I am guilty of having done a post here that could only have been understood by cybertelepaths. I had all the backstory for my new novel in my head, I had all my linguistics-stuff in my head, so I just went blithely along with that post as if you [youall] were similarly encumbered. I am greatly blessed that houseboatonstyx came to my rescue with a comment, and -- with that resource in hand -- I am going to do my best to straighten up the mess I made. Here's the first paragraph of the comment:

"If we're looking for sounds that would be PERCEIVED as something other than vowels or consonsonants or something along that continuum -- that's an issue about the perceivers, isn't it? If they've been trained that to be meaningful, a sound must be classified as v, c, or in between -- then won't anything that might be meaningful be stuck into one of those categories, whether it physiologically fits the physiological definition or not?"

Yes. Terran linguists listening to the speech of native speakers of an ET language are going to expect to hear vowels and consonants because that's what they've been trained to hear, and are going to sort the sounds they hear into those two categories for that reason. Only after the U.S. Corps of Linguists (USCOL) had accumulated a large database of ET sound-based languages that included vowels, consonants, and "something else" would it be possible to train them to identify and analyze that "something else." And my conviction is that that would take a very long time to happen.

And here's the next paragraph of the comment:

"Are we looking for sounds from the vocal tract that would be so different physiologically/phonetically that they COULD NOT be fitted into those v-c categories, even by a sort of legal fiction? But would somehow be clearly meaningful so that they COULD NOT simply be disregarded or somehow marginalized?"

Yes again. My Brethandi ETs -- because their anatomy is very different from the anatomy of the Terran cattle they so closely resemble to the casual eye -- are able to speak in a fashion comparable to Terran speech, although they of course have distinctive accents. [I knew that. So I did a cognitive SHAZAM-leap and took it for granted that you would know it too. Sheesh.] And my question was serious. Supposing one or more of the Brethandi languages was composed of three meaningful classes of sounds -- vowels, consonants, and something else -- then what, I wanted to know, could that something else possibly be?

One possibility turned up in a comment from kelsied:
"Consonants, vowels, and rests. As in music. The rhythmic and intentional interruption of consonants and vowels to modify their meaning."

That option -- musical rests -- is the one I used in my USCOL story "Honor Is Golden," published in Analog. [Not online anywhere, so far as I know.] It worked, to my satisfaction and my editor's, although I got slammed for it in a review. My linguists weren't able to isolate the rest-phonemes or work with them, but they were able to establish communication. Which was their primary goal.

I hope this clarifies things just a tad. If it doesn't, let me know and I'll try again.

• 09:27 Portland reading was terrific fun! Thank you to all the organizers, other readers, and listeners!! #
• 11:56 RT @torforgeauthors Jeff VanderMeer: A Day in the Life of a Literature Professor, or Why I Do What I Do bit.ly/1a5OvR #

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I seem to have acquired an extra one, possibly from the World Fantasy Convention.

It contained some Claritan gelcaps, and a green frequent buyer card from the San Francisco Soup Company with one stamp.

So another round of assignments went out to some artists the other day, and now that I have a moment to breathe, allow me to share their names:

--Alan M. Clark

--Carol Heyer

--Jill Bauman

I've worked with all three of these artists before and was very pleased with the pieces they handed in.  Alan's work appears in the current issue with his illustration to "Narrative of a Beast's Life" by Cat Rambo.  Carol's work is also in the current issue, with her illustration to "Stories of the Sand" by Dirk Strasser, which also ended up as our cover (please note: this cover image was tweaked before going to press, though the art remains the same).  Jill's work hasn't appeared in the magazine yet, and alas, I have no "Sneak Peek" to link to, but she handed in her finished piece quite recently and it is made of good fun and much awesomeness.

So I'm still very early into being the art director at RoF, but it's definitely fair to say that when an artist hands in something I like I'm very happy to work with them again when the right story comes along.  A look back at the early issues of RoF seems to reveal a similar pattern, as a number of the same names popped up quite often (including Carol).

I will hasten to add that I'm still very much interested in working with artists I haven't worked with before.  Like the fiction department, I would love there to be artists you might consider regulars in the magazine, while also introducing folks who are new to our pages.  In fact, there is another artist I haven't worked with before that I'll probably be announcing here soon.  But there are still a couple of details to hammer out before everything is official, so for the time being I think it's best not to post his name. 

