Dushegubs? Love the name, literally means soul killers/strangelers in Russian. Curious, how often do you guys use foreign language words to name an alien species?
Juliana
We do it quite a bit, because the inns are international. They are located all over the planet. Some species, like the koo-ko, have easily pronounceable names and some, like the Quillonians, do not. In cases where the names are too difficult for a human mouth to replicate, the innkeepers resort to nicknames. Whoever first encounters the species, gets to name it. Some species have nicknames in more than one language. It would be unrealistic if all the nicknames were of English origin.
Did you know that there is a Yurok Tribe?
No, we didn’t. Thank you to people who pointed it out. That was unfortunate word choice coincidence on our part. We changed it. We never want to name any alien species after an actual nation.
Normally something like this would be caught during the editing process, but because you are reading the first draft – and that particular scene was literally written Friday morning – this slipped through. No worries, we should be back on schedule with our CE, so hopefully, we will mess up less in the future.
Will 300 guests boost the Inn a lot? And will it help that so many of them will be seeing the parents portrait?
It would be really good for the inn. Gertrude Hunt needs the energy. No worries about the portrait. We are getting closer to solving the mystery. Wait and you will see.
Dina swore not to let any guest come to harm. And now she’s planning to kill one?
I can see how it can be read that way, but it’s an acknowledgment of an inevitable turn of events rather than a threat. It would be like, “The dog has knocked the leftovers off the counter and ate them. We will have to clean up vomit today.” You don’t wish for vomit. You just absolutely sure it will happen.
While the safety of the guests is paramount to innkeepers, and it’s a really bad mark against the inn when one of the guests dies due to unnatural causes, in reality, every inn of significant prominence had lost a guest before.
The Inn is also a tree of sorts, grown from a seed. Will the Dushegubs affect it? Will we see inter-tree interactions?
The inn is a very special tree. A dog has more in common with a wolf than a human, but he will attack the wolf without hesitation on human’s behalf. Gertrude Hunt’s first loyalty is to Dina. The inn loves her the way Artha loves Kid 2.
Gertrude Hunt is hungry for resources, will it be able to absorb the Dushegubs as wood?
Waste not, want not.
Will we see a female Quinllonian sous-chef for an Orro HEA?
Right now there are no plans for that but who knows?
Will they advertise for chef assistants in Baha Char or with the other Inns?
I am sure Chef Adri would be of help. ::insert smiley winky face:: You can see how it turned out in Chapter 7.
How is Gorvar doing?
You will see in the next installment.
What about the female werewolf we just left in Baha Char?
No worries, we didn’t forget her.
The Sovereign “getting hurt in any way”- does that include minor things like stubbing his toe or getting a paper cut?
The Assembly means significant harm rather than a paper cut.
But it’s not a problem for Chef Adri or the Academy to support or help Orro since he lost his Red Cleaver designation?
While Orro had been stripped of his certification, nobody can take away his cleaver, meaning once a Red Cleaver chef, always a Red Cleaver chef. He wasn’t the one who poisoned the soup, he is endorsed by Chef Adri, and this is a very high profile event. The Academy didn’t force anyone to volunteer. The students did that on their own. Besides, it’s probably time for Orro to get reinstated, don’t you think? ::insert winky face::
Lovely BDH persons interpretation of Dushegubs:
Dushegubs? Love the name, literally means soul killers/strangelers in Russian.
Me and my hillbilly brain:Dushegub translated into Douchebags. If the tree fits and all. Thanks now their soul sucking douches. Lol!
Reading your blog and posts give me happiness .. . every single time. I am sorry to hear about the scorpion . . . I chose to move from El Paso directly after three baby scorpions crawled from my daughter’s bucket of lion king figures. I was done, too.
“Gertrude Hunt is hungry for resources, will it be able to absorb the Dushegubs as wood?
Waste not, want not.”
HAHAHAHAH Lol
I collect hand-carved wooden eating spoons (as opposed to mixing or serving spoons) and I choose the spoon for my morning tea to match what qualities I think I’ll need that day: willow if I feel like I’m going to need to flexible, hickory for tough resilience, maple to be pretty, etc.
I kinda want a Dushegub spoon now, for those days when I want to be a soulness murder machine.
I loved living in eastern Tennessee.
Gertrude Hunt is already somewhat sentient & has consistently demonstrated it has feelings & emotions (which the Dushegubs lack).
If Gertrude Hunt absorbs the Dushegubs as wood (waste not, want not), would absorbing a deceased sentient tree as wood/food alter Gertrude Hunt in any way? i.e. would absorbing the deceased Dushegubs allow Gertrude Hunt to evolve it’s level of sentience or maybe alter how it communicates with Dina, Sean, Caldenia, Orro, and other beings (such as guests, staff, innkeepers, Ad Hals, Dina & Sean’s families)?
Or if Gertrude Hunt doesn’t directly absorb the bodies, will we see Caldenia enjoying using the deceased Dushegubs as firewood in one of Gertrude Hunt’s fireplaces or in the fire pit that Sean built in the 1st book? Would Orro, or Sean, using the Dushegubs as fuel for a smoker to make ribs for Caldenia break Dina’s rules about cooking/serving sentient beings?
All this talk of Gertrude Hunt needing resources has me wondering. I know Gertrude Hunt prefers core wood but, could she make use of recycled paper and cardboard, or would there be too much chemical contamination?
????????????????????????????I love this series
Orro should be named “HEART OF THE KITCHEN”. I know most won’t recognize that but it is supposed to be an almost mystical level of chef/cooking. Just a personal out of left field observation.
Plus if I may, quiet hugs of support.
I’m trying to find the links to order the Kinsman book, but can’t find it. I’ve read back through the blogs all the way until when you mentioned bringing the 2 books out in print again and still can’t find it. Help please.
Sorry to be off topic.
Hi Mary,
I will be doing an update on the Kinsmen and Small Magics PODs in the next couple of weeks.
The project was slightly delayed by the pandemic, but we are looking at March as of now and there will be links on the blog!
Was there a short story about How Gerald DeMille saved an inn keeper and then become stranded in time?
The only prequel scene we have from Innkeeper is https://ilona-andrews.com/gerard-demille-and-helen-meet/ . It does address captive Gerard but it is not the story of how he became so 🙂
I hope this helps.