A Snippit and a Few Ideas
Apr. 30th, 2010 01:14 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
anthimeriaSeeing as mine is a writer's journal and I've never actually posted any of my stories (publishers frown on that; they don't want to pay for work people can already read for free), I thought I'd post something I'm never going to submit in honor of ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
three_weeks_for_dw (and to prove that I'm not making up all the writing I yap about!).
The first bit is the beginning of a Letter Game I started with a friend of mine who studied abroad in '08--we never finished the game (I hear that's how most Letter Games go), but we did send the first few letters.
Dear Valeria,
Aunt Aurelia did something terrible. She gave me a dog.
Don’t try to reassure me that this time I won’t kill something entrusted to my care when you know very well that I will, as I have killed everything else entrusted to me! Except Mother’s parrot, but Mekt is pretty good at taking care of herself, and the slaves look after her as well. Do you remember the last time I tried to take care of a puppy? Quintus had to rescue the poor thing from me after a week of neglect. Aunt Aurelia claims I won’t have as much trouble with Tegus because he’s a grown dog--one of her retired stud lap dogs, white and fluffy--but I don’t believe her. He’s sitting on the floor at my feet right now, probably wondering when I’m going do something interesting, or at least feed him.
Valeria, I will make a terrible mother.
On top of the dog, Aunt Aurelia has decided that I’m so horrible at hearthcraft because I haven’t been practicing. You know that’s not true! She doesn’t believe me, so now I have magic lessons with her three times a week instead of just twice. I still don’t think hearthcraft is as important as she makes it out to be. Sure, a wife has to be in control of her home, but that’s what bought magic is for and the slaves and steward will take care of most of it anyway.
Only Aunt Aurelia says women who keep stewards are too lazy to learn proper hearthcraft themselves, and that any spell set by someone else will inevitably have holes in it and we’ll all be stabbed in our beds by renegade slaves, gods help us! Yes, in case you were wondering, I did have to put up with another one of her rants at my lesson today.
I think I’ll bring a fire salamander to the next lesson. That’s not bought magic, and it’ll keep the villa warm in winter without need for fire- or heating-spells. That’ll show her.
In much better news than Aunt Aurelia’s tyranny, there’s to be a series of games held in honor of the summer solstice festival! Seven games over the course of the next two months. Agrippus has talked about nothing else since the Senate announced it. Quintus has talked of nothing but Agrippus emptying his purse and likely part of the House’s purse as well, betting on the fights. My stick-in-the-mud brother probably won’t attend the games at all, but I’d like to go, and Agrippus has promised to take me to at least one. More, he says, if I like it, but he also says I won’t.
Well, I couldn’t tell him about how we snuck into the Bassenarsus Arena to watch the hydra fights last autumnal equinox, could I?
Father says his Senate meeting tonight is going to be interminable, so I’ll at least have some privacy. Quintus is, of course, going with him, and Agrippus is heading off with his friends. For all that Agrippus is the older brother, Quintus is the one who does more work with Father in the Senate. Agrippus never liked scribe’s work, which is what he says is all Quintus does as Father’s assistant. I don’t blame him--these letters to you are as close as I’d care to get to scribe’s work!
Even though you didn’t leave long ago, I miss you. I feel terribly shut in, with only Aunt Aurelia to visit regularly. At this season most of my cousins have gone off to their country villas for the summer, and while I’m glad I get to stay in the city and see the games, I’m also lonely.
I hope Aeva reaches you with this letter in a timely manner. The winds were blowing something fierce when she left, and sylph or not, I’m worried. Light an extra stick of incense for her when she arrives, please?
Your loving friend,
Caia
Secondly, I'm a terrific hoarder of story ideas, and also believe that no two people will ever write the same story from the same inspiration. So, below are a few choice samples from my Story Ideas file--check them out for inspiration or just a peek inside my head.
--fantasy or sci fi: a smaller/larger creature by gigantic proportions is sentient and a human has to serve as an ambassador to their court or vise versa
--Methods for dimensional travel: Consider methods of traveling - train goes through a tunnel, airplane hits a rip in dimensional walls that nobody notices till they land (or try to!), a person walks through a door.
--Take the “5 things” fandom meme and apply it to an original story. (I've done this--it's much harder, but can be really fun, and I would love to see others try it.)
--Tragedy of a hasty promise kept—think Rapunzel.
