Libyan Arab Jamahiriya

I haven't posted one of these for a while because most of the countries that appear in my FictionPress readers list any more are ones I've heard of. Of course, I've heard of Libya, I just didn't realize that its official name was the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya until I saw that I had a reader there and looked it up. It's a country located in North Africa, which borders the Mediterranean Sea to the North, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the South and Algeria and Tunisia to the west. Libya is the fourth largest country in Africa by area, and the 17th largest in the world. The Libyan flag, which is solid green, is the only national flag in the world with just one colour and no other design.

This Cheers Me Up

Ha ha! On a whim I decided to check my fictionpress traffic. I haven't posted anything since I finished Aigaion Girl, so I was expecting my numbers to be kind of cruddy, but they were actually okay - and I got a new country.

Slovakia is a middle-European country that has been around for ages. It became independent for the second time in 1993 and is doing quite well for itself.

I've got a million to do today, or I would write more. This place does look very interesting. More to follow, eventually.

It's Not Technically Its Own Country, But...

Macau is one of the two 'special administrative regions' of China, the other one being Hong Kong. It was the first and last European colony in China, and until 1999 was administered by the Portugese. It's also one of the richest cities in the world. Once again, I'm not really sure how I made it through the last twenty two years without knowing this place existed.

I have a reader there, and from the looks of things, they read almost all of Aigaion Girl in less than a day.

And Another One

I've discovered yet another new country. I realize this kind of makes me sound like some kind of explorer, running around and poking my flag into things, but actually, I haven't left my own country in over a year (with the exception of a brief trip to the US to pick up postage stamps). So, when I say I discovered a country, what I really mean is that I found out about it.

The Republic of Mauritius was entirely foreign to me (see what I did there?) until today. Everyone has heard about Dodos and how they were hunted into extinction within 80 years of the Europeans discovering them, which kind of makes me wonder why I never knew that the island of Mauritius (one of the many islands in the Republic) was the only place they ever lived.

It kind of makes me want to become a geography teacher, so I can force students to learn things about the world they live in - instead of allowing them to dick around colouring in maps with pencil crayons for a credit.

Anywho, this has been another country brought to you by my lovely readers at FictionPress, who never seem to stop supplying me with things to learn and share.

Another Day, Another Chapter, Another Country

I posted another chapter of Aigaion Girl on FictionPress last night. It wasn't the strongest chapter ever, but I seem to be getting decent reviews. Anyway, it boosted my numbers for today.

And I discovered that I have a reader in Estonia - which meant that I had to look up Estonia, to find out what and where it is. It sounds like a very interesting place, one that has been around for ever (at least since 8500 BC), and one that I would very much like to visit.

One of these days, I'm going to have to do a post or two about these countries I'm discovering, not about the fact that I'm discovering them, but about them, themselves.

Until then, I'll just have to keep writing.

Geography

Almost every day, I log on to FictionPress, just to check how many readers I have for each story, from each country, things like that. I'm always excited when my numbers go up, even a little bit, but I find it extra-thrilling to learn I have readers in a country where I haven't before.



Even better than that, though, is finding out I have a new reader in a country I didn't even know existed (I blame our crappy educational system for my complete lack of knowledge in the field of global geography).

I've learnt about four new countries this year: The United Arab Emirates, The Commonweath of the Northern Mariana Islands (which I'm not 100% certain is technically its own country), Slovenia and Moldova.

As ridiculous as it is that I hadn't heard of these places, I'm kind of glad I hadn't. It gives a little bit of wonder back to the world.