pacing

...is so disgusting right now. Oh my word. Such a MESS. Oh my gosh. Loose ends, and things that need to happen, and GAHASDFGJKL QWRETYU WHY. can't even find where I want to open this chapter ("Fallout"). Word of the day: Outline before you write. Then, at least, sanity stays in a nice little plotted box that you can at least retreat to when everything hits the giant 65mph rotary fan.

....so, it's 9pm.

I think Monarchy WILL get updated today. Has to. Haaaas tooo..... This week has been a mess of working on Melee, which still needs reworking a bit, and going back to an old three-parter story I would like to finish if it would cooperate, and drawing. There are so many loose ends flailing around and sometimes it's beyond me and I want so much to work on something ellllllllllse. This three-parter, if it's ever done, might make a good first exploration into e-booking. No one's gonna buy a novella that short but some of the phrasing and pacing I love. It's a brief fantasy about Irene (more or less the leader), her philosophic charge Constantine, and Elysander, her half-elf merchant companion who is actually someone else's creation.

Working on Swampland...

Tern trying to channel Harry Dresden is hilarious. I'm back on the Dresden Files (Jim Butcher) bandwagon, both apologetically and unapologetically. Un-, because they're so much fun and well written and well, you can't go wrong? Apologetically, because I binge-read and get NOTHING done on other projects. Other than that, I think this one will come together all right. It's of about the same complexity as 'Physical'. "Allegiance," which I can't spell, should be up on the wordpress sometime tomorrow. May need some last minute edits.

Languages. Bleh.

Trying to figure out what SPOKEN OPPALIC sounds like. Never thought I'd have to deal with it. Greek is cloooose...? Flemish isn't bad. Bah, decisions. #Edit: AN UNHOLY MASHUP OF KOREAN AND SLOVAK. *shrug* They're happy with it.

'Physical' update, illustration, and new story

Illustration for "Physical" here: http://who-the-moon-is.deviantart.com/art/Brave-soul-358807519 Also, Physical is up now! (click the hyperlink above) (learning blogs is such fun) Also, writing up a new, intermediary story called 'Allegiance' (prone to change) and realizing that very few of my women are nice. Or even pleasant. Sophie is a nice, non-sarcastic person but all those of the female persuasion seem very aggressive, very guarded, when dealing one-on-one with Tern. --then again, he is pretty abrasive. This is why we can't have nice things!

Tea Scene

Ire sat down with a cup of tea, looking at his young guest with bemusement. The younger boy had been here the better part of twenty minutes, ten of which had been spent alone with Murk as Ire found Selah, told her to make the tea, waited around until she brought the tea back, and accompanied her in to serve it. She was gone now and the guest was fidgety.

Ire leaned back in his chair.

“Now, who did you say you were, and how did you get here?”

“We told you. We are your neighbor from the north.”

“I know our neighbors from the north. They don’t look like you. Or him.” He nodded at Murk and took a sip of the tea. It was a bit dusty – if he had known that he would be using both of them, he would have rinsed them both out, but as it was, ‘Tern’ had the clean cup and Ire made due with the one that had been on the mantle for ten years.

Tern toyed with his teacup, still without having drank. “We are a little farther north than that.”

“Living underwater would account for why I haven’t seen you before.”

The young boy scowled fearsomely and appeared to consider pouring out the tea on the floor in a gesture of anger. He definitely didn’t want to drink it and, when Ire reached out a hand to take the offending teacup, he handed it over and, after a second of hesitation, accepted Ire’s proffered cup. That, he drank. Fear of poison then, Ire mused. He should have switched them from the beginning.

Tern began to explain. “We live in what you would call the sky. It exists where this ‘Lanval’ kingdom exists, but north of here. And you can’t find it, so refrain from shooting cannons at the sky or any such thing.”

“Ah.” Ire’s impulse was to call him crazy and call the twins to escort him out, but crazy did not lend one the ability to materialize inside a king’s bedroom. Whatever that skill was, it would be useful to have. (So would ‘cannons’ but that was a question for another day.)

He cleared his throat, sipped at the tea. “Well, Landria isn’t one to make war, at the moment.”

“Excellent.” Tern looked down into the teacup, having drained its contents and just now fretting about it. “What is this queer powder at the base?”

“Sugar. It sweetens the drink.” Well, it was probably sugar. Some of it might be dust. All the same, Tern relaxed a little and Ire could finally ask why he was here.

“You didn’t come down here for tea though.”

“No. We came to tell you to move your castle.”

###

Leads into 'Neighbors,' available here: http://missjoneswrites.wordpress.com/2013/03/02/neighbors-story/

New chapters: Exchanging Unpleasantries and Neighbors

New chapters up here:

Specifically 'Exchanging Unpleasantries' and 'Neighbors'. These, while more or less stand-alone by Monarchy standards, are some of the ones I like better.

So I'm trucking along, slowly. Next week should be Physical and, gosh, maybe just Physical. Physical is hella long and it's still a chaotic decision, figuring out what to put in or leave out. :)