“Where exactly are we?” Vaasi-Vee asked.
“Teetering upon the Valley of Aaaah,” said the Dodo-sette. He nodded toward the cliff. “That’s the River Fient at the bottom of it, which I’ve been along several times, don’t you know.”
“The valley of what?”
“Aaaah.”
“That’s a rather peculiar name.”
He shrugged. “It was named after the explorer who discovered it.”
“His name was Aaaah?”
“No, but he wasn’t expecting to find a cliff in the middle of the desert, and Aaaah was the last thing he said when he did.”
Thomas has been looking forward to embarking upon the third book of the Morigan Trilogy, the sixth Velvet Paw of Asquith Novel, entitled To Blunt The Sharpest Claw. Even though he considers The Alchemists Of Vra to be the definitive Dooven Book, primarily because of its grandeur and truly international jet-setting adventure, he’s convinced that this sixth one will be even more Doovenistic: with greater ludicrousness and even more wanton imaginative realism than the previous five titles. However, said titles were written when he had dedicated time and attention, whereas he’s now in a rather more complicated position of being a full-time lecturer and having embarked upon a PhD.
The previous arrangement allowed huge swathes of time to dedicate to the Dooven Books, which is no longer the case, and while prior titles were all-consuming, as he often did not come up for air for days between writing, this sixth book will have no such dedication, and how he can ensure the same torrent of Doovenism when permitted only a trickle remains to be seen. Moreover, this sixth title will take far longer to write: while scribing the book, he’d invariably be concerned about research, and while engaged with research, he’ll long for immersion into Doovenism. Although this new arrangement may impact the tone and pace of the book, which is a concern when part of a trilogy, it should be remembered that Doovenism doesn’t only arise via the books. Rather, it’s a conglomerate of music, artwork and other digital media that tends to ooze out of him like the sort of thing Metamucil was invented for. And although he’ll continue creating this also (digital media, not difficult pooh), it only cuts further into limited availability of time. Nevertheless, an ongoing series of multimedia posts to document the book’s development will be forthcoming. Regardless, he’s very keen to meet Oscar again, and the huge cast he has become embroiled in, to see what ludicrousness cascades from his most bizarre curiosa so far.
Books four and five, already written and recorded, set up the sixth, which he’s hoping provides credence to this new approach, and were the previous titles considered as houses, Thomas anticipates that this sixth book will be a palace.
Thomas is currently curating a series of Extractionist Artworks that will help conjure images and atmosphere of the world he currently resides in: with spectacular forests and seashores, and beautiful cities that have never seen war or conflict. And, like the other Dooven books, it appears to unfold in an Aegean-esque world, for reasons none of us understand. He’ll remain surrounded by these images as he writes, to hasten his immersion back into the book, and post them on occasion, for anyone who gives a Doovenistic fluff.