Warhead On Legs

This is entirely bethany_lauren and kikibug13's faults.

Day 1: The King

King Lathan, or King Sluagh as I called him before I gave him a name, is one of the Kings in the House of Oak and Ash, among several other titles I will surely give him at some point. Possibly involving a Lord of the Northern Marches or Reaches or some such ridiculousness. He's a Sluagh king in a largely Daoine Sidhe controlled territory, which makes them pissy and him pissier and nervous, especially since it's contested land with the Sluagh and the Fomori and has been for quite some time. Before he ruled, it went back and forth for several hundred years.

The House of Oak and Ash, and particularly the British Isles branch, have suffered from a lack of new blood for a considerable while going back at least two thousand years. When I say new blood I mean rather acceptable new blood, because with the various incursions and traders came new blood in the fae worlds as well, but several factions didn't welcome the new fae into their beds or at least into their families, and sadly these were the ruling factions. This led to a slow decline in fertility and population as emigration and conflict happened, decimating (in the classical sense, yes) the ruling fae and forcing them to pick and choose their mates carefully. A little over a thousand years ago, the Sluagh King, knowing that he was unpopular regardless for being a Sluagh among the fair folk, hatched a plan. He would impregnate several human women who were chosen for affinity to the fae and hope for the best, hope that an heir would come out of it sooner or later. One did, in fact two did but one was sickly and died within a century, and the second he didn't find until nearly a thousand years later.

Lathan has some profound control issues, as one might expect when you're a king of a race of conniving selfish jerkwads who have had plenty of time to practice being conniving, being selfish, and being jerkwads. Then again he also chose to be one of them many, many centuries ago, and he succeeded, and he's very good at it. It's how he's survived so long.

He doesn't appear to have any emotional connections, not any profound ones at least. He lacks the trust necessary for it, and he doesn't appear to feel the lack of it. Or at least he hasn't shown me yet. It's possible if I do some stories from his point of view that'll turn up, but I haven't the reasons or inclination to yet.

A couple memes! All comments to this entry are screened for the security porpoises.

( Holiday Wish List meme )

The second meme, if it can be called that: If you want a Christmas card this year! Ask, leave me your address (or DM it or something) and ye shall receive! One of the side effects of me cleaning out my office today is I unearthed all of my half-used Christmas card packs. Give me your addresses! I will give you cards! Again, all comments to this entry are screened, so if you comment with your address the world at large will never know.

Ich habe Kopfschmerzen. :/ Which is timely.

( Deutsch )

My tits are alligators your argument is invalid. Seriously, I want that. If I weren't in the middle of negotiating a Massive Life Purchase I would be all over that like Sorcerers on emotional chain-jerking. Also in wildlife news, but more along the lines of Wait, SERIOUSLY? someone was spray painting hawks. I'm not sure whether to be irked that they're spray painting hawks or impressed because they're spray painting hawks. Probably irked. A man with two hearts survived a double heart attack, and I really can't put it much more plainly than that, and finally, rest in peace, great lady.

So, I've been seeing a lot about the Black March stuff, and I actually think it's a fabulous idea, with a couple of exceptions. I will still be buying books... from used bookstores. To support my local business and maybe pass along some books so other people will buy more from that author. I will be buying books... from authors where I can buy from them direct. I will still buy music, if I see the musicians selling their CDs. Or can get them from the musician's website. Admittedly, if March goes the way I think it will I won't be buying much that isn't household stuff, but I will be avoiding the big corporations and buying local, direct, etc, as much as I can. Because as nice as it is to stick it to the money-grubbing bastards, it's also nice to support the creators I love.

More cheerful news! Cuddle meme, only not quite. Leave me a fandom and two/three/four characters and I will come up with a short piece of cuddly fiction! Because obviously I don't have enough writing to do.

And, actually, I should go do some of that, plus some of that modding thing since I am supposedly a responsible mod and adult. Stop laughing.

( 日本語 )

My brain seems to have shut down most of its function right now. Come back later for an introspective ramble on the money laundering that may be going in an anti-Muslim "non-profit" trying to shut down a mosque before it's built, and why I'm so much less surprised when conservatives pull this shit than when liberals do. And double standards in politics. And I'm exhausted just thinking about that.

