Some of the spellings in the rough draft I published a month ago may seem confusing, so I felt I'd provide some tips. The Ultran alphabet, which is phonetic, is used by all of the people of the Ulixian universe for every language. Most people speak some dialect of Eastian, though there are races that cannot, so they use the Ultran alphabet to represent their own sounds and do not often comply with the linguistic rules for those who can.
The Mentris family name is intended to be pronounced the way it's spelled, with the vowels short. Naha'ni is pronounced as a polynesian equivalent of the name might be with slight emphasis on the 'ha' syllable, the letter a prounounced as 'ah', and the 'i' as 'e''. Using actual English spelling, Qr'al would be written Queral, and would pronounced as it appears, with a slight emphasis on the first half, with the 'a' again as 'ah'. Mila'ra again uses a slight emphasis on 'la' and uses ah in place of a, but the I is short, not an e, as it is with Naha'ni. Kl'an has a null vowel between the k and l and the second half is pronounced as 'on,' with the first half again having emphasis. O'mes, again has slight emphasis on the 'o' and is pronounced the way it's spelled. Peru'ni would sound like the country, Peru, followed by 'ne,' in the same manner as Naha'ni is prounounced.
Mallis is pronounced "malice," but is spelled more in line with its Ultran spelling, although actual ultran would use '^' marks over both vowels and a single l, which is not really feasible in proper English. Ultra is intended to be pronounced with the 'u' as uh rather than as 'o' as it is in common parlance, but otherwise, it is pronounced the way it is spelled.
Other names will be presented as more of the story is presented, and while many will be less peculiar in appearance, several will be Americanized rather than spelled in the proper Ultran manner. The reason for this is that I do not believe my audience will be able to properly interpret the Ultran spellings for most of my names, as they would be presented with the Latin alphabet, so simplifications are being used.
I hope to provide contributors with my writings in my science fiction/fantasy polyverse. I intend to post the opening scene of my first novella, the Golden Harp and the Beanstalk soon, then make other material available as my efforts progress.
I also intend to present my thoughts on a variety of subjects including politics, religion, and society from time to time, but my focus will be on my writings.
I am hoping to find time to make posting on locals a regular thing again, but I am unsure of how to arrange my schedule for this due to a number of things that are happening in my life right now. Among these, my father is literally on his deathbed, and may pass at any time, I am doing my best to preserve all of the music my father wrote for posterity, and I'm trying to keep myself up with my own writing. My father's declining health has greatly contributed to keeping me from posting over the past two years. If I am again delinquent in posting, understand that it is not because I don't care, it's just because I haven't figured out how to better organize my time.
A post on quora.com from a person in despair prompted me to write the following post. I should point out that this person expressed fear that he or she had committed the unpardonable sin, and there were other answers to his post that I felt were inadequate for assuring him about the love of God. Here is my response:
Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost is a very difficult concept that is often misunderstood and misdiagnosed, in great part becuase Satan, the father of all lies, wants it to remain unknown and drive people into despair. Despite what many others who have answered this question have postulated about the nature of this sin, it is not, and has never been, attributing Christ’s healing power to Satan, which, while sinful, can be forgiven. The Apostle Paul, who once persecuted the disciples of Christ as agents of Satan, believing they used that power to perform miracles, repented of this sin and became one of Christ’s most loyal followers. He did commit a form of blasphemy, that of ...
