aelvana

So here is my contribution, with much props to Olivia for helping me with a few parts that were too thin.

( Sunfall )

So Olivia and I were talking the other day about stories, and I was thinking about an old story from high school for which I've had a few new ideas. Today I had this happen over lunch (well, half of it). It's meant to be a story for the story, one of the fairy tales the main character's mother used to tell her.

( The Patchwork Princess )

1442 words.

Because Olivia insisted... *grins* Although ONLY 20 books is going to be a hard pick. A few have ties, but not many. I am listing most of the series out by books instead of by series name because those might be more familiar to some of you.

1. Post a list of up to 20 books/movies/anime/TV shows/video games/etc. that you've had an obsessive fannish love of at some time in your life.
2. Have your f-list guess your favorite character from each item.

01. Dark Lord of Derkholm / Year of the Gryphon
02. Sabriel/Lirael/Abhorsen/Across the Wall
03. The Extraordinary Adventures of Alfred Kropp / The Seal of Solomon
04. Blue Moon Rising / Swords of Haven / Guards of Haven / Beyond the Blue Moon
05. Wee Free Men / A Hat Full of Sky / Wintersmith
06. Thief of Time
07. Dreamhunter / Dreamquake
08. The Enchanted Forest Chronicles
09. The Secret Hour / Touching Darkness / Blue Noon
10. Tomorrow's Sphinx
11. Ratha's Creature (and rest of series)
12. Wren to the Rescue / Wren's Quest / Wren's War
13. Evil Genius / Genius Squad
14. Orphans of Chaos / Fugitives of Chaos / Titans of Chaos
15. Sunshine
16. Archer's Goon
17. Dragonback Chronicles (Timothy Zahn)
18. The Magicians of Caprona
19. Charmed Life / The Pinhoe Egg
20. Howl's Moving Castle / Castle in the Sky / House of Many Ways

There is a very good reason one author is so disproportionately represented. In terms of number of re-reads, Diana Wynne Jones tops every other author on my shelves. I don't think I have a single book of hers I haven't read at least a dozen times.

And there are so many more... *grins* But that's enough for now.


( Answers )

Ignore this if you want; it's not actually writing, just me transcribing some quotes from Tales of the Abyss I found hilarious.


I will not be transcribing many quotes, but for some things that I just can't find anywhere else I might write them down in posts like this.

Omi, you are the worst kind of influence a writer can hope for. *shakes fist*  You got me INSPIRED to finish this, and I could think of nothing else until it was done. *grins*  You need to bug me more.


I need a long break. And I want to reread Sunshine, Sabriel/Lirael/Abhorsen, at least two novels by Diana Wynne Jones (anything really; they're ALL good), that whole stack of children's novels I bought this weekend.... Which is convenient because I'll be in Virginia next week and a little bit of the week after and will be spending something like 10 hours total in airports and airplanes.  I will also be working 12 hour shifts. My brain will be dead until the very end of the month.  Mea is next, because I have nothing else at this point until I start a new novel, but I will be very surprised if you see it before October.

... Come to an end. This is it. The end. It's shorter than a typical chapter, but I think anything more would feel like padding.


Next up... could be Mea or Ricky. I haven't started either, so it's probably going to be whichever writes itself faster.

I said I'd get this out today, so here it is. Still not happy with the end, but it'll serve until I start going back and editing everything.


Next up, something random. Well, probably Phoenix. And hers will be the last chapter, but her story has already gotten past most of the complicated stuff. I know exactly what I want to do from now until the end... now it's just a matter of making the chapter longer than four pages.

I know it's been a while since my last update. The main reason was that I wrote and then re-drafted a short story in those two weeks after you all left, a story I don't particularly want to post here. That took about a week to write and another week to rewrite. Then I got my butt in gear and started back on the chapters. The upshot is that Phoenix is this post and Mea shouldn't be far behind.


Next up is Mea, since I've got about 5 pages done already on hers.

