![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
truepennyQ: Much like Tolkien, you have created an entire world with the Doctrine of Labyrinth series. Throughout all 4 books there are references to tales, people, history and places. Is it possible that at some point you will publish a "Silmarillion" type book describing more details of the universe there? And do you have sketches or designs or maps of things in that world?
A: The map of Mélusine is over here.
I doubt strongly I'll ever write a Silmarillion or similar object, for a couple of reasons:
1. A series needs to be WAY more popular than mine for there to be any interest in publishing ancillary materials: Tolkien, Jordan, McCaffrey, Rowling. That caliber. And I ain't there.
2. Although I'm very flattered by the comparison, my world-building methodology is the inverse of Tolkien's. He worked all the history out in loving, exhaustive detail and wrote the STORIES (The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings) as an almost-accidental by-product. He was a philologist and a historian, not really a novelist. (Not a slam! Just a difference in perspective.) Whereas I'm a novelist. I write the stories in loving, exhaustive detail and only work out as much of the history as I need. There are a few places where I know more than made it into the books, but it's, at most, a chapbook worth of material, no more than that. And even there, it's not anything as coherent as The Silmarillion, just incomplete timelines and random notes.
Q: What's next?
A: I wish I knew. At the moment, it seems to be a whole heaping plateful of nothing, while I wait for my creativity to grow back.
Q: Does anybody really know what time it is?
A: If anybody does, it wouldn't be me.
This one got asked twice.
Q: May we please know what happened to Mehitabel? And did she ever hear what became of Felix?
A: Okay. The pure and honest truth is, I don't know. At the end of The Mirador, she's come to the end of the story arc she started in The Virtu; what happens to her next would be a new story arc, without Felix and Mildmay in it. And I don't have any idea what that story arc might be. If I knew, I'd probably be writing another novel about her. If I ever figure it out, I probably will write another novel about her. But right now, I don't have any more idea than you do.
We know there's communication between Esmer and Vusantine, and between Vusantine and Mélusine, and Felix seems pretty determined about sending letters home. So, yes, I imagine Mehitabel will find out what happened to him, one way or another.
Q: At first I couldn't come up with anything I really needed answering. But then I thought, "Well, I've always wanted to know what all of the trumps from the Sibylline were."
I assume it's loosely based on tarot and there are 22 of them? A list would be absolutely wonderful. :)
A: Aha! This one I can answer, because I did have to work it out in detail. Here are my notes:
The suits are Swords, Pentacles, Staves, and Grails. The Sibyl cards replace the Aces and are alt-cards (in the Latin sense of both highest and deepest); they can be either first or last in a suit, depending on the whim of the reader. The Sibyl cards may govern readings in particular ways that have nothing to do with choosing a significator or anything like that. They have some aspects of the Fool in Tarot, and thus are both the alt cards of the suits and the first cards of the Major Arcana.
The 21 Major Arcana (with their rough correspondences in Tarot):
1. The Guide (the Magician)
2. The Spider (the Priestess)
3. The River (the Empress)
4. The Rock (the Emperor)
5. The Bell (the Hierophant)
6. The Hermaphrodite (the Lovers)
7. The Prison (has nothing whatsoever to do with the Chariot)
8. The Nightingale (Justice)
9. The Road (the Hermit)
10. The Wheel (is the Wheel)
11. The Dog (Strength/Lust)
12. The Drowned Man (the Hanged Man)
13. Death (is Death)
14. The Bee-hive (Temperance)
15. The Siren (the Devil)
16. The Spire (the Tower)
17. The Unreal City (the Star)
18. The Dead Tree (the Moon)
19. The Key (the Sun)
20. The Two-Handed Engine (Judgment)
21. The Heart of Light (the World)
The Spider and the Nightingale are both women rather than simply animals.
The Dog is large and looks more like a bear or a wolf.
The Bee-hive is also called the Parliament of Bees.
The Siren is also called The Lady of the Rocks
The Dead Tree has a full moon rising behind it.
Nine card layout; both a spiral and a cross.
6
2
7 3 1 5 9
4
8
1 is the significator
above (2, 6) is what blocks
below (4, 8) is what supports
left (3,7) is the past
right (5,9) is the future
inner circle of spiral is internal, outer is external, so that 9 is in fact the outcome.
layout also not unlike a spiderweb, and you read it widdershins.
I have very clear mental images of most of these cards; I actually drew The Guide, and if I can ever figure out what I did with my scanner driver disc, I'll post a picture of it.
