Daniel M. Bensen's Blog, page 54

EccentricCowboy’s questions about agents

I’ve talked with EccentricCowboy (aka Austen Confer) about questions about self-publishing and traditional publishing. The final part of our conversation was about agents and finding a writing scene.

EC: …I doubt I could do something like, say, be contracted to write X number of books in X amount of time, and it would be dishonest and poor form to sign on to something that I couldn’t fulfill.

Me: That’s why it’s nice to have an agent, who can manage both you and the publisher. “Don’t get distracted by this plot problem,” your agent tells you. “You’re the only person who cares about it and you’re contracted to finish this book before the end of the year.” Or, depending: “Don’t push the author to finish by the end of the year,” the agent tells the publisher. “There’s a plot problem in the book and if we ignore it, we’ll end up with a book that won’t sell.” Markets and muses are capricious, but publishers and agents help to smooth things out.

EC: I don’t think I can afford an agent.

Writers don’t pay agents. Writers submit our work to agents for representation the same way we can submit our work to some publishers directly. If the agent agrees, then they send our work to publishers. If the work gets published, the agent takes a cut. Agents don’t take any money up front.

EC: I have heard some various things, depending on the source. There’s a lot of good info from this gent. monsterhunternation.com/?s=wri…

Me: Another good place for writing advice is the Writing Excuses podcast.

Or indeed, my old podcast: I’ve interviewed Jennie Goloboy (my own agent) on the subject of Why Agents Reject Things, Why Agents Accept Things, and with fellow writer Kalin Nenov about literary agents in general.

EC: I’d be most interested in getting to know people in the business! 

Me: Well, there’s the Codex forum, which you can join if you’ve sold a certain number of self-published books, have an agent, or have been published by a big publisher. 

There are also book conventions and literary conferences, which I recommend. Also look around in your home town for writing circles. You’ll probably find one.

That’s it for EccentricCowboy’s questions, but if you have your own, feel free to ask either of us. Good luck!

 

EccentricCowboy’s questions about publishers

Last week I answered EccentricCowboy (aka Austen Confer)’s questions about self-publishing. Today, we’re on to traditional publishing, and the (at least, potential) benefits thereof.

EC: If I may ask, what are some of the pros and cons of having a publisher?

Me: I haven’t had any of my books published yet, but based on what other people have told me, the pros of having a publisher are:

1) You know somebody believes in your work. Agreeing to publish a new author is a big gamble on the part of the publisher. They must really think you’re something to give you a contract. That’s a big boost of confidence.

2) The advance. You can use it to invest in yourself, buying more tools to improve your work (e.g. editors, publicists, workshops, tours).

3) Royalties. If you get a steady income from writing, you can invest more time in writing, which is where real improvement and productivity comes from.

4) Name. One self-published title competes with all other self-published titles (more or less), but a big-name publisher tells potential readers that your work must be high-quality.

5) In-house tools. Publishers have their own editors, line-editors, and layout people to find and help you fix problems in your book.

6) Packaging and publicity. Cover art, getting your book onto websites and into stores…all the things that would take away from your writing time if had to do them yourself.

I’m sure there’s more I’m not thinking of, but anyway it will all fall under that “things that take away from writing time” category. From a productivity standpoint, the more of the non-writing stuff you can get someone else to do, the better. 

EC: Can you convince a mainstream publisher that you’re worth publishing if you have solid sale records as an indi writer? I know some people have done that.

Me: Yes, good sales of self-published books is definitely something you should include in your cover letter when you submit your work to agents and publishers.

EC: At the same time a good friend of mine said that most publishers don’t like books that have already been published. This strikes me as sort of odd, since if something has sold you would think it would represent less risk.

Me: I think the logic is that if a work has been self-published, it has already reached everyone who might want to read it. It’s also been out long enough for pirates to spread free versions, so a traditionally published edition would have more competition and a smaller pool of potential readers.

As an author, my takeaway is that I have to let some books go. I had plans for sequels to Tyrannosaur Queen, but I have plans for new stories as well, and those new stories have more potential to make it big. We look forward, not backward

EccentricCowboy’s questions about self-publishing

A little while ago I got this message from EccentricCowboy (aka Austen Confer) on Deviantart. Austen writes weird westerns, and he wants to know about self- versus traditional publishing.

