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Giraffe Call Upcoming!

Aug15

I have been taking suggestions for this year’s Giraffe Call series – the Rabbit Safari.

The call will begin this Saturday, August 18th.

Current topic suggestions include:
Storms and droughts. x2
Lost or forgotten things. x3 Note: I have done “Lost and Found” once before
Fight ALL the oppressions!
Fuzzy? x3
Skins and furs
Legacies and fate
adventures and quests, possibly with furred people. X3

(x2 count things that people have said “Yes, that!” to)

What would YOU like the call to be about?

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/386603.html. You can comment here or there.

Character Development Meme: Miryam, Llew, Nilam, Aeowyn

Aug14

52 22 Days To 52 Weeks

For the 52 days leading up to the 52 weeks of Addergoole: Year 9, I will be posting something Addergoole-related every day.

Today: parts of a character development meme!

Miryam

12.) How is your character with technology? Super savvy, or way behind the times? Letters or email?
Miryam has a decent middle-of-the-way comfort zone with technology. She uses e-mail but can write letters; Addergoole’s field of slowing-down-communication encourages letter writing and she probably does send letters home. She has a computer and uses it, although she would need tech support if anything went majorly wrong. She can use all the basic home appliances, and doesn’t have a problem programming anything programmable, but prefers to let someone else handle

Llew
13) What does your character’s bed look like when he/she wakes up? Are the covers off on one side of the bed, are they all curled around a pillow, sprawled everywhere? In what position might they sleep?

Given his choice, Llew sleeps diagonally across the bed, in a rather still position that takes up the entire bed, or most of it. The covers, when he wakes are folded down halfway as he gets up, but long training by his mother means that he then folds them back up to the top.

He prefers to sleep with just a sheet and, in winter, a light blanket, so there’s not much to tidy anyway.

Nilam
14.) How does your character react to temperature changes such as extreme heat and cold?

Nilam does not like the heat. He prefers the world a comfortable sixty-six degrees; Addergoole is already a little warm for him. Much about seventy-two F and he begins getting very uncomfortable; summertime finds him inside, hibernating, hiding from the heat.

He’s not a big fan of winter, either; the snow and damp and cold make him miserable. He’s really a bit of a delicate flower, wilting or breaking depending on the extreme.

Æowyn
15.) Is your character an early morning bird or a night owl?
Æowyn is definitely a night sort. Mornings are not her thing, and she wakes up grumpy and unpleasant until she’s had breakfast, a shower, and at least half an hour of silence.

Nights are where she shines, and she often stays up late, going to bed in the wee hours of the night. She does her best thinking then, and often completes her homework this way.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/386053.html. You can comment here or there.

Alder By Post Update

Aug14

[personal profile] eseme, [personal profile] rix_scaedu, [personal profile] inventrix, [personal profile] kelkyag, [personal profile] becka_sutton, Mom & Dad, and [personal profile] inventrix, I have mailed your JUNE Alder by Post.

[personal profile] lilfluff, [personal profile] anke, @Dahob, would you like copies gratis?

Anyone else want a copy? I still have editions of all but the first issue available as well; buying in bulk saves me postage & paypal fees and thus saves you, too 🙂

Issue One’s story is an Aunt Family Story take-off from the Gifts Giraffe Call Prompt on Glitter
Issue Two’s story is from Dragons Next Door, a bit of background on pixies & Tiny Folk.
Issue Three story is a setting-less piece called The Bramble Wife.
Issue Four’s story, from the Spring Cleaning Call, is a storm-based piece of Stranded fic.
Issue Five is a piece set in the Science! ‘verse on New Worlds
Issue Six, out of the Reiassan mini-call, is fittingly a piece of Callennan myth.

Alder by Post
1 Issue, US $2.00 USD
I Issue, non-US $2.50 USD
1 year, US $20.00 USD
1 year, non-US $25.00 USD
2 Issues, US $3.50 USD
2 Issues, Non-US $4.50 USD
3 Issues, US $5.00 USD
3 issues, Non-US $6.00 USD
4 Issues, US $6.50 USD
4 Issues, Non-US $7.50 USD

~

Also! Because I am behind, subscribers are entitled to another bonus card. What sort of thing would you like to see?

