It's a week before Nano and all through my brain,
not an idea is stirring, not even in vain...
...and yet, somehow, I'm not actually worried. I'm a bit worried about the fact that I'm not worried. But somewhere in the deep recesses of my mind, apparently my subconscious has a plan.
Consciously, all I know so far is that I want to write 100k words. I'll be taking off a lot of time from work to do it this year. Last year I reached 75k while still doing 40 hours a week. This year I'm going to cut it down to at least half and hope to fare better. Two novel first drafts at 50k words apiece.
So what exactly am I going to write for 100k words?
Two strong possibilities so far:
a) the story that follows Janis. Janis goes about her daily life as a 20-year-old college student, starting out the story with an argument with her mother who tells her they're going to be visiting grandma. We'll see where it goes from there. I think I know what I'm doing with this one, or at least my subconscious assures me that I do, even though I don't have an outline written down or anything. (Hmm. Maybe I should write one down.)
b) the story where Aliacorba and Edward first meet. Presumably the one that will be called Amulet I when it's done, assuming it bears any resemblance to my original story plans. Assuming that there are even any amulets in it. That part isn't too assured at the moment since I haven't the faintest idea how they would fit in.
Nothing else is coming to mind. I keep getting assaulted with plot bunnies for things completely unrelated to Fortress Launne and probably should write some of those down. None of those are in the least ready to be written though - they all need a lot of development first.
In other news, my main computer is in the shop. It started doing this strange, random shutdown thing about a month ago. For no reason. I would be sitting there doing whatever, and suddenly the whole thing would just turn off. I checked the discussion boards at Apple and noticed a lot of other people with the exact same model of G5 iMAc, with the exact same problem. It's either the power supply or cooling fan.
It's now been in the shop for over two weeks. I took it in on Oct. 10th and they didn't even look at it for a week (!) - and then only because I kept pestering them over the phone. Then they insisted that the logic board needed to be replaced ($$$!). I sighed and gave them the go-ahead for it (credit card debt! yay!), and they said it would be a few more days.
A few more days went by and I heard nothing, so I called again yesterday. Now they tell me that they're waiting for a power supply (huh? logic board !== power supply?). Apparently they did some more checking without telling me, and ordered one of those instead.
Apple is out of stock of power supplies (what an amazing coincidence! considering the number of people who have developed this exact same problem at exactly the same time as me!) so it's on backorder, and therefore it'll take a few more days.
I'm going out of town for a wedding in a few more days. Chances are it won't be back before I leave, but I sure hope it'll be back by the time I come back. Before Nanowrimo and all (*mutter mutter*).
I'm seriously considering using Livejournal to write the nano(s) this year, in case my G5 flakes out some more. They have a once-per-minute autosave feature that would be awesome. Plus I could work on it from any computer.
As for Apple, they sure don't seem to be making their computers like they used to! My Powermac 8500 (pre-G3; though it has a G3 chip in it at the moment) is still chugging along like a trooper, and still with almost all of its original parts. The parts that have been replaced (RAM, CPU) were still working when I removed them. The only thing no longer working is the ethernet port (a cheap PCI ethernet card fixed that), and that was due to a power surge through the cable modem that I'm amazed didn't kill the whole thing.
Next time I get a new computer, it'll probably still be from Apple, but it'll be another Power Mac that I can open up and fix myself instead of having to depend on the morons at the shop. -.-
2006/10/18
Mac-n-cheese via white sauce method? Bah I say!
So last night I finally took the next big leap forward with the pasta thing that originally came from ellsea. I made macaroni and cheese.
(Well okay, technically it wasn't macaroni because I used rotini. But really, any of the pasta things that comes in short small pieces works well (rotini, rotelle, radiatori (my favorite!), penne, ziti, macaroni, shells, wagon wheels, etc.).) (Nested parentheticals are fun!)
1 box pasta
1 pint heavy cream
half a stick of butter
8 slices of sharp cheddar
five hot dogs, sliced into small pieces
green peas (around the same amount as a mound of five hot dogs cut into pieces)
paprika
black pepper
cayenne pepper
salt
Boil the pasta.