EC: Hello there! Jumping kind of out of the blue here but I’m hoping you might be able to lend me a bit of assistance. You might remember a good while back how I wrote a review of your book Groom of the Tyrannosaur Queen…was wondering if you might be able to give me some advice. I too am in the writing business, but as a self-proclaimed humble introvert, I’m not the best at garnering attention. I’d love to get some advice and ideas on how to better get my stuff out there…

Me: Groom of the Tyrannosaur Queen taught me that I like writing, but not publishing or promoting, which means the traditional agent/publisher path is better for me. If you like the business side of writing, then self-publishing might work for you, although even so I’d suggest paying other people to do things for you, rather than attempting to do everything yourself.

EC: I would infinitely prefer to have someone else market everything.

Me: One way to get someone else to market everything is to leverage yourself — take the proceeds from sales of book A and invest them in a publicist for book B. Now you have more sales and you pump them into more people to support book C and so on.

The other route is to find an agent. Convince them that you’re a good investment (i.e. you write good) and they will help you improve your books and sell them to publishers. 

I went the second route, and I’m very happy with my agent’s work on my behalf. Might I have made more progress if I’d tried to leverage myself? Maybe, but then again, I might have made less. There’s a significant part that luck plays here.

In the end, you have to just have faith in yourself that you’re getting something out of writing, and faith in the industry that someone else is going to get something out of your writing. After that, it’s just a matter of time.

Tune in next week for more questions from Eccentric Cowboy, and in the mean time, check out his blog.

The Hurrian states on the Nile

 

Language families and state borders in Africa approx 3,000BCE

“Iishe toon-eetasshuiilefa, shiiwe-nashusshuan por–nashusshuan hhoo’-nashusshuan oomm-eetasshuan. Iishe toon–eetasshuwan’iilefa, oomiin–nashusshe forh’–nashunn’ am–eetauan.”

/i:ʃe to:ne:taʃ:əi:lefa ʃi:wenaʃəʃ:əan pornaʃəʃ:əan ħo:ʔnaʃəʃ:əan o:m:e:taʃ:əan i:ʃe to:ne:taʃ:əwanʔi:lefa o:mi:nnaʃəʃ:e foʁʔnaʃən:ʔ ame:taəan/

(I-abs learn-will-you-if, water-pl-erg-your-and corn-pl-erg-your-and house-pl-erg-your-and enjoy-will-you-and. I-abs learn-will-you-not-if, land-pl-erg-your dust-pl-erg-as burn-will-I-and.)

“If you heed me, you will enjoy waters and grains and houses. If you do not heed me, I will burn your lands to ashes.”

— From Pothhai Horha, the Ancient Podzran origin myth

 

The Princess and the Eremite

“They cry out for their Garlander:

The Princess. She hopes to ably aid their need.

She knows she must with heavy heart depart what she has always known,

moreover fleeing through the Wood through which her people fled, rescue

her subjects afore they are devouréd.

Might great challenges await her?”

— The Princess and the Eremite IV:i  Duluth translation (1889)

From Tumblr:

“Ugh! Why are you using the fucking Duluth translation? That racist Victorian (redundant!) transcentendalist was wring about everything. A Haampii isn’t a princess!”

Well, we might have to agree to disagree here because although some of Duluth’s choices were certainly bizarre –  xaampmun as “hair” and tilintl as “Totem Larva” spring to mind – some of his work is legitimately beautiful. Aside from the passage I quoted above (the prologue of “The Song of Eternal Endurance”), I also love Duluth’s treatment of “The Unsong” and “Make Merry Only Thusly.”

But I’ll set those aside for now. Let’s look at that song prologue to see where Duluth was wrong, and also where he was right.

1. Iumpa gulut nuk-swumpa.

“I give hope to myself a lot for the potential to give something (i.e. to do something).”

The interesting word here is gulut, the Gi’impii pronunciation of Brg-gng gld-dl’, meaning “big size.” Nowadays, the word means something like “really,” but at at the time the Dulunks Haampii Burgurtcx was transcribed, gulut was very informal – a totally different register from the next lines. Maybe a better translation would be “I, like, totally hope I can do this” or something.

2. Wumpin tulumpsun haampii.

“They give their great hope to (me) the Haampii.”

