Snippet

[darkemeralds]

An idea I'm working on. If blame is to be apportioned, it goes to ravurian.




Sometimes I think she's a little bit mad. But then I'm hardly one to talk, am I? It's just that, in Nora, our mother's witchiness and our father's mathematical precision seem to have been spun together into a thread made up of spider silk, nearly unbreakable, but strange and a little sinister.

I, on the other hand, seem to have been spun of bulkier stuff: I am practical, like father's careful engineering and mother's herbal concoctions. I am just wool--and none too finely spun, either. Mother said that my magic was of earth, and Father would say, "That's just ingenuity, Lorna. Just plain human ingenuity. Our Jamie has a lot of it."

When I came into the shed that day, Nora was elbows-deep in a bucket of dye--a kind of brownish violet. Three other buckets were lined up on the trestle table. She was just lifting a hank of yarn, dripping darkly, and muttering to herself.

"Is it more blue or more green?" she asked. Then she turned her face toward the dusty window and said, "Why won't you tell me?"

It was a moment before I realized that she was speaking to a crow, whose hoarse call came in from the yard. "Why won't he tell you what?" I asked. Nora started, then turned, careless of the dye dripping onto her apron.

She sighed. "What color his wings are."

"They're black," I suggested.

Nora looked at me steadily for a long moment, very little expression in her eyes. Finally she said, "No. They are not black." The "you idiot" was silent. "They are blue, and green, and purple, and brown. But the colors are all black."

I supposed she was right. Very little in the animal kingdom is really black. Even a black cat will show ruddy and golden in strong sunlight. Lots of birds have an iridescence to their feathers. I had never thought of a crow as being other than black, but of course, Nora was right.

"Why do you need to know?" I asked.

"Because I want to make a wing."

Comments

[dine]

no clue about context, of course, but that's lovely (and just a tad creepy, somehow) - I'd definitely love to know more about Nora and Jamie

[darkemeralds]

I don't think there is any context--well, there must be some in my brain somewhere! I'm saving up bits for when I get enough brain space back to start writing again.

Hey, how about that dinner raincheck?

[dine]

I'm all for dinner! I thought about that yesterday as I drove by Russell Street and how I needed to contact you, but clearly the weekend has wiped my brain.

I should be free most nights the next couple weeks, and weekends except next Saturday afternoon. What works for you?

[darkemeralds]

How about Thursday the 12th? Since we're back to full swing at work post holidays, I'd be hard pressed to get anywhere by 5:30, but I could be to Russell Street by 6:00. Would that work for you?

[dine]

Thursday at 6:00 is perfect for me! looking forward to seeing you then

[quayle]

Sibling relationship dynamics are always interesting to me, it would be fun to know more ;D

[darkemeralds]

Good to know. I don't know where the sibling thing came from. Heh. Probably Firefly, huh?

[quayle]

Haha I couldn't say, never watched it.

[darkemeralds]

*gasps*

Well, it's not everyone's cup of tea, but...oh, such a good show. A sibling relationship is at the heart of it. Well, a sibling relationship, and space cowboys. And plastic dinosaurs.

[quayle]

I am intending to watch it eventually, but I just started another show (Due South) and I'm still in the honeymoon phase and should probably pace myself ;D

[darkemeralds]

Due South! OMG I envy you, approaching it for the first time. What a terrific experience. I love that show to pieces. And of course, it's a fandom great, with some of the best fic ever written.

Enjoy!

[quayle]

I am having an awesome time! It's a little bit sad to be such a latecomer and to have missed the fandom when it was still very active, but I was quite a bit too young at the time I guess. Stumbled across the podfic you recorded by the way and enjoyed it immensely!

[darkemeralds]

Oh, thank you! How nice. I'm so glad you enjoyed it. It was loads of fun to make, and the story is one of my faves.

You can't go wrong with Speranza.

[emungere]

I love this! That's beautiful, about the colors in the crow's wing. Is there going to be more?

[darkemeralds]

Gosh I hope so. I'm not sure where it came from, but I've been nibbling around the edges of a story idea for a long time, and this seems to be part of it.

I think there's a kind of Simon and River Tam thing going on (though I wasn't conscious of it), and your comment makes me suddenly aware that there's a little Hakkai and Kanan in here, too. Oh, the unconscious mind and its magpie's nest of shiny things.

[writerscramp]

MOAR PLZ.

You are kind of evil to dangle that in front of us and then be all, "oh, I do not know where the rest of the story goes yet I may have to write it someday lol".

(Also, I am obsessed with crows and ravens, of late, thanks to S's long love of them and the artwork I crafted for him for Christmas that features a raven. Not a crow, obviously, but same zip code, and the artwork featured a stanza from The Raven, and so.)

(Also also, ever since reading the delightful Dreamdark books (by my friend and Portland author, Laini Taylor), I have kind of become enamored of them.)

