Convention

          Just as a quick update, I finished chapter 32 and 33 this weekend and figured out how much more editing I have left to do. There are ten more chapters to edit, two of which will simply be deleted wholesale when I get to them, and only 16,000 words to go. So, yes, I'm still on for having this done right around the beginning of September.
          But I'm sure that what you really want to hear about here is how the conference went. It was incredible. I was on the panels with some truly incredible people.
          First, was my panel on Dark Fantasy and Horror with Patricia Flewwelling, Colleen Anderson, and Nancy Kilpatrick. It started off on a bit of a low note, but after that we settled into an excellent discussion. We talked about what horror is, how it is important, why we write it, as well as answered questions from the audience about women presentation in darker fiction and what genre is.
          My second panel was with Nola Sarina, Jessica L. Jackson, and Lori Whyte talking about Sexuality and Sensuality. I think I was able to hold my own and we had a great conversation about sexuality in fiction, how to work it into your writing. I fully admit that the other people up there were way more brilliant than me though. Check out their work! If you're close by, you can also join the Alberta Romance Writers Association. You get two workshops monthly (except during the summer months) and its awesome.
          I was late for my final panel (I was too nervous and misread the room name) for Mythologies Around the World. My fellow presenters Calvin Jim, Angelica Dawson, J.Y.T. Kennedy, and Jodi McIssac were brilliant and more than kind about my gaff and the conversation we had about mythology, how to apply the myths to our writing and what singularities there were between myths around the world was riveting. All of my fellow presenters were intelligent, wise and interesting and I followed it by having one of the most interesting conversations of the day with Calvin Jim about Japanese legend and myth.
        So that was my incredible convention weekend. I got to talk to so many interesting people and made many new friends! Please come by next year and join me!

WWC Book Purchases

When Words Collide ended on Sunday and I fully admit, I'm still exhausted. When I got home, I had enough energy for a nap and some reading and that was it for the week. I had enough energy to go out for a movie on Monday, saw Suicide Squad and quite enjoyed myself. Plot holes up the wazoo, but its fun as hell, IMO. I'll be seeing Kubo and the Two Strings tonight, hopefully. and then slowly fade into further exhaustion. Part of that is that I came down with a case of Con-Crud... fortunately, I had plenty of new books to occupy myself with!

 I picked up 18 new books and 2 new graphic novels while at wwc! 

These are the two available comics of my friend Kate Larking from the comic she does called Crash & Burn. While I can't remember the names of the incredible people she's working with, I can say that these comics completely rocked and I suggest picking them up when you get a chance. They were even one of the nominees for the Aurora Award in the Graphic Novel category this year!

I won these seven books when I attended the Sirens release party. Most of these are anthologies, I believe, and the one that I am most excited to read about is Demons, Imps and Incubi which is a romance collection of short stories about said Demons, Imps and Incubi. 

These two were stories that are happy kryonite for me. Both use Asian mytholgies to tell their stories. The Good Brother is a Chinese ghost and coming of age story, whereas Cold Hill Side seem to be an Asian political humans vs fae/kami idea. I can't wait to start reading both of these! They are actually the ones I'm second most excited for!

I broke my rule of no book purchases the first day by buying the first book in this series, Stolen Songbird by Danielle L Jensen. The cover drew me in, the back cover told the interesting tale of a girl kidnapped to break a curse and the first few pages left me unwilling to put it back down. When I found out the author was there, I bought the whole series. They look super interesting!

Sirens, an anthology edited by Rhonda Parish was a no-brain purchase; I have the other three books in the series and they have not failed to impress. In fact, I started reading it yesterday and I'm nearly 60 pages in already. It's excellent. The other two had interesting looking stories; Cold Stone and Ivy is steampunk and Spirit Singer is fantasy, both seem to be YA novels. 

There two are reference books that were suggested to me. The first is basically what the people who weren't lords in medieval/Victorian times did (Knocker-Uppers and such) and the second is a food guide for the same time period.

