Author Archives: kirabug

Whew.

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I wrote 5,086 words today, which puts my total for the month to 7,895 at midnight. Somewher between 1/7th and 1/6th of the way there.

As a reward for putting up with me, here’s a fragment of today’s work.

“Are yeh okay, Miss Cass?” Fanny asked with worry in her eyes. Cass was holding her left arm as if it was a toy.

Cass groaned. She tried to move her left shoulder, but something was definitely wrong. “I think that mudspittled bastard tore something. Can yeh go check on the shop, an’ work on restockin’ while I figure out this mess?”

Fanny nodded and walked back to the back door of the shop. As soon as she opened the door the two women inside started yelling curses. “Aah, shut yer muckin’ mouths, yeh sootball bastards,” Fanny replied in kind. Cass could have laughed, if the pain in her arm would have let her. She winced again, trying to move the arm.

Top dropped to one knee in front of the Flame. “May I take a look at it, Hearth Mother?” he asked formally, without looking up.

“Tommy, what’re you- get up!” she ordered. “Of course yeh can take a look at it, though I doubt as if yeh can do a fallen thing about it. Sparks but I hate that formal muck,” she added under her breath. “Yeh know we’re not like that here.”

Tom was at her side immediately. “I know yeh say that but I’ve no desire for the guards teh come around the corner an’ me not askin’ permission, ma’am,” he replied. He took her injured arm in his hands and lifted it gently. She gritted her teeth together and groaned at the pain. Tom stopped lifting the arm and stepped behind Cass, supporting her left arm in his left hand as he ran his right hand over her neck and shoulder gently, gauging the extent of the injury. His touch made her tingle in a way she hadn’t felt since she’d had a crush on a Burgravine’s son in Academy when she was in tenth year. At the same time, the roaring pain in her arm announced there would be none of that, thank you.

“What is that yer hummin?” Cass asked, trying to keep her mind off of the conflicting signals her body was sending. “Sounds like an old sea tune my mam used teh sing.”

Tom stopped suddenly, and Cass could feel him tense up. “It’s nothin’, just something my grandmam sang when I was a kid. Am I hurting you? I can stop if yeh want.” He lowered her arm and backed away.

 

As for me, it’s back to the word mines I go…

Camp NaNoWriMo in 4 days – sponsor me?

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It’s August, you’re thinking. Why’s kirabug going off about National Novel Writing Month already? That’s November

Yes. Yes yes yes true. But this August – four days from now – I’ll be holed up at Camp NaNoWriMo, a virtual writers retreat that essentially follows the same rules as NaNoWriMo. So yes, I’ll be writing a 50,000 word novel in a month. In August. In my house. (Or my car. Or my parents’ place. Or wherever I happen to be when I pull the iPad out of the bag.) I’m working on the same book I’ve been working on since I was 13, and this time I swear I think I know what these characters are up to. I even took the first 3 days of the month off of work to kick this thing off right!

So, I need your help. See, NaNoWriMo is definitely not cheap for the folks who organize it. They send out kits to schools to encourage writing, help organize and fund writing events in communities all around the world, and build libraries in developing nations. All good, and expensive, stuff.

Camp is much cheaper (and much smaller) – and also our opportunity to do some early-year fundraising to make sure NaNoWriMo is spectacular this and every November.

Just like sponsoring a marathonner, you can donate on my behalf as I write toward the 50,000-word goal. I’ll receive some truly nifty prizes for my fundraising efforts on behalf of The Office of Letters and Light, the 501(c)(3) nonprofit that hosts Camp NaNoWriMo. More importantly, Your donation will help provide free writing resources for even more kids, teens, and adults around the world!

 

There are a number of inspirational items in the online Camp Store (store.lettersandlight.org/merchandise) that will help get me through the month. You could send me a Camp NaNoWriMo Care Package full of campy encouragement, a Camp NaNoWriMo T-shirt declaring my goal for the month, a Campfire Mug to fill with writer fuel, or whatever… really though, it’s not about the stuff, it’s about funding NaNoWriMo. So skip the stuff, unless you think it’s cool and you want it for yourself. (If that’s the case, go buy it by the truck full, because all the profits also go toward NaNoWriMo.)

OK – that’s me, done groveling. Go, sponsor, buy cool stuff, and wish me luck.

