Sample is Here, Pre-orders Almost

It's my birthday, and because I have nothing better to do on my birthday, I got the pre-orders done for Gophirith of the Mountains! Well, sort of. As of posting this, it can't actually be pre-ordered yet, but it has been added to Smashwords and is going to pop up on various retailer sites over time once it gets approved for Smashwords's "Premium Catalogue" and (EDIT: Turns out it got approved while I was writing this! Yay!) shipped out (at a dollar less than the final price will be! *hint, hint*). And golly, am I glad this is done! Now I can almost sleep again. Here's the Smashwords listing - free sample in select boxes!*

You get a sample, and you get a sample. Everybody gets a sample!

This will be out (in ebook and hopefully print form) on the 12th of December, in time for the holidays. This book isn't quite as long as my previous one, but I like how it turned out (which is rare), and I hope you will, too! It's also my first attempt at including illustrations in a book (apart from that Ssalia scribble on the title page of Ssalia and the Dragons of Avienot), and they're in full colour. There's a bit of poetry in there as well, like my last book, but I don't want to spoil too much before it's even out.

Perhaps, one day, his tale would make its way far into the outside world[...].

*All boxes have been selected.

News from Pelsatia

Hm, what's this again? A blog? Oh yeah, there was something about that...

I have been working a whole lot on my Fantasy book lately, Gophirith of the Mountains. I decided to go ahead and try giving this book some illustrations, even though I got no feedback on the idea when I posted it on the blog, so that's where most of my time is currently going. I already miss writing the actual text, as illustrating it is a lot more tiring than typing it up. Yes, yes, 'tis quite sad, the things I do to sell a book.

I recall stating on my website that I would be posting updates here, so here's an update: Gophirith of the Mountains now has its own page on the Pelsatia home with some information about the actual story, as well as information on where and how to pre-order it (hint: as of writing this, you can't, but this will change in the near future). It also has a shrunken version of this book illustration sneak peek here, with fancy transparent edges and what-have-you. Oh, and share buttons! Let's not forget those. Everyone loves share buttons.

Huh, what's that? A link the page? Oh right, take this:

Highly clickable link to the info page! (More clickable than links with only-sorta-above-average clickability)

Enjoy whatever there is to enjoy as of now, but be ready for exciting things in the not-at-all-distant future, coming to a neglected blog near you.

Write My Book for Me: Name & Concept Generators

Just kidding about the title! Names are an important part of fiction; even without considering their meaning, they define what the narrative, your characters and your readers will have to refer to people, places and concepts by. Care should generally be exercised when picking them, especially when drawing from real world languages or cultures, but for those times where you desperately need a name for someone or something and just can't get your creative juices flowing, there's a great amount of generators available online for even the most niche-based names; a lot of them can even provide general ideas for the characters and places these names will be applied to! They sadly might not always be able to do your job for you, but they certainly can provide inspiration.

Below, I have compiled a short selection of generator sites I have found on the internet over the years, with a focus on generating names, especially for Fantasy. Each entry starts with a link, followed by a description of the kinds of notable generators that can be found on the site and things to be aware of; the text in italics below each description sums up the basic types of generators, again with a focus on names. (Please note that I'm not affiliated with any of these. They belong to the respective creators, and although I haven't personally encountered problems with them as of posting this, they should be used at your own risk.)

• Seventh Sanctum
  
  Probably one of the most elaborate sites for generators; this has a huge amount of them, though not all of them generate names. Generators can be viewed by category, or you can have the site pick one at random (which doesn't serve much of a purpose, but allows a quick look at the general idea behind them and might bring up a generator you hadn't noticed on the site before). Don't be fooled by the "Names" category; while this is where the character name generators and a few others are, many generators in the other categories also create names. Others will generate descriptions, suggestions or other bits of text intended as a source of inspiration instead.
  
  Generates: character names, place names (taverns, realms), species names, vehicle/ship names, spell names, concepts and descriptions (characters, creatures, technology, settings, etc.), story ideas and more; these are hard to sum up, so you might want to look at them yourself.
  
