Tuesday, February 27, 2018

Locales to change content!

Image from Pexels.com
My weekly description of places in my world is going to change a bit. Instead of describing only
nations/states, I am going to start giving descriptions of places within them that show up in the books. This is going to include some maps, details about the population, and information about the politics of the place.

Think of the things that your D&D campaign needs for a location to be useful and that is the sort of thing I'm going to be writing. Some of these places have been touched on briefly. I am going to go back to those descriptions and flesh them out. This is a combination of doing so for my note taking purposes and to enable you to possibly get a better idea of what things are like in my little world.

If requested, I may set up some generic character sheets for NPCs for anyone who wants to use a given location for a D&D game. All I ask is that you share with me the hilarity of the game. Because we all know D&D games start out super serious and then descend into pure silliness. (Unless your gaming troupe is like the ones I've been in, then we start at pure silliness and go WAAAAAY off into left field with the DM going 'You know what, that's not even covered in the book. Throw a d20 to see if it even works.' often followed by a 'well, damn, it DOES work, how about you narrate what happens.'


Monday, February 26, 2018

Flora et Fauna

Hey, I almost forgot about today's topic!

I wanted to give you the opportunity to name a plant. Let me describe it for you.

It is a vine that grows over all but sandy soil. The leaves are shaped like grape leaves but get up to a foot across. It bears no fruit or flowers. It will, however, spread through runners and broken vine pieces. It climbs up trees and has reddish-brown colored roots that grip the tree or other surface it is climbing up. It will strangle the trees it climbs up, like Virginia creeper. It is harvested and retted in water for the bast fibers which are used in rope making. Unlike hemp or flax, this fiber has a uniform and long staple length. The water from the retting process can be used to dye wool a dark brown color. When combined with black walnut, the liquid will dye most fabrics black, except for that which would have been made from the fibers of this plant. That just turns brown from the black walnut.

Undyed, the fiber is tan color similar to old hemp. The rope made from this plant's fiber is used for one thing officially, nooses. Unofficially, it is braided into hemp ropes to make them stronger and used to make sailcloth in the southern regions of Evandar and Ranyth. It is mentioned by is by-name 'sail weed' there.

My question for you is, what does everyone else call it?

Craft of Writing: Write garbage, edit later.

Hi there!

It's been a while. I've been struggling on a lot of fronts right now. Things are beginning to settle down again, though. While I have the chance, I wanted to say something important. Remember your first draft is going to be garbage compared to your final draft. That doesn't mean your first draft is entirely awful. It is just very rough and needs to be polished and cleaned up.

Some drafts are rougher than others. Some drafts are so entirely rough that they get shoved into a drawer and forgotten for a few years. Then you may drag them back out and blow the dust off only to put it back in the drawer. That's ok. An author I knew once who lived in the northern part of Ireland (he wrote poetry and fiction as a hobby) said that sometimes a work needs to mature like fine whiskey.

Seamus Heaney, another Irish poet who is far more famous than the guy I knew only as Puck, described it like the work of digging potatoes. Digging potatoes is hard work. Sorting out potatoes from rocks is mind numbing. In the end, the potatoes may seem like they're just too much work because of how much effort it takes to get them up out of the ground, washed, and ready to cook. The nice thing about potatoes is they can sit for a little bit so you don't have to cook them right today.

Planting the potatoes and growing the plant is writing that first draft. From the top side, a potato plant isn't very impressive. It is just a bunch of leaves. The work of editing and rewrites is digging up those potatoes. Getting them washed up and ready for sale, that's obviously the part where you get yourself a nice little bit of legwork going on the publication process. But even if the potatoes still have dirt on them, they can sit in your cellar for a little while as you work on planting something else.

So, grow those lumpy looking potatoes and dig them up when you're ready. Because potatoes do ok in the dirt for a little while and will get a bit better for it sometimes.

Sunday, February 25, 2018

Random Short : How the Scry Mirrors came to Ranyth

The hunter walked through the forest. With a careful gaze, they scanned the forest floor. In some surprise, they found signs of human passage through the trackless depths of the woods where the deer roamed in fear of wolves and the bears. Curious and deciding that following this trail was more important than finding a possible deer path when there had been none in sight for an hour.

Broken branches and brambles showed that whomever had passed by did so with no care for pursuit. A snag of red cloth flapped like a lord's pennant on a thorny bush. The hunter paused and picked it off. Ahead, they could see something red moving. They moved off the path and began to move alongside it. As the hunter drew closer, they heard a voice singing some manner of invocation.

At the edge of the glade where the sun's light broke through the canopy to fall in gleaming rays, the hunter saw a youth dancing in some manner of a circle dance. The young lad's hair shone like gold and bounced in ringlets on his shoulders as he skipped through the dance's movements. His high pitched voice rang clearly in the air and echoed off the trees. Strangely, the birds seemed to join in his song.

Fear snaked through the hunter's heart. Something of magic was happening here, or worse yet of the gods. Feeling as though he was in danger, the hunter began to slip back into the deep brush. Then the boy stopped dancing and looked straight at him, his song ending. "You have come as I have summoned," the boy said. The hunter was compelled to emerge from the woods. The red cloth of the boy's torn tunic looked all too much like heart's blood for the hunter's liking. He wanted to drop the cloth in his hand but his fingers refused to obey his will, clutching it tighter like some holy relic.

"Your quarry awaits you in the hedge of the river," the boy said, "But first you must send me home."

