Archive | January 2011

Weekend Glory and La-De-Da

When I was working at the department store Bon*Ton in the housewares department, I had a co-worker who was concerned about the health risks in… pretty much everything we sold, but for this story, specifically the pans, non-stick, this, that…

So I asked her, well, why not All-Clad?

They’re a bit expensive, aren’t they?

Well, we just buy them scratch-and-dent, and we love the way they work.

And she said, I shit you not, “Well, La-dee-dah, you and your All-Clad.”

This has become an in-joke for us, now, one of the few in our house that doesn’t involve the Simpsons (“that video game with the great digital eyelash rendering,” for example).

So, this weekend, in the middle of a very wonderful trip with E.Mc and Kris, in which we did Christmas (it’s still January, that’s not late), they gifted us (Husband-person, really) with an All-Clad saucepan. La-dee-dah, us and our great weekend!

I love my friends. It’s good to be me.

Today’s Reiassan Notes!

Note one: GOATS! Evolved bigger to begin with, and then bred to be riding-sized. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markhor is a good size-idea, but they’re bigger than that, even, the size of small ponies

Second-smallest unit of currency will be what can buy a pound of wheat. Money is (easily available metal) set with semi-precious and precious stones, the Tien, the Vieg, the Rei, and the High Tien/Vieg/Rei.

Twitter notes on inheritance & gender

Well, under Empress Grandma, the country had a major renaissance of innovation: a blue dynasty. Emperor Now~~~is a Red dynasty, very warlike, using Grandma’s infrastructure to conquer the Southern People. Buuut because of the ~~way inheritance works, Empress Grandma’s time was a very restrictive time for women, while Emp.Now is not.

The 1st-of-1st, 3rd-of-3rd, 9th-of-9th etc. child-of-child, of Gender Opposite Monarch, are heirs. I.e.~~~~Emp.Now’s 1st daughter’s 1st daughter, his 3rd daughter’s 3rd daughter. He was Grandma’s 9th son’s 9th son.

Inheritance by the women’s lines doesn’t require knowing who the father is, thus less sequestering of mothers.

Call for Prompts: Steampunk!

The prompts theme for January is (drumroll please):

Steampunk!!

(Based on the results of this poll and this call for ideas).

Re-imagine steampunk. Not just gears and brass, corsets and goggles, what can I do with steampunk? Where can the steam and the sci-fi go that it hasn’t gone before?

I’m looking for writing prompts for short stories, and, if you want to challenge me more, a specific word count greater than 99 but less than 3500. Can’t promise all will be written but what I can say is that, if I write a short story off your prompt, you will get a copy of it even if it is not posted for general consumption.

I’ll post one or two free stories off each call for prompts and offer the rest for sponsorship until or unless they’re submitted for publication

For stories written from previous prompts, see the summary post

Stories written from Prompts! A summary

This is a list of stories & poems written form my calls for prompts, and from external prompt sites:

The Green
All Green Dots, a flash fiction from daHob’s prompt
Down by the River, a flash fiction on the dangers of nature.
Relics, a story of Rin & Girey/Reiassan, 1100 words, sponsor for $22 $10 sponsored, $12 to go
Bridged, the “sequel” to Relics, 1100 words, sponsor for $10 if Relics is fully sponsored.

It Always Hurts, 1400 words from the lyrics of “the Holly and the Ivy,” sponsor for $28

Ways and/or Means
Holding the Ways, a microfiction of an unconventional funeral, 350 words. Sponsor for $7
The Old Path, from ellenmillion‘s prompt “the Old Ways” and eseme‘s prompt “…discovering old overgrown [ways].” 4100 words, sponsor for $75
Labyrinth, still in progress, from clare_dragonfly‘s prompt “the path the the labyrinth” & eseme‘s prompt of “bartering.”