• RinkWorks Fantasy Name Generator
  
  A highly customisable name generator. Can put together names from elements in a database or even letter-by-letter based on a specific algorithm, which you can define yourself to suit your needs. Be sure to read the instructions for the "Advanced Interface" on the site; it's very, very useful for generating "meaningless" names and words for your setting that have a specific kind of sound or feel to them and are not based on existing names.
  
  Generates: character names, all-purpose "meaningless" names/words.
  
• Behind the Name
  
  Not primarily about generators, but a compendium of real world given names, with meanings, culture, origin, stats, etc. The "Random Renamer" tool can pick names at random from customisable categories, some of which are not based on real life and provide names for specific kinds of characters (witches, fairies, etc.).
  
  Generates: character names.
  
• Fantasy Name Generators
  
  As it says on the tin, these generate mostly Fantasy names (some are related to MMORPGs; look through the menu at the top or scroll all the way down on the main page for the more general ones), with some generators for places, etc. as well. Names are typically picked/combined from pre-made databases (some aren't combined at all, but simply provide a random selection); some tools generate vaguely scientific-sounding nonsense; be sure to read the description for each generator to find out how the names are made. Be careful about the real life-based names: the site likes to simplify or transcribe special characters (such as umlaute), which can easily falsify the results, and it can also generate extremely uncommon names not in any way traditional to the language they are meant to be from. It's better to use Behind the Name (see above) for real given names instead.
  
  Generates: character names, place names (taverns, towns, countries, castles, planets), ship names, fungus/plant names, mineral names, clan names, scientific names.
  
• Utilities and Generators on Mithril and Mages
  
  These are intended for roleplaying games, but a lot of them are just as useful for writing. The name generators combine distinct elements from databases largely rooted in reality, so results tend to be very convincing. Many categories to choose from for place names; modern character names are U.S.-based and can be picked by how common they are.
  
  Generates: character names, landscape feature names, place names (taverns, towns, streets, buildings, etc.), occupations, as well stuff mostly about tabletop games.
  
• Abulafia
  
  This is a wiki for generator scripts that anyone can (in theory) contribute to; thus, purpose/nature and quality are both highly variable. Some generate names, others descriptions (sometimes very detailed), even others do both. Check out "Name Generators" on the site for the ones that generate a pure list of names. Generators generally provide little information about how names are formed, so exercise some care (you can click "view source" to look at the code).
  
  Generates: character names, place names, ship names, plant names, species names, weapon names, concepts and descriptions and more.
  
• donjon RPG Tools
  
  More generators with a focus on Fantasy and Sci-Fi tabletop RPGs, some of which are handy for general writing. Descriptions/concepts are elaborate, but usually specific to certain RPG systems. The name generators appear to take patterns and elements from a database of related names and mix them up; especially for character names, this most often results in "meaningless" names. Even the "quasi-historical" names still tend to use this mechanic, so they are likely to be foreign-sounding nonsense at best and might even be profanities at worst; be extra cautious when using these, and don't present them as real names from a real language unless you're certain that they work as such.
  
  Generates: character names, place names (taverns, towns, countries, castles, streets, etc.), concepts and descriptions, stuff for tabletop games.

It should go without saying, but keep in mind that the results of these generators are random; even if they are picked from a database of real and historical names, they may be unfitting for the context you require them for. There's no shame in taking inspiration from a random name or even taking it straight from the generator, but you should always do the research before you use it, especially for real world-based names.

Of course, at the end of the day, the best names in fiction are still those that have had some thought put into them, so keep that creativity running; just be careful it doesn't get away.

Everything You Never Wanted to Know About Me

I somewhat recently received a newsletter from Smashwords informing me of their new self-interview feature, and I couldn't resist writing one! The result is not particularly long, but I think there might be some interesting stuff in there; I typed it up over the past few days in notepad before publishing it, after saving some interesting questions from the "suggested" ones. You can read it here:

Amazing Smashwords indie author self-interview!

