FIRST COMMENT EVER!!! BWA HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

Um...yeah. I would welcome you to Livejournal, but as I've had you friended for months there's very little point. Karen's constantly referring to stuff you've sent her, so I'm sure you'll have plenty to say on life, the universe, and everything.

(It's not that gelatinous or mirish, really, just avoid the warm spots. Joooin ussssss...)

So cynical for one so young... tut tut.

Welcome to the abyss, Master!

Why, Mr Frost, you know the high regard in which I hold the brave men and women who serve the public in the honourable world of politics!

Seriously, some of my best buddies have been politicians. But that doesn't mean I'd leave my wallet alone with them in a room...

No, cynical works for me. The proudest moment of my life (well, sort of) was when my colleague Mike Lewis said: "You're the most cynical person I've ever met in my life." But then he hasn't met any of our current administration, I don't think.

Most kids I meet are cynical, not in the sour sense that I am, but in the sense that they have no automatic deference to politicians and think they all talk crap. Which gives me hope.

"actual Number of the Beast is in fact 616."

Which is the number of the core universe in Marvel Comics, the timeline all their continuity takes place in.

I'm going to be keeping an eye out for radioactive spiders and mild manner Gamma irradiated scientists from now on.

Of course, if the movie Elektra (spun off from Daredevil, a Marvel comic) wasn't a harbringer of armageddon, I don't know what was.

You poor, luckless bastard! You're doomed now, doomed I say!

Never give a pronoun an even break. That's my motto and I'm stickin' to it.

GF

Oy!

The best answer I can give you -- short of suggesting that you (or someone with the linguistic chops to do it justice) jump in and create it as a full blown functional language -- would be to keep it very simple, and thus avoid painting yourself into a corner.

Avoid funky and seemingly random application of apostrophes and accents. These have been habitually used to create an "exotic" feel, and they fail miserably (as well as rarely making any kind of linguistic sense).

Make consistent use of the rudimentary grammar that you have, and consider the ramifications and manifestations of it for the speakers (the ol' Sapir-Whorf hypothesis: the structure of language influences the structure of thought, and vice versa.

Build logically from what you have. Do this on your own, in your worldbuilding notes. There's no need to use a fraction of what you create, but having created it, it will color what you do use, making it seem more fluid and less disjointed.

And if none of that works, you can always encourage LucasFilm to hire me to do it for you. :)

You might also want to check in with the folks at Lucasfilm as to whether they want to establish a language bible. I'm assuming you're not the only author who will be working in this series, and you want consistency across the language if at all possible. Having a single source (be it reference material or language geek) would be a great resource.

For example, I know most of the Trek authors, and have been a frequent resource for those who are including Klingon bits (when they can't get access to the language's creator, Marc Okrand, or when he's too busy). This in turn has led at least one producer over at Paramount to call me for a consult (I got to invent some Vulcan dialogue for ENTERPRISE!).

Wow! Sounds impressive.

And in hindsight, I should have realized this. As zelaously as Viacom guards their copyrights, it's the folks over at Lucasfilm who have really set the standard for merchandizing their film creations.

Best of luck with the project, and if you find you need any more input, feel free to pop in at my LJ and ask anytime.

Welcome to LiveJournal.

I look forward to your gothic poetry and slash fiction.

Don't go all literary on me, Frost...

...or something like that.
Attack of the Jazz Giants and Other Stories is now shipping from Golden Gryphon Press, and just in time, Locus Magazine, Booklist, and Publisher's Weekly have weighed in on it. PW says: "Frost (Fitcher's Brides) demonstrates his mastery of the short story form in what will surely rank as one of the best fantasy collections of the year." Booklist adds: "Frost’s stories are funny and tragic, thoughtful observations on human phenomena; together they make a collection very well worth reading." And in Locus, Nick Gevers concurs: "Attack of the Jazz Giants is a notable collection, likely to stand as one of the best of 2005."

I know what you're thinking, and no, I didn't pay anybody anything, nor do I have pictures of them in indelicate situations with a llama. Just so you know. Anyway, this is my one splurge of shameless promotion. Thank you and we now return you to your regularly scheduled piece of totally inauthentic reality programming.

Frost out

My friend Jim Gilmer sent this along today, snipped from http://www.venganza.org/

"Some find that hard to believe, so it may be helpful to tell you a little more about our beliefs. We have evidence that a Flying Spaghetti Monster created the universe. None of us, of course, were around to see it, but we have written accounts of it. We have several lengthy volumes explaining all details of His power. Also, you may be surprised to hear that there are over 10 million of us, and growing. We tend to be very secretive, as many people claim our beliefs are not substantiated by observable evidence. What these people don't understand is that He built the world to make us think the earth is older than it really is. For example, a scientist may perform a carbon-dating process on an artifact. He finds that approximately 75% of the Carbon-14 has decayed by electron emission to Nitrogen-14, and infers that this artifact is approximately 10,000 years old, as the half-life of Carbon-14 appears to be 5,730 years. But what our scientist does not realize is that every time he makes a measurement, the Flying Spaghetti Monster is there changing the results with His Noodly Appendage. We have numerous texts that describe in detail how this can be possible and the reasons why He does this. He is of course invisible and can pass through normal matter with ease."

Yes, indeed, he's reminded me of just how pissed off I am about the whole "Liberals are out to destroy Christianity" scare movement coming from the right. Yo, idiots out there...in case you never bothered to think between the hymns, those horrible, meany liberal laws are inclusive--that means they include and protect your right *not* to avail yourselves of any of them--you're not REQUIRED to use birth control; you're not FORCED to have abortions (although I think a lobotomy would do you good); you're not REQUIRED to have premarital sex with or without protection (in your case, without, since you insist on keeping your children ignorant of their own genitalia); you're not FORCED to read the Koran, the Torah or any other religious group's big tract in a place of education. Nope. You are free to do none of the above, just as those silly old liberals would protect others who want or need to take something off that shelf. You foaming at the mouth nutters are the ones waging the war, because your proposals are exclusive--that is, you would exclude everybody everywhere from doing anything that you narrow-minded fundies disapprove of. No freedom. No choice. That "Choose Life" bumper sticker you display so proudly...by its very existence implies that choice exists, and that we should (and I agree with you) choose life over death. But that is a private matter, not a legislative one. It's not for you to tell me how and when to choose which, just as it's not up to me to tell you. If I offend my god, then it'll be between me and Him, won't it? You, basically, can sod off. It's none of your business, just as it's none of mine if you want to take your poor kid out of school because they wouldn't let him declaim from the Book of Job. Take him out of school. Teach him at home to think just like you. Then you can watch him go out into the world as an adult who didn't have the opportunity to come to your way of belief by seeing it on his own as the best one. The Amish at least have the sense to let their kids dive into the horrors of hedonism so that when they come back into the fold, they'll understand what they turned down and why. Something your ignorant little byproduct will not figure out. But, then, that's your choice.

Today's rant is now concluded.
Frost out

Still, have to begin somewhere.

long road starts with one first step

but u r now not stayin'n'do nothing at least %)) so u r not worthless ^__^

Hello! I'm Lauren, another Swarthmore student-- Eliza introduced us briefly a few weeks ago. :)

I look forward to possibly taking the fiction workshop with you next year. I hope you don't mind if I add you to my friendslist.