frogs_of_war (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
frogs_of_war) wrote2013-03-12 11:35 am
frogs_of_war) wrote2013-03-12 11:35 am
Plunnie Fodder
These two days off I got together after several busy weeks aren’t going to help either my getting things done or my resting up, partly because I got Etiquette and Espionage by Gail Carriger. I spent my spare time reading it, but I do deserve a break. But then I finished it last night after getting home from the concert at 1am. And then I woke up at three and couldn’t go back to sleep until after my husband’s alarm went off (he took today off knowing he wouldn’t get much sleep last night, but he still needed to be up to get my sons off to school). I woke up again when my alarm went off, because sleeping in until noon might be comforting, but it’s not going to help me wake up bright and early tomorrow.
I really liked the book. I grinned through most of it and laughed aloud several times. It is set a few decades before Soulless and its sequels. My only qualm is that the book has Vieve, later known as Madame Genevieve Lefoux, is eight while Sidheag Maccon is only slightly older (the main character is 14 and the oldest of the debuts of which Sidheag is one). In the other series Sidheag mentions that she will be the last of her line because she is too old to carry a child (I’m sure I remember this. If Connell wants heirs, he better get them with his new wife, which he didn’t think he could.), while Genevieve comes across as perky and vibrant almost too young to have a ten year old. I’m not saying that older women can’t be as pretty as Alexia describes Genevieve, but I doubt one would have gotten as close to seducing her.
And would someone please fill in the Wiki pages for her books. I know I’ve read Captain Niall’s name before, but I can’t remember who he turns out to be.
The concert was a lot of fun. I liked the first band that played. We bought their CDs, which I like to do if I like even a few of their songs. The guy manning their booth seemed very happy to have something to do. The line for Flogging Molly went right past him. The band did their little shout out of Portland-centeric things which means they mentioned bikes, strip joints, and Voodoo Donuts (The last they made a joke about because they were the Donots). They are from Germany and all their lyrics are in English, which reminded us of the article we’d listen to a few days ago that all Germans sing in other languages because the Nazis pushed singing in German so much that any singing in German recalls the Nazis to mind. I find that very sad.
My favorite thing about the concert was that I knew the lyrics to all the Flogging Molly songs, even the ones I don’t like. I’ve listen to all of them so many times that they were familiar. But most of their songs where from their older albums which were full of songs I do like. They are the people that wrote the songs that inspired …a Boy Will Do, Going Pirate, and Body Language. Plus another story I hope to find time to write soon. (As if. *sigh*)
But since I didn’t have to strain to figure out what they were saying, I could enjoy myself, which includes coming up with stories to go with their the themes of hardships, trying to be the man they should be for the people they love, friendships, and family, which doesn’t sound half as fun as it was.
I almost always don't like one band of the three or four. This time it was the second. They played well enough, but they were a Mariachi band at a punk concert. Context, I believe, is everything.
The story I wrote when I should have been either typing in my edits for Gestures or writing more chapters of Harmonies is about Rumplestiltskin, from Rum’s POV. After I finished, I realized that it could easy be set in the same universe as Baby Snatcher, because in that story they mention that legend says when Earth and Fairie were connected that baby Faie may have grown on trees.
So the story ideas I came up with:
— A land, maybe a planet, where no one uses the language anymore because their not-so-distant ancestors tried to conquer and kill the lands/planets around them. Everything from before the war was translated and then burned. No one has a written or oral record of the language and no one teaches it to their children. One boy is teased mercilessly for having the language as his first language. And maybe a language expert comes to his hometown in an attempt to not lose the language completely. Or something.
— A boy is raised among women who have sons for rich families, like surrogate mothers. Maybe with magic, maybe not. The boy is kept because at birth they thought he was a girl, but he has to leave this closed society of women at sixteen. Maybe he meets his little brother (from his father’s next attempt at a son) and rescues him, but I’m not sure where it goes from there.
— A man is on his way home after losing his job. He has a wife and two small children. He was supposed ask for an advance, so they wouldn’t be evicted, but all he got was a small severance. He could pay the rent and maybe get the power turned on and buy food for his family, or he could run away, either physically or with drink, which is what most of his friends have done. He looks down at the town from the top of the hill. He’s probably not going to throw himself off. He doesn’t want to add a dead father to the burden of being his child.
He loves his family, even if the stress has pretty much ruined his marriage. He wants to be the man he knows he should be, but he needs a break for all the pain for just a little while. A man dressed in silk robes with long, dark hair and exotic facial hair steps out of nowhere. He offers Main a break from the stress: seven days, seven weeks, or seven months and when Main returns it will be to everyone else as if he never left.
Main’s asks why not seven hours, seven years, or seven decades. If the stranger offered seven centuries he would take it. The man arches a brow and asks if that is true. A century is a very long time. But the stress of never having enough and never providing enough has gotten to Main. He asks what life will be like there. The stranger claims it will be Eden. But even if it’s not, Main thinks, a change is a good as a rest, and he needs a change so badly. He looks the man over and asks if he will be attracted to him wherever they are going. The man smirks and asked if he isn’t attracted to him now. He finds that he is.
