J. Matthew Saunders

winnie the pooh is standing next to a tree in the woods holding a book ALT: winnie the pooh is standing next to a tree in the woods holding a book

Editing my action-packed superhero spy thriller and realizing my two hardened ex-Soviet agent main characters are basically these guys:

One of my favorite pieces of Ides of March triva is that Caesar’s purported last words may not have been an expression of shock at a friend’s betrayal, but a curse: “You, too,” meaning, “Screw you, I hope the same thing happens to you.”

On your left… #Ukraine

Non-Southerners need to understand there is nuance to the meaning of, “Bless your heart!” It doesn’t always mean, “F*ck you!” Sometimes it means, “You have just said/done something so monumentally stupid I am amazed you don’t forget to breathe, and I am truly sorry for the hand fate has dealt you.”

Since Russia is attacking the Ukrainian language itself, news outlets need to spell Zelenskyy’s name correctly, with 2 “y’s” at the end. In Ukrainian Cyrillic it’s Зеленський. The last two letters are both transliterated as “y” in the Latin alphabet (as used for English) but pronounced differently.

An absolute mountain of a man with a russet beard, cruel blue eyes and a booming voice that commanded attention.

But animals were still animals, and did what animals did.

Some animals ate their young. 2/2

From the WIP:

“All animals are equal,” George Orwell wrote in Animal Farm, “but some are more equal than others.” Kolya’s family, they were “more equal.” His father, Grigoriy Dmitrovich Kirillov, was a hero of the Revolution and an esteemed member of the Leningrad Soviet, after all. 1/2

Nothing but the Blood Amazon.com: Nothing but the Blood eBook : Saunders, J. Matthew: Kindle Store

By the way, I wrote a novel about the insidious evil of N*zis and their spiritual kin. It also has werewolves. www.amazon.com/dp/B09YN5F6R...

YouTube video by Evenord-Bank eG-KG Evenord-Bank Flashmob Nürnberg 2014 - Ode an die Freude

Humans are capable of creating beautiful things. youtu.be/a23945btJYw?...

Other writers choosing character names: This character is a physician who has lost his faith in humanity, so his given name comes from the Icelandic word for “broken,” and his family name is based on an Old Occitan word meaning “healer.”
Me choosing character names: You look like a Fred.

Mirror: OMG, Dude! You’ve got abs!
Camera: LOL, nah.

It was a test balloon to see if he could get away with it.

My most recent selfie.

We learn about the proxy wars fought between the US and the USSR during the Cold War in places like Angola and Zambia, but when you really look at the parties involved, you see that in a lot of cases, it was indigenous groups with Soviet support fighting against literal N*zis. 2/2

I swear this is purely coincidental, but I was doing research for my novel on Sunday and learned that shortly after WWII, several pro-N*zi parties in South Africa were absorbed into the National Party, which won the elections in 1948 and immediately went on to officially implement Apartheid. 1/2

Hi! I should mention too there are tons of resources online for how to create a conlang.

Any introduction to linguistics text will have a discussion of what sound changes are more or less likely than others. 8/8

Even if you don't go full Tolkein and are just trying to name people and places in your story, it can be helpful in creating some internal consistency to think of what kinds of sounds you want and what historical changes could have taken place. 7/8

To further complicate matters, depending on how long ago the sound change happened and the literacy level of speakers of the language, that v sound could still be spelled with an f. 6/8

In our previous change if you had fl between two vowels ("aflame"), the f sound wouldn't have been affected because of the l. Now that the l drops, f is by itself between two vowels, but this time it stays an f, because the f to v sound change was in the past and isn't productive any more. 5/8

Not every sound change happens at the same time, though, so they pile up in layers, and later changes can obscure earlier ones. Again, in our same language, say you had a change were l (ell) dropped from consonant clusters. 4/8

For example, say you have a sound change in a language where f changes to v between two vowels. So "afar" would become "avar." Here's the thing people miss. If f changes to v in one word where it's between two vowels, it changes to v in *every* word where it's between two vowels. 3/8

In fact language change, particularly sound change, is very regular and systematic. It follows rules. Sound changes are triggered by the environment in which the sound occurs. Also, some sounds and environments are more stable than others, so some sound changes are more likely than others. 2/8

#linguistics A lot of people think language change is haphazard and just happens. I've seen many writers create languages for their stories or extrapolate "future" versions of current languages make that mistake. They make up things that "sound right,” but there is no internal consistency. 1/8

YouTube video by PentatonixVEVO Pentatonix - Come Along (Official Video)

This song is about being abducted by fairies, and you can’t convince me otherwise. youtu.be/u8rT6ij0PSo

YouTube video by Home Free Home Free - Man of Constant Sorrow

Now that Christmas is over, we return to our regularly scheduled unhinged mix of Gothic Americana, a cappella, fiddles and bagpipes, and world electronica. #music youtu.be/-ew_bfFvros

A poem, by me:

Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
But they’re all dead now,
And I’m cold.
I hate winter.

Book cover trends are fascinating. For a while we had Faceless Woman, and the we had Broken Red Lollipop and Blobs of Color. Now it’s Title in Giant All-Caps Sans-Serif Font Superimposed on Ominous Monochrome Background. (Also a shout-out to Creepy (Un)Dead Rabbit.)

I have been curating my Christmas music collection for over 30 years.