The Worlds of Katherine Kurtz

General Information and Links => Introductions => Topic started by: Demercia on May 29, 2015, 02:21:33 AM

Title: Hello everyone,
Post by: Demercia on May 29, 2015, 02:21:33 AM
I have finally managed to get myself organised to stop lurking and to sign up to the forum.  Hard to believe that two years ago I had never heard of KK, or Alaric, or Duncan, or Se, or.... I was introduced to the world of the Deryni by Revanne, my sister, on a family holiday (ours is the sort of family where, if you put a book down to go and make a cup of coffee, someone else is reading it by the time you come back).  I was instantly hooked.  So, hello everyone, and please keep on writing the fanfic.  If I pluck up enough courage I might even have a go myself, but,  given how long it took me to come up with a user name, I should probably aim for the thousand year anniversary of Killingford.   Demercia, of Mercia, is because I live in the English Midlands, in Anglo-Saxon times part of the kingdom of Mercia.  I thought Amercia, from Mercia, would confuse the auto-correct too much:-). 
Here's hoping this will post where I intend it to, at some point I will work out how to add a photo, quotation etc, but such things are beyond a new page!
Title: Re: Hello everyone,
Post by: Demercia on May 29, 2015, 02:32:24 AM
As you see, I managed the photo.  And introduced the cat too, of course.
Title: Re: Hello everyone,
Post by: Laurna on May 29, 2015, 03:43:47 AM
Demercia, welcome, welcome.
As Revanne's sister, you are already part of the family. So do not hesitate to join in. We love to talk about fan-fiction, all kinds of pets- cats, dogs, horses, birds and even fish (flying fish is a specialty). ;D We also love food and cakes and sharing recipes. And most assuredly, some of us love Alaric, and some of us love Duncan, and then there is Rhys and Camber and Joram fans (I believe the last is Revanne's favorite.) And lets not foget the Deryni ladies Richenda, Evaine and Araxie. And all of us admire KK and her world of Deryni and are prone to getting lost in the magic. So join in the Rapport, you are welcome here.
Title: Re: Hello everyone,
Post by: revanne on May 29, 2015, 04:12:58 AM
Seems a bit daft but let's do it formally.

Welcome on board Demercia.
Title: Re: Hello everyone,
Post by: Evie on May 29, 2015, 08:24:38 AM
Welcome, Demercia! Your cat looks like my Luke!  I wondered for a brief moment last night if you might be revanne's sister, just because that "-mercia" bit clued me in, but then I thought "Naaaaaah, now you're just making way too much out of random coincidence!" I should have trusted my Deryni instincts. :)

Yes, I can see how Amercia might be worrisome to Auto-correct, being quite close to America. If it kept on changing that, you might wake up some morning to wonder why there's a Stars and Stripes flag in the front garden and you can't say "aluminium" properly. But I find it even more worrisome, because instead of my mind reverting to Norman French with "at/to Mercia," it immediately flashed back to a more Latinate (or is it Greek?) "without Mercia." And suddenly I find myself wondering what would happen if the former kingdom of Mercia were to mysteriously vanish off the map! Wouldn't there be a gaping hole left right in the middle of England for the ocean to rush into and fill in?  Oh, the humanity, and all the Anglians screaming "Where'd this blumming beach just come from!" They'd scratch their heads and wonder over a soothing cuppa, because stiff upper lip and all that, and one must keep calm and carry on. It would, of course, add to the pastoral crises on the list, as once the initial catastrophe was over, there'd be the head counting, and the filling of lifeboats and sorting of lifejackets, not to mention all the funerals, and possibly even the weddings of survivors who decide not to put off the attainment of marital bliss any longer because who knows what life will throw at you, and then there'd be the christenings of babies from all those Mums who went into spontaneous labor from the world having shifted out from under them so suddenly.  Sounds like far too much work to me, so I'm glad you went with Demercia rather than Amercia.  Saved yourself a whole lot of bother that way.  ;D
Title: Re: Hello everyone,
Post by: Jerusha on May 29, 2015, 08:40:44 AM
Welcome to our extended family, Demercia!  Glad you joined us.
Title: Re: Hello everyone,
Post by: DesertRose on May 29, 2015, 08:45:46 AM
Hi Demercia!

