It’s time to Spotlight another #RRBC Author! Today it is Carol Marrs Phipps!
Fairy Tongue
Fairy Ring
Our green haired Fairies including Meri Greenwood speak what the people of Niarg know as Archaic Modern Niarg, the ancestor of what they were speaking at the time of our epic tale. It sounds like some sort of Germanic or Nordic language, yet it is quite easy to understand and it makes the Fairies come to life.
What Archaic Modern Niarg happens to be is Middle English with most of the obsolete words eliminated so that the uninitiated modern reader can read it without difficulty. It is no harder to read than a note full of misspellings passed by grammar school kids, yet it would be understood at once by people in the London area, six hundred years ago, since we have based its spelling, grammar and word order on the writings of John Wycliffe and Geoffrey Chaucer.
Thirty years ago, my husband/co-author, Tom, learned to read Middle English using the rules of pronunciation based on a vowel shift which was thought to have occurred by the widely respected E. T. Donaldson and others, which made the language patently incomprehensible to the ear, and made Chaucer’s poetry not rhyme very well. As a Botany major, Tom had no stake in revering his work and he didn’t think he supported his claim very well. So, Tom started reading it with Appalachian vowels and found that it not only rhymed much better, it was now easy to understand when one listened to it.
When Tom read some Middle English to his Navajo students, they thought it was eerie because it sounded like a foreign language except that they could understand it perfectly well.
Author Bio:
Carol Marrs Phipps is a teacher turned author. She was born in Missouri, grew up in Illinois and lives on their farm in Illinois with her husband and her menagerie: a parrot, a raven, two cockatiels and her Siberian Forest cats. The books she has written with her husband, Tom Phipps include, Elf Killers which takes place a millennium before the books of the Heart of the Staff series: Good Sister, Bad Sister, The Collector Witch, Stone Heart, The Burgeoning, The Reaper Witch, the final book of the series, Doom, and Heart of the Staff: Complete Series boxed set and Heart of the Staff: Complete Appendix. Recently, Carol and Tom launched a new Dystopian/Urban Fantasy series with the first book of a planned trilogy, Wham! (Book1 Timewalker). All their books are available as eBook or paperback except the boxed set and the appendix.
Carol taught with her husband on various Native American Reservations in Arizona, New Mexico and Nevada, where they learned a great deal from their students, the very first fans of their writing. Not long after they married, she discovered to her joy that he also loved to write. They have been writing together full-time ever since.
Links
*Wham! is currently exclusive to Amazon.*
Universal Amazon Link for Wham! getBook.at/8ba
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/carol.phipps3
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Car01am
Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/Carol-Marrs-Phipps/e/B005HB8MC0/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0
Blog: http://niarg.com
Other Links for Heart of the Staff Books:
Amazon.com: https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?rh=n%3A133140011%2Ck%3ACarol+and+Tom+Phipps&keywords=Carol+and+Tom+Phipps&ie=UTF8
Amazon UK:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss/278-2820750-5307210?url=node%3D341689031&field-keywords=Carol+Marrs+Phipps+and+Tom+Phipps&x=13&y=19
Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/carol%20marrs%20phipps%20/_/N-0
Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/search?Query=%22carol+marrs+phipps+%22
Smashwords:
https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/CarolMarrsPhipps
Writing and Music 
Really enjoyed reading your page, it is lovely
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Love the story, setting and art!
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Thank you for stopping by, Beem.
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Truly a great cover, Carol. I hope this tour leads many new readers to your work.
Thanks for hosting, Jan!
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Thank you, Natalie!
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Carol, every time I see your cover I love it more! The visuals in this post are fantastic too. Thanks for sharing this with us. Your tour is fascinating!
Thank you, Jan, for hosting, and for the lovely welcome, as always. 🙂
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What a charming post – thanks Carol and Jan.
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I’m happy you enjoyed it, Wendy!
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Hello Jan! Beautiful cover and art! I’m happy to learn more about Carol and her work. Wonderful post! Thank you.
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I’m glad you like the cover art and enjoyed the post, Vashti. Thank you for your comments and visiting Jan’s great blog during my Spotlight Author Blog Tour.
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It’s my pleasure. 🙂
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Carol, I can see that you have given your tour a lot of thought and work. I wish you success! Thank you, Jan, for hosting her.
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Thank you for the good wishes, I really appreciate your kind comments.
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I found this fascinating, especially about the Navajo Indians being able to understand the archaic language. These books sound interesting as well, Thanks Jan for hosting today!!
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I’m glad you enjoyed the posting, Micki. Tom and I taught on the Navajo Reservation for a number of years and trust me when i say that Middle English is far easier to understand than Navajo.
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Middle English~fascinating… Keep shining and enjoy your tour, Carol! 🙂 xo
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Thank you, Bette! The tour has been amazing so far…and I can’t imagine it not continuing to be so with so many great RRBC supporters like you out there.
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Reblogged this on shirleyharris-slaughter and commented:
Your imagination has no boundaries. Congratulations Carol Marrs Phipps!
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Thank you, Shirley, for both reblogging and the congrats. Your support is most appreciated!
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Thanks for stopping by, Mar!
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Such a fantastic blog tour and start to your Spotlight month, Carol!
Jan, thanks so much for sharing your blog with us. 🙂
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I would love to hear someone speak Middle English….just to wallow in the unusual sounds.
Loved the photos, especially the fairy rings. I vividly recall finding a mushroom ring one summer as a kid. Purely magical!
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We’re considering putting Wham! out as an audio book…if we can find someone who can manage the Middle English…
I agree, mushroom rings certainly seem to have a magical aspect to them. We have one not far from our backdoor every spring.
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Your covers are amazing, Carol. And, your postings are beautiful. I’m looking forward to reading Wham – on my Kindle! All the best to you as you shine in the Spotlight!!
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Thank you so much, Gwen, your kind words mean a lot!
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Love your covers, Carol. Congratulations on Author Spotlight. Thanks for hosting, Jan
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Thank you, John!
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I want to thank you for hosting my Spotlight Author Blog Tour on your wonderful blog, today, Jan. I really appreciate it and am honored to be here.
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It is my pleasure, Carol! Your book covers are nothing short of stunning!! Enjoy your Spotlight!
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Thank you, Jan, I consider myself most fortunate for having found such an amazing cover artist for my books. So far this blog tour has been amazing…fantastic support! .
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Carol, I think Marija’s cover art is brilliant. She has a skill with colour and design, and totally agree with Tom – time does not exist!
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Indeed, Gordon, Marija’s cover art is stunning. She has done all of our covers and we plan to have her continue to do so. Why mess with perfection, after all? I also agree with Tom that time does not exist. I’ll let him know you agree with him, too. Thanks for reading and commenting.
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