[Meme] WIP title list

[edenfalling]

Seen in various places: Post the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous.

I don't have a WIP folder -- I separate my Documents folder by fandom/universe rather than by done/undone -- but I do have a Stories in Progress file that I update whenever I write something. The following is copy-pasted from that. Things in italics are stories that A) I am currently ignoring for some reason, or B) are probably never going to be finished, but I haven't quite reconciled myself to that yet.

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Current Story List, 2/14/11
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Original Short Stories:
The Three Sisters (Immish) -- 1,275
Fall Into the Sea/The Fallen Stars (Immish) -- outline only
Wind on the Face of the Sea -- 450
The Fox and the Star -- 325
Renunciation -- 1,750
Harvest (Ekanu) -- 13,350
The Painted Sky (Ekanu) -- 1,650
Small Mysteries (Ekanu) -- 3,050
Diplomacy (Ekanu) -- 1,700
Chrysanthe -- 2,300
Deliverance -- 2,100
Chains -- 2,400
The Bird Woman of Shajento -- 1,750
The Heart of the Land -- 575
Blessed Are the Meek (Ironheart) -- 1,425
It Is Only a Door (Ironheart) -- 600

Original Novels:
A Change of Season -- 21,850
The Lady Is the Tiger -- 2,850
Ashes -- 18,500
The Sum of Things -- 21,450

Harry Potter:
Secrets -- ch. 15 (3,600), epilogue (0)
Strange Likenesses -- ch. 7 (1,250), ?? more chs.
New Horizons -- ch. 3 (475), ?? more chs.
The Dragon Debacle -- 2,325

Naruto:
The Guardian in Spite of Herself -- ch. 15 (0), 15 (??) more chs.
Friends and Neighbors -- 4,400

Angel Sanctuary:
The Transient and the Eternal -- 22 of 30 written; 5 partial; 22 posted
4. [3] Giving Up -- 875
11. [15] Stop That -- 2,075
21. [25] Looking -- 375
22. [24] Dreaming -- outline only
24. [18] Clouds -- 800
26. [6] If Only -- 1,250
27. [23] If It Wasn't You... -- 3,450
30. [16] Pillows -- outline only
Shugotenma/Guardian Devil -- 1,250
Ephemera -- ch. 1 (5,900), ch. 2 (2,350), ch. 3 (0)
Debts -- ch. 2 (500), 4 more chs.

Chronicles of Narnia:
The Courting Dance -- ch. 5 (in revision), ch. 6 (0), 3 (??) more chs.
How Does Your Garden Grow? -- 1,350
The Corners of the World -- 4,200
In the Gardens of Mezreel -- 775
Fire and Ice -- 1,075

Enchanted Forest Chronicles:
A Question of Familiarity -- 2,325
An Honest Opinion -- 1,350

Star Trek: AOS:
Intervention -- 12,675
The Light in Your Eyes -- 8,200

Other:
The Body Politic (Riddle-Master) -- 2,300
Lemonade (BtVS/GW/Naruto) -- ch. 18 (1,200), 6-7 (??) more chs.
Lazy Day/Faith and Buffy watch Firefly (BtVS) -- 1,575
Obstruction of Justice (Batman Nolan!verse) -- 2,100
Unriddling (The Darkangel) -- 375
More or Less the Same (BtVS) -- ch. 5 (600)
Eyes of Stone (Black Jewels) -- 1,275

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If you want, you can ask for one story and I will post a line or two of the draft or outline.

Comments

[vehrec.livejournal.com]

Lazy Day for me-I'm a sucker for slice of life, in any form.

[edenfalling]

"Hey, Sleeping Beauty wakes! I thought you were gonna be out 'til sunset, the way you were snoring a couple hours ago," Faith said as she sat sideways on the couch and kicked her feet up onto the cushions. "I'm trying to catch up on all the TV I missed the past few years. Andrew hooked me up with tapes of this show that's like a western in space -- lots of guns and fighting the man. Wanna join me?"

"There will be no beer in the house," Buffy said, temporarily distracted from the weirdness of the empty house. "Beer is bad, and I know you know what teenage girls are like."

"That would be why I'm planning to drink it all myself," Faith said.

[rianax.livejournal.com]

The Birdwoman because i am reading about swan maidens now and Ekanu because she is the best of your orginal stories.

The Bird Woman of Shajento

[edenfalling]

"The Bird Woman of Shajento" is actually about a woman who speaks to birds, not a woman who becomes a bird. Sorry for the confusing title!

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Here is the opening:

Many years ago, in the mountain valley of Shajento, there lived a woman who spoke with birds. Her name was Ah Ying, and she lived alone by the edge of the forest in a small and comfortable house. She had a vegetable garden, an herb garden, and flowering vines that climbed the rails of her wide wooden porch.

The villagers feared her because she didn't fear the forest. They called her witch and muttered darkly behind her back, but they came secretly to her for spells and scryings. Ah Ying sprinkled water on her glass mirror and found what was lost. She mixed pinches of herbs in heated wine and stirred potions into stews and teas. She wove charms to banish dreams and demons. But she cast no curses, told no futures, and would not summon the dead.