So IIRC, you and revanne are twins, yes?

BTW, I'm DesertRose, (an Arizona native, hence the username, but currently living in Florida) the person with administrator permissions who actually has time to play on the forum.  :)  (There are a few others, too.  Bynw is the one who hosts the forum, website, and chat room, but I'm the one [out of the administrators of the forum] who mostly does the admin stuff, like approving new users' accounts.)

Welcome aboard, and I know you're in the UK, so Sunday chat at its usual time runs a bit late for you, but I'd guess revanne has told you that we do early chat on the first Sunday of the month (5:00 p.m./17:00 US Eastern, which would be about 22:00 your time, if I'm doing the conversion correctly, as opposed to 7:00 p.m./19:00 as is usual) to allow European/UK fans to join in without being sleep-deprived on Monday.  :D 

Previous chat logs have their own little subforum, and you are welcome to read them to get a feel for how silly we act in chat.  :)  The chat room can be a bit quiet at times that are not Sunday evenings when we're expecting a KK visit, but sometimes there's someone in there.  If you pop into chat and my username is in there (or any variant thereof such as DR_doing_dishes or DR_sewing), say hi and, if I'm at my keyboard, I'll chat with you.

In any case, I already said it, but welcome!
Title: Re: Hello everyone,
Post by: Evie on May 29, 2015, 09:20:49 AM
Yes, the chatroom is more likely to have people in it at certain times during the weekdays. For instance, I tend to end up there during my lunch break quite often, which is usually around noon to 1:00 pm here, so more like 6:00 to 7:00 pm in your area, if I have the time zone conversion right. If a person is logged on chat but busy doing other stuff (you might see a name like "EvieWriting" or "DR_cooking," just say something like "Hello EvieWriting" and the chat window's tab should give me a little scrolling message telling me that someone said my name. (I use a tabbed browser, so normally have several browser windows open at one time, and might not be in the chat window at the moment.) If I happen to notice that window's tab is saying that, I'll pop back in and join the chat.  This might take several minutes, though, since if I'm writing or doing something else I might not notice for a bit. Or if you see other people are on the Forum, you can type a line in the Shoutbox section that you will be in the chatroom for a bit, and if they hear the sound alert and see your message (and have the time to chat), that will sometimes draw people in, since sometimes people don't bother to check the Chatroom because they assume no one else is going to be there.
Title: Re: Hello everyone,
Post by: Shiral on May 29, 2015, 12:05:41 PM
Hello and Welcome, Demercia.  8) Pull up a chair, sit down, pick up the cat, and tell us why you love Alaric.  (For the record, I also love Duncan, but I'm not coming between Evie and her fave.) And for that matter, tell us why you love all the other denizens of the XI Kingdoms.

Melissa
Title: Re: Hello everyone,
Post by: Aerlys on May 29, 2015, 12:10:35 PM
Welcome! This will be fun, having two sisters on the forum. Glad you finally ceased lurking.

Quote from: Evie on May 29, 2015, 08:24:38 AM
But I find it even more worrisome, because instead of my mind reverting to Norman French with "at/to Mercia," it immediately flashed back to a more Latinate (or is it Greek?) "without Mercia."

Normally, "without Mercia" would be sine Mercia,  while de in Latin usually denotes "from" or "concerning." So "Demercia" hasn't sent me into an existential quandry. (Wow, Evie, you really flew off on a tangent on that one!0
Title: Re: Hello everyone,
Post by: Evie on May 29, 2015, 01:11:17 PM
Quote from: Aerlys on May 29, 2015, 12:10:35 PM
Welcome! This will be fun, having two sisters on the forum. Glad you finally ceased lurking.

Quote from: Evie on May 29, 2015, 08:24:38 AM
But I find it even more worrisome, because instead of my mind reverting to Norman French with "at/to Mercia," it immediately flashed back to a more Latinate (or is it Greek?) "without Mercia."

