The poem that opens Kherishdar's Exception's Part Three went up last week, and this is it in English:
So, going off that, I went to work on the translation:
(Along with the writing, because I can always use the practice writing.)
Then I recorded it in Ai-Naidari, as you hear. I don...
2019-05-20 14:01:01 +0000 UTC View Post
Try to pet him and he'll bite you, but prop a tablet on him and he's indifferent to you pounding on it?
Cats. -_-
Anyway! News for the week!
An internal threat aimed at derailing the debate about Fleet’s future; an external one opening the way for the worst kind of outlaws in a new part of space. Alysha and Taylitha are on separate sides of the sector, holding down their ends of what’s supposed to be a routine refit and officers’ retreat… so naturally they’re confronted with problems that play to their flaws, and without each other as back-up.
But Fleet is a family—one that bickers, but ...
2019-05-13 13:00:00 +0000 UTC View Post
Hiding in Daughter's closet with, amusingly, a stuffed panther that a would-be boyfriend gave me when I was 15. (I wonder what he'd think about the fact that it is now in use by my tween daughter.) A very regal pose there, anyway!
It is Saturday! It has been a week. I am glad it's over. Some news!
I don't let him sleep on my chair without a blanket over it, because not only does he shed he tries to knead it (destroying the cushions) or claw it (destroying the rest of it). I don't know what goes through his small cat head, trying to jump up on it when the blanket's not on it, but he does it and I invariably push him off. Either he's stupid or stubborn or time does not exist for cats and there is only some eternal Now in which the lessons of the past are immaterial. I don't care. I just ...
2019-05-04 13:36:54 +0000 UTC View Post
It’s hard for Farren to sound aghast but he does now when he finds me smugly crossing out the ‘z’ letter. “What are you doing??”
“This sound is deprecated!” I say cheerfully. “There are almost no words with this sound in it, and the only one I’ve noticed is a family name that’s probably me mishearing a ‘z’ sound when it’s certainly an ‘s’.”
“One of our most important words uses this sound!” Farren says. “And we do not 2019-04-30 16:46:14 +0000 UTC View Post
A cat who kept me company outside the coffee shop. Every time I looked down, he had moved to another position near me and curled up. Very friendly little creature! I know black cats are supposedly not as loved as other color cats, but I found him very handsome.
Anyway, news!
(Inspired by Alpharaposa of our Discord server, who did this lovely thing and shared it with us, and permitted me to share it with you.)
“Play it again!” Ajan crows. “It’s so good!”
“It is, isn’t it?” I ask, bouncing a little on my toes. “And she did it so quickly! I’d barely posted the translation and she had it recorded and up for us to listen to.”
He leans closer, ears twitching toward the sound of Alpharaposa’s singing. “I love it!” 2019-04-26 21:18:03 +0000 UTC View Post
“You’re trying too hard,” Haraa says absently from her desk.
I look up from my own, where I’m constructing sentences. “Pardon?”
“This ‘verbs ending in vowels and nouns ending in consonants’ thing,” she says. “You’re trying too hard to regularize it. Some verbs end in vowels, some don’t. Some nouns do, some don’t. Your own language doesn’t follow similar rules constraining the construction of verbs and nouns… why do you try to make ours?”
“...
2019-04-21 21:03:40 +0000 UTC View Post
At least he's kneading something he's been okayed to destroy. 🙄
Happy Holy Saturday to those of you celebrating! I am planning a nice Easter brunch with pancakes and eggs and bacon and delicious things. It's been a kind of crazy week in many ways, but I have no complaints! Here's a round-up of stuff:
Went up just a bit ago, and we're already moving on Stretch Goal 3, the little acrylic tags of Morgan's pendant. <3
I've tried to include something for everyone: ebooks, audiobooks (special editions with bonus content), physical books with doodles, even conlang bookmarks featuring your choice of elven sigils! Here's the link if you're inclined, go check it out: 2019-04-17 17:20:19 +0000 UTC View Post
“This is very good!” Farren says. “I can understand it!”
From Ajan or Haraa that would have been a joke. Farren, though, sounds approving, even proud. I look up from my notes and smiled a lopsided smile. “Thank you,” I say. In Ai-Naidari, even: qininith sovelil, ‘you I thank,’ a mildly Abased response between two who are familiar with one another… which they allow, in politeness, so I don’t have to figure out how to speak of myself as an a...
2019-04-14 16:38:12 +0000 UTC View Post
...one in reflection, anyway.So, crazy week! I spent most of it dealing with various health crises. Some notes:
People interested in doing typo checks, wave a hand and I'll get you a link! (For those of you unaware of Coracle, this is my late tween/early teen deist fantasy series; it's a gentle story).
Discord Users, I've already linked it so you can go to the #den and search for 'coracle' and you're good to go. :)
2019-04-09 14:01:01 +0000 UTC View Post
When he balls up like that, it's what I call him. 'Snail.' Probably because half the time we pointed out what looked like a snail it was an abandoned shell, so I associate the word more with 'snail shell' than the animal.
