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The Ai-Naidari Guidebook, Part 3: Food

Posted by on May 16, 2013 1 comment

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


Ten Hours, 100% Funded

Posted by on May 13, 2013 No comments

…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. :)

An Excerpt from “Mindtouch”

Posted by on May 10, 2013 No comments

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.”

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

Posted by on May 9, 2013 No comments

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!






Voice

Posted by on May 8, 2013 1 comment

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.

Dancing Centauroid Aliens

Posted by on May 8, 2013 No comments

“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.

Midpoint of the Novel

Posted by on May 5, 2013 No comments

“It is not really a time we discuss much amongst ourselves,” Jahir says. “The circumstances during which we formed our friendship. It was a precarious time.”

The two of them are sitting in their usual place, Jahir on the couch and Vasiht’h next to him on the floor. I notice that the former’s not really as slack-limbed as he sometimes is at his most comfortable, but more self-contained: the abbreviated body language that non-Eldritch read as “prim” and is really their way of minimizing contact.

“Why not?” I ask. “It’s over, yes?”

“But what could have been, or what almost wasn’t,” Jahir says and trails off, not to lead me to some conclusion, but because he’s looking at something on the inside of his head that he’d rather not contemplate.

I glance at Vasiht’h. “And you? Same thing?”

“I believe the Goddess had Her plans, and it worked out as it should have, and had to have.” He smiles, a little crookedly. “Still, I have my moments too.”

“Well, I’m glad you’re finally telling me how it goes,” I murmur. “And I promise when I’m done, we’ll move on to easier stories.”

“Right,” Vasiht’h says. “Like meeting Lisinthir. Faaaaarrrr easier.”

Jahir puts his hand to his eyes and sighs.

The Ai-Naidari Guidebook, Introduction

Posted by on May 2, 2013 No comments

I seem to be without a serial (and you all seem to be without Kherishdar), so I thought until I was ready to start something new I’d post the parts of the Ai-Naidari Guidebook I’ve already written. Hopefully you all will tell me where I need more detail or am unclear! So I can develop it to answer your questions. Your suggestions and comments are welcome. :)

Here’s the introduction, then!

The Ai-Naidari Guidebook
Introduction and Basics

      I am the scribe, and I have been to Kherishdar more times than any other alien I am aware of… but even I don’t know everything, I am afraid. Sometimes, even, I feel like I am constantly learning things that contradict one another. I think that’s to be expected; we presume that other cultures are going to be consistent, and that they’ll always make sense.
      That’s not true of us; I don’t know why we go elsewhere, expecting otherwise.
      What I have written here, then, reflects my understanding of Kherishdar today. It should be sufficient to your visiting without giving grave offense; toward that end we are helped in that the Ai-Naidar don’t expect us to act as they do. Quite the opposite, even. And they appreciate any attempts we make to minimize our accidental discourtesies.
      So then. My advice on your visit to Kherishdar.

Basics
      To even step foot on Kherishdar, you will need a permit. This permit can only be issued to you by an Ai-Naidari above the Wall of Birth—the administrators and “nobles” of the culture—and they in turn have to request it of the Emperor Himself… so if you have been given one, you have probably undergone quite a bit of scrutiny, most of it unnoticed. It’s not that they’re a sneaky people, it’s just that they’re so ubiquitous, and so used to asking one another for help and observations, that your behavior will have been noticed by just about everyone.
     It’s not polite to ask for a permit, though I’ve known people to do so. You’re more likely to get a response if you mention that you would be honored to one day see the capital/the homeworld/the sky above Kherishdar. This allows the Ai-Naidari to know that you’d like to visit without backing them into a corner about giving you an answer immediately.
     As much as possible, you want to avoid backing the Ai-Naidar into conversational corners. It’s not that they aren’t known to do it themselves, but it’s considered an indication either of a relationship between equals, or a conversation with someone above the other in caste-rank. You are not a Noble or Regal to command an Ai-Naidari to a distinct answer, and as an alien you’ll never be considered equivalent to any of them in rank, and thus allowed the leeway of someone speaking caste-to-caste. So try not to demand things.

     Once you have received a permission to visit Kherishdar, you will be issued both the permit and a gray cloak. The gray cloak is made of something heavy enough to fall well, but not really warm. It is, however, a very dark gray; it will be cut to fall to your ankles, and it will have a deep hood. You’ll be expected to keep the hood up most of the time. They won’t chastise you for letting it fall, or pulling it down now or then, but for the most part they want you to remain shrouded. The cloak will have clasps over the breast to help keep it closed; three is typical, but they may add more (or subtract some) depending on your build/height.
     The cloak is not about hiding that you’re human. The average Ai-Naidari stands somewhere between six and a half and eight feet, and it’s a rare person who’ll be tall enough to look like one of them. Additionally, they’re all lighter of frame, so a lot of humans are simply going to look wider. Plus, modern Ai-Naidar don’t use cloaks! So no matter how you try, you’re going to stand out.
      This is the purpose of the cloak, really: to make it clear that you are an outsider. To set you apart, both to the Ai-Naidar (so they know not to apply their rules to you) and to yourself, in your own heart. It’s not an uncomfortable piece of clothing to wear physically, but emotionally it can be off-putting.
      You get used to it, though.

