Daniel M. Bensen's Blog, page 62
June 11, 2017
Fa-daa!
I am have making meme! We are all meeming now!
June 1, 2017
Baby Talks: Consonant Harmony
I noticed something cool while I was singing the finger family song to my 2-year-old daughter this morning: consonant harmony.
Me: Mommy finger mommy finger where are you?
Her: Mommy minger!
Me: Daddy finger…
Her: Daddy binger!
Me: Kaka (big sister) finger
Her: Kaka pinger!
What’s going on here? From “Mommy minger” you might just assume that she’s replacing the first letter in “finger” with the first letter in the preceding word, but it’s not *daddy dinger, it’s daddy binger.
What seems to be happening is that my daughter retains the place of articulation of the first phoneme of the noun (labio-dental for the f in finger), but harmonizes its manner of articulation with the manner of the adjunct noun (voiced stop for the d in daddy).
Thus:
Mommy finger > /ˈmɒmi ˈɱɪŋɡə/
Daddy finger > /ˈdædi ˈb̪ɪŋɡə/
Kaka finger > /’kakə ˈp̪ɪŋɡə/
Those are some pretty funky consonants. Alternately, my daughter pronounces “f” as /ɸ/, turning the first phonemes of “minger,” “binger,” and “pinger” into unassumingly bilabial /m/, /b/, and /p/.
The way to test it would be to try to make her say “sister finger,” which should either become /ˈsɪs.tə ˈfɪŋɡə/ or /ˈsɪs.tə ˈɸɪŋɡə/. Or, if I’m just wrong about everything, /ˈsɪs.tə ˈsɪŋɡə/ 
May 24, 2017
A space shanty
I left my alter drifting
In another quantum brane
His eyes are sort of shifty
But we’re otherwise the same
If the timeline branches one way
I’m alive and he is dead
But if we go the other
Then it’s me who croaked instead
So remember when when you’re sailing
‘Pon the hyper spatial sea
If your life you would preserve
Do not trust the evil me.
May 11, 2017
Bad Conlang Ideas
You know how some languages have nouns with singular, dual, and plural morphology? Why not more?
I’m not suggesting a different suffix for every number. But what if we kept things simple? What if we used binary?This is a Wugun.
Now there are zero. There are zero Wugul.
Now there are two. There are two (10 in binary) Wugunul.
Now there are three (11) Wugunun.
Now there are four Wugunulul.
…
Please give me thirteen Wugununulun!
Some writing advice
a paragraph with too many beautiful words is like a meal made of candy.
New Miscon Schedule
I’ve got a new schedule at Miscon, the Missoula Scifi/Fantasy convention May 26-29th. If you’re planning to go, here’s where you can expect to see me:
panel Fri 1:00 – 1:50 PM, Meet & Greet Signings, Spotlight
Panelists: Daniel Bensen, Carol Berg, Guy Pace
Meet a few of our authors, get signatures, and see what they’re up to these days.
panel Fri 5:00 – 5:50 PM, How to Appear Human, Rocket Tent (1)
Panelists: Daniel Bensen, C.J. Cherryh, Jane Fancher, Tex Thompson
We all want to make friends on Earth, but we don’t always know how. Human social customs are strange and complex, and can baffle even the most well-meaning being. Make the most of your time at this convention by learning some ways to have fun while talking to humans.
panel Fri 6:00 – 6:50 PM, Care and Feeding of a Writers’ Critique Group, Madison
Panelists: Daniel Bensen, David Boop, Guy Pace, D.L Solum
Over the course of this weekend, we want you to do have opportunities to create, mold, and join writers’ groups, so in this panel we’ll discuss how you find, maintain, and organize a writers’ group. We’ll learn how to give and take critiques, and how to use those critiques to improve your writing (ie: what do you use and what do you ignore?).
panel Sat 11:00 – 11:50 AM, How People Actually Learn Languages, Glacier
Panelists: Daniel Bensen
It doesn’t happen in a montage. Language-learning is much harder, and much more interesting, than most books and movies make it look. It has a lot to do with the inner workings of both our minds and our cultures.
panel Sat 2:00 – 2:50 PM, Build a Better Monster, Dragon Pavilion (1)
Panelists: Daniel Bensen
Build a Better Monster: Biology and Creature Design in Scifi and Fantasy
Not all monsters are created evil. The best ones don’t look like they were created at all, but evolved like real animals. We’ll talk about the ecology, bio-mechanics, and phylogeny of creature-creation — that’s everything you need but the test tube full of mutagen.
panel Sun 1:00 – 1:50 PM, Building Immersive Worlds, Glacier
Panelists: Daniel Bensen, Larry Bonham, Alyson Peterson, Peter Wacks (pjwacks)
We know an immersive, deep world when we see it. Everything just fits together, in casual, unforced fashion. Sometimes the best researched and written worlds aren’t immersive. Heinlein claims it’s all about same until proven otherwise, but other authors insist it is the other way around. Our authors will discuss classic world building techniques, mistakes and go-to solutions.
panel Sun 5:00 – 5:50 PM, Kingdoms Outside Europe, Gallatin
Panelists: Daniel Bensen
Your fantasy kingdom doesn’t have to be based on Plantagenet England. Why not the Ottoman Empire, the Aztec Triple Alliance, Heian Japan? There are a lot of ways to be a king.
