How Confabulous of us: 

These bonita bees (A. Kimmerly and E. Smythe) will be at COMICPALOOZA

May 24-26, in the George R. Brown Convention Center, Houston, TEXAS. 

Buy a day-pass! Come play! We have lots of goodies for your bags! 

Dvarsh Font, a Bold Re-imagining

by Amanda Kimmerly

 It began with a banner.  Robert fashioned a seven-foot-high display of his book cycle, The Hidden Lands of Nod, to catch the attention of con-goers across the U.S.   The banner, laden with some weird, red unidentifiable shapes stretching upwards, did as hoped—masses approached.  As Robert began to open up about the adventures in his novels, they’d interrupt, “What’s that red stuff?”  “Is that a language?”  “Where can I get it?”  “How do I say my name?”

For years this happened.  Robert didn’t understand the appeal of his invented language, Dvarsh.  To him, it was just something he did, because he, as a life-long geek, is the kind of guy that does those things.  So, what?  

“Maybe you should give your audience what they want…” I nudged after witnessing the public’s attraction myself. 

He sat on the idea, consulted the I Ching, cast the Nod’s Way oracle dice, and waited for the right inspiration, as Robert does. “I’ll need your help,” he finally said, offering a coy smile. 

It’s been months since our primer to the language, The Way it Grows: An Introduction to Dvarsh, entered the world. (October 2011! No doubt an artistic, beauty-seeking Libra!).

“Here it is!” we sang to the ones who’d asked for Dvarsh material, packed with charts and graphs, Dvarsh quirks, and holidays. 

“Cool,” they said, purchasing a copy.  “Now where can we get the full, English-to-Dvarsh dictionary?”

... 

That’s coming.  In the meantime, we’re excited to announce that a new version of Dvarsh, as you’ve seen it, is underway, thanks to Robert’s artistic diligence. Dvarsh BOLD font is  “re-imagined from the original typeface, from a calligraphic script to typography.”  Simply put, this means Robert has completed the new set of characters for Dvarsh BOLD, and is ready to take them forward into the software that will turn Dvarsh into a font, able to use on a regular keyboard or pad, like Helvetica or Wingdings.

After creating TWiG, we realized some of the precautions to take for future Dvarsh products, including the dictionary.  We’d need a faster, more reliable process.  A way to merge words, instead of grab individual glyphs and position them on an Illustrator file, like with the creation of TWiG and Dvarsh words anywhere you currently see them.  

Dvarsh Bold will appear in the new edition of the Nod’s Way book, the fantasy oracle for Robert’s fictional characters, based on sun and moon phases.   The font will give way to the production of the Dvarsh epic poem, Song of Worlds, as well as other Dvarsh-related poetry, songs, and materials.  

Once Dvarsh is a font, it will be easier for Dvarsh students to learn and use in their artwork, poetry, letter-writing, RPG gaming, and elsewhere. 

Due to the attraction from people to Dvarsh, it is our goal to make Dvarsh accessible to those who desire it. 

Meanwhile, Robert remains completely mystified about why people are more interested in his constructed language than his brilliant first novel, Prelude to a Change of Mind. 

But he finally acknowledges they are.

(He does remind the reader that a personalized copy of Prelude to a Change of Mind is one click away, as an e-book for 2.99.)