Tuesday, 13 December 2016

Scavenger Hunt!

Competition Closed

 Challenge List:

 Trivial (1 point):
Dragon.
Sword.
Axe.
Castle.
Spell-Casting.
Armour.
Wand.

Easy (2 points):
Dragon with rider.
Castle under siege.
Warrior with two swords.
Knights jousting.
Lion.
Unicorn.
Any of plate/fork/spoon/cup.

Moderate (3 points):
Monster with rider.
An upside down person.
Warrior with a flaming sword.
A monster eating someone.
Farm animal/s (not horses, dogs etc).
Two castles.
Tiger.
Someone eating.
Someone swimming.
Someone flying.

Hard (4 points):
Humanoid being ridden.
A knife fight.
A monster kissing/hugging someone.
Sea-monster.
One person wearing mostly red and green.
Someone on fire
One person carrying another.

Impossible (5 point):
Dragon riding a dragon.
A poleaxe fight.
Two monsters making out.
Giraffe.
A person wearing mostly red, another wearing mostly green, another wearing mostly black.
Someone juggling three different things.
A monster wearing a hat.

See after the entries for how to play.

Entries
Winners #3 #18 (random)
#24 (best score)

#28 Nick(23) 
Dragon (1), Sword (1), Castle (1), Armour (1), Two Castles (3), Tiger 
(3), Person wearing mostlry red & green (4), Dragon riding a dragon (5), 
Monster wearing a hat (5 - maybe debatable). 



#27 Chris(not sure!)

#25 Ally(26)
1.       Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Axe (1 point), Spell-casting (1 point). Total: 2 points. 2.       Stuff by Terry Pratchett. Farm animals – chickens (3 points), humanoid being ridden – gnome on Vimes’ shoulder (4points). Total: 7 points. 3.       The Aeneid by Virgil. Castle (1 point),Castle under siege (2 points) (note: I took the castle/two castles example from your how to play instructions to mean this counts in both categories; of not please correct as necessary). A person wearing mostly red (lady, top right), a person wearing mostly green (lady, top right), and a person wearing mostly black (man, top centre) (5 points). Total: 8 points. 4.       Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J K Rowling. Dragon (1 point). Someone flying (3 points). Total: 4 points. 5.       A Mad Tea Party by Jonathan Dalton. An upside down person (3 points). Total: 3 points. 6.       White Wolf by David Gemmell. Warrior with two swords (2 points). Total: 2 points.


#24 Mary(55)

Warhammer Armies – The Empire – 15 pts
Monster wearing a hat (5), Poleaxe fight (5), sword (1), armor (1), warrior with flaming sword (3)
Justice League Version 5, New 52 – 12 pts
Someone on fire (4), Person wearing mostly red, another wearing mostly green, another wearing mostly black (5), someone flying (3)
Magic Treehouse - Lions at Lunchtime – 7
Giraffe (5), Lion (2)
Where’s Waldo – 2010 Calendar – 9
Someone eating (3), Someone wearing mostly red and green (4), Plates, knives, forks (2)
The Practice Effect – 4
Humanoid being ridden (4)
Let’s Find Pokemon Gold and Silver – 8
Monster with rider (3), Dragon (1), Sea monster (4)



 #23 Rich(37)
LA HUITIEME COULEUR (10 points) One person carrying another – 4 points Monster with rider – 3 points Dragon with rider – 2 points Sword – 1 point PETITS ET GRANDS (8 points) Giraffe – 5 points Someone eating – 3 points NOEL LIVRE 4 (7 points) One person wearing mostly red and green – 4 points Someone flying – 3 points DRAGONS AT CRUMBLING CASTLE (6 points)A monster wearing a hat – 5 points Dragon – 1 point THE GREAT HUNT (5 points) A person wearing mostly red, another wearing mostly green, another wearing mostly black – 5 points RELIOC TOWER (2 points) Armour – 1 point Spell-casting – 1 point


#22 Susan(34)

