FAQs
Last updated: 9/02/10
About the story
WHY AREN'T YOU UPDATING THE HISTORY??
DON'T YELL AT ME! OK, OK, WILL YOU STOP YELLING AT ME IF I TELL YOU IT'S COMING BACK? IT'S COMING--*ahem*
The History returns on September 6th, 2010, with two updates a week taken from the new novel version, "Lovers and Beloveds." Updates will appear Mondays and Fridays.
So you're starting over? Why would I want to read stuff I've already read?
Because this isn't stuff you've already read. This is new stuff. Sure, the overall arc is the same, but it's way deeper. More happens. Seriously, you don't want to "wait till it gets to where it left off," because the story doesn't follow that path any more.
What's the History about?
Love, sex, politics, coming of age, redemption, forgiveness, revenge, faith.
How many books will there be?
I don't know. I have the general arc of the story laid out, and it will cover ten years of Temmin's life, from age 18 to his ascent as king at 28. But exactly how we're getting from the beginning to the end, I'm not sure.
So what's this Scryer's Gulch thing? I don't like Westerns. I want the History.
Please just give it a try. It's a mashup of "Deadwood," "Wild Wild West" (the Robert Conrad version), and "Dark Shadows." It's meant to be funny, light and soapy. You might like it, but you'll never know if you don't read it. Scryer's Gulch updates Wednesdays.
Are the stories available in print?
Yes! You can pre-order History book one for October delivery, and Gulch vol one for delivery right now, in the store. Ebook versions are following soon.
About the site
How do I add stuff to the site--recipes, forum topics and all that?
You have to be registered, first off. Once you are, you will see a menu appear in the left hand column, under your login name. Click on Create content, and you'll see a full list of things you can do here.
Registering?
Yes. When you register you get all kinds of benefits, including the right to post certain kinds of content, and you earn points. It's free.
What is up with this points system?
The points system is fully detailed here.
What do the little books mean next to people's posts?
This is also explained on the points page.
Why am I a Cheez-It?
Because you're not registered. It's a long story. (That link leads to the wiki--be careful, there are spoilers in there.)
What does BPAL stand for?
Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab, a perfume company that MeiLin is haplessly addicted to.
How can I support the story?
Many ways. Let's take over the world, shall we?
About MeiLin
So are you Chinese or what?
Only on the internets. MeiLin is my pen name. I wouldn't mind being Chinese, actually. But I'm not. And no, it's not from Card Captor Sakura or anywhere else, I just liked it. In fact, at the time I took it, I sorta made it up and was afraid it meant something like "egg salad" in Chinese. But it doesn't. Actually, I don't know what it means. If you know, please tell me. Apparently one translation of "MeiLin" is "plum jade," which is a pretty mauve-colored jade rather than the green jade everyone normally thinks of. It can also mean "beautiful mugwort." hee.
How long have you been writing?
Non-fiction? Thirty-plus years, professionally. Fiction? Um, since October 25, 2007, when I published my first fanfiction.
Really? Which fandoms?
A whole lotta Doctor Who/Torchwood--really, just ridiculous piles, the DW revival broke something loose in me--and one lonely little Firefly/Serenity fic. You can read the DW/Torchwood novella I wrote, Valiant, here on the site.
So what other original pieces have you written?
This is it. This is my first piece of original fiction.
You're shittin' me.
Nope. This is it. Totally serious.
Inspirations?
It sounds weird, but BPAL perfume! I'm on the BPAL.org forum as MeiLin, and I regularly review scents in the blog here. In fact, what would make my life complete as a writer would be to have BPAL perfume(
based on the serial. *starry eyes* sigh.
Iron & Wine, Nickel Creek, the Finn bros, Aimee Mann, chamber music (Mozart, Beethoven, Bach, Haydn, that sort of thing), belly dancing, the Whedonverse, the Whoniverse, Gaiman, Pullman, THB, Shakespeare, Dumas, Dickens, the Brontes, Austen, Trollope, Anais Nin, MFK Fisher, Patrick O'Brian, Alphonse Mucha, funky earrings, wool, silk, decaf lattes from the joint down the street, oolong teas, and Green & Black chocolate (especially the kind with dried cherries in it, oh my gods, and Maya Gold). But especially, and I know how this sounds but it's true, especially readers. I live to be read, and sometimes I actually cry tears of joy because you read me. Srsly. It's just how I'm wired.
Did you like this? Review it at Web Fiction Guide!
An Intimate History of the Greater Kingdom and Scryer's Gulch by Lynn Siprelle writing as MeiLin Miranda are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
My books are water; those of the great geniuses are wine -- everybody drinks water.
Comments
I ran across this photograph
I ran across this photograph the other day. It reminded me of Allis and Isaak, so I thought I'd share it.
http://valtassor.deviantart.com/art/Hold-me-70253234
Cheers!
S.
I see what you mean! Really
I see what you mean! Really close--not quite, but really close. Thanks!
Agreed with Mei. The guy
Agreed with Mei. The guy looks sort of angry, though.
Henceforth, we shall call
Henceforth, we shall call thee Plum Bell Admirable!
A few minutes on google found this link for Meilin, "Plum Bell" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meiling_Li and while wikipedia is hardly the most authoritative of translators, a google search on "mei plum" turned some "Wok Mei Plum Sauce" and other leads that give me confidence that they might be right on both words.
