Enchante
My Winterlark moved off world. Either her performance area is one of those peripatetic ones or she’s touring; I don’t know which I prefer as I can find merits in both. Currently incarnated as Enchante, the lounge is hiding in the lower levels of a space port built on a jungly planet beset by caustic rains and frequent cloud cover. The weather settles down at night after the third moon-rising but it’s not a comfortable life outside… the place is a nexus, a waystation for Katri, humans and other spacefarers. I’m tainted by Gayla’s Pit & Pen universe (current title) as she’s the one who introduced me to 6.5ft catmen and added catnip.
Now, there’s a Katri searching for her missing troopers and she’s in a hostage-taking mood. I still don’t know the barista’s name.
nice kitty
Ha. Ask an innocent question then be challenged to write about the effects of catnip on a 6.5 ft tall cat man… thank you, Gayla and JC. Lately when these sort of things occur I’ve been defaulting to chanteuses like the Winterlark but this time I got a better look at who keeps the bar in that Enchante place. I’m not a hundred percent sure of his name, though I know he wears earplugs, and hides his Spotters Guide to Shifters under the counter. It comes in handy when he mistakes catmint for mint and needs to find out how long the effects will last on … Nefer and Vail … yes, I like those names. I think there’s more of this story waiting to unfold.
Later.
Plus, Ryder and Domino showed up yesterday with their rusalka in a bottle. They may be heading for a meeting with the IMPS seeing as their agenda is full of Ladies of the Lakes and Improbability Theory (latest title) is rotten with semi-arthurian themes. Last time my reluctant questors visited was Wolf Hollow Episode Epsiode 9. Perhaps they’re on an annual schedule…
bit of a Tiff
All of a sudden Tiff (technically a “Tiffany”) has a bounty hanging over her if she leaves the physical boundaries of Pandora’s Edge. My Tiff, the techy geek! That’s going to be an intersting thread to explore. Will the Lullabye League be holding the other end? She’s been curious about them for ages and Zac bribed her with their access codes to wear a frock but I thought that was heading for a completely different and romantic conclusion. Okay, a bounty still could facilitate that ending, it’s just… little Tiff?
Carnivale
Odd how quickly one short story written entirely for a keyword challenge connects to another … and another … and, oops, that’s a series or something perilously close to A Plan. Luckily, this particular plan will only remain a plan for one more story. Then I’ll have six Carnivale Vignettes featuring acrobats (emphasis on bat), roses and deep-fried locusts. There’s a secondary stage to this plan but as I have co-conspirators, that will have to wait.
Slightly suspicious and I’m pretending it doesn’t exist: a sense that I’ve skimmed past this lot in an earlier story, the one about the astrologer and the vampire.
Give Quarter
My quartet of Rogue Mapping short stories needs an intro:
Some people are born with a gift for pushing boundaries.
Some go on to form a company that specialises in exploring the fluid edges redefining the world with every sunrise.
Those people are Rogue Mapping.
From remote mountain peaks where every breath calls angels closer, to cutting-edge inner urban zones they chart their own courses.
That’s my first cut, written on the tram home after raiding the supermarket: there’s something about that combination…
pointless
I almost threw a book across the room last night, very sad, and all because the point of view in the last story tended to shift every few paragraphs … and to minor, meaningless characters. Why? And how could her editor let her get away with it? Not a surprise the best of the three vampires stories was by Katie Mac: clever, funny, lovely characters, adds something new to her story arc while visiting previous players. The first story was forgettable. The third one sadly wasn’t for all the wrong reasons. I couldn’t even finish it.
To think I’d been worried about POV slips…
apple child
My brain is waving again… a long time ago someone asked if I was going to bump off one of my Urchins – no! But I could make her leave instead, which of course meant she’d return later for a cameo and contrast. Was that it? Hmmm, maybe I could bump her off after that. Now I’m ninety-five percent sure she is dead. I’ll have to give her a happy storyline in between the adult appearances as otherwise she’s just pathetic and doomed, and she really had potential, my little Eden. The aftershocks are lingering into Give No Quarter or whatever it ends up being called.
note to self: Tiff was tracking Eden because of Cash.
my lady of the lotus
Also known as In Bloom or the 4th Siren’s Gate epsiode although I scribbled the notes for it earlier. I think it began because I knew Rhone was going to turn up later and while scribbling notes for him “harem” as in he’d inspire them appeared. That, plus an ongoing exchange at work regarding the dancing boys failing to appear, combined with a few snippets from Al’s commentary, became a story where Angel has to rescue an arts/gossip columnist from captivity. Some captivity! Yet for some reason Lady Lotus doesn’t appreciate being serenaded by a trio of hula hooping champions.
Like most of my characters, she’ll be back later; there’s a romantic subplot to untangle except her wannabe captor is as yet nameless.
