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It's an experiment! This is my first novel-length project in a long time, and I am very keen on trying something different. IAT homages and parodies comic books, cartoons, manga, anime, and Internet bulletin boards--all of which are episodic in nature. I thought it would be interesting to write a serialized novel, where each update is like an episode of a cartoon, an issue of a comic book, or (when I'm really crunched for time) an entry on a bulletin board, in order to capture the feel of the stories I'm plagiarizing--er, I mean emulating.
Most important, however, has been reader feedback. Readers have contributed typo fixes, puns, continuity checks, editorial support, entire subplots and even a couple of characters.
Sure! Just post the question to the FAQ comments section belowand I'll do my best to answer it in the FAQ.
Well, first, I lost my credit card, so I had it replaced, but I forgot to tell pbwiki about the card number change. Then, they didn't do such a good job of getting my attention, so they cancelled by paid subscription, and now want me to pay 5 times as much for the same stuff. In trying to remedy the situation, I wound up "upgrading" to pbwiki 2.0 -- which is a great service, but not so great when you've hacked the heck out of your 1.0 pbwiki and watch it go boom.
gal-ah-TAY-uh (Latinized) or gal-ah-TEE-uh (Greek). Both work equally well. Make sure to emphasize the third syllable. Saying gah-LOT-tee-uh will get you sour looks from mythology fans and Greek speakers.
yur-ID-ih-see. Hey, don't worry, I wrongly pronounced it YUR-ih-dess until my junior year of college.
Just like the girl's name "Eve:" EEV. "Yves," however, is not a girl's (or even girlish) name. It's French in origin, means "yew wood" (as in the archer's longbow), and is still a popular boy's name in France and Quebec. The Anglicanized version of the name is "Ives."
TOH-moh-ay.
Cheer up, emo kid.
Crap, alright...
Name | Pronunciation |
meliae | MEL-eee-ay |
Deiter "Dee" Detwiler | DEE-ter DET-why-ler |
"Tomoe Exposition" (real name unknown) | TOH-moh-ay |
Galatea | gal-ah-TAY-uh or gal-ah-TEE-uh |
Apple Venus | typical American English pronunciation |
Fée Verte | FEE-ay vayrt |
Lilith | LIL-ith |
Bernie "Bee" Berthiaume | berth-EEE-um |
"SB" (Strawberry Banana?) | typical American English pronunciation |
Black Cherry | typical American English pronunciation |
Yves "Y" Valiancourt | eev VAL-yan-cor |
Ursula "U" Frost | typical American English pronunciation |
Eurydice | yur-ID-ih-see |
Nyx | niks |
"CeeCee" Cheesecake | typical American English pronunciation |
Raspberry | typical American English pronunciation |
I never name the location in the story, although I probably should for the final draft. In my notes, the story is set in the fictional town of Camelot (funny if you think about it), a mid-sized metropolis in the Midwestern US, home to a huge state university and a tech industry of startup companies founded by uni grads and drop-outs too comfortable to move.
The time period is "somewhere in the first few years of the 21st Century." Viggo is mentioned being addicted to Final Fantasy XII, although that will likely change in the second draft to avoid any cease and desist letters.
I'll put the answer in a "spoiler space." Select the blank line below with your mouse if you really want to know before you get there.
No. |
Indeed it does, although "to slime" is Ghostbuster-inspired slang ("He slimed me!"), and the formal English translation of the Latin word "oblimo" is "beslime," as in "Verily hath yonder specter beslimed my personage!"
Right or wrong, SB attributes some of her abilities to her, er, banana side. Of all the honey nymphs we meet in the story, SB is the only one who can not only shape-shift into other people, but also into things, including machines with moving parts (and a few other tricks soon to be revealed). Like all the other meliae we've met, however, SB has very exaggerated notions about sex, sexuality, gender, and gender roles, some enlightened, others surprisingly archaic and stereotyping. SB thinks that, when she was created, her nanomek gave her the ability to shapeshift into machines because the nanomek associated technology with masculinity, proving the popular notion that a man's car is an extension of his virility. So why does she turn into a Mini-Cooper? "Do I look like I have any overcompensation issues? Besides, Mini-Coops are adorable!"
Tomoe is modeled after those mysterious, know-it-all characters that obviously have a deep, complicated back-story which is never fully revealed in the narrative, although many unhelpful clues are provided along the way, much to the audience's consternation and puzzlement. Some examples of this character type are Gandalf from Lord of the Rings, Gendo Ikari from Neo Genesis Evangelion, Guinan from Star Trek: the Next Generation, and Jesus of Nazareth from The Testament, Part II: Electric Boogaloo.
And speaking of unhelpful, frustrating clues, here's a doozy: If SB is the ironical opposite of what Tomoe expected when she mixed nanomek, strawberry-banana flavored gelatin, and fruit-sugar pectin, just what the heck was she actually expecting to make?
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