Beginning with B
Life Packages, from clare_dragonfly‘s prompt Babies, boxes, breasts, and bombs.
The Trouble With Bongong Island, from Inventrix’s prompt “Bananas, Bifurcation, Belittling Bohemian butterflies.” 2111 words draft gentlemen adventurer tale, sponsor (edited and cleaned) for $45
Keeping the Gods, a story of the fae apoc, from Shutsumon’s prompt “bacchanal, barbarocracy,bathykolpian.” 1500 words of cautionary fantasy, Submitted to Writer’s Digest Shorts Competition
Friday Flash: The Intern, an erotic flash fiction from from eponymousarchon‘s prompt “Bonking! Buggery, Butter, Bananas”

Exotic, Erotic, Exogenetic
Evolution
Disovery Channel – for friends
Two by Two – a short story of Fae Apoc
Complications

Starts with A
AvariceFrom haikujaguar‘s prompt “Avarice. Anemia. And maybe… appetite.” 1038 words, a story of mixed appetites and dovetailing greed. Sponsor for $30
Afghans for Aliens, a flash fiction sci-fi
Arizona, a poem

Outdoors
Point of View, a story of Rin & Girey
Sunday at the GroveFrom clare_dragonfly ‘s prompt, this is a tender story of mourning and passing on. 900 words. Sponsor for $25
Switch, a story of Fae Apoc

Roll Your Own
Armor
End of the Line
Tea Time, a story of Rin and Girey
The Farm, a story of unexpected solutions, submitted to Flash Fiction Online


How does Sponsoring work?
For semi-pro rates, stories run a bit more money than poems. This is my prototype sponsoring program. You can:

  • Throw money in the general pool. When there’s enough to sponsor a story, I’ll put it up for a general vote.
  • Micro-fund a specific story: donate any amount of money towards a specific story. I’ll post that it’s $Xx towards being completely funded.
  • Sponsor a whole story. If you sponsor a story, I will immediately post it on my blog for everyone to see, with your name or that of a dedicatee if you wish; plus you get a nonexclusive publication right, so you can post it on your own blog or elsewhere as long as you keep the credits intact. (Some phrasing from YsabetWordsmith’s Poetry Fishbowl).


Carry On Tuesday
Flying – erotic flash fiction
Packed Up, a story of Rin & Girey
Crossing into Lannamer, a story of Rin and Girey
Flattery, an erotic flash fiction set in the fae Apoc universe
Little White Horses, from this & Daughters of Clio, a story of faeapoc

Three-Word Wednesday
The Deep Inks
Boom, Pow
9th Step
Walled Flowers, a story of fae apoc
In the Dirt
Nightfall
Revived, a story of the Stranded World, 2556 words. Sponsor for $50
Not Interfering
Escape
Curriculum, fae apoc & Lady Alouetta’s Garden

Seventh Sanctum
Tangled, a story of the Stranded world
Gifted, a Yultide story from the Tir Na Cali universe
Keyed up,, the sequel to Gifted

Daughters of Clio
Skill & Dreams, a story of Reiassan, the Rin & Girey universe
A Myth of Reiassan
Recruiting, a short story possibly in the Stranded ‘verse
Community Lines,a short story of Autumn & her brother Winter
Little White Horses a story of fae apoc

3WW: Not Interfering #FridayFlash #weblit

Three Word Wednesday is a once-weekly 3-word writing prompt.

The three words are harmless, moist, yelp.

The yelp caught Allie’s attention, drew her out of the book she’d let herself become engrossed in. High-pitched, terrified, and loud, it penetrated the thick walls of her shop. It had come from somewhere out back; a second yelp, louder still, confirmed the direction and had her running for the back door.

June-next-door’s latest boyfriend was standing in the narrow passageway behind their buildings, looming over the dumpster? No, over a skinny boy standing near the dumpster; the yelp had come from the kid, presumably.

What was his name? Jack? No, no, Fred. “Leave him along, Fred,” she called, hurrying over to the pair. “He’s harmless.”

“He was digging in the dumpster. Freaking little rats will steal anything not nailed down.” He lowered his arm halfway, eliciting a whimper.

