Archive | December 2011

Monday after Giddy Sunday

Dec12

I’m into work stupid-early this morning because there’s, in theory, a VIP coming in at some point. On the other hand, I get to leave early too!

This weekend was awesome! Saturday was a lot of housework – finishing painting the trim, moving the old sink out of the utility room, that sort of thing – not as much painting as I’d wanted but still productive.

Sunday, we took a long drive (go to the bottom of the lake, turn right. Go to the top of the lake, turn left. Go over the top of another lake….) to a place called The Wizard of Clay that does awesome pottery and has for over 30 years (My parents have housewarming gifts from there).

On the way back, we hit a few wineries, including Four Chimneys, which is a teeny tiny winery with some really awesome wines. I <3 living in wine country!!

In other news…

[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith has posted some more poems from the fishbowl, including “The Leaning of Life”, from my prompt.

[personal profile] clare_dragonfly has posted some more fiction from her Garden of Prosy, including The Other Side of the Gate, from my prompt.

[personal profile] meeks has posted a sketch dump, including a sketch from my story “Creeped Right Out.”

and

[personal profile] anke is calling for prompts, with a theme of “horror or dark fantasy”

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/196007.html. You can comment here or there.

Meme!

Dec11

(yes, I know I still have to finish last week’s. Sorry!)

Yoinked from [personal profile] recessional

Tell me about a story I haven’t written, and I’ll give you between one and three sentences from that story.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/195742.html. You can comment here or there.

Icon Flash: Chain ‘Round her Neck

Dec10

Continuing flash series! I’m going to write one flash for every Icon I have, over 4 LJ accounts, 1 DW, and a whole bunch of not-currently-in-use, until I get bored or run out of icons.

Today’s icon:

Icon from [community profile] kink_bingo Names from Fourteen Minutes‘ random generator.

This is mild, for a story written by me with this icon, but it could be triggery.

The chain around her throat tightened, pulling her against the wall, telling Genique that her captor was coming in. She didn’t fight it anymore; after a month here, she knew it wouldn’t do any good, and the press of the links was starting to feel good to her. It told her she wasn’t alone.

The door to her cell creaked open on its track, and Basimontin walked in. He was carrying, as he always was, a tray with a cup of water and a bowl of gruel. He was, however, wearing a frown today. That made Genique frown, too. Basi always smiled.

“Thirty-one days, Miss Wadevier,” he said gently.

“Thirty-one,” she agreed with him. “I told you they wouldn’t be able to make the ransom.”

“One does not normally find people on luxury liners whose family cannot afford our quite-reasonable price.” The sky-pirate sounded almost apologetic.

“I wanted to see the worlds,” she explained, not for the first time. “I saved up until I could pay the fee. It took everything I had.” She hadn’t bargained with the sky-pirates.

“Everyone lies. No-one wants their family to have to foot the bill. But your family really didn’t.”

“I know.” She’d know they wouldn’t. It had lent a certain peace to her while she waited for the pirates to come to the same conclusion. “What happens now?”

“Since your family cannot or will not pay your ransom, you will simply have to earn your freedom yourself.” His frown deepened. “This won’t be easy, Miss Wadevier.”

She touched the chain around her throat. “It hasn’t been yet, Basi.”

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/195405.html. You can comment here or there.

Icon Flash – the Sea and Sky

Dec9

Continuing flash series! I’m going to write one flash for every Icon I have, over 4 LJ accounts, 1 DW, and a whole bunch of not-currently-in-use, until I get bored or run out of icons.

Today’s icon:

I don’t remember, I’m sorry, where I yoinked this from, 3 years ago, to serve as Kailani’s fisrt icon (“sea and sky.”) Today, I’m using it as a picture, not a Kai icon.

The sky and sea seemed to go on forever.

Their exploration ship had crash-landed on this planet, splash-landed, more like it, when a computer failure (meters and yards were not the same thing, and why had it taken this long for someone to notice the problem?) had sent it off course. Many of the crew and passengers had made it out alive, in the amphibious landing vessels that were designed for any human-habitable landing site, and now they floated along, staring out at the endless sea.

Rostislav had rigged a sail – the solar panels pulled in enough electricity to power the motor, but they had better uses for that power, and the sail made use of free wind. Once he’d gotten their vessel done, nothing would do but he did the other three, the captain’s first, of course. Not that Captain Heinz should still be in charge, but the expedition leader had been one of the ten percent not to survive the crash. Rostislav still missed Zana, and their children, too young to understand, still asked where she was.

Jafa had figured out a rudder – her family had spent summers on the cape – and, by that knowledge, been named leader of their boat. They could steer, but the question became what were they steering for? No land had been seen in two long weeks. They were running out of rations, and people were grumbling about decanting the work-animal embryos just to eat them. They were running out of patience, and there was nothing to do to fix that. The fourth boat, the one lagging behind, was discussing cannibalism.

And still the sea and sky went on forever, as far as their instruments could gauge.

Next: http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/278156.html

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/194268.html. You can comment here or there.