While that's going, melt the butter in a pan. Pour in the cream after butter is melted. When cream starts bubbling, add cheese. Stir as it melts until it becomes sauce. Sprinkle in the spices. Keep stirring.
When pasta is nearly done, add the hot dogs to the pot. (Hot dogs come precooked so it's mostly just to heat them up). Dump the peas in the bottom of the colander. Drain the pasta and hot dogs over the peas. Pour pasta, hot dogs, and peas into the sauce. Mix together.
This tastes excellent. :) Much, much better than all my past attempts to make mac-n-cheese using the white sauce method. (butter + flour = roux, add milk, add cheese). Also much faster and with less to clean up.
It also works well with ham instead of hot dogs (I have an overabundance of hot dogs in my freezer, hence why I used those last night). And probably with other types of veggies as well - though I'm not sure spinach is quite right. Maybe broccoli, or carrots, or corn. Also it's good just with the pasta and cheese sauce by itself.
The reason I made this was because I had a bunch of slices of cheddar and nothing to do with them because I was tired of sandwiches.
(Well okay, technically it wasn't macaroni because I used rotini. But really, any of the pasta things that comes in short small pieces works well (rotini, rotelle, radiatori (my favorite!), penne, ziti, macaroni, shells, wagon wheels, etc.).) (Nested parentheticals are fun!)
1 box pasta
1 pint heavy cream
half a stick of butter
8 slices of sharp cheddar
five hot dogs, sliced into small pieces
green peas (around the same amount as a mound of five hot dogs cut into pieces)
paprika
black pepper
cayenne pepper
salt
Boil the pasta.
While that's going, melt the butter in a pan. Pour in the cream after butter is melted. When cream starts bubbling, add cheese. Stir as it melts until it becomes sauce. Sprinkle in the spices. Keep stirring.
When pasta is nearly done, add the hot dogs to the pot. (Hot dogs come precooked so it's mostly just to heat them up). Dump the peas in the bottom of the colander. Drain the pasta and hot dogs over the peas. Pour pasta, hot dogs, and peas into the sauce. Mix together.
This tastes excellent. :) Much, much better than all my past attempts to make mac-n-cheese using the white sauce method. (butter + flour = roux, add milk, add cheese). Also much faster and with less to clean up.
It also works well with ham instead of hot dogs (I have an overabundance of hot dogs in my freezer, hence why I used those last night). And probably with other types of veggies as well - though I'm not sure spinach is quite right. Maybe broccoli, or carrots, or corn. Also it's good just with the pasta and cheese sauce by itself.
The reason I made this was because I had a bunch of slices of cheddar and nothing to do with them because I was tired of sandwiches.
2006/10/04
Some disorganized brainstorm blatherings
Well, Nanowrimo 2006 is looming on the horizon, and I've gotten myself signed back in on the forums there again. Things are starting to heat up.
I'm thinking of taking off all of November from my desk job for this, in an attempt to write 100k words. Last year that idea made perfect sense. At this time this year?
All of my ideas have gone Foom! :(
So, what's on the plate as possibilities? Last year, coming off of Amulet II, I was figuring to either do Birthright (semi-sequel to Temple), or the Triangle/Fall of Myan pair of stories. At the present time, none of those three books are even remotely on the table. I think they went back into the fridge.
Instead I'm staring down Amulet I/Taint again. Only I'm changing everything. I have to, after I finally pinpointed why it failed so utterly last year - after I posted a short whine about it on the "IHMAWTD" board (newly renamed "NaNoWriMo Ate My Soul" - which I don't like quite as much as I liked the old name, personally, but for some reason the people in charge seem not to like "I hate myself and want to die"). Anyway, so the thread query was "How close are you to ready?" and my reply was:
My original plan for Amulet I was that Edward and Iorli got into a severe disagreement with each other, and that Edward tainted Aliacorba as a form of revenge against Iorli. Well, unfortunately, none of those three people want to do that. They flatly refuse to cooperate. :p
So, brainstorm some new ideas. First, who's Edward? Second, who's Aliacorba? Third, who's Iorli? Answers in WoD terms...
