Archive | September 2015

If a Tree Grows in the Forest… a drabble

Sep29

Written to [profile] kiarrith‘s prompt here

The thing was, the industrial areas of the city hadn’t been abandoned that long. 15 years since the last manufacturing business folded in the area, sure, seven since the last start-up trying to use the old spaces fizzled out. But there were hobos and drifters, skaters and hippies. There was always someone wandering through the space. Leticia walked through herself, Tuesdays and Thursdays when she didn’t have much time between work and classes.

Which is how she knew something was up when she encountered the oak grove. It was Tuesday, which meant she’d last been through this cut-through – between the old Gleason Works building and the even older Lomb plant, where the workers of both had once shared bag lunches and a brief bit of unfiltered sunlight – it had last been only 5 days ago.

Last week, the courtyard had been full of weeds, a little bit of trash, with a beaten path straight through the middle.

Today, there were five oak trees in a circle where a picnic table had once stood. They weren’t small trees, either; the smallest one was too big for Letitia to encircle with her arms.

She walked around the trees cautiously. This had to be some sort of trick, some sort of urban graffiti gone supremely weird. Trees just didn’t grow overnight. Not in a vacant lot, not anywhere.

Her foot hit something hard. Letita knelt down to look, perplexed beyond caution.

A piece of metal twisted out of the weeds, so rusted it fell apart in her hands. Another piece of metal caught her eye, white and pitted. In the flat metal, a heart was etched, dirt rubbed deep into the lines.

Letita felt chill. She knew this heart. If she pulled the rest of the metal out of the weeds, it would say QW + ZX. She’d puzzled over those initials and the heart’s wobbly arrow for months. They’d been carved into the picnic table, the table that had stood where the oak trees now grew.

Slowly, her heart in her throat, Letita turned around to look at the city skyline.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/987764.html. You can comment here or there.

Ideas for Novellas

Sep28

It occurred to me that I could and possibly should try writing a novella (10K words) every second month (because I could work on something longer-form in the off months).

So here is an incomplete list of things I want to write long form stories on:
* A proper intro to Tir na Cali
* Fires of Gobann
* Rock and a Hard Place (see first: Rock, Hard, Now What?)
* Prince Rodegard (first: here)
* The Kaa-tah (here)

Hunh, last time I counted 8.

Oh,
* Space Accountant
* The Tod’cxeckz’ri Paper
* Beekeeper
* Pet Story

Edited to add:
* Doomsday Academy

Edited Edited to add:
SubVerse

Qualifications:
something I’m starting from a relatively short piece. That leaves out The Tod’cxeckz’ri Paper, Beekeeper, makes Rock and a Hard Place & Space Accountant questionable.

Something I know I can have fun writing.
That leaves out Doomsday & makes Space Accountant & Kaa-Tah Questionable.

Easy/no worldbuilding?
Makes Prince Rodgeard & Subverse questionable.

Something with easy plotting?
Tir na Cali & Fires of Gobann.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/986928.html. You can comment here or there.

Productivity Today!

Sep27

Today, so far, I/we (T & I) have:

* Pulled the chest freezer out from the garage, thawed it, and cleaned up the exploded apple goo from the bottom (Cider jugs have a variable amount of headspace. Sometimes it’s not enough.)

* Run a batch of tiny apples from the Spare Trees through the squeezo set up on the mixer (T. chopped ’em and put ’em to boil a couple days ago)

* Boiled down the last of the pico de gallo from the company picnic into a passable tomato sauce & froze that

* Picked more tiny apples

(* took a nap)

(* Had a very tasty fried egg & jowl bacon w/ pico de gallo & chives for breakfast and very nice not-at-all-traditional latkes w/ more chives and sour cream for lunch)

* cut new supports for the mailbox front out of plastic wood

* Made a sour cream apple coffee cake (it’s currently in the oven) (this recipe) with sour cream from the company picnic

(The company picnic was catered by Moe’s. Next up are fried cinnamon-and-sugar tortilla chips…)

* Wrote an Aunt Family Piece for [personal profile] kelkyag/Patreon & created a Canva picture for it, though it’s not my favorite design.

Next up:

* Pick more apples, take a walk, write the last kitty Patreon piece for the month, do some Day Job, maybe do some Edally & This Other Project Thing writing. Have dinner, hang out with husband, pet cats.

* Clean up the kitchen, put the freezer back in the barn

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/986804.html. You can comment here or there.

