As of the end of January the site has been up for a little over two months. Thanks to everyone who has subscribed and followed. This is an update on what I’ve been working on and what you can expect for the remainder of the year.
Beings of Mythology Project
– I’m currently working on a project documenting different beings from mythology and folklore, particularly ones that have a worldwide presence like fairies, giants, and thunder beings. This should serve as an interesting introduction to each type of being and give you an idea of how they’re seen around the globe (and given how similar some are, even on other sides of the planet, perhaps an existential crisis or two). I currently have several hundred pages worth of notes in the project, with perhaps another hundred pages or so of notes to go. I’ve still got some sources to work through before I’m confident in releasing the series, namely the Talmud and Midrash, several Hindu Puranas/Epics, some of the Buddhist texts, some parts of the Arabian Nights, and several Pacific Islander/Australian Aborigine folklore collections.
Folklore Stories
– I’ll continue to put out folk stories from around the world. Here’s what is upcoming:
– I’ve finished working through several books on different California Amerindian tribes and a book on Serbian folklore, some of which you’ve already seen on the blog. The folk stories I selected from one of the books required some editing since their presentation made the stories themselves suffer (likely resulting from issues in translating the oral stories to text). You should be seeing the improved versions of those stories (note that nothing has been taken away/changed content-wise, I just cleaned up the prose).
– Folk stories from Bengal: Thus far, in terms of India, I’ve delved into stories from Kashmir and the tribal societies of India, often known as the Scheduled Tribes. Each represents a different part of India, albeit not one that is especially mainstream. Kashmir has long represented a region heavily influenced by Islamic culture, with a historic Hindu minority. This has been reflected in the current splitup of the region between India, Pakistan, and China. The unscheduled tribes are interesting to study because their folk stories are a mixture between mainstream Hinduism and various archaic beliefs. Major differences can be seen in tribes that are Indian (most Scheduled Tribes), Negrito (who have historically been regarded as part of the Pariah, or Untouchable castes), and the Ao Naga (who are East Asian). Needless to say, while Kashmir stories are heavily influenced by Indian culture, and the stories written by Hindus even more, historic Bengal folklore should be more in line with mainstream Indian beliefs.
– Folk stories from China. Having worked through one of my sources on Japanese Mythology, I’ll be putting out some Chinese folk stories to balance out the perspective on north east Asian folklore.
– Folk stories from Malaysia/Continued. Similarly to the folklore of India, I have some folk stories up from the Negrito minorities of Malaysia, but nothing from mainstream Malay culture. I’m working my way through a book on Malaysian folklore and transcribing what I need. Specifically , which is basically a Malay take on the Sleeping Beauty archetype. Alongside that, I’ve got some historically interesting pieces of Negrito culture, namely some magical spells that have an interesting synthesis with Islam, but more on that later.
– Arabian Nights. One can put a slight disclaimer around the title, since the stories are often more reflective of Iranian culture, but some of these stories should give an interesting take on Middle Eastern folklore.
– Australian Aborigine folklore – An interesting group to look at since they are largely uninfluenced by outsiders (as one might expect, similar groups in South Asia show signs of influence by Islam/Hinduism). The most famous concept in Aborigine folklore is the Dreamtime, their take on the Otherworld and the beings that inhabit it.
– Pacific Islander folklore – Much like the aborigines, pacific folklore is essentially south-eastern Asian folklore that is unaffected by the mixture of Chinese, Indian, and Islamic cultures that have historically exerted influence on the region. Of particular interest in terms of the broader project are the stories of Giants and Little Folk (dwarf fairies) so common in certain regions.
– Already completed stories: I still have about 40-50 transcribed stories from previous folklore series, those beings Spanish chivalric literature, Bulgarian/Russian folklore (appears under the title of Slavic folklore, unless specifically distinguished), Kashmir folklore, Japanese folklore, Algonquin folklore, Indian tribal folklore, and folklore from several other Amerindian groups.
