The Shard - first several chapters

I'm nervous! I just put out the first few chapters of my epic fantasy novel The Shard at Authonomy.  I don't know how cool the reviewers are there, but I figure I can always delete it from the site if I don't like how things are going. I don't intend to network, as I strongly believe that a book should sink or swim based solely on its own merits, not on how strong a networker I happen to be. I sure wouldn't mind some honest opinions on it. I want to find out whether people will truly want me to post more chapters or not.  Warning - many people are sick and tired of Tolkienesque worlds, especially elves and such; this book is for those of us who love such worlds.

Oust These Words!

There are some words that I have long believed shouldn't exist in the English language. I'll mention two of them today.

SUPERNATURAL - Yeah, I know what the dictionary says, that it merely relates to 'an order of existence beyond the visible observable universe' (Webster Dictionary) or appearing to transcend the laws of nature. In my opinion, though, this word incorporates human ignorance, naming something to be outside of nature simply because we do not yet understand it. I think it is very simple - if something exists, then it is natural. It does not matter whether we currently understand it or not. If ghosts or demons or anything else that we call supernatural actually do exist, then they are obviously natural.

PULCHRITUDINOUS - Ugh! What a horrid word. I know about its Latin origins, but I dare you to go up to a woman in a bar and tell her how pulchritudinous she looks to you. I bet she slaps you. The very sound of this word makes me imagine rotting corpses with maggots crawling through the bloody muck of their intestines. How this word could possibly have the meaning of physical beauty is beyond me. Either remove it from English, or change its meaning to be just what it sounds like, i.e. something to do with decay.

Hello!

I'm too tired from work to say anything interesting today, but I was looking through some recent photos and thought some animal lovers might like this shot of our cockatiel, Gosha. He's quite moody, but he can be really friendly and talkative when he wants to be.

Do YOU Know Where I Am?

I have lived in six countries so far, and travelled to many more, but the country where I currently live, Azerbaijan, is the one that gets the most blank looks when I mention it to people. It seems that very few Westerners know where Azerbaijan is located. Do you know where it is?

Baku is the capital city. It lies on the western shore of the Caspian Sea, and it is a huge oil producing region. It is one of the fifteen former republics of the USSR. To the north of Azerbaijan is Russia; to the south is Iran; northwest is Georgia, west is Armenia; and southwest is Turkey.

The majority of cititzens here are Muslims, though it is not so hard-line as many such countries, probably due to Soviet influence. Official languages are Azeri and Russian, but many young people are studying English these days.

The city needs some work to fix some of its issues - grime, crazy drivers, decaying infrastructure, and insane prices - but it can be nice, too. It has never felt dangerous to me, and it can be surprisingly colorful in places.

One pet peeve my family has here, though, is that they don't have normal (by Western standards) parks. Their idea of parks here is that they are places to admire, not places to play and relax. Therefore, I cannot take my kids to a park and play on grass. Grass is not to be walked on! My poor sons so miss going out to play soccer or baseball in the park.

Not far from Baku is a fascinating place called Gobustan. It has thousands of petroglyphs from around 10,000 B.C. That's right, around twelve thousand years ago. In the same area is also a piece of writing carved in stone done by the Roman 12th legion. This is the farthest east that Roman legionary writing has been found.

Here is an example of petroglyphs at Gobustan.

Also near Baku are mud volcanos and a fire mountain, where natural gas is seeping from a hillside and has caught fire, thus the 'mountain' burns at all times.

The most famous person born in Baku may depend on one's point-of-view, but to me it is clearly former world chess champion Gary Kasparov. He was born here, though he is actually Armenian/Jewish.

I'll finish with a photo of the most famous landmark in Baku. It is called the Maiden Tower. The main part of it was constructed in the 12th century, though its foundation may go back to the Sasanids. There are conflicting stories for how it got its name. Some say a maiden threw herself from the top of the tower. Others say it has never been taken by force. Anyhow, the photo doesn't quite do justice to how tall it is.