 #21 Daniel(28)
HP and the Deathly Hallows: Sword  (1pt) Cup (2pts) The Sea Hunters: Someone swimming (3pts) Medieval Costume: One person wearing mostly red and green (4pts) HP and the Goblet of Fire: Dragon (1pt) Someone flying (3pts) Breverton's Phantasmagoria: Monster with a rider (3pts), Sea monster (4pts), A monster eating someone  (3pts) African Mammals: Giraffe  (5pts)
#20 Ben (&daughter)(40)
Witches Abroad - 11 points, A person wearing mostly red, another wearing mostly green, another wearing mostly black - 5, Someone flying - 3, Castle - 1, Armour - 1, Wand - 1. The Smartest Giant in Town - 8 points, Giraffe - 5, Farm animal (goat) - 3. Monstrous Regiment - 6 points A monster wearing a hat - 5, Sword - 1. The Tiger Who Came to Tea - 5 points, Tiger - 3, Any of plate/fork/spoon/cup - 2. Night Watch - 6 points, A poleaxe fight - 5, Dragon - 1. Cold War - 4 points, One person carrying another - 4



 #19 Ralph (& daughter)(35)
Dragonlance Chronicles - 7 points, Casting spell +1, Armour +1, Sword +1, Dragon +1, Wand (staff ok?) +1, Dragon with Rider +2 / Reavers of the Blood Sea - 5 point Sea monster +4, Axe +1 / A Princess of Mars - 4 points One person carrying another +4 / John Carter of Mars - 3 point Monster with rider +3 / Lions at Lunchtime - 7 points Giraffe +5, Lion +2 / Scooby-Doo and the Scary Snowman - 9 points Monster with hat +5, One person wearing mostly red and green +4


 #18 Alison(30)
Dragon = 1 [the walrus and the warwolf], Sword  = 1 [night watch – guard on far left & middle]
Castle = 1 [sword of flame], Spell casting = 1 [sword of flame], Armour = 1 [night watch – all guards]
Wand = 1 [sword of flame], Warrior with 2 swords = 2 [night watch guard below the guy in black on the left]
Unicorn = 2 [sword of flame – tiny horse on left  is a unicorn], Someone swimming = 3 [the grim grotto]
One person carrying another = 4 [the dragon bone chair], A knife fight = 4 [rose of the prophet]
Person wearing red and green = 4 [dragon bone chair – the chap being carried is wearing red and pale green I think], Poleaxe fight = 5 [night watch – lots of poleaxes]
(I won't contest the red and green as this isn't a winning score)


#17 Nick(40)
Walking Dead - Monster wearing a hat (5)
Narnia  - Sword (1) Castle (1) Lion (2) Unicorn (2) Sea Monster (4) Total (10)
JLA - Someone flying (3) One Person wearing red and green (4) A person wearing mostly red, another green, another black (5) Total (12)Thomas - Giraffe (5)
Snuff - Humanoid being ridden (4) Farm animals (3) Armour (1) Total (8)
(I might overlook that Mr Tumble is juggling 6 instead of 3 things, but by "different" I mean different objects. Technically even identical balls are different...)



 #16 Andrea(40)  **will need confirming with a higher res photo
Trivial: Dragon, Sword, Axe, Castle, Spell-Casting, Armour = 6 x 1=6
Easy: Dragon with Rider, Castle Under Siege, Warrior with two swords, Knights jousting = 4 x 2 =8 Moderate:  Farm Animals, Someone eating, Someone flying = 3 x 3 = 9 Hard: Sea Monster, One person wearing mostly red and green, One person carrying another = 3 x 4 = 12 Impossible: Monster wearing a hat = 5 x1 = 5
(ruled out  can't see a plate/fork/spoon/cup , the vampire can qualify as person eating or monster eating someone but not both, and while they are fighting with knives it's only a knife fight if both combatants have knives, otherwise you have brought a knife to a sword fight or whatever, it's a sea monster or a person swimming but not both, that's spell casting not a person on fire)
6+10+15+20+5=56
#15 Trevor(46)
Gaminformer  17 points  knife fight 4 points, Someone on fire 4 points, A monster eating someone. 3 points, Castle under siege 2 points,  Humanoid being ridden. 4 points / The Gully Dwarves  12 points A person wearing mostly red, another wearing mostly green, another wearing mostly black. 5 points,  An upside down person. 3 points, One person carrying another.. 4 points / Dragons of spring Dawning 9 points  Spell Casting  1 point, armor 1 point, dragon 1 point, Sword 1 point, Castle. 1 point / Shadow rising 5 points, Any of plate/fork/spoon/cup. 2 points, Someone eating. 3 points / New spring 3 points, 2 castles 3 points



