C.G.Ayling

Author: cvdw4051

  • A glossary? Really?

    One of the things I’ve heard, from readers kind enough to give me feedback on Malmaxa, is how complicated some of the words within the tale are.  To that end, Malmaxa includes a Glossary – however most never realize it is there till they reach the end of the book, when it serves less of a purpose than it could.

    Bear in mind Malmaxa is an epic tale – as such there is significant world and culture building.  Though exposition could serve to detail concepts, I prefer to let things gradually reveal themselves.  Naturally, this clashes with some readers, who want to know – and know now!  For them the Glossary should help provide that “fix”, while doing so in the same tone as the tale.  In other words, the glossary is not translated into current day English but instead remains true to the world of Malmaxa.

    Something I would like to stress is that these words are not entirely figments of my over-active imagination.  Along with the names of the many characters, they have meaningful origins – though I leave it up to you to find these out, should you have sufficient interest. 

    Now, for readers of the sample, here are a few of the stranger words definitions – extracted directly from the Glossary itself.

    Chukrah

    A metallic appearing object, worn as a pendant suspended around the neck.  They are spiritually bound to their bearer and are held to be sacred instruments of the Gods.  Chukrah are flat hexagonal shaped discs comprised of six twisting segments meeting in the center.  The color of a Chukrah when worn, particularly when activated, determines the class of the wearer.

    cincture

    A thorough and all-encompassing investigation.  Common usage refers to the detailed investigation Herbalists perform on the entrails and organs of beasts, to ensure they are safe for consumption.

    Compositus

    The term describing the first match of one Seizen to another.

    Herbalist

    In Seizen speech neither herb, nor Herbalist utilize a silent “h”.

    A Seizen matched to a Herbalist Chukrah.  The Herbalist class specializes in the identification and gathering of herbs, which they utilize in the manufacture of curative and other potions.  Herbalists, as the principle caregivers of the Seizen, are commonly called on to perform cinctures.

    Herbalists are also called Healers.

    hijath

    A versatile, loose fitting, scarf like garment made from a single piece of densely woven cloth.  Hijath are normally about two feet wide and four to six feet long but vary according to the size of the wearer.  The most common use for a hijath is to protect the head, neck, and shoulders from exposure to the elements.  They are made from a variety of materials ranging from simple linen to finest silk.  Those worn by women are generally more colorful than men’s are.

    jumenta

    Large, longhaired, domesticated beasts suited to drawing wagons or carts.  This is their primary purpose.  They are invariably in matched breeding pairs.  Jumenta hair, once harvested and woven, is extraordinarily strong.

    league

    The distance a Warrior can march in about an hour.

    mahahsee

    A wildly variable alcoholic beverage made from various combinations of herbs, ale, partly fermented grain mash, and aged spirits.  Its potency varies from mildly alcoholic to extremely intoxicating.  Mahahsee is often served mulled, or heated.

    The approximate pronunciation is “mah hah see”.

    mark

    The unique symbol used to identify every Seizen.  The word “symbol” is used interchangeably with “mark”.

    Each Seizen is tattooed down both arms with their marks of ancestry.  These are the symbols of their mother’s mothers and their father’s fathers, for twelve generations.  Seizen are granted two new marks, one feminine and one masculine, once each cycle until they reach twelve.  The number of marks a child bears determines their age.  Children are referred to collectively by the number of marks they bear, for example, “the fifth-marked” refers to any children bearing five marks on each arm.

    match

    A term used to describe two distinct and completely unrelated unions.

    Primarily: The union between a Seizen and a Chukrah.  This bond lasts until the Seizen dies, at which time the Chukrah becomes unbound.  It is correctly termed a “Chukrah match”, though this form is seldom used.

    Secondarily: The union between a man and a woman.  This is correctly termed a “Seizen match”, though the correct term is seldom used.  Matches between Seizen are made during the Convocation.

    Commonly: Any union formed between a man and a woman during the Convocation, regardless of age.

