Sutcliff Swap : Not the Emperor's Bodyguard
I seem to have been a bit flighty and scattered about Sutcliff Swap this year.
I tried to write about Druim and the Arcani from 'Frontier Wolf', but I got myself horribly stuck as the plot began to develop. I ended up in a situation where it looked like the Votadini were about to revolt several years early, which doesn't fit at all with canon so needs a serious rethink. Still hoping to get that one finished eventually.
I tried drawing something from The Lantern Bearers which... went horribly wrong. Unsaveably, horribly Oh-god-my-eyes, wrong. I may try completely restarting that, although I'm a bit worried that the nightmarish all-wrong vibes it sends out will infect other parts of my sketchbook. Maybe I will try again in a new sketchbook.
I started writing a Frontier Wolf story in which Hilarion gets drunk on heather beer. But then I got stuck on why he was drinking heather beer on a school night. I may finish that one if I can work out a better reason for Hilarion to get drunk.
Finally I realised that at this rate I wasn't going to finish *anything*, and hurriedly wrote for melannen : 'Not The Emperor's Bodyguard' which is basically about how, when you get orders to go and re-occupy a remote Scottish fort that has been standing empty for about a hundred years, the place is going to be in the most awful mess when you get there.
If you are in the mood for art, I muchly recommend the painting 'Into the Emptiness Within Him' by motetus which captures that lovely moment where Aquila meets the High King Ambrosius and is given a sword superbly well.
My gift was "When in Calleva" about Cottia's Aunt Valaria's experience as an Iceni girl trying to settle into Romanised British society in Calleva after her marriage to Uncle Kaeso. It's a terrifying portrait of not-so-subtle social pressure, and really made me think. I had previously seen Valaria as almost a comedy cutout, but this gave her much more depth.
I tried to write about Druim and the Arcani from 'Frontier Wolf', but I got myself horribly stuck as the plot began to develop. I ended up in a situation where it looked like the Votadini were about to revolt several years early, which doesn't fit at all with canon so needs a serious rethink. Still hoping to get that one finished eventually.
I tried drawing something from The Lantern Bearers which... went horribly wrong. Unsaveably, horribly Oh-god-my-eyes, wrong. I may try completely restarting that, although I'm a bit worried that the nightmarish all-wrong vibes it sends out will infect other parts of my sketchbook. Maybe I will try again in a new sketchbook.
I started writing a Frontier Wolf story in which Hilarion gets drunk on heather beer. But then I got stuck on why he was drinking heather beer on a school night. I may finish that one if I can work out a better reason for Hilarion to get drunk.
Finally I realised that at this rate I wasn't going to finish *anything*, and hurriedly wrote for melannen : 'Not The Emperor's Bodyguard' which is basically about how, when you get orders to go and re-occupy a remote Scottish fort that has been standing empty for about a hundred years, the place is going to be in the most awful mess when you get there.
If you are in the mood for art, I muchly recommend the painting 'Into the Emptiness Within Him' by motetus which captures that lovely moment where Aquila meets the High King Ambrosius and is given a sword superbly well.
My gift was "When in Calleva" about Cottia's Aunt Valaria's experience as an Iceni girl trying to settle into Romanised British society in Calleva after her marriage to Uncle Kaeso. It's a terrifying portrait of not-so-subtle social pressure, and really made me think. I had previously seen Valaria as almost a comedy cutout, but this gave her much more depth.