Instead you get: Marry, Shag, Cliff.

inkandalchemy gave me: Jareth, Sherlock Holmes, John Constantine. There are no good choices there.
Marry - Sherlock Holmes. He, at least, is calm and stable enough to treat marriage as a social contract. We would negotiate terms, draw up a list of responsibilities, and conduct ourselves in a rational manner. When his bipolarism and drug addiction permit, but I expect he'd make a very civilized husband. Which is more than I can expect from the other two.

Shag - Jareth. He's hot. And we all know what his most famous feature is. Plus, out of the three of those, he would be the easiest to leave behind, being largely restricted to his own little pocket dimension or chaos realm or whatever it is. I'd just have to watch what I say.

Cliff - John Constantine. I wouldn't mind a shag with him, either, and I wouldn't mind too much being friends with him, but I like life. And his loved ones, or even people he brushes up against in passing some of the time, have a nasty tendency to end up dead. As badass as I can be, I harbor no illusions that sleeping with him would be a one-night or one-weekend stand as far as the forces around him are concerned. And marrying John Constantine is tantamount to mental and emotional suicide.

kikibug13 gave me: Caleb Danvers, Drustan, and Crowley (SPN or Good Omens) Argh.
Marry - Strange as it is to say, I think I'd marry Caleb. He's not so bad with the Sorcery that I'd be constantly minding him, I think. He's obviously well off, so I can write all I want. And I could deal with the magic heritage thing. And with New England. Massachusetts isn't a bad state. Also, dude. He's freaking hot.

Shag - Um. Um um. My Mark Sheppard fixation is winning here, sorry Drustan, that means you get the

Cliff - Bye bye, Drustan.

I seriously haven't had a day off since last Monday, and last week was insane at work enough. I really, really hope this week is quieter. I'm not getting a weekend this weekend either, because the my mother's former Welshman is going to be in town and wants to hang out. Oh joy. All I want to do is curl up in the apartment and sleep, and read. I have things I could be reading! And probably prep and spin, too. Maybe I'll get sick or something.

... I also might kill my mother for giving him my cell phone number and saying they would be happy to hear from you, but I might not. I don't answer my phone half the time anyway. Still. MOTHER. I was looking forward to ALL THE SLEEP. And all the spinning and reading. Maybe I'll get really lucky and he won't be able to do anything. Maybe. (OR, you know, I could remember that saying no is also permitted.)

( 30 Days of Writing )

15. Midway question! Tell us about a writer you admire, whether professional or not!

Stephen King. Full stop. And not just because I like his writing, which I do, even if I think some of his recent work is really crap. I love his attitude towards writing. Equal parts, it's a job, you need to do the work, you need to keep your tools sharp and clean and, there's a muse, mine's a basement kinda guy. And I respect and admire that. He doesn't have too many pretensions, which, given the size of the freakin' empire he's created, he really could. He seems like a pretty practical if slightly spacy guy.

A couple others include Warren Ellis, Tanya Huff, Fiona Patton, and Jim Butcher, just because they seem like pretty cool people on Twitter or LJ. >.>

Special mention goes to two people who I think will remain nameless here but who I do admire, the one because she's improved quite a damn bit over the past couple years just from watching and learning and refining, and the other for the sheer bravery in tackling an area of writing in which she wasn't very experienced and giving it a good ass-kicking, and that's just to start with.


16. Do you write romantic relationships? How do you do with those, and how “far” are you willing to go in your writing? ;)

Yes, I write smut. I write a lot of smut. Just look for the kink bingo tag.

My attitude on writing is, I'll write whatever if it serves the story. And sometimes, yeah, the goal of the story is pure porn, but that rarely lasts beyond a couple thousand words. But if the way a man makes love to his wife, a woman dominates her lover, a man explores his sexuality with his new boyfriend, a teenager fumbles around with her best girlfriend in a high school escapade is relevant to the story and the development of the character, yeah, I'll write it. Some of it will be erotic. Some of it I'll try to put the erotic on the back burner for a bit and make it clumsy, or awkward, or painful, or hysterical, or vicious, or demented, or...

You get the idea.

To me, the point of a story is to tell the story. And sometimes it's relevant to the story that a man is just as patient in bed with his virgin lover as he is out of it, that he doesn't rush the relationship to sex but is willing to fool around for weeks and weeks before doing the actual deed. It shows aspects of his character that he feels this is an important moment, that he's genuinely happy for his lover and not thinking well, fucking finally. Or maybe he is thinking that. And that's relevant, too.