My last purchase was SG Wong's paranormal mystery novels about a Chinese PI with a ghost and a trust fund. I've been meaning to pick it up for a few years now and made a point of bringing it home this year. 

Did you bring home any books? What have you been reading?

Translate All The Things!

So, the last few days I have put my novel aside. Part of it is because its requiring a lot in rewrites right now, but the larger part of it is that When Words Collide is no longer coming up soon, but up, as of Friday. Thus, I've been spending a lot of my time researching the ideas that I'm going to be discussing with everyone else during the conference.

Normally, that is filled with reading websites on mythology, bloggers discussing the differences between sensuality and sexuality or reading about what our brains do when we watch Horror movies. Today it took an odd turn though.

I was researching Brazilian mythology, looking over a little bit of the history, reading what sort of tales they tell their kids, seeing what sort of monsters in the dark exist in their little corner of our globe. Today, it meant finding an odd reference to a story that took me in a completely different direction than I expected.

Salamanca do Jarau

A legend of southern Brazil, the Salamanca is a cave full of treasures, looked after by a magical lizard called teiniaguá.

I wanted to know what a Teiniagua was, so I took that name and found it connected with "The Moorish Princess". Now I was really confused. Unable to find an English translation of the myth or a description of the creature other than "magical gecko" I did what anybody else would do and got creative.

First, this meant going to the wikipedia entry for this story and realizing that the computer I was on didn't offer immediately translate the page for me. So I copied the story and did a search for Google Translate. Let me mention here that I do not generally suggest Google Translate. If you're looking for a single word, you'll probably find it. If you want more... well, lets just say they are not particularly clear about language. Google Translate Sings is a thing for a reason, no?

Anyways, I translated it and found out that it was really disjointed. So disjointed that I couldn't really understand what it was trying to say. So I got creative again. Knowing a tiny bit of Spanish and a lot more about mythologies, how they are constructed and what tropes are usually found in them, I decided that despite starting from a very flawed case, that I would try and translate the translated document into something resembling a complete story.

I'm certain I am missing some very important parts of this story and that entire sections of it may be incorrect. Still, please, let me know how well you think I did working just from the Google Translate . If you read Portugal or happen to recall the tale, please let me know.

