In the roads that never saw sun nor sky

[sovay]

cucumberseed drew me a haruspex:



His Autumn War is an extraordinary world.

I spent a portion of this afternoon in Harvard Square with lesser_celery, mostly looking at books neither of us could afford to buy. We did not talk nearly as much as I would have liked (for which I blame the fact that I disappeared first into A.S. Byatt's The Matisse Stories (1993) and then a monograph on Miyazaki's Spirited Away), but at least it was in person rather than pixels. We conversed about the important things, like swine flu and unnatural acts. I should still have brought a camera. He's like spirit photography.

Afterward, I took the bus home. Somewhere between Porter Square and Route 16, two girls got on; I thought at first that one of them had a tattoo above the collar of her T-shirt, but it was a port-wine birthmark that began on her chin and spilled down the left side of her throat where it vanished under the green-and-white cotton. Maybe I still have time_shark and Goblin Fruit on the brain, but I looked at her and thought of maenads. Will you drink out of the blood, the white wine and the red? I don't know if it's fair to steal her face for a story. She was beautiful.

Comments

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Yes, it's fair to steal her face for a story. Marked from birth as a Maenad? Definitely her story is worth telling.

I remember riding that bus daily, for a short period of time when I was staying with my grandmother and taking a summer course.

[sovay]

Marked from birth as a Maenad? Definitely her story is worth telling.

I would dedicate to her unknown. Another story for the queue . . .

[cucumberseed.livejournal.com]

Another story for the queue

Preach it.

[rosefox]

His Autumn War is an extraordinary world.

I just spent five very confused minutes trying to figure out whether cucumberseed is Daniel Abraham.

[sovay]

I just spent five very confused minutes trying to figure out whether cucumberseed is Daniel Abraham.

Fascinating. Sorry about that? No, cucumberseed's Autumn War started out as a game design and then it grew. I am hoping for novels.

[cucumberseed.livejournal.com]

Egad! Someone beat me to the title!?

Oh well. We adapt. Thanks for pointing this out.

[sovay]

Egad! Someone beat me to the title!?

I still think your world may be awesome enough the title doesn't need changing. It's so deeply identified with everything that happens in the Provinces.

[ap-aelfwine.livejournal.com]

I don't think it's unreasonable to hang onto the current title. Daniel Abraham probably didn't get to it first, either.

[cucumberseed.livejournal.com]

Probably not. Different medium. Besides, I use the definite article, and he the indefinite.

[rosefox]

Welcome! They're wonderful books and I highly recommend them, so at least you're in good company.

I know of at least two books coming out soon entitled Chasing the Dragon. All the good titles and most of the bad ones have been taken. Don't sweat too much about it.

[cucumberseed.livejournal.com]

If nothing else, it is a different medium, and from the looks a very different take.

[cucumberseed.livejournal.com]

And the Provinces are just getting better all the time, now that there are three new Provinces full of fascinating people.

[sovay]

And the Provinces are just getting better all the time, now that there are three new Provinces full of fascinating people.

Let's hear it for memes!

Tell it!

[tuppshar-press.livejournal.com]

Everyone has a story to tell, and everyone inspires at least one story. You should tell hers.

[ap-aelfwine.livejournal.com]

I don't know if it's fair to steal her face for a story. She was beautiful.

I reckon it's fair. Writers steal all other things and bodge them together, do we not?

And I'd love to read that story.

[teenybuffalo.livejournal.com]

How lucky! I wish I'd seen her. I love looking at people with interesting birthmarks, scars, unusual eyes, unusual markings. (This was probably obvious from the fact that I was very taken with the picture of Phineas Gage.) Actually, it's probably a good thing I wasn't there--I might have unintentionally stared to a rude degree.

Mining Disaster

[chomiji]

(And I never commented here on the strange shifting of contexts I experienced as I recognized the post title: In the town of Springhill, Nova Scotia / Down in the dark of the Cumberland mine / There's blood on the coal and the miners lie ... .)

[sovay]

In the town of Springhill, Nova Scotia / Down in the dark of the Cumberland mine / There's blood on the coal and the miners lie ...

Yes. I heard Peggy Seeger sing it live when I was in college and it has haunted me ever since.