Note the repetition of the roots “give” (WUMP) and “hope” (HUMP) from the previous line. This is a Gi’impii poetic convention called “root coupleting,” which Duluth attempted to replicate in English with rhyming and alliteration. It’s also complicated by the fact that WUMP and HUMP actually rhyme, which early trollists like Duluth discounted as coincidence.

Also, because you seem to have a bee in your bonnet about Duluth’s translation of “Haampii,” you’re right, the title does not mean “princess.” Haampii comes from same root (HAMP) as haamps (fine clothing, jewelry), iaamps (a flower), and shaamp (to decorate). Today, “Haampii” is part of the governmental titles translated in English as “the Minster of Culture” and “Chief Justice” (which were one position before World War II). In pre-modern times, however, the Haampii was responsible for the wardrobe of the Iompompm (“king”, “chief”, “high priest”) and, by extension, the staging of the ecstatic rituals (ki’inksum) that held Gi’impii society together.

The Haampii of the Dulunks Haampii Burgurtcx (a.k.a “The Princess and the Eremite”) complicates matters by being (or at least claiming to be) the literal daughter of the reigning Iompompm. There’s even a line of interpretation that the Dulunks Haampii Burgurtcx is itself a propagandistic revision of the Haampii’s usurpation of the Iompompm’s reign – an attempt to legitimize the Haampii/Burgurtcx regime…but that’s beside the point.

In any case, Duluth usually refers to the Haampii as “the Garlander,” which is probably about as good an English translation as you can get.



3. Iskanka oinks-no- iskanks -ilumpa 

“I know the necessity of uninviting myself from (what is) known”

Now we get really lyrical. There’s the root-coupleting around KANK, “to ask someone a question and get an answer” (iskank = to answer your own questions about something =  to know), which functions as a kenning for “home” or “community” (iskanks = known (things)).

Then there’s the no-ilumpa construction, which rhymes with words in the previous lines, but is disdesiderative. That is, it indicates an undesired outcome: not simply absence from home (ililumpa), but exile (no-ililumpa) and violent death (no-wililump). I personally think Duluth did an excellent job with this line.

4. kinkink iunka nowunkunksun

“moreover (of) my hurrying myself (through) the wilderness”

Trollists and world-travelers will recognize here the origin of the name of the Mount Wungksun National Park. Nowunkunksun was a far more foreboding word, however, from the root XUNK (“to make someone hurry,” coupleting with iunka, “I make myself hurry” or “I run”), whose disdesiderative (no-wunk) means “to make someone escape” or “to endanger.” Both meanings are relevant here, since the Gi’impii both escaped from the Caged Tree through this wilderness and were endangered by its wildlife.

5. ximpa tulumpiim no-‘inkin.

“(and of) my saving (my) fellows (from) their (i.e. the Brg-gng) devouring (of them, i.e. my fellows)”

A lot of meaning to unpack here! Tulumpiim (from TUMP, “to invite someone” coupleting with no-ilumpa from line 3) means literally “invitation people” or “the people to whom you give invitations.” Remember those ecstatic rituals? The people who got invited to them formed the upper crust of Gi’impii society. The word twumbii now means “an aristocrat” (or, sarcastically, “a guy”) but in the time before the Haampii/Burgurtcx Regime, when the Gi’impii population was small enough that everyone could participate in rituals, tulumpii meant “fellow” or even “friend.” What it certainly did not mean was “subject,” and I do think this usage Duluth letting his romanticism get the better of him. :\

Anyway, no-‘inkin means literally “they unfortunately hug someone,” a euphemism with the subject and object left out, but obvious from context (the whole damn story is about Brg-gng eating Gi’impii after all).

6. nu’- gurgun iswumpi?

“The possibility (of being) hard, it gives itself?”

The most poetic line of the lot! And a place where Duluth stumbled badly.

I’ll back up. Remember the first line and the informal Brg-gng loanword in it? Well, here we are at the last line, and here’s a second Brg-gng loan! This one with the augmentative –un appended to Brg-gng ggrg, “a problem.” Gurgun now means “great challenge” as in Yurgan Ki’inksun Gi’imps gurgunum kinkinksum (“The Troll Government faces many great challenges.”), but at the time, gurg was very slangy. The informal “street” Gi’impii that sandwiches this preamble was probably intended to show that the Haampii was both connected with the common Gi’impii and modern in her approach. Certainly that was how the Haampii/Burgurtcx regime styled itself.