It's mainly about my Fantasy writing, though other things also get mentioned. I took five of the pre-made questions and answered them (they're actually not random; the question field just goes through a list of them when you click the button to suggest a new one in the editing interface, so I assume many other Smashwords authors used the same ones, which may make for interesting comparisons), and I have two more saved up for when my next book, Gophirith of the Mountains, is released, as they will make more sense then than they do now. When that will be, I don't currently know, but you can be sure I will announce it here! The story is approaching the end as of writing this post, but it still needs a lot of polish and I am not done with the illustrations yet, so it may still take a while. Until then, enjoy the interview, and if you like it, I would be very grateful if it's shared! (And if there's anything that should be added to it, I tell me in a comment; I may edit it in!)

Lanschilandia comic page: Borderline Chaos, pg. 6

Tails of Lanschilandia! Here's the page!

I don't have much to say about this one, and after a marathon of sketching out page number 8, I don't believe I'm in a condition to write a lengthy post.

Some more Phoebe goodness here (who, by the way, has recently inspired a CafePress design) and Bad Bat and Batty finally reappear. Batty turned out very pretty; I already feel sorry for what I may be putting her through later in the story. As you may have noticed, her outfit changes all the time. Her hair colour is slightly different here as well; I may experiment with more drastically different hair styles for her in the future. It will be interesting to see if she remains recognisable, though as she's the only female bat in the comic (so far), I don't think that's going to pose a problem. Still getting used to Anserian and the King; their expressions will probably remain a bit stiff until I gain better control of them (though Anserian's isn't likely to change much even then). Panschi's expression in the last panel, on the other hand, looks like he's about to "take your haaat, siiir", which was fully unintentional.

Enjoy the page!

Lanschilandia comic page: Borderline Chaos, pg. 5

Tails of Lanschilandia! Here's the page!

This has been quite an enjoyable page to make, and also one of the more important ones in quite a while. We get our first look at a few new locations in Lanschilandia, as well as three new characters. We also get to see the reason for the chequered background used on the website and in the title panels (which was totally what I had planned when I made that design choice, yup).

I had actually not finalised these new characters' designs until the very day I started sketching the page, though they have been lingering as "outlines" for quite a while, waiting to be used. I think they turned out quite well, though they're going to look somewhat stiff until I'm more comfortable with drawing them. I like what I did with Minister Anserian's speech bubbles. You can tell someone is talking formal if they're speaking in Times New Roman. So, why is he wearing 18th century fashion in a vaguely mediaeval setting? Because it fits his character. Although I'm going for a Fantasy-type feel, I had never really planned to limit myself to any specific historical period (after all, it's not set on Earth in the first place); this gives me a lot of freedom for interesting things to do with characters and plots, as I can just use whatever "works" without having to make sure it's period-appropriate.

Of course, the true highlight here is Phoebe, the herald. The idea for her popped into my head completely at random one day, and it probably shows (not a bad thing in my book). She's positively loony, if you couldn't tell from her eyes. She was going to have a real trumpet originally, but I thought it was a lot funnier this way. Watching too much Pingu probably had something to do with it, too. There may be more Phoebe in the future depending on her popularity and whether I feel like using her more; I'm not excluding the possibility of a "day in the limelight", but that will probably take a long while to happen.

Enjoy the page!

Lanschilandia comic page: Borderline Chaos, pg. 4

Tails of Lanschilandia! Here's the page!

This one was finished quite a while ago thanks to my five-day schedule and doesn't have too many things going on, so I don't have all that much to say about it at this point. I accidentally lost the original linework prior to being converted to a Photoshop path, which I'm rather vexed about, even though it probably won't ever be needed again. I just enjoy keeping past stages of the work process around for reference.

This page marks the return of the teacups so commonly seen in A Spoony Experience, now on a brand new tablecloth. There's also some squishy stuff going on, as well as the in-comic debut of one of Parsley's middle names. I adore her expression in panel 4 and especially 6. She looks like a Muppet, though I can't pinpoint why.

Enjoy the comic page!