Fun with Statistics

Posted by on April 28, 2013 No comments

This being a quasi-Three Jaguars sort of post… yesterday, I finally caught up with my accounting and had a look at my statistics. They surprised me! So, some fun facts:

My revenue right now comes from the following sources:
67% – e-books
11% – web comic
10% – print books
10% – Earthrise serial
01% – audiobooks

And that’s the kit and caboodle. Not in the running at all are print and original sales, merchandise sales or Kickstarter monies (since I haven’t run any campaigns yet this year). Some other interesting statistics:

     Despite a great deal of positive feedback, Earthrise has been my poorest-earning serial to date! And that’s counting my little-known/read serial edition of Flight of the Godkin Griffin (which had something like 50 subscribed readers that I knew of). Length isn’t part of that: both The Aphorisms and The Admonishments did better, and they were shorter by about 50 episodes. Rosary also did better, which surprises me, since Rosary isn’t everyone’s cup of tea.
     I should clarify here that even my “poorest performing” serial is still making a lot more money than one would suspect for something that’s being given away for free. It may be that Black Blossom‘s near five-digit earnings have skewed my expectations.
     Anyway! I’m not sure what’s behind Earthrise’s curious performance. My guess is that the content makes it the sort of book people prefer to read in one sitting, so I’m thinking it will do better as an e-book than it did as a serial, particularly with its beautiful cover.

     The web comic is also not doing as well as I expected: I’m glad I’m not depending on it for my livelihood! I was expecting to see some merchandise/related book sales, but it hasn’t really inspired any of those if my referred links/royalty statements are any indication. This may indeed be a single-year experiment: as much as I like doing the art, it uses up all my drawing time, so I haven’t done anything except web comics for four months now (aside from quick doodles).
     My suspicion is that web comics might need more than a year to ramp up to their full potential, in the same way novel-writing does. Given that, though, I’d rather write novels. But who knows! Something surprising may happen between now and the end of the year. So we’ll keep on to our December 31st date with destiny (Business Manager’s account books).
     Even if the web comic ends up being a single-year experiment, I don’t regret doing it at all. It’s been tremendous fun, and I will certainly leave it up for people to peruse for humor and business advice in the future.

     My e-book royalties are off the charts. In fact, right now in April I’m seeing double the e-book royalties I made last year. The whole year. This is mostly due to the big brouhaha in February with the Games Workshop thing. My sales numbers have dropped back to normal-for-me in subsequent months. If I got even half the amount I made in February on a monthly basis, I would be over the moon with delight…! I will have to do my part by writing more books. Which brings me to—

     —my final observation, which is that the common wisdom is true: series are good money-makers. Sales have been gratifying following the release of the rest of the Stone Moon trilogy; thanks to near real-time tracking from Amazon, I can watch people buy book 2 and then move on to book 3, or start on book 1 and then go on to book 2 and 3 within a couple of days. This seems like a do-able way to succeed. Even an otherwise low-profile indie author like me can get to the point of comfortable earning with enough series out there, as long as readers can easily figure out which book belongs to which series, and what order to read them in. So I’m going to focus on that for a while.


That’s what I’ve got (“and why,” Marketer Jaguar says, “it’s important for me to see the numbers along with Business Manager.”). I should note, this post is not intended to inspire pity or money! I am analyzing my numbers to see where it’s useful to spend my time, which is an important part of running any business. If seeing any of this makes you anxious about helping me (or nudging one of your favorite projects back into my immediate queue), I recommend telling your friends about my work, blogging about it or reviewing it. Those things help! Word of mouth is king. :)

Now, back to work with me.

The Accidental Asexual Romance Duology

Posted by on April 27, 2013 No comments

Case Study: The Tree

I am about 128 pages into Mindtouch, and it only just occurred to me that it’s got a structure a lot like a romance novel:

1. The point of the story is the development of a lasting relationship.
2. It starts with a meet-cute where both characters decide, at first sight, that they want to stick together.
3. It goes through a lot of “getting to know you” type stuff complete with halting “am I treading on your toes/going too fast” moments.
4. It has several relationship crisis points, and—
5. It culminates in a Happily Ever After.*

But there’s no sexual attraction between these two at all. Vasiht’h, thanks to hormone imbalances (or rather, hormone too-perfectly-balanced-ness), has no interest in anyone (and never does; he has children via one of the Glaseahn priestesses used for that function). Jahir is carrying a torch for someone he knew he could never have; he gently put that away very early in his life, but he also never fell in love with any other woman.

So these two find each other, and it’s perfect for them both, and they end up closer than family: sharing a practice, a friendship, and even a permanent psychic link. They even sleep in the same bedroom, though as one might expect of a small furred centauroid and a humanoid, not in the same bed. They’re not cuddly because Jahir is not the cuddly sort (ever, with anyone), but for a relationship involving an Eldritch, there’s a lot more touch than typical. I suppose you could call it a friendship, but to be honest, friendship has so many meanings that you wouldn’t get how completely their lives are intertwined if I used it. They’re partners, in every meaningful sense of the word, and they remain that way until Vasiht’h dies.**

These two books are also, incidentally, about the imperfections and wonders of the Alliance, and death, and coping with loving people who are very different from you. But the core of them… they really are relationship novels.

So, yeah. Asexual romances. Because apparently I haven’t made a run at every single painfully-difficult-to-market niche yet. All I can say is “thank God for indie publishing,” because there’s no way I could have sold this to anyone pre-revolution. :,



*I trust this is not a spoiler for people after reading all the case studies set far after when Jahir and Vasiht’h meet!
**Also, I trust, not a spoiler, given what you all know about Eldritch lifespans.