Normally, "without Mercia" would be sine Mercia,  while de in Latin usually denotes "from" or "concerning." So "Demercia" hasn't sent me into an existential quandry. (Wow, Evie, you really flew off on a tangent on that one!0

Ah, OK. I was thinking of the 'a-' prefix as in 'amoral' or 'atypical' or 'atheist.' Is it of Greek derivation, then?
Title: Re: Hello everyone,
Post by: Aerlys on May 29, 2015, 01:25:37 PM
Quote from: Evie on May 29, 2015, 01:11:17 PM

Ah, OK. I was thinking of the 'a-' prefix as in 'amoral' or 'atypical' or 'atheist.' Is it of Greek derivation, then?

Both, I believe, though I am rusty on my Greek, but Latin has it's own Greek origins. "Amoral" is more Latinate, from ab or a while "atheist" is definitely derived from Greek.
Title: Re: Hello everyone,
Post by: Evie on May 29, 2015, 01:29:32 PM
Quote from: Aerlys on May 29, 2015, 01:25:37 PM
Quote from: Evie on May 29, 2015, 01:11:17 PM

Ah, OK. I was thinking of the 'a-' prefix as in 'amoral' or 'atypical' or 'atheist.' Is it of Greek derivation, then?

Both, I believe, though I am rusty on my Greek, but Latin has it's own Greek origins. "Amoral" is more Latinate, from ab or a while "atheist" is definitely derived from Greek.

So if one is in the middle of a Deryni ritual and "Amercia" is referenced, it's best to pay careful attention to the rubric lest a major portion of Old England suddenly vanish without warning? See, that's the possibility that scares me, and why I think "Demercia" is much safer.  ;D
Title: Re: Hello everyone,
Post by: revanne on May 29, 2015, 03:32:17 PM
Quote from: Evie on May 29, 2015, 01:29:32 PM

So if one is in the middle of a Deryni ritual and "Amercia" is referenced, it's best to pay careful attention to the rubric lest a major portion of Old England suddenly vanish without warning? See, that's the possibility that scares me, and why I think "Demercia" is much safer.  ;D

So I enthuse to my sister about what a lovely group of people you all are on the forum and persuade her to stop lurking and next thing I know a large part of our country is threatened with disappearing without trace. It's not as though it was very big to start with ::)
Title: Re: Hello everyone,
Post by: Evie on May 29, 2015, 03:35:38 PM
Quote from: revanne on May 29, 2015, 03:32:17 PM
Quote from: Evie on May 29, 2015, 01:29:32 PM

So if one is in the middle of a Deryni ritual and "Amercia" is referenced, it's best to pay careful attention to the rubric lest a major portion of Old England suddenly vanish without warning? See, that's the possibility that scares me, and why I think "Demercia" is much safer.  ;D

So I enthuse to my sister about what a lovely group of people you all are on the forum and persuade her to stop lurking and next thing I know a large part of our country is threatened with disappearing without trace. It's not as though it was very big to start with ::)

Fortunately there's no need to worry about that now since your sister chose the safer name option, and at any rate such a disaster would have to have happened centuries ago, since for it to be a problem now she'd have to name herself Amerseyside, and that's got much less of a catchy ring to it.
Title: Re: Hello everyone,
Post by: Demercia on May 29, 2015, 04:31:30 PM
Thanks all for the welcome ;D. I'm glad I didn't realise all that was riding on my choice of user name, else I would never have got started.  And I am far too new at this to attempt any Deryni ritual ;). Mercia and Merseyside are quite a long way apart though (as distance goes in England!).
I am sitting here (with the cat, Brandysnap by name, on my lap) trying to work out who my favourite character is - and deciding it is impossible to decide.  Of course I love Duncan, but I had better confess at the outset to a sneaking sympathy with Denis Arilan.  And then there is wanting to know more of what happens to Sir Se, and........, and.............
Title: Re: Hello everyone,
Post by: Evie on May 29, 2015, 04:32:52 PM
Quote from: Demercia on May 29, 2015, 04:31:30 PM
  Of course I love Duncan, but I had better confess at the outset to a sneaking sympathy with Denis Arilan.

I can relate to that. :)
Title: Re: Hello everyone,
Post by: revanne on May 29, 2015, 04:54:07 PM
Quote from: Evie on May 29, 2015, 04:32:52 PM
Quote from: Demercia on May 29, 2015, 04:31:30 PM
  Of course I love Duncan, but I had better confess at the outset to a sneaking sympathy with Denis Arilan.

I can relate to that. :)

Especially since DR made him cry.