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Source: (consider it)
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Thread: Inquire Within: general questions
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Eigon
Shipmate
# 4917
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Posted
Red Moon and Black Mountain is one of my favourite of that sort of portal fantasy, Penny S. I was especially impressed, when I first read it, with how hard it was for Oliver to get back into this world - sent shivers up my spine! And there's some beautiful imagery, too - the goddess on a pony wading through the soil of a field and leaving a furrow behind, for instance.
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Laugh hard. Run fast. Be kind.
Posts: 3710 | From: Hay-on-Wye, town of books | Registered: Aug 2003
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Penny S
Shipmate
# 14768
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Posted
Haven't got that far yet, but you've encouraged me to continue. I've had it on my read-it-again-before-decluttering* shelf for a while, and grabbed it when I knew I was going to be sitting around waiting somewhere.
The descriptive stuff, and the way Chant has developed her different peoples is good. I'm not comfortable with her map - it doesn't look geologically workable at her scale - but at least she has one, and has worked out how people move across it.
There was one author back then who had no maps, and people sometimes travelling immense distances by going into a cliff and then after a short journey coming out the other side. I got very confused. I need maps! Or very clear directions, which Masefield does well.
*As opposed to the I'm-never-going-to-read-this again-and-I-don't-think-the-siblings'-offspring-will-want-it pile for Oxfam. I knew I had liked it.
[ 10. December 2015, 21:11: Message edited by: Penny S ]
Posts: 5833 | Registered: May 2009
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Brenda Clough
Shipmate
# 18061
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Posted
Red Moon is a great book. But you are right, she was essentially borrowing the plot from a lot of novels we already know (Narnia, etc.). She came into her own, creatively, with her next book, Grey Mane of Morning. That was a truly stupendous work, fully set in her created world with no ties to our world at all. There's everything, the biosphere, the cultures, the religions. The only similar work I can think of is Curse of Chalion by Bujold.
The great pity with Chant was that she only wrote during vacations. I don't knkow whether her day job was too devouring, or whether she just didn't have the kind of mind that can split off a creative life away from the day-to-day. And so she wrote very few books. Would that there had been a dozen more!
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Science fiction and fantasy writer with a Patreon page
Posts: 6378 | From: Washington DC | Registered: Mar 2014
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Penny S
Shipmate
# 14768
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Posted
Never saw that second one. I did get into Vera Chapman's Arthurian books through her.
You don't suppose that she was teaching, do you? That would not only impact upon non-vacation writing, but the UK has some very queer copyright issues applying to teachers. As in, whatever one writes, wherever one writes it, whenever one writes it, the copyright belongs to one's employer - in the past, the local authority. This can be overcome if the teacher has permission beforehand to do it. It has never been tested in law, and goodness knows how it would would be applied by the academy companies.
(I used to write copyright lines on worksheets, and advisors commented and said it was a good idea, though that would be very questionable. I also wrote a couple of historical short stories when on weekend courses organised by the LEA History Advisor, and he was very hush-hush about the matter. I didn't know about the law at the time, and rang him up about copyright. And he called me back from a different phone and told me to keep quiet about the matter! And the purpose of the weekends was for the county to produce a collection to enable the teaching of local history through story. So the argument would have probably gone in the LEA's favour.)
Anyway, being in that line of work would have cast a damper on work during work periods.
Posts: 5833 | Registered: May 2009
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Garasu
Shipmate
# 17152
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Posted
She was a librarian.
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"Could I believe in the doctrine without believing in the deity?". - Modesitt, L. E., Jr., 1943- Imager.
Posts: 889 | From: Surrey Heath (England) | Registered: Jun 2012
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Scots lass
Shipmate
# 2699
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Penny S:
Never saw that second one. I did get into Vera Chapman's Arthurian books through her.
You don't suppose that she was teaching, do you? That would not only impact upon non-vacation writing, but the UK has some very queer copyright issues applying to teachers. As in, whatever one writes, wherever one writes it, whenever one writes it, the copyright belongs to one's employer - in the past, the local authority. This can be overcome if the teacher has permission beforehand to do it. It has never been tested in law, and goodness knows how it would would be applied by the academy companies.
(I used to write copyright lines on worksheets, and advisors commented and said it was a good idea, though that would be very questionable. I also wrote a couple of historical short stories when on weekend courses organised by the LEA History Advisor, and he was very hush-hush about the matter. I didn't know about the law at the time, and rang him up about copyright. And he called me back from a different phone and told me to keep quiet about the matter! And the purpose of the weekends was for the county to produce a collection to enable the teaching of local history through story. So the argument would have probably gone in the LEA's favour.)
