I had to find the link to your old guestbook as I usually visited it from the link on your main page, but I found it, and the link you placed to here.
Interesting that the spam continued in the old guestbook even after the link to it was removed.
Regarding the old guestbook, some posting boards require that the user enter a code that changes and is displayed as a graphic image before they can post. Do you think that would have helped?
It might have helped, but the folks at SFF Net said that implementing that was pretty far down their priority list, and that it wouldn't have been 100% effective in any case.
Well, I hope that this works out and the spammers don't get wise.
Thanks for affording us another venue through which we can continue the conversations and discussions. Especially when the next serial book shows up, this will come in handy.
Yeah, I'm a bit concerned about how that serial is going to go. The novelty's probably worn off by now, and the longer I put it off, the worse that'll be -- but I really need to get more of the stuff under contract done before I let another serial eat up all my free time.
Well, if it doesn't work again, it doesn't. I'll live.
I'm not so sure that the success of The Spriggan Experiment was based so largely on novelty. We Ethshar fans are many and seemingly loyal. I'd hope that those of us who want to keep Ethshar stories coming will be able to keep the funding going.
I also find it somewhat interesting that you clain that the serial book ate up all your time. Was it really that much of an inhibitor to getting your other work done? I figured you just wrote Ethshar stuff as a way to "rest" your brain from your more mainstream commercial projects.
That's the only way I can figure that some writers can be as prolific as they are. When they have three or four active series, and all have books coming out on a regular basis, they'd HAVE to be writing all the time, wouldn't they? Assuming that's a yes, the only way I can see that happening is if writing one story helped them overcome a creative block on another.
Either that, or they do a lot of speed and never sleep, but then quality ought to suffer in that case, no?
Oushka is based on "uisquebaugh," which is the same Gaelic word that became "whiskey" in English.
It's not really whiskey, though, despite the name; it's grain vodka, maybe flavored with something. Gin is more or less vodka flavored with juniper, so there's precedent. I never really decided what it's flavored with, if anything.
(Incidentally, "-ka" is a diminutive ending in Russian, "voda" is water; "vodka" is literally "small water." I'm not sure what's small about it...)
And yes, The Spriggan Mirror took time away from other work, much more so than I expected. In the past I've been able to work on multiple projects at once without having them suffer too much, but for some reason Winterhome and The Spriggan Mirror didn't play well together. Winterhome was turned in just over a year late, and I'd estimate three or four months of that was due to the serial.
Right now I'm working on The Summer Palace, which is 90% unwritten and already a month past deadline, and a non-fiction book about Terry Pratchett's Discworld that got much more difficult when I discovered that the fans who run L-Space had already done most of what I'd been planning to do. These are tricky enough projects that adding another novel would be stupid, so the next serial's gonna have to wait until I've made some serious progress on one or both.
I'm doing some other little things, though -- look for an announcement of an online project this Thursday.
Hi Lawrence have not posted in while new guestbook looks good. i notice your appearing in a convention sept 22-24 in texas. both your self and alan dean foster are are there and i cant make it this year. your both my favorite authors.i was wondering if you plan on attending any thing close to little rock arkansas next year. keep up the good work and look forward to your next book
Hi, glad to see the guest book up and running, hopefully the change will cut down on all the spamming.
Just a little question, what's the status for the release of the Spriggin Mirror in hardcopy? I remember you mentioned a date when it'd be most likely available for those that donated whilst it was being written, but I've forgotten when you said that was.
(Incidentally, "-ka" is a diminutive ending in Russian, "voda" is water; "vodka" is literally "small water." I'm not sure what's small about it...)
I would guess that it's called small water, because it would be served in small measures, rather then per pint.
The hardcopy edition of The Spriggan Mirror is scheduled for September 15th. I'm sorry it's so long a wait, but that gave Wildside time to get it listed in their catalog and in the Diamond Distributors catalog.
I have been thinking about sorcerers in Ethshar recently, and how their magic works.
If I understand it correctly, anyone can use a sorcerous item. The reason I think this is from how his sister gave him some sorcerous items to use in Spriggin Mirror book.
So is a sorcerer's magic in the crafting of these devices rather then in using them?
