Language and locations, culture and customs, biology, psychology, and history… worldbuilding an alien world for a fiction series can be a monumental effort involving notes, maps, drawings, and resources…
..or you can do it Jaguar-style, and just talk to the people.
Conversations with the Ai-Naidar gathers seven years of “meta-conversations” between the author and her aliens as she struggles to understand their culture and language. Interspersed with scribbled notes from the author’s original sketchbooks, Conversationsoffers insight into an artistic process, perfect for lovers of the Kherishdar series, and anyone fascinated by the creative brain.
Come into the writer’s parlor!
Click to Buy!
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At your request, I’ve gathered together all the lost meta-conversations originally published on Livejournal, and made them available! I thought this would be a minor undertaking, but it actually took quite a while, particularly since I pulled out a lot of the discussions in the comments and added them, where applicable, and while anonymizing the people asking the questions…
This is not a small book, y’all. Look at the size of the spine on the proof copy! And that was using the same 6×9 format as the books in the series!
I am astonished. 😳
Anyway, I also added a lot of graphics, mostly in the form of something I don’t think I’ve exposed yet in print: my scribbled notes (often in the car, or in a meeting, so in the worst possible handwriting). That, plus some calligraphy. Here’s the copy I was marking up to make sure the graphics were spread evenly through the book (with bonus cat):
That was before I added a few more.
Anyway, I think this is… a unique volume. I hope you’ll enjoy it. If you do, I have almost enough material compiled for a second volume! And would not be adverse to sharing it, if people enjoy this one. Tell me what you think. 💖