 #14 David(28)
(28) Sword-1, Castle-1, Armour-1, Warrior with Two Swords-2, Monster with Rider-3, A Knife Fight-4, Sea Monster-4, Someone on Fire-4, One Person Carrying Another-4, One Person Wearing Mostly Red and Green-4

#13 JR(36)
Outsorcerer's Apprentice = 9 1 - Dragon, 1 - Sword, 1 - Axe, 1 - Castle, 2 - Unicorn, 3 - Two castles / Knife of Dreams = 5 5 - person in red, person in green, person in black / Snuff = 8 1 - Armour, 3 - Farm animals, 4 - Humanoid being ridden / Dragon Hammer = 4 4 - Person in red and green / Conclave of Shadow = 4 1 - Spell casting, 3 - Tiger / House of Steel = 6 2 - Lion (one on banner, one in stone) 4 - Monster hugging someone

#12 Tracey(44)
Never Shake a Rattlesnake:  farm animals (counting the rabbit as well since we eat them) 3 points, 1 x giraffe 5 points, total 8 points
1001 Dinosaurs: someone flying 3 points, upside down person 3 points, plate 2 points,, total 8 points 
Stories and Rhymes: unicorn 2 points, someone wearing mostly red and green 4 points, total 6 points
Silver Kings: dragon 1 point, spell casting 1 point, castle under siege 2 points, total 4 points  
Loosejaw: Sea Monster 4 points, someone swimming 3 points, sword 1 point, monster with rider 3 points, total points 11
Puffing Treasury:  tiger 3 points, 2 castles (chess pieces) 3 points, armour 1 point, total points 7


#11 Marc(37)
1 point - Dragon (Eric), Sword (wandering fire), Castle (summer tree), Spell casting (Eric), Armour (Lord of emperors) - total 5, 2 point - Unicorn (Summer tree) - total 2, 3 points - Monster with rider (girl on black swan - back cover summer tree), Two castles (Wandering fire - one in background on both front and back covers) Someone flying (Summer tree - Boy on unicorn) - total 9, 4 points - monster hugging/kissing person  (Hungry hearts), Sea Monster (Wandering fire) - 8 points, 5 points - Dragon Riding dragon (Bored of the rings), One person in red etc (Lord of Emperors), Monster in hat (Eric - big demon thing in red on the front cover certainly has a red head coverer which I class as a hat) 15 points
(I don't see a dragon riding dragon on Bored of the Rings - I will give you 3 points for the pig though. If this turns out to be a winning score you will need to convince me that there is someone wearing mostly red on Lord of Emperors!)
(close ups of the covers were provided)
#10 James(35)
Sword - 1, Castle - 1, Armor - 1, Castle Under Siege - 2, Warrior with 2 Swords - 2, Monster with Rider - 3, Warrior with Flaming Sword - 3, Monster Eating Someone - 3, Two Castles - 3, Someone Flying - 3, One person wearing mostly red and green - 4, Someone on fire - 4, A person wearing mostly red, another wearing mostly green, another wearing mostly black - 5
(if this turns out to be a winning score I will need to the person in green&red pointed out to me and to consider if the "monster eating someone" is legit!)
#9 Brock(35)
One person wearing mostly red and green – 4, Dragon – 1, Unicorn – 2 / Monster hugging someone – 4 / Someone flying – 3, Spellcasting – 1, Lion – 2 / Monster with rider – 3, Sword – 1, Upside-down person – 3 / Sea monster – 4 / Monster wearing a hat – 5, Any of plate/fork/spoon/cup - 2


#8 Charlie(28)
Dragon – 1, Sword – 1, Castle -1, Armour -1, Spell Casting -1, Warrior with two swords – 2, Warrior with Flaming Sword -3, Tiger – 3, One person wearing mostly red and green – 4, Someone on fire – 4, Humanoid being ridden - 4, A monster wearing a hat - 5
(sadly your warrior with two flaming swords can only be counted as warrior with two swords OR warrior with flaming sword)


#7 Florencia(22)
1. Someone Flying. - 3 points. 2. Someone Swimming. - 3 points. 3. Castle Under Siege, Dragon, Sword, Armour. - 2+1+1+1= 5 points. 4. Monster Wearing a Hat (Not human anymore if you consider he came back from the dead to hunt Hell's fugitives...). - 5 points.
5. Farm animals. - 3 points. 6. Monster with Rider (rider's also a monster...), and a Polearm Fight (there are definitely polearms in that image and they are definitely fighting!). - 3 points.
(I've changed polearms to poleaxe for clarity but lances and spears aren't polearms either)