Lilac in Spring, a character study of Radar and Lam, posted on Patreon

Sep27

Lilac in Spring

“Hey, stop that, stop that. You’re my mother, yes, I fully acknowledge that, but what are you doing, no, no, not inside the ear…”

The cat often known as Radar was in the habit of ignoring voices that spoke in English. It wouldn’t do for anyone – not even the human that theoretically could call him as familiar – to get used to him being tame. He was a cat, after all, no matter what machinations had folded him into that shape….

read on…

Before Kitten troubles and after Charming, Kitten Switch, and Boy Trouble

Aunt Family have a landing page here.

This story is free for all to read!

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/986546.html. You can comment here or there.

Lilac in Spring

Sep27

“Hey, stop that, stop that. You’re my mother, yes, I fully acknowledge that, but what are you doing, no, no, not inside the ear…”

The cat often known as Radar was in the habit of ignoring voices that spoke in English. It wouldn’t do for anyone – not even the human that theoretically could call him as familiar – to get used to him being tame. He was a cat, after all, no matter what machinations had folded him into that shape.

But something about this voice drew him back, when he had nearly walked past the room and out of the house. Continue reading →

Now taking a few small prompts

Sep26

Just for fun, because I don’t feel like working on anything big.

theme: Fantasy worlds/fictional worlds/strange lands.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/985939.html. You can comment here or there.

Vermin Hunter, a story of Aunt Family, is up on Patreon

Sep25

Vermin Hunter


The bed was cozy and the woman beside her was warm. Annalise did not want to move. But outside, just at the edge of the property, something was stirring, something that did not belong. She yawned irritably and stretched, spine arching, paws padding against the blanket. If she was quick, if she was lucky, she could be back in before the human noticed she was gone.

read on…

For just $1, you can read all the Patreon stories!

This one follows another Aunt Family and another cat. There are most mysteries in the dark than Radar – or Annalise – talk about.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/985758.html. You can comment here or there.

Character building: Rafe (a drabble)

Sep25

Near the end of Year 5
There were nights when Rafe woke up not knowing where he was anymore. Those were the bad nights – not the worst, but close to it. He’d stare at the ceiling, or at Renata’s fall of blonde hair, refusing to move, afraid to even breathe, until he remembered that this was his Kept, not his Keeper, that this was okay, that he was safe.

He never talked about those moments with anyone. Of the three of them – Eris and Joff and him – he was supposed to be the strong one, supposed to be the calm one. Of the three of them, he’d had it the easiest. Nobody had taken to cutting him up as a weekend hobby. Nobody had locked him in the closet whenever he forgot his script. He was strong. Protective. He wasn’t supposed to be the one with nightmares.

Last night had started with a bad night, and things were not looking up. He smiled at Eris, squeezed Joff’s hand, and gave Renata a gentle hug. “We’ll be back in a few hours. We’re going to go visit the kids.”

“I wish I could come with you.” Renata wrinkled her nose and looked down at the floor. “I’d like to meet your kids. Your other kids.”

“You will, eventually. I’m sure of it.” He rubbed her back for a moment in apology. “But not today. Stay here, okay?”

“Okay.” She settled carefully into the couch. “Maybe I’ll get some homework done.”

“Good idea.” Praise, touch. Gentleness. Those were the things that made a Keeping bearable, that made it feel like a warm nest instead of a cold cage. Rafe knew exactly what the lack of those things felt like, and he was not going to do that to his Kept. “We won’t be that long.”

He pulled his imaginary armor over himself as they left her behind. The smile faded into something hard and wolfish. His back straightened; he raised his chin. He didn’t have to look at Joff and Eris to know they were doing the same.

They were visiting their children. They were visiting Liza.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/985498.html. You can comment here or there.

The Invasion of the Kaa-Tah

Sep25

The Kaa-tah arrived in early Spring, as the snow was melting. They came down in unsettled areas, their small landing craft hiding easily in forests, in deep grass, in rolling hills. They were picked up on radar, but even so, falling a few a day, all over the globe, it took the world’s authorities too long to recognize the invasion for what it was.

The Kaa-tah did not immediately engage local populations; instead, they put the robots and tools they had brought to good use, building structures, setting up small, isolated settlements and beginning to manufacture more tools, more advanced robots.

The first humans to discover Kaa-tah-eh settlements were gently rebuffed, sent away with a light smattering of weapons fire. Continue reading →