C.S.E. Cooney's Blog, page 29
February 12, 2020
Playtesting “Negocios Infernales” at Boskone 2020
Post from our family website!
The art is complete for our new game NEGOCIOS INFERNALES. We have made a prototype for playtesting!
(The size has not yet been adjusted from playing card to tarot card, but that’s a little thing.)
For now, this “La Baraja del Destino” of ours is ready to test at Boskone and it is BEE-YOOOUU–TEEE–FUL!
All art by the glorious, the genius, the darling Rebecca Huston of Heathen Ink!
Keep reading for MORE ABOUT THE GAME!
The game of NEGOCIOS INFERNALES is Men in Black by way of the Spanish Inquisition!
A world very much like our Earth is experiencing something a lot like our Spanish Inquisition. Aliens show up to this planet with an invitation for the humans there to join their Cosmic Consciousness, but the humans there aren’t quite able to understand what the aliens are or what they want.
“Are you devils?” ask the humans.
“Um, sure,” shrug…
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Fall of Reynardine: Draft 2
Carlos and I stole a chance to sit down and play with the piano for a little while, and we came up with a sprightly madrigal sort of melody for this, which actually works quite well given the creepy content. I will test it out with my brother Jeremy and Faye this weekend.
I’m printing out song-sheets, so I might as well print several extras of this!
I changed the refrain and rephrased a few things for easier singing.
THE FALL OF REYNARDINE
Lyrics by C. S. E. Cooney
Music by Carlos Hernandez
“Come thou hither, miner’s daughter
With thy braids as black as night
With thy face so brown and shining
And thine eyes so full of light
Come and see my crystal castle
With its ramparts all gleam
Come and wake me from my slumber
Come and kiss thy Reynardine!”
Reynardine, Reynardine
Come and kiss your Reynardine
Deep within forest green
Come and kiss your Reynardine
What is she who grins so whitely?
What is she who calls so sweet?
Phantom vixen, shade or shadow—
Are you after love, or meat?
Sure, I am a miner’s daughter
Came my father long ago
From the highest flights of heaven
Made to dig the mines below
Reynardine, Reynardine
Come and kiss your Reynardine
Deep within forest green
Come and kiss your Reynardine
Dug he deep, and dug he deeply
Till he struck upon a stone
Till he found a maid imprisoned
Broke the rock and brought her home
So you see, your snare can’t catch me
O my clever Reynardine
For I am a miner’s daughter
And my mother is a queen
Reynardine, Reynardine
Come and kiss your Reynardine
Deep within forest green
Come and kiss your Reynardine
Yes, my mother has a castle
Crystal walls in crystal glade
Told me, “O beware, my daughter
O, beware the vixen’s shade
She will find you in the forest
Lure you to her casket stone
She will bid you break her shackles
Kiss her mouth and bring her home”
Reynardine, Reynardine
Come and kiss your Reynardine
Deep within forest green
Come and kiss your Reynardine
“And her home will be our castle
And our bowels be her bowl
She will drink your father’s heart-blood
Sipped from out your mother’s skull
Oh beware, beware my daughter
Listen to your mother queen
And do not forsake your people
For the love of Reynardine!”
Reynardine, Reynardine
Come and kiss your Reynardine
Deep within forest green
Come and kiss your Reynardine
No, my love is strong and supple
Oh, my love is fierce and wild
And she’ll meet me in this dark wood
Where we two will bide a while
Walk we two up to your casket
Kneel we there upon your stone
Pledge our love now and forever
Seal you fast to die alone
Reynardine, Reynardine
Come and kiss your Reynardine
Deep within forest green
Come and kiss your Reynardine
Die, ye shade whose will would smite us
Die, ye poison in the breast
Seven times thy spite turn on thee
Seven times put thee to rest
Then at journey’s end we’ll travel
For to see my mother queen
At her table, feast and revel
At the fall of Reynardine!