The structure of the sentence is also odd. The normal sentence would be iswumpi nu’-gurgun? “It gives itself the possibility of being difficult?” i.e. “Might it be hard?” Phrasing the sentence as nu’- gurgun -iswumpi not only throws into relief the coupleting of iswumpi with the swumpa of line 1 and its rhyme with “Haampii” in line 2, this sentence structure also sounds very much like a disdesiderative: no- gurgun -iswumpi, “it (will) really be damaged.“

What is this “it”? That was in fact the subject of my graduate thesis, where I argued that the Haampii is talking here about her position in Gi’impii society. Remember, she is the one who organized the great ritual (the Ki’inksun) whose failure brought on the curse that allowed the Brg-gng to find her settlement and capture her fellows. At this point in the story, the Haampii is setting out to rescue those fellows and redeem herself. She knows that if she fails, she will lose her title and face exile if she even survives. So her slangy question “Is this gonna be, like, hard?” isn’t a sign of her foolish naivety, it’s a sardonic (or even sarcastic) acknowledgement that this is a suicide mission.

In the otherwise mythical or propagandistic narrative of the Dulunks Haampii Burgurtcx, I think it is in this line that we see a real, historical person.

Sorry for the long post

Iinton!

Trolls-ish

I have watched the Trolls movie so many times, you guys…

Help me

Uh, I mean, ahem!

Trollish (Silampampsun Gi’impsun, Gi’impsun, Impish, or Turxulsun (archaic) ) is the language of the Troll People of the Melean Mountain Range. In its standard dialect, centered on the capital village of Turxuls between Mount Wungunks and Mount Wungksun, Trollish is the official language of the Troll Republic (Stunkpurkunksun Turxulsun).  Trollish is notable for its verb-root derivation system (e.g. gimp, “to thrill someone, to make someone happy,” gi’imp, “happiness,” gi’impii, “a troll,” etc.), its default VSO morphology, and its anti-transitive and dis-desiderative constructions.

Trollish is a language isolate, although has been suggested that the language evolved from a cant derived from one of the Quadrupoid languages. Trollish has also accepted many loan words from Bergen (Dghr’-drg Brg-gng, itself a western Melic language of the Melo-Cholic family, centered on the city of Brg-gng Gng-dl’). It is written in a form of the Bergen alphabet.

History and Derivation

Since the Trollish language was not written until the Poppy-Branch Era (Ki’inksun Haampii Burgurtcx), older forms of the language can only be guessed at.  The similarity of the (very small) inventory of Trollish verb-roots to Quadrupoid accusative nouns (as well as genetic evidence) suggests that Trollish is ultimately derived from a Quadrupoid language.

Modern Trollish gimp-ii (thrill.someone-CUTE, “one who gives people happiness”), proto-Troll *?ooh kym tyh (do gift-ACC child-DAT, “to give a gift to a child”), Quadrupoid 1 de’-huh-gut-n tup-p (1ST-PR.IND-give-DITRANS  baby-DAT, “I give something to a baby”).

According to this theory proto-Trollish developed into Classical Trollish, , during the Era of the Caged Tree (Ki’inksun Turxulsun), turning accusative nouns into verb-roots and dative nouns into gender markers.

Phonology

k/g/t/d/h/x/ (only at the ends of roots) mp/nk/nt (in Bergen loanwords) t/l/r/d͡ʒ(written )/t͡ʃ (written )

a/i/o/ʌ (written )

Words are constructed as either CVNC or CVCV

Intervocalic k,g becomes ʔ (written ), t,d becomes /l/, h,x becomes 0

Grammar

Trollish is a fusional language with VSO word order (or SOV for disdesiderative sentances), with modified-modifier ordering. It has no pronouns, but instead uses nouns, names, or titles coupled with verb conjugation to designate the subject of the sentence.  “Choice words” (silampampsum ku’unksum), noun-conjuctions designating tense, aspect, ability, and more, show signs of evolving into verb-prefixes.

Some Trollish sentences with English glosses are provided below.

