Kevin L. O'Brien's Blog: Songs of the Seanchaí, page 3

Completed a New Story -- Women and Boys

I have finished a new story:

Women and Boys -- a Strange & Unnatural Tales story

A social worker makes a visit to a home to investigate complaints that a minor is being left alone all hours of the day and night. She is greeted by a 13-year old boy who invites her in to wait for the return of his mom. She accepts the offer of a drink only to have him drug her. She awakens naked, bound, and gagged in the basement where he proceeds to rape her. He makes it clear he will cut her throat when he's finished. She desperately hopes for a way to escape, but it seems impossible.

It won't end like you expect.

Inspired by this image:

Completed Two New Stories

I have finished two new stories.

The first is:

Misunderstood -- a Strange & Unnatural Tales story

Paparazzo extraordinaire Rino Santesso believes he's finally got the goods on the new pop singing sensation Caye Laumer. That is, until he follows her into the sewers...

Inspired by this album cover:



The second is:

(tentative title) Vengeance Games -- a Dribble & Maggot story

Sir Differel and Lady Margaret accept a dinner invitation from an old friend of Margaret's father the Duke, only to discover he wants revenge for a disgrace when they were both in the army.

Inspired by the season 6 Avengers episode "Game" (1968):

http://www.dissolute.com.au/the-aveng...

Completed a New Story: Girl Scout's Honour

I have finished a new story:

Girl Scout's Honour (sequel to Gourmand Hag) -- a Dribble & Maggot story

Lady Margaret Chesham, Differel's frenemy, drops by unexpectedly to sell her some Girl Guide cookies. That's when the sister of the hag that tried to devour Differel in "Gourmand Hag" appears seeking revenge. Somehow it neutralizes Vlad and Caliburn, leaving her helpless. Differel's only chance is if Margaret can somehow distract it long enough for her to figure out how to defeat it.

Sword & Sorceress 30: Submissions

The reading period for submissions for Sword & Sorceress 30 is coming up in April. Stories should be the type generally referred to as "sword and sorcery" and must have a strong female protagonist whom the reader will care about.

I have a couple of stories ready for submission (they only allow a maximum of two submissions):

Lion's Heart -- In the Dreamlands, Team Girl visits a farming family they know and finds everyone slaughtered -- even the cats! -- except for a girl infant and a kitten. They decide to take them to the nearest village for safety, but they soon discover that the same creatures that killed the family are now after them!

Team Mail Girl! -- In the Dreamlands, Team Girl are on an adventure, and as they often do they carry mail to their destination. One package must be pretty valuable, considering the security that accompanied it when it was dropped off. Unfortunately, Marseilles Sheraton has come to the same conclusion: she wants that package, and she won't hesitate to kill Eile and Sunny to get it.

http://www.mzbworks.com/guidelines.htm

Clothing Tropes -- Part 1

The Bottomless Bladder trope may make it unnecessary for characters to change clothes, but characters still have to WEAR clothes. (However, there are exceptions, and not all are porno films.) As Mark Twain once said, "Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society." Like food, minimalists may disdain saying more about a character's attire than just what she's wearing, but unlike food there is generally a greater need to provide some detail beyond just "blouse and slacks". After all, the choice of costume can say something about a character's...um...character. Of course, others can go way too far in the other direction and produce Costume Porn, which is when the clothes are described in the kind of detail normally reserved for major characters. It's as if they believe the costumes are themselves supporting characters (though they just may be in some stories).

Considering that food has many tropes associated with it, it shouldn't be surprising that costumes have even more. In addition to regular costume tropes there are also hat tropes, underwear tropes, superhero costume tropes, fanservice tropes, and nudity tropes, to name but a handful. The reason seems to be that storytellers are more willing to spend time on describing costumes, both in terms of what they look like and what happens to them, than they are on food or other mundane aspects of a character's life. This is especially true of visual stories, since an artist can put far more detail into costumes than writers can efficiently describe, but the audience doesn't have to spend an inordinate amount of time or brain power absorbing and assimilating it.

Action Dress Rip -- an Action Girl rips off the hem of her dress before going into battle

***** Eile does this during the bar brawl in "The Steel Gazelle".

Differel does this just before going on the attack to give herself greater freedom of movement.