  • Deadline’s Dawn

    A note of good wishes to all the entrants in the Writer’s Voice contest – accept my apologies if I never managed to visit your blog, work got in the way.  I don’t recall reading a single bad entry, while I do recall reading some I considered outstanding and exceptional in every way.  The judges really have their work cut out for them – and my hat off to them for running this contest.  Thank you all for your efforts!

  • Cover pic2

    arcane symbols, etched within her flesh

  • Bullying

    A snippet of conversation started on Jacky Gray’s blog prompted me to post this.  Perhaps as a soul-cleansing…

    Though I was never bullied, as a youth I saw it going on all around me, and – I am now ashamed to say – I simply turned a blind eye to it.  I have long since changed and have spent a lot of effort with all of my kids, ensuring that they will never stand quietly by while others are mistreated.  I’m proud to say they have come to me on many occasions, informing about this kind of behavior (though when my youngest was the victim of bullying she never told us – strange how that works).  In my turn I’ve ensured that the school boards get to learn about it.  Sadly, that seems to be the only way to stop bullying dead in its tracks – too many teachers do nothing about it.

    That bullying can be so pervasive in our supposedly enlightened society is frightening.

    The worst thing about bullying is that kids are still taught the same old garbage they were when I went to school forty years ago – “bullies are cowards who feel bad about themselves, and take out their inadequacy on others.”  Pardon my French, but that is a load of absolute codswallop – bullies are arrogant turds who firmly believe they are better than their victims.  They feel no remorse for their actions and when their victims break down and call for help these bullies attempt to rally support for their abhorrent behavior by calling their victims “snitches” or similar.

    Bullies do not deserve the pity of their peers. Which is precisely what statements like “bullies feel bad about themselves” encourages.

    What bullies deserve is to be called to the front of the class where they should be compelled to explain precisely why they think their behavior is acceptable.  Unfortunately that is not going to happen, probably because the bullies parents won’t allow it.  This makes one wonder exactly where the arrogant belief that they are better than their victims originates, doesn’t it?

    Why do schools bother having policies about bullying, when teachers and people in positions of influence do nothing to enforce it?  It is very easy to pay lip-service with a written policy.  It is altogether much harder to change a culture that ignores injustice.

  • Back home!

    I just returned home, after a long, stress filled week away from home.

    Anyway, sitting in the garage with my two younger kids and my wife {she retires to the garage to smoke – a horrific habit, but at least she doesn’t pollute the house, that’s love for you!}  We’re all busy ragging my youngest daughter about a boy friend who is shorter than her…

    “He’s just a friend, and a boy!”

    Methinks thou dost protest too much…  I made the observation that all my girls seem attracted to males they can dominate.  As she often does, Julia immediately turned the tables on me by smiling conspiratorially at her mother, and saying “Why did you pick dad, Mom?”

    I turned toward my wife with an arched eyebrow.  After a deadpan minute, she says “Because I thought he was going to die soon.”  {Since she was my nurse, and I was indeed expected to die, there is a significant truth in her words.}

    WELL, WELL, WELL…  🙂 – it turns out I had the last laugh on her!  I somehow managed to survive – we recently celebrated our Silver Wedding anniversary.

  • The Writers Voice Contest

    Here is my entry to an agent run writing contest called… ta-da!… “The Writers Voice Contest”, which, by some strange coincidence, is exactly what I titled this post!  All joking aside I’d like to take this opportunity to thank Monica B.W, Cupid, Brenda Drake, and Krista Van Dolzer for their parts in organizing this contest – please visit their blogs and peruse them at your leisure.  Monica is a lover of Young Adult literature, as well as an author of the same.  Cupid is a matchmaker, Brenda writes, and Krista understands the cycles of life – as well as literary submissions.

