Archive for May, 2010

No, I really didn’t. I had no clue that my beloved first fictional language was actually turning out to be comparable to a real human language. But, if someone who holds a Masters degree in Linguistics tells me something like that, I tend to believe him.

Uhjayi is a conlang – a constructed language – spoken by the inlanlu tahori, a species of tribal shapeshifters on a world known as Alasa Ka. Their universe is half-science and half-fantasy: magic and natural selection shape evolution, and a person must use both logic and spirit to thrive. Uhjayi itself is designed to approximate the form of communication an alien culture might use, given that one of their skins is remarkably similar to the one we humans wear all our lives.

Uhjayi is not a simple cypher that switches one letter for another. Uhjayi actually has a root-based vocabulary, object-subject-verb structure, and syntax that, I’ve been told, resembles some Asian languages. (None of which I speak, for the record, nor am I familiar with their skeletons.) Uhjayi’s current syntax has come about from what I think makes the most sense; the script is phonetic, the pronunciation using the English alphabet is standard across all its words, and the structure is simple, yet flexible.

After working on Uhjayi for some while, the above-mentioned bloke recommended Pimsleur to me as a better language-learning method than Rosetta Stone. (In tandem with my martial arts, and mostly because of it, I wanted to learn Japanese.) Instead of computer software, it consists of thirty-minute audio lessons in three sets of thirty lessons – roughly equivalent to one lesson a day for three months. I started daydreaming about recording Uhjayi lessons.

On a lark, I wrote the tentative transcript for the first lesson, using Pimsleur’s standard conversation format, and shared it with some friends. They responded overwhelmingly favorably. I wrote more lessons, made a mini-site (well, sub-blog), compiled vocabulary, and even recorded five-minute audio lessons to showcase the correct pronunciation. Thirty-minute lessons are definitely coming, but I’m still working on learning – and finishing – my own language first.

If you’re curious, you can find everything housed in the Learn Uhjayi blogsitething: lessons one through five, a vocabulary list, and the of-questionable-quality recordings of me saying some very strange things.

So, tell me: have you ever dabbled in any kind of fictional language?

…was one of the blog names I was considered and, oh-so-briefly, used in the past. It would have fit perfectly. In fact, it still does.

But this blog began as a writing blog. I am a writer, a creatrix– I like that it sounds like creature as much as creator– and I wanted to write about writing. I wanted to chronicle my walk down the path towards eventual publication, be it self-publishing or finding a brilliant agent willing to vouch for my work.

Yeah, that didn’t go so well. My jack-of-all-trades tendencies and spidermind (a kinder term for ADD) get in the way of any tunnel-vision I might try to obtain. I am not just a writer.

I’m also a martial artist. I’m a biker. I’m a geofictionist. I’m an artist. I’m a paid geek web professional who does design, SEO, and copywriting. I’m a nature enthusiast. I’m a science nut. I’m a musician. I’m a thoughtful spiritualist. I’m an animal-lover.

Above all, I’m a person, and restricting any home of mine, virtual or otherwise, to just one facet of myself is a sure recipe for stagnancy and decay. Which is pretty much what happened as winter turned to fall last year.

So, I’ve stopped trying to limit the topics of this blog. I can’t promise you I’ll never go quiet again, but I can promise to be more present and more responsive, for all our sakes. Getting my muse rolling again (she rides an old Honda that looks suspiciously like mine) may take a while, and there will surely be some shaky turns, but we’re on our way.

Come along for the ride, won’t you? If nothing else, it will be weird … interesting.

A low, hooting cry stirred Mechebe from his fretful nap, bringing his half-conscious mind to full awareness in a heartbeat. His eyes flared open as his tufted ears lifted vertical, swiveling to pinpoint the direction of the summoning warble. Sleep had given him no peace of mind, and now waking brought the pivotal announcement into unavoidable proximity. He took a deep breath, released it, and lifted his long, bearded muzzle from his crossed forepaws. His toes were tangled, claws placing sharp curve against sharp curve; the massive talons dangling from his dewtoes were the only ones exempt from his unconscious expression of anxiety.

He looked up, seeking a glimpse of the sky past the evergreen canopy. The shade of blue suggested afternoon, but the bloody tinge to the wispy clouds belied that and told him it was evening already. The sun was fleeing the sky in hopes of rest, much the same way Mechebe had fled the center of the territory in hopes of serenity. He wished the sun better luck than he had found.

“Ready?” came a sharp, light voice behind him. Mechebe didn’t look, pulling his paws apart gently before pushing himself up from his bed of mulch and moss to stand on four strong legs. His luxuriously long tar-black fur kept a few dried leaves as prisoners; he shook off when he heard the tell-tale crinkle-crackle from beneath him.

“I am restless from waiting,” he answered after another deliberate breath failed to bring calm, stretching his legs and flexing his ankles. His tail, long and thick and smooth, hung in a low curve behind his haunches, kept as still as he could manage; the barbed tip alone twitched, made of age-fused spines that grew like a lizard’s rattle-tail.

“You’re worried,” remarked the voice, accompanied by the sound of sniffing. Read the rest of this entry »

Gentlefolk, it has been a whopping three months since I even tried posting regularly on my lovely little blog. I apologize for my silence.

I was working on a brand spanking new website with so much stuff I can’t even list it all. There are sections for writing, geofiction, web design, and art. I’ve added a shiny about page and my contact information. I made a sitemap to keep everything straight. I moved all my creative generators over here. I found a plugin and got a Flickr account to share my photography and my awesome amateur art. I redesigned the whole blog layout to merge it seamlessly with the new site design, and I’m still in love with the header image.

Now that I have a website that I’m proud of, I’m back in the blogging business, and I’ll be talking more and more regularly.

You can count on it.

By the way, if you have any web design (or graphic design, search engine optimization, copywriting, etc) resources or any worldbuilding/geofiction links, drop me a line and an URL. And if you want your personal site linked to from my blog, let me know! Provided it’s creative in nature (photography, art, music, prose, poetry, etc) and well-kept, I’ll happily link to you.