Edge announced the coming of Absolute X Press in its last newsletter. The first six books in the lineup belong to what I'm calling, this week, the ORU Traddodiad: that is, anthologies, novellas and reference works expanding the ORU legacy. Traddodiad is a very cool Welsh word meanind 'cultural transmission' in the sense of passing on tradition. It's a mouthful, of course. The other candidate in the works is ORU Emporium. Justyn Perry and I have been using the working title Okal Rel Universe Collection to distinguish this expandable, POD/e-book line from the finite, ten-novel Okal Rel Saga in trade paperback. "Collection" is too vague and misleading, though, since a single book could be called a "collection". Naming things is hard. Absolute X Press will include more than just the Traddodiad, the ORU books just happen to be the first in the pipe here. I am editor for the Traddodiad.

Labels: Absolute X Press, Edge Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing, Justyn Perry, Okal Rel Traddodiad

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Love the sketch Richard Bartrop did of a pregnant Nersallian which could so-o-o be Vretla Vrel. Playing with Photoshop CS tonight while waiting for backups to backup. This image evolved out of my attempt to learn more about blending modes.

Labels: Pregnant Nersallian, Richard Bartrop

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Thanks to the miracle of google alerts, I discovered Part 3: Pretenders in the "mail bag" of a sub-page of http://www.fantasybookspot.com ... which is mildly confusing since I didn't think the book was out yet. But still cool.

Labels: Pretenders

posted by Lynda at 21:12   permalink comment? e-mail lynda@okalrel.org 0 comments

 
Justyn Perry is starting to roll out the completed covers for ORU books in the Absolute X Press line, which he and I have been referring to by the working series title of the "Okal Rel Universe Collection". This new series of works set in the universe of the Okal Rel Saga, will be available in e-book format later this summer and in Print-On-Demand format later. Edge will also carry the books in its catalog and carry print versions for sale at cons. I'll feature the other covers here, one by one.

Labels: Absolute X Press, Justyn Perry, Lorel Experiment

posted by Lynda at 20:22   permalink comment? e-mail lynda@okalrel.org 0 comments

 

Mel Farr was over today and so we worked on one of her chibi versions of the ORU gang for possible inclusion in the new Guide to the Okal Rel Universe. Also wrote up some entries for the guide requested by Justyn Perry. Mel suggested I turn comments back on to deal with my increasing challenge of fielding e-mail effectively. I'll discuss it with David Lott when we buckle down to solving the problem of how to get the friends list back in action. He set it up on google groups but it wasn't easy for people to re-join and the backlog of work created by the resurrection of the "ORU Collection" bogged me down. One thing at a time! One foot in front of the other!
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I've started a page on the website for fun stuff from friends and fans, starting with Mel Farr's Interview with Di Mon. Poor Di Mon. She insisted I get him to answer the questions but we had to invoke soul touch to get more than a "you have got to be kidding" aloof look out of Di Mon.
posted by Lynda at 21:56   permalink comment? e-mail lynda@okalrel.org 0 comments

 

Yukari Yamamoto has generously given me permission to use her original art again for the re-release of Kath. For those who have read Courtesan Prince but not Kath, Kath is the story of how the baby who confirms Amel's gentics at the end of Courtesan Prince comes to be.

You can do anything you want with any of the stuff I’ve done for you in the past. I have attached what I believe are the original pics of the cover, and of Kath and Amel without the background. (The individual one may be higher resolution.) I hope the resolution is high enough. (from e-mail Fri July 25 2008)

Labels: Kath, Yukari Yamamoto

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I got a little long winded at the 15 minute presentation and got through only the first half of what I had prepared to present at my actual talk, during the July 1-3 intr-disciplinary.net conference. I wasn't the only one challenged by the short time frame (which I thoroughly approved of!) but felt a bit chagrined because the first half of the paper is "all about me". That is, it explores how my life experience brought me to the conclusion identity is central to the two big Good Things I care about: the integrity to be ethical and the ability to 'soul touch' others. After that I explain how Amel represents a thought experiment in identity-resilience and why an approach to problem solving I call 'naked virtuality' might be useful in fields other than authorship. But people can read all about it if they want the rest of it. Arriving at identity as core to the Good Life was important. I've got more pictures from the cyber3 conference, Vision of Humanity in Cyberspace celebrating the very interesting people I met there and places I saw. When David gets back, he'll do me an event page for it.

Draft Paper Below

DRAFT copy of Character as Virtual Reality Experiment in Identity by Lynda Williams (PDF)

Labels: academic paper, Amel, Appearances, Identity, interdisciplinary.net, Lynda Williams

posted by Lynda at 07:49   permalink comment? e-mail lynda@okalrel.org 0 comments

 


My cousin Joyce, a big supporter of my novel writing habit despite possessing no particular affinity for speculative fiction herself, just pointed out a blog mention of our intrepid aunt Lil, still going strong at over 90 years of age, on a travel and commentary blog called Simon Sees.

Labels: Lil MacIntosh, Northern B.C.

posted by Lynda at 11:17   permalink comment? e-mail lynda@okalrel.org 0 comments

 
Here's a shot of me in the dining room at Mansfield College, Oxford, where I gave a paper on Amel as a virtual reality experiment in identity for interdisciplinary.net conference Visions of Humanity in Cyberculture, Cyberspace and Science Fiction. Don't I look dignified! I look pretty goofey in other shots. There's a thumb nail sketch of my life in there somewhere. I thought the room looked a lot like I imagined the Breakfast Room in Green Hearth, except the Breakfast Room has just the one big table and would be smaller than any dining hall expected to feed a whole college of students. On the whole, Mansfield College itself was a pocket university and a step back in time which had the air of being whisked into the twenty-first century unprepared. It was nice.

Labels: interdisciplinary.net, Lynda Williams, Mansfield College

posted by Lynda at 07:31   permalink comment? e-mail lynda@okalrel.org 0 comments

 
Nice to see Edge books getting into circulation for reviewing. This clip is from Garth Spencer's fan publication BCSFAzine.

Labels: Edge Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing, Garth Spencer, Righteous Anger

posted by Lynda at 21:55   permalink comment? e-mail lynda@okalrel.org 0 comments

 

First installment of digital story adaptation of novella Mekan'stan released to Youtube. Art by Brianna Thomas, script and voice acting by Jennifer Lott.

Labels: Brianna Thomas, Jennifer Lott, Mekan'stan, YouTube

posted by Lynda at 20:38   permalink comment? e-mail lynda@okalrel.org 0 comments

 
Back from Mansfield College, Oxford, where I gave a paper at the interdisciplinary.net conference on Visions of Humanity. Met interesting people I will introduce, here, as I review my memories with the help of pictures now on the camera David has with him in the Isle of Wight. Told people about the Okal Rel Universe. Experienced the charm and peculiarity of being in an old, old place. Volunteered to be part of interdisciplinary.net in some capacity or another in the future. And clarified my own mission as a writer in the process of writing the draft paper although my experience in presenting it reminded me of my first attempt at writing Second Contact, the original working title for what became the The Courtesan Prince), where I tried to squish the whole saga into one book. The paper will have to be reduced and focused more tightly for the purposes of publication in e-format which will be a useful exercise in precision. But I will use the ideas I got in touch with by writing it in other ways, too.

Labels: interdisciplinary.net

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