If it shows the reader some part of the character that wouldn't otherwise be revealed, or underscores some part of the character, or demonstrates a state of mind or a habitual action or a high or a low or some other aspect of development? Sure, I'll show it. Otherwise, it's probably going to be "and they kept each other up all night. And everyone else in the barracks."

Romantic relationships, ditto, though people seem less concerned about whether or not someone writes those. No one asks, "are you comfortable with writing a romantic relationship or would that shock you?" at least, the shock you, part.


So, you may have noticed a conspicuous lack of languages other than English in here. I finally caved and decided that in the time I spent studying German or Russian (or Japanese) I would mostly be thinking about all the sewing and fixing and drop spindle practicing I wasn't getting done, so that's on hold till at least after this weekend. Possibly after Dragon Con, but I think after this weekend things will be a lot easier. I've revised my list of crap I have to do to accommodate the fact that I have game tomorrow, and all the hand sewing will be there now. Or a good chunk of it. I've somehow managed to bun my hair when I wasn't paying attention. What the hell.

And I've broken things down into a series of steps that I think will manage to keep me sane. It helps that my Silk Spectre costume is done, barring replacing the shoulder-garters, and my Cheetara costume will be done by the end of the weekend. Possibly sooner, it depends on when I get my bracer done.

And there was some spontaneous costume generation in the form of, hey, I just realized. I'm going to be wandering around a geek fest with a drop spindle. All I need are two willing women, a pair of scissors, and a measuring stick, and I've got a third costume. Holy shit. Easiest costume ever, I swear. For a value of easy here used to equal, had to learn a new skill, but hey. I have gained so many ranks in Profession: Spinner over this whole year it is insane. Starting from zero and going to about three, but hey!

Oof. Time to poke this fake black hair and see if it'll really work for doing what I think I can do with this Cheetara wig. Otherwise I'll just be a yellow haired Cheetara, what the hell, it's too close for me to fuss with it anymore. And then home, and writing my fingers off.

( Deutsch )

( It's showtime! )

( 30 Days of Writing )

13. What's your favorite culture to write, fictional or not?

I think... surprisingly, I think back-country mountain culture, in a way. Specifically around-this-area mountain culture. Mostly because I love it, the song, the storytelling, the crafts, the dogged stubbornness, the general calm, the appreciation of beauty, the... slightly left of center-ness. The storytelling. The mysticism, whether of the christian or pagan variety, the close community thing, small town atmosphere, and did I mentioned the storytelling?

Failing that, fantastic cultures I make up are always kind of awesome. This is what happens when you're an anthropology geek.

Oogh. Did get a bunch of writing done today. Did not... something. I had a brain, but it went away. Did not get any sewing done. Did get the last of my shopping for costume pieces done, and got some triangle sponges for my arm makeup and some other stuff. I guess in the end of it all, getting my languages and routines and writing done is still a win, considering it was a Monday. Tomorrow, shipping, writing, and carding the damn wool that's been sitting in the classroom for ages so I can use it to practice drop-spindling. Because, seriously, yo. That needs to happen a lot.

( 30 days of writing )

I haven't been doing this for a while. Whoops

8. What's your favorite genre to write? To read?

Lately my favorite genre to write has been urban fantasy. I suspect this varies depending on what mood I'm in. Urban fantasy, magic and witches and demons and things set in the modern world, is also one of the most versatile, though. It can slide into romance or horror or comedy depending on how you slant it. After Urban Fantasy I'd definitely say comes horror. Then fantasy, then science fiction, because science fiction is hard, yo. Somewhere in there is mystery, which might be my second favorite genre to write, but most of my mysteries have some kind of supernatural element to them with the exception of one series, so I'm not sure how you'd qualify that.

My favorite genre to read is probably a tie between mystery and fantasy. But I also read most of the kinds of things I write, which is only what most fiction writers tell you to do. Write what you know, i.e. (or one of the i.e.s) what you like to read.

9. How do you get ideas for your characters? Describe the process of creating them.

Oh christ.

The ones I can remember. Sam, my Sorcerer, developed a personality shortly after I started separating out my most common characters into archetypes (this developed into a few essays on Jungian theory, the unconscious, Campbell, etc). He started snarking at me, and I've never really put him into anything except a few writing communities for muses here and there. He still remains my strongest, and snarkiest voice today.

