marycatelli: (Strawberries)
I hadn't meant there to be irises in this scene.

And when I added them, they seemed to be local color, to distract the heroine by making the  scene normal.

Then one turned black.  And it dawned on me that a black flower will alert her to every manifestation of this problem in the course of the work.

At least it gives her some warning once she figures it out.
marycatelli: (Default)
The heroine and her foster sister are being taken out through the hills under the sage eye of a herbwife.

I'm inventing all the plants she's interested in. Giving them common names, to be sure, but not basing them on real-life plants. The trees are all familiar, not the plants.

Oh, well, then I'm not giving the trees any medical properties. It's probably wiser to make them imaginary plants.
marycatelli: (Default)
If, for plot purposes, there are caves and cliffs in a region late in the book, it may be wise to actually introduce them sooner.

Perhaps I can get away with a brief mention in the already written stuff.  The hero's new supporting cast has a character who will definitely look into them.

And then in another story, I had thrown in peaches and then I started to wonder whether they were suitable for the milieu.  A fairytale one, where you often have pumpkins and turkeys where transportation is crude -- then the fairytale could explain where they came from -- and then a little more research reveals they were safely medieval. 
marycatelli: (Architect's Dream)
I don't generally research my books. I read a lot of history, fairy tales, and folklore, and then run on it.

I have recently worked on two stories where a princess is sent to the mountains to protect her. In the second of them, I really need to know something about the economics and the topography of such settlements. It's important that they are settlements in the forest, which basically engulfs them, and that in fact the herb trade is vital.

I did already know we needed rivers. Hmmm. That would mean that the way to block passage would be to block the river, not the road. . . .

But first, settlements in mountain valleys before the railroad.

marycatelli: (Rapunzel)
An idea popped up.  For a story

But the question arose, what would the best modern idea that three modern people could bring to upgrade agriculture and so living in a D&D (sorta) medieval universe? They have crop rotation -- maybe contour plowing?  They are at least aware of the circular problem that the people need more food to be able to build the infrastructure to increase agricultural productivity.

And then, what is the best thing they can bring in as their own D&D characters? The decanter of endless water -- endless potable water -- would probably bring about the most change if they could only get enough. But both objects and spellcraft are aimed at adventures.
marycatelli: (Rapunzel)
What magic would they have in a Gamelit world?  

The spell lists tend to be heavily weighed toward adventure-useful, and they claim that adventurers are rare, but the worlds are obviously high magic.  If for no other reason that the women do not spend their entire child-bearing years bearing and nursing children in order for two to survive on average.

Read more... )
marycatelli: (Rapunzel)
D&D has its little spell lists.  The odds that any moderately realistic world would have them thus limited are very stiff indeed.

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marycatelli: (Cat)
It's useful to keep an eye out for the seasons. Practice noticing what flowers are blooming, the stages of trees leaving in the spring, and shedding in the fall.

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marycatelli: (Rapunzel)
After all the poking around about coastal flowers -- the characters have arrived at the lighthouse.

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marycatelli: (God Speed)
Princesses do not learn to arrange their own hair, or someone else's, with flowers in it.

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marycatelli: (sunset)
Was reading the stories about how the wolves changed the rivers in Yellowstone.

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ducklings

Jul. 21st, 2014 10:34 pm
marycatelli: (Strawberries)
Quack, quack, quack goes the duck, and all her little ducklings -- she has a flotilla -- follow along, and the writer winces.

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marycatelli: (Strawberries)
At times, when I send my heroine glancing over a field that would have waist-high grass, but flowers as well, that I grumble a bit because it's November.

And really I did not take adequate notes on which flowers bloom when.

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marycatelli: (Strawberries)
Settings can contrast each other as character foils do,   One thing that can contrast is how settled they are.  And the fun part is that each one can look settled and civilized in contrast to the next.

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Part of [livejournal.com profile] bittercon
marycatelli: (A Birthday)
Ah, the flower language.  All the more fun when you are inventing half your own flowers. . . .

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