Nano November Wrap-up
According to Scrivener, I ended the month with precisely 59000 words. According to the official upload counter, I ended the month with 58674 words. In any case, that is A LOT OF WORDS. Wow.
At some point, for my own amusement if nothing else, I will break out the wordcounts for the various different storylines/things that went into that great lot of words, either editing it in here or making a separate post.
I also managed to write at least one hundred words every day (and there were a couple close to the beginning of the month where that was close to all that got done) so I am a Mini-NaNo winner too.
Here is one of the semi-side-trips I took in quest of words, written on American Thanksgiving:
Seasonal Feast (400 words) by
lferion
Fandom: Highlander
Rating: General Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Methos
Summary:
Harvest festival on Storage
Seasonal feasts - Harvest, hallows, sun-return, the birth and death of Spring, the birth and death of kings, the seasons of life and the seasons of death - have been around as long as people had counted seasons, and no advances of civilization had changed that. Every possible detail had altered - the fare, the manners, the venues, the entertainment, the prayers of invocation and thanksgiving, the means of setting out and the means of cleaning up. Even the seasons themselves had changed, but not the idea of a groaning board and well-fed folk.
Methos looked up from the large and alien avian on the platter before him, succulent steam rising from crisped skin that had lately boasted feather-analogs in every shade of emerald picked out in silver-purple. The happy faces of his friends ringed a table that to all appearances was a tablecloth suspended in the air. They had reason to be pleased, Storage-Firsters all: every dish was local grown, husbanded or hunted. The hall stood sturdy against the coming of the second cold, warm within while snowflakes drifted down outside the wall-shield lattice, the roof extracting energy from wide bands of radiation as well as wind and solar tides. Batteries stored the surplus, and this evening festive lamps were lit - glims and glows and solalamps, electrics exciting the phosfire strips to brilliance, the coldcandles shining silver-bright along the outside paths. Economy, utility would all return tomorrow, but tonight they feasted, drank sweet and smokey quaff, boasted, sang and thanked the stars and ships and Luck that brought them here. Tomorrow would bring as well sore heads, and some sore stomachs, but none begrudged the minor pains. Good food in plenty, in better company, the reward of work, celebration of survival, the turning of the great-year on the wheel.
The winter-feast of stag and bear and boar, the summer celebration of hare and roe-buck, cherry, fish and pear; autumn apples, berries, nuts; late summer’s grain and honey, beer and mead, the sap and bud of early spring, and all the promise there; the spirit-draughts of Samhain and the bonfires of May. No time or place indifferent, no people so removed from flesh or feeling but who will feast sincere, and find the feast improves.
Details changed and changed again, but the underlying cycles stayed the same. Methos raised the prong and blade to cut the Eekcock, gave thanks, and let the feast begin.
MOAR writing:
The HLH_Shortcuts piece is threatening to not be short at all, and I only hope I can get it all done. I hope I do not have to resort to the fallback of finding a piece of it that can stand on its own, rather than getting the whole finished. In that vein, I have written one entirely unexpected new bit of Lavender House, and gotten quite a bit further in the other two main Lavender House stories.
For Yuletide I have obtained a second ancillary source that is really, really neat (I will have to share the spiffy in a note) and I still have to properly review the canon itself (this weekend, ack, along with some canon for the HLH story), but I have 333 words at the moment, and a concept for the fic. I also still have some ravening bunnies for Treats. *Flanics*
Other seasonal musings - so far only one batch of eggnog and one of cranberry sauce. More eggnog will certainly be forthcoming, for the Hrafnheim gathering for December and Yule and Family Christmas(es), chosen and given. I will also be making a mince-pie for the family, and probably some variation on the raisin-nut pie, especially if I can work out how to make it more the (so far unfound) Fruits of the Forest pie that Safeway used to sell.
While poking my nose into the Goodwill next door to my closest grocery, I found (and bought) a cast-iron Aebelskiver pan. (Aebelskivers - Danish spherical pancakes usually filled with yummy stuff) Of course, now I get to learn/figure out how to make them. Relatedly, the first night of Hanukkah was tonight, and pictures of sufganiot were on my flist/dwircle. They look really quite similar -
Aebelskivers on a plate, from this site with recipies for several yummy things
Sufganiot on a plate, picture taken by
roga
Though apparently the aebelskiver are fried lightly in butter in their special pan, and sufganiot are deep-fried in oil, and the eggwhites are glue, not expansion-medium in the sufganiot. I am sure there are other variants on the round, filled pastry-thing, too.
