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Thursday, 2 August 2012

Once upon a time in the East

gamebook
A mock-up cover image just to show that this one is coming along too. At current estimates, I'd reckon on early September for The Court of Hidden Faces and sometime in October (maybe November) for Lords of the Rising Sun.

While editing the book I came across a passage that seems best to invoke Kevin Jenkins's atmospheric cover - a scene inspired, as cineastes and wuxia enthusiasts will not need to be told, by King Hu's classic A Touch of Zen:

"You are standing in the weed-choked courtyard. Pampas grass stands all around to the level of your shoulders, dampening your clothes with dew as you press forward. Clouds of midges rise like smoke into the air to swirl about in the low sunlight..."
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13 comments:

  1. Anonymous2 August 2012 at 23:10

    For me the best part of book six was when you stopped at the inn before crossing into Oni province,the inn keepers wife unable to keep her emotions in check; described in a sentence but haunting.
    that and the description of the sunlight on the road from hagshin; "tiger stripes". In that it created wonde it was literally wonderful.

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    1. Dave Morris3 August 2012 at 09:48

      Ah yes, here's the bit you're talking about:

      "You are on the road running west from the capital towards Oni Province, a place of sinister renown. Pine trees throw stripes of shade across a dusty road washed with sunlight, so that it seems a giant tiger lies lazily across the landscape."

      I shouldn't admire my own writing, should I? I'll end up like Garth Marenghi :-)

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    2. Graham Hart3 August 2012 at 22:36

      So, are you saying that you *wouldn't* call yourself "a fabulist, a shaman, a ferryman, a dreamweaver"?

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  2. cafaristeir3 August 2012 at 05:48

    And let's not forget the Sambahsa adaptation ! : http://www.scribd.com/doc/27007284/Ithacus-is-Calator
    Apparently, the passage you quote is not included in the translation. It would be (I let it in the present tense and the 2° person plural) : "Yu stahte in id shienciu ghehrd. Pampa graso staht hol perambh ye id nivell viesen omsen, smeund vies vesters med ross kun yu waurcte perodh. Mokyen nebhs leudent kam dum in id air twehrnd-ye in id ghem diewo..."

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    1. Dave Morris3 August 2012 at 09:59

      I don't know why I get such a kick out of reading it in that version. Thanks, Olivier.

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    2. cafaristeir3 August 2012 at 14:29

      Thanks Dave. Even with different languages, your writing and Jamie's one remain enticing. For Sambahsa, there is a pop-up Sambahsa-English dictionary : http://sambahsa.pbworks.com/w/page/52788470/Sambahsa%20Dictionary%20for%20Windows%2C%20Mac%20and%20Linux
      Of course, it doesn't decline nor conjugate words, but that's a real help... This reminds me there is an audio excerpt of the Sambahsa version of "Ithacus" with English subtitles : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvekOzaDIds&list=UUswe0pF_OnaXlUJdFzD2-mg&index=10&feature=plcp

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  3. William Ko3 August 2012 at 06:21

    can't wait for Books 7 and beyond, maybe time for the Fabled Lands mega deal?

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  4. kingfede3 August 2012 at 06:59

    Great atmosphere, and great news too, I hope September will come very quickly! :)

    May I ask you another question mr Morris? I don't know very well how the new print circuit works in Europe, will the books be available only on amazon.com (i.e., the US site), or on all the sites of the group, including UK, Italy and so on? Just to know, sorry if I'm a bit dull... :)

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    1. Dave Morris3 August 2012 at 09:43

      We're publishing books 5 and 6 via Createspace, Amazon's own print-on-demand arm, so they will be available on .com, .co.uk and (I hope) in all the mainland Europe Amazon stores too.

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    2. Alexander3 August 2012 at 10:52

      Does that mean my amazon branch (.de) will print and ship it here in Germany? Or are all orders printed and shipped from the US?

      So...
      September - Volume 5
      October - Volume 6
      November - Volume 7 ?
      :)

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    3. Dave Morris3 August 2012 at 11:00

      Createspace have printers in continental Europe, Alexander, so the books will print and ship locally.

      Even if Jamie and I started on books 7 and 8 right now it would take us 6 months to complete them. So not this Christmas, I'm sorry to say!

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    4. kingfede3 August 2012 at 12:47

      Well, now that you've found a system to publish your books in a quite simple way both in print and in other digital forms (if I've correctly understood), I really hope that his project will make you earn enough to let books 7 and 8 finally appear: it's so sad to sail through the Violet Ocean and not to be able to get to Ankon-Konu...

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  5. kingfede3 August 2012 at 10:09

    Thanks for the answer! I'm glad to know it! :)

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