The Handsome Grackle ... or, Spring is sprung and I missed it!

(Following to be read with some strange accent in mind - I have no idea why, just cause...)
Please being 'Hello!' to my good friend, the Handsome Grackle.
(Cease with accent, please.)

He is what is called nadderer - a sea-nicker, a water-dwelling monster - with neither head nor tail, but both at once, being able to walk on either end when he/she/it ventures on land. A very very robust creature, it recovers quickly from hurts, so much so that he has been swallowed more than once by much larger sea-beasts, travelled the length of their alimentary canals before being "poo-ed" (if I may use that word...) out again, relatively unharmed to get about his/her/its business. Oh what fun...

There have been many excellent questions put to me here over the last couple of posts. Unfortunately I do not have time right now to address many of them - but I hope a couple of answers might suffice for the mo...?

Portals was wondering, "I have questions about lahzars' weapons. Is a fulgar's fuse used as a kind of spear, or more like a lightsaber from Star Wars? Do wits have any kind of weapon that they use? Thanks"

A fuse is used more as a quarterstaff than anything else, a way to extend reach (though with a the wire wrapped about a pole of cane or wood I am actually not so sure a magnetic field would occur as has been suggested elsewhere - sorry whoever posted, I thought the wire needed to be coiled about metal to achieve this - but please correct me if I am wrong, physics at high school was my weakness).

Wits would generally see it as being beneath them to resort to weapons, the control and manipulation of frission is everything to them. Saying that a pure wit would probably look down on a bane, and in turn a bane would probably see a purist wit as lacking versatility.

Another question was regarding the status of the Gottlands, which are in fact not a part of the Haacobin Empire but an empire to itself - a hegemony of kingdoms, duchies and the like allied and treatied to the Sigismundian dynasty that currently rules the Gottskylds. They are protected from the Haacobins by the great big threwdish swamp of the Ichormeer, though battles have been fought between the two giants, with little gain for either side. The Haacobins regard the Sigismunds with sullen respect.

I shall get to the problem of lamps as soon as I might, honest - time is really crimping me now...

On the eve of the next...

I have been aware of this review of Monster-Blood Tattoo: Foundling by Elizabeth Bird for a little while now and, happy to find it as the Review of the Day over at Fuse 8 on the School Library Journal site, thought some might like to head on over and see. She has also posted a review of Lamplighter for those who are interested. They are both astounding in its breadth and the level to which Ms Bird understands and appreciates the whole Half-Continent thing, and also very helpful to encourage me as I wrestle with some tough bits in Book 3. Thank you, EB!

Speaking of Book 3, I received this email from Conner Ernst:

"A few people at my school have read book two and they like Numps and I am trying to convince you to have Numps in the third book and make Europe have more hatred."

Hmmm, very pertinent notions, Conner, and things I am tackling with even as I blog to procrastinate. What do other people think? What to do with Numps? Should Europe be meaner? more of an invidist or less?

Less than a week till official Lamplighter release - counting down the days!

"Is it May yet?"

Pertinent title provided by Kate, I myself am getting very impatient, but day by day we are getting closer to release.

Last post madbomber said: "As I read your post it occurred to me there aren't any cool kids in Latin class..." and it got me thinking, what is cool anyway? Now, I have never been "cool", surprise surprise - except in the art room. By this I mean I have never fit with that fickle bunch of alpha kids lording over the rest at school. But then there were always levels, the sporty cools, the smoking, Dead Kennedy's listening cools (almost made it with these fellows, learnt lessons about being true to myself here), the funny, sassy cools.

And what is cool in the adult world? I mean, one of the defining characteristics of the 'nerds' at school was/is their passion, their love and devotion to something more that looking unaffected and detached and wearing the right things. In adult life this seems to often grow into success, so do the nerds become the 'cool' ones (if cool is measured in professional success)? Does nerdiness become coolness once you grow up? Or is it that as you get on you reconcile that 'cool' and 'nerd' are just nonsense and get on with life as you find it as best you can?

I think I am rambling now...

Pete was asking: "I know you've answered this before, but I can't for the life of me remember what the answer was. How does one go about posting an illo with their character bio?"
I think the best thing to do for those of you interested would be to send me an image via email (which you will find in my profile). For those of you who do not know what we are talking about it is reference to a bunch of questions I posed late last year - feel free to answer if you like, I put up peoples' responses on the right just for a bit o' fun [TM]. and any illustrations of their character, if provided, hence the question from Pete.