Kinkan gi’impiium.

hug-1ST-PL thrill-GR-CUTE-PL

“We hug trolls.”

no- No’onkonklun ko’onkx -‘inki.

DIS- depress-GR-NONTROLL-AUG disenchant-GR-GRUFF -hug-3RD.

“A bergen devours a colorless troll.”

Iinton hiintsum!

ATR-tickle-2ND-PL tickle-GR-NONPERSON-PL)

“Get tickled by spiders!”

Nouns

Trollish has five genders:

-Neuter (used for gerunds, formed by reduplication of the verb-root and the 0-suffix) e.g. haamp (“decorating someone” from *hahamp, from verb-root hamp, “to give someone ornaments,” “to decorate someone with beautiful clothes, jewelry, etc.”)

-Cute Troll: ii e.g. haampii (“a princess,” “a garlander”)

-Gruff Troll: -n (-m after mp, -x after k, t, and c) e.g. haampm (“a queen,” “a dictator”)

-Non-troll person, but cute: -l (w after mp) e.g. haampw (“foreign cultural ambassador”)

-Non-person (animal, plant, or object) but cute: -s e.g. haamps (a species of glitter-producing caterpillar)

–un augmentative (not cute)

–um plural

Non-cute nouns are formed by the addition of the augmentative suffix -un (e.g. haampmun, “a dynasty,” “a regime.”) Plurals are formed by the suffix –um.

Verbs

Trollish verb-roots are by default ditransitive, with the first object a person and the second a non-person. E.g. gimp, “to give happiness to someone,” “to thrill someone.”

1st person -a- (gimpa, “I give happiness to someone”)

2nd person -o- (gimpo “You give happiness to someone”)

3rd person -i- (gimpi “He/she/it gives happiness to someone”)

plural object -n (e.g. gimpon “You all give happiness to someone”)

non-person object s- (e.g. sgimp “to give happiness to something,” “to liven a place up,” “to live somewhere”)

antitransitive i- (e.g. i’imp “to be happy”)

(the order of s- and i- prefixes changes meaning; isgimp “to be given pleasure by something,” “to enjoy something,” vrs. si’imp “to make yourself happy with something,” “to like something”)

disdesiderative no- (no-‘imp “to rob someone”)

Adjectives

Adjectives follow the modified noun, which which they agree in gender and number.

Morphology

Default sentence morphology is VSO

Gimpan gi’impii i’impiium gi’impiium.

“We happy trolls give happiness to trolls.” (the official motto of the Troll Republic)

Sentences or clauses with disdesiderative (sometimes called “sad”) verbs, however, take a no-SOV morphology, with the no- element separated from the verb (although they still interact phonetically).

no- No’onkonklun ko’onkx no’onkx -‘onki.

A Bergen depresses a depressed colorless troll. (an idiom, meaning “cheer up” or “don’t stand out”)

Choice Words

Also called conjunction-nouns or modal nouns. These particles are derived from nouns and precede clauses.

Wumpi pumps.

“He/she gives someone a purpose.” (pumps is a noun)

Wumpi wuwumpii pumps-iwumpi

“A giver gives people things because that’s how a giver acts.” (an idiom meaning “you should give unselfishly”) (pumps- is a choice word)

Sample Text

Iumpa gulut nuk-swumpa

wumpin tulumpsun haampii.

Iskanka oinks-no- iskanks -ilumpa

kinkink iunka nowunkunksun.

Ximpa tulumpiim no-‘inkin

Nu’- gurgun -iswumpi?

— Dulunks Haampii Burgurtcx

“They cry out for their Garlander:

The Princess. She hopes to ably aid their need.

She knows she must with heavy heart depart what she has always known,

moreover fleeing through the Wood through which her people fled, rescue

her subjects afore they are devouréd.

Might great challenges await her?”

— The Princess and the Eremite IV:i  Duluth translation (1889)

Non-Pulomic English

exxos-von-steamboldt: English needs more non-pulmonic consonants.

Me: Challenge accepted!

Let’s start with ejectives. I’ve noticed people hypercorrecting intervocalic voicing and devoicing all voiced stops (dim> /tɪm/ and spider > /spaɪtɚ/ ) how then to disambiguate voiceless stops (and prevent the fusion of “Tim” and “dim”)? Ejectives! Dim > /tɪm/ and Tim > /tʼɪm/ Bam! Next!