Adventurer Outfit -- the costume one wears when going on an adventure

***** Team Girl, Differel, and Margaret all have distinctive adventuring costumes when in the Dreamlands. They are described in "The Golden Mushroom", "Differential Damsel", and "Dribble & Maggot in the Land of Dreams".

Eile and Sunny also have about-town costumes they wear when exploring an urban setting or pub-crawling. They are described in "A Typical Friday Night".

All Women Love Shoes -- Exactly What It Says On the Tin; all women are Imelda Marcos deep down inside

***** Played straight with Team Girl and Margaret. All three are into haute couture, which includes matching shoes.

Subverted with Differel, who prefers practical, sensible shoes, and only has a few pairs of dress shoes.

Awesome Anachronistic Apparel -- purposely wearing an out-of-date style to display one's character

***** Aelfraed's everyday uniform is reminiscent of formal morning dress with gloves, except that it is a royal blue color instead of black or gray.

The Prince in Blue, the brother of the Princess in Orange, appears in clothing based on Regency Era fashion.

Redjack (an alternative form of Jack the Ripper), when not in his shadow form, dresses like a Victorian Era gentleman, complete with monocle and top hat.

Bad Habits -- religious clothing, whether worn legitimately or as part of a disguise

***** Monsignor Canarde is head of the Vatican's Holy Order of Saint Antony Demons-Bane, the Catholic Church's monster hunting organization.

Sister Walpurga is a member of the Daughters of Cwenthryth, an all-woman military religious order, warrior nuns who fight pagans, heretics, and monsters alike. She wears a habit when cloistered, but her uniform is composed of a catsuit with a coif, guimpe, and veil.

Bare Your Midriff -- Exactly What It Says On the Tin; clothing that reveals the stomach and bellybutton

***** Sunny's Dreamlands adventuring costume includes a sleeveless shirt that exposes her tummy with an open long-sleeved jacket over it.

Barely-There Swimwear -- characters in-universe comment on how small another's swimsuit is

***** Differel is scandalized that Eile wears a slingshot swimsuit, Sunny three strategically placed pasties, and Margaret string bikinis or microkinis.

Blind Without 'Em -- a character who wears glasses can see nothing without them

***** Subverted; Sunny wears reading glasses, mostly as a fashion statement. Differel is extremely myopic and has astigmatism, so without her glasses all she sees is a distorted blue, but she can still see well enough to defend herself, especially if an opponent gets close.

Blood-Spattered Wedding Dress -- something goes seriously wrong during the wedding, and the bride gets blood all over her dress

***** Differel's wedding ceremony was interrupted by a horde of monsters. Their blood got all over her dress. She didn't bother to change before completing the ceremony.

Body Paint -- painting colors and designs directly onto the naked body

***** In "Do Unto Others..." the inhabitants of London 1000 years in the future do not wear clothes but decorate their bodies with vivid colors and designs.

In the Dreamlands numerous tribes and villages decorate their bodies with tattoos and pained designs.

Classy Cravat -- a strip of cloth wrapped and tied around the neck; the predecessor to the necktie

***** Both Differel and Vlad wear cravats; Differel wears them in both the Waking World and the Dreamlands. Vlad's are always blood red, but Differel's can be whatever color strikes her mood for that day.

Clothes Make the Legend -- a character is associated with just one outfit

***** Medb habitually wears a peplos-style dress with sleeves, with a golden torc and a headband of silvered bronze.

Though they can be different colors, Differel wears masculine-looking pants suits.

Vlad wears the same costume all the time: shirt, waistcoat, trousers, great coat, and hat, all black, with blood red gloves and a rosebud boutonniere.

Clothing Damage -- damaging a character's clothing in such a way as to provide teasing glimpses of the flesh or lingerie beneath

***** Subverted in "The Beast of Exmoor"; Differel's skirt gets ripped to shreds, but she is wearing leggings underneath.

Clothing Switch -- one or more characters putting on clothes belonging to someone else but for reasons other than disguising as that person

***** In the Waking World, Eile and Sunny maintain their own wardrobes because they wear different sizes, but they're always borrowing tops, skirts, sweaters, jackets, and accessories from each other. In the Dreamlands, their casual clothes are not tailored, so they maintain a single wardrobe that they share between themselves.

