New plan ... humility.

Not as foreboding as it should sound, but the excitement for spring has always coupled with a dread of summer, because warm breeze brings realization of failed resolutions ... things promised, none delivered.

Though I do have a way of juicing on self-motivation, believing wholeheartedly that the goddess of fortune will pluck me from the crowd of the discontent, and keep luck tucked away in my pocket, the longer the wait the more languishing I do. So, in the event that luck is a turncoat with a knife, and the wound in my back is fatal, I would like to say, I tried.

 That said. I have completed the sequels (two) to The Civilization [of light & Dark] and am playing with the titles: The Gate at Dusk, and Broken Realms. The former is mystical and the latter is on the metaphorical nose. I arrived at the former because of an obsession with Pink Floyd's The Piper at the Gate of Dawn, title taken from chapter 7 of the Wind in the Willows, where Mole and Toad help their friend, Otter find his lost son, which leads to catching a glimpse of Pan while he ushers in the dawn. The eponymous piper being Pan, the ancient pagan god of pastures, rustic (country) music, shepherds and the wild. Pan lives in Arkadia (Arcadia) aka a pastoral paradise (a real place in Greece that has been mythologized)

 What does this have to do with my title?

Mole and Toad caught a glimpse behind the curtain of the natural world when they spotted Pan. Ancient peoples created intricate mystery rituals to tap into the wonders of the natural world. If the other side of dawn is daylight and pastures, then the other side of dusk is darkness and what W. H. Auden described as an 'artificial wilderness and a sky like lead.'  

The Civilizations series plays with the mysteries of existence and wonder. Like human life, Maruti life is fragile, existing tenuously between here and there, adhering to rules that no one understands but everyone follows. But who are these gods? Books 2 and 3 are all about unraveling the mysteries of Marut and all roads lead to the Gate at Dusk. 

Toad, Mole and company might not have breached the boundaries between the material world and the world of gods intentionally, but my characters are all about the journeys of self-discovery, with prophecies hanging over their heads and all. But, as always, these violent delights have violent ends, and in their triumph, die like fire and powder, which, as they kiss, consume. The title of book 3, Broken Realms is, well, self-explanatory. 

So, these elementary things got me through the hiemal days. And what will get me through the vernal days?


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These violent delights do have violent ends, and in their triumph die like fire and powder, which as they kiss, consume.

And so begins my  first venture into in-person book promotion.

All the hopes of a doe-eyed dreamer.

 Come see the pretty books and buy the pretty books. You must love me. Grandeur of thoughts.

 Most people who come out to social or community events are elders and parents with young kids, and many of these people know each other, and are there to socialize.

So, I sat there waiting for the moment the cool kids notice me. All the cool kids are teenagers who are volunteers. I'm terrified of them, but eventually handed out business cards with bated breath.

In the end, I was a voyeur to the delight of others, watching the joy of others talk about their work and hoping someone would notice me.

I didn't sell that day. I have more days. More disappointment or new triumphs?

 February is the shortest month.  Promises to keep and miles to go before I weep.

Okay, I may have said in the past that I wouldn't go too Tolkien in my world-building, but after running through an old manuscript I decided to polish, I realized I had placed enough foreign words in it to warrant a dictionary, and so I spent the last hours building a dictionary, and creating a proper language for the story.

Creating a language, like other aspects of worldbuilding is very fun. I didn't want to make up words from scratch, so I resorted to using translations of certain words, in particular verbs, from my favorite language sources, which include: Swahilli, Arabic, Hausa, Xhosa, Yoruba and Egyptian. I must say, it was fun to mix and match, and to create words, and parts of speech, and quite frankly, it works well in the story.

I didn't want my heroine, K to know the language of the kingdom by magic. There had to be a language barrier, and she has to learn the language, so that was that. I had the kingdom's people speak to her using the raw script (which the reader doesn't understand, unless he/she consults the glossary) and she relies on visual cues and gestures to understand Marut's people. The only word she understands is saa, because it's used in frequent references to her.

To help with the language's script, I relied on my Jamaican background for inspiration. In Jamaica, people often use phrases such as "unu" (you people or all of you) and "A fi me" (It's for me). The letter "A" replaces the infinitive verb (To be) as well as gerunds (-ing). So, for example: "A-whey unu a-go?" (To where are you going)?'

Here are some Maruti script phrases using the verb "To be." I use dashes and apostrophes to conjugate/ add clarity or show ownership, similarly as English. 

 The verb "To be" (A-na) in M. script
"Na" (from the verb 'to be'), when used without the 'A' 
When placed in the middle of a sentence. E..g. (smu na igaa - she is walking).
 Na'a means "mine" as in (O'na-a - It is mine). May also be written: O-na'a.
When placed at the end of a sentence. E.g. (Kyu a-so na - The object belongs to me)
 When speaking of one's self: e.g. A-na (I am). A-na Kadsa (I am Kadsa).
When placed before personal name/object. E.g. A-wsa (my daughter)
 
The letter "O" means "thing" or "it" (subject) and must link to the predicate, in particular, the verb, to have meaning. This is not so with the synonym "kyu (object). An opostrophe between the same vowel "aa" or "oo," changes the meaning, unless the word is a gerund (-ing), in which case, there's no apostrophe. In the example: igaa (walking) from a-iga (to walk).

An "O" attached to another O" by an apostrope (o'o) negates a sentence. E.g. O'o na'a (It's not mine). When the negative "o'o" is paired with the word it/thing (O), only "o'o" is used (same example above). The "o'o" is pronounced "ooh" in contrast to the "O'na-a" where it's pronounced "Oh." Articles (the/a) are naturally implied and therefore don't exist in the Maruti script.

Just some examples. The CiviliZation (2024) is now available where books are sold.

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