This entry was originally posted at http://lferion.dreamwidth.org/198076.html, where there are currently
comments. Please comment there using OpenID.
At some point, for my own amusement if nothing else, I will break out the wordcounts for the various different storylines/things that went into that great lot of words, either editing it in here or making a separate post.
I also managed to write at least one hundred words every day (and there were a couple close to the beginning of the month where that was close to all that got done) so I am a Mini-NaNo winner too.
Here is one of the semi-side-trips I took in quest of words, written on American Thanksgiving:
Seasonal Feast (400 words) by
lferion
Fandom: Highlander
Rating: General Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Methos
Summary:
Harvest festival on Storage
Seasonal feasts - Harvest, hallows, sun-return, the birth and death of Spring, the birth and death of kings, the seasons of life and the seasons of death - have been around as long as people had counted seasons, and no advances of civilization had changed that. Every possible detail had altered - the fare, the manners, the venues, the entertainment, the prayers of invocation and thanksgiving, the means of setting out and the means of cleaning up. Even the seasons themselves had changed, but not the idea of a groaning board and well-fed folk.
Methos looked up from the large and alien avian on the platter before him, succulent steam rising from crisped skin that had lately boasted feather-analogs in every shade of emerald picked out in silver-purple. The happy faces of his friends ringed a table that to all appearances was a tablecloth suspended in the air. They had reason to be pleased, Storage-Firsters all: every dish was local grown, husbanded or hunted. The hall stood sturdy against the coming of the second cold, warm within while snowflakes drifted down outside the wall-shield lattice, the roof extracting energy from wide bands of radiation as well as wind and solar tides. Batteries stored the surplus, and this evening festive lamps were lit - glims and glows and solalamps, electrics exciting the phosfire strips to brilliance, the coldcandles shining silver-bright along the outside paths. Economy, utility would all return tomorrow, but tonight they feasted, drank sweet and smokey quaff, boasted, sang and thanked the stars and ships and Luck that brought them here. Tomorrow would bring as well sore heads, and some sore stomachs, but none begrudged the minor pains. Good food in plenty, in better company, the reward of work, celebration of survival, the turning of the great-year on the wheel.
The winter-feast of stag and bear and boar, the summer celebration of hare and roe-buck, cherry, fish and pear; autumn apples, berries, nuts; late summer’s grain and honey, beer and mead, the sap and bud of early spring, and all the promise there; the spirit-draughts of Samhain and the bonfires of May. No time or place indifferent, no people so removed from flesh or feeling but who will feast sincere, and find the feast improves.
Details changed and changed again, but the underlying cycles stayed the same. Methos raised the prong and blade to cut the Eekcock, gave thanks, and let the feast begin.
MOAR writing:
The HLH_Shortcuts piece is threatening to not be short at all, and I only hope I can get it all done. I hope I do not have to resort to the fallback of finding a piece of it that can stand on its own, rather than getting the whole finished. In that vein, I have written one entirely unexpected new bit of Lavender House, and gotten quite a bit further in the other two main Lavender House stories.
For Yuletide I have obtained a second ancillary source that is really, really neat (I will have to share the spiffy in a note) and I still have to properly review the canon itself (this weekend, ack, along with some canon for the HLH story), but I have 333 words at the moment, and a concept for the fic. I also still have some ravening bunnies for Treats. *Flanics*
Other seasonal musings - so far only one batch of eggnog and one of cranberry sauce. More eggnog will certainly be forthcoming, for the Hrafnheim gathering for December and Yule and Family Christmas(es), chosen and given. I will also be making a mince-pie for the family, and probably some variation on the raisin-nut pie, especially if I can work out how to make it more the (so far unfound) Fruits of the Forest pie that Safeway used to sell.
While poking my nose into the Goodwill next door to my closest grocery, I found (and bought) a cast-iron Aebelskiver pan. (Aebelskivers - Danish spherical pancakes usually filled with yummy stuff) Of course, now I get to learn/figure out how to make them. Relatedly, the first night of Hanukkah was tonight, and pictures of sufganiot were on my flist/dwircle. They look really quite similar -
Aebelskivers on a plate, from this site with recipies for several yummy things
Sufganiot on a plate, picture taken by
roga
Though apparently the aebelskiver are fried lightly in butter in their special pan, and sufganiot are deep-fried in oil, and the eggwhites are glue, not expansion-medium in the sufganiot. I am sure there are other variants on the round, filled pastry-thing, too.
This entry was originally posted at http://lferion.dreamwidth.org/198076.html, where there are currently
comments. Please comment there using OpenID.