#6 Miguel(31)
1 point: dragon, sword, axe, castle, armour. 2 points: dragon with rider, castle under siege, lion (its face appears on Narnia book), unicorn, someone flying (on a broom and on a dragon). 4 points: a monster kissing/hugging someone (cover is depicting newborn dragons hugged to their mother and about to drink from her chest) <I'm giving you this as 3 points monster eating someone>, someone on fire  and one person carrying another (several of this on Homero--it's tiny, I know). 5 points: a person wearing mostly red, another wearing mostly green, another wearing mostly black (again, Homero cover is tiny).
(if this is a winning score I will need a less blurry image of the Homero cover and an indication of who you think is wearing mostly green)


#5 Midhat(20)
Trivial (1 point) = 6 points Dragon. Sword. Castle. Spell-Casting. Armour. Wand. Hard (4 points) = 4 points One person carrying another. Impossible (5 point) = 10 points A person wearing mostly red, another wearing mostly green, another wearing mostly black. + A monster wearing a hat.
(if this is a winning score I will examine the red, green, black claim more closely)



 #4 Steven (20)
1)One person wearing mostly red and green, 2) a person on fire, 3) a warrior with a flaming sword, 4) a dragon with a rider, 5) humanoids being ridden (they all are being ridden by birds), and 6) a tiger. That's 4 + 4 + 3 + 2 + 4 + 3 = 20!


#3 Paul (7)
Sword, Axe and Armour 1pt each, Person in red and green 4 PST


#2 Peter (16)
Dragon: 1 point, Sword: 1 point, Castle: 1 point, Armour: 1 point, Castle under siege: 2 points (not sure if this one counts, it's on fire and all that), Warrior with 2 swords: 2 points, Sea monster: 4 points, Someone on fire: 4 points


#1 Jim (11) sword(1)/axe(1)/armour(1)/castle(1)/dragon(1)/dragon with rider(2)/spell(1)/farm animal(3) = 11


How to play:

You have to find as many of these on the covers of books as you can. You can use as many as 6 books in your entry. These must be paper books and be together in the same place.

Send me a photo (or two if you must) showing the covers of the books and let me know how many points you claim to have scored.


You can have multiple "finds" on each book. Any given "find" scores only once (across all books). So for example a book with a mounted knight wielding an axe and a sword against three lions, with two castles in the background would score as follows:

Trivial: Sword, Axe, Armour, Castle  = 4 x 1 point
Easy: Lion = 1 x 2 points     (note, despite multiple examples of castles and lions they only score once)
Moderate: Two castles = 1 x 3 points (two castles is a category on its own)

Total = 4 + 2 + 3 = 9

None of these items will now score again on another cover.

Entries to empire_of_thorns@yahoo.co.uk

One entry per person. ENDS FRIDAY 20th of JANUARY

Prizes:  The top scorer will get a free signed copy of Red Sister and two random entries will get a choice of signed books or other swag from my stash depending on what's available.



                       Join my 3-emails-a-year newsletter.  #Prizes #FreeContent






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Monday, 12 December 2016

Le mot juste.

I chose these words at random to get a spread that ran from ones I thought everyone would know to ones I thought few people would know. Then I ran a POLL to see how many of my readers and the people I could reach on social media did know them.

With 378 people responding these are the answers:

Pellucid - 11%
Umber - 50%
Cogent - 53%
Catharsis - 78%
Sinuous - 79%
Azure- 82%
Allude - 83%
Hyperbole - 86%
Elude - 86%
Bemuse - 87%

11% of respondents felt able to explain what 'pellucid' means to another person.
87% of respondents felt able to explain what 'bemuse' means to another person.

I suspect these figures would go down a bit if you actually got people to then explain the words (& required that they be broadly correct). I suspect that the figures would go up when the words were read in context.

They rode beneath an azure sky.
"<insert cogent argument>" He made a very cogent argument.


So, why did I do it?

Well, for starters, I was genuinely quite interested in the answers. But really I wanted to write a blog post about language, writing, and vocabulary.