Anyway, being in that line of work would have cast a damper on work during work periods.
I think this copyright idea is nonsense. If you write things for work, in work time, they belong to your employer. If you do it at home, in your own time, it's yours. I am in no way a lawyer, but I do have to check who owns the copyright on stuff a lot!
Posts: 863 | From: the diaspora | Registered: Apr 2002
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Brenda Clough
Shipmate
# 18061
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Posted
I can't believe that that law would stand up in court -- there are famous teachers who were writers. What about Lewis, Tolkien? (Perhaps university level is different.) And that is why Jesus ordained pen names.
The other writer I came across recently who fell off the fiction sled is Winifred Watson, author of Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day. Persephone Books recently put out a new edition of this (it originally came out in 1938) and when the editors searched around they were astonished to discover that Watson is still alive and living somewhere in the north of England. She had written a few novels (Pettigrew was not only popular, it was made into a movie) and then children and marriage and the war distracted her from her writing, and she never went back.
I can't decide if that kind of thing is tragic, or not. Writing is like acting; if anything can deter you, you should let it.
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Science fiction and fantasy writer with a Patreon page
Posts: 6378 | From: Washington DC | Registered: Mar 2014
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Penny S
Shipmate
# 14768
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Posted
Somewhere I have a slim book which covers the issue. I have also seen a piece in the press, probably the "Times Educational Supplement", or "The Teacher".
A quick scan online wasn't helpful, as searching for teachers and copyright was slanted to explaining why teachers can't copy other people's materials and have to have the school registered with the Performing Rights Society, rather than why they don't own their own work.
I remember a conversation I had with someone authoritative, as well. Me - "Suppose I'm in a plane belonging to another state, over international waters, and I scribble something in a notebook which I have bought with my own money in that state with a pencil ditto." Him - "This applies to that, as well."
But I note that a headmaster, Paul Doherty (also known by other names) has produced a large number of books while in post.
Still searching - interestingly I have found that the Irish verdict on Columba's copying of someone else's book "that the calf belongs to the cow" still applies in a sense. If someone writes their own derivative story based on someone else's work, the copyright resides with the original writer. So where does that leave fanfic?
Posts: 5833 | Registered: May 2009
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Penny S
Shipmate
# 14768
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Posted
The best I've found is the term "in the course of employment". Teachers' contracts tend to include vaguely drawn conditions such as being available to be called by the head teacher at any reasonable time to carry out reasonable tasks. The concept of a strict division of times between work and not work hasn't been easy to apply.
But, believe me, I wouldn't have invented the stuff I recall. Someone, somewhere, somewhen, wanted a very strict interpretation of the course of employment. In that booklet, on copyright in general, there was a special section on teachers.
Incidentally, I did find reference to academics. Their ownership depends on individual relationships with their establishment. Students usually own their own work, but may be required to sign it over to their college/uni.
I would have thought being a librarian would not have been so demanding - filing things according to Dewey isn't likely to go on to 11pm, is it? But maybe, dealing with books all day might lead to a concern that other people's work might bleed into one's own.
Posts: 5833 | Registered: May 2009
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Brenda Clough
Shipmate
# 18061
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Posted
Fanfic is a separate universe of great complexity.
Essentially, it makes a difference if the author is alive/if the work or characters are trademarked or still under copyright. Write a fanfic, an entire novel, a space-time trilogy, go ahead, about Othello the Moor. Nobody will stop you. Shakespeare is long out of copyright and he stole the character anyway.
But, if you write a fanfic, an entire novel, about Han Solo -- oh dear. George Lucas and Disney have many, many lawyers; the character is protected by trademark as well as copyright. And there is a movie coming out, which means they are going to be raking in major dough, and have a powerful incentive as well as the wherewithall to defend their intellectual property. As long as you do not make money from the fanfic probably they will deem you too small a fish to pursue -- most SW fanfic is of this type. Start making money, and they'll have you by the goolies, for all time.
Between these two poles of the spectrum, there is a great large territory.
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Science fiction and fantasy writer with a Patreon page
Posts: 6378 | From: Washington DC | Registered: Mar 2014
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Lamb Chopped
Ship's kebab
# 5528
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by BroJames:
quote:
Copyright belongs to the person who created an original work. If they create something as part of their job, it belongs to their employer.
I imagine that a role in which one produces written work might have a number of grey areas. Thus work produced for the job (e.g. worksheets etc.) might belong to the employer a novel written in the writer's own time would probably not. A piece of creative writing produced on a course provided by the employer in order to generate material for teaching could well be in the grey area.
