Archive | September 2014

A Week In Alder

Sep7

The Highlights

Some Stories
Cats and Grandmas – a Story of Aunt Family
Meeting the Archmage – a story of the Circled Plain
Oil & Water for Thimbleful Thursday

Feedback Requested
Ladies Bingo – Prompt a Square!

My Life, My Brain
Micro-Housing becoming a trend fascinates me
Gone Sailing!
Taughannock Falls

My Serial(s)
Edally Academy: The Angry Aetherist – Chapter Eight: Far From the Best

Other People
Signal Boost: LB-Lee’s Writeathon
K Orion Fray’s September Prompt Call

Stories
Doomsday
If You Want to Be A Samurai
Gonna Be a Samurai… Kitty?
Baram’s Elves
There Are Always Choices
Fae Apoc
Safety (After Wildlife Refuge)
Stranded World
Like This & Like That A [personal profile] djinni Icon Fic
One-Off
The Heritage that Wasn’t
It’s not the Prom for Three-Word Wednesday
Better Left Unsaid, for #fridayFlash

News
September’s Theme Has Been Chosen
The Aunt Family: A Welcome
Landing page updated:
Fairy Town

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/804291.html. You can comment here or there.

Gonna Be a Samurai… Kitty? A continuation of Doomsday for the Giraffe Call (@rix_Scaedu)

Sep6

This is written to Rix_Scaedu‘s commissioned continuation of the “Samurai” thread:
Gonna be a Samurai
Gonna Learn how to be a Samurai and
Being a Samurai Takes Work
If You Want to be a Samurai….

Fourth Year

“Austin, you don’t have to fake a headache. Seriously. If you don’t want to come to the recital, just say so.”

“No! …No.” Austin had burrowed as far under the blankets as he could go, but he had to peek out so that Sianna could see he was sincere. The light seemed to stab at his eyes, but Sianna had to understand. “No, I promise-”

“You’re not supposed to promise.”

“Not unless you really, really mean it. I promise I really do have a headache. I – I wanted to see you dance.”

“You see me dance all the time Austin what’s going on with your head?”

“Not like – what? My head hurts. I told you that.” He was seeing spots, which had to be why he didn’t dodge Sianna grabbing him. “Ow, ow, my ears… wait.” He blinked up at his friend. “What?”

“You’re Changing, it’s not fair, it’s awesome, I mean, but it’s not fair. Come on, what did Miss Ascha say about Changes?” She finally released her grip on – on his ears? It still didn’t feel right, but those things at the top of his head had to be his ears. At least that explained why everything got louder when Sianna let go. “Come on. You’ve got to go see Nurse ’Adne.”

“What? No, it’s just a headache.” Samurai didn’t need to worry about a little pain, did they? What would Professor Inazuma say? “I’ll be fine.”

“Austin!” Dancers had strong arms; Sianna grabbed his arm and yanked. “Come on. You’re going to see Nurse Meliadne. Now.”

Having a tail was totally going to get in the way of being a samurai. Austin stared miserably at Nurse Meliadne’s three-way mirror. “I have a tail.”

“You have a tail, yes. It looks as if it’s some sort of cat, maybe a domestic cat, a house cat.”

“A cat?” Austin spun around again. “Not even a tiger or a lion or something cool, I’m turning into a house cat?”

“Not ‘turning into,’ not really. You’re going to get some physical characteristics of a cat – the tail, the ears, as you can see, maybe claws. And you’ll get some – I’ve heard them called emotional characteristics. Some people call it ‘the animal.’ For some, it will be something like wanting to take a lot of naps, or chasing small objects – or prey, so I’d watch yourself around mouse-like Changes. Or an urge to mark your territory – be careful with that, or Miss Ascha will be very irritated with you.” The nurse smiled.

“Oh, good.” Austin wrinkled his nose. “So I might act like an idiot, and I’m all messed up for being a samurai.”

“Why do you say that?” Nurse Meliadne settled into her chair and put her chin in her hands. “After all, cats are known for their balance.”

“Who’s going to take me seriously looking like this?”

“Meliadne, I heard Austin was Changing… Ah, there you are!”

Oh, no, it was Professor Inazuma. Austin hid his face in his hands, but couldn’t help peeking out to see the professor’s expression.

He was… smiling. Almost grinning, really.

“A cat change? Great! Now we get to figure out your balance with that tail.”

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/804011.html. You can comment here or there.

September’s Theme has been Chosen: Gender-Funkery!

Sep6

I had a lot of votes for the September Theme Poll – which is awesome, because it means that a lot of people donated/tipped/commissioned in August, on top of my Patreon donor at the $5 level.

The votes were:
1 – Stranded
Gender-funkery
DND
Gender-Funkery
10 – DnD
Stranded
Love stories

So that’s two votes each for Stranded, Gender-funkery, and DND (Dragons Next Door).

I assigned these each a number (1,2,3), opened up my handy-dandy Random.org, and rolled.

And got 2! The theme for the month is gender-funkery, and now I get to figure out how to make a theme theme (one that isn’t a setting) work! Yay!

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/803701.html. You can comment here or there.

Gone Sailing!

Sep5

It’s almost the weekend again, but oh, wow, was last weekend fun!

I went on a boat! And Drank Wine! And ate Tapas! And drank more Wine! And then it was Christmas!

My dear friends E.Mc & Pivin gave T & I, for Christmas, a gift certificate for two people’s ride on the Schooner True Love – they also got themselves two tickets, as a promise to come visit sometime in the summer.

And, sliding in just under the wire, they came to visit last weekend!

So we went out on this lovely sailboat – about 60-something feet – for about two hours, tacking back and forth across Seneca Lake.