~

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/385809.html. You can comment here or there.

Countdown to Addergoole Year 9: A so-far summary

Aug10

I’m posting something about Addergoole (almost) every day leading up to the first day of my new serial! Here is a summary so far:

Meta!
Words (LJ)
Ask the Author Anything! (LJ)
What Is Addergoole? (LJ)

Ask them Anything:
Belfreja (LJ)
Brydan (LJ)
Miryam (LJ)
Garfunkle (LJ)
Cynara
Noam
Reid Solomon & DJ
43 to go: Jeremiah and Lolly (LJ)
45 to Go: Timora (LJ)
46 to Go: Porter (LJ)
47 to go: Wylie (LJ)
(LJ)

Character Interaction Meme! (LJ)
3 & 13 fall down a hole: non-canon
4and 5 brainstorming for a project (sort of): CANON
Getting Lost in the Library – potentially canon
5 and 7 are steal food from the kitchens.
6 and 12 discover they have something unexpected in common
Morning After – Probably not Canon (end of year 8)
11 and 14 (“Um, we didn’t just… I mean, that’s kosher, right?”)

Three Vignettes of Addergoole Year 9 characters (LJ)

Descriptions
Garfunkle (LJ)

Character Development Meme
Ahouva, Ciara, Jovanna (LJ)
Garfunkle, Belfreja, and Kay (LJ)
Ceinwen, Garfunkle, and Kheper (LJ)
Wylie, Timora, Noam (LJ)

Please feel free to go back an ask questions in any of the “ask” posts!

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/385079.html. You can comment here or there.

Beyond, a story of Bug Invasion for the June Giraffe Call

Aug5

For [personal profile] ysabetwordsmith‘s continuation of Poison, a Bug Invasion story

The symbiotes had been talking about poison.

Paula couldn’t always hear everything; sometimes her symbiote shut her out. But this conversation just kept going on, so she could fill in the parts she missed easily enough.

%*&^ …and it tastes like the nectar… ^&*%

%*&^ …but it deteriorates their neural processes… ^&*%

%*&^ …the HomeLand sun never left one feeling this relaxed… ^&*%

%*&^ …too much can cause failure of the organs. It kills them. Look at this one; it is killing it. And it keeps drinking. Its symbiote should stop it. ^&*%

%*&^ No no no no no no no no, no no! ^&*%

%*&^ …It is poison for us as well? ^&*%

%*&^ Not poison. Pleasure. Sweet Pleasure. Pleasure that must keep going. ^&*%

%*&^ No no no no no no no no, no no! ^&*%

And so it went. Fallon’s symbiote was further gone than Fallon was, chittering angrily at anyone who got close. It, not Fallon, was going to be the one who tipped his body over the killing point.

“Addiction.” She wrested control of her body back from her symbiote – it was easier, the more sugar she ate. It got jittery. “Do you have addiction?”

Eli’s symbiote blinked Eli’s eyes at her. “We don’t have that word.”

“You wouldn’t. It isn’t a hive word, it’s an individual problem.”

“Is it why you eat poison?”

“We eat poison for pleasure. I have told you that already. It is why we don’t stop eating poison when it’s killing us.” Or gambling. Or shopping. Or hoarding.

“This addiction makes you… Keep doing pleasurable things?”

“Or things that are normally useful. Eating. Storing for winter.”

“Why do you have addiction?” Eli’s symbiote was becoming uncomfortable – its eyes were twitching – but so was Eli. His hands were jittering and his shoulders beginning to shudder. She recognized the symptoms – the subconscious found tiny ways to take over.

She couched her next words carefully. Eli had less control than many of them, and he was generally twitchier and more secretive. “I don’t know what happens that makes people more likely to be addicted. Nobody’s entirely certain. Some people think it’s upbringing, or neurochemicals, or some combination.”

“Nerochemicals…” The symbiote went off on a long string of the bug language. Paula’s brain-rider provided imperfect translation; all she could tell right now was that the bug was very upset.

Finally her bug took over.

%*&^ You are reading what she is saying incorrectly. ^&*%

%*&^ If their brains are different then they are buhdeparp… ^&*%

That word had no translation Paula could understand. Outside? Sideways? Beyond? Beyond what?