Allie looked the kid over quickly. Grey bandanna, grey hoodie, but the signs she was looking for… “He’s not a rat, Fred, he’s a pup. Leave him alone.”

The kid snarled at her. “Not a pup,” he complained, but it had little heat behind it.

“What’s that, some sort of gang? I’m telling you, Alison, what you want to do with these kids is show them who’s boss. Do that, and they won’t give you any more trouble. If you let them steal whenever they want, they’ll walk all over you.” He grabbed the kid’s arm again, ignoring the little whine the boy made.

“Fred, let it be. There’s no need to go messing with him; there’s nothing in the garbage worth stealing, it’s why it’s garbage.” She kept her voice calm, soothing. June didn’t pick the brightest boyfriends. “This isn’t the neighborhood to go starting trouble in, Fred.”

She knew it was a mistake the moment she’d said it, but she’d known it needed to be said, too.

“I keep telling June, and I’ll tell you, too, Alison. You can’t give in to thugs and creeps. You’ve got to show them who’s boss.”

She looked at the boy again, knowing it was a lost cause. He looked back at her with eyes a pale, icy blue she’d seen before in huskies, the whine high-pitched and, she thought, entirely unconscious. “I don’t want to be a witness to this,” she told him.

“Go inside, Alison,” Fred snarled. “I’ll deal with this.”

She sighed, wishing there was another way, and walked inside. “Come on in for some cocoa… later,” she threw over her shoulder, before she shut the back door, making sure it clicked locked.

The door wasn’t thick enough to completely muffle the pained yelp, nor the bone-cracking sound that followed it. The scream that came next was very short, even less silenced by the door, and cut off with a quiet, moist sort of crunching.

Allie wandered back to the front of the store before the magpies could rob her blind. The pup would be in, in a while, for his cocoa, and she had to figure out how to tell June she’d need another boyfriend. At least the wolves rarely left a mess.

At this rate, she mused, as the noises in the back faded away to nothing, there wouldn’t be a thug or bigot or creep left in Animal Town.

Also: One Card Draw

miintikwa is having a One Card Draw from now until 4p.m.:

Come to my journal and get a free One Card tarot reading! All you have to do is leave me a comment there. Everyone who comments between now and 4pm gets a card. Though, I would much appreciate link-backs, too. 🙂

Come here to get a card today: http://miintikwa.livejournal.com/1756448.html

All Green Dots – Flash fiction from prompt

Flash Fiction from daHob’s prompt: I’m a computer geek. Green means ‘good’! In Test Driven Development, you are done with the code when it passes all the unit tests. Each test gets a green dot (as opposed to a red one). So, “all green dots” at 256 words….

Sequel to Evolution

Alae and Eka waited together in the tiny room known, as archaically as Alae was Queen, as the Green Room (some wit had painted a line of tiny green trees all around the room). The ceremony took time to plan (even though it happened every twenty cycles), more time to set up, and several eternities on the day of. And through all of it, Alae, who was normally just another denizen of the ship, was sequestered and guarded like some exec’s concubine

She’d paced until Eka snarled, fiddled with her feather cape until she risked ruining it, and settled in to lotus, finally, envisioning her greenhouse plans for the next five cycles.

“Green dots,” Eka declared, as Alae got to her next batch of carrots. She opened her eyes; Eka was staring at the status meter, a row of red lights that were slowly turning green. “They’re nearly ready for you.” She stood, the beads in her hair clacking, and hurried over to Alae. “Are you all set, me love?” Behind her, another light turned green, and another one. “You mussed your cloak again, didn’t you? How is it that you can’t ever sit still?” Her slender fingers smoothed Alae’s feathers; her lover’s nervous fussing calmed her the way no meditation or medication ever could.

Four more lights went green. They were near to securing the space. She tried not to think about their failure to secure, last time, even as Eka’s fingers brushed the scar.

“All green dots, Your Majesty,” Eka murmured. “Knock ‘em dead.”

Religion in Reiassan – Callenia, to be specific – @inventrix @shutsumon

Talking about colours with TyBarbary yesterday made me ponder more the tricolour religion of the two main nations of Reiassan.

