Thursday, April 28, 2016

Foul Mouth Facts: Ceinwyn and T-Bone

1.  As a Dale, Ceinwyn can trace back different lines of her lineage to Augustus Caesar and Merlin, both legendary mancer figures.

2.  The Dales being Welsh and Celtic, Ceinwyn's name began as the more common spelled Ceinwen, but hey, got to love how those y's look.

3.  Pronounced Kine Wen by the majority of Wales, the "odd" name is why Old Man Price calls her Kind Wind early in FM1 to give readers a hint at how to say it.

4.  Tyrone was an alternate name for T-Bone very early in the series.  The last name Bonnie was picked out in the process of figuring out who our historical vampire woman would be, pirate Anne Bonny being one of the possibilities.

5.  Like many characters in the series, Tyson was purposely crafted as a trope destroyer with many conflicting origins in his background.  Despite their difference in appearance, personality wise the author considers Tyson to be the closest to his own.

6.  One of the many inspirations for Ceinwyn Dale is Aes Sedai Moraine from the Wheel of Time series.  It is far from the only Wheel of Time inspiration in the series, the vampire Divines being modeled after the thirteen Forsaken.  There is however no Dark One, or simple good and evil in the King Henry Tapes.

7.  Tyson's introduction and disappearance in FM1 was the author once again playing the long game with a character, a scene that probably would have been cut if the novels were traditionally published.

8.  In that scene it is revealed that Tyson had the idea for a magical punching ring that instead became the taser SDR, Tyson did indeed get the idea from Harry Dresden, a playful nod at Urban Fantasy's top dog, Jim Butcher.

9.  Ceinwyn being from a long lined family, having prophecies about her life is a play on normal heroes, here all of the common tropes falling on the wise elder while the young kid is as common as dirt.

10.  FM4's road trip wasn't originally supposed to be told until FM7, where a similar cross country journey will take place with different companions.  Because it was pushed forward, the entire story of FM4 became more Ceinwyn focused, including the author pushing up knowledge about Ceinwyn's backstory.

11.  Story lines being pushed up sooner than expected is a trend in writing the King Henry Tapes, including the journey to the Geo Realm, which wasn't supposed to happen until FM6 and the Eternal Order, originally saved for much later in the series.

12.  Like her pupil, the Eternal Order has tried to kill Ceinwyn on several occasions.

13.  Being raised by the Divine Nii-Vah, Ceinwyn speaks many languages thought dead, including Ancient Greek and Latin, even able to mimic a decent Byzantium accent.

14.  Ceinwyn's finding of King Henry was always intended as a short story.  The Corpusmancer who found him, Truman, goes on to be mentioned a number of times in the series as an ESLED agent and was Estefan Ramirez's partner for a time.  King Henry never connects him with the ShopsMart employee back in Visalia.

15.  Tyson wasn't planned to be part of FM5 when the series was originally outlined, it was solely a Pocket/Jesus adventure.  While Tyson hasn't gained nearly as much page time as some characters, he has grown the most through short stories, over which there are now 3 in his POV.

16.  Ceinwyn was born in 1976, her grandfather and father died in 1982.  At the age of six she left mancer society, only returning to occasionally visit her ill mother.  At fourteen she began her schooling, under the direct care of the Lady.

17.  Ceinwyn, Obadiah Paine, Amis Valet, and Moira von Welf were all in the same year, Class of 1990.  Obadiah Paine graduated first in the year.

Small Update:  just wanted to let you all know that I feel some major mad scientist coming on and probably won't be replying as quickly.  Have more FMF done or almost done, so will keep voting them off against each other in the future.

Also, the reason the estimate on FM6 dropped is that I decided to cut a chapter.  Not the Val one I mentioned early.  Wrote about 6k on it, so would have liked to have figured out that I don't want it sooner, but is what it is.  With that out of the way I have 8 chapters of pure fucking madness left to write.  Going to try to focus in and ignore all those distractions out in the world for the next month.  Except for Civil War...cuz I'm still human!  It's got Spider-Man in it!

9 comments:

  1. Will T-Bone's biological parentage be revealed? Will Ceinwyn's years with the Divine Nii-Vah be covered? Love the Merlin connection--I think the only Dale I have encountered literary-wise is in Robin Hood.

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    1. There's no Luke I am your father secret there, just a teenage girl in over her head and I have no plans to delve into it. No flashbacks into Ceinwyn's past obviously, but her past will continue to come up naturally as the story requires.

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  2. She is your character, in your books, and if you have her as a "Kine Wen" then that is what she is. And very nice too.

    I have read her so far as Cuyn-wen, and I don't think I can change now. There is precedent for both pronunciations of the name (and several others), but "majority of Wales" doesn't really work as an argument -- "majority of whales" would probably give something like "eeeeeeek." Majority of Welsh speakers is too close to call (especially when you start to look at past usage too).

    But I've got to ask: your pronunciation of Amis Valet?

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  3. From Frecnh stock, so A-mi val-ette. Will say that one of the joys of naming your main character King Henry is that there's not a whole lot of debate about it. And we haven't even gotten into the dragon names...

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  4. Umm, Val-ette is the English pronunciation. French pronunciation is val-ay. The reason I asked was partially to see to what extent (if any, probably over thinking this) you select a name as an indicator of what a (in this case unseen) character is like.

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    1. You're right, I got them mixed up. Am-I Val-ay then. And as should be obvious by now a pronunciation master I am not. I do select a little bit based on ethic background, but more often than not it is focused on a name's meaning (here "friend") or historical and mythological references (here Amis et Amiles) and I give only cursory attention to how something is pronounced, leaving that up to each fan to decide for themselves. As should also be obvoius, an authoritarian I am not.

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    2. Thanks for the clarification. I was looking at Friend Helper (Ami Val-ay) or Friend Rascal (Ami Val-ette, as in "varlet"), which may have been a factor in the back story. So definitely over thinking there.

      You may not be a pronunciation master (?!) or an authoritarian (both probably beneficial things in the right context), but you do write exceedingly good books....

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  5. I was pronouncing it "Sane-win", so I was way off.

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  6. Go with whatever makes you happy :) Last thing the world needs is another creator starting a Gif/Jif debate.

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