Original Tale from Wikipedia Ícone da cultura gaúcha, a Teiniaguá, é uma Princesa Moura, transformada em lagartixa pelo Diabo Vermelho dos índios, Anhangá-Pitã. Séculos atrás, quando caiu o último reduto árabe na Espanha, veio fugida e transfigurada em uma velha; para que não fosse reconhecida e aprisionada. Corpo de lagartixa (ou salamandra), encontra-se no lugar de sua cabeça uma pedra preciosa cintilante, cor de rubi, que fascina os homens e os atrai, destinada a viver em uma lagoa no Cerro do Jarau. Mas um dia o sacristão da igreja da aldeia próxima, assolado pelo calor, foi até a lagoa refrescar-se. Ao se aproximar percebeu que a lagoa fervia e na sua frente a Teiniaguá surgiu, rapidamente ele a agarrou, a aprisionou em uma guampa, e foi para seus aposentos atrás da igreja. Durante a noite, ao abrir a guampa, ocorre uma mágica, ela volta a ser mulher e lhe pede vinho. Sabendo que o único vinho que podia oferecer era o do padre, não hesitou em buscá-lo. Todas as noites o fato se repetia, e os padres começaram a desconfiar; uma noite entraram no quarto do sacristão, a Teiniaguá, rapidamente se transformou em lagartixa e fugiu para as barrancas do Uruguai, ele foi preso. O sacristão foi condenado a morte, e no dia da aplicação da sentença, sua amada sentiu um mau pressentimento e voltou à aldeia para resgatá-lo. Utilizando magia, o encontrou e nesse momento houve um grande estrondo, que produziu fogo e fumaça e tudo afundou. Ficaram confinados após isso, em uma caverna profunda, chamada de Salamanca do Jarau. De onde só sairiam quando surgisse algém capaz de cumprir as sete provas: as espadas ocultas na sombra, a arremetida de jaguares e pumas furiosos, a dança dos esqueletos, o jogo das línguas de fogo e das águas ferventes, a ameaça da boicininga amaldiçoada (única que não está presente na literatura épica, é um proveitamento folclórico), o convite das donzelas cativas, o cerco dos anões. Com os desafios superados, seria concedido ao valente vencedor um desejo, o qual, ele deveria depois renegar. Após duzentos anos, chega à furna um gaúcho chamado Blau, que conheceu a lenda através de sua avó charrua. Sem hesitar ele cumpriu as provas, pórem, não desejou nada. A princesa ficou triste, pois assim não conseguiriam, ela e seu amado sacristão, libertarem-se do encanto. Quando o gaúcho montava em seu cavalo para ir embora, o sacristão lhe deu uma moeda de ouro, como lembrança de sua estada; sem poder recusar, colocou a moeda no bolso e foi embora. Alguns dias depois ficou sabendo que um amigo seu desistira de ser criador de gado, lembrou da moeda e foi comprar um boi, mas ao retirá-la para pagar foram surgindo novas moedas e ele conseguiu comprar todos. Admirado com a riqueza de Blau, o amigo espalhou a notícia, e todos ficaram espantados com ela. Acreditando que ele havia feito um pacto com o demônio, ninguém mais quis lhe vender nem comprar nada. Sentindo saudade da vida de antes, voltou à gruta para devolver a moeda mágica. Chegando lá, contou a história ao sacristão e lhe devolveu a moeda. Ao colocá-la em sua mão, o feitiço foi quebrado com uma grande explosão. Da furna saíram os dois condenados, transformados em um belo casal de jovens. Casaram-se e trouxeram a descendência indigeno-ibérica aos povoados do Rio Grande do Sul.

Google Translate Version Icon of the gaucho culture, teiniagud, is a Moorish Princess , turned into gecko by the Red Devil Indians , Anhangá - Pita . Centuries ago , when he fell the last Arab stronghold in Spain, came fleeing and transfigured into an old ; that was not recognized and imprisoned . grenadier body ( or stove ) , is the place of his head a sparkling gemstone, ruby color, which fascinates men and draws them, destined to live in a pond in the Cerro Jarau . But one day the sexton of the nearby village church, plagued by heat, went to the pond freshen up . When approaching realized that the lake was boiling and in front of the teiniagud came quickly he grabbed her, imprisoned her in a guampa , and went to his quarters behind the church. During the night, opening the guampa, there is a magic, she goes back to being a woman and asks her wine. Knowing that the only wine that could offer was the priest did not hesitate to pick it up. Every night the fact is repeated , and the priests began to suspect ; one night entered the sexton of the room, the teiniagud, quickly turned into lizard and fled to the banks of the Uruguay, he was arrested The sacristan was sentenced to death, and the sentence of the day of application, his beloved felt a bad feeling and returned to the village to rescue him. Using magic, and found that time there was a big bang, which produced fire and smoke and everything sank. They were confined after that, in a deep cave, called Jarau Salamanca. Where only get out when emerge algem able to meet the seven events: the hidden swords in the shade, the rush Jaguars and furious cougars, dancing skeletons , the game of tongues of fire and boiling water, the threat of cursed boicininga ( one that is not present in the epic literature, is a folkloric proveitamento ), the invitation of captive maidens, the siege of the dwarves . The challenges overcome, be granted to the brave winner one wish, which he would later disown. After two hundred years, reaches the cave a gaucho named Blau, who met the legend through his plow grandmother. Without hesitation he fulfilled the evidence, however, did not want anything. The princess was sad, because then they could not , she and her beloved sexton, freeing up the charm. When the gaucho riding his horse to leave, the sexton gave him a gold coin as a souvenir of their stay; without being able to refuse, put the coin in his pocket and left. A few days later he learned that a friend of his had given up being cattleman, remembered the currency and bought an ox, but to pull it to pay were emerging new coins and he was able to buy all. Amazed at the wealth of Blau, the friend spread the news, and everyone was amazed with her. Believing that he had made ​​a pact with the devil, no one wanted to sell it or buy anything. Feeling homesick before life returned to the cave to return the magic coin. Once there, he told the story to the sacristan and handed him the coin. To put it in your hand, the spell was broken with a big explosion. The cave came the two convicts, turned into a beautiful young couple. They married and brought the indigenous Iberian descent to the villages of Rio Grande do Sul

