2010
Q & A
B: Where did the idea for Ty/a and Jamian come from?
L: Oh, gods, Jamian & Ty: Jamian was my cop-out; I wanted a male POV char that wasn't so very male, & I like the idea of true hermaphroditism. Ty came out of a joke character a friend fan, the "switchblade satyr;" a party-boi flaunting its sexuality to counter J's prudery and refusal to deal. He came out of that first scene in Ch6 & the vacuum cleaner w/ all the attachments line.
B: What about Ambrus? Was he always part of the story or was he added later?
L:Ambrus was part of the story even before there was actually a story; in the mental drafts of this setting, he was the main character, he & a then-much-more-sympathetic Regine. He shares features with the RP characters of an old friend. a slave who didn't want to be free, but would do anything for his son's freedom.
B: Does D.J. have other live children besides Ty/a?
L: DJ has other children than Ty/a, for one, there's Penelope's baby in "Summer Camp." I hadn't put that much thought into DJ's kids. Bean is still alive. I imagine Penny's baby is, too.
B: Why do Ellehemaei hide/live underground? Just because it's easier?
L: The Ellehemaei in Addergoole live underground as protection against marauding monsters, government agencies, & (Underground) hiding from other Ellehemaei who might disapprove. The Elf Queen is hiding from vicious mean good guys.
B: When you created Emrys, was it mainly because of Shahin or did he already come with his own story?
L: Emrys, like his father, came from the original story - everything Emrys/Shahin came out of 2 bits: the antagonism with Ambrus, and the idea of trading off being Owned. Even Owned came out of that moment when Shahin gives up the collar.
B: Do you think you'll ever write longer chapters?
L: Longer chapters? Probably not. Well, maybe a little longer, they seem to be growing. They started at 1500 words; they're averaging closer to 2000 now.
B: Do you actually know your characters' family trees? Which ones are the worst?
L: Yes. The Rowan-Hawthorne hybrid in the grotto greenhouse is probably the worst, since it's semi-sentient & carnivorous
I don't know Jamian's, though I know what both his parents are. But I do know Shahin's, Kai's, & others'. I'd thought I'd known Jamian's, but I realized that led to sleeping w/ his grand-uncle. :-Þ Just weird.
B: Are there any names in the story you'd actually use for a real child?
L: I don't think so. I'm fond of "Eris" but wouldn't foist that karma on any child of mine.
B: On minor characters: are there any you want to write more about?
L: Minor characters: most of the 2ndary chars. Of truly minor... Smitty. Shira Pelletier. Maureen & her son Kyle.
B: How strict is the link between one's name and the words one can master?
L: The link is pretty variable; it's not so much cause-&-effect as effect-&-cause; i.e., one's name might be colored by the Words one will eventually learn. Precognition is an inexact science.
B: But not everyone is able to foresee things. What about the children of those fathers?
L: The ritual of naming imparts some foreseeing on the blindest father. But those who don't, or won't, see tend to pull names out of their asses. Shadrach's kids, for example.
B: What other kinds of Words are there besides those that control fire/water/air/earth?
L: The Domain Words - the things that can be affected - cover mind, body, plants, animals, stuff people made, & energy.
N: Are any Ellem-- er, faerie aliens in the U.S. government in #Addergoole ?
L: There are Ellehemaei in the government, but they tend to be either young or not in high-security positions. Unless you believe the conspiracy theorists :-)
N: You mean that the Ellehemaei in the government look young. :)
L:Nope. I mean actually young - no past to try to cover up. They fit their legal identity because they were born into it.
N: What are the alignments (D&D-wise) of Reid, Ambrus, Luke, Regine, Linden, and the 3 main characters?
L:Reid - neutral good. Ambrus - selfish good? Probably true neutral. Luke - Lawful good. Linden - chaotic good w/ lawful bits. Regine - I'm not sure. I think probably lawful period. Or lawful neutral.
N: What is the weirdest ability/power/magic you've dreamed up for an Ellehemaei?
L: I think Shiva's world-popping teleportation has to be the weirdest, but... hunh. They're all sort of standard powers. ...but I think Kai's ability to see patterns is the closest to unique I've come up with.
X: I've got one! What are the favourite foods of each of the three main characters?
L: Kailani's a big fan of garden-fresh vegetables drizzled in a light sauce but has a weakness for strawberries & cream.
Jamian likes steak. Steak and potatoes, mashed, with too much butter.
And Shahin is a fan of chocolate, esp. truffles, the darker & richer the better.
N: Is Dick Clark Ellehemaei?