Then the first "Miranda" link I found says it's latin for admirable. http://www.zelo.com/firstnames/findresults.asp?name=MIRANDA
So there you go! Question answered. Oh, and check out http://www.chinesetools.eu/names/?id=7965&nom=Meilin for your first name in script
Wow! Sarcasm! That's original!
On further googling, it would
On further googling, it would appear that it actually translates not to "plum bell" but "plum jade," which makes a lot more sense. "Plum jade" is a mauve-y pink sort of jade, not the lovely green jade. D'you know, I never googled it as "meilin meaning" before? Despite my mad google skillz?
So henceforth:
Admirable Plum Jade
is acceptable.
Well, it's sort of hard to
Well, it's sort of hard to determine meaning without known the tones of the two words. But Lin in the second tone is a fairly common surname, meaning mugwort. And mei is most often used to describe the word beautiful (but could be used for admirable too!). So, beautiful mugwort?
...It'd be better if mugwort wasn't such a mugworty kind of word.
Chinese is "sung," which
Chinese is "sung," which makes it pesky when dealing with transliteration, but great fun to listen to. I've tried studying it, but I think I'm too old; I just throw up my hands and stick to "ni-hao" and "shieh-shieh," which I've probably mangled enough to mean just about anything other than "hello" and "thank you."
Hi there, I've just started
Hi there, I've just started reading your work, and I'm pretty impressed.
It's good to know there are others who are trying to make webnovels work. I'm going to keep reading your stuff, and I hope you'll check mine out as well (it's just getting going at the moment). All the luck in the wubs!
Where can we find yours?
Where can we find yours?
Questions They obv don't
Questions
They obv don't have to be answered. But I was just wondering about Mei-Mei's life outside of what we see here 
Is this what you do? I know you mentioned that you're a programmer, do you do that for a living or just this? You've mentioned that you have kids, how old are they? With how sexually open it seems you and Sir are, I would imagine that your household would be similar and very interesting 
Basically, Han wants to know more about you, cuz that usually carries over into one's stories and I think it's super interesting ^^
<3 -luffs-
Exhausted, overworked college students need love too!
Studying abroad in Turkey...click for blog & pics
I can't say too much, because
I can't say too much, because I am trying to keep this identity separate from my social one, at least for now. I have two grade-school age daughters who are my joy. Sir and I have a small blog empire that makes up about half our income, with Sir's job making up the rest and providing our health insurance. I still do some web development on the side, mostly for friends. As for sex, we have always had an open relationship, but it's fairly tame as those things go. We neither of us have time for much outside of the two of us these days.
Login Help
I'm trying to join DN, but I think I may have typed my email address incorrectly, because I haven't gotten the login email yet, and it's been two weeks. It's correct here. Would you please help me? Thanks!
Hi Sharon!
Are you on yahoo by any chance? Yahoo has decided that email from my mailserver is spam. Check your spam filter. Otherwise, write me at meilin at this domain. Sorry for the trouble.
A little lost, help!
Hello all! I'm new here, both to the story, and - since I finally got up the courage to start an account - to posting as well... So, I have a question, and since this is the FAQ page, I thought it might be the best place to ask... If it's a question that has been asked before, I'm really sorry, but I've been looking, and I couldn't figure it out... So, to basically cut a long explanation short, how does the bonus story/ points story scene work? How does one get points that one then redeems for a story? I'm apologising once again for the question if it's totally stupid, but I'm still finding my feet around the site, and like I said, I'm a little lost! Thanks!
bonus.
Every non-vapid comment gets you a single point.
Occasionally, great service to the site generates additional points.
At 50, 100, and every 100 thereafter, you may ask a single question, and provide (if you like) a perspective.
They are answered in no particular order, in accord with the author's inspirations.
It's supposed to be a challenge, that's why they call it a shortcut. If it was easy it would just be the way.
--Road Trip
"Funny. Terrible, but funny." (that's typically my aim)
-NorthwoodsMan
...I have a really strange question.
MeiLin, how large are your wrists? Circumference-wise in inches? Promise that this is totally non-creepy. In fact, if you want to include the same information for your daughters, that will also be possibly put to non-creepy use.
"'Cause there's some good in this world, Mr. Frodo... and it's worth fightin' for."
as it happens...
we just took my measurements for a project. My wrists are 6.5". Why, she gulped?
Obviously
to make sure the handcuffs aren't oversized >.>
Wow! Sarcasm! That's original!
Ha!
Nothing that exciting, I promise. You'll hear more on it later if I go through with what I'm thinking.
"'Cause there's some good in this world, Mr. Frodo... and it's worth fightin' for."
suggestion...
Under support the story/author, add a link to the t-shirt sales...
PETA = People Eating Tasty Animals
A failure to plan on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part.
bunch of things I need to do
That's among them.
Snow Glass Apples
As of this moment, there is an E-bay offering of a bottle of this for a little over 20 bucks, will run for another 2 days or so. It's been a few months since I was able to catch up on the site, but I remember you liked the scent a lot.
thanks!
I've actually gotten enough imps of SGA to make up about half a bottle's worth in a roller ball, and that's enough for me.
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