Heavy labor

[julian_griffith]

I'm not sure whether I'm referring to the lifting and carrying I did at gehayi 's house, or to the effort it took to get 418 words today.

Project: Julia and Mary (Regency lesbians)

Market: Storm Moon Press, An Improper Arrangement open anthology call

Deadline: June 30, 2013

Required length:8-12K

New words written: 1216 (798 yesterday, 418 today)

Present total wordcount: 11717

Mean things: Measles

Fun things: Toy sailboat on the Serpentine

Stimulants: Homemade blue cheese dressing on my salad, Good Humor birthday cake flavor ice cream bar

No WAY is this story going to be under 12K, but it WILL be in the original 10-20K range. Probably come out around 16-17K is my guess.

Caroline's children have caught the measles, sending Caroline back to Maitland House and requiring Julia and Mary to leave London, which gave a handy reason for Julia to invite Mary to come visit HER instead of going directly home. They took Julia's son to the park so that his nursemaid could pack his things uninterrupted. Julia revealed to Mary that her marriage was in no way a love-match. Mary was not yet bold enough to confess what the deal was with hers.

It's in Julia's POV right now, which is giving me a lot of scope to reveal her inner angst and the rigid self-control she imposes on herself to try to keep from wanting what she believes she'll never have.

I know what I'm writing next, too. Thanks to The Regency Redingote, I learned a terrific little detail about Regency luggage that'll lead to a minor carriage accident, an unplanned stop at an inn, and the ever-popular Enforced Bed Sharing, which will NOT lead to nookie at this point. Just a lot of frustrated desire.

After that there will be one more segment in Mary's POV before we get to the Climactic Kiss, the resulting emotional exchange, and the emotional resolution that finally leads to the nookie.

And I think I'll be ending it with a letter from Julia to Caroline, explaining that Mary will be staying forever. Apparently I can't get away from the trope of bringing a U-Haul on the second date...

But it feels like I know where I'm going, and there are basically five segments left, and one's a sex scene and one's a letter, both of which are typically VERY easy for me.

So I think I can make deadline!

Oh, if you were wondering about the homemade blue cheese dressing, it wasn't exactly complicated. I had blue cheese crumbles around anyway, because I like them on salad, and I stirred some into a little buttermilk, which I always have in my fridge because pancakes, and then I mixed in a little mayonnaise for texture. But it made my salad DELICIOUS.
 

Comments

[kittygamble]

BED SHARING. One of my favourite tropes - especially when it's just tension there. Love it.

And I just peeked at the doc and I LOVE them. Little Richard in his collar! Aww. Poor Julia and sweet, sweet Mary.

[julian_griffith]

Little boys in skeleton suits with ruffly collars are yet another reason I adore this time period.

Mary's next section will be Church Mouse In Grand House plus dawning sexual awareness. It's going to be SO MUCH FUN.

[kittygamble]

SO cute.

Eeeee, all of that sounds amazing.

[julian_griffith]

Oh, and I did a lot of filling in brackets yesterday. I ran out of elementary schools in my hometown to raid for names (those were good, as most of them were named after illustrious Colonial residents) and have switched to cherry-picking useful ones from the Boston public transit system.

But I also filled in the bracket relating to The Monk. And I snuck in a little joke for people who actually know the book -- the scene that Mary mentions is one where two people are using a magic mirror to look at a NEKKID LADY. Just another hint that HEY LESBIANS, and that Mary was attracted to women before she was really aware of it.

I giggled a lot when I was doing that.

[kittygamble]

Yay, that's cool. Names are SO HARD. I had too many A names in my novel and had to change a lot of names and I don't know why I bothered spending time on it yesterday (aside from out of irritation that a character's name wasn't right) because within a month I could be scrambling to change the name of my MAIN CHARACTER. I really hope it's as unlikely as I think it is, because I can rename pretty much anyone except Bertie (and Jack, and oh god now I'm paranoid they'll take HIS name even though John has been seen as bad luck for royals).

Oooooh, that's awesome! I missed that bracket, I'll go back to check it when I get a few more words done on Susie and Percy. Who gave me some trouble this week, but I fixed it to have some more effective/lasting conflict and it's all good.

[julian_griffith]

Filling in the name brackets (Servants. It's always servants. How the hell do I know what they're supposed to be named? They hardly ever say anything beyond "Very good, my lady.") was just a thing I decided I could do while I was re-reading at a skim to get back into continuity, but while I was doing that, the one about The Monk BOTHERED me, so I went & looked up a plot summary (since I'd forgotten so much of it) & that detail struck me as a really amusing one to use.

It's in the scene where they're walking in Hyde Park and discussing the reasons for liking or disliking trashy Gothic novels. Amusing callback to Northanger Abbey (especially since, in my head, Mary looks like Carey Mulligan) plus what I think is good character development.

[kittygamble]

I went back and peeked really quickly and I LOVE it. :D

[julian_griffith]

:D Thank you! I really value your opinion on these things.

And let me tell you how much I love sneaking in little literary references that work fine for people who don't know a damn thing about the source, but should make someone who does crack up. You wouldn't believe how much more I'm getting out of Georgette Heyer now that I know so much more about the period than I did when I was twenty. I see a name of an inn, or a reference to a battle or a scandalous court case or whatever, and I BOUNCE IN MY CHAIR. That woman DID HER RESEARCH.

[kittygamble]

My references might be getting a little obscure - legal/political stuff. BUT I have Lord Howick, the future Earl Grey, in this scene, and I'm working out when I need to set it so that he can be drinking tea. (Yes, THAT Earl Grey. It amuses me.)

[julian_griffith]

Indeed, THAT Earl Grey. That'd amuse the hell out of me too.

Lord Peterborough, IIRC, was also a tea connoisseur. He showed up fussing about tea in Life Mask. Which you should totally read, BTW, because it's awesome.

[kittygamble]

I've decided it works better for him having suspicions about Susie and Percy if he was one of Barbara's guests before and knew Susie. So I'll make him Unnamed Political Guy who was visiting them up north when they heard of Fox's death. At that time he was First Lord of the Admiralty, which suits me perfectly well. I'll work the tea in there, because this scene might work best over port.