This afternoon at AggieCon 41, I had two conversations with a reporter from The Bryan-College Station Eagle. The first was a general talk about sci-fi/fantasy cons, my experience of them, and what I do that brings me to these events. The second took place a couple hours later when the reporter, Vimal Patel, returned to inform me that The Eagle planned a featurette on AggieCon, with a focus on invented languages. It seems only one person attending the con has invented a language, and that is Robert Stikmanz. I was delighted to talk to Mr. Patel on both occasions, and I’m pleased that work of mine attracts attention. What I find curious, however, is that of all the creative activities in which I engage, the invention of Dvarsh should draw such interest. I write novels, I draw, I create digital illustrations, I design books, devise video art and even dabble in electronic music. To me, these activities warrant attention. Inventing a language, as I have recently opined, seems to me the one product of my imagination that anyone could have done. In my case it was as simple as devising a rule set and applying those rules consistently. Certainly, the process takes time, but that is not onerous if the sessions are spread over several years. In fact, it’s fun. The whole reason I was able to devise a language is because the activity is captivating. Whenever I sat down to coin words or work out verb conjugation, I enjoyed myself.

I am not a linguist—at least, not one with formal training. More or less literate in Spanish, semi-literate in French and blessed long ago with an eighth grade English teacher who believed in having students diagram sentences until grammar and syntax oozed from their pores (thank you, Mrs. Tresidder), these points pretty well sum up my qualifications. They hardly constitute a unique set of credentials. Nevertheless, an extraordinary number of people continue to tell me I have done something unusual and exciting. For their interest, encouragement and kind words, I am grateful; and yet, the Dvarsh tongue still seems to me the least of my accomplishments. This is not to say I plan to insist on my point of view. If my public, such as it is, demands Dvarsh, I’m going to give it to them. The Dvarsh dictionary has displaced my fourth novel as the project occupying the front burner. Stay tuned for news of its unfolding.

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James Pickering, of A Galaxy Called Dallas, has posted a new review of Sleeper Awakes. Interested parties may find it here.

A quick reminder that this weekend, February 5-7, will find me in College Station for AggieCon. For the most part, I’ll be in the dealer room; however, the preliminary schedule indicates I’ll participate in a panel on invented languages on Saturday afternoon. I look forward to an opportunity to talk about the current state of Dvarsh language development, and its evolving place in both The Hidden Lands of Nod and the larger body of Habdvarsha materials.

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This weekend commences the Stikmanz Wandering Around Texas Tour, with your humble author promoting The Hidden Lands of Nod and related works in the dealers room and on panels at three different sci-fi/fantasy cons over the next three weeks.

Tomorrow through Sunday, January 29-31, will find me on the University of Houston – Clear Lake campus for Con-Jour 2.0. The event website may be found here.

One week later, February 5-7, at the College Station Hilton, I return for my third AggieCon, where I’ll be both a dealer and a regional guest. All the details are available as they evolve here.

One week after that, February 12-14, look for me in the Crowne Plaze Suites Dallas, contributing as a dealer and a panelist at ConDFW. Curiously, it looks like I’m scheduled to speak more as an artist than as an author, but, since both hats fit, the kid is down with THAT. Visit the website here.

Fortunately, I have a few weeks off before bringing it all back home for Staple! The Independent Media Expo, March 6, at the Monarch Center right here in Austin, Texas. Critical information in good supply is posted here.

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Bringing this month to a close, the University of Houston Clear Lake will host Con-Jour 2.0 Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Convention from Friday, January 29, through Sunday the 31st. I am among the participating guests. Look for me on panels about world building, and possibly giving a reading. When you don’t find me on panels, I’ll be operating the Stikmanz table in the dealers room, selling and signing the novels of The Hidden Lands of Nod, casting the oracle dice of Nod’s Way, and generally talking up the real estate of an imaginary world. For all the details, visit http://conjour.net.

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Last week, determined to reorganize forty years of paper and regain usable studio space, I purchased two four-drawer file cabinets. Over the past four days, I have sorted files, outlines, sketches, drafts, project notes, ledgers, correspondence, etc., from four file crates and five bins. I have another three bins to empty, and about a half-bin’s accumulation of what I’m calling “assortia”that has yet to find home in one of the sliding metal drawers. Another bin and a quarter (so far) has gone to the shredder and/or out with the recycling. I foresee a day when all these materials will be accessible in a flash while leaving my big, bad self room to turn around. The prospect is thrilling.

Pulling old papers from storage has made for interesting discoveries, among them my 1973 draft card (status 1H), and a forgotten series of doodles from 1988 showing the transmogrification of George H. W. Bush into my visualization of Rataxes, the General. Most interesting to me, from 1981, long before I even thought I had thought about Sleeper Awakes: a lost book outline virtually identical to my outline for Another Noon, planned as the fifth and final book of The Hidden Lands of Nod cycle. One might argue that it was never lost. I merely forgot I had thought of it already.

While I was messing with past and future documents, Fred Cleaver reviewed Sleeper Awakes in his Denver Post column, “Science Fiction Books,” for January 3, 2010. To cut to the chase, he found it “far enough off the beaten path of quest epics to make it an interesting journey.” My thanks to Fred for a careful reading.

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Ethan Nahté has published a very kind review of Sleeper Awakes on Pop Syndicate. My gratitude and regards to Ethan for his generous words.

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A couple of nights ago, la Jefa and I viewed the 3-D release of James Cameron’s Avatar. It is a gloriously beautiful fable, a film that manages to paint its unapologetic message in broad strokes while rendering a world of the imagination in luscious, exhaustive detail. One of the most exciting elements for me was the use of a fully realized invented language, Na’vi, to help bring to life the indigenous culture of the alien moon. It did exactly what it was supposed to do in a way that seemed entirely natural. The most remarkable fact of spoken Na’vi in the film is that amidst all the wonder of Pandora it seemed unremarkable. Only once did I detect a recognizable accent, but that was in Sigourney Weaver’s character, a non-native speaker. To the average inventor of languages on the street—someone like myself, for instance—this accomplishment is both daunting and inspirational. One of the projects I have going currently is composition of a Dvarsh text specifically to be voiced. Na’vi sets a standard to match and a precedent to follow.

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My November 25th interview on KOOP Community Radio’s Writing on the Air is now up on the Writing on the Air website. Just look for the Robert Stikmanz link and do some clicking. Kind words and many thanks to hosts François, Dora and Dillon for helping me sound smarter than not. The first half of the program spends more time talking about Dvarsh language than I was expecting, but the second half ranges over a more general discussion of The Hidden Lands of Nod.

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