#PennedPossibilities 319
MC POV: Where did you grow up? What was your childhood like there?
Dair Montgomery: We lived in Edinburgh. My da was what they called a hard man; he didn't like that I preferred the company of books and animals to playing football or cricket. My favorite time was the summer; my mum would drive me up to Ballachulish to visit Nanny Kilgour, her mother. Nanny understood me better than anyone; she nurtured my love for nature and learning. I dreaded going back home at the end of the summer.
When I came back from Afghanistan, I was pretty messed up. The only place I'd ever really felt like myself was Ballachulish ... so that's where I went.
#PennedPossibilities — MC POV: Where did you grow up? What was your childhood like there?
Alfie: I grew up on the Endsleigh estate down in Dorset, and even after my father inherited the earldom, my parents chose to remain there. The house is comfortable & compact with none of the big show rooms you find at other grand estates. We've never had a ball at Endsleigh, instead, when my parents host a small party, we roll up the carpet in the sitting room and somebody sits down at the piano.
Ume: "I grew up near Hanno City in Japan. That's near Tokyo. My family used to own farmland out there. Some of it was sold to pay debts and others to pay for vices. Gambling and vanity mainly. I got along with the other kids growing up but never felt like I belonged. After high school, I left as quickly as I could.
Let's see? My parents considered me a problem child. My grandfather never spoke to me after the 5th grade. I wasn't manly enough. The joke was on him, That was because I wasn't a guy at all. The one exception was when he made a deal with me to marry Hanayomi-shin. "If you don't have lumber, bamboo will do." That is how he described me.
Except to go to my grandfather's funeral I haven't seen my family since.
#pennedpossibilities 319 — MC POV: Where did you grow up? What was your childhood like there?
Katja: I grew up in Mainz! A lovely town at the Rhine - it's so beautiful there! My father taught me how to swim and told me stories from his travels, and the house was always filled with sweet smells of spices and foreign goods. But then he died, and my uncle had to take me in, and that was less nice...
But I still love Mainz!
#PennedPossibilities 319 — MC POV: Where did you grow up? What was your childhood like there?
On a farm and in the Fell Woods. I don't remember much about the former, but the latter was both exciting and difficult every day. I chose to live with wolves, which because of my gift better understood me every day. They were still wolves, and they lived and ate like wolves, not humans. I survived despite the dirt, raw meet, living without shelter, and an incredible amount of walking. The wolves cherished the cunning and technology I brought to the pack and helped me find a way. They taught me to hunt. People, I learned much later, like to be touched; contact was natural to wolves, but sadly despite people liking to be touched they don't routinely do so. The whole leaving the wild to attend school has left me with what one of Her Highness' psychologist call species-disphoria. I'm more comfortable living amongst beasts than people because they are so much more friendly and, if not, so much more predictable. I'm sure I'll go back when school's over—despite having a new boyfriend.
My brain writes when it writes.
When it says !TYPE!, my fingers float like butterflies and sting like vivid emotions... because that's where I write from most times.
When it says 'Not now.' I don't force it because like with batteries for electrictonic, you don't over draw the current capacity unless you want shit to break.
#PennedPossibilities 318 — What do you need in your writing space to help you stay focused?
Less is more in this case. That doesn't mean that in a perfect situation I won't suddenly find myself sweeping the floor instead of writing. They don't call it displacement activity for nothing!
I fear it will require a new brain. Amoung my many gifts is ADHD. I made it work for me, but prolonged focus is usually beyond me. A good juicy piece of narrative is good. Until I need to look up something. And then we are in for 5+, usually +, of chasing shiny objects around.
#pennedpossibilities 318 — What do you need in your writing space to help you stay focused?
Like others said - solitude/not being interrupted, and a certain kind of quiet. I can write with noise canceling earphones on a full train. I'm having more trouble when I'm sitting in the beautiful sunroom, and someone next to me keeps talking to me at random intervals.
#PennedPossibilities 317 — What clothing materials or outfits feel the most comfortable to your villain?
She was arguably a villain, and she got a thuggish prizefighter to try to kill the MC. She also tried to help a coup d'etat in the mob, which failed. The MC meet her in an alley when the MC dissed her gang boyfriend and she tried to slit her throat. The MC took away her ivory handled jackknife, which becomes a character by itself in later stories. She goes by the moniker of Mustang, maybe because like the car she's unsteerable?
She's described as
"The women looked overly girly in garish reds or pinks, with matching makeup and bracelets, except for a buzzed-cut blonde tanned woman [Mustang] who wore brass stud piercings. (Didn't brass have lead in it...? Poisonous... Oh, never mind.) It worked; she looked tough, more so maybe than her gold chain-wearing boyfriend in a white tee shirt."
We're talking cotton here. Cheap. She's wearing something tight and black around her hips.
#pennedpossibilities 316 — Does your MC or SC have a hard time connecting with others?
A Wolf's Lullaby
MC:
Parthia, three words "Gregarious social butterfly"
Pintac, he doesn't initiate a lot of conversations, but prod him with a question and he's a friendly fern.
SC:
Gavin, pretty good and relatable in casual settings. Formal settings he's S-tier schmoozer.
Liv doesn't have a hard time connecting, she just keeps to small circles, and haunting archives + libraries
So, I'm traveling a lot over Pentecost and will have time on the train. I can't quite decide which project to tackle first.
Whadda you think?
Final check of the translation of #OdysseyToThePromisedLand so that it gets done?
Start translating #TheMindOnFire?
Edit #TimeCurves in which those books will feature?
Or screw it and just read the books of the author I rediscovered on Patreon yesterday?
#pennedpossibilities 316 — Does your MC or SC have a hard time connecting with others?
Nope, quite the opposite. Katja is a sweet, empathic girl and people tend to want to take care of her in one way or the other. She's trusting too.
Max is a little less trusting (ok, a lot), but he easily makes friends. That they don't know his bitterest, darkest secret is another thing altogether.
#PennedPossibilities 317 — What clothing materials or outfits feel the most comfortable to your villain?
Stuff like this. White woman who's spent decades studying various martial arts, but kalaripayattu and HEMA-style fencing form the basis of her practice.