It was awesome. (My new icon for [twitter.com profile] thornewrites is me on the boat, just before I lost the hat). I haven’t been on a sailboat in probably a decade, and it was the most soothing feeling. Also, the best day for it – warm, no rain, but not oppressive, plenty of breeze.

The rest of the weekend was just as awesome. We checked out a new-to-us tapas place: Mia and ate lots of tasty food, then unwound at Autumn Leaves, a used book store on the Commons – I bought Eats, Shoots and Leaves, which I’ve been wanting to read for ages!

Then it was “Christmas” – technically a mutual celebration of birthdays that took place in April, April, May, and June. All the gifts!

And then there was wine, but this post is already dragging long. More for next time! Cheerio!

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/803330.html. You can comment here or there.

K Orion Fray’s September Prompt Call: Back in the Saddle

Sep5

The-Writer-Formerly-in-My-Attic, K Orion Fray, has a Prompt Call open!

The theme is Back in the Saddle, and proceeds go to help Ri resaddle (defray car expenses) after a recent move.

Prompting is free; tips open up incentive levels and get you more words.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/803210.html. You can comment here or there.

Better Left Unsaid, a story for #FridayFlash

Sep5

“It’s the job,” she’d say, when Tchaikovsky announced a text. Better not to say someone’s dead; they either already knew or they’d never get it.

“I’ll be back when I can.” She’d step out carrying her go bag and never saying if I survive. If they understood already, it was cruel. If they didn’t, it was crueler.

“It was hard,” returning, never filling in the gory details, the struggle to pull herself back to humanity, the blood that never totally washed out. If they’d asked, they already knew.

“I’ve got to go:” never even hinting at the pain of being so close to someone so human.

From [community profile] dailyprompt, 2014-08-21: “things that are better left unsaid”.
For #FridayFlash; I wasn’t satisfied with my last piece so voila
This riffs off of Entanglement from #3ww

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/803055.html. You can comment here or there.

The Aunt Family – a Welcome

Sep4

The family – Evangaline’s family, Beryl’s family, the family – has known how to use power for a very long time. They’ve known who should have power, too – them, of course, and preferably nobody else.

It’s a big family, but there’s a lot of power to be had; they’ve been collecting it for quite a while.

And, because they understand – through hard experience, in some cases – what happens if you hold power without paying sufficient attention to it, the family condenses that power into one person in each branch of the family, an unmarried, childless woman who has, so the theory goes, no distractions from her power. Because the family is not known for its creativity, they call this woman the Aunt – and she is always a niece of the former Aunt.

Evangaline has recently taken on the mantle of the Aunt, but the family is already guessing that her teenage niece Beryl will be the next one to wear the mantle.

The “Aunt Family” setting is rural modern fantasy, set in an unnamed town where the family’s reputation has, over the generations, gotten around. The magic is quiet, but nobody really doubts that it’s there.

The Aunt Family Landing Page is here.

BerylEvaRuan

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/802651.html. You can comment here or there.

Friday Flash/Djinni Icon Flash: Like This and Like That

Sep4

“This is the dance.” Senna took Autumn’s hands. “Your feet go like…” She hitched up her skirts to show her bare toes. “This and then this and then this.”

“Like, ah…” Autumn tried the steps. “This and then this, and then this and this?”

“Almost!” Senna grinned and showed off the steps again. “This and then this and so on.”

“This and then this…” Autumn found herself singing it. “Then this and so on. Senna, you’re a genius.”

“I’m a genius? It’s a dance.” The dance-mistress’ feet moved in a more complicated pattern this time, and her skirts swished against her knees.

“You’re a genius. It’s a song.” More than a song, it was a knot. “It’s a song to the universe.”

Autumn shifted her vision sideways, to the place where the strands of the world lay bright against the void. “‘Like this and like that and like this and uh…'” Her steps twined in the strands; Senna’s steps twisted in the lines, and together they made a beautiful macrame of connections. “Genius. This is the dance.”

Useful setting information: The strands, in this ‘verse, connect everything, and are created by connections between people or between things.

Want more Stranded World? Check out the landing page here.

Written for Friday Flash and in a quest to write a flash to every one of the icons Djinni has drawn for me.

“Like this and like that and like this and uh…” is from Dr. Dre’s Nuthin but a G thang.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/802433.html. You can comment here or there.

The Heritage that Wasn’t

Sep4

To [personal profile] silveradept‘s prompt

It was supposed to work. It was supposed to be right.

Jen’s mother was a kitsune. Her grandmother was a kitsune. Her grandmother’s mother, and her mother, and her mother, they had all been kitsune, as far back as history went and further.

There were no fathers in the history, which Jen had always felt unfair. Her father had, after all, raised her, as her mother’s father had raised her, and so on. The women in Jen’s family did not stay. They weren’t tame, after all.

They didn’t stay, and they didn’t teach. They left a letter. At least, Jen had been given a letter when she turned fifteen. In the envelope – which her father had been saving since he first discovered he had a daughter – was not only the letter her mother had written her, but the letter her mother had written her, and so on, and so on. The letters went back not nearly as far as the history, of course, and the last ones were crumbling and yellow. but they all said almost the same thing.

Your mother is a kitsune, and that means you will be as well… The kitsune are wild and do not stay, but we always pass on our genes… one daughter and one daughter only… do well, my daughter. Thrive.

The letters had come with her when she & her father went off-planet; they took up less than 4 oz. of her weight allowance, but weighed her down with the expectations of ages. “…One daughter and one daughter only…” Kitsune found their fox by the time they were sixteen or seventeen, maybe eighteen or nineteen.

Jen’s twenty-first birthday was on her, and there was no fox, nothing but a girl with an envelope full of ancient letters.

Next: A Heritage Earned

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This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/802214.html. You can comment here or there.