Prayer

I “know” more about how the Callanthe worship than how the Bitrani do, so this is the way of the Three the way the Callanthe observe it.

(Bridges and Relics, the latter $10/$22 sponsored and the former $10 if Relics’ goal is reached, cover bits of the religion throughout, including their Green Men and Women).

Magic and Faith are intertwined in Reiassan. The people worship three deities, to balance their three-season world, and have three paths of magic (although very few people who work magic follow just one path):

* The blue, Tienebrah, the sea, the sky, the air, change, the cold season. Mindfulness.
* The red, Veignevar, blood, fire, violence, death, the hot season. Strength.
* The green, Reiassannon, life, plants, earth, healing, growth. Fertility.

Notes on holidays, from a chat with Eseme spurred by something she posted in eseme_games (I meant to make it a meme but I forgot):

Eseme: I assume red/hot, blue/cold, green/rainy?
But that’s how I would do it
Aldersprig: yes 😉 Summer for war, winter for thinking, spring for growing
Eseme: nods Makes sense, and also works color-wise
So, holidays.celebrations/festivals that fit
have you already thought any of the three up?
Aldersprig: not really, braindead ;-D
Eseme: Well, for summer you could have war games.
Contests (which I know has been done, see Changeling) but it makes sense
and can be adapted to include religious ritual involving the winners (and if you want to be bloody, the losers)
Aldersprig: (contests does make sense. And they’re warry people)
Eseme: If you need inspiration, look into what the Mayans did to losers of their soccer games…
Aldersprig Yeah, I was thinking something like that
Eseme: It makes sense for a war-themed holiday. And war gods are not friendly. You could probably also incorporate fire in there, and weapon-smithing
Aldersprig: Yay fire!
Eseme: grins
You do have the option of cremating the losers
Or possibly less toxic bonfires…
Eseme Cold for thinking. Hrm. And the blue was also water, yes? Sea-brides and such?
Aldersprig: water, the mind, the sky
Eseme: And cold/winter.
Does the continent get snow? Or, at least, do the two countries get much snow?
Aldersprig: yes. the continent’s climate is like the western portion of the ussr
So Callenia gets more snow, Bithrain less
Eseme: They may have different winter holidays, simply based on weather. Probably with similar roots
Hrm. Most winter holidays in this world are about fighting back against the cold and the dark
few celebrate it
Aldersprig: I liked the Dr. who take on it; halfway through the dark
Eseme: grins
so yeah, contemplating. It would be a quiet holiday. A real contrast to summer
Aldersprig: nods Study. Theory. a mental holiday
Eseme: Not sure how water fits in. Possibly meditation bowls?
ocean in a glass?
Aldersprig: oooh, yes. bottle ships
Eseme: Cool! Possibly Labyrinths?
And if it is a mental holiday, possibly a sharing of scholarship – lectures, or publication?
Aldersprig innovations. inventions
Eseme: it’s well after harvest, so people would be able to travel to share learning, so long as there is not too much snow
Aldersprig: That leaves spring for baby-making
Eseme: And planting crops
Aldersprig: fertilities
Eseme: I think you don’t need much help brainstorming that one!
You can rip a lot off of Beltane
Aldersprig: 😀
and Oestra… Easter
Eseme: Possibly combine elements of both. Definitely planting the fields, fertilizing them, and weddings or couplings

Girey Description for Icon

http://faculty.cua.edu/pennington/Law508/Roman%20Law/RomanJurists.htm

Girey has a Roman-eqsue face, with sandy blonde hair cut short and military and beard trimmed short. He’s broad-shouldered, prefers duller colours (likely dressed in sage green http://www.staceyssimplestuff.com/sage-Green-Fabric.jpg), and generally has a sullen/sulky expression.

While he has the face of the guy in the statue, he’s young, maybe 17 or 20; old enough to be bearded but that’s about it.

His shirt is nearly identical to Rin’s, except it buttons across the left shoulder, not the right.