Day 24 - Drool in Z-Row Gravity

August 24 - Writer the place the landscape dissolves

Musical inspiration: Fresh Aire V album by Mannheim Steamroller
Songs: Lumen, Z-Row Gravity, Dancin' in the Stars, Creatures of Levania

The door this time does not lead to idyllic pastures and soaring trees.  This door is similarly small and rounded but metal and rivets have replaced wood and scroll-work.  This door is cooler to the touch as it opens on its own landscape.  This is clearly another planet, dusty and dark, stars lighting the silky sky above abandoned monorail tracks.  Behind the door, above us is an abandoned and desolate city, angles and blocks of crumbling metal surrounded by the gentler lines and curves of the track.  Beyond the city is nothing.  Well, nothing artificial.  Spires rise in the barren landscape, stretching to touch the looming, rosy moon, but they are made of rock and stone, not iron or steel.  These will erode some day, not be eaten by rust and time.  While the city sits in tones of grey and black, the spires and land are sepia, brown, red and blush.  The city ends starkly, a line drawn in the sand, but beyond the landscape simply dissolves, dust becoming dust becoming stars.

This is a companion piece to A World of Pure Imagination and both were very inspired by music.  Any of you whom have not listened to Mannheim Steamroller's Fresh Aire CDs (there are seven of them) or Saving the Wildlife (especially 'Wolfgang Amadeus Penguin') I recommend them.  Sunday Morning Coffee and Sunday Morning Coffee: Day Parts are both good too but a little sedate for anything but dinner background music.  :)  My favorites are Fresh Aire V, which is space themed, Fresh Aire 7, based around the number 7, Fresh Aire IV, especially 'Dancing Flames', and 'The Cricket' from Fresh Aire III.  The music is instrumental with definite manipulations mixed with some vocal and natural sounds (rain, a cricket, a fire, etc.).
I don't convey it well in the piece but there is a GIANT moon looming largely over the scene, almost completely filling the sky directly in front of the viewer.

Day 24 -Writing While Drooled Upon

Evidently Ms. Abercrombie got serious about writing after having two children and spent most of their childhood writing.  She isn't the first author I've heard of that started writing after the birth of a child and wrote during their naps and practices and classes.  Thankfully there are also plenty of examples of authors who never had children (Ms. Austen) or had children after they were published.  I want kids some day but I'm not planning on them any time soon!

On the Sixth Day of Prompting

I fell asleep between 7 and 8 last night while waiting for my father to come check on my computer, which had mysteriously shut itself down, so needless to say, nothing got posted.  :)  Here are the prompts from yesterday.  I'll post the rest later (after I've done them!).

33. Expectations: She always enjoyed the shocked looks when she told people she could speak Irish; no, red hair was not a prerequisite.
38. Abandoned: Every summer the cousins spent their days planning pranks and exploring the words, searching the abandoned sheds for new treasures or animals.
39. Dreams: Ruthie Henshall made the best Fantine, in Sam’s opinion, seconded by Lea Salonga.
65. Horror: As her fellow first grader leaned toward her, his eyes closed and mouth puckered, Samantha’s reaction was horrified and instinctual, hit him with her mud filled hand!
66. Traps: One of her favorite pranks included saran wrap across a doorway and a very convincing, blood curdling scream.
69. Annoyance: Once, while Sam was bowling with her cousin, she left one pin, every frame!
75. Mirror: For a week, at every reflective surface she stopped and touched her newly short, chestnut hair.
82. Can You Hear Me?: Barbra Streisand’s voice crooned out her speakers and Sam dissolved into tears; maybe listening to the Yentl soundtrack on her first night alone wasn’t the wisest course.
83. Heal: The spring she broke her ankle was the most frustrating of her life as she watched her softball team play with out her.
85. Spiral: She can still remember the day she threw her first perfect pass with crystal clarity, from the sun dappling her face to the damp grass beneath her feet, from the roar of the air show jets going over her head to the bark of the neighbor’s startled dog.
86. Seeing Red: If Agent Ido asked her to ‘make a sammich’ one more time she was not going to be responsible for her actions.
88. Pain: She didn’t even feel the bullet graze her arm or the glass pepper her hands until she was finally sitting still in the ER.
89. Through the Fire: The colors of the campfire fascinated Sam so she and her cousins would throw different objects into the flames to see what color it would burn.
100. Relaxation: With each gear shift Sam shed a little more tension and by the time she hit 90 all her troubles, for the moment, were forgotten.

