They're still saying there are chances of snow. Thus far none of it has stuck in any way to be a problem for me... but the cold is affecting my bones, and breimh's as well.

My boss is back in the office today. She's feeling a lot better.

I mentioned last week that I was transcribing some old writing of mine from thermal paper, and said that I may post some of it to katrina_rousse. I mean to follow through, but the first pieces were just joke fax type things, and the third was too badly written... it's a really lame romantic scene between two tertiary characters from my sequel to my main novel.

The fourth piece is actually 32 typed pages long, so I haven't been able to complete it. It, too, is not extremely well written, and it has nothing to do with any of my previously mentioned books, or any I had planned to write. I must have just gotten a really, really hard fantasy-romance bunny bite at some time. The problem is, I started transcribing it just after reading ladyofthemasque's book, The Song, which means my inspiration to write is at a peak... and this story bloody well has potential.

I may post this in sections... I've been contemplating what ways it could be improved (which would include re-naming a race, detailing out the world, or at least the land it's on, and slowing down the sequence of events by adding further content, and replacing some lengthy narrative with a better section including dialog. So... if you want to see it in "the raw", friend katrina_rousse (if you haven't already), reply here to let me know you have so I can friend her back to you (the posts are friends-only), and let me know you want to read my schlock. ;)

Note to self: Next time the internet seems to be out, try restarting the modem.

To my defense, I didn't know the modem could be restarted.

The end result is that we have internet back at home. This is a good thing. Now I have a week worth of web comics to catch up on...

Anyhow... on with the day. If there's any luck, and I feel they're good enough, there may be some vignettes posted at katrina_rousse later today. I'm transcribing things from thermal paper, (like old fax paper), because they won't preserve otherwise.

More later.

You now, an hour and a half ago I had something to post in mind.

Now I can't even remember a gist of what it was. It didn't involve plush, puns or anything like that.

It's a sure sign that I'm going senile, I think. I can't honestly remember anything outside of my routine unless I rehearse it on the way. Last night as I was leaving work I had to repeat a mantra to remind me to grab my after-work snack, go to the bank for the company, take a certain exit off the freeway, and go to the Build-a-Bear in Bellevue to register two of our thrift store foundlings.

And even with all that I almost forgot to stop at a dollar store to pick up an anniversary balloon for one of my coworkers (who, as it turns out, won't be in until tomorrow anyhow).

My routine is off this morning. For some reason, we were unable to get internet connection this morning, or at least get any web sites to come up on our computers. I had to wait until I got to work, and breimh will likely check in from his office. He works an earlier shift today, with no kids to worry about, so hopefully that means things will go easy on his back, which is still bothering him a lot. I wish we could afford for him to go to a chiropractor. Or even a doctor.

At least this means we get home early this evening.

Dang! I just now nearly had what I was going to write about. I was going to..

AHAH! I remember now.

I'd like people's opinions. As y'all know, I'm kindof working on a story, which has chapter one posted at katrina_rousse. I'm working (gradually) on Chapter 2 "Wherein we meet the heroine". I expect to get some muse-bites as soon as I read ladyofthemasque's book, The Song (simply because reading her stuff gives me muse bites, with no connection to her actual stories).

The question I have is about perspective. Some authors write first person, first person omniscient, second person, etc. Second person perspective is often from the viewpoint of the main character, though some authors switch between characters, for a variety of outlooks.

Do you, as a reader, have a preference? If there is a hero and a heroine in the book, do you enjoy it better when you get "inside the head" of both, or do you prefer to read from the perspective of just one or the other throughout? If you write, do you switch or stay with one perspective?

Right now my story is moving on with the perspective of the hero, because I want to introduce the heroine through his eyes and impressions. However, I'm wondering if maybe I might want to switch to the heroine's perspective in a later chapter. At the moment the hero's perspective is clearer, because he was actually the "mind" that inspired the story.

Please let me know. I'd really like opinions.

Okay. Last week I mentioned today is a landmark day, and only a couple of people would remember what it marks. For the record, those two people are nylima (who proved it when I quizzed her) and miladyblue (though I don't know if she really remembers without a nudge). The only other person, really, would be my little brother, but he's not an LJ'er.