A certain Christian publisher I used to work for had a copyright policy where they claimed copyright over every freaking piece of writing I created, of any sort including grocery lists (yes, I raised the example), at any time during work hours or whatever. I thought (and think) this vastly unfair, but hadn't the money to contest it in court, which is the only place it's ever likely to get settled / altered. Which meant that I basically stopped writing for several years. (An evil-minded person would have written something like 50 Shades and then given them the fascinating dilemma of whether to try to assert copyright over it. ![[Snigger]](graemlins/snigger.gif) Believe me, I was tempted.)
I was able to work out a compromise for a single work on the grounds that a) they wouldn't touch it with a ten-foot-anything, anyway, and b) I would (as required) use a pen name, apparently to avoid bringing shame & ignominy™ down on the place if it were discovered that the author was an employee. (Yeah, right.)
I am so glad to be free of that horrible mess.
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Er, this is what I've been up to (book).
Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down!
Posts: 20059 | From: off in left field somewhere | Registered: Feb 2004
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Brenda Clough
Shipmate
# 18061
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Posted
You are more tolerant than I. I would have written, and never revealed it. Pen name all the way. I have friends who do this -- the woman who teaches elementary school and writes lesbian romance is a perfect example.
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Science fiction and fantasy writer with a Patreon page
Posts: 6378 | From: Washington DC | Registered: Mar 2014
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Sioni Sais
Shipmate
# 5713
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Posted
IANAL but can I be very, very dull and mention that intellectual property law varies from place to place, just like every other kind of law.
To comply with various treaties there are similarities but they are more likely in the area of administering IP.
[ 11. December 2015, 22:29: Message edited by: Sioni Sais ]
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"He isn't Doctor Who, he's The Doctor"
(Paul Sinha, BBC)
Posts: 24276 | From: Newport, Wales | Registered: Apr 2004
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jedijudy
Organist of the Jedi Temple
# 333
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Posted
Hostly caution sign
Just a reminder that legal advice cannot be given on the Ship. For accurate legal advice, please contact a lawyer! This is alongside the admonition that medical advice is not to be given here, either!
/Hostly caution sign
jedijudy
Heaven Host
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Jasmine, little cat with a big heart.
Posts: 18017 | From: 'Twixt the 'Glades and the Gulf | Registered: Aug 2001
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Adeodatus
Shipmate
# 4992
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Posted
Sometime soon I'm hoping to spend a month in Gran Canaria. (Part of my agenda is to spend some time doing some research with a thought to spending rather longer there each year in the depths of UK winter.) Obviously, there are a lot of websites where you can go to rent an apartment, but most of those go on either a relatively expensive weekly rate, or a relatively cheap rate for 6 months of more.
Can anyone recommend a place I can go where I might get a relatively cheap rental for 4 weeks? Basically, where 4 weeks' rent might be rather less than 4x1 week's rent!
Thanks. ![[Smile]](smile.gif)
(Editde fro tpyos)
[ 17. December 2015, 13:40: Message edited by: Adeodatus ]
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"What is broken, repair with gold."
Posts: 9779 | From: Manchester | Registered: Sep 2003
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Brenda Clough
Shipmate
# 18061
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Posted
I have had good luck with AirBnB, but I assume you have checked it out.
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Science fiction and fantasy writer with a Patreon page
Posts: 6378 | From: Washington DC | Registered: Mar 2014
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Adeodatus
Shipmate
# 4992
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Brenda Clough:
I have had good luck with AirBnB, but I assume you have checked it out.
I've heard very good things about them, but even they're a bit off the top of my budget. Basically I'm looking for a nice apartment for what you'd expect to pay for a tent next to a builders' skip!
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"What is broken, repair with gold."
Posts: 9779 | From: Manchester | Registered: Sep 2003
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Boogie
Boogie on down!
# 13538
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Adeodatus:
Basically I'm looking for a nice apartment for what you'd expect to pay for a tent next to a builders' skip!
Couchsurfing?
My son does it and has had all good experiences.
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Garden. Room. Walk
Posts: 13030 | From: Boogie Wonderland | Registered: Mar 2008
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moonlitdoor
Shipmate
# 11707
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Posted
This is a question for people who know about kindle ereaders. Can you buy a kindle ebook as a present for someone else without having a kindle yourself ? I don't know what the mechanism is for buying an ebook, and whether you just receive a file which you can send to someone or whether something means that only the person who buys it can use it.
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We've evolved to being strange monkeys, but in the next life he'll help us be something more worthwhile - Gwai
Posts: 2210 | From: london | Registered: Aug 2006
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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by moonlitdoor:
This is a question for people who know about kindle ereaders. Can you buy a kindle ebook as a present for someone else without having a kindle yourself ?