L: Although there were rumours for many years that Dick Clark was, indeed, Ellehemaei, no, though he is a Faded.
N: Did any event or character in Addergoole catch you by surprise? If so, which one?
L:That part at the end of Book One where everyone keeps running out of the room? That whole sequence totally surprised me.
Also, the Thorne Girls went in a totally different direction than I expected, and I was surprised to find out what VanderLinden became.
N: You were surprised that VanderLinder became a Daeva? Or is the surprise a spoiler?
L: Pretty much everything about Linden - Daeva, crew, personality, age, Luke, Ty/a, Mark - has come as a surprise to me.
N: If @shane_myers and @addisonharris were Ellehemaei, what would they be like?
L: Shane would look like Shane, only more so. He's totally a Grigori. Addy would have claws, I think, & a tail.
N: - love it! :D Thanks for indulging me. So most Grigori don't undergo physical changes during their Becoming?
L: Grigori are, for the most part, "more human than human," perfect specimens in every way.
N: Which of the three bloodlines (Daeva, Grigori, Mara) is most common?
L: Hurm. They were all about the same originally, but the Grigori are more likely to Fade & the Mara to die violently.
N: Which of the Addergoole students and teachers are mostly Grigori? (besides Regine and Kaia)
L:
Allyse
Aviv
Ioanna (some)
Mabina
Sarita
Gennie
Rowan
Azumi
Channing
Nydia.
Solomon.
Valerian, sort of Pelletier more so.
N: So Wild Ones Blood is from the Shenera Oseraei POV?
L: Frighteningly enough, Fenny & Nathanial & the Old Man are Shenera Endraae.
N: NO WAY!
L: Way. The Old Man fights against the Nedetakaei. So do Nathanial & Fenny. Their enemies are the ones that left those bodies
N: *shudder* Now I'm really scared of the other group!
B: How do the percentages of Daeva, Mara and Grigori in one's bloodline affect one's Becoming?
L: Entire generations-long breeding projects have been put in place to begin to understand the answer to that question.
B: Which characters enjoy reading? What do they like to read?
L: Shahin is a fan of gothic romances and Arthurian retellings. Vlad devours comics and sci-fi. Kai will read everything but her favorites are childrens' fantasy tales, CS Lewis, L. Frank Baum, Lloyd Alexander.
X: Does Addergoole get television? If so, is it broadcast, cable, or satellite?
L: The Addergoole School gets TV - it's cable.
B: Ok, what came first, the characters or the names?
L: Iin most cases, the names came first. The main core of characters came before they were named - Shahin, Ambrus, Emrys Jamian, Ty, Kailani (although with Kailani I know her name would be the Hawaiian for water/sea/coast/something). Regine.
B: What is Ambrus' main bloodline? He's only a halfblood, though, right?
L: Ambrus is primarily Daeva with a lot of Grigori thrown in. He's a half-blood, yes, a true mutt.
B: Do you have any idea where are you going with the story, or are you mostly making things up as needed?
L: I have a little idea, some vague plans, and then make the rest up as I go along
B: What are your hopes for Addergoole?
L: are we talking wildest dreams, reasonable expectations, or in between?
B: In between :)
L: I'd love to get to the 1000-plus readers stage & have the income from Addergoole comfortably supplement our finances.
B: How do you feel about your fanbase? Are we the kind of people you expected to have as readers?
L: I'm not sure what I expected; the won't-read-the-sex-scenes took me by surprise, as did the general level of intelligence, education, and manners. I don't think I thought enough about if my protagonists were likable, so when people formed strong opinions about them, it surprised me, as did the Luke/Ambrus crushing (Quills&Zebras).
As a whole, it's a much more supporting, loving group than I had any right to expect. More friends than a group of strangers partaking in my work. I've actually considered changing major plot points because of fans.
H: I love the glimpses of Anatoliy. He seems much older than the other students though. What's his background?
L: Anatoliy isn't that much older, but he is 2nd Cohort and - tired, I guess. Angsty. I haven't put much thought into what he did before he came to Addergoole, but He Said, She Said explains a lot of his angst.
H: How exactly did Vlad end up with 'Lisha?
L: Vlad & ‘Lisha met in Year 4 – his second year, her first. She was, of course, stunning, and he needed a girlfriend, so, with the help of his crew, Vlad laid his claim.
He’s a charmer when he puts his mind to it, and he told her a romanticized version of the Keeper/Kept relationship. She was enthralled, loving the idea of having her every need taken care of, and agreed without putting much thought not care into the matter. By the time she realized the parts of it Vlad either hadn’t known or hadn’t told her, she was pregnant with Min.
