Keep the wolf far hence, that's foe to men

[pameladean]

I wrote this a few days ago but never posted it, and find I want it in here:

The sky, which has been dark and lowering all day, just lightened so abruptly that I looked outside to see if the sun might be visible. It is not: instead, a huge downpour of very noisy, bouncy precipitation, like dollhouse hail, is falling. The birds are making a fuss, and I don't blame them. This is my fuss.

We return you now to current events, where it is quite cold but the sun is shining and the wind is blowing the glitter of yesterday's snow off the branches. I must gird myself presently and go wade through snow to fill the bird feeders.

In other news, it being the new year, I have dutifully looked at the short-story fragments that erupted from the condensation of my novel. I immediately saw a completely boring and reprehensible assignment of gender roles -- girls make friends with girls, boys with boys, and the girls talk about social stuff while the boys do astronomy. Well, screw THAT. I can't make Con interested in astronomy, but I can swap out the other brother-sister pair and let Sophia explain telescopes to Beldi.

And where, I ask rhetorically, did I choose to read aloud these two fragments? At Wiscon.

Oh, brain. Will I ever get all the cobwebs out of you?

Pamela

Comments

[calicortina.livejournal.com]

I just re-read Whim of the Dragon last week and I so, so, SO long to "see" Ruth again; she was always my favourite (okay, she and Fence). Thank you for writing such amazing books, the trilogy has been an integral part of my life and imagination for a good many years. Cheers!

[pameladean]

I was very fond of Ruth as well, which is one reason she gets a book more her own. It's a little worrisome, since some people are more attractive as non-viewpoint characters or secondary characters. I have sometimes thought of writing a book about Molly from Tam Lin, but I think the transition to protagonist would be difficult to manage. I hope you will still like Ruth.

You are very welcome for the books. I loved writing them.

P.

[calicortina.livejournal.com]

Ack! A whole book about Molly! How great would that be? *laugh* I understand the dilemma. I've often made up stories in my head about Janet and Thomas and their child and future, though.

Thanks, again.

[pameladean]

Yeah, me too, so many stories that I'm rather bewildered and decide to leave things alone. But you never know.

P.

[jenett]

Molly would make me very happy indeed, though I do see the protagonist problem. (Maybe she just needs the right story to wander into?)

[pameladean]

Yes, that's a lot of the problem; the other, as I say to Catherine below, is that Robin would have to be in the story -- I'm not sure I'd have the gall to write a whole book about Molly with no Robin -- and he's just trouble.

P.

[ethelmay.livejournal.com]

I used to babysit a pair of sisters called Robin and Molly, so that looks, er, odd. (Their full names were Robin and Marian -- fortunately the last name was not Hood.)

[17catherines.livejournal.com]

I did love Molly, and the idea of More Molly (and Robin!) is very appealing, though I suspect the really interesting viewpoint might be Tina's - Janet never really did get much of a handle on what went on in her head (and nor did I).

I am looking forward to more Ruth, very much.

[pameladean]

Robin is another reason I'm hesitating; he is a handful and a HALF.

P.

[17catherines.livejournal.com]

I can well imagine! (speaking of people who have very strange/alien thought processes)

[mmseason.livejournal.com]

So relieved that you do that too. We have few defences against years-old conditioning!

I hope the birds thanked you.

[pameladean]

I thought I had got out of the way of it, but no, let my brain wander and there it all is. I don't really mind finding such stuff in early drafts; it was the decision to read the early drafts out loud that I am regretting a little.

So far, the squirrels are thanking me, but if they leave anything I am sure the birds will as well.

P.

[biblio-tech.livejournal.com]

My bird feeder remains depressingly full (weeks). We seem to have a resident cardinal and a few chickadees. The squirrel-proofness of the feeder seems to be proven. We have some hanging around on the ground, but they don't even attempt to get in anymore. And no English sparrows! Both of these things are fine with me, but they're odd. Further oddness, is that I've seen a small flock of robins by Mayflower church and a single one by Lake Nokomis.

[pameladean]

That is very weird about the house sparrows. I have dozens and dozens.

I believe that in the past ten or twentiy years we have gotten flocks of robins from further north wintering here, as well as some who find warm spots, like heat vents at the university, and just stick around. I saw a huge flock a week or two ago, plundering berries from a gigantic hackberry. Poor guys, they were all fluffed up, which I have seldom before seen in a robin. They'll eat other dried fruit too, if you want them at the feeder.

P.

[mmseason.livejournal.com]

:) Squirrel manners can't be predicted, so it's great that you have polite ones.

I must confess

[(Anonymous)]

That I should be entirely delighted to see someone attempt to make Con interested in astronomy.

This is, admittedly, in significant part because I would get to do it at a possibly safe remove, but still.

-- Graydon

Re: I must confess

[pameladean]

Well, I can't do it, because I'm not in the story. There is nobody else in the story who is really motivated to do so, and you will admit that the motivation would have to be very powerful.

Con has other fish to fry, though.

P.

Re: I must confess

[(Anonymous)]

The motivation would have to be a mighty thing, yes.

Notwithstanding Con's other fish, and the various dire imaginings of fish-frying being done by means of volcanoes, burning metal, bound demons being hectored into better temperature control, and the unbound spirit of wrath (the which cannot stop wondering at the smell of trout), the mental image I get is very much Fence being stricken with a whim to discover the extent of Con's educable tractability, should such a thing be found to exist, though I wot not if he has been much given to astronomy. (Though I should be surprised not were he to have many tales of the names of stars within him.)

-- Graydon

Re: I must confess

[pameladean]

Fence isn't there. He might indeed want to do this later on, in the sequel to the present version of what was once Going North, but he's not in this story. He does know basic astronomy, and cosmology as appropriate to the milieu. Ruth wonders somewhere in Abiding Reflection, as presently constituted, why nobody seems to be doing astronomy at Heathwill, and I'm going to address that in the sequel. But this story is not that.

As for the rest, I am making a note to see if perhaps Con dislikes fish. If I can manage while giggling.

P.

Re: I must confess

[(Anonymous)]

(Yay, giggling!)

Fence is the only person with the capacity and inclination I can think of, alas; I can see Randolph attempting this only if in a drastically dolorous state, poor soul, and the senior members of Heathwill would all seem to lack the inclination.

-- Graydon

[nnozomi.livejournal.com]

However the gender roles turn out, I'm looking forward to seeing this in print; Beldi is one of my favorite characters. (Although it seems to me maybe he could do with some time in the company of boys, having spent most of his life in between two very assertive sisters?) Many thanks for past and future reading pleasure.