Amazon won't let you buy ebooks for other people (whether you have a Kindle or not), so I'm guessing the ebook has to be downloaded by the person themselves.
Posts: 25445 | Registered: May 2001
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Adeodatus
Shipmate
# 4992
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Boogie:
quote:
Originally posted by Adeodatus:
Basically I'm looking for a nice apartment for what you'd expect to pay for a tent next to a builders' skip!
Couchsurfing?
My son does it and has had all good experiences.
Thank you for assuming I'm more supple and limber than I actually am!
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"What is broken, repair with gold."
Posts: 9779 | From: Manchester | Registered: Sep 2003
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Gracious rebel
Rainbow warrior
# 3523
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Ariel:
quote:
Originally posted by moonlitdoor:
This is a question for people who know about kindle ereaders. Can you buy a kindle ebook as a present for someone else without having a kindle yourself ?
Amazon won't let you buy ebooks for other people (whether you have a Kindle or not), so I'm guessing the ebook has to be downloaded by the person themselves.
A possible solution may be to give an amazon gift voucher - could include with it the details of the ebook for them to download.
And for Adeodatus - it may be work contacting some people who are renting out villas for a week, to see if they can do you a deal on a longer let. If its out of season, they may be open to negotiation (says she who currently has panto actors staying for a month in her holiday apartment normally let for single weeks) We used to rent ours via Homelidays, which was just an introduction agency - all negotiations were conducted directly between renter and owner. If this is still the case it may be a starting point for you to find something suitable and negotiate a price. They certainly have properties in Gran Canaria on their site.
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Fancy a break beside the sea in Suffolk? Visit my website
Posts: 4413 | From: Suffolk UK | Registered: Nov 2002
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Golden Key
Shipmate
# 1468
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Posted
Re Gran Canaria:
Hostels? (Hostelworld)
I know some US hostels have private rooms available. Maybe Gran Canaria's do?
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Blessed Gator, pray for us!
--"Oh bat bladders, do you have to bring common sense into this?" (Dragon, "Jane & the Dragon")
--"Oh, Peace Train, save this country!" (Yusuf/Cat Stevens, "Peace Train")
Posts: 18601 | From: Chilling out in an undisclosed, sincere pumpkin patch. | Registered: Oct 2001
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Fineline
Shipmate
# 12143
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Posted
Is it okay to ask questions about the forums here, or if there another thread for that?
I want to ask if there is an art thread, for people who like drawing and painting and making art in general, including digital art? There is a photogaphy thread, so I'm thinking there must be an art thread too, but I can't find it.
If I am asking this in the wrong place, please can you let me know in which thread to ask it. Thanks.
Posts: 2375 | From: England | Registered: Dec 2006
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Firenze
Ordinary decent pagan
# 619
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Posted
I don't believe we currently have a thread for visual arts outwith photography.
Feel free to start one.
Firenze
Heaven Host
Posts: 17302 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Jun 2001
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Fineline
Shipmate
# 12143
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Posted
Thank you, Firenze. I will make a thread tomorrow. Or someone else can make one if they get there first.
Posts: 2375 | From: England | Registered: Dec 2006
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Huia
Shipmate
# 3473
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Posted
Is it only Sikh men who wear turbans or are they worn by males from other religions too?
My city doesn't have many turban wearing men and the only ones I have seen while out and about work in one of my favourite cafés.
Huia
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Charity gives food from the table, Justice gives a place at the table.
Posts: 10382 | From: Te Wai Pounamu | Registered: Oct 2002
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Stercus Tauri
Shipmate
# 16668
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Posted
I read somewhere that you can get rid of the musty smell of an old book by putting it in a microwave oven to sterilise it. I have two such books that are of considerable value (to me) but I don't want to risk it without expert advice. Has anyone tried it and knows what level to use, and how long is safe? They have no metal staples in them.
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Thay haif said. Quhat say thay, Lat thame say (George Keith, 5th Earl Marischal)
Posts: 905 | From: On the traditional lands of the Six Nations. | Registered: Sep 2011
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Lamb Chopped
Ship's kebab
# 5528
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Posted
Call a nearby university and ask to speak with the rare books librarian. They should have wisdom for you.