It was, perhaps, both unsafe and unwise to live in the forest's shadow, but she ringed her house with feather charms to keep unkindness away and filled thimbles with wine for passing ghosts. Birds visited her, bringing gossip and warnings as she tended her gardens and flowers. Now and again she had tea with the village priest. And so she passed her days.

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And here is a bit from later on, when the plot has kicked in:

When Ah Ying approached the shrines, Jonen was raking the garden. He straightened at the sound of her footsteps and tipped back his wide-brimmed straw hat. "I hadn't expected you until the new moon, Ah Ying," he said. "Have you found signs of misfortune?"

"Possibly," Ah Ying said. "A fox visited me this morning. He claims that a sorcerer has wrapped the land beyond the mountains under his spells, and now turns his attention toward the Emperor. He's sent part of his army through the passes in disguise, and now he's traveling east himself. According to the fox, the sorcerer will come through our valley."

Jonen leaned on his rake and studied the gravel at his feet. "Foxes are devious," he said after a long moment.

"His reflection in my mirror was single, not doubled, and the tea didn't scald his lips," Ah Ying said. "I'm fairly sure he spoke only truth, though he may have set those truths in a skewed frame."

Jonen sighed, but he nodded in acknowledgement. "I'll gather everyone and begin moving food to the caves. If you let Grandfather Lu's ghost out of his bottle, the sorcerer will think that we fled a malevolent spirit and won't bother to hunt for us."

Small Mysteries - Ekanu

[edenfalling]

This follows directly after the posted sections of "Small Mysteries"

Ekanu offered the use of her donkey to Ain, but he shook his head. "I travel light. It's simpler," he said with a tiny smile, as if he meant something more by those words than most people would.

Ekanu shrugged. "I prefer to travel light, but I must carry for the inspection papers and books. When I am already carrying such things, why not take a little extra?"

"Like your little iron pot," Ain said.

"Like my pot," Ekanu agreed as they rejoined the road and turned once more to the south. "And my guitar -- though I would in any case bring that. Guitars are light."

"You play well," Ain said.

Harvest - Ekanu

[edenfalling]

Here is the new opening scene of "Harvest," so I open the story with the main plot thread.

"Heya, Ekanu! Over here!"

Denifar's voice cut through the chaos of Ileara's deepwater harbor like a clarion horn through a tuning orchestra. Ekanu pivoted, one hand rising to shade her eyes from the midday sun, and spotted her friend waving from his perch on a post near the joining of dock and shore. His brown hair was ragged and falling in his eyes, his hands callused from metalwork and carpentry, and his shirtsleeves frayed. A stranger would likely have judged him a down-on-his-luck laborer, not a Scholar of the University with a growing reputation among his fellow mechanists.

Ekanu smiled to herself. Denifar tended to ignore anything without numbers or gears attached to it, unless she was nearby to remind him and keep him organized. In return, he dragged her back to everyday life when she got lost in music; it was a good partnership. She'd missed him, these past two years.

She slung her guitar case over her shoulder and began threading her way through disembarking passengers and offloaded cargo. Common and Hlaenish swirled around her in a raucous jumble of words, and the spring breeze assaulted her nose with the scents of salt, fish, sweat, and sun-warmed tar. She stifled a sneeze with her shirtsleeve.

"The air's much better at the chapterhouse," Denifar said as he leaped down from the dock-post, steadying himself with a hand on Ekanu's free shoulder. "They built it inland, outside the old walls from when most of Na'eraelu still belonged to the Empire. I think they wanted to make it neutral ground for Estarins and Hlaenor. Anyway, you'll love the place -- it's nothing but fields and trees for miles and you can see the wind running through the flowers."

"That sounds beautiful," Ekanu agreed. "And the people? Are they also lovely?"

Denifar tilted his hand back and forth, grinning. "A little yes, a little no, just like everywhere else. The mechanists are great -- the waterwheel project is going to be brilliant, better than firecrackers -- but there are always a few people who give me dirty looks and make a point of only talking Hlaenish when I'm close enough to overhear."

He clapped his hands. "But enough about me -- look at you! You're brown as a chestnut and your hair is so long. I like the braid, by the way, very pretty. Vinaeo and Shimat-Mek were good for you! And how was Estara? I assume, since you're here, that you read the letter I left for you. I'm sorry I couldn't be there when you got home, but this project was too interesting to pass up and Master Farling said he'd trim half a year off my pledged service if I came here and got them to stop writing to him with questions every sixday."

Ekanu laughed. "I thought the years might change you, idaya, but you're like water, always the same. Yes, I read your letter and understand why you accepted this offer. I'm simply happy I was able to find a reason to follow you here. It's been too long since we saw each other."

"Mmm. Definitely." Denifar offered his hand with a smile. "What odds would you have put on their music mistress dropping dead barely a moon ago, just after her apprentice left and it was most convenient for us?"

Ekanu punched him in the shoulder before taking his hand. "Don't speak so lightly of the dead. It was coincidence, nothing more. And don't expect me to ignore my work and spend all my time with you."

"Fair enough, I'm horribly busy anyway," Denifar agreed, swinging their joined hands as they walked away from the docks. "Let's grab your bags and get you settled in at the chapterhouse. I'm sure the council is breathless with anticipation."