On the other side he has to sleep just as much, but doesn’t have to eat so often. At first his life revolves around the stranger’s bed and house and yard, then the area around it. He meets other people and visits new places and is surprised when the first century has past. Things come up and for weeks, and even years at a time, his lover leaves him in the care of other people. He becomes more confident in himself. But wherever his lover comes back to him, he makes up for the lost time.
The days pass, one after the other, and before he is ready he bids his lover farewell. He holds his hand on the hillside and asks if he will ever see him again. Lover smiles and says if Main wants to hard enough. And then he’s gone. Main breaths in the last tendrils or his lover’s scent and then heads down. He grasps the memories of the man he was, but he doesn’t feel the embarrassment, disappointment, anger, and loss that went with it. He doesn’t go right home. He stops at several places, spending a bit of his money, but getting more back. By the time he returns home, his $2k is $10k and he’s got an RV and a job hundreds of miles away being what he’d always hoped to be, but never had the confidence to try.
His wife isn’t pleased that they lost their home, but he’s used to sleeping on the couch and he doesn’t want to dilute the memory of his lover. He promises to stop by her mother’s house. He has a mutual dislike with her. As they travel he doesn’t work long hours and come home tired, so he really gets to know his kids. His youngest might not be the boy the doctor said he was when he was born. He loves his sister’s baby dolls and her dress up stuff. She is not thrilled to be sharing, but since the RV only has so much space Main convinces her that by sharing, she’ll get more space for the things she loves. Main puts them both to bed ever night and never fails to kiss his youngest’s baby goodnight.
His wife decides to stay with her mother when he moves on to his new job. She asks for both the children, but Main will only let her have their daughter, having some inkling of how his feminine son would be treated in that household. He parks the RV in a place where he can feel the other side. And life goes on. His children grow and his wife remarries. His daughter comes to live with him because she doesn’t like her stepfather. But she doesn’t like the lack of privacy in the RV or sometimes walking in the see her brother making out with his boyfriend on the couch. Main says that that’s what boyfriends do. As much as he doesn’t like his comfortable household of two disrupted, he wishes he hadn’t let her live with her bigoted mother and grandmother so long. He knows the change of outlook will be hard on his daughter, but she is well worth the effort.
He goes outside and looks into the sky. His lover is close, but years away. After Main dies, they will be reunited. The years they will be apart are just a drop compared to the sea of years they were and will be together. He will probably live to seventy or seventy-seven. Only a few decades more.
Main will live every day he has here to the fullest.
(This story should really end the evening that he returns, but this is what happens when I’m up for several hours during the night.)
--
Plus, at work the store TV channel has a scroll at the bottom and I’m always catching the last few lines out of context. The other day I read “…intelligent alien. We almost certainly had sex with them. And we did it here, right here on Earth…” And my wonderful husband found the story for me. That's plunnie fodder all on it's own.
I really liked the book. I grinned through most of it and laughed aloud several times. It is set a few decades before Soulless and its sequels. My only qualm is that the book has Vieve, later known as Madame Genevieve Lefoux, is eight while Sidheag Maccon is only slightly older (the main character is 14 and the oldest of the debuts of which Sidheag is one). In the other series Sidheag mentions that she will be the last of her line because she is too old to carry a child (I’m sure I remember this. If Connell wants heirs, he better get them with his new wife, which he didn’t think he could.), while Genevieve comes across as perky and vibrant almost too young to have a ten year old. I’m not saying that older women can’t be as pretty as Alexia describes Genevieve, but I doubt one would have gotten as close to seducing her.
And would someone please fill in the Wiki pages for her books. I know I’ve read Captain Niall’s name before, but I can’t remember who he turns out to be.
The concert was a lot of fun. I liked the first band that played. We bought their CDs, which I like to do if I like even a few of their songs. The guy manning their booth seemed very happy to have something to do. The line for Flogging Molly went right past him. The band did their little shout out of Portland-centeric things which means they mentioned bikes, strip joints, and Voodoo Donuts (The last they made a joke about because they were the Donots). They are from Germany and all their lyrics are in English, which reminded us of the article we’d listen to a few days ago that all Germans sing in other languages because the Nazis pushed singing in German so much that any singing in German recalls the Nazis to mind. I find that very sad.
My favorite thing about the concert was that I knew the lyrics to all the Flogging Molly songs, even the ones I don’t like. I’ve listen to all of them so many times that they were familiar. But most of their songs where from their older albums which were full of songs I do like. They are the people that wrote the songs that inspired …a Boy Will Do, Going Pirate, and Body Language. Plus another story I hope to find time to write soon. (As if. *sigh*)
But since I didn’t have to strain to figure out what they were saying, I could enjoy myself, which includes coming up with stories to go with their the themes of hardships, trying to be the man they should be for the people they love, friendships, and family, which doesn’t sound half as fun as it was.
I almost always don't like one band of the three or four. This time it was the second. They played well enough, but they were a Mariachi band at a punk concert. Context, I believe, is everything.