Anyway, the week is over, long live the week! Quickie news (and I do mean quickie, since I'm feeling under the weather):
I knew going into March that it was going to be a bad month for getting things done with the Spain trip in the middle of it, and indeed I spent a lot of time prepping for (and actually being on!) that trip. (Spain is lovely, by the way. Most highly recommended. And oh my gosh the FOOD.)
Anyway, here is what did get done in March:
Final set-up for the remaining audiobooks in the Blood Ladders trilogy is complete! I listened to Morgan, Book 3 for errors, se...
2019-04-03 14:01:00 +0000 UTC View Post
...at the Alhambra, where I was last week. That counts as cats, right?
I am finally recovering, a little, from the enormous jet lag of overseas travel compounded with the airline stranding me overnight halfway home. Thanks, American Airlines. But it is so good to be home, and I am back to work. Some news, then!
Look at that fat belly. Really, he eats too much. >.>
Anyway, I had a lovely family reunion this week and it is finished and now am in need of serious recovery time! If you have any great books to recommend so I can hole myself up in a corner with an excuse to not talk to anyone, I'm all for it!
News... um... serialization continues on Kherishdar. The third book of Morgan's trilogy is about to get its...
2019-03-23 14:00:02 +0000 UTC View Post
That's... about where I am right now. All the flop. There was various Kherishdar this week, so go catch up, and stuff here, of course, and otherwise I am writing (as usual), and letting you all enjoy the new release. <3
Daughter and I have run out of Dragon Prince! What else should we watch together? (She is in middle school.)
Welcome to March! Okay, well, welcome to mid-March! I’d say “I don’t know how March’s first weeks got away from me” but I was busy launching a book, so I guess there was that. Let’s talk about what happened in February, and I’ll give you some feel for where we’re going in the next few months.
First, in Peltedverse news: Obviously, I did most of the launch prep for Farmer’s Crown 2019-03-15 14:01:01 +0000 UTC View Post
I don't know what this pose is, but we have decided that 'landshark' isn't sufficient description of cat, and now we call him sharkweasel.
So, the week happened! And I am planning lots of family stuff for the end of March, so my mind is on other stuff. But a review!
Sediryl has always yearned for responsibility–and power–and she was convinced she was ready for them… until the events of the Chatcaavan war demonstrated just how immense those responsibilities were, and just how parlous the power necessary to fulfill them. Even so, she’s determined to prove herself worthy to her empress and all the Eldritch: the rich, the poor, the disenfranchised and the entrenched. Showing that she can be all things to all people is hard enough without...
2019-03-08 13:00:02 +0000 UTC View Post
Welcome to the weekend, y'all! I hope your week was better than mine, which was full of frustration and wall-punching. I come with a blue cat, who has decided Daughter's reading nook is his reading nook. Because cat.
News is in order!
You will find it on Dreamwidth: https://kherishdar.dreamwidth.org/
So far this week's new episodes:
If you have no Dreamwidth account, you can still comme...
2019-02-27 15:19:34 +0000 UTC View Post
Look, the cat is broken!
Anyway, I'm sorry about yesterday, but the oaks have all exhaled at once and it's like trying to swim through a wall of sick. Even my somewhat-retrained immune system, post-shots, isn't dealing well with it. >.>
But anyway, ENOUGH ABOUT TREE SNOT. We have cats and news! Cat, above. News, below!
vuler en anaj [ voo LEHR EHN ahn AHJZ ] , [ adj ] — "truth in the gaze", used to describe someone around whom you feel compelled to behave well because you sense that they can tell when you haven't. From an old love poem; began as a noun (so-and-so has "truth in the gaze") and migrated to adjective form, ("so-and-so is truth-in-the-gaze-ish").
Those teeth, y'all. Dat jaw.
Anyway, we come 'round to Caturday once again! I hope you had a great week! It's been a crazy one for me, but... um, possibly all of my weeks are crazy. Nevertheless:
These were my initial notes for designing the capital city of Kherishdar. Also, we had a billion words this week... okay, slight exaggeration, but only slightly. As I'm collecting my notes and re-reading things, I am adding more words to the lexicon, and we've had over 50 since Monday. More deep concept words, of course, but also useful things like 'doll' and 'laser'.
The vocabulary is long pas...
2019-02-13 15:01:00 +0000 UTC View PostThe first month of the new year has come and gone! And that brings us to our “what did the Jaguar accomplish” post for January, and some plans for the coming months. Let’s get to it!
In writing news, I finished the new Alysha novel by adding about 70,000 words to the manuscript. I also finished editing Farmer’s Crown by adding another 17,000 words to it, because apparently my ...
2019-02-11 14:01:00 +0000 UTC View Post
I was napping on the round chair and this shameless animal came up and started trying to convince me not to get up because I made a comfortable cushion. I am NOT fooled. He might put his head under my limp hand while I'm sleeping, but he will start nibbling on it. It's not cute. *stubborn*
So, this week! Was kind of a crazy week. But here's the round-up!