Heraldry

So over the weekend, while I was in Balticon, my partner picked up a fake shield for us to use to decorate the roof. He thought it was cool and immediately wanted to know what the symbols on the shield meant. He said this in such a way that it was obvious he thought that, since I write fantasy, I MUST know everything there is to know about heraldry.

Ha, ha, I said. Heraldry is much more complicated than that.

So this morning I did a little minimal research into the symbols on this particular shield. It contains three bees and an inverted chevron. I had no clue. But it appears that the bees represent "efficient industry" (which is probably a good way to describe me since I tend to get lots of stuff done and we're both busy, busy, busy) and the chevron appears to mean "protection" or "builders or others who have accomplished a work of faithful service." I'd have to go with the builders interpretation for me, referencing the writing.

In any case, I thought I'd share the first few pages I found in the very quick search I did. In case you were interested. If you've found some better pages, feel free to share!

And just FYI, I now have the incredible urge to spend my entire morning designing shields for my world using heraldry, instead of writing. *grin*

The first page I found of interest. A good overview of heraldry in general, with reference links.

The second page that has all of the definitions of the symbols and such in a nice, easy-to-read format.

Author Introduction: David J. Williams

Welcome to another edition of Author Introductions, and once again this is a literal introduction, since today’s author, David J. Williams (davidjwilliams), is going to speak about his debut novel. I initially contacted David when I noticed his new book had just been released and decided it looked interesting, inviting him to participate. As circumstance would have it, David also happened to be attending Balticon this past weekend, so I got to meet him in person. We had a spectacular time, and as I mentioned in my Balticon post, if you ever get the chance to hear David reading from his novel, take it. Before I become too maudlin however, I should probably hand the blog over to him and let him do the talking. So everyone say HI! To David Williams. And then go buy his book. *grin*

"First, my thanks to the inimitable jpsorrow for the airtime. And, er, um, uh, *clears throat* . . . hello! to everybody who's reading this. It's been less than two weeks since THE MIRRORED HEAVENS [Amazon, Mysterious Galaxy] hit the bookstands, so it all seems sufficiently surreal that I'm thinking I'm going to be feeling like I'm living in some mad parallel universe for some time to come.





But as long as I'm here, let me tell you a bit about the book. My agent sold it as "John Le Carre on science fiction crack", which works for me, since I had Le Carre's SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD on my nightstand pretty much nonstop during certain periods of writing (and I'll take the fifth on the issue of whether the crack pipe was sitting beside it). THE MIRRORED HEAVENS [Amazon, Mysterious Galaxy] is a tale of 22nd century espionage . . . or alternatively, you can think of it as cyberpunk where the state never got around to withering away. Instead of serving faceless corporations, my agents serve faceless governments. The Earth-Moon system is divided between two superpowers, the United States and the Eurasian Coalition (more data's on my website); they've been locked in a second cold war for decades, and have fortified the Moon and the libration points. So space has been pretty much totally weaponized.

And cyberspace has gone the same way. There's no more World Wide Web; that's been divided up along geopolitical lines and sealed off behind different operating protocols so that each of the two superpowers can forestall the cyberattacks of the other. The result is an arms race that lasts for decades, even as ecological meltdown grips the Earth. But eventually (as the 22nd century dawns) the two superpowers come to their senses; they sign a wide-ranging series of political and environmental accords. And start building a massive space elevator to accelerate the transfer of industry into space.

As to what happens next, maybe we can try the multi-media approach:

Until I figure out why LJ won't embed the book trailer, here's the link to youtube so you can watch it.

Again, thanks a ton to Joshua for the invite. And to all of you for listening/watching. THE MIRRORED HEAVENS: read before burning. We will disavow all knowledge of your actions. Over and out. *static*"