@mythologist
Archaeologist : Linguist : Mythologist : Austronesianist : Indo-Europeanist : Uto-Aztecanist : Dachshundist : Kelpien : Speculative Fiction SF/F Author : THE LAST INTERGLACIAL (alt-past epic fantasy, 2026) : AUSTRONESIA (alt-future eutopian thriller, 2026)
Topanga < #Tongva Topaa'nga "Rock Mortar Place"
< Proto-Takic *tɨh-paha-ŋa < rock + mortar + locative suffix >
Cf. #Kitanemuk tɨhpahač "rock mortar"
Cf. #Luiseño Tóopamay "Santa Margarita Rancheria" < little mortar place >
#etymology #Toongvet #Tovaangar #Takic #Uto-Aztecan
[ Scarcliff 2025 ]
I love when my translators have questions. The splendid Mikael Cabon in France needs to know if a river in Written on the Dark flows into the sea or into another river: his word choice will be different.
When translators are careful it is a gift to an author AND a reminder to protect them from AI.
Say what you like about LA, but it's a relative paradise for Asian foods. Many big Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Filipino (!) supermarkets, and even the generic chain stores offer most of the basics.
Voting for my favorite writer, Hugo winner @nghivo.bsky.social. Watching @dylanscarcliff.bsky.social become a talented editor.
A front-row seat for the @brandonsanderson.com, GRRM, @rebeccaroanhorse.bsky.social, @robinhobb.bsky.social, and @ryancahill.bsky.social drama. Being welcomed to the Booktube clubhouse by @adrianmgibson.bsky.social, Bookborn, and @jajminton.bsky.social.
Seattle in 2025 highlights: Table talks with @gwillow.me, Diana Ma, Michael Michel, and @jeremyteg.bsky.social. My fanboy moment with @fondalee.bsky.social. Hanging out at Ludi’s, Freya, The Crumpet Store, Vivienne’s and Zema.
Congratulations to the author of my all-time favorite novella series (The Singing Hills Cycle), @nghivo.bsky.social, on her latest award. The Hugo for Best Short Story goes to “Stitched to Skin Like Family Is”!
By the way, some of us heard what you had to say about “magic systems” and knew what you meant!
Richly deserved - safe travels!
Dylan and I are eating our way through seattlein2025.org. Highlights so far: Ludi’s for a Filipino breakfast; The Crumpet Store for an English breakfast; The Original Deli for bulgogi; Zema for an Ethiopian/Eritrean dinner. Yum!
Count me in!
Cover of The Witch Roads by Kate Elliott has a purplish/pink background tone (but tasteful!). In the background rise three mysterious towers and a gateway. The path to the gateway is lined by massive statues of warriors with the bodies of humans and the heads of beasts. Two tiny figures stand in a splash of sunlight as they contemplate entering the compound with the towers.
My grimsweet fantasy road trip (on foot) lands today w/ a humble deputy courier forced to guide uppity court officials on a back country route that includes a ravenous fungal ghost plague, court intrigue, & a mysterious haunt.
First of a duology (bk 2 in Nov).
us.macmillan.com/books/978125...
My publisher wants me to share this link with you, so here it is: read.macmillan.com/lp/enola-hol...
Anyone in San Diego wanna come hear me read and talk about my new novella Don't Sleep with the Dead? I'm at the legendary Mysterious Galaxy tonight at 7!!!
www.mystgalaxy.com/41525Vo
On in 30 with Dahlia de la Vega at Skylight Books!
(Oh my gosh, this place is gorgeous...)
www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylig...
It’s launch day for THE MIDNIGHT KING!!! Super excited to finally see this book out in the wild.
If you like dark, grizzly, serial killer thrillers, then check it out now 😎
www.waterstones.com/book/the-mid...
An exciting day to share the incredible results of our excavations at Farley Moor standing stone last October www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
The cover of Gods of the Wyrdwood. white with a weird tree like face on it.
