NaNoWriMo 2006

I have signed up for NaNoWriMo 2006, and making a new blog just for it.

Anyone else joining?

This is a test…

Okay, I’m editing again, this is a test post, to see what the layout well look like. Just ignore it. Real posts well be coming soon.

~~EK

http://eelkat.wordpress.com/

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My Vincent Price DeskTop

Seeing how Halloween is just around the corner, I made me a new desktop pic, featuring my fave actor: Vincent Price.

Skunk in tent with me…

and there is a skunk in the tent…

a little baby one, he is so cute, just came walking in and is sitting here next to Topie and eating out ofc the catfood dish with him… he doesn’t seem to be scared at all, not trying to spray or threaten or anything, just siting here in the tent, eating with the cats, like he belongs here. he’s about 5″ away from me, not sure if I should move or not

I’m getting a boat!

I am getting a boat… 41′ house boat that is… with 3 decks! Needs lots of work.

I’m on MySpace

I am now on MySpace if anyone wants to link up on my friends list. Just click AddMe. Love to see you there!

Coma

as people who follow me on my web sites and chat groups well know, last May our family was faced with a freak acident that left my dad in a coma and not expected to live… it was the scariest hellish nightmare me and my brothers have ever been through and it totaly disrupted our lives, making us see everything through new eyes.

A coma, is not what we — I — had thought it was… I only knew comas from movies and novies tell us that a person lays there, like they are asleep… that is the farthest thing from the truth

In the first few moments of the coma, my dad became hysterical, he torn the woodstove out of the wall and threw is across the room, smashing out the water pipes and flooding the house… he ripped the toliet out of the floor and sent it across the house as well… he smashed all most everything, ripped out walls with his bare hands… all the while he could neither see nor hear any of us, and was screaming in no legible terms much like a rabid animal, and try as we could, we could not stop him, he had the streangth of a giant, not a normal thing for him… with barely the walls still standing we went to the neighbors for help, the police arrived and it tooke 4 big officers to tie him down and carry him out to the ambulance, at this point we had no idea what had happened… the town condemed what was left of our house. The whole thing took place in about 15 minutes. (though the event with the police harasment took 4 hours and nearly cost my dad his life, but that’s another story).

Four hours later doctors told us that what we had just experianced was a diabetic coma. He had no knowledge that he had diabetes, and the coma was brought on by his sugar level being in excess of 1,200. He remained in the coma for nearly 2 months, shackled to the hospital and thrashing and screaming the entire time, relaxing only when the doctors tranquilized him.

His eyes were often open, and he often acted as though he was talking to people who were not there. There were many times when he seemed to be awake. And yes the dopctors notice every single movment… they had every inch of him suck with monitors, that set off alarms at the slightest movement. He had 2 doctors and 4 nurses on duty at any given time, and these rotated every three days, so that he had 4 doctors and 12 nurses taking care of him.

At it’s worst point, he stopped breathing, his kidneys shut down, and it looked as though he’d not make it through the night.

When he came out of the coma, he could no longer talk or walk, bith caused by having not spoken or walking for so very long… he had to be retrained how to do both.

Through it all, he remembers nothing… his last memory was 3 days before he tore the house apart. His first memory was sitting in a chair wanting to eat ice cream, 2 months later.

Salt Water Sireans (about Etiole`)

I found this post and I knew I just had to respond, but the respond got so long that I figured I had to come back here to post my answer to this post hereas well.

Here is the original post followed by my answer to it.

The Question:

Water-elves, water related creatures, and elven language

1) In a common fantasy setting (literature, RPG, whatever), is there a race like water-elves? Or any other commonly known humanoid creatures with an affinity to water? I don’t mean they actually live in the water, just somewhere near it (in my case, the coast). I know I can just go and invent any sort of race or species I like, but I first want to check if something like this already exists in the general fantasy world (just like elves, wizards, trolls, orcs, dragons, etc. are established fantasy characters). I just know the books I’ve read had nothing of the sort I’m looking for, so I was wondering if I’m just missing something, or if I should just go ahead and make something up.

2) A related question is, whether there is a commonly used language for elves in fantasy literature/RPG. I know there are numerous websites about elven language, but the ones I’ve seen don’t really mention whether it’s from a particular book or RPG, or if there is a sort of “standard” elven language that all authors use, or standard rules upon which to base the language. Again, I know I can make up anything I like, but I don’t want my readers to think my elvish sounds “wrong”. It doesn’t really matter to me if I make up some words of my own or if I adapt an already existing language, so anything is fine with me. Also, for the latter, should I be concerned about copyright?

My Asnswer:

oooh… a thread built just for me and my le Etiole`! WOO~HOO!

my specilty… water sprites

my fave species… Merakins a.k.a Salt Water Sireans

I have somewhere a very detailed and complete description of Etiole, his physical characteristics, his habits, his specis, etc. It’s around here somewhere…. I’ll look for it and post a copy of it here for you in a few days.

Here’s a basic quick answer to your question though, off the top of my head:

Merakins and Salt Water Sireans are a type of speicies, that I created based on Greek, Roman, and french mythology, for use in the Twighlight Manor series…

Here are the basic details as compiled from my studies…

Sireans live on rocky coastlines…

they usualy live in caves or forests along the coast… but can live under the water as well…

they are amphibious, meaning they can breath on both land and under water…

they have gils on their chests and fins on the sides of thier arms and legs, and down their spines, their fingers and toes are webbed…

they are described as hypnoticly beautiful, no human can pass them by, and pine away from no being able to capture the sirean, and often spend the rest of their lives in attempt to catch one

they have teeth like pirahans, in several rows like sharks, and usually eat fish, eels being a preferance…

They are generally smaller than humans, the males being 5′1 to 5′3″, the females smaller… but taller specis are mentioned in some myths/stories…

They are often mentioned to have “magic powers” but these may vary…

most common magic power is the ability to sing in a manner that causes humans to go into a drug like trance and leap into the water drowning themselves in an attemt to capture the sirean… there are 2 explainations for this…

1) that sireans are vampire-like andfeed on human flesh, and singing is their way of luring the humans into the water

2) they are peaceful creatures that simply enjoy singing and have no knowledge that humans are drowning themselves

Sireans are often considered to be highly sexual creatures, the males, sometimes being considered incubists that prey on young human women, while the females are said to sit on rocks and lure sailors to a watery grave with promises of eternal sexual delights.

