BRAINPAN LEAKAGE

Fans are wonderful. Really.

As I have said in the past, “anti-fans” , not so much. But, on this tour I have met some absolutely wonderful folks and even had the opportunity to visit with fans of the RGI series who are interesting, lovely, intelligent, funny, and an all around blast to hang with.

I have to say, however, that I was in for quite a surprise at our last stop on the tour, which was last night (5/31) at 13 Magickal Moons in Occoquan, VA. 13 Magickal Moons is a wonderful little store, nestled in an arts & antiques district near the waterfront. Owned and run by Samantha and Jen, a couple of lovely young ladies who go out of their way to make a visit to their store a memorable one. Workshops are always well attended and authors are treated like part of the family.

I first did 13 Moons last year and was accepted warmly by the patrons, even though they really had no idea who I was and many had not even heard of the Rowan Gant series. Many of them purchased books and quickly became fans and friends.

Now, since I know that many of them keep up with my travels I was actually prepared for the questions about the “Kicked Out Of Wendy’s” blog, and even when “Coldie” (another lovely lady) arrived with pink nail polish in hand. These are folks who joke around with you and make even a 12 hour workday seem like it goes by in half the time.

I just love these folks.

But, I have to say that I wasn’t expecting the twist we had yesterday. You see, Miranda showed up.

Okay, so she wasn’t actually Miranda. In reality she was a beautiful young lady named Suzanne (I do hope I spelled that correctly. My apologies to her if I didn’t)…at any rate, Suzanne is a fan of the RGI series, and an absolutely lovely gal. Last year we had an opportunity to visit at the store and she was great fun to talk with. This year was the same, however, Suzanne “got into character”. She arrived at 13 Magickal Moons decked out in her own version of Miranda’s dominatrix attire. This was a first for me. No fan has ever “dressed up” as one of my characters before, but let me tell you this young lady looked great.

After the signing and workshops we posed for a few playful pics, her playing up her Miranda attire and attitude while I played the part of her victim. (I should have known one of my characters would come back to bite me at some point!) At any rate, the folks who took the shots are supposed to send them to me and I will post them as soon as they arrive. (Note, we aren’t talking about any pornographic here, just some fun, joking around.)

Rumor has it that one of the fans who snapped a few pics last night will be putting them up on his myspace page, so they may be out there before I get my copies. So, if you happen across a picture of me laying on the floor with a gorgeous redhead in a black bustier, miniskirt and high heeled boots standing over me, it was not taken at the local BDSM club,

It was just a fan expressing herself.

BTW, Suzanne. Congrats! You win the “creative fan award” this go around! (GRIN) And thanks to you and everyone else at 13 Magickal Moons as well. Y’all truly capped off the tour with a bang!

More to come…

Murv

PS. Suzanne has promised an entirely new Miranda outfit for my next visit later this year. I must confess, I’m looking forward to it.

No. I have not forgotten how to spell. Yes, I do perpetrate a typo now and again, but don’t we all?

The title of this blog, in point of fact, means something. (No, not like Roy Neary in Close Encounters running about screaming “this means something”…Nor the spoof, Closet Encounters and Roy Dreary…Betcha’ thought I wouldn’t know that one didn’t you? Uh-huh…)

So, anyway, today’s babbling is about vernacular, accents, and “how ta’ tawk rite.” Those of you who are familiar with the Rowan Gant series know that everyone’s favorite 6 foot 6 cop, Ben Storm, has a tendency to clip his speech, and pepper it with expletives. In order to get it across to the reader, some of his dialogue is intentionally misspelled, or words are truncated by omitting letters and adding that wondrous little thing called the apostrophe. This is NOT something I did because I thought it was cool. I did it because the real life cops upon which he was based in part, actually talk that way. The one and only way to make the dialogue read the way it should sound is to truncate and generate my own phonetic spellings.

Now, those of you who have been following the series right up to the cliffhanger ending of All Acts Of Pleasure also know that Rowan is no longer in Saint Louis. No, he hasn’t moved, but he did have a need to go to New Orleans, which is where a modest portion of The End Of Desire actually takes place. This is what brings us to “tawkin’ rite.”

There is a particular bent to the New Orleanian mode of speech that you won’t find anywhere else. Having been there on more than one occasion, I know this to be true. And, no, I am not talking about Justin Wilson. From what I’ve been told, his accent wasn’t really that thick. He was just a hell of a showman. Either way, folks in New Orleans actually do have a particular mode of speech that will not be found anywhere else.

In social anthropology texts that deal with regional dialect and linguistics, the New Orleanian accent is often described as Brooklyn meets the deep south. Additionally you have a blend of French, Jamaican, Italian, Irish, and just about everything else in between making up the dialect.

So, why am I running off at the mouth about this? Like I said, a modest portion of The End Of Desire occurs in New Orleans. Therefore, in order to set the scene and be true to the region, I have had to not only recall my times there and spend time emailing a dear friend who lives in NOLA (Thanks Velvet!), but I have literally had to learn NOLAspeak in order to write the dialogue for a few of the characters.

Let me tell you…It REALLY is almost like learning a second language.

At this stage of the game there are still some tweaks that may be necessary to the incidental dialogue, however, don’t be surprised if The End Of Desire comes equipped with a one page glossary appended right in the front.

(Actually, not really…But, it crossed my mind )

That’s it for now…Time for some sleep, a couple of nightmares, and then back to writing!

MR/Murv