Many of us have read an inexperienced writer try to lend their work some kind of authority or gravitas by raiding the thesaurus and replacing perfectly good $1 words with $50 words that many people haven't heard before and just feel inappropriate. Joey shows how this happens. On the other hand many modern readers will pick up the work of a literary giant of the 20th century and set it down soon after saying something like "reads as if they swallowed a thesaurus".

Why, the reader asks, must the writer use highfalutin words when a simple alternative is available. Are they just trying to sound brainy?

Here's the thing. Although many words effectively mean the same thing, or overlap to the degree where a thesaurus suggests substituting one for the other, the real situation is more complex. Words carry baggage with them that doesn't make it onto the dictionary page. Each word brings with it a context, the rarer the word often the more specific that context. Certain words have associations with the class of people who might use them, be that class social, or relating to nationality, profession, geography or circumstance. The dictionary may claim a particular meaning for an adjective but perhaps its use in popular fiction associates it with pirates, or sex, or music ... and so when you reach for that adjective it doesn't just give the colour or texture of an object but paints in a mood and all manner of subtle associations that the writer can build on.

Words are hooks. Writers don't describe a scene minutely, they hook it out of your imagination using a minimum of words. The more precisely shaped these words are to the task the more efficient the process, the more impact per line. And that means using more than just the dictionary meaning.

But of course this process falls apart when the vocabulary of reader and writer diverge, or the baggage that the words carry for one is not the same for the other. In such situations you get the reader accusing the writer of hitting the thesaurus regardless of whether the words are chosen with accuracy or abandon.

I've used in my books all the words in the list given above with the exception of 'pellucid' and 'cogent'. My instinct was that these two are words which I share with too few of my readers to make them useful, and the poll seems to back that up.

I did find examples of those words in my writing file though, in something written by my eldest daughter. But she got a double first in English at Cambridge and a full scholarship to Harvard, and she's writing for an academic audience, choosing her tools to purpose.

So, in short, storytelling may be achieved using the simplest of words, and there is a great appetite for stories. But most who take to the keyboard in earnest have, or develop, a love of the language too and try to tell their stories with the best writing they can manage. That endeavor requires a delicate balancing of the language to the audience. If the writer and audience share broadly similar vocabularies and experience then that part of the exercise becomes effortless.


















ers: 378
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From Russia with love...

Here's the break down of my blog traffic today according to the blogger stats tool...


Now, given that only Prince of Thorns is published in Russian. It didn't sell very well. And most Russians can't read English.... One might think that Russians are trying to hack me. In fact other users of Blogger.com report waves of visits from Russian IPs so they're not just picking on me ... but I've never had a clear explanation of what all this activity actually hopes to achieve... Weird stuff, eh?




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Thursday, 8 December 2016

BOOK BOMB - Rough Magick

I thought I would have a go at this BOOK BOMB business.

I see that Larry Corriea has been at it for years. And if you see a good idea, why not copy it?

The idea is that for 24 hours people are encouraged to buy and publicize the existence of a book that both needs and deserves help. The aim being to drive the book in question up the Amazon ratings tables to get it some visibility.

I plan to chart the progress of the books in question to see/show what impact we had.

First up as proof of concept is Rough Magick by Kenny Soward, a steal at $1.21 for the ebook.



Currently its rankings are:

US
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,421,005 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
UK
Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #470,106 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
Now
Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #25,383 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)


Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 2,972,964 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)


I read Rough Magick and reviewed it on Goodreads.

Highlights include:

The first thing to say is that Kenny Soward has a lot of good writing tools in his bag: he writes great description and has a wonderful imagination. Rough Magick took me into fresh territory with its gnomes, a fascinating lot with some of the jovial bumptiousness of hobbits, a lot of inventive tinkering skills more in line with dwarves (actually I was reminded of the animated film Robots), some internal politics and corruption, and a hard edge to them when pushed.

It's a fresh, inventive, well described story with much to enjoy and if you have enough of the buttons it pushes then it could knock your socks off.

Give it a go!

The book was published in 2013 and has mustered 50 ratings on Goodreads where it has an average rating of 3.90 (Prince of Thorns has 3.87). My Goodreads friends rate it higher that the general public, with a 4.11 average.

Kenny is a good guy and has always been supportive of my efforts. He seemed a great candidate for starting off this experiment.

So let's bomb this book up the charts and give gnomes a chance!


Kenny Soward. Not a gnome. Allegedly.



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