Comparative Mythology Series
I’m going to be doing a series on a link between Indian and Middle Eastern mythology that I haven’t seen actively explored. Let’s just say that it has some big implications and leave it at that. I’m also going to do some work on the connections between Biblical texts and regional folklore, as well as an exploration of the origins of Gnosticism.
Review Time
In the interest of branching out, I’m going to be putting out some reviews on fiction based books and games that I’ve finished recently (i.e. within the past year or two). Here are the potential entries, though I make no promises of getting to everything listed below:
Books:
Grant Morrison’s Seven Soldiers (graphic novel series)
Mistborn Series
Superman: Earth One (graphic novel series)
Video Games:
Batman Arkham Series (Arkham Asylum, Arkham City, Arkham Knight)
Beat Hazard 2
Black Mesa (Half Life One fan remake)
Call of Cthulhu
Divinity 2: Original Sin
Endless Space 2
Ghost of a Tale
Grey Goo (RTS)
Metro Series (Metro 2033, Metro Last Light, Metro Exodus)
The Witcher 3 (+Hearts of Stone +Blood and Wine DLC)
(There are a few others games that I have slated to complete such as Deep Space Derelicts, Hollow Knight, ICEY, Pathologic 2, Silence, Starpoint Gemeni: Warlords, and Sunless Skies. Each of those are also titles I could potentially review in the future.)
Short Stories
I’ve got an upcoming collection of short stories called Monsieur Pierre’s Most Peculiar Company. It’s a humorous story about the journey of a band of squabbling oddballs based on various parts of internet culture.
Books
On the book front I’m almost finished writing another title. It’s a compilation of seven linked short stories about a pair of beings called Guardians who go around solving people’s problems. Size wise I expect it to be 46,000-50,000 words when finished (I’ve currently got 44,000 words written as of this update), which should translate to about 100-150 pages, depending on how I choose to format the book. Editing should be much easier than Within a Hidden Sun (which I went over four times), both because of the size and because I’ve been applying the lessons I learned from the first book to it. While the book deals with mature subjects such as tragedy and loss, it has been written with the intention that younger people (age 12+) can read it. I suppose this puts it in the Young Adult market, albeit I fall into the camp that considers that to be primarily a marketing term (I suppose one could say that for most of the modern genres).
After editing there’s just the matter of commissioning another cover, then it should be ready to release.
As for my other works, I’ve got another seven to eight longer books planned out, most of which are aimed at the older teen/adult demographic.
Video Game
After taking a year long break, I’m back to actively working on my FPS adventure game. Was a bit of an adjustment getting used to coding again (still not quite back to my old 12 hour day coding stamina), but I’ve readapted pretty quickly. The assets are all finished, so it’s just a matter of getting the levels assembled now. Speaking of which, I might do an article showing the process of getting a 3D model assembled, from the concept roughs (which, given my drawing skill isn’t the best, is certainty “rough”) to completed/textured/animated models.
No E.T.A. as of now on the project, but I’ll keep everyone updated.
Store
I’ve been working on getting the site webstore up and running since my personal philosophy is that one shouldn’t be too dependant on corporate goodwill (i.e. it’s better not to be exclusively linked to Amazon, etc.). The webstore will offer PDF versions of the books in similar format as the in print books. For the time being Amazon will remain the place to get physical copies of the books, which are put out using their print on demand service. It is possible that I might eventually offer physical books using another service, but most require advance prints (i.e. 100+ copies at a time), something I can’t afford at the moment.
Most of the webstore features are self explanatory, and delivering digital goods is easy. However, I need to test the system out before I feel comfortable releasing it. Payment will use the WordPress native payment system and Paypal. I’ll also have a contact form up and running upon release of that feature, so I’ll be available if there are any issues/questions.
Conclusion
So that’s the update. I’ll keep the content coming out consistently. After I finish writing the book, I’ll be working on getting a backlog of articles done so that there’s more variety of content on the site.
Regards, Joshua Kingston.
Kotharian Lightning 