Nameless just came in and sat down. I was flipping through people's icons mostly out of boredom, I think, ran across one of Jeffrey Dean Morgan, and all of a sudden I hear this voice over my shoulder going "Hey. Looks kinda comfy in here. Think I might settle down a while." That was about a year and a half ago, as frightening as it is to think of by now. At least a year and a half ago. It took some doing to wrestle exactly who and what he was out of him, but I managed to get a whole flipping novel. Mostly in bits and pieces. I'm still finding out the strangest things (go on, picture Jeffrey Dean Morgan sitting down at a spinning wheel, I dare you) about him, but mostly it makes sense. And it's very cool.

Pen Bryton started with a name and a personality, and I haven't fleshed her out much since then. The Kovalenko Contingency trio are mostly a tragedy and the figures therein, with lots and lots of strong emotions and their background facts have always been hazy. Astrid is very clear, she's very decisive about what she does and doesn't, will or will not do. Mostly, the process of building a character in my head these days has become sitting down with myself, pulling up a thought paradigm in my head, giving it a voice and poking it until it speaks. And then I write down what it says.

10. What are some really weird situations your characters have been in? Everything from serious canon scenes to meme questions counts!

... Uh. I'm trying to think of some, but apart from Nameless and Guy getting into hijinks, I can't think of too many. Weird is highly subjective, especially for a range of genres. Anyone care to offer up some from things I've written? Bueller? Bueller?

( Deutsch )

One of these days, I swear, I will learn how to take pictures decently and without a shitton of lighting issues. Or smiling issues. Or nervousness. Till then, you get me looking over-lit and sullen. But with the first layer of Cheetara makeup! And no base. I think I may need a paler-than-usual base or something. Not sure yet.

( Piccy )

( 30 days of writing )

5. By age, who is your youngest character? Oldest? How about “youngest” and “oldest” in terms of when you created them?

Ummm. Youngest character. I'm trying to think and I'm not coming up with very much, especially considering I write characters from a number of different points in their life. Maybe my youngest character, consistently, is Jacob? Astrid's son. Or maybe not.

Oldest is probably Sam. He's also my second or third oldest in terms of when I created him. Sam is as old as narration and story itself, so he's definitely the oldest. And he's also one of the oldest in terms of when I created him simply because I created him ... 7 years ago? 8? Something. Morgwyn, the star of that really old novel I was telling you all about, and Brandt, the antagonist, are definitely the oldest. Everyone else sort of either faded away or came after that.

Unless my November of ridiculous amounts of Nano was before that. It might have been. I honestly don't remember anymore.

Right. I did very little to no writing today, but I did manage to get 2/3 of the Big Sky Riding Skirt done. Plus a makeup test run. Plus only getting up at noon. Plus exercise. Plus German. So I call it a win. I also discovered that the Big Sky Riding skirt is a) ridiculously complicated (but I've only made two mistakes so far!) and b) ridiculously appropriate to a Herald's Whites. I am now trying to resist going back to the fabric store and getting some white corduroy or something so that I can run around in Herald's Whites one day. Because, seriously, all I'd need would be the skirt. And I can make that. But I'm being good. Really.

Um. Things. Stuff. Fray check is useful but reeks to high heaven. I am never, ever making anything that requires ... no, check that, I'm just never making anything again that's that prone to fraying. (Where, ever again here means, until I forget, but still annoying.) I keep forgetting how irritating it is to sew massive amounts of fabric in a skirt but by god this thing is going to look awesome. And now I remember why I dislike sewing in summer. Even with the A/C on that iron is fucking hot.

Also, Carter from Eureka is going to be at Dragon*Con. Also, he needs to learn NOT TO POKE THE SORCERER. CHRIST.

The end.

( Random language practice )

( 日本語 )

And that's all she wrote for that, because I have to do my emails and get ready to get the hell out of here. God my workstation's a mess. I really, really need to clean it up on Monday. Like, a lot. File my papers, break down boxes and clear them out, all that jazz. And probably clear some of the crap off my table as well, which here means trashing it. Or putting boxes too far gone down to the recycling. Oogh. Except today what I had to do was ship a fuckton of backordered yarn since it was finally in. And now the dyehouse for our yarn is waiting on their dye, which didn't come when expected. Oh goodie. Because what we needed was a BIGGER delay in getting that yarn in.

( 30 days of writing meme )

3. How do you come up with names, for characters (and for places if you're writing about fictional places)?

... Oh christ.