E: I'm curious as to how Reid got recruited for the school. He wasn't originally mentioned by LindenBlossom or Luke when they talked about meeting Regine.
L: The original “core” of Addergoole was the crew consisting of Regine, Luke, and VanderLinden. From there, they recruited sympathetic Ellehemaei to their project.
Reid, they recruited through his scientific curiosity, his strong impulse to teach, and his desire to have children; as well, he’d reached a point where he needed to find a new life. Going underground for a couple few decades means when he comes out, few people in the scientific community remember his face.
B: What other stories influence Addergoole the most?
L: It's hard to say. There's a good dose of Arthurian myth in there, Greek myth, personal experience, Laurel K. Hamilton, Anne Rice (Oh, man, the Anne Rice, but never her main plot), Anne Bishop. The best modern retellings of fairy tales - the Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling anthologies, Elizabeth Bear's fantasy, Tam Lin - inspire me, though I'm not sure they'd welcome the comparison. Addergoole riffs off whatever I've read most recently; the world it's set in, while it grew organically, is influenced by every myth and tale I touched (also by alien conspiracy theorists and the like :-)
X:What's the approximate ratio of Ellehemaei to humans for: population, birth rate, and death rate?
L: Approximately 1 in 2000 humans have Ellehemaei blood.
Of them, 1% have enough blood to count as half-bloods – approximately 30,000.
Of that group, under 2% are full-blooded Ellehemaei – approximately 500.
Birth and death rates are nearly impossible to average over groups; Mara, for example, average a much lower life expectancy than Grigori; half-bloods have a much shorter lifespan than the oldest “full-blooded” Ellehemaei; Faded’s life expectancy is nearly equivalent to the human population in which they live. As a lump, they have an annual population growth rate of 0.463%.
This answer made possible by Elasmo and T’s thinking.
X: Oh goodie~ Are there any geographical locations in which the Ellehemaei population tends to cluster, and if so, which?
L: I... have no idea. I could tell you historically, in the long-long-ago, but I'm not sure modernly. :-( I'm also a little hesitant to nail myself down too much when I'm still building the world ;-)
X: Another thing that puzzles me is how Jamian is a full-blooded Daeva if he has a human parent.
L: That should really confuse everyone. Aza, however, is not human (but nor is she Daeva).
Discuss
B: Where did the idea for Ty/a and Jamian come from?
L: Oh, gods, Jamian & Ty: Jamian was my cop-out; I wanted a male POV char that wasn't so very male, & I like the idea of true hermaphroditism. Ty came out of a joke character a friend fan, the "switchblade satyr;" a party-boi flaunting its sexuality to counter J's prudery and refusal to deal. He came out of that first scene in Ch6 & the vacuum cleaner w/ all the attachments line.
B: What about Ambrus? Was he always part of the story or was he added later?
L:Ambrus was part of the story even before there was actually a story; in the mental drafts of this setting, he was the main character, he & a then-much-more-sympathetic Regine. He shares features with the RP characters of an old friend. a slave who didn't want to be free, but would do anything for his son's freedom.
B: Does D.J. have other live children besides Ty/a?
L: DJ has other children than Ty/a, for one, there's Penelope's baby in "Summer Camp." I hadn't put that much thought into DJ's kids. Bean is still alive. I imagine Penny's baby is, too.
B: Why do Ellehemaei hide/live underground? Just because it's easier?
L: The Ellehemaei in Addergoole live underground as protection against marauding monsters, government agencies, & (Underground) hiding from other Ellehemaei who might disapprove. The Elf Queen is hiding from vicious mean good guys.
B: When you created Emrys, was it mainly because of Shahin or did he already come with his own story?
L: Emrys, like his father, came from the original story - everything Emrys/Shahin came out of 2 bits: the antagonism with Ambrus, and the idea of trading off being Owned. Even Owned came out of that moment when Shahin gives up the collar.
B: Do you think you'll ever write longer chapters?
L: Longer chapters? Probably not. Well, maybe a little longer, they seem to be growing. They started at 1500 words; they're averaging closer to 2000 now.
B: Do you actually know your characters' family trees? Which ones are the worst?
L: Yes. The Rowan-Hawthorne hybrid in the grotto greenhouse is probably the worst, since it's semi-sentient & carnivorous
I don't know Jamian's, though I know what both his parents are. But I do know Shahin's, Kai's, & others'. I'd thought I'd known Jamian's, but I realized that led to sleeping w/ his grand-uncle. :-Þ Just weird.
B: Are there any names in the story you'd actually use for a real child?