    As for me?  Well, I’m an aspiring author of epic adult fantasy with a deeper, and perhaps darker undercurrent.  OK, who am I kidding?  I don’t really know what genre my writing truly is, what I do know is that I need help (some would say “restraints”, of the physical variety) – which is what is what I’m hoping for by entering this contest.  (Wait, do I want help or restraints?  It’s all so confusing…)

    I’m feeling on top of the world right now!  You see, by purest chance, I managed to secure entry number 66 – which, in the context of Malmaxa, is extremely significant.  In Malmaxa the number six is called “The Number of the Gods” and is a powerful portend of both good and ill.  (Nope, it has nothing to do with the number of the beast…)

    And so, on to the action!

    The Query.

    Envision a foreign, yet familiar world.  A world ruled by ritual devotion to six divine decrees – immutable laws, which offer no moral guidance, while demanding absolute compliance…

    Liaju longs for her twelfth marks, arcane symbols etched into her flesh – by command of the second of these strange laws.  These mystic marks grant access to Malmaxa, and her first match.  Troubling dreams plague Liaju – visions… unveiling the precipice the Seizen, her people, approach.  Yet Liaju’s dreams also reveal an obscure, hidden path of possible escape.

    Only Liaju holds escape’s elusive key, as incomprehensible as it is frightening…  Self-Sacrifice.  Must she relinquish all, to secure the Seizen’s survival?

    Eden, a mischievous child, succumbs to temptation and leads her cousin astray.  Their road leads through terror, then death, and on to ultimate understanding.  Trickery reveals treachery, for Eden’s misdeed exposes a monstrous murder.

    Within Malmaxa are no kings or queens, no machines, no pre-determined social hierarchy, and no laws allowed – other than those of the Gods themselves.  Is this anarchy unleashed, or paradise’s picture?

    Envision Malmaxa, then step inside and experience a world at once astonishingly different, and disturbingly familiar.  Join me on this journey, and experience… enlightenment?

    Malmaxa I – Beltamar’s War, is the start of journey unlike anything you have yet experienced.  Weighing in at a meager 135,000 odd words (and yes, I do mean very odd) I can promise, with absolute sincerity, that you have never read anything quite like Malmaxa.  Whether good or bad, I leave you to be the judge.

    The first 250 words of the Manuscript.

    Assigned as sentry when Ripkira called the noon halt, Adelmar was in a foul mood.  With winter’s imminent arrival, and their Ancient Enemy suddenly departing the field of battle, his dreams were dashed – and doubly so.

    Dreams of glory, gone – for there could be no heroes, without conflict.

    Dreams of vengeance, vanished – along with the groth, and the elusive chance for revenge each battle brought.

    The only other survivors from his town were Lucinda and Beltamar.  Many times had they dodged death together, seen comrades slain, gathered the Chukrah of the fallen for the Rite of Return.  He smiled ruefully.  They were staunch brothers in arms now, seldom parted for long.

    How he longed to bear Beltamar’s Chukrah to the hoard.  Battle after battle he fought with all the tenacity he possessed, struggling to survive and succeeding, albeit barely.  After each conflict, he dared hope.  Yet always, his searching eyes found Beltamar.

    Alive.

    By petitioning against him at the Convocation, Beltamar had earned his hatred.  Petitioning, and prevailing.  Jalgar, that stone-faced bastard, had ignored the scribes – all of whom had termed his petition ‘exemplary’, obviously favoring it over Beltamar’s.  Lip curling in scorn, he recalled their lackluster approval of Beltamar’s petition – damned with the faint praise of being merely ‘qualified’.

    In every way had his petition surpassed those of all others, and there had been many.  Jalgar had listened to the scribes exalting him, in the reserved manner of their class. ….

  • Bird-Brained?

    Ever been called a “bird brain”?  Well, though the person using the phrase might have intended it as an insult let us look at it from a different perspective.

    Birds do indeed have rather small brains.  Yet into those minuscule craniums, they have some rather impressive processing power packed…

    Can you even imagine the control needed to successfully fly?  No, we can’t blow flying off as “instinct” – baby birds have to be taught how to fly by their parents.