Reynardine, Reynardine
Cursed forever, Reynardine
Deep within forest green
Now is fallen Reynardine
[image error]
February 11, 2020
Ballads from a Distant Star: The Number Crunching Edition
Regarding our upcoming “Ballads from a Distant Star” concept album campaign:
I AM VACILLATING! Indiegogo or Kickstarter?
I went with Indiegogo last time, for the first two Brimstone Rhine EPs. And still, the thought of operating with partial funding and paying the rest out of pocket is still better than doing all this work & having it come to nothing!
But Kickstarter is a bigger platform. Plus they have HQ in NYC. And I’m here. Unlike last time.
This is a bigger project, more ambitious, more moving parts, more collaborators. It didn’t begin as a Brimstone Rhine project at all, but part of the (erstwhile) Banjo Apocalypse Crinoline Troubadours performance group.
I mean, a sci-fi CONCEPT ALBUM! We’ve been working on the music for YEARS! I’m dedicated to this music—partly because a great bulk of it was written and composed by some of my dearest shield-sisters in the WORLD! Plus, I like my own pieces!!!
It’s ambitious—more ambitious than my first—early, fun, beautifully imperfect—attempts at those two EPS, “Alecto! Alecto!” and “The Headless Bride.”
“Corbeau Blanc and Corbeau Noir” was all out of pocket, because it was a present to my backers—as a thank you—and I think the music was often more adventurous, but “Ballads” is next league stuff.
Or so I hope.
AAAUUGHHH!
Ahem. Yes. I’ve been working on campaign tonight. >.> Crunching numbers. Writing emails. Sending texts.
“Or Perhaps Up” a new C. S. E. Cooney short story!
Having just made a little video of Carlos Hernandez reading from his new short story “Your Two Better Halves”–which he was invited to write for the Where the Veil is Thin anthology–I am now doing the same.
For the SAME BOOK!
Yes, we share a TABLE OF CONTENTS, everybody!
Where the Veil is Thin is currently being Kickstarted! If this video (or Carlos’s, for that matter) make you hungry for more, please consider backing!
[image error]
"Or Perhaps Up" a new C. S. E. Cooney short story!
Having just made a little video of Carlos Hernandez reading from his new short story “Your Two Better Halves”–which he was invited to write for the Where the Veil is Thin anthology–I am now doing the same.
For the SAME BOOK!
Yes, we share a TABLE OF CONTENTS, everybody!
Where the Veil is Thin is currently being Kickstarted! If this video (or Carlos’s, for that matter) make you hungry for more, please consider backing!
[image error]
February 9, 2020
Making Gelethel
Today in revising “The Twice-Drowned Saint,” I needed some help visualizing Gelethel: the Angelic City. (Hint: not your mama’s angels.) (Hint: You don’t want to go there.) (Well, most of you.)
Anyway, this is what I knew:
Gelethel, “the Diamond of Bellisaar” is 15 miles on each side, with an area of 225 square miles. It is surrounded by the Gelthic Serac, which is pure blue ice: 50 meters deep and 200 meters high.
I knew that before She “got ate,” the god of Gelethel gave each of Her 15 original angels (there are only 14 left in the city) an allotment, or district, to call their own.
But I didn’t know how to visualize the city, or how to divide it up into 15 equal areas (1 square mile, or 640 acres) without doing a bunch of boring rectangles (the only visual the internet could show me).
Thankfully, I know author (and musician! and math teacher!) Edward Peters Aubry, and I asked him to help me.
And he was SO KIND, and did NOT make fun of my mathematical ineptitude, and he told me to get out some graph paper, and then he told me JUST HOW TO DO IT.
I make the diamond: 15 by 15 by 15 by 15 squares. Every angel gets fifteen squares with the diamond. AND THAT’S ALL! The districts can be any shape I want!
I mean, OF COURSE! A CHILD would’ve known that! But I needed help, and I’m SO GRATEFUL! And now I have a map, and it is TOTES HELPFUL in this present draft I am writing.
[image error]My E for East looks like an S, and I think I misspelled some of my angels’ names, but whatever. I got to use CRAYONS!