L: I don't think so. I'm fond of "Eris" but wouldn't foist that karma on any child of mine.
B: On minor characters: are there any you want to write more about?
L: Minor characters: most of the 2ndary chars. Of truly minor... Smitty. Shira Pelletier. Maureen & her son Kyle.
B: How strict is the link between one's name and the words one can master?
L: The link is pretty variable; it's not so much cause-&-effect as effect-&-cause; i.e., one's name might be colored by the Words one will eventually learn. Precognition is an inexact science.
B: But not everyone is able to foresee things. What about the children of those fathers?
L: The ritual of naming imparts some foreseeing on the blindest father. But those who don't, or won't, see tend to pull names out of their asses. Shadrach's kids, for example.
B: What other kinds of Words are there besides those that control fire/water/air/earth?
L: The Domain Words - the things that can be affected - cover mind, body, plants, animals, stuff people made, & energy.
N: Are any Ellem-- er, faerie aliens in the U.S. government in #Addergoole ?
L: There are Ellehemaei in the government, but they tend to be either young or not in high-security positions. Unless you believe the conspiracy theorists :-)
N: You mean that the Ellehemaei in the government look young. :)
L:Nope. I mean actually young - no past to try to cover up. They fit their legal identity because they were born into it.
N: What are the alignments (D&D-wise) of Reid, Ambrus, Luke, Regine, Linden, and the 3 main characters?
L:Reid - neutral good. Ambrus - selfish good? Probably true neutral. Luke - Lawful good. Linden - chaotic good w/ lawful bits. Regine - I'm not sure. I think probably lawful period. Or lawful neutral.
N: What is the weirdest ability/power/magic you've dreamed up for an Ellehemaei?
L: I think Shiva's world-popping teleportation has to be the weirdest, but... hunh. They're all sort of standard powers. ...but I think Kai's ability to see patterns is the closest to unique I've come up with.
X: I've got one! What are the favourite foods of each of the three main characters?
L: Kailani's a big fan of garden-fresh vegetables drizzled in a light sauce but has a weakness for strawberries & cream.
Jamian likes steak. Steak and potatoes, mashed, with too much butter.
And Shahin is a fan of chocolate, esp. truffles, the darker & richer the better.
N: Is Dick Clark Ellehemaei?
L: Although there were rumours for many years that Dick Clark was, indeed, Ellehemaei, no, though he is a Faded.
N: Did any event or character in Addergoole catch you by surprise? If so, which one?
L:That part at the end of Book One where everyone keeps running out of the room? That whole sequence totally surprised me.
Also, the Thorne Girls went in a totally different direction than I expected, and I was surprised to find out what VanderLinden became.
N: You were surprised that VanderLinder became a Daeva? Or is the surprise a spoiler?
L: Pretty much everything about Linden - Daeva, crew, personality, age, Luke, Ty/a, Mark - has come as a surprise to me.
N: If @shane_myers and @addisonharris were Ellehemaei, what would they be like?
L: Shane would look like Shane, only more so. He's totally a Grigori. Addy would have claws, I think, & a tail.
N: - love it! :D Thanks for indulging me. So most Grigori don't undergo physical changes during their Becoming?
L: Grigori are, for the most part, "more human than human," perfect specimens in every way.
N: Which of the three bloodlines (Daeva, Grigori, Mara) is most common?
L: Hurm. They were all about the same originally, but the Grigori are more likely to Fade & the Mara to die violently.
N: Which of the Addergoole students and teachers are mostly Grigori? (besides Regine and Kaia)
L:
Allyse
Aviv
Ioanna (some)
Mabina
Sarita
Gennie
Rowan
Azumi
Channing
Nydia.
Solomon.
Valerian, sort of Pelletier more so.
N: So Wild Ones Blood is from the Shenera Oseraei POV?
L: Frighteningly enough, Fenny & Nathanial & the Old Man are Shenera Endraae.
N: NO WAY!
L: Way. The Old Man fights against the Nedetakaei. So do Nathanial & Fenny. Their enemies are the ones that left those bodies
N: *shudder* Now I'm really scared of the other group!
B: How do the percentages of Daeva, Mara and Grigori in one's bloodline affect one's Becoming?
L: Entire generations-long breeding projects have been put in place to begin to understand the answer to that question.
B: Which characters enjoy reading? What do they like to read?
L: Shahin is a fan of gothic romances and Arthurian retellings. Vlad devours comics and sci-fi. Kai will read everything but her favorites are childrens' fantasy tales, CS Lewis, L. Frank Baum, Lloyd Alexander.