It depends on the circumstance. Usually the names just sort of pop into my head, the shape and sound of them, and with a little prodding they drop right in. Dale worked that way, I knew it was sort of a D-a type sound. Joss... I can't even remember how, but I know Martine was that way too. My go-to when I need a name right now and can't think that way is usually the environment around me. The news or newspaper or a news website, the paperwork at work. I'll pull first names from there, and last names, and mash them up together, sometimes altering them (from 'Jennifer' to 'Jen' or 'Miriam' to 'Maryam' or something ridiculous like that) or just taking a first name from someone and a last name from somewhere else.

Sometimes I'll need a cultural name. And sometimes when I need that, I'll google [culture] [gender] baby name, but a lot of times I'll go to literature or fiction or history and just wiki surf until I come across something I like that sounds right. I prefer looking in original sources for names, especially when I'm aiming for a certain geographic region. If only because then I know that I've at least gotten it somewhat right, even if that name isn't in favor anymore. Preferably matching up name, region, and time period, but you can't always have everything.

Fantasy names I've never been good with. Which is probably why most of my current works are urban fantasy. I am kind of fascinated with conlang, so I expect when I dive into fantasy or more distant sci-fi for a more concerted try I'll actually create a linguistic background for the names for my made-up culture. If you haven't already figured out that I'm something of a language geek by now, well...

Names for countries and cities and places and things... well, again, I don't do fantasy or sci-fi much as I used to, so that's less of an issue. Clubs and restaurants and things, I tend to go for either "stock" names or build off of names of places I've been, organizations I've heard of, and so on. So far it's been very easy to just mix and match or chop and paste. Sometimes I'll make it relevant to a plot element, or a character element of the character who owns or runs the place. Usually I try to make it either fit into the theme or just sound plausible.

Mostly, my favorite names just seem to click. I know them when I hear them.

(And by now I've been writing this post for about three hours, so I think I'm just going to post it and be done.)

( 日本語 )

( 30 days of writing )

1. Tell us about your favorite writing project/universe that you've worked with and why.

Thus far, without a doubt, Nameless. With Martine coming in a close second, but, Nameless. He is my half-Sluagh, he is an uncouth bastard, but god I love him. He will not shut up and I love that about him.

One of these days, I'll finish editing the damn story and actually get it into print. (I think just being scared of what happens if it gets into print and no one likes it or wants to buy it is a big part of that.) His story, called The Long Road, is the story of his life up to the modern day and does jump around a tad. Despite it being about a half-Sluagh, the supernatural really plays very little foreground role in the story. Mostly it's just about a guy making his way through the world and several centuries worth of time, which is the mainly remarkable thing about him.

He lurches around, getting into trouble with his werewolf friend and fighting his way out of it again, bedding women and the occasional young man, taking odd jobs here and there to survive or sometimes living off the land or coming close to starving many times. And despite his uncouth, hard-bitten, really crude and gross and disgusting and kind of horrifying exterior, beneath that he is deeply, truly loyal and loving with those he cares about. His friend, primarily. He also, despite being unsettling in that deep-down way you can't quite pinpoint but god you want to get away from him, is very safe. Around people who are too innocent to know better (unless they come into the areas he frequents, bars and such), around children especially.

His voice is very strong, very clear. I love writing him, even if there are times when he (and he's the only character of mine that does this!) just casually blurts out things that make me go OH DEAR GOD EW. I love his voice, I love his personality, I love almost everything about him. And I love the fact that he doesn't make me want to go squish him. He's his own person, he's a vivid character, very colorful, and a great deal of fun. And wise, in his own way. Right now, he's definitely the one I love playing with the most.

I promise, after I get through with another Big Bang or two, I'll get back to that. Really. Pinky-swear.

Did get my makeup today. Did not get my leotards which, at this point, I think is going to result in me looking for a backup and emailing the store have emailed the store and asked for the status of my order. And will now start looking for a backup piece. Probably towards the end of the day around CS post time. That's the last major piece of my costume and, argh. Just, argh. It would be so much easier if I could actually have it and have it all done. Ah well. Maybe if I'm very lucky I'll find something somewhere else. ... Maybe if I remember to go outside this weekend I'll get rid of this damn farmer's tan, because now I'm thinking of trying to more match the makeup to my coloring and it's just going to be bloody awkward if I'm still this weird combination of tanned and pasty. I'm not supposed to be this pasty, dammit.

Sigh. Back to work. And then probably to more writing and emailing people and so on, but mostly, back to work. And. And and, running across the street to the other wig shop to see if they have a slightly more outlandish color that at least won't look quite so... Seriously, folks, I do not look good as a platinum blonde.