%*&^ You see that this is not true. They are within. Held to their families. They have no buhdeparp ^&*% Paula’s voice was very calm, very soothing, as her symbiote tried to convince Eli’s of… something. That their addicts weren’t beyond something?

%*&^ But they do not know. If they are truly different… ^&*%

%*&^ They are not. ^&*% This time, Paula could hear the bleed of thoughts. If they were, perhaps this would mean freedom.

Freedom? For their jailers?

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/383029.html. You can comment here or there.

Countdown to Addergoole Year 9: Ahouva, Ciara, Jovanna

Aug3

52 33 Days To 52 Weeks

For the 52 days leading up to the 52 weeks of Addergoole: Year 9, I will be posting something Addergoole-related every day.

Today: parts of a character development meme!

Ahouva
9.) Who does your character trust?
Before Addergoole, Ahouva had a few friends she trusted well. She trusted her parents to a certain extent – they never directly betrayed her trust, but they were not all that reliable. And she trusted most people to be dishonest but non-malicious. Most importantly: she trusted her own beliefs, understanding, and perception above all else.
Before she is Kept, at Addergoole, Ahouva trusts her friends – Jovanna, Æowyn, Ceinwen. After she is Kept, Kendon begins a slow breakdown of those bonds, and uses the Bond to encourage her to trust him and distrust herself.
At the time of her chapter, she really doesn’t trust anyone at all.

Ciara
10.) Can you define a turning point in your character’s life? Multiples are acceptable.
The moment the man she believed to be her father left her and her mother. Ciara was seven, her older sister was nine, and her younger brother was three. Her mother fell to pieces, and Ciara and Soleil ended up taking care of everything by themselves.
By the time their mother was on her feet again, Ciara and Soleil had gotten used to being in charge, and their mother continued to rely on them more and more. When their mother remarried (Ciara was twelve); their “new dad” expected to get step-children in the deal. He didn’t expect small self-reliant spitfires.
The karate and dancing lessons were his way of apologizing and getting them out of the house and hoping they could learn to be kids, all in one. And they were another turning point for Ciara – and for Soleil, although she went in a different direction.
Convincing Luke to take her on as a Student was her most recent turning point.

Jovanna
11.) Is there an animal you equate with your character?
Despite the fact that Timora is the one with horse ears, Jovanna strikes me as very horsey, very storm-mare sort. She’s steady and calm until she’s not, and when she goes, she goes like the wind.

Maybe that’s a gazelle and not a horse.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/382542.html. You can comment here or there.

Upcoming Giraffe Call: Rabbit Safari

Aug2

(The reason for the name will become clear soon (but not in this post), I promise)

So! [personal profile] ysabetwordsmith will be hosting her monthly fishbowl on the 7th, next Tuesday.

That means my Giraffe Call will be on the 18th, 3 Satyr-days from now.

And I don’t have a clue for a theme. Suggestions?

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/381874.html. You can comment here or there.

Prompting, writing, and words to my prompts!

Aug1

[personal profile] rix_scaedu has written Worth the Trek to my prompt in her prompt call: Go give her prompts!!

Kiss of Judas has written Cup of Tea to my prompt! She and @Inventrix have started “Our Pens, Your Pennies; check it out and leave them a prompt!

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/381149.html. You can comment here or there.

Countdown to Addergoole Year 9: Garfunkle, Belfreja, and Kay

Jul30

52 37 Days To 52 Weeks

For the 52 days leading up to the 52 weeks of Addergoole: Year 9, I will be posting something Addergoole-related every day.

Today: parts of a character development meme!

