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[larryhammer]

Current research reading, more useful even than Lost Country Life and Daily Life in the Twelfth Century, is The Tough Guide to Fantasyland. This to collect any cliches before they hatch*. I'm skirting the line with my Duke**, but otherwise I seem to be doing well -- though I'll have to watch my Weather and be careful once we reach the Court. (We have to go to Court -- after all, His Nibs works there.) However, the Mountain Pass will not be Blocked, the Ancient Engineering Works will be all but crumbled, and there will be no Siege of the Walled City. Also, no Colour Coding -- everyone has brown hair/brown eyes/brownish skin, so there.

Which is to say, while stomping out cliches was the initial impetus, I'm having fun tackling many head on. Like His Nibs's recent Bath scene. Not only didn't Her Nibs peek and there wasn't any Sex, but I wrote it lightly slashy. (Do not overlook the slashy possibilities of two knights in a hot tub. Just sayin'.) And contra the Rule about female tourists, Her Nibs's period has arrived. See also everything under Warrior Women and Female Mercenary.

Progress continues, despite recent work kurfuffles (half my department was fired last week, and I'm trying to get final doc together for a major release of my product). His Nibs grew much livelier once he finally met Her Nibs -- apparently he needs a strong foil to bounce off. In the next chapter, he'll try to arrest her liege-lord in her hall, which ought to be good for some sparks no matter how it turns out, and soon after we'll hit the road to find the king hi hough.

Maybe she'll kick his ass. That'd be fun.

*I'm also paying attention to limyaael's rants, of course, but it's hard to ping off her wittily.
**He's even over forty. <sigh>

---L.

Comments

[janni.livejournal.com]

I've come to realize that fantasy women do not, as I previously assumed, never menstruate.

They menstruate once, at the start of puberty; freak out that they're not going to be able to be warriors or mages or whatever after all; only to never have menstruation ever trouble them again.

[larryhammer]

You've been reading too many YAs.

Points to Tamora Pierce, btw -- Kel doesn't freak, although it's an annoyance when she starts, and every once in a while there's an awareness of it occasionally, including having to carry pads with her into the field.

---L.

[janni.livejournal.com]

That's cause adult books are about characters who have had this event slip into their past, and so have more or less forgotten it. :-)

[klwilliams.livejournal.com]

Pads? I thought they used moss and rags, or something.

[larryhammer]

That's what Pierce describes Kel as using -- a pad of thick cloth in some sort of loincloth arrangement (she's a bit vague on that).

---L.

[maryosmanski.livejournal.com]

They menstruate once, at the start of puberty; freak out that they're not going to be able to be warriors or mages or whatever after all; only to never have menstruation ever trouble them again.

Maybe that's why the genre is called fantasy?

[janni.livejournal.com]

Nah, that'd be because of the magical, 100-percent-effective birth control.

Which we don't even have in this world.

[larryhammer]

Nor does Her Nibs in hers. She's got medieval tech.

---L.