X: Does Addergoole get television? If so, is it broadcast, cable, or satellite?
L: The Addergoole School gets TV - it's cable.
B: Ok, what came first, the characters or the names?
L: Iin most cases, the names came first. The main core of characters came before they were named - Shahin, Ambrus, Emrys Jamian, Ty, Kailani (although with Kailani I know her name would be the Hawaiian for water/sea/coast/something). Regine.
B: What is Ambrus' main bloodline? He's only a halfblood, though, right?
L: Ambrus is primarily Daeva with a lot of Grigori thrown in. He's a half-blood, yes, a true mutt.
B: Do you have any idea where are you going with the story, or are you mostly making things up as needed?
L: I have a little idea, some vague plans, and then make the rest up as I go along
B: What are your hopes for Addergoole?
L: are we talking wildest dreams, reasonable expectations, or in between?
B: In between :)
L: I'd love to get to the 1000-plus readers stage & have the income from Addergoole comfortably supplement our finances.
B: How do you feel about your fanbase? Are we the kind of people you expected to have as readers?
L: I'm not sure what I expected; the won't-read-the-sex-scenes took me by surprise, as did the general level of intelligence, education, and manners. I don't think I thought enough about if my protagonists were likable, so when people formed strong opinions about them, it surprised me, as did the Luke/Ambrus crushing (Quills&Zebras).
As a whole, it's a much more supporting, loving group than I had any right to expect. More friends than a group of strangers partaking in my work. I've actually considered changing major plot points because of fans.
H: I love the glimpses of Anatoliy. He seems much older than the other students though. What's his background?
L: Anatoliy isn't that much older, but he is 2nd Cohort and - tired, I guess. Angsty. I haven't put much thought into what he did before he came to Addergoole, but He Said, She Said explains a lot of his angst.
H: How exactly did Vlad end up with 'Lisha?
L: Vlad & ‘Lisha met in Year 4 – his second year, her first. She was, of course, stunning, and he needed a girlfriend, so, with the help of his crew, Vlad laid his claim.
He’s a charmer when he puts his mind to it, and he told her a romanticized version of the Keeper/Kept relationship. She was enthralled, loving the idea of having her every need taken care of, and agreed without putting much thought not care into the matter. By the time she realized the parts of it Vlad either hadn’t known or hadn’t told her, she was pregnant with Min.
E: I'm curious as to how Reid got recruited for the school. He wasn't originally mentioned by LindenBlossom or Luke when they talked about meeting Regine.
L: The original “core” of Addergoole was the crew consisting of Regine, Luke, and VanderLinden. From there, they recruited sympathetic Ellehemaei to their project.
Reid, they recruited through his scientific curiosity, his strong impulse to teach, and his desire to have children; as well, he’d reached a point where he needed to find a new life. Going underground for a couple few decades means when he comes out, few people in the scientific community remember his face.
B: What other stories influence Addergoole the most?
L: It's hard to say. There's a good dose of Arthurian myth in there, Greek myth, personal experience, Laurel K. Hamilton, Anne Rice (Oh, man, the Anne Rice, but never her main plot), Anne Bishop. The best modern retellings of fairy tales - the Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling anthologies, Elizabeth Bear's fantasy, Tam Lin - inspire me, though I'm not sure they'd welcome the comparison. Addergoole riffs off whatever I've read most recently; the world it's set in, while it grew organically, is influenced by every myth and tale I touched (also by alien conspiracy theorists and the like :-)
X:What's the approximate ratio of Ellehemaei to humans for: population, birth rate, and death rate?
L: Approximately 1 in 2000 humans have Ellehemaei blood.
Of them, 1% have enough blood to count as half-bloods – approximately 30,000.
Of that group, under 2% are full-blooded Ellehemaei – approximately 500.
Birth and death rates are nearly impossible to average over groups; Mara, for example, average a much lower life expectancy than Grigori; half-bloods have a much shorter lifespan than the oldest “full-blooded” Ellehemaei; Faded’s life expectancy is nearly equivalent to the human population in which they live. As a lump, they have an annual population growth rate of 0.463%.
This answer made possible by Elasmo and T’s thinking.
X: Oh goodie~ Are there any geographical locations in which the Ellehemaei population tends to cluster, and if so, which?
L: I... have no idea. I could tell you historically, in the long-long-ago, but I'm not sure modernly. :-( I'm also a little hesitant to nail myself down too much when I'm still building the world ;-)
X: Another thing that puzzles me is how Jamian is a full-blooded Daeva if he has a human parent.
L: That should really confuse everyone. Aza, however, is not human (but nor is she Daeva).
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