Rakie Keig

I was able to contact author Rakie Keig (Terror Island) through her publisher Hadesgate.

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"Paula from Hadesgate forwarded on your email, so I thought I’d write to you directly. First and foremost, thank you so much for your interest in my book! It’s the first thing I’ve ever had published (apart from one short story last year), and I’m still getting used to the idea of people actually reading it. :) Also I’d like to say that I really like your site – I found it a while ago through the Dave Wellington messageboard after you did that great interview with him about blooks.

"Terror Island was indeed online a while ago, although not technically as a blog. It was posted serially on a writing group on Yahoo, and also on my website (along with pretty much everything else I’ve ever written). When Hadesgate decided to publish the novel, they asked if it could be taken down from the website for copyright reasons, so it’s not there anymore, unfortunately."

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Christmas interrupted our exchange but ...

"Hi again!

"Sorry I didn't get back to you sooner, what with Christmas and everything it's all been a bit mental (also I managed to 'break' my internet at home - long story short, I unplugged my router in order to plug in the fairy lights, then couldn't figure out why the internet wasn't connecting) (because I'm a genius, obviously). :D

"Also, apologies for the confusing name stuff! :D 'Rakie' is basically a nickname my mum gave me - I usually claim that it's short for 'Rachel', but really I just like being awkward. :D And yep, the applepastie person is also me! I take it you must have found my website in that case? (I really must tidy up that site at some point, there's a terrible amount of rubbish on there). 'Blood Red Sea' is indeed one of my stories, although it's in the middle of a name change at the moment (it was originally titled 'Vampirates', which I thought was brilliantly clever of me until I realised I'm subliminally pinched it from another book... again, I am a genius).

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At the bottom of the original email from Rakie [and no, this has absolutely nothing to do with blooks!] there was this:

"RAAUE: SâEUR(tm)preevaadjagh yn çhaghteraght post-l shoh chammahâEUR(tm)s coadanyn erbee currit marish as ta shoh coadit ec y leigh. Cha nhegin diu coipal ny cur eh da peiagh erbee elley ny ymmydey yn chooid tâEUR(tm)ayn er aght erbee dyn kied leayr veihâEUR(tm)n choyrtagh. Mannagh nee shiu yn enmyssagh kiarit jehâEUR(tm)n phost-l shoh, doll-shiu magh eh, my sailliu, as cur-shiu fys daâEUR(tm)n choyrtagh cha leah as oddys shiu. Cha nel kied currit da failleydagh ny jantagh erbee conaant y yannoo rish peiagh ny possan erbee lesh post-l er son Rheynn ny Boayrd Slattyssagh erbee jeh Reiltys Ellan Vannin dyn co-niartaghey scruit leayr
veih Reireyder y Rheynn ny Boayrd Slattyssagh tâEUR(tm)eh bentyn rish."

I couldn't help myself - "What's with what looks like gibberish at the bottom of your email?"

"Oh yes, the gibberish at the bottom of the email! I always forget that that gets added on nowadays. It's actually Manx - I'm based on the Isle of Man and work for the Manx government, who decided a while ago to stick a wodge of Manx Gallic onto the bottom of all outgoing emails.
It's technically a dead language (I think the last native speaker died in the seventies), but it's still taught a little in schools. It's quite pretty when spoken but tends to look like a summoning of the Elder Gods when written down. :D"

I'll post a genuine Q & A with Rakie eventually :D In the meantime, check out what her publisher had to say.