New article - Pluto, New Horizons, and Awesomness

Better late than never, here's the link to my article about Pluto and New Horizons... and a photo of Pluto.

New Horizons – Pluto Flyby Success!

Pluto (Public Domain Image)

New Speculative Article for December 2010

A fictional account of a history and people that never existed


I am ecstatic to report that my follow-up article for the Speculative Grammarian can now be read at: http://bit.ly/hCXg8F

The name of the piece is A Brief Essay on the Language and Mythology of the Ekhié and the neighbouring Mákek Peoples of the Highveld Forests and the Ancient Watmákekhié Site and was written under the guise of By Mr. J. Doe of the International Centre for the Studies of Previously Presumed Mythical Beings and Peoples and is a follow-up piece by certain J. Doe that tells a bit more about the world that the travel piece used in November 2010 is set. Find the November article at: http://bit.ly/aXDkDe and learn about Sir C.J. Cockspur’s dastardly plans to void the world of all but one, very much simplified language.

I had a lot of fun writing “A Brief Essay” because I could really let go (and use as many footnotes as possible) and sketch the peoples of the Highveld Forest which they inhabit. The idea of the builders of the pyramids building the first ones on the Highveld before moving on to Egypt was fleshed out with the idea of extraterrestrial people building them (or at least supervising) before moving on to Egypt. (And then, probably South America.)

I also got to play around with words in English and Afrikaans. For instance, “Watmákekhié” is taken from “Wat maak ek hier?”/”What am I doing here?”, while the greeting Hoo’gha’nitte is taken from “Hoe gaan dit?”/How are you?” (Lit. How goes it?), a phrase which in informal circumstances is sometimes assimilated so that it sounds like one word. Although Gha’nê is completely made up. Other words, like “broker” and “fairy dust” is just written with atrocious spelling to give them an exotic look.

I have a feeling Mr. J. Doe and the International Centre for the Studies of Previously Presumed Mythical Beings and Peoples will have some more research to share in the future. Maybe Mr. J. Doe will even manage to get his doctorate!

Good news for fans of Dean Barkley Briggs’ first book in The Legends of Karac Tor series. He has found a new publisher for the rest of the series! If you have not yet read The Book of Names, you will be in for a treat (and a belated Christmas present to yourself) if you can get your hands on it in January. I am going to post a review of the book on the blog “Ramblings of a Lone Bibliophile” within the next month (after a reread), but, until then, check out Dean Barkley Briggs’ site at: www.hiddenlands.net

Until next time.

A Speculative Article for November

With boiling temperatures every day, who needs a better excuse to stay inside (in the shade) and write? While having to move my study nook from upstairs (extremely hot until about 9 in evenings) to downstairs (not fun dragging oodles of books down a flight of stairs, but at least it’s a lot cooler below), and not having done much in the writing of fiction, I can at least say that I have a piece published in November. Yes, the long awaited article for The Speculative Grammarian has been published under the pen name of Sir C J Cockspur. Find it at: http://specgram.com/CLX.2/11.cockspur.npicml.html


I’ve spent some time on the earlier history of the Midlands of Airthai and ended up with two good ideas for two short stories and half an idea for a third. The rest of the half-ideas fluttering around still need to be pounded into something useful before I can post it. Now if I can just finish those maps!

Otherwise I’m knee-deep in Nineteenth century Dutch poetry, which is a lot more interesting than it may sound!