FAQs
Last updated: 10/13/09
About the story
WHY AREN'T YOU UPDATING RIGHT NOW?
I'm editing the first three books in the series--more of a rewrite than a simple edit. When I started this, I didn't know what I had or what I was doing. Now I sorta do, on both counts, and I'm working to make sure it's the best I can get it. I'll start re-issuing the story in small, still-free installments when the editing is done and the book itself goes back on sale. It'll be available for immediate purchase--no waiting for a year to get the whole story--in ebook and paperback form. When the new book goes up, the old drafts come down.
What's the story about?
It's about the latest generation of the royal family of Tremont--Prince Temmin and his sisters, Sedra and Ellika--as they come to terms with adulthood: Love, sex, politics, and some rather insistent prophecies that this may be the end of their family's reign. Tangled up in their story are the stories of their ancestors, the parts the history books left out. These are told mainly to Temmin, from a magic Book that immerses the listener completely in the story; the reader is the mysterious Teacher, the last magic wielder in the kingdom, cursed to serve the family for nearly a millennium. Will the siblings make the right choices? Will the reign of the Tremonts end? Or will Temmin renew the family's rule of half their world?
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 16 to his ascent as king at 26. But exactly how we're getting from the beginning to the end, I'm not sure.
This kinda sucks. There are typos and inconsistencies.
Yeah, that's because you're reading the draft of the book; I'm posting the draft chapters as I write them. It's just how I work.
Are the stories available in print?
Not right now; they were at one time. What is online are the drafts of the novels to come. I am hoping that by June November--can you say overly optimistic?--I will have book one edited to the point that I will release the "final" version in paperback and ebook via CreateSpace, Amazon, and here, with books two and three to follow.
Will the books be different from the online version?
Yes.
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. You can promote the story, usually at no cost to you, or you can support the author financially.
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. During Hiatus '09 I am publishing the DW/Torchwood novella I wrote, Valiant.
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, Sufjan Stevens, the Finn bros, Aimee Mann, chamber music (Mozart, Beethoven, Bach, Haydn, that sort of thing), 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, dolmas, 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.
I'm sure you have people to thank.
Yes. Thanks to Alexandra Erin for providing an example of a successful web serial novelist. Thanks to the folks who donate to keep the site up, especially apocalypsenovel, manoki, Katie, viruslife, blwinteler, and all the other folks who subscribe. Thanks to V and Gudy for proofreading the original manuscript before it went to the printer. Thanks to Wikipedia for existing. Thanks to A for putting up with story babble and reading my alpha chapters. Thanks to eumenidis for being the first non-family non-friend person to believe in my writing. Thanks to my mom for believing I could be a writer, even if I can't let her read what I'm writing. And thanks to my long-suffering husband Sir and our daughters, No1 and No2, who put up with me scribbling at all hours of the day and night.
Did you like this? Link to it!
The Intimate History books are drafts. Keep that in mind as you read. A fully edited and revised version of each book will appear beginning in 2010.
Scryer's Gulch stands and falls on its own, a true soap opera. Never look back, never revise, just make shit up to explain those plot holes away! Yeehaw!
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.
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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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