Thursday, September 29, 2011

Eonia Launch Party

Idhua’s third country, Eonia, has been launched.  An archipelago off the eastern coast, Eonia has an eastern Mediterranean influence.  The room was draped in shades of blue and violet, and decorated with ivy and flowers, candles and a shrine to the Eonian sea goddess, Moriana.  The menu was consisted of flat bread served with hummus, homemade yogurt cheese with olive oil and sumac, black and green olive tapanade, cumin carrot spread, and herbed artichoke heart relish; a salad of romaine, radishes, sweet onions, cucumbers, feta, and mint in a lemon and olive oil dressing and a goat cheese and roasted mushroom filo roll.  After supper there was reading of The Amulet of Aranos.

The evening was concluded with an ice cream made of Greek yogurt, honey and orange flower water served with candied orange peel and pomegranate seeds.  Everyone wore Greek/fantasy inspired costumes, but sadly a great number of the pictures came out fuzzy.  Below are a few that turned out:




Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Progress Report

Idhua is progressing apace!  I now have five countries done, in first draft form at least.  The latest that I finished over the summer is Ariceda, neighbor to Lendhlay and Fjallind.  I have decided that instead of doing a country this fall, I am going to work on the religion as I am getting to the point where the details of that are very important as I figure out cultures.  I have The Penguin Handbook of the World’s Living Religions to help me consider what elements and practices I need to look into including to build a religion.  I think a book on medieval Catholicism will be in order too.  At any rate, here is the current map of Idhua and the countries that are finished:

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Happy Anniversary Idyllwild!

Last Saturday M, N and I celebrated the first anniversary of the Idyllwild Literary Guild with a Mad Hatter’s Tea Party.  The Idyllwild Literary Guild’s purpose is to promote mythopoeic literature and art with a particular emphasis on the beautiful and fantastic.  It was started last year, by some friends and I, and though it is not terribly big or active, it is a fun venture.  

At our tea party we had five tea pots – with Irish Breakfast Tea, Peppermint Tea, Cherry Punch, Water and Chocolate Milk.  Of course we played croquet – but though we managed to rent a croquet set, we failed to look up how one plays croquet.  Deciding that it couldn’t be that hard, we set up our arches (somewhat randomly) and fell to whacking the balls with enthusiasm.  We figured that if anyone criticized our method, we could point out that it was a Mad Hatter’s Tea Party – so the croquet must also be a little mad.  At least we weren’t whacking hedgehogs.

A game you can play in long skirts!

Thursday, September 1, 2011

North Seattle SciFi and Fantasy Writers

Last Sunday I went to the North Seattle SciFi and Fantasy Writers Meetup.  It was a really great experience.  Well, great besides the fact that I went to the Greenlake Chocolati Café, before realizing it was at the Greenwood Chocolati Café and so was late and flustered.  Once I got there, the group was very welcoming.  They all gave very useful feedback on my short story “Catkin.” Some of their suggestions were particularly helpful, because they will make the story more understandable to someone who is not familiar with my world, Idhua.  The blind spot of  my current readers – my mom, my sister and a few close friends – is that they know a lot about my world from all the stories and ideas I have bounced off of them.

The pieces I read from the other writers in the Meetup group were really good too, and it was a pleasure to read and critique them.  Hopefully some of the suggestions I made were as useful to them as theirs were for “Catkin.”

The group holds meetings every two weeks – which may be a little much for me, at least right now – but I do plan on going back.  It is invigorating to read and discuss works in progress with other authors in my genre and I would like to make more connections to the speculative fiction community here in Seattle.

North Seattle SciFi and Fantasy Writers