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Thu Dec 23, 2004 10:11 pm
Morran says...



As if any of you are interested. (Let's not kid ourselves.) So, how about starting with the obvious so that we can get it out of the way.

I'm a twenty-one-year-old male, as you can about guess from the lovely information table on the left, here. (A big round of applause for information at our fingertips.) And I'm a writer. Yay, obvious.

Now for some less-obvious stuff.

I go to school in Iowa and I know Galatea and A.O. Avalon - 'twas Galatea who invited me. While I am a junior in college in Iowa, my hometown is in North Dakota - a little town of 200 people. I gradutaed with a high school class of 28. Small town, USA, you might say.

I write nearly everything; I've done novels, short stories, poetry, regular fiction, teen fiction, fantasy, sci/fi, nonfiction, and mixes thereof. It'd be better to say what I *haven't* done yet: Flat-out romance, mystery, and horror, though I add elements of romance and mystery to many of my novels. Horror I just plain don't like. So I probably won't experiment anytime soon.... but I will eventually. Needless to say, I like to be diverse - I think all writers should try to expand their horizons.

I'm working on really trying to imprint pictures on my readers' minds. If I could have a writer's creed it would be "Show, not tell." Then again, I also think all writers need to work on that - definitely self included.

I like to read any prose that can keep my interest, and I like both rhymed and unrhymed poetry, so long as it is creative and says something. I dislike poetry that feels like a verbal laxative spilled onto the page, and I'm as guilty of having written some such poems as the next guy. I don't like those either. :) I don't like everything I write, so a lot of it stays on the page and doesn't see the light of forums like these.

More about me as a person instead of me as a writer: I have a girlfriend who also goes to school with me. I am active in the Chess and Games club, Medieval/Rennaisance Club, and Consoles and Desktops Clubs on campus, and I sing Tenor 2 in Choir, even though I'm a Baritone by nature. Aside from writing I enjoy reading, video games, listening to music, bowling, movies, and Dance Dance Revolution, to name a few hobbies.

I also RP extensively, and I administrate an entire forum for RPing, though it's been a bit slow lately. (http://www.bpestudios.com/vbb if you're interested. /shameless plug). I'm also involved in a project called the World of the Tabula Rasa. It's mainly going to be a web-published collection of art and short stories that all take place in the same fantasy world - a fantasy world based largely on our Earth. We plan to expand into print after a while as well. Look for it in February. If you're interested in helping out, let me know by PM or contacting me on AIM.

I may as well end with contact info, then.

Name: Josh
Email: Eaglefan007@excite.com
AIM SN: antialias02

And if this wasn't enough information, I now shall field questions.
  





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Thu Dec 30, 2004 3:07 pm
iced.cappuchino says...



Morran wrote:[...] I'm also involved in a project called the World of the Tabula Rasa. It's mainly going to be a web-published collection of art and short stories that all take place in the same fantasy world - a fantasy world based largely on our Earth. We plan to expand into print after a while as well. Look for it in February. If you're interested in helping out, let me know by PM or contacting me on AIM. [...]


Interesting...

I had an idea along those lines. Though, not really web-published, and not really short stories. Just stories that happen in the same world... not necessarily fantasy world.

I'm curious to know more about the project though, perhaps I could contribute a few stories?
  





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Thu Dec 30, 2004 5:22 pm
Morran says...



I'll give you a little more information, sure! I've gotten another request to hear more about it, so I'll just post some things here. I posted this in my LJ once upon a time. I'm reposting it now because it says everything very well. If you really want to join after reading this, go to www.rasaworld.net/forums and sign up there. Also, you should really also talk to Ed, the project head. AIM him at MrFordPrefect42, or PM him on the boards. I'm not sure his email address. ^^;

--

For any of you writers and artists out there, or if you just like an interesting fantasy read, there's a project called the World of the Tabula Rasa (Translated: Blank Slate) that I'm working on. (Not -just- me, but I'm helping out.) Basically, it's going to be a web publication launching around February (with the possibility of print pubication thereafter) that features fantasy stories and illustrations that take place in the Rasa World - a place quite similar to our own world. Just...

Not.

Most of the action takes place on Arcath - a continent you and I might call Europe, except with other races, magic, and plenty of other fantastical elements all mixed up into a pseudohistory of a world that never was. We've taken fantasy elements from a lot of different sources, and even taken in some science-fiction - this world is not without technology, either.