Implosives! When excited, we take a sharp in-drawn breath. What if that breath was influenced by the onset of the word we’re preparing to say? So the d in the “daaaamn” of shock and awe becomes implosive (/ɗæ:m/) and the k in “cool” > /ɠu:l/. Soon, an initial implosive stop becomes generalized as a sign for a whole slew of pragmatic particles indicating surprise which in turn are grammaticallized into an augmentative prefix (ɓ-, ɗ-, or ɠ- depending on base word).

And clicks…uh…“tsk” gets grammaticallized as a “suffering voice” prefix on verbs?

ɓad news, t’eam. Those itiotic ɓastards at ɠomcast ǀraised their p’rices akain.

 

Ding ding!

So my wife is talking about Wallstreet. “We call Europe and Asia ‘conservative markets,’” she says, “but that really means that companies like Samsung and Nokia depend on sales to survive. Apple though, depends on having highly valued stocks.”

Blew my mind! And yeah that’s why the stock market was created, wasn’t it? You need someone to float you the cash to begin a long term project, so you sell shares of your company. Your only other option is to convince a bunch of wealthy patrons to …wait a second!

So think about the stock market as a forum for oligarchs – would-be Medicis throw gold florins at whatever project they think will bring honor to their portfolio. Now, how would this system look if it were taken over by a Louis IV-like Investor-of-investors? How would it look with universal suffrage? Let the speculative fiction commence! Ding ding!

Speech of the Sahara Sea

Language families in modern-day Africa

Remember the Peoples of the Sahara Seas? Well, the original creator of the Sahara Seas map, Sean McNight, liked it! That’s all the encouragement I need to go further. The last post took us from the birth of mitochondrial Adam to the non-drying of the Sahara 7,000 years ago. Now I’m going from there to 5,000 years ago and the dawn of history.

A=”Khoisan” group: many language families scattered from Tabernas desert to the tip of Southern Africa. Allied by few linguistic features (click phonemes, vowels distinguished by tone and quality, analytic morphology, and inflectional morphemes) “Khoisan” people are generally grouped together because of shared genetic markers (e.g. Y-chromosome Haplogroup A) and physiology (e.g. “peppercorn” hair, common lack of alveolar ridge). Representative languages: Khoi, San (in southern Africa), !Ku’ten (of the Mara Mountains), and Pàq (of the El Djof Desert).

B=Centimanic family: Confined to a single mountain range in the central western Sahara, the people called “Hectatoncheires” in Greek texts speak a variety of languages within a single family, whose broader affiliations are unknown. The same is true for the Hectatoncheires themselves, equally genetically distant from the Khoisan and every other human group. Language features include “teakettle” phonemes (uvular whistling and overtones). Representative languages: R˦e˨#hs (a.k.a Cannimar [1]).

C= “Pygmy” group: Technically, these are 4 language families with similar features such as click phonemes (including medial clicks), and distinguishing consonants with aspiration, voice, prenasalization, and ejection. Representative languages: Ndzenha (near Lake Malawi) and Ahaolh (a.k.a “Aawokh” in the Libyan Desert).

D=Amo[2]-Saharan family: Or possibly Amo-Saharan plus 2 or 3 other language families. These languages are united by a singular-collective-plurative number system, SOV sentence structure, 3 tones (high, low, and falling), and lentition. Representative languages: Ancient Nubian and modern Nobiin (on the Amim River), Jiar (on Lake Maghreb) and Kebian (on Lake Chad).

E=Neghren-Bindo family: Or possibly 2 language families, or possibly making up a single family with Bantu. Neghren-Bindo languages share CVCV syllable structure, verbs of a root followed by suffixes, nouns of a root preceded by classification prefixes, vowel harmony, nasal/non-nasal vowel contrast, tone, and SVO word order. Representative languages: Shileghery[3] (on the west coast) and Kibi’ndo[4] (in the Bindo basin).

F=Bantu family: Probably related to Neghren-Bindo, with noun classes, verb prefixes, CVCV syllables, and reduplication. Expanded into southern Africa in late pre-history. Representative languages: Gdunyu (in the Gulf of Guinea), Swahili (on the southwest coast), and Dumé (in southern Africa).