Miner’s Daughter VS Reynardine: First Draft
After the Richard Thompson concert, the deluge!
One of the songs he ended on (one of three–I think?–encores) was Fairport Convention’s “Reynardine,” (lyrics here), a version of the Reynardine ballad.
So then, I wrote this at midnight on the subway with the idea of adding it to the Distant Stars ballads. (More about Ballads from a Distant Star here!)
The aliens in the Distant Stars abduction narrative present as “face of fox and tail of scorpion,” so the Reynardine ballad fits in well. Or rather, we’ve stolen enough ballads to retell them that ONE MORE feels JUST RIGHT. Maybe WE are the Reynardines.
Of course, given my druthers, I never like to end with women vanishing and villains winning. There’s enough of that in the world.
And so:
MINER’S DAUGHTER VS REYNARDINE
“Come thou hither, miner’s daughter
With thy braids as black as night
With thy face so brown and shining
And thine eyes so full of light
Come and see my crystal castle
Turrets glitter, ramparts gleam
Come and wake me from my slumber
Come and kiss thy Reynardine!”
Come and kiss thy Reynardine
Deep within the forest green
Come and kiss thy Reynardine
What is she who grins so whitely?
What is she who calls so sweet?
Phantom vixen, shade or shadow—
Are you after love, or meat?
Sure, I am a miner’s daughter
Came my father long ago
Press-ganged from the highest heaven
To dig down in the mines below
Come and kiss thy Reynardine
Deep within the forest green
Come and kiss thy Reynardine
Dug he deep, and dug he deeply
Till he struck upon a stone
Till he found a maid imprisoned
Broke the rock and brought her home
So you see, your snare can’t catch me
O my clever Reynardine
For I am a miner’s daughter
And my mother is a queen
Come and kiss thy Reynardine
Deep within the forest green
Come and kiss thy Reynardine
Yes, my mother has a castle
Crystal walls in crystal glade
Told me, “O beware, my daughter
O, beware the vixen’s shade
She will find you in the forest
Lure you to her casket stone
She will bid you break her shackles
Kiss her mouth and bring her home”
Come and kiss thy Reynardine
Deep within the forest green
Come and kiss thy Reynardine
“And that home will be our castle
And our bowels be her bowl
She will drink your father’s heart-blood
Sipped from out your mother’s skull
Oh beware, beware my daughter
Listen to your mother queen
And do not forsake your people
For the love of Reynardine!”
Come and kiss thy Reynardine
Deep within the forest green
Come and kiss thy Reynardine
No, my love is strong and supple
Oh, my love is fierce and wild
And she’ll meet me in this dark wood
Where we two will bide a while
Walk we two up to your casket
Kneel we there upon your stone
Pledge our love now and forever
Seal you fast to die alone
Come and kiss thy Reynardine
Deep within the forest green
Come and kiss thy Reynardine
Die, ye shade whose will would smite us
Die, ye poison in the breast
Seven times thy spite turn on thee
Seven times put thee to rest
Then at journey’s end we’ll travel
For to see my mother queen
At her table, feast and revel
At the fall of Reynardine!
Now has fallen Reynardine
Deep within the forest green
Now has fallen Reynardine!
Miner's Daughter VS Reynardine: First Draft
After the Richard Thompson concert, the deluge!
One of the songs he ended on (one of three–I think?–encores) was Fairport Convention’s “Reynardine,” (lyrics here), a version of the Reynardine ballad.
So then, I wrote this at midnight on the subway with the idea of adding it to the Distant Stars ballads. (More about Ballads from a Distant Star here!)
The aliens in the Distant Stars abduction narrative present as “face of fox and tail of scorpion,” so the Reynardine ballad fits in well. Or rather, we’ve stolen enough ballads to retell them that ONE MORE feels JUST RIGHT. Maybe WE are the Reynardines.
Of course, given my druthers, I never like to end with women vanishing and villains winning. There’s enough of that in the world.