[members-only cut]
Edward started out in a noble family across the sea. His father is a Lasombra that has had a longrunning feud with the Gangrel. Lord Duchene hates Gangrel with all his being and wants to see them all annihilated. The Gangrel embraced Edward to be mean to Edward's father. Thereafter, his father cast him out and wanted him dead. Edward loved his father, and then hated his father, who nearly killed him.
Edward has two brothers - Charles and James. Those were loyal to their father until the father nearly killed Edward. They didn't like what was happening to their brother and so they took a stand and switched sides. They helped Edward avoid total destruction and kept him afloat until he could heal himself sufficiently to wake back up.
In the timeframe of Amulet I, Edward had only recently come back to consciousness, is still relatively weak compared to where he was before the last battle with his father, and is hiding out in the swamps that will someday become Fortress Launne. He knows his father is still alive, and also knows that his father doesn't know he's awake nor where he is, and until he can come up with some effective means of defending himself, he wants to lie low. (All of which is a lot more plausible than my flimsy motivation ideas for Edward before.)
Meanwhile, Aliacorba is a shaman. The native folk have been hunted nearly to extinction by the outlanders, and they've been hiding in the swamps for a decade or two. It's been a while since any outlander has killed any of the native folk, but they were still keeping vigilant all through Aliacorba's youth.
At the timeframe of the story, the native folk had only recently been venturing out of the swamps to see what was going on in more distant parts of the area. The tribal villages closest to the fort have discovered Edward's tiny colony, and they've tentatively established some trade.
Basically, after Edward moved in, he told everyone else that his outfit would be keeping watch on the native folk in case they tried to attack any settlers farther afield. And he made it clear that his outpost was adequate to the task, and he put a stop to any more people coming into the area to settle, since it's still too dangerous. Edward has a strong interest in keeping things small and lowkey, so the size of his colony is just big enough to support himself and his brother Charles, who are the two Tainted.
(Though actually, Charles might turn out to be a mage of some sort. That's still up in the air at the moment.)
Anyway, the native folk noticed that the outlander attacks had stopped. So they started venturing out of the swamps to look. And found Edward there, and set up trade, and then later on Aliacorba (who lives in a village farther into the swamps) came by with a trading party with his brother Ahlosarka. And that's how they met.
The tribal setup is that there's a village chief, then a warrior chief, then a shaman. Village chief leads general affairs, warrior chief takes care of defense, security, and hunting. Shaman keeps everything in harmony with Nature. There are also elders who are tribal sages, and the village chief consults with them, but they've retired from running things for the most part.
Aliacorba is a young shaman but already very skilled and well-known as a healer. He's in his early 30s, married to the sister of the village chief, has a four year old son, and an unborn daughter. His brother Ahlosarka is the warrior chief. It's not a very large village, as the tribe consists of many smaller ones rather than a few large ones. Easier to hide that way.
And Iorli? He's a cougar spirit. Aliacorba's family has cougar as their protective totem, and Iorli protects Aliacorba in particular. He does have a mind of his own, and is sentient, but follows Aliacorba's lead on things.
As nature spirits go, he and Tainted do not go together at all. The only reason he would spend any time in Edward's presence (without attempting to kill him) is if Aliacorba wished him to.
(So right away the setup shifts from having Aliacorba being a minor pawn, to Aliacorba playing a much more important role, while Iorli's role is lessened.)
Later on after everything is over, Aliacorba forges a new pact between Iorli and any of his descendants who will become shamans. Shamanism is something that one is born into, and it's a gift granted by the Great Mother. It tends to follow family lines. Aliacorba forges a promise that Iorli will not allow any more of the line's shamans to become Tainted. There's a protective ward built in as well, which prevents the Tainted from harming them, which grants the cougar spirits more power so they can do it, and also more independence. This is how the Iorli line of cougar spirits became powerful enough, and intelligent enough, to form a clan.
And that is the pact that Thomas had to break to save Janis a century later in Temple. Only Thomas could have broken it, by gifting her with some of his taint. It ended the pact, brought an end to the cougar clan, and also nullified Janis as a latent shaman; but it saved her life.
Sort of. The details still need to be nailed down a bit better than that, I think, but that's workable for the moment.
But before everything is over ...