When they were children, Dribble & Maggot often shared each others clothes, though it tended to be more D borrowing from M. As they got older, they did less of it because of their different senses of style, but they still occasionally raid each others closets when they want something different or daring.

Coat Cape -- wearing a coat like a cape

***** When Differel wears a great coat, she sometimes drapes it over her shoulders.

The Princess in Orange has a special cape that has sleeves and is designed similar to an open coat.

Combat Stilettos -- Action Girls often wear high heels to complement the rest of their Stripperiffic outfits

***** In the Dreamlands, Team Girl wear casual adventuring costumes in urban settings or while pub crawling that include boots with stiletto heels.

Conspicuous Gloves -- when the wearing of gloves is unusual

***** Differel, Aelfraed, and Vlad all wear gloves as part of their normal costumes. Partially justified for the first two in that gloves are part of English social history for aristocrats and their servants.

Conspicuous Trenchcoat -- an otherwise out-of-the-ordinary character can always be identified by the fact that he wears a concealing trenchcoat

***** In "We Deliver", a customer comes into the pizza shop on a hot, humid night wearing a closed trenchcoat.

Cool Mask -- Exactly What It Says On the Tin; using a mask to cover at least half the face

***** Hyaline Maximilia de Grymm is a 27,000 year old vampire of the now extinct Mousterian parasite strain; she is the oldest human vampire extant. She is also a 13 year old girl. Before she was turned she had been attacked by a large predatory cat and severely maimed. A Neanderthal vampire turned her to save her life, but the parasites could not repair the damage. As such, she wears a half-mask that covers the scars on the left side of her face.

Cosplay -- the fan hobby of making costumes of a concept or person and wearing them at fan gatherings

***** Team Girl cosplay as the Sera Senshi Sailor Hadron and Sailor Lepton.

Their friend Bettie Stivic cosplays as Elvira Mistress of the Dark, which also serves as her alter ego in the Dreamlands.

Differel once cosplayed as "The Maid of Orleans", Therese Marie Zephyrine d'Arc, from the graphic novel/webcomic of the same name, while Vlad impersonated her companion Scatoloch, to catch a spy selling British state secrets.

Costumer -- an episode that's an excuse to put the characters in period costume

***** Time Travel, Parallel Earth, and Alternative Reality stories involving Team Girl and/or Differel. See "The Denver Walker" for an example.

Crossdresser -- dressing in the clothing of the opposite sex

***** Though technically she wears pants suits, Differel's everyday business suit is designed to be more masculine than feminine. She also wears a male-design brigadier's uniform when leading her troops.

When time traveling or visiting parallel earths, Differel and Eile often pretend to be male to avoid gender-based complications due to discrimination against women.

Culture Equals Costume -- when works of fiction choose to put characters in the traditional costumes of their culture even when it would be rather unusual in Real Life

***** In the Dreamlands, many lands with unique cultures also have a unique style of dress.

Dangerously Short Skirt -- when Action Girls wear short, above-the-knees skirts

***** In the Dreamlands, Team Girl wears these as part of the design of their entertainment costumes, which also includes Cleavage Windows and Bare Your Midriffs (see above).

Domino Mask -- a type of mask that covers only the eyes and the area around them

***** These will figure prominently in a future story where Team Girl and Differel play crime fighters.

Drag Queen -- when someone wears women's clothing only on special occasions

***** Inverted (Drag King); both Dribble & Maggot and Team Girl have dressed up in men's clothing when the situation requires that they blend in with a bunch of men.

Dragged Into Drag -- when girls dress a boy up as a girl

***** In a future story, preteen Connie and Liza disguise a teenage Henry Van Helsing as a girl.

Every Girl Is Cuter With Hair Decs -- any decoration a character wears in her hair

***** Eile dyes the four big locks that frame her face a vivid fuchsia.

Eyepatch After Time Skip -- a character from the future wears an eyepatch (when she hadn't before)

***** Adult Sunny from an alternative crapsack future in which Eile is dead goes back in time to keep her alive; she wears an eyepatch.

Fairytale Wedding Dress -- a fancy wedding dress with an old-fashioned style of skirt and plenty of trimmings

***** Differel wears one when she marries Victor, but under protest. Becomes a Blood-Spattered Wedding Dress (see above) before the ceremony even begins.