So it didn't need much editing after all. Or at least, I'm not going to do any more editing in the meanwhile. This goes a tiny bit farther than the previous post, chronologically, but it is also ground that probably won't get covered again in Trial.


I suspect Phoenix will be next, although I am also working on Mea.

So there was a really, really long break between last chapter and this. Sorry. I had some things to get straight, and I thought I'd try working out Ricky's first, since he's going to go into detail on some of the stuff Phoenix summarizes. But that just got me a big roadblock, so I'm rethinking that whole scene..... Finished this chapter in about a week. This week.  It feels good to be back.


Next up should be Ricky, retelling this segment from his angle, plus some bonus material that the first page of summary skips. Maybe. Phoenix has been much more of an inspiration, and she's pushing hard for the end of her book. Your visit will interfere with the release schedule, of course, but I am trying hard to get back on track. *grins*

Perhaps because I'm so close to finishing the other two, Mea was the biggest thing on my mind for the past chapter cycle.  Life's been rather crazy recently, and the ending of both Ricky and Phoenix's books is going to take a lot of thought. Hopefully I've chewed through most of that while working on this.


I plan to make Ricky or Phoenix the next update. But the book fair's this Wednesday, and my folks are coming down the week after, so I'm not certain how soon the next chapter will come out.

Given what this chapter covers, it doesn't line up at all with Ricky's. You may consider it slight spoiler, but I don't think I'm going to get into these events at all for him, so feel free to read this one ahead of time.


Next up should be the double post, as usual. Since I am aiming to get both chapters released at the same time, don't expect it by the weekend.

As if you didn't have ENOUGH to read... *grins* I've had the first half of this done for a really long time, but once the novellete-sized arc finished it was a tough decision about how to bridge it into the vague ideas I had for a longer work. Once I'm done I may just scrap the extended piece and rework it as a shorter story, but for now I'll stretch it out and see how it goes.


So with all that said and done, what's next? Phoenix and Ricky for sure, whenever I get both of them done (I have to get them both because they'll be rotton with spoiler for the other). Mea... hah. This post was the result of a random urge to reread old crap and maybe work a little more on some of it. Most likely you won't see anything but Ricky and Phoenix until one or both of them are done.

It's nice how these are finally shaping up the way I want them to. What happens here will be touched in Phoenix's book about as deeply as her chapter showed up here.
 

Omi, I have held on to these for nearly a week to wait for the ability to post them from home, but I can't wait any longer. *grins* Read them after finals if you must.
 

And here it is from the OTHER point of view.
 

I will attempt to continue double-updating until the end of the book, as there will continue to be rotten spoilers if you get ahead in either one.

So I delayed a little, but that was so you could have a choice about which bit to read first. Despite the similarities, there ARE a lot of differences, and those will only get bigger in chapters to come.
 
Next chapter? *points above*

Convergence. It's such a beautiful word.
 
Next chapter is impossible to tell. I would like to keep updating in pairs, as close together as possible, to give you the opportunity to read each scene from your preferred point of view before seeing how the other people saw it. Anyhow... late, bed, etc.

I'm amazed---I mean, AMAZED---I pulled this off. There's nothing like thinking well, I can compress all the boring parts and maybe get to the most interesting part this chapter....

*evil laughter*


Next post... Phoenix!!! I am working out the details of the fight, and hope to end that chapter exactly where this one left off so it doesn't give too many spoilers about what's coming. *grins*

I could've had this out earlier, I suppose, but for two things. One of those is Shadow Hearts. The other is that I'm extremely picky about a very small number of scenes that I've had in mind since before I even started writing this book, and this chapter contains one of them. I probably rewrote that section half a dozen times. It's still not perfect, but for this draft I'm happy with it.


This could go where I need it in just one more chapter! Finally!  I love doing nasty things to Ricky and Ashley, but I'm very eager to get back to Phoenix.