Oh, Canadian and US friends, looks like GODS OF THE WYRDWOOD is cheap at all good ebook retailiers. Why not read about people coming together to stand up to a really unpleasant society? We love to see it.
Grocery store.
I’d guess there’s some German influence at work. In our Anglo Filipino California household, we call any semi-authentic pasta dish “pasta,” but anything non-Italian but with the shape of spaghetti (udon, soba, etc.) “noodles.”
Took the train early this morning to Seattle for Emerald City Comicon, where I'll be at a couple of panels and signing books at the Del Rey both. Tired and melancholic and anxious. Like I've said before, what a time to be both Canadian and Mexican.
Preorders for the Black Library celebration kick off next Saturday. Apparently if you buy a BL book there's a freebie collection with stories from me and 3 other sterling authors. My story, Web of Ruin, may contain spiders... www.warhammer-community.com/en-gb/articl...
This writer has been facing awful challenges, including health issues. They could use a donation, if you have a few dollars to spare.
Uto-Aztecan reconstrution of the day (i.e. I just made it today):
Proto-Corachol-Nahua *pɨ̒tse "to kiss"
Pre-Nahua: *pɨ̒tse-wa
Cognates:
Nahuatl pitsoa
Sta. Teresa Náayeri: pɨ̒itse'e
Probably derived from PUA *putsa "to blow"
(Maybe I should have saved this for Valentine's day...)
Enter a giveaway for the Spanish language translation of my novella Prime Meridian aka Meridiano Cero. Open worldwide.
Pueden ganar una copia de mi novela corta Meridiano Cero, recientemente traducida al español por Estela Peña Molatore y publicada por Minotauro.
gleam.io/wkvZb/meridi...
I am having so much fun writing this new book. My characters, less so.
This is the absolutely magnificent map that Katrin produced based on my Echoes of the Fall series. It's an incredible piece of work.
The Anglian York Helmet is composed of four main elements; a composite cap (brown in colour), two hinged cheek-pieces (also brown in colour) and a curtain of ring mail as a neckguard. The brass-coloured nose guard is covered with intricate interlaced animals. The 'eyebrows' have animal-head terminals, and an inscribed copper alloy band that runs over and across the crest of the helmet. The interlacing animals on the nose guard have open lips, comma-shaped eyes and spiral hips. Between the ‘eyebrows' and facing downward, is a larger animal head with a rounded snout and comma-shaped eyes, like those on the nose guard. This animal has ears on either side of its head that merge with the inscribed copper alloy band. An inscription on the band reads: 'IN. NOMINE. DNI. NOSTRI. IHV. SCS. SPS. D. ET. OMNIBUS. DECEMUS. AMEN. OSHERE. XPI.' This abbreviated Latin inscription may be translated as 'In the name of our Lord Jesus, the Holy Spirit, God and with all we pray. Amen. Oshere. Christ.'
The remarkably well-preserved York Helmet is one of only six surviving helmets from Anglo-Saxon Britain. A Latin inscription bears the name of its owner ‘Oshere’. Discovered by a digger operator in Coppergate, York, in 1982. Iron and copper alloy, dated AD 770-775 📷 by me
#FindsFriday
#Archaeology
My photo shows a museum display with luxury Minoan ceramic cups known as Kamares Ware, from Phaistos, Crete. Produced by palace workshops c. 1800-1700 BC. The cups range in shape and size from conic and cylindrical cups (top and middle shelves) to hemispherical and carinated shaped cups (bottom shelf). They are decorated with multi-coloured geometric motifs. Many with spirals and swirls painted in red and white pigment on black.
Sipping my coffee ☕️ and thinking about these marvellous Minoan cups!
They look so modern it’s incredible to think they were made by Bronze Age potters some 3,800 years ago!
Known as Kamares Ware, these luxury Minoan ceramics were made in palace workshops. From Phaistos, Crete.
📷 me
#Archaeology