Thursday 9 December 2010

“There’s no telling what they’ll do! Girls are completely crazy, I find.”

—The Old Man, “Conrad goes too far”

There is a special challenge in writing interesting female characters in historical fiction—at least in places and periods where women were not on equal footing with men, which is pretty much everywhere, at every time.

Tuesday 7 December 2010

She was three years older now and knew better than to look for romance in tragedy.

— Lady Gwynn, “Gwynn is the only witness”

I saved this list for third because I wanted to get the “Greatest Tear-​jerkers” and “Hottest Moments” out of the way. Otherwise, how could I do a list of “Most Romantic” without putting “Alred sees no poetry” at the top of it? How could I get away without mentioning “Malcolm goes out into the rain”?

Friday 3 December 2010

“It is simply another word for romantic. An even more romantic word for romantic.”

— Gwynn, “Gwynn gives another word”

You know, there is not much good, clean sex in this story.

Wednesday 1 December 2010

Vivien Leigh said, “It’s much easier to make people cry than to make them laugh.” But Vivien Leigh was an actress, not a writer.

Monday 29 November 2010

“Where you do you see yourself five years from now?”

I hope I am never asked that question in a job interview, because I will have to pass. If I had honestly answered the question at any point during the 16 years since I graduated from high school, my vision of where I would be five years later would have been laughably different from the eventual reality.

Certainly on November 29^th, 2005, when I loaded up The Sims 2 and created a new neighborhood called (almost randomly) Lothere, I did not imagine I would be here five years later, not only still working on the story but with it having become such an important part of my life. This story made me a writer—something I had forgotten I ever wanted to be.

Saturday 27 November 2010

I don’t have any near-​term plans for Baby Lili to make an appearance, so I thought I would put up a baby picture here.

Sunday 14 November 2010

I spent an absurdly unnecessary amount of time building Lord Colban’s keep, considering how little we will likely ever see of it. So in order to make it worthwhile I decided to do a proper tour, because I know a lot of you are on the lookout for castle-​building inspiration.

Sunday 10 October 2010

Aligeth’s Robin Hood tunic: 14 recolors. (Click picture for high-​res version.)

Thursday 23 September 2010

I had planned for the last chapter, “Estrid names the finest treasure,” to begin with a scene in Ana’s room, wherein Eadwyn is permitted to cross the threshold of that hallowed chamber before the appointed time, in order to tell Estrid that Brede is here. I decided that part was unnecessary, but it meant I wasted a few shots.

And since the baby might not be a baby any more by the time she gets a chance to appear in another chapter, I really don’t want to waste baby pictures. So here are a few outtakes—this time of a scene that really happened, but which didn’t make it into the final cut.

Sophie decides to admit Eadwyn on the advice of her colleagues:

Friday 16 July 2010

In the spirit of last year’s prophetic birthday dream I deliberately nudged this year’s “random chapter” in the direction of Vashmalaina prophecy.