I really am in a rambly frame of mind today - hope this bodes well for the day's word-count... this might give my US publishers some kind of heart-attack (ie not fast enough for them) but I am currently at 41,000 words for Book 3 as of penning this - my target being about 100,000. Getting there, getting there

BTW, I noticed a little while ago that li'l old MBT Book 1 got noticed on Muggle.net. Does this mean Rossamünd has made it? It is too early to be so cheeky, really, but this attention has set in me a notion to one day ask if Harry and Rossamünd would be friends if they met, and who'd win a fight between them. But this would be silly, not to mention presumptuous, so I won't (and mostly because I don't think I'll like the answer...)

MBT on film and matters autobiographical

Zee Oddwyn was asking:

"Speaking of which, any chance there might be a Half-continent movie? In general, it seems that movies dealing with monsters or fae creatures have been very popular recently."

Indeed they have, which is great on one level yet I cannot help be a little concerned of such a trend in regards to my own work. If ever a film was to be made of MBT I would hope it is not a "Yarrgghh! Monsters!" kind of film that focuses more on effects and beasties and less on character and the solidity and believability of the setting.

A good example of this bad approach (at least, perhaps, on an advertising level) was the film of The Bridge to Terabithia - very much sold as a fantasy movie with wingy-do special effects. Yet, having not read the book (shame on me!) what do I discover - to my initial disappointment - that it is more about relationships and the human condition and the durability of the soul. Indeed, the fantastical world I was so looking forward to it being about was just a device to show the growth of friendship and individual spirit. All excellent stuff, now that I have got over my dismay, a brilliant story - I need to read the book.

Now admittedly, MBT is about monsters more directly and is actually a "secondary world" without reference to our own but that is the thing: my hope would be that a film-maker would recognise that at the heart of MBT and any other novels I might get to write (Lord willing) about the Half-Continent is in fact the Half-Continent itself, the most enduring 'character' throughout. That subtlety might be required not "Rargh! I'm a cool special effects monster!!!"

And, Master Oddwyn, in actual answer to your question, the Jim Henson Company currently has the option to make MBT into films: 2 movies from the 3 currently planned books - I think they feel there is not enough in Book 1 to warrant one entire film. Yet the big hold up currently is the Writer's Strike and I must say that I did not think I would somehow be connected with something so, well, international, so show-biz, that I would have a personal response to jokes made about it on the Letterman show... very bizarre.

So the chance of a film are still variable, for an option on a book means simply a company has the exclusive right and the occasion to make a film from it. Whether something is actually produced is impacted by many factors not the least of which is money and such things as an actual script - hence the hold up with the strike. Watch this space.

I do believe I still need to answer Lawrence's question about the auto-biographical nature of MBT. This hits me right in the "ooh-I-like-talking-about-myself" zone, so I shall try to be brief. In fact the simple answer is: yes, it is.

A little too simple, though.

I know it is autobiographical because I have used my own sensations had in various dilemmas, to get a handle on how Rossamünd might feel and react - not intentionally to in some strange way to write my life story, but because it is what I know. In some sense too Book 1 is a kind of version of my own journey out from Adelaide to Sydney to take hold of the life of a freelance illustrator. To get deeper still it might be said it is also an exploration of my own naïve and nascent attempts to write my first book - but folks can go too far with that kind of deconstruction, and it misses the point of the work along with it.

I am told it is autobiographical by those who know me well, who say that can sense me in Rossamünd; who say they fell like they are spending time with me when they read the book(s). This I cannot account for except that it must be a result of the above - but to say Rossamünd is me would be an over-simplification and a mistake. Another book I hope to write some day will, Lord-willing, involve two characters who will both no doubt express facets of myself, maybe a more grown-up me, for they are both adults where Rosey-me-lad is just a boy.

Hmmm, Freudians might have a field day here...

Finally, it is time to celebrate the first character profile writ large - at last! Check it out in the column to the right, one of many answers to these questions, and the first in what I hope to be many public showings. Please enjoy.

Objectionable Book

Discovered this little gem not so long ago - found here and written by THE HON. DR GORDON MOYES.

'I knew Scholastic also had an Australian Book Club. I later found in some of their promotional material: “Welcome to Scholastic Book Clubs, where you’ll always find fabulous books, terrific value and wonderful resources! The most affordable books!” They were advocating the sale of “Harry Potter”, “Halloween” and “Monster Blood Tattoo” so I could expect to find the objectionable books with these if they had them.' (bold type added by me.) (I do not have any issue with the general content of the article - I am not that keen on wolves in sheep-clothing either.)

So if I read it right by the inference, I reckon I can say it is official: MBT is an objectionable book.

I wonder if the Honourable Mr Moyes formulated his opinion on a thorough reading of the text or rather by a cursory and shallow assumption based on the title alone? I fear it was probably not the former.

Either way, I feel like I've won something and do not know who to thank first.