Merida and Disney Princesses: a rant

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Here’s a list of all the Disney princesses who were the main characters of their movies.*

Snow White: Princess whose stepmother is trying to kill her runs away to stay alive, is almost killed by her stepmother, and is brought back to life through the love of the prince.

Cinderella: Daughter of a wealthy aristocrat whose stepfamily is emotionally abusing her wants to marry a prince to escape her family, which they try to prevent. Becomes a princess.

Aurora: Princess who is cursed at birth, is lied to about her family her entire life, falls in love but isn’t allowed to marry the man, is attacked by the evil faerie, and awakened through the love of the prince she fell in love with.

Ariel: Princess/mermaid who falls in love with a human man, puts her family in danger by pursuing him, and when he saves her life, is granted her wish to become a human.

Belle: Peasant who is being pursued for marriage by a narcissistic violent suitor dreams of escaping to a more enchanting life, sacrifices her freedom to save her father, and falls in love with a prince who can’t become a whole man until her falls in love with her too. Becomes a princess.

Rapunzel: Princess who is kidnapped at birth by an evil witch, wants to escape her life inside a tower and see the world, is pursued by the witch and saved by a rogue, rediscovers her family and marries the rogue.

And then there’s Merida: a princess who is living in a well-adjusted household with both of her living parents (as well as her brothers), and wants the freedom to decide who she’ll marry on her own terms. Makes a few bad decisions and has to change her behavior and her outlook to [redacted].

***

Dear all the men who have told me over the past few days that Brave is boring, slow, too much like Brother Bear, or otherwise not really worth watching:

It’s not for you. You don’t have Disney Princes to look up to. You have your storybook characters, your fantastic role models, your rogues, your nerds, your geeks, your outsiders-looking-in, your heroes-that-shouldn’t-be-heroes who get into car chases, sword fights, laser gunfights, and epic battles, solve the mysteries, figure out the path they’re supposed to follow on their own, get the girl or don’t, win the prize or don’t, and who become better people through the process.

Your heroes start out (or are quickly thrust into) bad situations, but most of them are not being threatened by violence or death just for existing, or being told that their primary purpose is to fall in love and marry. Frequently, they’re in crazy situations because their own selfish actions put them there. Your heroes pull themselves up by the bootstraps and get to work to fix an issue without singing animals or magical faeries or dancing furniture.

With the possible exception of Ariel, who really should’ve considered therapy, none of the Disney Princess we’ve been given for role models can really say that. I’m not sure Disney could tell a princess story with a real girl if they wanted to. Pixar nailed it on the first try.

Until now, because we have Merida.

Brave is for me, and all the other girls who grew up in a not-so-bad house but still managed to go through horrible growing pains from pre-teen to twenty-something, who weren’t looking for a knight in shining armor, a prince, or an escape route, who wanted to shoot arrows and hit baseballs and not-wear skirts if we didn’t want to wear skirts, and go where we want and do what we want and control our own fate. We wanted a princess who ignored her status as a princess, not because she didn’t know she was one, but because she knew she was a princess and just didn’t care. She isn’t a prize to be won, she isn’t defined by the roles people try to place her into, and she isn’t waiting for someone else to fix her problems.

Merida is our princess, and she tells a story I suspect a whole lot of us could tell too.

No matter who you are, you’re allowed to think the movie was slow or boring or even dislike it if you wish. But please, don’t discourage the rest of us from seeing it. Remember, you just might not be the target audience for this one.

*I dropped Mulan, Pocahontas, Alice, and Tiana because none of them were strictly princesses, though Tiana did become one.** I also dropped Jasmine, Esmerelda, and Jane because they weren’t the main characters, and Lilo because she’s just a kid.

**But I haven’t seen The Frog Prince and to be honest, I’m not sure she’s the main character, so I ignored it.

Link dump

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Yeah, I’ve been neglecting this place more than a little bit. I’ve also been building up literally thousands of interesting tweets, articles, and links I want to read/share with all y’all. Worse, some of them actually made it into the blog here and I never actually posted them. So here’s a start at a fix.

How to find the IP address of something attached to the Airport Extreme. It wasn’t available at all for years, and now it’s there, even if it’s not obvious.

Bacon bourbon brownie recipe I want to try – anyone gutsy enough to try it with me? (Nighthawk already said no.)

If you don’t speak bar, you probably need this article on booze jargon.

A great short story about why privacy matters.

How to build an upside-down fire because someday I will have a fireplace again.

Where do bad moods come from? They come from wearing yourself out.