So what happened was that Edward and Aliacorba met during a trading trip to the fort. Aliacorba could tell that Edward was stepped out of the cycle just by looking at him. Edward was the first Tainted Aliacorba met. Edward, meanwhile, could see the extra power Aliacorba had, and he knew that his own recuperation would go much more swiftly if he could draw on the shamanic energy for himself. As it was, he wanted Aliacorba's help as a healer, but wasn't sure whether he could reveal his greatest weaknesses by asking to feed from him.
Edward also didn't know what Tainting does to shamans. He'd seen people being tainted before, and after the initial shock, they tended to adjust well. He had adjusted well enough, and although he isn't fond of being Gangrel, Tainting itself isn't something that bothers him.
Edward is also prone to the VtM lunacy flaw. During full moons he becomes a full-blown beast. (This flaw got passed to Aliacorba as well.) It was during a full moon that whatever happened happened, when he had the least control over himself, and he nearly killed Aliacorba without meaning to. So that Aliacorba wouldn't die, Edward tainted him.
Aliacorba lost more than the average newly Tainted. For the shamans, it's like an MtA mage having their avatar shredded upon embrace. He wasn't very happy about the turn of events.
And that's what I've managed to work out in the past couple of days.
I'm thinking of taking off all of November from my desk job for this, in an attempt to write 100k words. Last year that idea made perfect sense. At this time this year?
All of my ideas have gone Foom! :(
So, what's on the plate as possibilities? Last year, coming off of Amulet II, I was figuring to either do Birthright (semi-sequel to Temple), or the Triangle/Fall of Myan pair of stories. At the present time, none of those three books are even remotely on the table. I think they went back into the fridge.
Instead I'm staring down Amulet I/Taint again. Only I'm changing everything. I have to, after I finally pinpointed why it failed so utterly last year - after I posted a short whine about it on the "IHMAWTD" board (newly renamed "NaNoWriMo Ate My Soul" - which I don't like quite as much as I liked the old name, personally, but for some reason the people in charge seem not to like "I hate myself and want to die"). Anyway, so the thread query was "How close are you to ready?" and my reply was:
Umm... "ready" ? What's that?? O.O
I thought I knew what I was going to do this year, but then I started trying to nail down backstory and setting elements, and then several of the key characters decided that they don't like my ideas of who they are or what they're supposed to be doing, and so now they're not speaking to me. :( I suppose you might say I'm going backwards away from the starting line at an alarming pace.
My original plan for Amulet I was that Edward and Iorli got into a severe disagreement with each other, and that Edward tainted Aliacorba as a form of revenge against Iorli. Well, unfortunately, none of those three people want to do that. They flatly refuse to cooperate. :p
So, brainstorm some new ideas. First, who's Edward? Second, who's Aliacorba? Third, who's Iorli? Answers in WoD terms...
[members-only cut]
Edward started out in a noble family across the sea. His father is a Lasombra that has had a longrunning feud with the Gangrel. Lord Duchene hates Gangrel with all his being and wants to see them all annihilated. The Gangrel embraced Edward to be mean to Edward's father. Thereafter, his father cast him out and wanted him dead. Edward loved his father, and then hated his father, who nearly killed him.
Edward has two brothers - Charles and James. Those were loyal to their father until the father nearly killed Edward. They didn't like what was happening to their brother and so they took a stand and switched sides. They helped Edward avoid total destruction and kept him afloat until he could heal himself sufficiently to wake back up.
In the timeframe of Amulet I, Edward had only recently come back to consciousness, is still relatively weak compared to where he was before the last battle with his father, and is hiding out in the swamps that will someday become Fortress Launne. He knows his father is still alive, and also knows that his father doesn't know he's awake nor where he is, and until he can come up with some effective means of defending himself, he wants to lie low. (All of which is a lot more plausible than my flimsy motivation ideas for Edward before.)
Meanwhile, Aliacorba is a shaman. The native folk have been hunted nearly to extinction by the outlanders, and they've been hiding in the swamps for a decade or two. It's been a while since any outlander has killed any of the native folk, but they were still keeping vigilant all through Aliacorba's youth.