--Landlord has haunted property, and knows it, and keeps renting it out anyway. Why?
three_weeks_for_dw (and to prove that I'm not making up all the writing I yap about!).The first bit is the beginning of a Letter Game I started with a friend of mine who studied abroad in '08--we never finished the game (I hear that's how most Letter Games go), but we did send the first few letters.
Dear Valeria,
Aunt Aurelia did something terrible. She gave me a dog.
Don’t try to reassure me that this time I won’t kill something entrusted to my care when you know very well that I will, as I have killed everything else entrusted to me! Except Mother’s parrot, but Mekt is pretty good at taking care of herself, and the slaves look after her as well. Do you remember the last time I tried to take care of a puppy? Quintus had to rescue the poor thing from me after a week of neglect. Aunt Aurelia claims I won’t have as much trouble with Tegus because he’s a grown dog--one of her retired stud lap dogs, white and fluffy--but I don’t believe her. He’s sitting on the floor at my feet right now, probably wondering when I’m going do something interesting, or at least feed him.
Valeria, I will make a terrible mother.
On top of the dog, Aunt Aurelia has decided that I’m so horrible at hearthcraft because I haven’t been practicing. You know that’s not true! She doesn’t believe me, so now I have magic lessons with her three times a week instead of just twice. I still don’t think hearthcraft is as important as she makes it out to be. Sure, a wife has to be in control of her home, but that’s what bought magic is for and the slaves and steward will take care of most of it anyway.
Only Aunt Aurelia says women who keep stewards are too lazy to learn proper hearthcraft themselves, and that any spell set by someone else will inevitably have holes in it and we’ll all be stabbed in our beds by renegade slaves, gods help us! Yes, in case you were wondering, I did have to put up with another one of her rants at my lesson today.
I think I’ll bring a fire salamander to the next lesson. That’s not bought magic, and it’ll keep the villa warm in winter without need for fire- or heating-spells. That’ll show her.
In much better news than Aunt Aurelia’s tyranny, there’s to be a series of games held in honor of the summer solstice festival! Seven games over the course of the next two months. Agrippus has talked about nothing else since the Senate announced it. Quintus has talked of nothing but Agrippus emptying his purse and likely part of the House’s purse as well, betting on the fights. My stick-in-the-mud brother probably won’t attend the games at all, but I’d like to go, and Agrippus has promised to take me to at least one. More, he says, if I like it, but he also says I won’t.
Well, I couldn’t tell him about how we snuck into the Bassenarsus Arena to watch the hydra fights last autumnal equinox, could I?
Father says his Senate meeting tonight is going to be interminable, so I’ll at least have some privacy. Quintus is, of course, going with him, and Agrippus is heading off with his friends. For all that Agrippus is the older brother, Quintus is the one who does more work with Father in the Senate. Agrippus never liked scribe’s work, which is what he says is all Quintus does as Father’s assistant. I don’t blame him--these letters to you are as close as I’d care to get to scribe’s work!
Even though you didn’t leave long ago, I miss you. I feel terribly shut in, with only Aunt Aurelia to visit regularly. At this season most of my cousins have gone off to their country villas for the summer, and while I’m glad I get to stay in the city and see the games, I’m also lonely.
I hope Aeva reaches you with this letter in a timely manner. The winds were blowing something fierce when she left, and sylph or not, I’m worried. Light an extra stick of incense for her when she arrives, please?
Your loving friend,
Caia
Secondly, I'm a terrific hoarder of story ideas, and also believe that no two people will ever write the same story from the same inspiration. So, below are a few choice samples from my Story Ideas file--check them out for inspiration or just a peek inside my head.
--fantasy or sci fi: a smaller/larger creature by gigantic proportions is sentient and a human has to serve as an ambassador to their court or vise versa
--Methods for dimensional travel: Consider methods of traveling - train goes through a tunnel, airplane hits a rip in dimensional walls that nobody notices till they land (or try to!), a person walks through a door.
--Take the “5 things” fandom meme and apply it to an original story. (I've done this--it's much harder, but can be really fun, and I would love to see others try it.)
--Tragedy of a hasty promise kept—think Rapunzel.
--Landlord has haunted property, and knows it, and keeps renting it out anyway. Why?
(no subject)
Date: 2010-04-30 11:44 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-04-30 06:22 pm (UTC)