[The Hollow Crown] The WIP That I Put Away: Grief, Shakespeare and telling stories (5K)
I worry a lot about when the optimal time to post things is. Right now it's 9:18 in the morning in Chicago, which means I keep wondering if 10:18 on the East Coast (and 3:18 p.m. in the UK, and 7:18 a.m. Pacific time) is all wrong to hope people will click on a link at all, not to mention one as heavy as this. But I feel like DW, at least, is a little more leisurely -- I'm less worried that someone will lose this post the way you can lose posts on Tumblr or Twitter. So. I'm going to share this link right now.
In August 2012, my mom was dying of brain cancer. It was the end, and it was terrible. I flew home two or three times that month, but she slept for most of my visits, and even when she was awake she was hardly there. Upstairs in my room, I began to write this story, and I thought I was going in with open eyes about the fact that I was nakedly writing about my family, and that would make it helpful.
The story starts with Kate Percy after she learns that Hotspur has been killed at the Battle of Shrewsbury. Shakespeare (and Michelle Dockery) makes the scene with all her grief on the table so raw, but of course, the play moves on from the Percys and we never see them again. There's Kate, then, a widow, alone with her terrible loss. And I remembered how close Northumberland is to Scotland, and that one huge thing about the Weird Sisters in Macbeth is how they prove borders are porous, and really, though, wouldn't that make an amazing crossover?
So, the witches visit Kate Percy and make her a deal: Become our champion and win your Harry back.
And isn't that the ultimate fantasy? That if we could just do enough, then death wouldn't be so implacable?
Of course, it wasn't ever going to be that easy or that neat. So: Draft No. 1 of Kate and Harry Fight the Devil, as the working title went.
Sharing this is a big thing for me, and very personal. If you do read this and it moves you, I'd very much appreciate hearing it. Sometimes you just want to share things to know you have witnesses, to explain yourself and to affirm that the thing you experienced was true and real. And yeah, the timing isn't ever going to be perfect. But thank you for reading this far. (And if you prefer happy beginnings, either instead of, before or after this story, I posted that yesterday too.)
This was originally posted on Dreamwidth, where it has
comments. I would love to hear from you at DW! If you can see this post, you can comment here using OpenID. Thanks!
In August 2012, my mom was dying of brain cancer. It was the end, and it was terrible. I flew home two or three times that month, but she slept for most of my visits, and even when she was awake she was hardly there. Upstairs in my room, I began to write this story, and I thought I was going in with open eyes about the fact that I was nakedly writing about my family, and that would make it helpful.
The story starts with Kate Percy after she learns that Hotspur has been killed at the Battle of Shrewsbury. Shakespeare (and Michelle Dockery) makes the scene with all her grief on the table so raw, but of course, the play moves on from the Percys and we never see them again. There's Kate, then, a widow, alone with her terrible loss. And I remembered how close Northumberland is to Scotland, and that one huge thing about the Weird Sisters in Macbeth is how they prove borders are porous, and really, though, wouldn't that make an amazing crossover?
So, the witches visit Kate Percy and make her a deal: Become our champion and win your Harry back.
And isn't that the ultimate fantasy? That if we could just do enough, then death wouldn't be so implacable?
Of course, it wasn't ever going to be that easy or that neat. So: Draft No. 1 of Kate and Harry Fight the Devil, as the working title went.
Sharing this is a big thing for me, and very personal. If you do read this and it moves you, I'd very much appreciate hearing it. Sometimes you just want to share things to know you have witnesses, to explain yourself and to affirm that the thing you experienced was true and real. And yeah, the timing isn't ever going to be perfect. But thank you for reading this far. (And if you prefer happy beginnings, either instead of, before or after this story, I posted that yesterday too.)
This was originally posted on Dreamwidth, where it has
comments. I would love to hear from you at DW! If you can see this post, you can comment here using OpenID. Thanks!