And so:
MINER’S DAUGHTER VS REYNARDINE
“Come thou hither, miner’s daughter
With thy braids as black as night
With thy face so brown and shining
And thine eyes so full of light
Come and see my crystal castle
Turrets glitter, ramparts gleam
Come and wake me from my slumber
Come and kiss thy Reynardine!”
Come and kiss thy Reynardine
Deep within the forest green
Come and kiss thy Reynardine
What is she who grins so whitely?
What is she who calls so sweet?
Phantom vixen, shade or shadow—
Are you after love, or meat?
Sure, I am a miner’s daughter
Came my father long ago
Press-ganged from the highest heaven
To dig down in the mines below
Come and kiss thy Reynardine
Deep within the forest green
Come and kiss thy Reynardine
Dug he deep, and dug he deeply
Till he struck upon a stone
Till he found a maid imprisoned
Broke the rock and brought her home
So you see, your snare can’t catch me
O my clever Reynardine
For I am a miner’s daughter
And my mother is a queen
Come and kiss thy Reynardine
Deep within the forest green
Come and kiss thy Reynardine
Yes, my mother has a castle
Crystal walls in crystal glade
Told me, “O beware, my daughter
O, beware the vixen’s shade
She will find you in the forest
Lure you to her casket stone
She will bid you break her shackles
Kiss her mouth and bring her home”
Come and kiss thy Reynardine
Deep within the forest green
Come and kiss thy Reynardine
“And that home will be our castle
And our bowels be her bowl
She will drink your father’s heart-blood
Sipped from out your mother’s skull
Oh beware, beware my daughter
Listen to your mother queen
And do not forsake your people
For the love of Reynardine!”
Come and kiss thy Reynardine
Deep within the forest green
Come and kiss thy Reynardine
No, my love is strong and supple
Oh, my love is fierce and wild
And she’ll meet me in this dark wood
Where we two will bide a while
Walk we two up to your casket
Kneel we there upon your stone
Pledge our love now and forever
Seal you fast to die alone
Come and kiss thy Reynardine
Deep within the forest green
Come and kiss thy Reynardine
Die, ye shade whose will would smite us
Die, ye poison in the breast
Seven times thy spite turn on thee
Seven times put thee to rest
Then at journey’s end we’ll travel
For to see my mother queen
At her table, feast and revel
At the fall of Reynardine!
Now has fallen Reynardine
Deep within the forest green
Now has fallen Reynardine!
February 8, 2020
Desdemona’s Tithe: Planned Parenthood (January ’20) and City Harvest (February ’20)
Somehow in the whirl of the New Year, I neglected my action in Desdemona’s Tithe. (To read more about this year-long commitment–and probably beyond–follow this link.)
This month, I played catch-up with a double tithe. I hope the goblins of my private underworlds will not castigate me too sharply.
We supported the following institutions today in the necessary work they do:
Planned Parenthood
Full Moon Tithe: January 10th
https://www.plannedparenthood.org/get-involved/other-ways-give
This link goes right to Planned Parenthood’s Mission Statement and Goals.
City Harvest
Full Moon Tithe: February 9th
https://giving.cityharvest.org/donate-now
City Harvest is an organization for food rescue and food security programs in NYC. To learn more, follow this link.
Desdemona's Tithe: Planned Parenthood (January '20) and City Harvest (February '20)
Somehow in the whirl of the New Year, I neglected my action in Desdemona’s Tithe. (To read more about this year-long commitment–and probably beyond–follow this link.)
This month, I played catch-up with a double tithe. I hope the goblins of my private underworlds will not castigate me too sharply.
We supported the following institutions today in the necessary work they do:
Planned Parenthood
Full Moon Tithe: January 10th
https://www.plannedparenthood.org/get-involved/other-ways-give
This link goes right to Planned Parenthood’s Mission Statement and Goals.
City Harvest
Full Moon Tithe: February 9th
https://giving.cityharvest.org/donate-now
City Harvest is an organization for food rescue and food security programs in NYC. To learn more, follow this link.