We have Fellpools traders, Servals, Naga who live underground, clans of Elves - some who like to war and some who'd rather not. They've evolved based on where they live. And there are plenty of other races.

There are also way more characters than I can keep track of, and as we add people to the project, they create their own characters and add them to the mix of this fascinating world. With this many characters, there are also a lot of storylines - and a couple recurring ones. I recommend the Rasa Adventure line. It's one of my favorites.

And it's all highly intriguing, at least to me. Mostly because it's populated with many, many detailed characters in a myriad of different settings.

A direct quote from Ed, the Project Coordinator:

"It can be said that the Rasa world is an expression of our own. Or rather a world that many people would imagine, or would have dreamed about or even pined for longingly. It is the perilous Wonderland, the country on the other side of the wardrobe, the Land of Nod, a fairy tale, and the bastard son of John Woo, Quentin Tarantino, Neil Gaiman, Clive Barker, Lewis Carroll, Francesca Lia Block, H.P. Lovecraft and Edgar Allan Poe. With Ray Bradbury rapping against the door with his solicitor wanting to negotiate custody.

The world we present to you is a condensed, reworked, retouched version of the one we live in. Combining elements of contemporary culture with classical fantasy elements, science fiction, legends, history and myth to create a planet Earth that very well could have been."

Anyway, if anyone's interested, I suggest the following:

http://www.rasaworld.net/reference/rasaguide/world/
http://www.rasaworld.net/reference/gallery/art1.html

That should give ....some kind of indication of art and writing, somehow.

--

So that's it. If anyone's still interested, contact Ed and join the forums. I can answer any specific questions, too, since even though I don't have a 'rank,' I've been on the project for some time now....
  





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Sun Jan 02, 2005 9:16 pm
Tessitore says...



WOW! You put a lot of thought into that world. I may join want to contribute if there is any time between my frantic job hunting/GED getting/house maintaining and my own writing/artwork and all my emotional problems (and I have a lot of those). I had to tear myself away from the artwork *drools enviously*.
I dislike poetry that feels like a verbal laxative spilled onto the page, and I'm as guilty of having written some such poems as the next guy.

Ha ha! Stoll the words right out of my mouth, I swear.
the bastard son of John Woo, Quentin Tarantino, Neil Gaiman, Clive Barker, Lewis Carroll, Francesca Lia Block, H.P. Lovecraft and Edgar Allan Poe. With Ray Bradbury rapping against the door with his solicitor wanting to negotiate custody

That had me laughing so hard, you have no idea. If you guys are any bit like Neil Gaiman, Clive Barker, Lewis Carroll, Quentin Tarantino and Edgar Allan Poe (since those are the only one I recognize and am familiar with), I'm going to have to buy a copy (or a dozen) if you all ever come out in print. Nonetheless, I'll be keeping my eye on things.
I'm not even angry... I'm being so sincere right now.
Even though you broke my heart.
And killed me... And tore me to pieces.
And threw every piece into a fire.
-"Still Alive"- GLaDOS
  





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Wed Jan 05, 2005 7:19 pm
Morran says...



Some of the artwork is nothing short of amazing. I *wish* I could draw like that.... heh. And we would certainly welcome another contributor, no problem. Any help is good help. :) I'm glad the project is interesting.

And I apologize for the late reply... I had a hell of a time travelling back to school and actually getting into the swing of things here, so I haven't had virtually any time to be on forums of any kind. But it's definitely good to be back. :)
  





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Thu Jan 06, 2005 1:48 pm
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Zion says...



Nice to meet you Morran! Welcome to the site. (even though you're around here for a month or so :D )Anyways nice ideas about the project thing. I was planning to enter in a similar one called Santharian Dream or something like that
Without sensibility no object would be given to us, without understanding no object would be thought. Thoughts without content are empty, intuitions without concepts are blind.

Immanuel Kant
"Critique of Pure Reason"
  





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Sat Jan 08, 2005 7:04 am
Galatea says...



Josh, I put my fan in your room, by which I mean the room I no longer occupy, and I have a box of Manda's stuff...
I'll be by on Saturday.


Luce
Sing lustily and with a good courage. Beware of singing as if you were half dead, or half asleep; but lift up your voice with strength.
  





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Sat Jan 08, 2005 9:43 am
Morran says...



I'll let them know you'll be along. I'm sure they appreciate the heads-up.
  








Nothing is impossible, for the word itself says, 'I'm possible!'
— Audrey Hepburn