power outage :-(

My house lost power an hour ago. Fortunately I was doing actual cooking for dinner -- fishsticks and green beans -- rather than relying on microwaved stuff, and I already had the oven and stove burner on (also they are gas, not electric), so I lit my emergency candles and ate by firelight. The outage is localized to one street, so it's probably a transformer.

With luck, it will be fixed soon, but meanwhile I am going to bed.

ETA: Power came back at 8:15pm, yay!

[Meta] Thoughts on Calormen, part 2

Thoughts on Calormen, Part 1 (LJ crosspost) dealt with history (and some extremely rough-sketch geography in the process). Part 2 is about culture: brief thoughts on language, religion, the arts, and law/authority/taxes.

I still want to say things about climate, slavery, patterns of trade (internal and external), child-rearing, marriage and divorce, and the organization and physical layout of communities, but those will have to wait for part 3. Also, if there is anything you want me to talk about, just tell me and I will try to world-build an answer!

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( Language )

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( Religion )

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( The Arts )

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( Legal Authority )

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And now I am going to read at least three chapters of "Secrets" before I allow myself to do anything else. *resolve face*

rereading "Secrets" -- Chapter 1: First Impressions

Story Summary: CoS according to Ginny. Nobody noticed anything wrong for an entire year -- how did she slip so far from her family and friends? Angst and betrayal, but also mysteries, jokes, an enchanted suit of armor, and a guaranteed happy ending. WIP. (Content warnings: clinical depression, hints of suicidal ideation, possession, emotionally abusive relationship)

Chapter Summary: "Chamber of Secrets" from Ginny's point of view. In this chapter, Ginny writes in her new diary, Harry and Ron miss the Hogwarts Express, Hermione frets, and Ginny meets two girls on the train.

Wow. This chapter is brick-to-the-face unsubtle, in the way I banged on about secrets, privacy, "personal" things, mortification, and Ginny's awkwardness at dealing with people who aren't members of her family. Also, given how bad I am at remembering Ginny's crush on Harry in later chapters, it is amazing how frequently she thinks about him here.

I hadn't started repunctuating Rowling's dialogue to make it fit my own style, and in fact was actively bending MY dialogue toward hers a bit. Awkward!

There are way too many semi-colons. The semi-colon is a noble and useful punctuation mark, but ten years ago I was in the habit of writing academic essays and tended to get carried away with producing carefully balanced multi-clause sentences. That works just fine for nonfiction literary analysis (or chemistry lab reports, pick your poison), but not so well in narrative fiction written from the POV of an eleven-year-old girl.

I like the bits with Tom and the diary, though. Those are good.

rereading "Secrets" -- Chapter 2: Unpleasant Surprises

Summary: "Chamber of Secrets" from Ginny's point of view. In this chapter, we arrive at Hogwarts, watch the Sorting, and finally reach the end of the day.

A description of Hagrid on the Hogsmeade platform: A small circle of first years huddled nervously around him, like scraggly ornamental shrubbery ringing a massive oak. That does not match the rest of Ginny's POV narration AT ALL, but damn, I love that line. :-)

I forgot to mention that chapter 1 introduces Apple and Daphne Rumluck -- though after that chapter, one probably thinks of them the other way around, since Daphne does most of the talking. Chapter 2 introduces Xanthe Delaflor, the third of my five important OCs. (The other two are Susan Ward and Sir Vladislav the enchanted armor. Why yes, this story is chock full of female characters! ...I should keep a Bechdel Test pass tally, come to think of it.)

We get the first mention of Ginny's thing for Muggle fairy tales, which is really MY thing for Muggle fairy tales doubling as a thematic through-line that ties into the whole distressed damsel "princess waiting for rescue" take on Ginny's character that CoS (unfortunately) lends itself to.

( cut for length )

Bechdel Test = PASS, a dozen times over

(Chapter one also passes, incidentally.)