Centernia: Building a Castle

Where does the curse blood'ura come from? Writing the curses of Centernia was as enjoyable as creating the creatures and places. Blood'ura is an abbreviation for Blood of Aurora, very similar insult to the Shakespearian zounds, meaning Christ's Wounds. There is a joy in creating insults that are really close to the english in cadence and consonant sounds. I have growing library file where I collect these bad-sounding yet technically completely innocuous words. My favorites? Maggot suckin', bloody shunt, rock sucker, goat screw, tick and jackhole. In the next book, will we learn more about the fallout between Jessica's parents? Yes. There is definitely a lot more story to unearth from the past. The scars run deep. Why did you decide to write Return to the Castle? Where do you get your ideas? I get asked this question a lot. I wrote Return to the Castle because I had to. The characters have a comfortable residence in my mind, and they tell me their stori

How do you pronounce the names and places of Centernia?  Here is a very straightforward guide to all names and places unusual! Castlefolk Nicoveren Aristo Verdian: "Neek-o-varen Ah-risto Vare-de-an" Teren Wynter:   "Tare-en Winter" Artemisa Wynter: "Art-a-mee-sa Winter" Kaity Cosette: "Kate-e Co-zette" Corwin Evansi: "Core-win Ev-an-see" Jared Evansi: "Ja-red Ev-an-see" Alba: "All-ba" Savina: "Sah-vee-nah" Wadjette:  "Wa-jet" Jiberty: "Jib-er-ty" Abrianna: "Ah-bree-ana" Aden: "Aye-den" Otto Onyxgrove: "Ot-oh On-ex-grove" Elina: "Ell-eena" Circusfolk Amberynn:  "Amber-rin" Malachi: "Male-uhk-eye" Cobalt: "Co-ballt" Places Centernia:  "Sent-urn-e-uh" Aurumice:  "Or-uh-mice" or "Aura-mice" Trabalis: "Trah-ball-is" Briken: "Bry-ken"

I generally don't share personal issues with readers, but my online hiatus has been so long it's been noticeable.  The good news is, as of this posting, I am back to my usual online schedule of one blog post a week, and more Centernia art. As some of you know from meeting me at conventions, I'm expecting a baby in September. :-)  In order to avoid a studio/nursery combo room, we bought a house.  We packed and moved in late June. The month of July, I direct Kids on Campus, the largest and oldest art tech summer camp program hosted at RIT.  This is a hugely time intensive camp that took almost all of my energy. Normally, I de-stress by writing and drawing, but the universe has a terrible sense of humor.  Since April I've been plagued by an unusual pregnancy symptom.  The nerves in my spine were compressed and gave me crippling pain when sitting.  Yes, sitting.  I could lie down, walk a mile, pull weeds on my hands and knees.....but I couldn't sit at a computer fo