A sorcerer's ability is knowing what the talismans are and how to use them. Oh, and owning some. Making them is extra -- not all sorcerers can do that.
Is this "knowing" just from training, and being told what to look out for in such items. So its more knowledge rather than magic that marks a sorcerer? with maybe just a small part of the orginial sorcery style magic to let them "sense" a sorcerous device when their near one? and maybe be able to detect the flow of energy within it, to help them work out how to operate it?
Are current sorcerers only pale imitations of the original sorcerers who could make the items, but were nearly all wiped out during the war, and it's ending?
Do sorcerous items run out of "juice" and can a sorcerer recharge them?
Sorcerers have no inherent personal magic; it's all just a matter of knowing how the talismans work, and a certain way of thinking. There is no special sense involved.
Old-time sorcerers had more to work with as far as the materials the talismans are made of, but they weren't any smarter or more powerful. Some methods have been lost, but it's not a big deal.
Everything I know about sorcery so far makes me sometimes to imagine certain sf-style origins of this school. All sorcerous talismans remind very advanced technology, and seeing them just used, but not created nor developed, in Ethshar, looks like there were advanced technical civilization thousands of years earlier and created all these devices. There was a discussion about connection between Ethshar and Earth before, and sorcerous devices are one of possible clues. However, I prefer to see Ethshar like its inhabitant, unaware of such possible connections - so I don't intend to speculate about this too much.
28 Comments:
I'm hoping that this page will serve as a substitute for the old Guestbook I've now abandoned to spammers.
Hi Lawreence,
I had to find the link to your old guestbook as I usually visited it from the link on your main page, but I found it, and the link you placed to here.
Interesting that the spam continued in the old guestbook even after the link to it was removed.
Regarding the old guestbook, some posting boards require that the user enter a code that changes and is displayed as a graphic image before they can post. Do you think that would have helped?
--EE
It might have helped, but the folks at SFF Net said that implementing that was pretty far down their priority list, and that it wouldn't have been 100% effective in any case.
I decided not to wait and see.
Well, I hope that this works out and the spammers don't get wise.
Thanks for affording us another venue through which we can continue the conversations and discussions. Especially when the next serial book shows up, this will come in handy.
Yeah, I'm a bit concerned about how that serial is going to go. The novelty's probably worn off by now, and the longer I put it off, the worse that'll be -- but I really need to get more of the stuff under contract done before I let another serial eat up all my free time.
Well, if it doesn't work again, it doesn't. I'll live.
You've got me: I will come to the new guestbook. I really liked the old one. It was especially fun when the Spriggan Experiment was going on.
Lawrence, does Oushka have a real-life inspiration? A particular brand or beer or a favorite drink?
Allen
I'm not so sure that the success of The Spriggan Experiment was based so largely on novelty. We Ethshar fans are many and seemingly loyal. I'd hope that those of us who want to keep Ethshar stories coming will be able to keep the funding going.
I also find it somewhat interesting that you clain that the serial book ate up all your time. Was it really that much of an inhibitor to getting your other work done? I figured you just wrote Ethshar stuff as a way to "rest" your brain from your more mainstream commercial projects.
That's the only way I can figure that some writers can be as prolific as they are. When they have three or four active series, and all have books coming out on a regular basis, they'd HAVE to be writing all the time, wouldn't they? Assuming that's a yes, the only way I can see that happening is if writing one story helped them overcome a creative block on another.
Either that, or they do a lot of speed and never sleep, but then quality ought to suffer in that case, no?
Oushka is based on "uisquebaugh," which is the same Gaelic word that became "whiskey" in English.
It's not really whiskey, though, despite the name; it's grain vodka, maybe flavored with something. Gin is more or less vodka flavored with juniper, so there's precedent. I never really decided what it's flavored with, if anything.
(Incidentally, "-ka" is a diminutive ending in Russian, "voda" is water; "vodka" is literally "small water." I'm not sure what's small about it...)
And yes, The Spriggan Mirror took time away from other work, much more so than I expected. In the past I've been able to work on multiple projects at once without having them suffer too much, but for some reason Winterhome and The Spriggan Mirror didn't play well together. Winterhome was turned in just over a year late, and I'd estimate three or four months of that was due to the serial.
