Rain, rain, go away

[altivo]

It's been raining all day, and it's cold too. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if some ice formed on the roads tonight. Gary went to Downer's Grove for a workshop on tablet weaving and came back quite enthusiastic. I think he may finally get started doing it, after talking about it for several years. They built a loom from PVC pipe, put on a warp, and started weaving. The cost of the loom was included in his workshop fee, so he got to keep it.It's definitely suitable for the kind of small pieces he wanted to try.

Write, write, write. Need to break away from it to work on the fursuit, but the demand of meeting a daily quota makes that difficult.

NaNo Count: 17,452 words
Chapter 8 now posted here.

Comments

[hellmutt.livejournal.com]

I've got up to Chapter 4. My notes if you'd like 'em:

• Interesting use of "crafters" instead of "craftsmen"
• "Westvale could grow my the simple expedient of" → by?
• space: "he said to Fennec,”the old man is actually"
• Would Fennec, as a mayoral assistant, really not know the names of the previous mayors?
• "attracting more tourism, you know, furs to give custom" first comma → semicolon?
• teehee foreshadowing!
• "dreadfully boring, you know" is a delightful phrase

[altivo.livejournal.com]

You're right about the typos of course. "Crafters" is perhaps an Americanism, and has a hint of the non-professional about it, but I try to avoid using forms with --men or --women in this kind of story. I often substitute --furs but I know that some folks find that grating. I rather like it, but try to limit the usage.

Fennec has been demoted to "junior" assistant, as we noted earlier. Also, he's not from Westvale himself, but from Chatton (possibly never explicitly stated in what you've read, but it's true.) The "mayor" of Westvale is actually what we would call a "city manager" here in the US as opposed to a real mayor. Mayors are elected, city managers are appointed by the council who are the real elected officials. Sort of a parliamentary system if you like, so the mayor is a civil servant rather than an elected official. Thus the names of past mayors are not as significant as the names of past presidents or governors. ;p

Punctuation: I show my age when I write. The hyphen and the comma are very much falling out of fashion these days, but I tend to use them the way we were taught half a century ago. I could remove the comma after "tourism" there and change the next comma to a full colon, but I prefer it as it stands. That treats "you know" as a parenthetic aside, if you will.

Yes, foreshadowing. Deliberate this time, but I often find I've done it without even knowing I was doing it. ;p

Glad you liked "dreadfully boring." While my setting isn't specifically identified as British, it has many elements borrowed from your land. No surprise, as nearly all my favorite authors were English or Scots, and some of my favorite American authors are so early as to be be almost English or Scots themselves.

[hellmutt.livejournal.com]

I suppose you can chalk me up as one of the people who's ambivalent to "-furs". My main objection being that "people" in my book is good enough for aliens, trolls, bipedal mules, quad talking dogs etc. ;)

Maybe something like "I'm from Chatton, remember - how many mayors has Westvale had?" or "How many ..?" "Oh yes, heehee, I forgot you're from all the way over in Chatton"...

I'm afraid I've a very deep soft spot for antiquated Britticisms... which may be an odd thing to say for someone who lives here, but then we are exposed to huge amounts of American culture and slang. Anyhow, if anyone mentions messing about in boats (or out of them) I may die of delight.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

My defense of -furs in my context is that what we have is a culture devoid of the human, but in which there remains a distinction between the warm blooded mammalian and intelligent anthro or furson, and other animal species, such as birds, fish, and reptiles, who are not anthropomorphic. You have probably noted a lack of the beast of burden, no mention of red meat, and only the ambivalent presence of "wool" (which I will sometime have to explain.) Thus I want to use language that reminds the reader once in a while that these are not just "rabbits in waistcoats" but species who have evolved differently than the animals we know, in spite of the similarities we see on the surface.

You're right, I could stick an extra hint about the Chatton business in at just that point. I'll see about it when I revise.

Oh.... have I ever been tempted to use "just messing about in boats" and I may yet give in to the temptation. I wonder just how many readers would even get it?

Today's chapter (ch. 9) does contain boat stuff, but it's more about messing about with hearts and the important stuff happens on the beach. XD

[hellmutt.livejournal.com]

I'd noticed meat, or rather unusual lack thereof in the wuff's diet, but then again with the fox eating poultrybird and fishing trips being discussed... I'd concluded that there are non-sapient animals. I'd probably never have guessed that some kinds of edible animal are around and some aren't. I suppose I don't distinguish between 'red' and non-red meat... I don't know enough about the texture or culinary qualities, such that it seems an arbitrary distinction to me. :)

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Meat distinctions are not arbitrary. "Red" meat comes from warm blooded mammals, at least as I use the term. Some claim that certain birds (such as the ostrich or the emu) are "red" meat producers, but that's exotica in this context. In culinary terms, pork and veal are sometimes called "white" meat but technically they are not, either in source or nutritional differences.

Fish and fowl are generally "white" meat. Or "non-meat" in the perception of some. ;p

In Argos' world, at least so far, we have no warm blooded, furry creatures who are not sapient and possessed of speech. True, we haven't seen a mouse or a dog, but we have seen other rodent (squirrel) and canine (wolf, fox) as well as the lapines (rabbit, hare), felines (bobcat), mustelids (ferret, skunk), procyonids (raccoon) and equine (horse). All are sapient, though there are no primates. The frequent if not universal taboo against cannibalism certainly applies.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Hmm, and I just realized that in addition to wool, milk and cheese are present and will need to be accounted for in some way. ;p

Of course, the "milk" and "cheese" may in fact be soy or other vegetable products, as both can easily be made from soybeans using common utensils and ingredients. Wool is still needful unless I make major changes to both books I think, and that's unlikely.

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

The house of weaving :)
Sorry to hear it's cold there, horses don't like the cold do they.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I don't mind the cold as long as I have a woodstove. :)

Actually, our horses love snow, especially the boys. They play in it just like little kids.