la_marquise: (Living With Ghosts)
la_marquise ([personal profile] la_marquise) wrote2010-11-10 04:46 pm

Okay...

I have dipped my toe back into the writing pond, and committed the first words on the rewrites. Not a 1000 words, but it's a start. Snippet

New Chapter One The Brass City


Aude was six when the earthquake hit. She had run away from nurse and the imminence of face-washing time, to kick her way through the multi-coloured leaves that carpeted the shrubbery. Though autumn was well-advanced, enough foliage still clung on to hide a person of her size quite satisfactorily. She wriggled her way through the tangled twigs of her favourite bush to her special private place against its trunk, and hugged her knees. Her hands, in their green worsted mittens, worked their way under the cuffs of her brown coat. The light was fading, turning the sky beyond the shrubbery dish-water grey. A hint of ice nipped her nose. She could hear nurse calling, somewhere on the other side of the lawns. Pressing her chin into the collar of her coat, Aude giggled. Perhaps nurse wouldn’t find her for hours and hours. Perhaps she would stay out here all night, with the owls and the foxes and the little mice. Perhaps – and her imagination caught light – one of the creatures would sniff her out here and invite her back to their home for tea. She bet a mouse or a badger wouldn’t make her wash her face and hands before she ate. A mouse would crawl into the piles of leaves with her, hunting for treasure. A badger – she frowned. She had never seen a badger – a badger would probably help her jump into puddles and never say a word about dirty stockings. An owl would teach her to turn her arms into wings and fly with him to the very top of the tallest tree in the beechwood, where they would stare at the moons and count the stars and never, ever go to bed early.
Nurse said people never turned into animals or trees or rocks, whatever the storybooks said. Aude knew better. When she had been really small, so small she used almost to get lost in her bed, she had seen one of the flames in the nursery fire grow a long thin face and wink at her. Nurse had said she’d been dreaming. Nurse had no imagination at all.

Still not sure what comes next with The Drowning Kings: at least, I do know, but I'm not sure how to write it. That will come.
And now I'm off to make cake. And feed the felines, which will probably come first.
Skirt of the day: blue flouncey.

[identity profile] woolymonkey.livejournal.com 2010-11-10 05:03 pm (UTC)(link)
These things are good. I do like a small girl who thinks 'satisfactorily', or indeed 'person of her size'. And of COURSE a badger would help you jump in puddles!

PS Monkey skirt of the day: plain grey cotton with embroidered squiggles, rescued from charity shop pile. Yay akirt!

[identity profile] http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/ 2010-11-10 05:13 pm (UTC)(link)
She's that kind of child, definitely.
And yay, Skirts R Us.

[identity profile] woolymonkey.livejournal.com 2010-11-10 05:16 pm (UTC)(link)
Gah. Skirt, not akirt. Can't wear 'em--can't type 'em.

[identity profile] the-faery-queen.livejournal.com 2010-11-10 05:08 pm (UTC)(link)
what sort of cake?

[identity profile] http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/ 2010-11-10 05:13 pm (UTC)(link)
Lemon. It's what I have ingredients for.

[identity profile] the-faery-queen.livejournal.com 2010-11-10 05:13 pm (UTC)(link)
oooo nice :) i love lemon

[identity profile] stina-leicht.livejournal.com 2010-11-10 06:26 pm (UTC)(link)
yay!! cake + writing = good day. of course, the cats might make their own addition to that equation.

[identity profile] http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/ 2010-11-10 08:44 pm (UTC)(link)
They did. Fluff and lemon curd are *not* good together.

[identity profile] queenoftheskies.livejournal.com 2010-11-11 03:12 am (UTC)(link)
Ooooh, lovely snippet.

[identity profile] anna-wing.livejournal.com 2010-11-11 03:39 am (UTC)(link)
Cake-making is very soothing. I make little Queen Cakes, to the traditional recipe but substituting dried cherries or strawberries for the raisins, because I like the contrast of the sour fruit with the cake. They freeze very well, which makes them very handy to keep around for unexpected guests or a snack.

[identity profile] http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/ 2010-11-11 11:42 am (UTC)(link)
I mostly make Victoria sandwich cake, but queen cakes are good, too.