Posts: 20059 | From: off in left field somewhere | Registered: Feb 2004
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Welease Woderwick
Sister Incubus Nightmare
# 10424
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Posted
Huia, generally yes, that is so BUT, of course, there are exceptions. Round here and more so in the north of this state the Moplah or Mapillah Muslim males also wear a turban of sorts always in white and always wrapped around a pill-box style mosque cap - it is always accompanied by a white kurta and a white lunghi. In the deserts of Rajasthan many Hindu men wear a turban as a heat protection thing but these are often fuller and also not as formal in design as a Sikh turban.
There may well be many other groups in other states but I think it is pretty safe to assume, at least for where you are, that men in turbans are mainly Sikh. Look for a steel bracelet on the wrist - that and the turban together are two of the Five Ks and would be a pretty strong indicator.
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I give thanks for unknown blessings already on their way.
Fancy a break in South India?
Accessible Homestay Guesthouse in Central Kerala, contact me for details
What part of Matt. 7:1 don't you understand?
Posts: 48139 | From: 1st on the right, straight on 'til morning | Registered: Sep 2005
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Welease Woderwick
Sister Incubus Nightmare
# 10424
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Posted
The Scrumpmeither posted the following query in AS so I thought I'd give it a go here:
quote:
Some months - and possibly over a year - ago, I read a blog post/online article that quoted from an American television programme. I had never heard of the programme but I found the scenario quite inspiring at the time.
Now cannot remember what it was called or where I saw the quotation, and wondered whether somebody here might be able to help.
In the scene in question a gay man finds himself in a Catholic church for the first time in some years, and expresses surprise to the priest that there are female altar servers. There was some discussion about progress in the church and it leads to the priest expressing disappointment in many gay people.
The general thrust if his point was that, where gay people have found themselves excluded and marginalised - in law, in society, and such like - they have stayed and demanded decent treatment, and progress has been made. Yet, when it comes to their faith, they so often just give up and walk away.
Does this ring any bells with anyone? And can anyone know where I might find the exact quotation from the script or the clip online?
Sadly, the search terms I've used to find this myself have produced some rather unedifying results.
I'd be grateful for any help. Many thanks.
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I give thanks for unknown blessings already on their way.
Fancy a break in South India?
Accessible Homestay Guesthouse in Central Kerala, contact me for details
What part of Matt. 7:1 don't you understand?
Posts: 48139 | From: 1st on the right, straight on 'til morning | Registered: Sep 2005
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Kitten
Shipmate
# 1179
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Welease Woderwick:
The Scrumpmeither posted the following query in AS so I thought I'd give it a go here:
quote:
Some months - and possibly over a year - ago, I read a blog post/online article that quoted from an American television programme. I had never heard of the programme but I found the scenario quite inspiring at the time.
Now cannot remember what it was called or where I saw the quotation, and wondered whether somebody here might be able to help.
In the scene in question a gay man finds himself in a Catholic church for the first time in some years, and expresses surprise to the priest that there are female altar servers. There was some discussion about progress in the church and it leads to the priest expressing disappointment in many gay people.
The general thrust if his point was that, where gay people have found themselves excluded and marginalised - in law, in society, and such like - they have stayed and demanded decent treatment, and progress has been made. Yet, when it comes to their faith, they so often just give up and walk away.
Does this ring any bells with anyone? And can anyone know where I might find the exact quotation from the script or the clip online?
Sadly, the search terms I've used to find this myself have produced some rather unedifying results.
I'd be grateful for any help. Many thanks.
That does ring a bell, it sound a little like an episode from 'The New Normal', but its a while since I saw it so I may be misremembering. From looking it up on Wikipedia it may be episode 7 'The Godparent Trap'
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Maius intra qua extra
Never accept a ride from a stranger, unless they are in a big blue box
Posts: 2330 | From: Carmarthenshire | Registered: Aug 2001
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Moo
Ship's tough old bird
# 107
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Stercus Tauri:
I read somewhere that you can get rid of the musty smell of an old book by putting it in a microwave oven to sterilise it. I have two such books that are of considerable value (to me) but I don't want to risk it without expert advice. Has anyone tried it and knows what level to use, and how long is safe? They have no metal staples in them.
I have had success taking a box that is just big enough to hold the books in a spine-up position. Line the box with a plastic bag big enough to close over the books. Pour a lot of kitty litter into the bottom of the bag. (Be careful to buy kitty litter that only claims to absorb moisture and odor.) Put the books, spine up, in the box on top of the kitty litter. Close the plastic bag around them and leave them for several weeks.
Moo
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Kerygmania host
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See you later, alligator.
Posts: 20365 | From: Alleghany Mountains of Virginia | Registered: May 2001
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Penny S
Shipmate
# 14768
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Posted
That sounds like the fullers earth type of litter. I wouldn't try anything else.
Posts: 5833 | Registered: May 2009
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