The second batch of your comments I want to tackle -- about a possible "third class of meaningful sounds" in an ET language -- is those that propose various kinds of noises. The noises described in your comments included percussives [sounds that could be made with drums, rattles, and the like]; crackling; clicks; whistles; burps and belches; teeth-clicks; farts; squeaks; squeals; and more.

Those of you who've complained that I didn't define my terms -- neither "vowel" nor "consonant" -- are absolutely right, and I apologize. For me, vowels are speech sounds that are produced without any obstruction of the flow of air through the vocal tract; consonants are speech sounds for which that flow of air is obstructed in some fashion. That of course means that the vowel/consonant distinction has to be a continuum, not an either/or binary split. As pgdudda has pointed out, the English liquids [L and R] and the English glides [Y and W and H] are neither strictly vowels nor strictly consonants; they fall in between the two, somewhere on the continuum.

My opinion -- and it's only that, an opinion, since I've never encountered an ET language -- is that all of the varieties of noises proposed in your comments would be perceived by Terrans, and by Terran linguists, as falling somewhere on the vowel/consonant continuum; that is, as either vowel-like or consonant-like. I don't believe they would perceive the noises as a separate, third class of meaningful speech sounds.

I could be wrong about this. For sure.

The first batch of your comments on my ET phonology question that I want to tackle is the batch that doesn't try to answer my question. I don't know whether it's because I didn't make myself clear, or because the question was perhaps read too quickly, or because the commenters just preferred not to color inside the lines. In any case...

My question was narrow and specific:
Suppose the ET language we're dealing with has three classes of meaningful sounds: vowels; consonants; and something else. What could the something else be?

Comments proposing that the something else could be colors, or smells, or the position of the speaker's face/ears/tail/fur -- something other than a class of meaningful sounds -- are answering a different question. It's an interesting question, and I thank you for the comments, but it's not the question that I asked.

I do not like nights when I feel like an awful writer.

Or: Jo and her girlfriend speculate about puppets' sexuality.

Jo: I think I realized why I love these guys so much. They read as gay men to me.

Kim: They're both tremendous hams, so of course. I mean Snow Miser oozes fabulous, and dear god the new guy in the special is terrible but he's even gayer (Jo's note: If you haven't seen the 2008 Miser Brothers' special, this was the character Jay Leno voiced. And yes, what Kim says is true).

Jo: I think they're both gay but probably don't date much. Can't even think of who they'd date.

Kim: Within their canons no, clue. Uhm, Santa if we want to kill childhoods I gue-OH. They're JILTED LOVERS OMG. That explains the WHOLE MOVIE!

Jo: No no no they're not gay for each other! They're brothers!

Kim: Noonononono of SANTA

Jo: WHAT?

Kim: Santa's two-timing! His wife is a slash fan, clearly, who approves.

Jo: Dude, Mickey Rooney did Santa's voice! I can't see it.

Kim: But, but, Heat Miser's all, "He likes you better!" "He wrote songs about you!"

Jo: OMG you're right! :O

Kim: Do I win?

Jo: You do!

Kim: How many internets?

Jo: 50. Maybe 51.

Kim: :D

[Jo blathers about how Utah should be Heat Miser's territory because I hate snow, about how Harvey Fierstein played Heat Miser in the godawful live action remake in 2007 which involved, like, Vegas chorus girls, and how I loved last year's special which did not axe either brother's chorus of chibis, thankyouverymuch.]

Kim: "I want Santa's North Pole but he keeps giving it to you!"

Jo: Well, Heat Miser DID ask for the North Pole in "A Year Without a Santa Claus," So ...

Strikeforce is going to have a MMA show on CBS tomorrow. The main event looks to get pretty interesting—Fedor vs. Brett Rogers. This could mean a lot to the #2 MMA promotion in the country, though the product needs to be slicked up a bit. The UFC, for example, will use subtitles for many of their pay-per-views, like "Ill Will" or "Bedlam" or "The Comeback." Strikeforce doesn't really differentiate their shows in such a way. Too bad too, as the main event is rich with thematic possibilities.



