Lizard Queen

November 7, 2014 ~ Bon Steele ~ 2 Comments

_{What’s best in life?

Crush your coffee beans, see them drowned in water, and to hear the gurgling of the coffeepot.

-me}

I can tell that autumn has finally arrived.

It isn’t the changing leaves (please, this is Central Texas. The only time leaves change colors is when we spray paint them). It isn’t the arrival of orange/yellow/brown “decorations”¹in the seasonal aisle of our HEB. It isn’t even pumpkin spice EVERYTHING.

No. I can tell because this is the time of year when Mister Man insists that all the windows be open. He says that we only get six weeks total of acceptable weather – three in the spring and three in the fall. While he may be right about the weather, I spend those six weeks shivering in my own home. To be fair, he didn’t know I was a Lizard Person until after he moved in. But, still.

Y’all, it was 44 degrees this morning. FORTY FOUR. And every damn window in the place was chocked open, to let in the “fresh air.”

Fresh air, FFS.

Please bring blankets, as the floor is cold, too.

I have spent the last several days huddled under blankets, wearing sweaters and thermals and thick socks. Although, it is a little hard to type while swaddled up like a baby-burrito. But, my players need me to finish the Talislanta/DnD crossover game. I’d like to finish it because it will make a great story.

I peeled them off so you could see what I consider an acceptable layer of blankets. — I peeled them off so you could see what I consider an acceptable amount of blankets.

But I have to emerge from my warmliness-cocoon sometimes. Nachos and coffee don’t make themselves, you know.

mmm. Nachos. /hellboy — The amount of BTUs lost during the making of the nachos was staggering. Or shivering. …whatever.

For now, I must return to my work.
However, this evening is all about Machiavellianism and NPCs and meta-meta arcs.

And if you think I am giggling quietly to myself, you are quite wrong.

It’s more of a sinister chuckle, really.

I should really get a fluffy white cat to stroke while I plot.

—–

¹ – I use the word loosely.

Backstory

September 8, 2014 ~ Bon Steele ~ Leave a comment

Do you write backstory ideas for your characters down?

I do.
Sometimes, they’re really awful. Sometimes, they’re pretty good. Mostly I wind up not using them. The below was for a character in a short story I wrote. I didn’t use any of it, but I really liked the imagery in this piece.

“Sera”

There had been better days, she knew. A time before violence was commonplace. Now, it seemed to be the only currency that people understood or accepted. She thought back to the wet, green rice fields surrounding the tiny village where she’d spent her teen years. There had been a small monastery at the outskirts. Monks with shaved-pates and flapping orange dhoti had wandered the muddy streets, offering manual labor to any who needed help. They didn’t ask for anything in return, simply smiled a gapped smile and moved on to the next villager. She’d once helped them to remove a recalcitrant nanny-goat from a tree. Frightened by the backfire of a passing truck it had ninja-jumped from feeding trough to the tree. The poor thing had been bleating and peeing in her distress. The monks had just laughed and joked about the situation. A goat in a tree! They had laughed that goat down and into her owner’s arms.