Right now I'm working on The Summer Palace, which is 90% unwritten and already a month past deadline, and a non-fiction book about Terry Pratchett's Discworld that got much more difficult when I discovered that the fans who run L-Space had already done most of what I'd been planning to do. These are tricky enough projects that adding another novel would be stupid, so the next serial's gonna have to wait until I've made some serious progress on one or both.
I'm doing some other little things, though -- look for an announcement of an online project this Thursday.
And by the way, it's good to see people here!
Hola!
Chris
Hi Lawrence
have not posted in while new guestbook looks good.
i notice your appearing in a convention sept 22-24 in texas. both your self and alan dean foster are are there and i cant make it this year. your both my favorite authors.i was wondering if you plan on attending any thing close to little rock arkansas next year. keep up the good work and look forward to your next book
This post has been removed by the author.
Little Rock? Not in any current plans, but That Could Change. I do have a sister living in Little Rock.
You might want to click the "Home" link below for a little more Guestblook-related news.
Ok, I figured it out. I can comment now. As if anyone cares.
The new Guestblook seems much more active. I guess change, in this case, is good.
Hi, happened upon your website and will be back.
sfarmer76
Hi, glad to see the guest book up and running, hopefully the change will cut down on all the spamming.
Just a little question, what's the status for the release of the Spriggin Mirror in hardcopy? I remember you mentioned a date when it'd be most likely available for those that donated whilst it was being written, but I've forgotten when you said that was.
(Incidentally, "-ka" is a diminutive ending in Russian, "voda" is water; "vodka" is literally "small water." I'm not sure what's small about it...)
I would guess that it's called small water, because it would be served in small measures, rather then per pint.
Carolina Hurricanes - Stanley Cup Champs. Nuff said.
The hardcopy edition of The Spriggan Mirror is scheduled for September 15th. I'm sorry it's so long a wait, but that gave Wildside time to get it listed in their catalog and in the Diamond Distributors catalog.
You can advance order it on
Amazon, by the way.
Oh, and of course, if you were a contributor, yes, you'll get a copy, you don't need to buy one.
Actually I don't mind it being in september, as my birthday is only a few days after the launch date :)
Will start saving my copper to cover the cost of postage for my free one.
Really should remember to put my name on the post, lol.
I have been thinking about sorcerers in Ethshar recently, and how their magic works.
If I understand it correctly, anyone can use a sorcerous item. The reason I think this is from how his sister gave him some sorcerous items to use in Spriggin Mirror book.
So is a sorcerer's magic in the crafting of these devices rather then in using them?
A sorcerer's ability is knowing what the talismans are and how to use them. Oh, and owning some. Making them is extra -- not all sorcerers can do that.
Is this "knowing" just from training, and being told what to look out for in such items. So its more knowledge rather than magic that marks a sorcerer? with maybe just a small part of the orginial sorcery style magic to let them "sense" a sorcerous device when their near one? and maybe be able to detect the flow of energy within it, to help them work out how to operate it?
Are current sorcerers only pale imitations of the original sorcerers who could make the items, but were nearly all wiped out during the war, and it's ending?
Do sorcerous items run out of "juice" and can a sorcerer recharge them?
Sorcerers have no inherent personal magic; it's all just a matter of knowing how the talismans work, and a certain way of thinking. There is no special sense involved.
Old-time sorcerers had more to work with as far as the materials the talismans are made of, but they weren't any smarter or more powerful. Some methods have been lost, but it's not a big deal.
Oh, yeah -- some talismans do need recharging sometimes. It varies.
Everything I know about sorcery so far makes me sometimes to imagine certain sf-style origins of this school. All sorcerous talismans remind very advanced technology, and seeing them just used, but not created nor developed, in Ethshar, looks like there were advanced technical civilization thousands of years earlier and created all these devices. There was a discussion about connection between Ethshar and Earth before, and sorcerous devices are one of possible clues. However, I prefer to see Ethshar like its inhabitant, unaware of such possible connections - so I don't intend to speculate about this too much.
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