Strikeforce on CBS: Four-Dollar Haircut Night

Finally, finally, finally I think we’ve gotten our vehicle situation sorted out. Finally. Why yes, we DID buy the new (to us) vehicle a couple of weeks ago now. And no, we haven’t been driving it all this time. It’s been this epic Sierra adventure game of how we need to get one thing fixed, but we can’t fix that one thing until we do this other thing, and we can’t do that thing until yet another thing has fallen into place, and that wouldn’t happen until we drank the grog and entered the spitting contest with the pirates, and that can’t happen until more than three people get this joke, which probably won’t occur, etcetera etcetera etcetera.

But. It seems to be sorted out now, down to the insurance and the maniacal giggling. The “Cookie Monster” (as I’ve come to call it) still needs a tiny bit of belt work, but I’ll see if I can arrange for it tomorrow afternoon or Monday, and it shouldn’t be a big deal. Point is, Cookie Monster is ours. Fair and square, in the clear. Now I just have to clean out the old car and call up the PBS donation folks, and then we’ll be back down to one vehicle — it is to be hoped, one vehicle that works pretty much consistently. We pray.

Anyway. I regret to admit that due to the epic run-around and outstanding asshattery from the repair shop,* I got virtually nothing productive accomplished today (except some day-job work, but even that wasn’t as extensive as it should’ve been).

In order to wind down and quit seething, I cleaned house and did the floors, and started some laundry. Now I’m just waiting for the hubs to get home, and I hope he brings booze, because hot damn I could use a drink right about now.

---

* No, I’m not ready to bore you with the particulars, because things actually did get sorted eventually, via tremendous headache. However, I will say this: If you are in Seattle, avoid Econo Lubes. Oh wait, there’s only one Econo Lube in Seattle … so … yeah. Avoid that one.

[Crossposted to/from my website. If you'd like to comment, you can do so either here or there.]

So, back a while ago I sold a story to Realms of Fantasy. And then, before my story could be published, Realms folded.

I bided my time. I knew that either I'd be notified that my story was released or else the reversion clause would kick in. It was only a matter of which came first. I'd already been paid, which was a plus, but really what I had wanted was that publication! Ah, well, that's life.

Then, much to my delighted surprise, Realms was resurrected! So my time-biding became much more satisfying.

And now the end of my wait is in sight!

My story "The Unknown God" will be in the February issue of Realms of Fantasy, available in fine bookstores starting, Mr. Cohen says, sometime in December.

Warren has posted the updated cover for the February 2010 issue of RoF.  The artwork to this one is by Gallegos.  It represents another interior illustration we're also running on the cover, and it is for "The Unknown God" by Ann Leckie.  Ann's story is also one of my slush survivors, so this just adds to the overall coolness factor. :)

Here is the complete TOC (no order):

"How Interesting: A Tiny Man" by Harlan Ellison, illustrated by Leo & Diane Dillon
"The Unknown God" by Ann Leckie, illustrated by Gallegos
"Melanie" by Aliette de Bodard, illustrated by Frank Wu
"Mister Oak" by Leah Bobet, illustrated by Gary Lippincott
"The Demon of Hochgarten" by Euan Harvey, illustrated by Dave Leri

This issue's artist gallery features Charles Vess.

As always seems to be the case, there is some stuff worth noting.  Let's start with the fiction.  As the cover notes, this is Harlan Ellison's first new story in almost a decade.  So we're very proud to be the venue publishing this legend in the field.  Harlan has appeared in the magazine before--both in the fiction and nonfiction departments-but this is the first time he's publishing original fiction with us.  Leah & Euan have also appeared in the magazine before.  Ann & Aliette are both appearing in the magazine for the first time.

In the art department, there are several things I'd like to note.  First, by special arrangement with Realms of Fantasy and its art department, Harlan Ellison got to play art director with his story.  The artists to this piece were selected by him and he worked with them.  I gave the stamp of approval on the artist selections and it was up to me concerning whether to accept the final piece that was turned in, but this was Harlan's baby. 

