Monday, October 20, 2008

Advice for young players

This weeks piece of folksy wisdom: do not stay up way past your bedtime, tap yourself a glass o' water when overtired, go to bed and have your wife/partner/flatmate wake up 3 hours later to find that said tap (faucet) has not been properly turned off and the kitchen bench, floor and draws are all swimming, then spend next hour+ ladling water out of draws that can not be removed and towel dry every stinking piece that dwelt in said drawers. If you can avoid this, I would recommend it.

Noelle asked: "Is it possible to be both a wit and fulgar? This just occurred to me and it's going to bother me."

Well Noelle be bothered no longer! It is indeed possible to be a wit and fulgar in one person - a super-lahzar, such maddened souls are generally called dexters and typically have short lives full of violence, pain and a whole lot of treacle-taking. Not recommended for any but "power players".

Anna asks: "By the way Mr Cornish, how is the culture-life in H-C? Authors, painters, genealogy ..?"

There surely are these things, I touch on such a little more in Book 3 - though Rossamünd not being overly cultural does not give me great play with such things. However a brief mention in the story does give me licence to go too far in the Explicarium, which is yet to be properly worked up. I tend to add brief entries as I write the main tale, points to be elaborated while the main text is in Celia's/Tim's most excellent hands.

Ah, Monday, you spotted my H.P! I feel like I have been caught with my petticoat showing ;)

Thank you all! for your encouragements last post, I clearly see you all know full well the personal insanity that is writing.

14 comments:

portals said...

Mr. Cornish,
Plain lahzars are frowned upon and shunned, so how badly treaded are dexters?
What would Madam Felicitine have done if Europe had been a dexter?

Jack Dixon Ryan said...

Well, if I was confronting a dangerou person who could probably kill me in the blink of an eye, I think I would leave that person alone.

Femina said...

Oh dear oh dear... I can SO see myself doing that with the tap. Curses on drawers that can't be removed for cleaning (or emptying of floods, as the case may be).

Anonymous said...

so that would mean that Dexters probably would suffer the sideeffects of being a lazhar more severally, more often for a longer amount of time, etc, right?

D.M. Cornish said...

Absolutely correct, redwolf!

I am thinking, portals that dexters generally suffer the usual aloofness and reticence experienced by all lahzars, but that folks are more scared of them. The rumours of lahzars going "nutso!" (not a H-c word :) tend to involved dexters most. That being said there are not terribly many of them about, due in part to thr great risks and trouble just having all those mimetic bits in you, and because to be transmogrified twice is prohibitively expensive. Dexters are usually folk who have begun as one kind of lahzar and later, when money flows from their labours, got to the butchers of Sinster for an "add-on".

noelle said...

Would you get both kinds of spores, or is there some kind of hybrid spore for a dexter?

RottenPocket said...

We rent a Queenslander... If ....scratch that- when we happen to make such mistakes, it just flows down the hole in the corner and into the garage :D

As to Dexters, dang they'd be one moody bunch!

Anonymous said...

Thanks Mr Cornish for answering my questions. What would the world be without books and libraries (says me who is a book-oholic and on my way to become an librarian). And all those other cuture-stuff....that´s what makes life more enjoyable!

smudgeon said...

It's nice to see that there are upgrades, add-ons, plugins, etc [Europe v3.11, perhaps?]. in the half-continent. Are these upgrades limited to internal organs only? Are there pugnators out there who figure an extra eye/arm/thorny-bark-like-skin-in-sensitive-areas/claw/magic-big-toe in addition to their modified innards might improve their trade [and fees]?.

I assume a Dexter going "nutso" would be a duck-and-cover experience, although spectacular to see with all your loved ones from a safe vantage point.

Our drains used to block up every winter, hence washing the clothes was always a precarious experience. I hope for your sake you don't have floorboards - although it seems a case of "lesson learned"!

D.M. Cornish said...

You might think it is lesson learned, me - it was however, the second such error on my behalf and now the stinking top drawer won't close properly because the cheap chipboard they're made of has swollen. Doh!

As for a spoor for a dexter, noelle, most tend to devise some combination of the two as suits their tastes.

noelle said...

I can't believe I said "spore," makes it sound like mushrooms are growing on them or something. I should really polish up my Half-Continent spelling :)

edwarrd said...

With the spoors, is it something that a lahzar has to have, or is it something they choose to have to promote what they are?
Also, can they have variations of the spoors?

smudgeon said...

Everybody buy a second copy of Lamplighter - Mr Cornish needs a new kitchen...

RottenPocket said...

Me-
Looks like I'll have to. I still haven't had my two books returned >< Cleaner, pristine copies here I come!