Friday, March 30, 2012

Another Story...

Another story...I'm bad, I know. But this story is not bad, for it is going so well. I have not been stuck on it at all, and I am 3/4 of the way done. Here is the summary, and that's all I'm going to say for the moment until it is done...although I will say that it needs a title, which is always my shortcoming.

Nottingham, England, 1173
 Fourteen-year-old Adele is lonely. Her widowed mother died two years ago, and she lives with an old carpenter, Master Grey, and his loathsome apprentice, Basil. When she meets the at-first-unsociable Gawain, Adele has found a friend. And what’s more, a refuge. When Basil kicks Adele out, she has a place to run to - Sherwood Forest. For Gawain is part of Robin Hood’s band of outlaws, who all welcome Adele. But then Gawain notices a strange similarity between Adele and one of the men in the band, and Adele learns a unexpected secret about her mother…and her life will never be the same again.

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Musings

Spring has sprung! Or...is it summer? It sure feels almost like June, not March.



This was a fortnight and two days ago.


And the inside of a lenten rose in our yard a few days ago.

Bad thing is, frost is coming. Oh. Dear.

Divided: Emma is done...just awaiting editing and making-into-more-historical-dialogue. Divided: Judith is halfway, and I've ideas for Divided: Kate. Emma has a proper title, which is Secret Promises. Judith has three possibilities: Remedying Lies or For the Sake of Honesty or For the Sake of Truth or A Love Against Conscience. Four, I guess.

Funny random thing I learned recently: the search engine Yahoo! is an acronym for Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle.

Inspiring summery painting:
                                               Edmund Blair Leighton - Sweet Solitude

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Divided Dilemmas

Well, I've decided on the last Divided story's theme. The main character of the third in the trilogy will be Kate Something, whose older brother Henry marries Susanna, sister of Emma and George. It will take place in 1648-49, as 1649 was the year King Charles I was executed, and I thought that would create an interesting conflict for the story.

The problem is, it would make sense to have all three stories be written in the same tense and perspective, even if it's different people. I had started writing the first one, from Emma's viewpoint, in present tense, but I don't really think I want to write the second one, which I'm planning to be from the perspective of the Parliamentary girl, (Judith, I'm thinking,) who falls in love with George, Emma's brother, in present tense. I am getting a little tired of present tense, but I do want to finish Emma's story in present tense. I think. I don't want to go back and change it all to past tense, yet I don't want to have Judith's story be in present tense! Dear me, this is vexing.

Another vexation is, I truly cannot find any information that is helpful in the least about ways of speaking in the mid-1600s. At all. If only I knew a language professor! I know that little children were considered little adults, for the most part, in that time, especially high-class ones, and the poorer children who had lots of responsibility, and even though Emma is what I'd consider middle-class, I do think she should be precocious, (I love that word! and guess what? it dates from the mid 17th century! from a Latin word meaning literally "cooked ahead",) yet I do want her to have the voice of a little child. My, what a run-on sentence!
Presently the story doesn't sound too 1600s in the narration, in my efforts to make Emma sound like she is truly eight years old, but if one thinks about it, she is really almost half way to becoming engaged, in that time period's mindset.

Oh. Dear. I. Am. Vexed. And. Undecided. But I am so very inspired for these, if only I could decide upon a tense, and find out about 17th century language!!

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

English Civil War Stories

I have just started, (yes, I know, I have lots of stuff going at once,) a short story, (or maybe not so short,) about a little eight-year-old girl during the English Civil War whose family supports the King, but her elder brother does not.

For a little historical background here before I go on, the English Civil War was during the 1640s, (a civil war is in fact a war within a country with people of the same nationality fighting one another,) with the King and his men fighting the Parliament and their supporters. I'm actually not quite sure the whole reason for it, but my basic impression is that King Charles I and his wife and family were Catholic, and the King wished to make the country more so, but the Parliament opposed, so Charles tried to do without the Parliament by abolishing it. This did not work. The Parliament and the King quarelled a great deal until finally it became a war. Not the awfulest of wars, but still a war. Sometimes it is called several different wars, the 1st, 2nd and 3rd English Civil Wars, yet they are all linked.

So. History covered. The story takes place in 1643, towards the beginning of the actual war. I'm thinking of calling it "Divided", as the family of little Emma, the narrator, is divided, as the parents support the King, older brother George supports the Parliament, and the younger sisters, Susanna and Emma, are torn.

I am also thinking of writing a companion story about a young woman in London who supports Parliament along with her family, (London was Parliament's headquarters, so to speak,) who falls in love with George.

It would be a nice idea to write a trilogy of these 10-some page stories; "The 'Divided' Trilogy" has a nice ring to it, but I have no idea who the third would focus on.

In any case, the first one, narrated by Emma, is in the works and shall be posted when it is finished.

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

SNOW!

At last the snow from the snowstorm of sorts over the weekend is melting...

...but this is what it looked like Saturday...

...and Monday.

With rushing winds and gloomy skies
The dark and stubborn Winter dies:
Far-off, unseen, Spring faintly cries,
Bidding her earliest child arise;
March!
--Bayard Taylor, Victorian author, in poem "March".

It does come in like a lion, but let's hope it goes out like a lamb!

The still un-titled Cecily Birche is going along pretty well, but no bits to be posted. I did, however, get an extremely fascinating book called "The Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins" for my birthday this weekend, and I plan to post some of the entries...soon.