I enjoy living in well-known countries (China, Russia, Iceland, Croatia), but it is also fun to get a chance to live in a country that few know much about.

Music To Die For

I am a great music lover. My tastes range from classic rock (Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, The Who, The Beatles) to heavy rock (Tool/APC, Ministry, Green Day) to grunge and other rock (U2, Soundgarden, White Stripes, Stone Temple Pilots, Filter, Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, Coldplay) to easy listening (Simon & Garfunkel, Cat Stevens, Leonard Cohen, Cranberries, Kris Kristofferson, Tom Waits). There are really too many favorites to list.

I don't like most music these days, especially hip-hop or girly- or boy-bands. I prefer the days when people had talent and genius for instruments and writing and performing their own music. About the only genius bands these days are a few listed above, such as Tool and Green Day.

Strangely, though, when I imagine my death, I want a memorial with the loveliest music from my collection. Besides the previously-mentioned 'Council of Elrond' by Enya, I mostly want played some of the amazingly-gorgeous songs from the most brilliant soundtrack ever made - Blade Runner (apologies to the wonderful soundtrack to The Big Chill).

Vangelis disappointed me by not including my favorite piece of music from the film - 'Main Titles & Prologue' - but you can find it on the web if you look for it. However, there are still several five-star songs in this collection, and when I am in a peaceful mood I play this music over and over. The best songs are 'Memories of Green', 'Main Titles', 'Blush Response', 'Love Theme', 'Blade Runner Blues', and 'Tears in the Rain'.

If I had to limit myself to three songs at my memorial, they would be 'Council of Elrond', 'Main Titles & Prologue', and 'Memories of Green'. Check them out if you love breathtaking beauty with a hint of science fiction or fantasy.

Writing and.......Basketball?!

When my favorite literary agent Nathan Bransford blogged about his 2nd Annual Blog Bracket Challenge, naturally I joined in. I didn't expect to do well. I followed college hoops fanatically for years, but it has become harder and harder to do so as I have moved from country to country for my work. This year I haven't watched any games and barely followed anyone other than my poor Arizona Wildcats, who didn't make the Big Dance for the first time in ages.

When I filled out the bracket I didn't know much about the teams. I looked up what I could about them on the web and then filled in my bracket. I decided to pick fewer upsets than I usually do, figuring that it would average out in my favor in the end.

Well, after the first round I was way down in the standings. I didn't pay attention after that, at least not until the final 4, when for some reason I checked back in and was shocked to find I was tied in 6th place. Now I am even more shocked, because after the semi-final results, I am currently tied with one other person for 1st place!

Wow! Isn't it ironic to have one of the best things that could happen to me in my brief writing career come down to the result of a basketball game? If Duke wins, then another person comes from behind and takes it, but if Butler pulls off the upset then I remain tied for 1st. I don't remember Nathan saying if there is a tiebreaker or not. The prize he is offering is a personal review of a partial, which I assumes means 50 pages or so of a manuscript. That would be tremendously helpful, as all of the feedback I have so far comes from friends and relatives. I need to know from some expert where I have some weak spots or amateurish moments. If I got that, I could really strengthen the book. Go Butler!!

Favorite Writing Song

I don't often listen to music when I write, but I often do while editing. Since I have mainly been working on a fantasy work, the song that I play over and over again is my edited version of Enya's "Council of Elrond".

This is one of the most beautiful pieces of music I have ever heard.  Oddly enough, I don't much like Enya's other work, especially those songs with choruses. I do like the other song she did for LOTR, "May It Be", but not nearly as much as I love this song. Unfortunately I have no way of letting you hear my edited version, which I much prefer to the long one. The real song goes on far too long, while I fade it out just after the last vocal. I think it is perfect that way.

I like to put it on repeat and just work away on my book with the music playing in the background. It's funny, but even though Enya is singing in English, it sounds so Elven to me. I think it would have worked well in Gaelic also.