The Fashionista -- a character whose defining trait is being well-dressed and extremely interested in fashion

***** Primarily Lady Margaret, but Team Girl have aspects of this as well.

Forced Into Their Sunday Best -- characters are forced to wear smart looking clothes and hating it

***** Team Girl's daughter Connie hates wearing dresses; their other daughter Liza does like to look pretty, but she prefers to emulate her sister.

Differel hates dresses (but will wear skirts), especially formal ones, with a passion.

Form-Fitting Wardrobe -- clothing is drawn fitting around the body far better than it reasonably should in Real Life

***** The artist Ariel Roberts, who creates most of the portraits and covers I use, tends to do this with Team Girl, Differel, and Margaret

From Dress to Dressing -- when clothes someone is wearing are rip up to bandage a wound

***** In "Feline Savior", Differel uses a sleeve of her shirt as a bandage when she receives a grazing gunshot wound. She does the same with a jacket sleeve to bandage Giles Holt's head in "The Beast of Exmoor".

Full Body Disguise -- Exactly What It Says On the Tin; disguising the whole body, not just parts of it

***** Differel's doubles not only dress like her, but have been surgically altered to look like her as well.

In "Double Image", Eile and Sunny are visiting a parallel earth, and are blackmailed into impersonating their parallel alter egos, Sonya and Ellen.

Fully-Clothed Nudity -- any nudity where no one's really naked, but someone's freaking out anyway

***** Before they were married, when Differel and Victor were at the platonic dating phase (they hadn't even kissed yet), Victor arranged for them to spend a few days on the coast of Devon known as the English Riviera. He booked them into a fancy resort inn he had used before, in separate rooms, but a mixup forced them to share a single room. One morning Victor enters the bathroom wearing briefs and surprises Differel wearing a bra and panties. Both have a major freakout before Victor makes a hasty retreat.

Future Spandex -- using spandex costumes to indicate that a character is in or from the future, or has access to super-high tech

***** In "The Price of Folly", Medb visits an extraterrestrial mining colony some 500 years in the future. While there she wears a futuristic bodysuit that is virtually spandex.

When Sunny returns from an alternative crapsack future where Eile is dead, she wears a red spandex bodysuit that acts as an environmental suit as well.

Gay Groom in White Tux -- when a white tuxedo functions as a man's take on the bride's white dress

***** Subverted; when Eile and Sunny get married, Sunny's "groom" costume consists of a white tuxedo ensemble above the waist, including a top hat, and a slitted skirt below the waist.

Giving Them the Strip -- grabbed by an enemy too powerful to fight, the overmatched hero may need to sacrifice fashion or dignity for survival's sake

***** In a future story, Differel and Margaret are in a bathroom dressed only only in towels when they are attacked by a monster. When it tries to make a grab for them, it catches their towels, and they shed them to escape.

High Class Glass -- a monocle indicates a high place in the social strata

***** Aelfraed wears a pair of pince-nez spectacles that are a family heirloom.

Redjack wears a monocle when not in shadow mode.

In a future Alternative Reality story, Sunny plays a Bond villain with an eyepatch, so her other eye has a monocle.

Impossibly-Low Neckline -- an off-the-shoulder neckline that is so far off those shoulders that the wearer seems to be one deep breath away from a Wardrobe Malfunction

***** Differel hates that kind of dress, but on occasion she has been forced to wear one due to protocol.

On the other hand, Sunny loves to wear Jessica Rabbit-style dresses (and Eile loves seeing her wear them).

Improbable Hairstyle -- hairstyles far too unlikely to be found in Real Life

***** Medb, Eile, and Differel wear their straight hair so long that in Real Life it would interfere their ability to sit or lie down. Sunny's huge mane is so buoyant it appears to defy gravity.

Lab Coat of Science and Medicine -- a character wearing a lab coat is a good indication that they're involved in either science or a medical field

***** Both Dr. Mabuse the mad scientist and Dr. Carmichael the Caerleon Order chief medical officer wear lab coats.

Lady in Red -- where The Vamp or the Femme Fatale is designated by having her wear bright red formal wear

***** Shinia Norlen from "No Torrent Like Greed".

Latex Spacesuit -- any space suit or environment suit that is exceptionally tight, form fitting, and flatteringly cut

***** Medb's costume in "The Price of Folly".

Lennon Specs -- a type of sunglasses with perfectly round lenses, preferably black or red, made famous by John Lennon

***** Vlad wears a pair, though not in every story.

Leotard of Power -- where a character fights in a skintight leotard or a swimsuit-esque one piece

***** I have planned an Alternative Reality story in which Eile and Sunny are superheroes that wear this kind of costume. I also have outlined a story where the Princess in Orange turns Team Girl, Differel, and Margaret into members of the various Lantern Corps.

