May. 27th, 2018

float_on_alright: (first rule of tea club)

I need to write, but I can’t say I have much motivation for anything at the moment. I had big plans that absolutely did not happen today. That’s fine, mostly, I think I needed a bit of a vacation and this is definitely that. Still, I hate to miss my word count mark. At this point I’m not too far off goal, average wise. My goal is 600 a day, and I need to average about 615 words a day through the end of the month in order to make it. That really shouldn’t be that hard. There were a couple of days this week when I wrote 1,000+ words so it’s not like it’s outside of my scope. But I did just finish one story that I was very engrossed in writing. Being engrossed in a project makes it easier to get the word count, which is great. Unfortunatley once it’s initially finished but needs editing, the word count thing gets harder. I have trouble writing a new project while the old one is in limbo and writing and editing both come from the same “time bank account” so to speak so they end up battling each other a little bit.

 

I’m grateful that I was engrossed in the story and as much as it may not be some great work of art, I’m looking forward to posting it. I can’t do justice to Lyall and Biffy, not really, not when Gail Carriger is such an amazing writing and storyteller and character builder, but it was a story I really needed to see them get. I know that a fanfic story isn’t what Toni Morrison had in mind when she said, “If there's a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it.” That said, that’s how I felt about it. Maybe one day Gail will write a modern story of Biffy and Lyall that will show how them getting engaged “really” goes down and you can bet that I will buy it as an ebook and an audiobook when she does, but until that day, I’ve written the story I needed to feel complete. Shit, I hope one day that they’ll turn up in her modern series. Granted, there’s already a werewolf named Biffy in her modern stories.

 

Which… what is her obsession with werewovles named “Biffy” come to think of it? I mean, it’s a nickname in both cases and it does SORT of make sense for Sandalio de Rabiffano to be named Biffy especially when he likely got the nickname from Lord Akeldama who, as a character, constantly nicknames people rediculous things if he likes them. He calls his adopted daughter, “Puggle” and almost never calls Alexia by her name but rather just a stream of cutesy things like “rose petal” and something something “button” I can’t remember. He renames Randolph Lyall, “Dolly” of all things so “Biffy” isn’t really a stretch there.

 

But the other “Biffy” …

 

Just looked at those books again, and apparently his real name is Bryan and they call him “Biff” not “Biffy” and their originally Alpha is “Fifi” and a dude. Now that I think about it, I’m thinking these aren’t really in the same world. Magic isn’t really a “thing” in the Parasol Protectorate series and I don’t think the wolves are “immortal” in the same way either as they are in her first series.

 

I get that as a writer she might want to continue to write about vampires, werewolves, and other supernatural creatures but experiment with them in new ways and I’m glad that she’s able to do that, but I think I’m probably always going to think about all of her books in terms of the ‘rules’ set up by her Parasol books. Partly because she has eleven books and four novellas in that universe with another two on the way and partly because I read Soulless (the first in the Parasol Protectorate series) before I read anything else by her and so it set the precedent for my future readings.

 

Anyway, hopefully I’ll get more Biffy and Lyall and more of Primrose and Tasherit, but I’ll happily read just about anything she writes. There is only one book that I haven’t read by her yet. It’s a sci-fi YA story and I’m sure I’ll get there eventually. For now, I’m going to go read something totally unrelated and hope that I can get my word count and my editing done in time.


float_on_alright: (all generalizations are false)
 

I’m staring at my list of prompts from the BigDamnTable minus the ones that I’ve done so far. It’s still a massive list of course. I’ve only done a handful of them, but I’m proud of the ones I’ve done so far. I’m debating right now doing another one next or if I’m going to write another story about Biffy and Lyall. Part of me wants to work more on the list I’ve got going since it’s huge. See the following:




understanding

conversation

darkness

again

warm

cold

lost

rain

unexpected

sunshine

abrupt

pictures

hard

soft

reminder

relaxation

dreams

In the past

in the future

kitchen

late night

early morning

taking charge

coats

leadership

help

risk

blood

power

Avenger/s

time

control

fairness

regrets

transportation

empty

washing

Mission



But I’m still sort of enamored of the story I have of Biffy and Lyall in this time. I would like to see if I could come up with a way to write Channing post a mortal lifetime with Faith and her death. I don’t think he’d be the same wolf we see through the other books. I’m thinking the way Imogen feels about him in “Romancing the Inventor” might actually be a good way to portray him if I decide to go for it. He’s still kind of an ass in that. He’s still haughty, he’s still a bit smarmy at times, but he also genuinely cares for another being and treats her with kindness and support. She’s probably the only one to honestly like him until maybe Faith and even she doesn’t initially like him. I think Faith falls in love with him before she likes him. Imogen likes him from nearly the start. She fears him at first, but within seconds he allays that by respecting her.


One of the things I find really interesting about Channing through the series is that when we first meet him, he’s nearly forcing himself on Alexia, but he also is doing it in such a way that he knows he’ll be stopped. The entire pack is there, including Lyall, the Beta (the only wolf beside his Alpha who can best him in a fight) who will most definitely put a stop to him hurting anyone. When we see him in Romancing the Inventor there’s no one there to stop him coming onto a woman, but when he (quite quickly) realizes that Imogen’s tastes run to women and not at all to men, he immediately respects that. I wonder sometimes if he learned his lesson after how he treated Alexia or if he did what he did because he was always looking for ways to punish himself for the things in his past and he thought pushing Alexia around would get Lyall to punish him. Perhaps it was a bit of both.


Still, I think the way Imogen sees him, someone who is in pain, but wants to good things (chatting with her when she’s hurting, bringing her candy, making sure she’s protected, etc.) might be who is in the time period I’m writing about. And if I could capture that, that pain along with a little bit of peace and forgiveness that Faith brought with her, it would be really awesome to write more about the pack in general.


I think this is probably a decision for another night. I need to finish editing the other story before I really dig into another one and I think getting the story edited and posted will help me clarify better what I want to do next.


At the same time, I think there’s a good chance that I won’t be able to resist writing about Biffy and Lyall getting married and that I’m going to get sucked into that story exactly like I did this last one.


I’ll find out soon enough!


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Kate

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