How'd the Atlanta signing go? I HATE that I missed it but previous commitments and work the next day (I'm here now at 5am) kept me from making the short drive. When I called to ask about the crowd they said they were up to 200 on the tickets and that was at like 545 or so... heh. So I knew with having to get up so early there was no way I could go. Sad.

I will definitely make it next year if Jim ends up anywhere near Atlanta.

I can see Cowl as teaching Victor about the drug so that he could sow chaos and fear in the city as part of the groundwork for the DB and the ascension ritual.

I've been writing my story set loosely in a Norse tradition world with other influences mixed in but its not classic Norse stories though so I've changed some of the words around. Shortened things, added bits in to make it easier to read as well as combining and tweaking existing short words but I'm wondering how much should I change?

My story has enough time and enough outside influence for language to evolve a bit without loosing its flavor. But what should I do about common names and common items? Swords, Daggers, Axes, bows? Should I come up with different names or stick to the basics? Should I tweak the names of well known items and creatures to reflect the change in times and to make it easier for people to read and speak if they talk about it with friends? Examples like Gullinbursti (A boar ridden by one of the gods) Njorthrbiartr (a heroic act or the title of hero) and Hrimfaxi (a mythical horse) are kind of a mouth full. They don't roll off the tongue and they don't stick in your head too much. There are from actual literature, baby name books and things like that. They just aren't that great though to read and say unless your an expert in the language. I'm not.

How much do I alter and still keep what I'm going for? What can you shorten? What can you change without it sounding like every other story out there?

I previously had 12 chapters written out but I've been revising and rewriting after I got into a bind and didn't know where to go next to get to how I had the story planned out. It seems like the further I plan and the more names I pull from actual Norse mythology and history I lose readability.

I like how Jim uses things and names from History, myth and name meanings to give things extra depth without sounding completely alien and like you've stumbled into a foreign language course.

I hope what I'm asking makes sense.

Delenda - Things to be deleted or destroyed (IE "Delenda est Carthago", or "Carthage must be destroyed")

Amphigory - A nonsense verse. Specifically, a poem designed to look and sound good, but which has no meaning upon closer reading. (also applies to lots of music from the last 40 years or so.

Locus - A site considered to be the centre of a particular activity. pl. `Loci'

Pleonasm - The use of more words than are required to express an idea... (As much as I love Penny Arcade they frequently do this.)

I have one but I don't remember the name...

I would also recommend also grabbing Angels A to Z by James R. Lewis. Its got a list of Angels from Christianity, Islam, Hinduism even Zoroastrianism. Its worth checking out if nothing else.

I'm doing something similar to Jim's Codex.... I've picked 3 different characters to tell the story from. I want one of them to be a villain but I'm worried that his POV will give away too much of the story. I'm still working on how to solve this actually.

But I'm sticking with the "one viewpoint a chapter" thing. Its worked well so far.

I have one friend who loves everything I come up with... I tend not to bounce things off him much. And my sister who always looks at me sceptically and like I've lost my mind. I try not to bug her too much.

I really need more people to chat with but as it is I'm just not comfortable telling all my weirdness to my other friends.

That combined with laziness and lack of time to work is why the idea that I've been refining in my head for the last 5 years or so (I seriously can't stop thinking about it) only has about 60 pages written.