during the Hour of the Hare which is in the early morning.
The moon is Waning Gibbous

As you may have guessed, this is not a serious article.

Look, it’s Friday and nothing can be all that serious on a Friday, right? Well, despite the fact that the article is called How To Write a Best Selling Fantasy Novel, it is NOT serious. It is a joke. But, it’s a good joke, so click on the link.
Now, if you’ve been around the writing game for a bit, especially in the fantasy end of things, you’ve seen jokes like this before. For you, like me, it’s not a joke. For anyone who wants to make a living in the crazy game of speculative fiction writing, this is deadly serious. If I want to make it as a serious writer, I absolutely can NOT make any of the mistakes that are suggested in the article. On the other hand, it is a handy guide for what NOT to do anymore. Oh, for the good old days when that all still worked….

Anyway, no matter how you slice it, the article is worth reading. And, after all, it is a Friday.

10/26/2004

WTF?! “Tales from the Five Kingdoms”?!

Filed under: — Posted by the Fantasist during the Hour of the Hare which is in the early morning.
The moon is Waning Gibbous

Did someone take my idea?

Or is it just so, so lame that more than one person thought of it? Okay, let me explain. See, I’ve had this idea for a fantasy fiction setting that I called the Five Kingdoms for several years. In fact, I’ve been talking about it so long that I don’t even remember how far back it goes. But, the other day when I was looking through some stuff on CafePress, I found a book called The Sorean, which has, right on the cover, a reference to “Tales from the Five Kingdoms”. I laughed so hard I almost ruptured something. The whole thing just totally cracked me up.

I knew that, sooner or later, this kind of thing would happen when CafePress started selling books. Of course, I figured that there’d be plenty of folks selling books that they’d taken from Project Gutenberg, and there are, but some of the other stuff surprised me a bit. A pleasant surprise was the Ethereal Press Language series. As someone who’s “into” constructed languages, these books were really interesting to me. I’m not sure that I’d ever buy one, but I think it’s great that someone is making them.
I also found more “serious” books, like The Book Of AisthC*tikos, which advertises itself for the “serious student of the occult”. So, all you lame posers can piss off! This book isn’t for you!
The other thing that was fun to browse through was the CafePress music offerings. Now, to be fair, some of these are probably really, really good, but undiscovered bands. On the other hand, some of them are just funny. My favorite “WTF” music cd was Shut Up The Devil by King MC. The devil is totally whack, yo!

And, of course, there is my very own Ye Old Wizard’s Shoppe, now with more panties. It’s really almost a joke, but if anyone ever buys anything, and I mean anything, I might just pay for a “premium” shop and do more with it. Anyway, I guess I may just be forced to give up on the Five Kingdoms and move on. After all, I wouldn’t want to infringe on any market right that The Sorean might now have. (Yes, I’m kidding.)

10/11/2004

Review: Creating Short Fiction : The Classic Guide to Writing Short Fiction

Filed under: — Posted by the Fantasist during the Hour of the Hare which is in the early morning.
The moon is Waning Gibbous

This was a GREAT book!

Okay, regular readers of this blog know that I’m an amatuer writer with delusions of granduer. But, for those of you who are new, I want to write. What that means, though, is that I’m always reading books to help me with my writing, in one way or another. This past week I read Creating Short Fiction : The Classic Guide to Writing Short Fiction, by Damon Knight. This book is an all-around, kick-ass writing book. Damon Knight, though famous for his science-fiction writing, really hits all the bases in this one book. He covers, if lightly, everything from the creative process to editing to submitting your work. If it relates to writing, it’s in there.
I admit, I got this book because it was: a) on sale, b) short, and c) written by Damon Knight, who’s a great science-fiction author. But, this book only touches on science-fiction, as well as several other genres. Mainly this is just a really good book on writing short fiction. And, let’s face it, most authors start in short ficition before they get anyone to look at their longer work. It’s just how it is. So, writing short fiction is something that almost every fantasy or science-fiction writer will do at some point in their career.

So, if you’re looking for a refresher, or if you’re just getting started writing short ficiton, this is a great place to start. In fact, I got so excited about this book, I wrote a “So you’d like to…” guide over at Amazon.com, called So you’d like to write “speculative fiction”. Check it out!

10/4/2004

More on Voynich

Filed under: — Posted by the Fantasist during the Hour of the Hare which is in the early morning.
The moon is Waning Gibbous

At least, more about the man who cracked it.

Back in June, I mentioned that someone had uncovered the secret of the Voynich Manuscript. Well, to be more precise, he uncovered the fact that it was a fake. This past month, there was an article on Wired News about that man. he’s quite interesting, really. From what I read, he’s basically in the business of, well, thinking about thinking. He looks at how various professionals solve problems and tries to improve their process. He seems to be quite good at it, too! Anyway, read the article.

10/1/2004

Xenolinguistics

Filed under: — Posted by the Fantasist during the Hour of the Hare which is in the early morning.
The moon is Waning Gibbous

Okay, this tickled my funny-bone.

This website, A Primer in SF Xenolinguistics, really made me chuckle. It’s really a what NOT to do guide. In a nutshell, it lists all the things that begining writers make when dealing with language in science-fiction and fantasy. Actually, it’s a bit frightening how many people who should know better make these mistakes, too, but I digress.
It’s a fun read and, heaven help me, it’s informative, too.

Hey, it’s Friday, go check it out!

9/28/2004

Or, maybe keep it cold!

Filed under: — Posted by the Fantasist during the Hour of the Hare which is terribly early in the morning.
The moon is Waning Gibbous

Cold fusion, that is.

According to this article on the IEEE website, cold fusion is alive and kicking. Well, at least, it may get a second chance. Apparently, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science will receive a report from a panel of experts on the prospects for cold fusion later this month. (Incidentally, for those of you who aren’t familiar, cold fusion is the “supposed generation of thermonuclear energy using tabletop apparatus.”) You can read more about it at the article.
The interesting thing here, for me, is that this one doesn’t seem to die. No one has been able to reproduce the results of that first experiment. At least, not with any degree of credibility within the scientific community. But, still, they chase the dream. “A reactor in every household!” I can see the slogans now… Ah, well, considering the story I brought you yesterday, I suppose it’s only a matter of time.


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