Michelle Franklin's Blog, page 7

Story of the Day: Thusly is Not a Word

It is so dreadfully easy to discompose Bartleby Crulge. As a librarian and scientist extraordinaire, he cannot but take everything seriously, and the best way to get him to do exactly what you want is to purposely make a mistake and wait for him to fall into the trap of correcting you :
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Story for the Day: The Creature of the Deep

Shanties and seasongs are not exactly the same thing: a shanty is a song chanted out for work purposes, to make the laborious drudgery of heaving the capstan or hauling on the bowline more pleasurable, while seasongs are melodies sung when the crew is otherwise unoccupied. Danaco and the crew of the Myrellenos have a fast catalogue of songs they go through on their journeys, some songs quite vulgar (like Brogan's rendition of Marie the Whore), some downright wholesome (like the Song of the Sa...

Story for the Day: Boomerang

The Kali is the Lucentian returning knife. It is a blade given only to those who are trained by the Lucentian crown, and while many assassins and guildsmen learn how to use its returning properties to great effect, none can craft one as easily and effortlessly as Rannig. Part of the upcoming book The Myrellenos:
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Story for the Day: Classic Rautu -- Part 2

Whenever there is a package to be got, you may be very sure that a certain giant will always be by to claim it:
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Story for the Day: Trinkling Secrets

Secret hoarding is one of the Royal Tailor's favourite pastimes. He had been used to collect secrets with his friend Rithea before she passed on, and now he sits in his office, occupied with his needle while his ears are busy trinkling away, slenching secrets he hopes to spread in the servant's hall:
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Story for the Day: Classic Rautu

While there are many things around the keep that have changed over the years-- the amount of children running about, the number of captains and commanders marching through the barracks, the amount of cake that is eaten in the larder-- there is one thing that always remains the same:

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Story for the Day: A Woman's Independence

Parenting and the ills of childbirth, while noble professions, are imprisoning in themselves. It is one thing to want a house brimming with many children, and it is another thing entirely to find a means of caring for them. Even the greatest mothers and fathers are set beyond their strength when they must be up at all hours to read stories and woo to sleep, to tend the general caresses of cuts and scrapes, to dry the tears and discipline the overly avid. Two children is enough for the King of...

Story for the Day: Rauleigh's Reflections on the Royal Wedding

Royal weddings, obligations aside, are best enjoyed from afar, with paper lounging in lap and tea in hand. For Sir Pastaddams, Frewyn's royal tailor, Marridon's choice of fashions are a sport, one to be critiqued and curtailed at any cost, for though Frewyn is never considered the height of fashion on the continents, their tailors know the line between the radiant and ridiculous.
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Story for the Day: Galan Mai - Spring Pleasures

Spring is finally come to Frewyn. and with the late budding season comes a whole host of terrors, like the threat of a late harvest and the resurgence of Alasdair's friends the clothing moths:
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Story for the Day: The Cream Tea

There is a great debate that rages on in Marridon over the creation of a cream tea: those in the south where the capital is situated do it one way, and those in the north in the country do it another. Each boasts that its own recipe is best, but Bartleby has the final word on whether scones or round cakes wins:
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