My Version The following story is an icon of the gaucho culture. It is the story of Teiniagua, the Moorish Princess, who was turned into a gecko by the Red Devil Indians, Anhangá-Pita. Centuries ago, when the last Arab stronghold in Spain fell, the Moorish princess fled the destruction and was transformed into an old gecko with a thickset body. On her forehead was a sparkling Ruby gemstone that fascinated men. Eventually she came to live in a pond in Cerro Jarau. One day the sexton of the nearby village church, plagued by heat, went to the pond freshen up. When he arrived, he saw that the lake was boiling and standing in front was the gecko. The priest imprisioned Teiniagua in a guampa (horn) and took her to his quarters behind the church. At night, he opened the horn and found that the gecko he had captured had changed into a woman. He offered her wine and she, believing that a priest could mean her no harm, accepted. When she became drunk, he seduced her. He did this every night until the other priests began to suspect that something was up. One night, the other priests burst in to catch him in the act. Teiniagua turned back into a gecko and fled to the banks of the Uruguay. The priest was sentenced to death. However, Teiniagua was bereft without the priest, whom she had come to love. She decided to rescue him. Using powerful magic, she created a huge explosion that shook the town, filling it with bad-smelling smoke and eventually sank the town deep into a cave called the Jaau Salmanca.   Stuck in the cave, Teiniagua and her lover found they could only leave when a hero had completed seven quests: the hidden swords in the shade, the rush Jaguars and furious cougars, dancing skeletons, the game of tongues of fire and boiling water, the threat of cursed boicininga (a type of snake), the invitation of captive maidens and the siege of the dwarves. Since they could not fulfill the conditions on their own, Teiniagua offered anyone who could overcome the challenges a single wish. After two hundred years, a gaucho(South American cowboy) named Blau, was told of the legend by his grandmother. Without hesitation, he searched for the cave and completed the quests. However, when he was offered his wish, he declined, saying he needed nothing. The princess was saddened that he would refuse her gift since it meant that she and her love would remain in the cave, their curse unbroken. But Teiniagua and the priest came up with a plan. When the gaucho tried to leave, the priest offered him a single gold coin as a souvenir of his stay. The gaucho decided that a souvenir wasn’t the same thing as a wish and accepted the coin, putting it in his pocket before he left. A few days later he learned that a friend of his had decided to give up being cattleman. The guacho wanted to buy all his friend’s stock and settle down. However, even with all his savings he was still short a single coin to buy even a single ox. Remembering his souvenir, the gaucho pulled it out of his pocket. However, new coins continued to emerge, falling to ground around him huge pile. By the time it stopped, he had enough money to buy all of the stock his friend was selling with money to spare. His friend was amazed at Blau’s new wealth and told everyone what had happened. Everyone agreed that this was unnatural and that the Blau must have made a deal with a devil to have such a thing happen. They shunned him, buying nothing from him and selling him nothing, not wanting to associate with one so cursed.  Blau returned the coin, wishing to return to his poorer existence before. Once there he told the priest what had happened and gave him back the magic coin. At that moment there was a huge explosion and Tieniagua and her priest were made young and beautiful again.  They married and brought the indigenous peoples of  Iberian descent to the villages of the Rio Grande to live.