(Also also also, speaking of crows and wonderful books, they seem to be featuring in all of my reading of late. Laini's latest book -- Daughter of Smoke and Bone -- had them, and of course they feature in Colin Meloy's fairy tale book about Forest Park, and even the two books I've just read had a crow as part of the story. THE UNIVERSE IS CLEARLY TRYING TO TELL ME SOMETHING THAT I AM OBVIOUSLY NOT GETTING.)

[darkemeralds]

I dunno: the universe may be using you to tell me something, since I've never even heard of these wonderful-sounding books.

I love crows, and I'm aware that ravurian does too, so their presence here isn't too surprising. I think they're very "up" in the collective awareness right now. They're smart and urban and nearly ubiquitous, and they used to represent death and scary things. Something about that set of facts and fears seems to be shifting.

Thank you, in any case, for the encouragement. I'm finding my way back to writing. Slowly, slowly. And writing seems to be changing its meaning too.

[darkemeralds]

Sorry about the evil, by the way. ravurian pointed out that my need to write whole novels is blocking me from writing anything, and challenged me to take ten minutes, write something magical, and post it.

It's an attempt to break the stranglehold that obsolescent forms and formats have on my creativity. You've done a lot of that with your art journals. It just seems to be time (and past time) to respond to the obvious call of Change.

[writerscramp]

It was tongue-in-cheek, no apology necessary. :) Good for you, I say, for pushing past the barriers that are holding you back. You've got so much creative energy that deserves to be unbound.

Just posted on Sal's raven piece on G+ if you want to see.

[darkemeralds]

I commented on G+. That's just a stunning piece! Speaking of pushing past the barriers. Chapeaux!

[writerscramp]

Thank you! It turned out pretty close to what I'd envisioned. I wish the raven were more of a contrast, but when I opted to draw him in pencil instead of ink, I knew that was going to be an issue. (Drawing in ink isn't my strong suit anyway, especially in b&w only. Although your story snippet rightfully points out that it's not so much black as a combination of other colors that are black together, I don't have a set of art pens so that wasn't an option. Well, unless I made a trip to the art store, but that's always a dangerous proposition for my bank account. :)

The contrast issue aside, however, I'm fairly happy with it, at least for just hanging in our studio. I'm lucky that he's such a good sport about receiving my homemade concoctions instead of more conventional fare. It's probably a good thing I don't knit or he'd be the recipient of many a lumpy and misshapen sweater....

[darkemeralds]

Hah! Yeah, now knitting...I've had maybe two successes and a dozen failures in the gift-giving department. But does that stop me? No it does not. Because, as you say, the allure of the supply store for one's particular art or craft makes "thinking up reasons to make more and give it away" an unavoidable consequence of creativity. And supply-lust.

[ranunculus]

Oooo, I've only read Dreamdark but it was excellent. One of the best books I've read in a long time. I just went to Laini's website - need to order some books!

[writerscramp]

Right?? She is kind of pretty much amazing and I love, love, love everything she writes. (Also, I love her art and her outlook and her house and her adorable pixie-dusted daughter and her whole life, really, and I basically want to be her when I grow up.)

[darkemeralds]

Her daughter's name in Clementine Pie. I can't even begin to express my glee.

[jumpuphigh]

I would definitely read this story! :D

[darkemeralds]

Oh gosh, me too! I hope I write it so I can. :D

[panisdead]

I would read the hell out of that story.

Where is it set, do you think?

[darkemeralds]

Thanks! And good question. I have a kind of mythical-land feeling about it, but it also feels a bit 1925-ish American West. Could be right here in Northeast Portland...maybe an AU NEPO.

I hope it will become clearer.

[cat63]

This is sounding very interesting - much better than the book I'm currently reading, for sure! I hope you'll be able to write more of it.

[darkemeralds]

Thanks! I hope so too. There's something a big cheating-feeling about posting a snippet like this, because there's a whole universe of difference between throwing a few interesting lines out there, and sustaining a whole story.

But still--gotta start somewhere. And must keep writing something or one loses the knack.

[ruric]

Oh...atmospheric! And add me to the list of people who would read more.

I think ravurian is right about just getting words out. Mind you he continually nags me to write longer than the 500-3000 word peices I usually post to places like comment_fic and fic_promtly. *G*

[darkemeralds]

He's a fine one to talk. :D

(But yeah, he's a great encourager of writing. Very special talent, there.)

[ranunculus]

Very nice fragment. Would definitely read further. In fact....

[darkemeralds]

With a dot-dot-dot like that, I feel nearly compelled to write more!

[ranunculus]

Grin

[tehomet]

Cool!

[darkemeralds]

Thanks! First fiction-type writing I've done in...gosh, a year. Must fan that flame!