Garfunkle
7.) Is there one event or happening your character would like to erase from their past? Why?
When Gar was twelve, his (Step)mother’s brother came to live with them. His Uncle Jeremy was dying of liver failure, trying to stop drinking in a last-ditch attempt to save his own life, and he just couldn’t stop drinking.
The loss of self-control, and the loss of everything, in the long run, freaked Gar out. He had nightmares about his uncle flopped there on the couch, wasting away and still clutching the bottle. He still does. He said, at his uncle’s small and sad funeral, that he wished he’d never met Uncle Jeremy. His mother’s angry reaction to that cemented Gar’s desire to delete that event from his life
Belfreja
7.) Is there one event or happening your character would like to erase from their past? Why?
Bel is a generally very-friendly, sensual person, and, because she was an early bloomer and is a lush, beautiful girl, her friendliness has often been misinterpreted. In the last few years, she’s learned to moderate that, but before she did, a teacher, husband of another teacher, crossed the lines of propriety with her, looking first for a dance with her at a school function, and then for a kiss.
Although Bel, then fourteen, hadn’t been soliciting the attention, the teacher’s wife certainly thought she had and spent the remainder of the year angry at Bel and taking it out on her in her grades and discipline. What’s more, the principal, also a woman, sided with the teacher against Bel.
Kay
8.) Day of Favorites! What’s your character’s favorite ice cream flavor? Color? Song? Flower?
Kay likes Chocolate Mint ice cream.
Her favorite color is plum, with a second-favorite, accent, of slate blue (that’s purple and blue for guys)
“Youth of the Nation” is her favorite song. Irises are her favorite flower. When she plans her wedding with her friends, she imagines giant iris bouquets and her bridesmaids in long plum dresses.

Other parts of the meme can be found here and here.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/379521.html. You can comment here or there.

The Empress who would be Goat-Wife, a story for the June Giraffe Call

Jul30

For [personal profile] anke‘s continuation (won in the drawing in June) of The Goat-Bride.

This story is set in the early days of the Callennan life on Reiassan.

The book landed on the table with a meaty thump.

“This is not the way it will be.” The Emperor of the Callentate of North Reiassannon-land, Eszhettozh, son of Emanek, stared at his second eldest grand-daughter. “This is not the way it should be.”

“This is the way it has always been.” His grand-daughter stared back at him, her gaze as level, her voice as firm. She set her hand on the book of their people’s stories, as if to draw strength from the síra of a rock or tree.

“And this is not how it will be this time. You are my heir. Your mother and your sister and brother have died. You are the next child of my eldest daughter’s loins. This is the way it is.”

“Then allow my mother’s brother to inherit. I will go to the goats, to be their bride. Such is the way it has always been.”

The stared at each other, the grey-bearded Emperor and the long-braided young grand-daughter, alike in stubbornness, alike in calm.

This is the way it has always been, said the girl, knowing full well that the first Goat-Bride had argued, instead, this is the way it will be now.

This is the way the road goes now, said the Emperor, knowing full well that his throne had been built on tradition as well as on arms. And they glared at each other, knowing full well that both could not win.

“I will go to the goats.” []’s voice did not crack.

“Then who will be Empress in your stead? I will live long, but not even the mountains live forever.”

“My mother’s brother should be Emperor,” the stubborn girl repeated. “He is next in line.”

“The grandmothers will not stand for another male. They have declared it so.” Some forces even the Emperor of the Callentate must bow to, and the elder women of the Tribes (even if they were no longer Tribes) were a force the way the ocean and the rain and the mountains were forces. They could not be budged quickly, and to try was to waste energy better left on learning to traverse their whims.

The Emperor did not expect to find his own granddaughter such a stony force as well. “Your mother’s brother cannot become Emperor,” he repeated. “You are my heir, and cannot go to the goats.”

“I will be a Goat-wife. The gods have witnessed it.” [] did not stop her foot, but she nodded her head firmly. “The sword and the goat shall be my home and my family. Someone else must rule.”

“But you are my heir. You must take the throne.” Back and forth they would have kept going, neither more willing to bend than the rock they stood on, had not the youngest of the Emperor’s advisors stepped up.

“The Callentate has many children. Let the Emperor’s third child take the throne.”

“She is old,” dismissed the ancient man. “She will not rule long.”

“Then her third child, who is a girl. Let her rule.”

Emperor and grand-daughter goat-wife shared a look. “Your first child cannot inherit. Your first child’s first daughter cannot inherit. Let your third child’s third child take the throne.”

“So let it always be.” They had come to a place where they could smile, and they did so, like the sun lighting on the ocean.

And so it was, until the days came for change again. But that is a tale of another day.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/379267.html. You can comment here or there.