Scott Hawkins (Author of The Library at Mount Char)

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Are you planning a sequel to The Library at Mount Char? I need a sequel. Please, will there be a sequel? There must be a sequel. Sequel.

Scott Hawkins Hi Emme, & thanks for the question.

This one's been coming up a lot lately. The short answer is "probably." I'd like to, but it's not a sure…moreHi Emme, & thanks for the question.

This one's been coming up a lot lately. The short answer is "probably." I'd like to, but it's not a sure thing.

I'll be a little bit vague here to avoid spoilers, but there are reasons why it might be tricky to find a suitable antagonist for this hypothetical sequel. I think I might have an idea for how to get around that, but there are also some issues around creating a satisfying character arc. That part I'm less clear on how to fix.

Having said that, I spent last weekend working on a short story set in the Mount Char universe. Working in that world again was really fun. So yeah, I'd like to.

Side note: The short story will be put up as a freebie on my web site, shawkins.net, at some point in the next few weeks. I'd do it sooner, but the web site doesn't actually exist yet. I need to get on that. Also I need to vacuum. And the garage is a mess.

Best,

Scott

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Maupassant said that talented authors should be called illusionists because of how they can write on something unreal and make it feel like real life. Well let me tell you that you're a hell of an illusionist. Your book was extraordinary and I've never ever read something similar in my life. Props for the originality. So, I was wondering how did you come up with the idea of the Palapi language? Thanks!

Scott Hawkins Hi Amel,

Thanks! I'm glad you liked it, and it's a huge relief that some of that is finally making it onto the page. The worst part about starting out…moreHi Amel,

Thanks! I'm glad you liked it, and it's a huge relief that some of that is finally making it onto the page. The worst part about starting out as a writer is that when you do the book, it's always vivid to you. Mount Char is my first published novel, but the fourth one I wrote The thing is, this one is no more or less vivid to me than were the other three. Reader reactions indicate that I am alone in this. :-)

Anyway, as far as Pelapi--that was one of the core ideas of the book, but it mutated a little during the writing process. The gist of it is this:

When I was at school I took a lot of courses that dealt with the sub-field of artificial intelligence called natural language processing (NLP). NLP is the attempt to get machines to understand written and/or spoken languages that people use--Spanish, English, French, whatever. So I spent a lot of years gazing into my navel and trying to figure out what we really mean by 'understand' and 'communicate' and 'think.'

One of the things that came up during this time is a notion called the Sapir-Worf hypothesis. That says, essentially, that the language you think in to a large extent determines what you can think about. There does appear to be some truth to this notion.

For instance, I (vaguely) remember reading an article about how tribesmen from the amazon were being displaced by deforestation. These guys had essentially grown up in the stone age, but when the logging company moved in they had to move to Sao Paolo or wherever. So all of a sudden they're surrounded by TV, cell phones, all that stuff. Naturally they were curious, but when people tried to explain to them how it worked, they ran into a language barrier--these guys just didn't have the notion of "electromagnetic spectrum" and "radio" in their language. Cell phones had to be explained in terms of "the invisible sky spirit carries the message" or whatever. And no matter how you explained it, it was still going to look an awful lot like magic.

So, one of the core notions of Mount Char was to turn this on its head. It crossed my mind that these fish-out-of-water tribesmen might have words in their language for thinking about reality, manipulating reality, in ways that look an awful lot like magic to modern eyes.

As originally conceived Mount Char was going to be more of a fish-out-of-water comedy type of thing. This REALLY old dude who grew up thinking in neolithic language had somehow stumbled on the secret of immortality and is now living in the suburbs. He's lonely because he doesn't have anyone to talk to--he's fluent in English, of course, but there's no one who understands how the world really works under the hood. So he takes these kids and teaches them in the old ways so he'll have someone to talk to. Eventually you end up with this one peculiar neighborhood where they can (for instance) raise the dead, but nobody knows how to make a phone call. I thought there was some comedic potential there.

Anyway, that was fine, as far as it went, but then we needed an antagonist, and so forth and so on. So the emphasis shifted a little bit.

Anyway, thanks for the question & hope that helps!

Best,

Scott(less)

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Scott Hawkins's Books

Average rating: 4.06 · 11,744 ratings · 2,642 reviews · 7 distinct works · Similar authors

	The Library at Mount Char 4.06 avg rating — 11,737 ratings — published 2015 — 10 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Linux Desk Reference 3.89 avg rating — 9 ratings — published 1999 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Apache Web Server Administration & E Commerce Handbook 4.50 avg rating — 2 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Essential Apache for Web Professionals by Scott Hawkins (Goodreads Author), Micah Brown 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — published 2002	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Guia Esencial Apache 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — published 2004	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	BEA WebLogic Server Administration Kit 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — published 2003	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Complete Linux Shell Programming Training Course by Ellie Quigley, Scott Hawkins (Goodreads Author) 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Scott Hawkins's Blog

Movie Roundup

Triple 9

This was an interesting heist film. The director, John Hillcoat, is probably best known for Lawless and The Proposition, which I liked. Hillcoat also directed The Road, which bored the hell out of me. The cast (Chiwetel Elijofor, Aaron Paul, Casey Affleck, Woody Harrelson, that guy from Walking Dead) was stellar. I thought Kate Winslet was an especially interesting choice for Russian...

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Scott is Currently Reading

Scott Hawkins is currently reading

The Death of Santini: The Story of a Father and His Son

by Pat Conroy

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Jan 26, 2015 08:54PM

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Scott Hawkins is now friends with Adam Israel
6 hours, 46 min ago · like
Scott Hawkins wants to read The Tomato Thief by Ursula Vernon	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Dec 26, 2016 03:08AM · 3 likes · like
Scott Hawkins and 18 other people liked AaRoN RoUrKe's review of The Library at Mount Char: " “I must send you into exile, that you may be the coal of her heart. No real thing can be so perfect as memory, and she will need a perfect thing if she is to survive. She will warm herself on the memory of you when there is nothing else, and be s... " Read more of this review »
Dec 13, 2016 03:14PM · see review
Scott Hawkins made a comment on Izzy’s status in The Library at Mount Char " Yeah, i get it. When i hear movie actors trying to do southern accents, I want to crawl out of my skin. That's funny about the feijoada, though--that w ...more "
Dec 09, 2016 02:23PM
Scott Hawkins wants to read Innocent When You Dream: The Tom Waits Reader by Tom Waits	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Dec 04, 2016 02:57PM · 1 like · like
Scott Hawkins voted for A Gathering of Shadows (Shades of Magic, #2) as Best Fantasy in the Final Round of the 2016 Goodreads Choice Awards. Cast Your Vote
Nov 16, 2016 11:54PM · like
Scott Hawkins wants to read Revenger by Alastair Reynolds	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Oct 02, 2016 05:40PM · 2 likes · like

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Quotes by Scott Hawkins

“Erwin gave no fucks.”
― Scott Hawkins, The Library at Mount Char

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“Peace of mind is not the absence of conflict, but the ability to cope with it.”
― Scott Hawkins, The Library at Mount Char

tags: conflict, peace-of-mind

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“Steve sighed, wishing for a cigarette. “The Buddha teaches respect for all life.” “Oh.” She considered this. “Are you a Buddhist?” “No. I’m an asshole. But I keep trying.”
― Scott Hawkins, The Library at Mount Char

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Polls

MAY FANTASY: This polls decides which of the two top vote-getters will become May's Book of the Month in Fantasy.

The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins

45 votes, 57.7%

Half a King by Joe Abercrombie

33 votes, 42.3%

78 total votes

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