G=Gulf family: Possibly related to Indo-European or Kartvelian, but probably not “Scythian” as early scholars suggested. Features long consonant clusters, animate/inanimate gender, noun declension, ditransitive verbs, and inclusive/exclusive pronouns. Representative languages: Ghznuldze (northern) and Kpachhi (southern).

I=Cyclopic family: Genetic evidence indicates a stone-age migration from Europe. Affiliation has been proposed with Basque and Etruscan, as well as paleo-Baltic and Caucasian languages. Features agglutinative nouns, ergative–absolutive alignment. Representative languages: Lanthsminth (on the Occidental River) and Tsodyinyu (on the Choti Sea)

J=Afro-Asiatic family: Many waves of Afro-Asiatic-speaking peoples have migrated into Africa.Their languages feature laryngeal and emphatic consonants, VSO typology, two genders (feminine marked with -t), causative -s- affix, and words inflected by changes within the root. Representative languages: Ancient Idoptian[5] and modern Djemutic [6] (along the Amim), Ancient Phoenician and modern Gnanic (on the Atlas Peninsula)[7], Taram (in northwest Africa)[8], Amhuric (in Ethiopia)[9], and Arabic.

R=Indo-European family (Tsshian sub-family): Idoptian and Akkadian records indicate an invasion by chariot-riding nomads in the 2,500s BCE. The Tsshians [10] ruled Lower Idopt until Ptolemaic times, and begat many modern languages including: Kambdan[11] (on the Amim Delta), Taynadzzian (on the Gulf of Sidra), and Watrandzzade (on Lake Tsad).

R8=Tsadeic family: Not Indo-European as first claimed by European scholars, who noted the similarity of ancient Tsadean gods to the Greek and Hindu pantheons (e.g. Udzus, the sun-god and ruler of the pantheon). These similarities have since been found to be either spurious or the result of contact with the Tsshians and the Greeks. Tsadeic languages are in fact equally distant from Indo-European, Afro-Asiatic, and Amo-Saharan. Efforts have been made to unite them with Gulf languages, Cyclopic, and the Dravidian languages of southern India. Features include with masculine and feminine genders, consonant clusters, SOV typology, tone, desiderative verbs, heavy suffixing, and lack of prefixing. Representative languages: Stlhfwhamar (on the west coast), Qskts’atekh (west of Lake Tsad), Pkshwhade[12] (east of Lake Tsad), and Ks’hsktslhshor (south of the Ethiopian Highlands).

[1] from Saharan kandi “hand” and baru “man.” Now considered offensive.

[2] from the Amim River, OTL’s *Nile

[3] shi-leghery or “the language of Leghery,” the Shileghery pronunciation of the west-Taram name for the Neghren Rivers (the Eastern Negher, or “Niger River” and the Western Negher or “Azaouagh River”), from gher “river.”

[4] from ki–bi’ndo or “language of the hunt(er)”

[5] from Idopt, *Egypt

[6] from Djemut, the “Black Land”

[7] from kaan, the “low” people

[8] sometimes called “Berber.” From ʔm, “strong”

[9] from ʔm wr, the “people of strength”

[10] from tsusis, “army, people” and sius “sun, god”

[11] from karim-an-ka-an-Ptaa, “the temple of the ka of Ptah”

[12] from p-ks-h-wh-ade “the people of the holy, sweet lake of Tsade”

Beta-readers for The Sultan’s Enchanter?

Friends, arkadashli, and arkadaşlar! My historical fantasy-romance-alternate-history is done…again!

Three years ago, my agent told me to rewrite the first three chapters and send it back to her. Three years later, I have somewhat done so! If you’ve read earlier versions of The Sultan’s Enchanter (under its old name “Charming Lies”), you might recognize a lot. But I think  I’ve tightened the characters and highlighted their desires and problems. At least, I think I did. That’s what I need help with.

I also need help with:

Turkish language

Ottoman music

Ottoman art, poetry, cuisine, dance, etc.

Ottoman history

Bulgarian history

Islam

Programming

If you know more about those things than I do (i.e. more than what reading wikipedia gets you), send me a message and I’ll send you the novel. Or send me a message if you just want to tell me how to improve the story. I’m sending this thing to everyone!

If you’re curious but don’t want to commit, here’s the first chapter.