Sireans are very closly linked to Mermaids, but are deferant in that mermaids have tails and never leave the water, while sireans have legs and usually live on land.

as to language… they are usually said to speak ancient dialects of Greek, Latin, or French

for the best info on the Faerie Realm read “Faeries” by Brian Froud… he is the world’s top aythority on Faerie species, and that is his enyclopedic index of most all of the European species. (and beautifully illustrated too!)

for added referance,… this is just me and what I do…

I had Etiole` speak French, and live in a French coastal town in Maine. For magic powers, I “invented” a new one just for him… Electrical, like an Electric StingRay or Electric Eel. Than because he’s very vain, and like all sireans very beautiful, I made him a drag queen.

Writing Exercise: Dragons

I was sent an IM message through Proboards… a spam IM that was sent to everyone who was online, I  get them a lot, but this one was a bit differant. This one asked the question:

“Do you like dragons?”

I like dragons  but they don’t realy rank in my top fave things… they are up there though, just not in the top 5 list…

top 5 list:

• Merakins (deadliest of the Salt Water Sirens – I love the so rarely mentioned, males)
• Phookas (evil shape shifters, with a taste for blood – not to be confused wit, h Pookas like Harvey)
• Sirens other than Merakins (including Merfolk, Greenwitches, Selkies, Gwayiths, etc)
• Chrystonites (blue skined creatures with an icey touch)
• Dryads (tree spirits, often bad tempered)

Guess you can tell, I’m also a HUGE fan of Bryan Froud and the darker side of the Realm of Fay aka The Faerie Realme`

Of course, you know me, I just had to turn this into yet an other writing exercise for you all to try out, and here it comes.

Dragons: Questions to answer before you write dragons into your fantasy novel

Okay, so you know to write character profiles, but what about none-humanoid characters? Do you ever write profiles for them? Profiles are great for helping you remember important data about your story.

#1. Do you use dragons in your stories? Or plan to? Why or Why not?

#2. How well do you really know your dragons? Not sure? Find out by filling out this profile form, Just copy and paste this code into the reply box, than answer each question. Print up your answers, than add the printout to your notes. Volia! Instant Dragon Profile to always have on hand when you are writing a dragon scene.

Fire: Do they breath fire?

Flight: Can they fly?

Knowledge:Do they think like humans?

Age:

Bonding: either with humans or with each other

Violence:

Size: How big do they get? How fast do they grow?

Ecology: What’s the dragon’s natural habitat?

Food: How much do they eat, and of what?

Breeding: How many eggs/young come at a time, and what’s their road to maturity like?

Culture/habits: If your dragons are human-level intelligence, do they have a culture of their own? If they’re less intelligent, what kind of complex behaviors are instinctive/learned?

I like dragons, but I have never written anything with dragons in it, but I have toyed with the idea that in ancient time there were Dragons on Crystonia, before the ice age began, and having someone discover the frozen fossils of them.

Here is what I’ve come up with thus far…

Fire – possibly, the anceint one’s before the Ice Age did, because the Ice Dragons do, well kind of… they breath an “ice fire” instead

Flight – Yes, they have big beautiful sparkly blue wings, to match their opal white scales, I love wings dragons!

Knowledge – no, never thought about that; they are just big lizards, like an alligator or kimodo dragon or dinosaur… I supose they are just as intelegent as a cat or dog and could be trained, but it has never been done… no talking/thinking/human type characteristics at all

Age – unknown… the Ice Age began centuries ago, and it is not known if these are the same dragons now crystalized or if these are desents of the original non-crystalized ones

Bonding – with their young, yes; as adults they seem to be solitary; with the Crystonites, no

Violence – they are rarely seen, which seems to indicate that they are very shy and peaceful; yet they are fierce and tempermental if you aproach their caves

Size: Big, very big, huge, dinosaur T-Rex, type big

Ecology: What’s the dragon’s natural habitat? they live in caves in the high snow capped mountains

Food How much do they eat, and of what? unknown, but they are big, so it must be alot; and as Crystonia is nearly devoid of both vegitation and large wildlife, that would explain why dragons are so rare

Breeding How many eggs/young come at a time, and what’s their road to maturity like?
lay eggs, 2-4 to a clutch; I’d say simalar to the black african eagle

Culture/habits: If your dragons are human-level intelligence, do they have a culture of their own? If they’re less intelligent, what kind of complex behaviors are instinctive/learned?
nope, does not apply, they are just big lizards, like an alligator or kimodo dragon or dinosaur… I supose they are just as intelegent as a cat or dog and could be trained, but it has never been done… no talking/thinking/human type characteristics at all

Also… anyone got any ideas on Ice or Crystal Dragons? I’m thinking that there may be a few dragons high on Mount Demontooth, now crystalized like the rest of the planet by the Crystal Plauge; I well be reading this thread to get ideas, for what the Crystonia dragons may have been like.

How do you write about your dragons?

Happy Dragon hunting!

~~EK

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