[Ask your question(s) here.]
A: The map of Mélusine is over here.
I doubt strongly I'll ever write a Silmarillion or similar object, for a couple of reasons:
1. A series needs to be WAY more popular than mine for there to be any interest in publishing ancillary materials: Tolkien, Jordan, McCaffrey, Rowling. That caliber. And I ain't there.
2. Although I'm very flattered by the comparison, my world-building methodology is the inverse of Tolkien's. He worked all the history out in loving, exhaustive detail and wrote the STORIES (The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings) as an almost-accidental by-product. He was a philologist and a historian, not really a novelist. (Not a slam! Just a difference in perspective.) Whereas I'm a novelist. I write the stories in loving, exhaustive detail and only work out as much of the history as I need. There are a few places where I know more than made it into the books, but it's, at most, a chapbook worth of material, no more than that. And even there, it's not anything as coherent as The Silmarillion, just incomplete timelines and random notes.
Q: What's next?
A: I wish I knew. At the moment, it seems to be a whole heaping plateful of nothing, while I wait for my creativity to grow back.
Q: Does anybody really know what time it is?
A: If anybody does, it wouldn't be me.
This one got asked twice.
Q: May we please know what happened to Mehitabel? And did she ever hear what became of Felix?
A: Okay. The pure and honest truth is, I don't know. At the end of The Mirador, she's come to the end of the story arc she started in The Virtu; what happens to her next would be a new story arc, without Felix and Mildmay in it. And I don't have any idea what that story arc might be. If I knew, I'd probably be writing another novel about her. If I ever figure it out, I probably will write another novel about her. But right now, I don't have any more idea than you do.
We know there's communication between Esmer and Vusantine, and between Vusantine and Mélusine, and Felix seems pretty determined about sending letters home. So, yes, I imagine Mehitabel will find out what happened to him, one way or another.
Q: At first I couldn't come up with anything I really needed answering. But then I thought, "Well, I've always wanted to know what all of the trumps from the Sibylline were."
I assume it's loosely based on tarot and there are 22 of them? A list would be absolutely wonderful. :)
A: Aha! This one I can answer, because I did have to work it out in detail. Here are my notes:
The suits are Swords, Pentacles, Staves, and Grails. The Sibyl cards replace the Aces and are alt-cards (in the Latin sense of both highest and deepest); they can be either first or last in a suit, depending on the whim of the reader. The Sibyl cards may govern readings in particular ways that have nothing to do with choosing a significator or anything like that. They have some aspects of the Fool in Tarot, and thus are both the alt cards of the suits and the first cards of the Major Arcana.
The 21 Major Arcana (with their rough correspondences in Tarot):
1. The Guide (the Magician)
2. The Spider (the Priestess)
3. The River (the Empress)
4. The Rock (the Emperor)
5. The Bell (the Hierophant)
6. The Hermaphrodite (the Lovers)
7. The Prison (has nothing whatsoever to do with the Chariot)
8. The Nightingale (Justice)
9. The Road (the Hermit)
10. The Wheel (is the Wheel)
11. The Dog (Strength/Lust)
12. The Drowned Man (the Hanged Man)
13. Death (is Death)
14. The Bee-hive (Temperance)
15. The Siren (the Devil)
16. The Spire (the Tower)
17. The Unreal City (the Star)
18. The Dead Tree (the Moon)
19. The Key (the Sun)
20. The Two-Handed Engine (Judgment)
21. The Heart of Light (the World)
The Spider and the Nightingale are both women rather than simply animals.
The Dog is large and looks more like a bear or a wolf.
The Bee-hive is also called the Parliament of Bees.
The Siren is also called The Lady of the Rocks
The Dead Tree has a full moon rising behind it.
Nine card layout; both a spiral and a cross.
2
7 3 1 5 9
4
8
1 is the significator
above (2, 6) is what blocks
below (4, 8) is what supports
left (3,7) is the past
right (5,9) is the future
inner circle of spiral is internal, outer is external, so that 9 is in fact the outcome.
layout also not unlike a spiderweb, and you read it widdershins.
I have very clear mental images of most of these cards; I actually drew The Guide, and if I can ever figure out what I did with my scanner driver disc, I'll post a picture of it.
[Ask your question(s) here.]
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
Re: The Nightingale
Date: 2009-04-09 06:32 pm (UTC)I haven't read the poem in many years (until just now), but I'm glad it came up so I have a chance to geek all over it again.