I know that there is some RULE for blogging out there that states that it is dead after a set period of silence.
*shrug*
... if I listened to rules I would never had made the Half-Continent in the first place. I see this blog as an on-going conversation, a friendship that must sometimes go silent as life intervenes, yet the relationship is not over, it is simply waiting there for the conversation to begin again when it it possible once more.
So here I am, and I hope (and pray) that entries will be resume with a little more regularity.
Thank you to BB, Alyosha, Differlot, Anna, Camilla, Carlita, Sean, RJA, Ali, Tradgardmastare and all of you for your patience and encouragement and your musings and questions.
For my first actual post I would like to show you all a leaf from notebook 32, drawing especial attention to the entry on the bottom of the right hand pane:
This, dear fellow Sundergirdians, is what a lot looks like (a lot being the Half-Continent's version dice) - a hexagonal 'tube', painted black, marked in white and actually having eight possible outcomes. The longer notation to the right of the drawing says:
"...landing on it ends is possible with a vigorous toss and is either fortunate or ill-favoured depending on the circumstance or culture."
The image shows the "7-end", with the "8-end" being all red but without a number or any other marking. It was such as these that Rossamünd saw being thrown at the Broken Doll.
I reckon it might be a cool little project to get a brace o' these puppies made... *puts on to-do list*
Now to ponder your musings and muse answers of my own...
15 comments:
The words say hexagonal, but my eyes see octagonal. Perhaps the one you drew is of the sort that gambling sharps slip into the mix every once of a while? But don't mind a persnickety old verger. If you say hexagonal, hexagonal it is.
And more important than that, glad to have you back again.
Interesting to see your notebook,fascinating to read of the "dice" and fantastic to have you back in our midst!
best wishes
Tradgardmastre
Good to see you back in fine form. Your posts are enjoyable to read. Best of luck with your new-found enthusiasm.
I like these lots better than real-world dice, which I never really liked anyway. I'd like to try and make this myself if I can figure out how (without proper woodworking tools, which I have none). Huh... is one lot or two used at a time? I'll look at the gambling-den chapter again.
To Alyosha's question, part of the description in the picture specifies that it is in fact 6 sides (and 2 ends), even though 8 sides were drawn.
Sorry about double-posting, but I had a question a couple of us were wondering in the forum: Could you show us a visual representation of the borders of the Haacobin Empire? It's become difficult to imagine where they are based purely on descriptions in the Explicariums (explicaria?).
It's wonderful to see you back! I love the tabs along the side of your notebook - are they duct-tape? Do you do that with every notebook? I am inspired.
Now that you're back, I'd like to share a "Half Continent" moment that happened a couple of months ago. I was having some herbal tea one evening and, while the tea was brewing I read the text on the packet in which the tea had come. The ingredients were listed in French and one of those ingredients was "cannelle." The Bogle Prince immediately came to mind, and I was delighted, when I read the English translation, to find that cannelle was French and (as I found later) Latin, for cinnamon. Inspired to look further, I found that lentigo is Latin for a type of freckle. I couldn't find any Latin meaning for Pococo; but no matter, that discovery can wait for another day. I expect that other readers have already noticed these connections, but for me it was a lovely surprise, and another example of the subtle connectedness of the Half World. But please don't think - whether you're in a mood that words are lovely, or words are foul - that I got caught up in the Half Continent by word play. As I said, that's just an example. In deeper ways, that I can't put a finger on, so much else of the story fits together seamlessly.
wonderful little thing!
i have a question about the haacobin empire. i migth have missed this in the explicariums, but was there a time when when the empire was comprised of smaller, independent states which unified? I wonder because of the germanic names of the places and cities, and the allusions to other cultural exportations of germania, such as the Landsknecht-like mercenaries.
Wonderful to see (and read!) a fresh post from you, Mr. Cornish!
Whatever you've got in the creative pipeline these days, I hope it's bringing you joy.
Busily promoting MBT to whoever will listen, here in the Midwest USA,
- old aggie
Hurray your still alive.
Also do you have plans to ever release an artbook of somekind for the half continent, or maybe include it in the back of a book.
i have just started reading this series anf finished factotum a moment ago and can not wait, for what will happen now :)
I am doing the preliminary work on a troubadour's combat outfit (sketches and models). Unfortunately I am finding it difficult to picture what a troubadour looks like from behind. If you have an illustration or explanation for what the armor would look like I'd be very grateful.
Am hoping you could bless us with one more adventure concerning rossamund and the cast, just to say goodbye. Otherwise, you have proven, as an author and illustrator, to contain enough talent for a seven part series. Hope to hear more about the half-continent and rossamunds adventures in it.
I totally love your series... even if I have to occasionally re-read a sentence 3 times to understand it =) lol, I LOVE your drawings (clarity amidst the occasional confusion). But what I would like better? If you released a collection of all your drawings in a book or something. :) preferably color, though I'm not picky ^_-
Actually, now that I think about it... this whole series would be a great comic/manga book thing... :D *nudgenudge* eh? Just a thought... Ha, us fans will work you guys to the bone if you let us. But it WOULD be cool... :) Thanks for putting all your hard work into these books because I thoroughly enjoyed them.
-From, Some Random Girl In USA
(AKA: Emily Odenwald)
I'm sure this question has been answered before but I cannot find it. So, are there any plans to create a movie based off your books?
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