The story I wrote when I should have been either typing in my edits for Gestures or writing more chapters of Harmonies is about Rumplestiltskin, from Rum’s POV. After I finished, I realized that it could easy be set in the same universe as Baby Snatcher, because in that story they mention that legend says when Earth and Fairie were connected that baby Faie may have grown on trees.
So the story ideas I came up with:
— A land, maybe a planet, where no one uses the language anymore because their not-so-distant ancestors tried to conquer and kill the lands/planets around them. Everything from before the war was translated and then burned. No one has a written or oral record of the language and no one teaches it to their children. One boy is teased mercilessly for having the language as his first language. And maybe a language expert comes to his hometown in an attempt to not lose the language completely. Or something.
— A boy is raised among women who have sons for rich families, like surrogate mothers. Maybe with magic, maybe not. The boy is kept because at birth they thought he was a girl, but he has to leave this closed society of women at sixteen. Maybe he meets his little brother (from his father’s next attempt at a son) and rescues him, but I’m not sure where it goes from there.
— A man is on his way home after losing his job. He has a wife and two small children. He was supposed ask for an advance, so they wouldn’t be evicted, but all he got was a small severance. He could pay the rent and maybe get the power turned on and buy food for his family, or he could run away, either physically or with drink, which is what most of his friends have done. He looks down at the town from the top of the hill. He’s probably not going to throw himself off. He doesn’t want to add a dead father to the burden of being his child.
He loves his family, even if the stress has pretty much ruined his marriage. He wants to be the man he knows he should be, but he needs a break for all the pain for just a little while. A man dressed in silk robes with long, dark hair and exotic facial hair steps out of nowhere. He offers Main a break from the stress: seven days, seven weeks, or seven months and when Main returns it will be to everyone else as if he never left.
Main’s asks why not seven hours, seven years, or seven decades. If the stranger offered seven centuries he would take it. The man arches a brow and asks if that is true. A century is a very long time. But the stress of never having enough and never providing enough has gotten to Main. He asks what life will be like there. The stranger claims it will be Eden. But even if it’s not, Main thinks, a change is a good as a rest, and he needs a change so badly. He looks the man over and asks if he will be attracted to him wherever they are going. The man smirks and asked if he isn’t attracted to him now. He finds that he is.
On the other side he has to sleep just as much, but doesn’t have to eat so often. At first his life revolves around the stranger’s bed and house and yard, then the area around it. He meets other people and visits new places and is surprised when the first century has past. Things come up and for weeks, and even years at a time, his lover leaves him in the care of other people. He becomes more confident in himself. But wherever his lover comes back to him, he makes up for the lost time.
The days pass, one after the other, and before he is ready he bids his lover farewell. He holds his hand on the hillside and asks if he will ever see him again. Lover smiles and says if Main wants to hard enough. And then he’s gone. Main breaths in the last tendrils or his lover’s scent and then heads down. He grasps the memories of the man he was, but he doesn’t feel the embarrassment, disappointment, anger, and loss that went with it. He doesn’t go right home. He stops at several places, spending a bit of his money, but getting more back. By the time he returns home, his $2k is $10k and he’s got an RV and a job hundreds of miles away being what he’d always hoped to be, but never had the confidence to try.
His wife isn’t pleased that they lost their home, but he’s used to sleeping on the couch and he doesn’t want to dilute the memory of his lover. He promises to stop by her mother’s house. He has a mutual dislike with her. As they travel he doesn’t work long hours and come home tired, so he really gets to know his kids. His youngest might not be the boy the doctor said he was when he was born. He loves his sister’s baby dolls and her dress up stuff. She is not thrilled to be sharing, but since the RV only has so much space Main convinces her that by sharing, she’ll get more space for the things she loves. Main puts them both to bed ever night and never fails to kiss his youngest’s baby goodnight.
His wife decides to stay with her mother when he moves on to his new job. She asks for both the children, but Main will only let her have their daughter, having some inkling of how his feminine son would be treated in that household. He parks the RV in a place where he can feel the other side. And life goes on. His children grow and his wife remarries. His daughter comes to live with him because she doesn’t like her stepfather. But she doesn’t like the lack of privacy in the RV or sometimes walking in the see her brother making out with his boyfriend on the couch. Main says that that’s what boyfriends do. As much as he doesn’t like his comfortable household of two disrupted, he wishes he hadn’t let her live with her bigoted mother and grandmother so long. He knows the change of outlook will be hard on his daughter, but she is well worth the effort.
He goes outside and looks into the sky. His lover is close, but years away. After Main dies, they will be reunited. The years they will be apart are just a drop compared to the sea of years they were and will be together. He will probably live to seventy or seventy-seven. Only a few decades more.
Main will live every day he has here to the fullest.
(This story should really end the evening that he returns, but this is what happens when I’m up for several hours during the night.)
--
Plus, at work the store TV channel has a scroll at the bottom and I’m always catching the last few lines out of context. The other day I read “…intelligent alien. We almost certainly had sex with them. And we did it here, right here on Earth…” And my wonderful husband found the story for me. That's plunnie fodder all on it's own.