With the cover/interior illustration by Gallegos, I should note that I learned about this artist through the general submissions pile.  I almost always have to hunt down the right artists through research, either by flipping through back issues of RoF or the latest edition of Spectrum, or poking around on various online artist sites and/or galleries.  So it was kind of cool to skip the research portion for a change and have this artist presented to me on a silver platter.  Gallegos is not an unknown, but he does mark the first artist I learned about through the general art submissions.  Carol Heyer & Stephanie Pui-Mun Law have both submitted portfolios and I've since worked with them both, but I was aware of their work already and had planned to work with them anyway.  Not so with Gallegos.  I was actually still looking for the right artist to "The Unknown God" when I made my weekly trip to the art p.o. box.  Inside was a portfolio from Gallegos, and as I looked through his samples, the proverbial light-bulb went off and I decided to pair him up with Ann's story.  So to any artists who might believe it is a waste of time to snail-mail your portfolios to the general art submissions, I say thee nay!

To any who like to keep track of this sort of stuff, I'd also like to note that Dave Leri's illustration is a piece from the Sovereign Media era.  I've actually worked with Dave already, and the result was published in our last issue, with his illustration to "Felicity's Engine" by Sharon Mock.  But coincidentally enough, his piece for Sovereign Media is being published in the very next issue. Anyway, with the publication of this piece, we're now down to three pieces of art remaining from the Sovereign Media era.

Finally, with Frank Wu's illustration to "Melanie," I present to you the completed trifecta from the art brouhaha a while back.  First there was the intense interest in the mermaid cover from the August 2009 issue.  Then there was the intense interest in the mermaid story by William Eakin in the October 2009 issue.  And early on in that whole unfortunate brouhaha, there was some scrutiny regarding this illustration's nudity.  I said that it wasn't right to judge the interior illustration without reading the accompanying story.  Well, now you can read the story.  So feel free to judge away!  Thus concludes our final chapter of the art brouhaha (or so I sincerely hope).

Anyway, I know there are still some folks out there who have been waiting a while to see their stories published in the magazine.  We're getting there.  Euan's story was tied with another story for our second oldest story in inventory.  And Aliette actually has the oldest story in inventory ...just not "Melanie."  "Melanie" marks her second sale to us, but being as it's shorter we ran this one instead due to space considerations.  Call it a hunch, but I doubt Aliette is complaining. :)

And that, I believe, is all the news fit to print, except to let you know that this one should be finding its way to newsstands and subscribers in December.  Hope you like it!            
   

Any designers out there looking for a job? Check this "ad" out from our design mavens at Realms of Fantasy:

Applicants should include "references and links to your work. We are looking for someone that can hand in the finished layout and design in seven days from when they receive all materials. If you're the kind of person who needs extensions or is uncertain whether you could handle this sort of deadline, don't bother applying. Being late with the work is not an option. We would like to hire someone who is willing to maintain the current look of the magazine. Some creative tweaks are acceptable, but we are not looking for any kind of radical redesigns. Writers are often told to read a magazine before submitting to it. If you're interested in this position, you would be wise to purchase a copy of the latest issue and flip through it with an eye toward its layout and design."


Could be a good gig. I'd recommend to those with an online portfolio arbitrarily putting the words HARRY POTTER on all your stuff.

In a recent post, I said:
"Suppose you encounter a language that has three basic classes of meaningful sounds: vowels, consonants -- and something else. The question then is: What could that 'something else' be?" Now I'm not quite sure what to do with the blogmonster I managed to create with that question.

One possibility is to take up each of your comments, one at a time, and respond in detail. That means finding a way to explain a great deal of basic information about phonetics and phonology, without resorting to LinguistSpeak, and without creating additional confusions that would tie us up in knots for weeks, maybe months, while I tried to straighten them out. This would take a very long time.

Another possibility is for me to sort the comments into classes of some kind and deal with them in batches, with all the same caveats attached.

Another possibility is to notice that you seem to have had a good time proposing answers to my question, to thank you for all your excellent comments, and then to just butt out and mind my own business.

Do you [youall] have a preference?

Today is brought to you by the Santa Cruz Mountains rain and no tea, strangely enough. I may have to remedy that: I have caught a cold. (Lemon ginger sounds good.)