Panelist: Daniel Bensen
Some of the panels only have me as a panelist? But I’m sure they’ll fix that. Anyway, I’ll be there. I’ll probably also be at these juicy-looking panels:
Retro versus Future Noir (Writing, Geek Discussion)
Sat 10:00 – 10:50 AM, (Jefferson)
Pros and Guests: M. H. Bonham (Maggie), David Boop, Jill Bowers, Joyce Reynolds-Ward
Moderator: David Boop
Dark mysteries set in the past, or in the future, have very specific tropes. What do these two genres have in common, and where do they diverge?
Writing Alternate Histories (Writing)
Sun 3:00 – 3:50 PM, (Gallatin)
Pros and Guests: Jill Bowers, Eric Scott Fischl, Tex Thompson
How do you write alternative history? How much do you really need to know about the original timeline to make a convincing fork in the road? Where, when and why do you sprinkle in details to give a sense of time, and alternative time? Where’s the line between enough and trying too hard.
Write a Story on the Fly, Vol 3 (Writing)
Mon 1:00 – 1:50 PM, (Dragon Pavilion)
Pros and Guests: Spencer G. Ellsworth, Tex Thompson, Krista Wallace
Moderator: Krista Wallace
In this panel, the panelists will improv a story on the fly, one sentence at a time. It will be written down as they go, and will be read aloud at the end. Promises to be a rolickin’ good time!
See the whole schedule
See you there I hope!
May 9, 2017
Emergency Worldbuilding
For The Centuries Unlimited
I’m figuring out the history of Ruth’s relationship with her boyfriend, Vivek.
Vivek is a time-travelling cyborg air-marshal from “Shock Station,” a timeline where the 22nd century dumped all its technology on top of 1979. That was 23 years ago, so what has happened since? What grungy, cyberpunk problems does Shock Station currently have?
My guess is Shock Station’s problems will be the result of how its leaders used down-time technology. The American Presidency Project tells me that at that time, Republicans were worried about:
economic instability, inflation, and unemployment
soviet bombs and soviet influence in the third world
American dependence on foreign oil
Democrats, meanwhile, were worried about:
The energy shortage
inequality of women and minorities
Cuban refugees
So what would these people do when armed with future technology?
May 7, 2017
Five Star Reviews: Gun Machine
No, I AM going to write a review for Gun Machine. I must have really liked it, since I can’t stop telling people about it.
Gun Machine is what Kim Moranovec tells me is called “Now-punk:” a hot, steamy, fast story with all the inner workings of a science fiction or urban fantasy novel. It’s just that the story takes place in the real world.
Warren Ellis’s writing is the best sort of concise. Every word illuminates action that is funny, lovely, terrible, and above all entertaining.
Long story short: For years, an insane hunter-gatherer in New York has been spinning murders into worldly gain for his employers. A cynical, grieving old cop smacks into this conspiracy and hijinks ensue.
Go read it!
May 5, 2017
No, I AM going to write a review for Gun Machine. I must ...
No, I AM going to write a review for Gun Machine. I must have really liked it, since I can’t stop telling people about it.
This is what Kim Moranovec tells me is called “Now-punk:” a hot, steamy, fast story with all the inner workings of a science fiction or urban fantasy novel. It’s just that the story takes place in the real world.
Warren Ellis’s writing is the best sort of concise. Every word illuminates action that is funny, lovely, terrible, and above all entertaining.
Long story short: For years, an insane hunter-gatherer in New York has been spinning murders into worldly gain for his employers. A cynical, grieving old cop smacks into this conspiracy and hijinks ensue.
Go read it!
May 4, 2017
Awful Symmetry 4: Case Study and Homework
This is the first chapter of a short introduction to speculative biology. It was seen first by subscribers, so, you know…subscribe.
My first real book (non self published, printed paper more than 10 pages) was Petrolea, a novella about an ecosystem of self reproducing robots. I thought about how these robots might grow and reproduce, and my friend C. M. Kosemen gave me some ideas about what sort of ecology they might build, but the book didn’t really get going until I asked myself what might happen when these machine animals encountered humans.
MUNCH!
Human technology (land rovers, space suits, shovels) are made of the same basic elements as Petrolean mechanoids, and so are prone to everything from being dissembled by bacteria- or ant-like scavenger robots to being hunted cross-country by orca-sized flying predators.
But at the same time, humans are exploiting the Petrolean ecosystem for ourselves. The mechanoid food chain starts with “plants” that extract energy from wind and geothermal power and store it in the form of gasoline. All that tidily-packaged fuel is tempting to human industries, and since the mechanoids live on a distant, uninhabitable moon, there’s no reason to worry about environmental damage.
Or is there? I delved into ecological and economic philosophy and got some arguments (pragmatic, aesthetic, utilitarian, moral, Kantian, and even religious) to put into the mouths of Petrolea’s characters. That created personality and plot, as well as making the interactions between humans and mechanoids more interesting.
Plus they helped me figure out the ending.
Assignment: answer these question:
Why might an alien organism attack a human?
Why might that same organism protect a human?
What sort of environment produced an organism that behaves this way?
What organisms inhabit the trophic levels above and below that organism?
Now that you’ve answered those questions, write a scene where a monster attacks our main character, but that character is smart enough to trigger the monster’s protective instincts and turn it from a threat to a guardian.
That’s it for chapter 1 of Awful Symmetry. I have ideas for more, but I need to know if there’s interest. Is there interest? Do you have interest? If so, tell me in the comments and tell me you want to read more. I’d also like to see people’s answers to those questions above.