"Where does your mother await you, lad?" the hunter asked uncomfortably. He had heard old, old stories from his father of the walker in the woods. The one who demanded sacrifice of blood and flame.

"I have no mother," the golden haired boy replied, "Nor father."

"Where then is your home and who cares for you?" the hunter asked. In the distance, thunder rolled. The boy pointed skyward. The hunter shook their head. "No man lives in that place, only the Stag Lord and his goats," he answered.

The boy smiled. It seemed as though light shone with such brilliance it blinded him, though he could still see the boy. In amazement, the hunter watched as the boy leaned forward and was upon all fours. His form changed to that of a goat with a ram's horns. The red color of the tunic had transformed to a rich caramel color fur. The goat bleated.

"I can not kill a child," the hunter said. The goat brandished its horns fearsomely at him. "I reject this temptation," the hunter said. Thunder grew louder. The goat charged him and the hunter dove aside. It ran in a quick circle and came back again to charge him, all four horns ready to strike home. The hunter moved aside, grasped the forward facing horns and wrestled the goat to the ground. The goat bleated and kicked. The hunter continued to hold the goat down with great effort.

As rain began to fall, a man walked out of the trees on the far side of the glade."You have found my son," he said. The hunter looked over. The man's face looked familiar, but he couldn't recall why whilst holding the struggling goat. "Release him to me," the man said, "Your willingness to adhere to mercy is admirable." The hunter stood and the goat ran to the side of the man who was also dressed in red and had golden hair. "I shall give you a gift as reward for your mercy and care of my child," he said.

The hunter was blinded by the lightning strike and left deaf. He fell to the ground quavering. When his vision and hearing eventually returned, the hunter was soaked from the driving rain. At the center of the glade where the lightning bolt struck, was a glistening black thing. The hunter cautiously picked up the glass. He thought of his home and wondered if he was now too deep in the woods to get back safely. The black mirror seemed to have its surface ripple like water and then he saw the cottage of his father by high cedars. "Father will not be pleased," the hunter said, "My first hunt alone and this happens."

As he began to move along the path, he wondered if there was a way that took him to the place the child-goat said a deer waited. The mirror glistened and he saw the deer track that started not far from him. The young man put the mirror carefully into his pouch. He followed the track. It was a sudden surprise to find himself at the thick wall of brambles with the river flowing on the other side. With its horns trapped in the hedge, there was a great stag. It was larger than the hunter thought it could be.

Exhausted from its efforts to free itself from the hedge, the stag just stood there placidly as the young man walked up to it. Slowly, he drew his knife and slit its throat. A great wash of blood flowed as the stag sagged down to the ground to weak for even death throes. The newly blooded hunter struggled to pull the stag's crown free from the thorny vines. He pulled out the strange black mirror and said, "Show me my father, let him hear my voice." The mirror rippled and the hunter saw his father at work chopping wood. "Father," he called, "Father, come to the hedge at the river. I can not bring the deer home with out you." The image of his father looked up and looked around confused. The wood axe was set upon the sled the man grabbed and he began walking.

A noise came nearly an hour later from the hedge on the river side. His father called out for him and the hunter answered. The axe hewed a path through the thorny hedge and father embraced son with great relief. He wondered at the mirror and the stag. Working together, they freed the deer from the hedge and dragged it on the sled back to their home. Never in the rest of his days did the hunter forget the child-goat. And ever on did he keep the mirror secret in his home only sharing its knowledge in times of deep need.

Tuesday, February 20, 2018

Forcing yourself to write is painful.

Some people say, my friend Reader, that forcing yourself to write is like forcing yourself to fart. It is painful and has a high chance of being crap. I'm still working on this but I'm not doing very well. As you can probably tell by the fact it has been a week since I posted. I am finding that this medication adjustment is more difficult than I expected it to be. I am also finding that recovering from a bruised rib has made my sleep difficult. Thus, I get my morning pages done by sneaking in time through out the day.

I feel pretty horrible about that. I have not given up. I'm just struggling. I will try to post again tomorrow.

Tuesday, February 13, 2018

Low water levels.

Friends, I'm having a crisis of faith. I doubt not in the gods (or the flying spaghetti monster, blessed are we who have been touched by his noodly appendage). It is in myself. Some of this, if not all of it, is because of what N. Lokison called brain weasels. Self doubt is an insidious beast. I have been attempting to keep a log of how much I am writing. The numbers are very low.

They say that writing or any other creative work is like drawing water from a well. I don't know if my water levels are low or if the problem is my bucket is small and my arms are getting tired. Either way, I'm feeling creatively blocked and panic over the idea that I am never going to get back to the Great
Work. I am trying not to panic but it's still there.

It is harder because my medication change is making everything harder. I've been so tired and having such difficulty concentrating. It just makes me feel worse that this is the first post I've done in a week. I'm sorry, I'm trying. It's just hard.

Monday, February 5, 2018

Random babbling update.

Hi there,

I've been somewhat spotty in my posting. I'm adjusting to a medication change and dealing with the effects of my illnesses being in 'active' mode. It has thrown a big wrench into the works on getting things written because I just about start sobbing when ever I try to write anything of substance. I may bet a paragraph or two and then I break down. It's been really hard.

I keep doing the morning pages but I've dwindled down from three to one. It's all I can manage to get out and it feels like tying to squeeze blood from a stone. Beloved tells me to write for myself. I'm trying to do so but it's been very difficult. I will do my best to get back to blogging as soon as possible. Until then, I hope you will continue to be patient.

Thank you.