2009 has been remarkably healthy for me, much more healthy than I've been in years past. But I still have this cold -- I suspect I had it coming.

I attended World Fantasy Convention 2009 in nearby San Jose this weekend, my first big con. I paid for the con by writing articles about how to adjust watches.

I attended no panels, I attended only Terry Bisson's reading. Mostly I met people I've corresponded with online for years, or authors and editors I admire, some of them absolute favorites of mine. I spent time with Clarion West cohorts, old friends, new friends and Paul Park, my Clarion West Week 1 instructor, and Connie Willis, who taught Week 4. I learned about writing and being a writer in the current publishing climate. It's scary, but when I step back and think about it, it's thrilling, too.

And I caught a cold.

But that's okay; it was certainly worth it.

One of my favorite moments of the con was when Margo Lanagan won the World Fantasy Award for best novel. (Along with Jeffrey Ford, which just rocked -- I adore Jeff Ford.)

Margo Lanagan's win was a personal thing for me, proving how powerful boundary busting YA can be, and that that's okay, and can be accepted and appreciated when it's done well, when there's a point to the transgressions. This is something I've struggled with for years, that I'm finally getting over. I've consistently censored myself and my stories because of fear, fear of what people would think, react, say. How it would affect my fiction writing career. How it would affect my life in Idaho, and my family's life.

Partially this was because I had written stories in the past that bothered people, stories that people took personal offense to. I hadn't intended to hurt anyone when I wrote what I did; I thought I was writing a story I was interested in writing.

It's a process, but I'm learning not to be afraid.

I think I'm going to write Margo Lanagan a letter. Do you all remember that? When I used to write people letters? (I think I once wrote something to the effect of, "Harlan Ellison sues people; I write people letters.") I need to start writing letters again. I used to be a decent correspondent; now I'm awful.

The best part of the whole experience, however, was that I felt I was back with my tribe, something I have missed since coming home from Clarion West.

Tonight I am chilled, but it's only because I'm sick. The writing is flooding across my screen, I am surrounded by people I love, and there are a plethora of wonderful books to be read.

It's not all perfect -- I'm still trying to work on getting a big person job, for example -- but it's really, really good. It's wonderful. And if everything was perfect, what else would there be to work for?

I'm very proud of my writing output today.

1. I did a major chunk of a novella that I've been rewriting for Writers of the Future
2. Started a new story, and
3. Started a new novel that demanded that I break ground now.

This on top of the novel that I'm already amidst should prove to make this an interesting month. =)

Last night’s event was just a delight — not only because I got to meet Jeff VanderMeer and Cat Rambo, but because the turn-out was wonderful and I only knew a small percentage of the people who showed up. Don’t get me wrong — I am all awash with warm fuzzies when friends come out to be supportive; but it’s always exciting when strangers show up, because it surprises the hell out of me.

I sold a bunch of books and signed them. So did Jeff and Cat. We had good readings and lots of fun, and I am utterly pleased to make the formal acquaintance of them both.

* * * * *

And now for the recent stats for the fabulous urban fantasy adventure about a neurotic vampire/thief and her wealthy blind client, now with Bonus! Cuban drag queen and military intrigue:

Project: Bloodshot
New Words Written: 2186
Present Total Word Count: 67,972 words
Goal: 95,000 words by December 12





Things Accomplished in Fiction: Not enough. Didn’t even finish the scene I was working on the other day; this was kind of a weirdly difficult work day. Not sure why it took me all day to get barely 2200 words out. I’ll try to get a better handle on it tomorrow. And at least I’m still ahead of goal, which is to average a thousand words a day between now and December.

Things Accomplished in Real Life: Day-job work; some shopping (but I forgot some of the stuff I need); did other assorted errand-running.

Reason for Stopping: I need a break. So I’m going to take one, and then start fiddling with another story I’m trying to write (due at the end of this month).

[Crossposted to/from my website. If you'd like to comment, you can do so either here or there.]

I've got the stupid flu now. And I had things to do this evening!

You can make me feel better by going here: http://www.haikasoru.com/

And leave a comment or two on one of the recent entries. Then I can pretend I'm working by approving them.



Thanks.