What Happens Next: A Gallimaufry

melancholic romantic comic cynic. bi & genderqueer. fantasy writer. sysrae on ao3.

kissmeagainarthas asked: I'm making my way through An Accident of Stars and I have to say that I adore how you do cursing. It feels natural but surprises me at the same time because I didn't think up those evocative phrasings myself.

Thank you so much! In English, most of our swearing is derived from things we historically considered shameful - sex, women, infidelity, bastardy - but as neither Kena nor Veksh has the same cultural hangups as us, it didn’t make sense to have characters from those backgrounds use English-equivalent swearwords. My favourite invented swear in the book is arsegullet - telling someone they’re talking shit seems like a far better universal insult than bitch, especially when you’re writing about a matriarchy.    

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