New Subscribestar Post

Over at my Subscribestar page is a thought on the draft animals of the Southlands. I thought it would be good to have my Fair Folk on something other than horses - for better or for worse!

A note on maps

The maps for Ironwood Staff and Retribution are based on the same map, scribbled down by me several years ago now, when I first started seriously writing down my story. As is tradition, North is at the top, and I thought there was enough new and strange in my book without changing that as well!

Mountains are shown as if drawn from life, which would have been the case in pre-modern times. The mountains around Greystone are drawn to resemble the Magaliesberg, which inspired the story in the first place:

Credit:Shutterstock.com

One of the first issues I encountered was that of distance - I couldn't use modern units, because it would (badly) violate suspension of disbelief; but I couldn't really use Imperial ones either, since I couldn't guess as to the progress of the caravan through the Drylands (for example) and translate that into map distance. So, I made the map assuming distances in metric, then translated that into miles, and hence into leagues. I didn't want to use miles either, so I thought, 'What does "Mile" mean?' It comes from 'unum mile passsum', a thousand paces in Latin. So I use units of 'Thousand Paces' on my map.

I thought that for future reference, I should remember this literal translation for any other measurement. For example, there would be twelve thumbs (inches) to a foot, three feet to a measure (translation of metre), a hundred measures to a furrow, etc.

I thought of this in connection with the legacy of Christopher Tolkien, son of The Professor, and his epic work in rendering the maps of Middle Earth. He set the standard for fantasy maps, with many imitators or followers adopting the "East=Evil" convention, which lasted for a time. That convention even cropped up in the Game of Thrones world, where West=Home. The crucial action all takes place on the continent of Westeros.

Of course, there's some understandable chauvinism involved here. English-speaking cultures and their literature assume that West=Home because their starting point was at the western edge of the Old World. It's burned deep into our genetic memory.

(My own personal beef with Westeros is how the whole continent seems to be in a temperate latitude, pretty much regardless of its size. Again, it's a problem of perspective. Where I grew up, you could drive from one major population centre to another, and cross at least one biome boundary in the process. Of course, none of that affects the maps as such anyway.)

The World of The Ironwood Staff - note scale bar and South Arrow at top!

The End of an Era

Christopher Tolkien, son of The Professor, has passed beyond the West and the circles of the world, where there is more than memory. He was a good and faithful son, having taken part in the creation of the Legendarium (he was the cartographer), and bringing to light the background mythology of the Silmarillion, Lost Tales and the History of Middle-Earth series.

The world is a little more grey, now. This affected me more than I expected. Rest in Peace, CJRT. We hope to see you again, some day.

Creativity Music

The Ironwood Staff was written with a variety of background music, most notably the Soundtrack to Lord of the Rings, by Howard Shore; but more importantly, there was the music of Johnny Clegg. Known in France as 'le Zoulou Blanc', he was famous in South Africa starting in the early 80s. My earliest memory of his music on the radio was African Sky Blue, with its memorable lines

the Warrior is now a Worker, and his war is underground
With cordite in the darkness, he milks the bleeding veins of gold
When the smoking rock-face murmurs, he always thinks of you
African Sky Blue...

But the track that had the greatest influence on the world of the Southlands was Nkosibomvu, the Red King.

Johnny Clegg had a stellar career in South Africa, and his music was hugely influential in racial conciliation. He was rewarded for it by being effectively banned from the UK (where he'd been born), as part of the cultural boycott enforced by the Actors' Union, Equity. Undeterred, he moved into France, where one of his concerts outsold one by Michael Jackson.

Since then, with the Retribution of Thengon, I've favoured one other item: Mike Oldfield's The Music of the Spheres. I can't find a link to the original  on YT, so this is a random guy's upload of the whole album.

This is Oldfield's first offering written specifically for orchestra, and it is glorious. I first heard the track 'Empyrean' from it on Classic FM on the way home from work in the late 00's, and adored it at first hearing. After listening to the whole thing, I scribbled down the history of the Sunlands in my Big Black Book at one sitting (something that had been percolating in my mind for some time). I regularly use it at the time of writing, when I take a writing day off.

New Paperback format!

Hi, all

The Ironwood Staff is now available as a paperback!

Slightly cheaper than the Createspace version, it also has a bit of editing done, removing a few typos.

The Children of Tomas and Liriel

Over at my Subscribestar page, I have a bit of background on the family Tomas and Liriel started in the valley of Greystone. Includes the following shot:

This is a shot of the Memorial Walk at the Sappers Club near Skeerpoort, South Africa. The old place, now replaced by a garish golf estate, was a favourite holiday spot for my family growing up, and the main inspiration for Greystone.

Fun Meme time

I came across this while wabbing on Imgur:

I thought, now this is the kind of badass female character I could get behind! Caption of, 'Van Helsing's daughter formed a monster-hunting Order, the Confraternity of Nun-Chuks!'