To most people this will be a "so what?" kind of thing, but for me it was a major landmark in my life.

Back in the late 70's, I was having trouble sleeping. Or rather, getting to sleep. I had a "busy head". When my parents asked my doctor about it, his advise to me was, "Make up stories in your head. That will help you get to sleep."

I don't recall exactly when I did this first, but I remember my family was out camping. I don't even remember what the first story in my head was. However, shortly afterwards, the stories became what we would now call "fan-fics", because I would be making up stories from characters out of my favorite t.v. shows and cartoons. I had a central character of my own who featured in them all.

More on that later.

Anyhow, these stories were never written down, though I would draw my character now and then. Then I actually decided I would write one of them down. This would be my first, and only, written fan-fic. I never finished it, and I don't know if I shared it with anyone. (I probably still have it though, somewhere).

This was all going swimmingly. Then, one night in the fall of 1978, I had a dream. A very odd, and vivid dream.

I still recall little bits of it. It was an odd twist around the Arthur legend, as there was a young prince and a mystical sword, and there was a lovely lady. At the time, it was extremely memorable.

So memorable, I should say, that the next time I spent the night at nylima's home, I told her about it and decided to play it out. Mind you, I was all of 11 years old, and she was almost 10. She added her own little twist... the threat to the young prince (or king), was an evil sorceress.

We had fun... but the whole thing stayed with me after that. It kept playing around in my mind. It bugged me.

I decided to write it.

It would be the story of a peasant girl with a secret origin, a young king who had to struggle to retain the respect of his nobles, and an evil sorceress who wanted nothing more than to conquer the entire world. It would be a fantasy romance, on an alien world. There would be a plethora of magical animals, both malevolent and benign.

I thought about it quite a bit before I started to write it. Then, one cold evening when my family was at the McDonalds across from the Seattle Center, I started the first page.

I think I mentioned once before that I wrote a lot with a refillable cartridge fountain pen. I also had an old clip board that had been disposed of at my mother's office, but she had saved for me. Up until this point, that clipboard more often then not had scrap paper (I recycled before it was cool... or rather, my parents were too cheap to buy me sketch pads, so I ended up with discarded paper from their offices. Nowadays, they'd probably be in loads of trouble because I have pages that included people's SSN#'s!). I also had lined paper on it for school. I carried that clipboard everywhere...

So it was, on the evening of October 8th, 1978, that I began to write what I would later title "The Devil's Quest".

I wrote on that "novel" until late in High School, when other interests took me away from it. It grew to 9 chapters, and over 900 written pages. It was filled with every ounce of teenaged angst you could dream of. The first chapter has been typed up about a dozen times, and never stayed the same when I did. The 2nd Chapter has only been typed once. I wrote a thousand little snippets of scenes for the future (I used to call them "exerpts", as though they were taken out of the story after it was written) and shared them with my brother, my cousin, and my best friend. I drew hundreds of pictures inspired by the story.

The "novel" also ended up sprouting about four sequels in my mind (and in snippets). It also inspired me to plan out and write snippets for 12 other books, if not more (I don't remember them all).

When I was thrust from my familiar surroundings in a large city into a small and very insular town in Iowa, my book was my escape. Along with a couple of other favorite pasttimes, which included making up fantasy stories with my dolls and reading fantasy novels. I had no one to share the story with other than my brother. He was my expert. My continued drawings helped break the ice between myself and the boy who would sortof become my first boyfriend... but who's friendship started the tenuous thread of events that would lead me to meeting the most special person in my life, my beloved breimh.

Now, almost 30 years later (ack!), I still remember that first day of writing, and I pay homage to The Devil's Quest annually by dragging out an ongoing re-write of Chapter One. I resolve again (and know I'll fail), to type out the rest of the original chapters. I share the story with whomever will care.

So, to mark this 29th anniversary of the obsession that has inspired so much more in me, I will be posting that first, horribly written (come on, I was 11 years old for crying out loud!), chapter of The Devil's Quest behind a friends-only, lj cut post at katrina_rousse. If you want to read it, ask me to friend you on that journal. If time/luck/inspiration hits within my busy life, I may post further chapters there as well.