* Sam is comparing actresses in 39 because of the song 'I Dreamed a Dream' from Les Mis which they both sing (Ruthie's version, Lea's version).  So many of these prompts made me think of songs first, Sam second!
*69 is a true story.  I went bowling with my sister and a friend once and every frame I left one pin standing.  Different pins at different times but I never broke 9 a frame!  It was so annoying, even if I was laughing by the end.
*82 references 'Papa Can You Hear Me?' from Yentl.
* 83 & 85 Found out she played sports.  Huh.  Cool.
*89 FIRE!  Mwahahaha!  I'm a pyro.  So is Sam ... to a degree.

Leap 018 - World of Stone

Song:  World of Stone by Blackmore's Night

    When Eoin Bowman ducked through the doorway, the only sound in the small house was the whisper of steel on stone as his wife Rowan sharpened her dagger.  She looked up and sad, resigned grey eyes met determined brown before he wiped a weary hand across his dirt stained face.
    "There will be no swaying you, will there?" his voice rumbled across the scarred oak table.
    "I will stand by you, husband," she replied evenly, sheathing her dagger alongside it's mate in her belt as she rose to replace the whet stone in it's place by the fire.  Her husband watched as she tided the main room, moving wooden toys and tucking in a rag doll, it's smile not fitting the somber mood.  Completing her circuit of the room, slung a quiver of fletched arrows over her shoulder, took up the crossbow leaning next to the door and stepped next to her husband of eight years.  Gently she rested a cheek on his broad chest, listening to his heartbeat as he wrapped her in a tight embrace, pressing his lips to the top of her curly head.  They stood in quiet communion, content with simple contact, for several long moments before a pounding came on their door.
    "Eoin! Your presence is required at the tavern!" came Geordie's raucous voice, before the door opened to reveal his grinning blonde face.  From the looks of him, he had already visited said establishment before coming to summon his friend for their 'last drink'; Geordie was forgiven this jockularity however, as he could sober almost immediately when a fight was upon him.  The quirks of being a soldier for so long.
    "Oh.  Hello Rowan darling.  Gathering your last few things?"
    "Aye, my arrows and crossbow," she replied, slipping past their deceptively thin friend into the dusk.
    "I thought ..." Geordie spluttered, looking to Eion as the larger man shut the door of his home for what could be the final time.  A grim smile played across Eion's face.
    "I married a stubborn woman, friend.  She will not follow the other healers and has sent our children with her sister and mother."
    "I will not stand by as our home is attacked," Rowan's voice drifted back to the men.  "I have died a thousand times, watching those injured by our enemy slowly fade away, leaving children like our own with no one to protect them.  Today I avenge them and offer myself that such pain may end here."
    No more was said until the trio stepped into the warm glow of the tavern, greeted by friends old and new, so many gathered to face the hoard that would attack at dawn.  When darkness fell the fort commander rose, holding his goblet aloft for silence.
    "Brothers and strong sisters, we stand here as a last defense.  I drink this toast to you," Liam's strong baritone filled the warm room.  "Bring me mead and bring me ale to help us face this fight again.  Good fortune will shine down on us, together we will win, and they will never break out spirit, we will never turn and run, and we will rise strong still when we stand as one!"
    "When we stand as one," came the echo.  Quietly they all sat, thinking of those they had lost in the battles before, murmuring to one another, the voices gradually growing loud again as tales of loss and tales of laughter flew.
-------
    The defenders had lasted another hour or so before separating to steal a few moments of rest or complete preparations for the coming battle.  Stars were just beginning to fade when Eoin, Rowan and Geordie mounted the battlements together, taking their places with the archers and slingers.  The fires of their enemies shone in the fading darkness, nearly blotting out the stars that Rowan stared up at as she prayed for the safety of their children, seven year old Muireann, five year old Niall, and three year old Oran.  As the drums began across the plain Rowan's hand slipped in Eoin's and there it stayed until the command came.
    "Archers, draw bow!"

 I immediately saw this very strong, stubborn woman with wild, dark auburn curls, standing next to her husband in the last defense of their home when I first heard this song.  The story doesn't capture all of what I see in my head but it turned out longer than I intended, which is a good thing.  I've been reading a lot of King Arthur fanfiction lately which influenced the location and events somewhat, placing the last stand in a stone fort rather than a home in a small village.  The woman whose picture I used up there is Dawn Bradfield in her role as Vanora in King Arthur.  I saw a combination of she and Alex Kingston as Boudica from Warrior Queen.
Listen to the song here:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qHdAOKoL18