Little Black Dress -- Exactly What It Says On the Tin; a dress that is black and is quite small

***** In the forthcoming "Lifetime Together", Eile and Sunny go on an elaborate and expensive date featuring dinner and gambling, dressed in new little black tube dresses.

Living Bodysuit -- a form of spiritual possession in which the spirit takes total control of the victim's body

***** In a future story, Differel is possessed by a dybbuk that seeks revenge against the Royal Family for a wrong one of their ancestors committed against it centuries before.

Loincloth -- Exactly What It Says On the Tin; lower body underwear made of cloth or hides

***** In "Dark Vengeance", Medb's companion, Tlingit, strips down to his loincloth and moccasin boots before they confront the Crusher in battle.

In "Adventurer's Honeymoon", the pirates who try to capture Differel and Victor in the Dreamlands make him put on a pair of braies before taking them to their ship.

Continued in Part 2

Ask the Author

I have activated a new feature offered by GoodReads called "Ask the Author". Essentially, it's a way for readers to ask me questions when they visit my Author's page. Whether anyone will bother is a different question, but I wanted to alert you all that the opportunity is available if any of you wish to take advantage of it.

My Author page is here: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...

The box inside which you can type a question is the first feature after my profile. You will also find responses to several generic questions that I am in the process of answering. I hope people will take advantage of this feature, but whether they do or not, it is now available.

Thank you.

NaNoWriMo Winner!

Made it! Got 50,000 words written today.

I'm still writing, though, because my novel ain't finished yet.

NaNoWriMo: Second Week Progress

At the end of my second week of writing, I have reached 33,840 words. I am still above both my personal goal of 25,000 for two weeks and the contest's goal of 25,000 by Day 15 (yesterday).

You can follow my progress by going to this page of the contest website:

http://nanowrimo.org/participants/bio...

There you can read "Chapter One -- The Offer", and see my daily word count by clicking on the Stats tab. I update frequently as I write, so you can follow my progress in "real" time.

Starting Week 3 now!

NaNoWriMo: First Week Progress

After my first week of writing, I have reached 16,850 words. Even after being sick for two days, I am still above both my personal goal of 12,500 a week and the contest's goal of 15,000 by Day 9 (today).

You can follow my progress by going to this page of the contest website:

http://nanowrimo.org/participants/bio...

There you can read excerpts as I post them, and see my daily word count by clicking on the Stats tab. I update frequently as I write, so you can follow my progress in "real" time.

Starting Week 2 now!

National Novel Wrining Month (NaNoWriMo)

Today is the first day of National Novel Writing Month! This is a yearly event which encourages people to write that novel they've always wanted to do. While a contest, you don't win anything special, such as a publishing contract. Instead, it's more of a personal challenge.

And I have accepted the challenge!

The goal is to write at least 50,000 words by the end of November. To accomplish that, I will have to write between 1500 and 2000 words a day. That's 12,500 a week. Not an impossible task, or even a difficult one, but my main obstacle is that I work at a full-time job, so except for lunches and a few minutes each morning, my only dedicated writing will be in the evening, so I may have to make up the difference on the weekends.

I also have a story that should work well. Actually, I have any number of stories that could have worked, but most have already been started, and I didn't want to cheat by finishing one of those. However, I did want to use a story that I had outlined so I could concentrate on writing rather than story development. So I decided to write the story where in the Dreamlands Eile and Sunny of Team Girl hire themselves out as undercover guards for a merchant transporting a valuable cargo up river to a trade city.

You can read the synopsis here.

That's all for now. Today I will be doing some preliminary research and start on the beginning, but tomorrow I hope to write in earnest. I will keep you all informed of my progress.

Now all I need is my harem of naked buxom blonde Amazons to keep me motivated. I prefer that over coffee.