    And then there is their amazing ability to find their way back to their nest.  Let’s put that into perspective as well.  Imagine yourself in a city with no road markings, no street signs, no neatly mapped out grid lines where everything is painted the same color.  Got that?  OK, now add hundreds of levels, with paths interconnecting levels in a truly haphazard fashion, along with everything changing from day to day.  Still comfortable with your chances of finding the cubicle you call home?  OK, now let’s add scale to the story – this multi-level maze extends for miles.  Still think you could find your way home – if you do you’re a lot brighter than me, or an even more delusional than I am – and that is saying something!

    In case you’re wondering what circumstance in a bird’s life I have just described – it is this…  Many birds make their nests in trees, which are filled with branches going in all directions, as well as constantly growing, forking into new branches, breaking, dropping and changing color.  Yet somehow these creatures, with a brain often significantly smaller than a pea, can somehow find their way home.  I call that impressive!

    Bird brained?  In my dreams, maybe…

  • elemenoh

    One of age’s rewards is the little memories that bring a smile, for example the way in which my children have learnt the alphabet…

    You know, the sing-along version… aye bee see dee eee ef gee and so on.  Well, without fail all four of them at first believed that “elemenoh” was a single letter :).

    Since it is sung that way, I never had the heart to dissuade them (besides it made me laugh then, just as it does now).

  • Have, or Have-Not.

    A student of human nature, I am always fascinated by the way people behave – and how that behavior is almost universal.

    An example of this struck me last night, while watching a show about India by Oprah Winfrey.

    The show opened with Oprah spending some time with a family that we, in the USA, would consider poverty-stricken.  The family of five, a husband and wife with three daughters, live in a single room measuring about nine feet by nine.  While the children and wife seemed happy, the father broke down when Oprah asked him about his aspirations for his children….  He wanted a better life for them.

    Oprah later visited a family she loosely described as “on another level”, while holding her hand high to emphasis this difference.  In a physical sense, they indeed were on an entirely different plane.  However, on a spiritual level, I felt they were somewhat below the poverty struck family.  They seemed largely unaware of the straits within which the vast majority of people living all about them are mired, casually brushing off the fact that they had about five men working in their kitchen.  When Oprah’s time with them ended, she once again asked the husband of this family what his aspirations for his family were…  He wanted for them exactly what they already had.

    Though neither father is “wrong”, isn’t that the nature of man – in a nutshell?  The wealthy wish to stay wealthy, while choosing to remain oblivious to the plight of the poor.  The poor, well they want just a little bit more.

     

  • My “Point of Wiew”

    This is from a reply I made on the ABNA 2012 Forum, entiled “Why can’t we switch POVs every other sentence?”.  It attempts to explain my inter-character dialog Point of View shifts.

    I almost invariably present dialog from the perspective of the person speaking, or thinking. I have a couple of reasons for doing this.

    First, it shows the reader what the speaker is seeing, why they think they are seeing that, and how they feel about it – all without any need for extensive exposition, or explanation.

    Second, it shows the “action” from multiple different angles – something I consider vitally important in any work about individual character (which is what I choose to write).

    The veracity of eyewitness testimony is a fallacy, most witnesses tell what they “think they saw” – while stating it as fact. What they are actually describing as indisputable fact is seriously corrupted – by faulty memory, faulty understanding, personal agenda, and a desire to tell something exciting and relevant.

    Many term this technique (if it can be called that) “head hopping”. That is an inappropriate description. In my opinion, it is better described as “head borrowing”, or possibly “head burrowing” since it lets the reader get inside the characters minds. A huge benefit to this, for the reader, if that the reader gets to see the “real truth” from every characters perspective while the characters themselves are limited to only their own point of view.

    Finally, as I have most likely stated before, writing is an art – not a science. If writing was a science… well then, computers would do a better job of it than any of us wouldn’t they?

    Art is at the discretion of the artist, not the audience – who are entirely free to dislike it.

    If you’d like to experience my writing first hand, or first head, hop on over to Beltamar’s War – where you’ll find yourself in the head of Adelmar as he relives his memories.