At the timeframe of the story, the native folk had only recently been venturing out of the swamps to see what was going on in more distant parts of the area. The tribal villages closest to the fort have discovered Edward's tiny colony, and they've tentatively established some trade.
Basically, after Edward moved in, he told everyone else that his outfit would be keeping watch on the native folk in case they tried to attack any settlers farther afield. And he made it clear that his outpost was adequate to the task, and he put a stop to any more people coming into the area to settle, since it's still too dangerous. Edward has a strong interest in keeping things small and lowkey, so the size of his colony is just big enough to support himself and his brother Charles, who are the two Tainted.
(Though actually, Charles might turn out to be a mage of some sort. That's still up in the air at the moment.)
Anyway, the native folk noticed that the outlander attacks had stopped. So they started venturing out of the swamps to look. And found Edward there, and set up trade, and then later on Aliacorba (who lives in a village farther into the swamps) came by with a trading party with his brother Ahlosarka. And that's how they met.
The tribal setup is that there's a village chief, then a warrior chief, then a shaman. Village chief leads general affairs, warrior chief takes care of defense, security, and hunting. Shaman keeps everything in harmony with Nature. There are also elders who are tribal sages, and the village chief consults with them, but they've retired from running things for the most part.
Aliacorba is a young shaman but already very skilled and well-known as a healer. He's in his early 30s, married to the sister of the village chief, has a four year old son, and an unborn daughter. His brother Ahlosarka is the warrior chief. It's not a very large village, as the tribe consists of many smaller ones rather than a few large ones. Easier to hide that way.
And Iorli? He's a cougar spirit. Aliacorba's family has cougar as their protective totem, and Iorli protects Aliacorba in particular. He does have a mind of his own, and is sentient, but follows Aliacorba's lead on things.
As nature spirits go, he and Tainted do not go together at all. The only reason he would spend any time in Edward's presence (without attempting to kill him) is if Aliacorba wished him to.
(So right away the setup shifts from having Aliacorba being a minor pawn, to Aliacorba playing a much more important role, while Iorli's role is lessened.)
Later on after everything is over, Aliacorba forges a new pact between Iorli and any of his descendants who will become shamans. Shamanism is something that one is born into, and it's a gift granted by the Great Mother. It tends to follow family lines. Aliacorba forges a promise that Iorli will not allow any more of the line's shamans to become Tainted. There's a protective ward built in as well, which prevents the Tainted from harming them, which grants the cougar spirits more power so they can do it, and also more independence. This is how the Iorli line of cougar spirits became powerful enough, and intelligent enough, to form a clan.
And that is the pact that Thomas had to break to save Janis a century later in Temple. Only Thomas could have broken it, by gifting her with some of his taint. It ended the pact, brought an end to the cougar clan, and also nullified Janis as a latent shaman; but it saved her life.
Sort of. The details still need to be nailed down a bit better than that, I think, but that's workable for the moment.
But before everything is over ...
So what happened was that Edward and Aliacorba met during a trading trip to the fort. Aliacorba could tell that Edward was stepped out of the cycle just by looking at him. Edward was the first Tainted Aliacorba met. Edward, meanwhile, could see the extra power Aliacorba had, and he knew that his own recuperation would go much more swiftly if he could draw on the shamanic energy for himself. As it was, he wanted Aliacorba's help as a healer, but wasn't sure whether he could reveal his greatest weaknesses by asking to feed from him.
Edward also didn't know what Tainting does to shamans. He'd seen people being tainted before, and after the initial shock, they tended to adjust well. He had adjusted well enough, and although he isn't fond of being Gangrel, Tainting itself isn't something that bothers him.
Edward is also prone to the VtM lunacy flaw. During full moons he becomes a full-blown beast. (This flaw got passed to Aliacorba as well.) It was during a full moon that whatever happened happened, when he had the least control over himself, and he nearly killed Aliacorba without meaning to. So that Aliacorba wouldn't die, Edward tainted him.
Aliacorba lost more than the average newly Tainted. For the shamans, it's like an MtA mage having their avatar shredded upon embrace. He wasn't very happy about the turn of events.
And that's what I've managed to work out in the past couple of days.
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