Greetings and welcome. This month flew by me. But I didn’t want you to miss Fire Flight’s cover art. Jenneth Dyck did an excellent job. It’s on my website under the “Fire Flight” Tab. MiniBuk hopes to ship the collection of five short stories soon. Let’s hope they arrive before November 12th. Why? On that day, I will be participating in the Hanover Writers Book Expo. I rented a table. Selling my little book will be great. Missing the opportunity would… Well, let’s focus on the positive. Information about the central Virginia event can be found at the following website: www.hanoverbookfestival.com Meanwhile, I’m fighting the learning curve for point of sale technology. Also, for apps that sell directly from my website. What’s missing? My patience. But I will have a physical book soon. Don’t miss it! And may you live as long as Melchaiyim, even to the end of the age.

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Greetings and welcome to my September newsletter. My roses display their last burst of pinks as the golden rods’ yellow signals the time to change. Isn’t that what autumn is all about? Change?

My beta readers gave me a nod to proceed with my short stories. No changes. That leaves two more obstacles before I send my MiniBuk off to print.

The first one is thrilling. I received the first draft of the cover art for Fire Flight. It’s amazing. I see very few changes the artist should make to keep the image in line with my tanninim. Did you pronounce tanninim correctly?

Technology stands as the second obstacle. But it’s my own fault. I took a little short cut when I developed it, and now, yea.

If I don’t delete my website by accident, everything should be in place for an October printing. I will keep you in the loop. What? More pronunciations? Well, okay. Just one, but it’s not a Shona or Hebrew word. It’s Korean.

In Fire Flight, I named the EMT for a beautiful singer: Sohyang. The first syllable sounds like our English “so,” but wait. Cut the vowel sound off. Avoid giving it that two syllable twang we like here in the South.

When Sohyang says “yang,” the y sounds like it has an h front of it. Think “hi ya” said as one syllable. The g, however, is lost to the ear. She says her name several times, but quite fast, in this video https://youtu.be/4sdbO-hTZbk. See how you did.

Meanwhile, once again, I hope to send you a picture of the cover soon. Let’s hope the book is printed next month, and may you live as long as Melchaiyim, even to the end of the age.  

 Greetings and my apologies. I don’t know why this didn’t publish in between the June and July posts. You are getting these out of order, but it is good to have your company on my writing journey.

Speaking of company, Virginia birthed a new one last month: Tanninim Publishing LLC. Tanninim, Hebrew for dragons, will publish Fire Flight, my collection of five short stories. The final one tells you about Nguni and is a prequel to Shona’s Dragons.

Did you pronounce Nguni correctly? Here’s a pop quiz on a similar name. Ndebele is a trader. Did you say N first? Good. And the rest of it? Did it sound like in-the-belly? But with a d rather than a th? You passed.

Time to move on to Hebrew which offers another challenge. I ended the last newsletter invoking the name Melchaiyim. For those who love the Tanakh, you may be familiar with the name Melchisedec and the title of the Ethiopian man Ebed Melek.

Melek means king. Added to chaiyim, Melchaiyim is the king of life. Ebed Melek means servant of the king. Melchisedec is the king of righteousness. But how do you say Melchaiyim?

Let’s start from the right: ­–im rhymes with seem. It’s a weighted syllable so it gets the second most stress. Although -im­ means more than two, I treat it as an English plural, more than one. Hebrew has a separate ending for 2.

The middle syllable rhymes with sky. Also, the ch sounds like our k, or the Greek letter x. Put a softly spoken y in between and you have the chaiyim.

The first syllable is easy. Rhymes with bell. Mel-chai-yim. Can you pronounce tanninim? Maybe we’ll work on that next month.

I hope to have Fire Flight to the printer when next we meet. Until then, may you live as long as Melchaiyim, even to the end of the age.

 

Tanninim Publishing LLC awaits my beta reader. He has two stories of Fire Flight and Other Tanninim Tales yet to peruse. If I have no rewrites, the manuscript will fly in different directions: west to the printer and north to the graphic designer. You will see the cover here.

My second beta reader contacted me yesterday. He is again available to give input. He plans to complete his reading by next weekend as well. Praise the Lord!

Regarding my novel, I hadn’t intended to pitch it to the agent at the Realm Makers conference. Instead, with the greatest of humility, I voiced my skepticism with his presentation. And he asked for the first chapter. By October or November he should give me a yea or nay for representing my book. Or at least ask to read the rest of it. I’m praying.

A final quiz for Hebrew pronunciation: tanninim. Notice the weighted plural ending. The middle ni has an i like the i in machine. At the beginning, the syllable tan receives a little more of the stress than the last. Think of wintergreen and you have a good feel for saying tanninim.

I hope to have Fire Flight to the printer before the next month. Meanwhile, may you live as long as Melchaiyim, even to the end of the age.