The Aerie
Oh, it's Red-Letter Day around here... the twins got their braces off! Today, together, at the same time! This is pretty notable, because my Dear Daughter has had braces for a mind-boggling five years, while Number One Son has only had braces for two. Somehow they managed to finish up at the same time. Twins, I guess!
They look wonderful, and I can tell they're very happy.
Meanwhile, I'm working on my Nanowrimo. Story-wise and plot-wise it's coming right along. My pre-Nano research has paid off, as I have encountered all sorts of wild coincidences and weird facts that can color the story.
I'm up to about 14,000 words so far - about on track.
Today a book I ordered showed up that's going to help - "The Realm of a Rain-Queen" (1943) is a scholarly book about anthropological studies of the Lovedu people. I don't know if I'm going to be able to incorporate a lot of it in this draft of the book, but I suspect on the second draft I'll be able to add tons of cultural imagery.
Reading at random, I've learned that the Lobedu people greet each other contextually - that is, with greetings that correspond to whatever the other person is doing. So if you see a woman carrying wood, you say "Bring the wood," to which she will reply "The wood is here." A lot of greetings are based around food, so if someone comes from a distant trip you say "What do they eat there?" to which the pilgrim will reply "They are starving," regardless of how much food the distant people might have.
Ooh, and I just opened up the back - it's got a freakin' fold-out color map! Yeah baby!
But it's 328 pages of really dense 8-point text. I don't see myself reading all that - or even a good part of that - while trying to write 1667 words a day!
But for now things are going well. I start the new contract in a week!
Posted by Albatross at November 8, 2005 7:46 PM | TrackBack