#bad fences

[jlilycorbie]

Happy STS! Asking with a cup of tangerine tea in my lap, what are your characters drink of choice?

Happy STS!

In the untitled fantasy WIP, I think people look at Zaya and assume she really likes some sort of beer or liquor, but she's mostly the type who drinks water (which is, widely speaking, safe to drink all over that world). One of her absolute favorites, though, is a mint and watermelon green tea served ice cold (thanks to Djaetyli magic that is currently fading away from the world. I don't know if it'll ever occur to her as a reason to help save the region, but it'll be a nice bonus).

Both Aleksani and Miyarki love a particular drink made from simmering spices and fresh fruits. I can't remember what I called it off the top of my head, but they both use slightly different fruits and spices, and Aleksani prefers it chilled and Miyarki prefers it warm, so they both would think the other's is wrong.

Nideszda grew up somethings drinking a calming tisane that Teysing would make for her when she didn't feel well or was having trouble sleeping. It'll always be her favorite.

Tsinte has traveled a lot of the world and will take whatever's on offer, but she's had coffee and assorted types of chocolate drinks and they're particular favorites.

In Bad Fences, Tish is a Dr. Pepper girlie all the way through.

Ollie likes a cold beer or sometimes a hard cider.

Blue is a little embarrassed that he sticks mostly to Mt. Dew.

Eden brews her own komboucha, and some people in the family partake, but she mostly drinks it herself.

Kore used to survive off of coffee and energy drinks, but has had to cut back and is still figuring out what to have instead. She still drinks more coffee than is advisable.

Wistie and Robin are both tea drinkers, though Wistie usually takes it iced and likes green or black with fruit flavors, and Robin likes hot herbal teas.

As for the kids: Trystin likes Coke when he can get it, Melinoe is going through an orange juice think (provided there's no pulp), and Sprout is a literal infant with few choices.

Barbara also drinks a lot of Dr. Pepper and would be horrified to find she has anything in common with Tish.

Maggs is a high anxiety person who should not survive on coffee, but don't come between her and her coffee.

[jlilycorbie]

Hi Jasmine! Happy STS! How do you approach physical descriptions in your writing? Do you try to include it all when they're introduced, lace it through their appearances, or a secret third option? Do you have some snippets of OCs being described that you can share? -- @tisiphonewolfe

Hi Tizzy! Happy STS, and thanks for the ask!

I try to paint a picture of my characters fairly broadly, with details sprinkled through. I try to get basics across: distinguishing features, hair color and maybe length and/or style, eye color, skin tone, loose height, maybe loose weight. Odds are I'll leave out some of that right at the beginning and bring it up later.

From the opening paragraphs of Bad Fences, there's this:

I knew the new neighbors were trouble as soon as the police arrived to collect human bones from their yard. It was move-in day, the street rudely lined with trucks and vans and other cars. They were all loud, like a flock of low-class parrots. The little girl with the big bruise on her face dug around in the raw garden bed, getting her purple princess dress filthy. She solemnly presented her find to the fat one with the Mardi Gras hair, and out came the phone and in came the police. Most of them cleared off before the first patrol car arrived.

And here's Aleksani's introduction in the untitled fantasy WIP:

"Aleksani?" Oyuungah called. "I brought help." A long-nailed hand drew aside a wall, revealing a tall woman with hair like sunset over a forest fire. She swept Zaya with an amber gaze. "You have treated kopaulinok venom?" "Don't think it needs treating," Zaya said. "Just waiting, yeah? It's blood loss and waiting infection for a worry now." The air around Aleksani snapped with power, like the moment before a lightning strike on the mountains. "He screamed until I put him out."

[jlilycorbie]

Happy WBW! This is a very random question, but as I just received several pairs of hand-me-down jeans... Does your world (or a specific person/group of people, etc. if that's too broad) utilize passing down items to family, friends, or neighbors? Or are items kept until they're no longer usable or thrown out?

Happy WBW!

In the untitled fantasy WIP, using, reusing, repurposing, passing down, etc, it all a normal way of life all over the world. It's not a world with a great deal of waste as a matter of course.

In Bad Fences, we're talking more or less about the contemporary US, so I'll focus instead of the main characters: Barbara thinks she's very mindful and not wasteful at all, and she plans to pass down her house and all her things to her kids. There are...multiple problems with that.

The Wyldeborns do their best in the modern world to limit their waste, to reduce, reuse, recycle, to pass things through family and community. Ollie in particular is a contractor who specializes in saving and restoring historical properties and in retrofitting accessible and environmentally friendly upgrades.

[jlilycorbie]

Happy WBW! What are some superstitions in your world? Do your characters believe them?

Happy WBW!

In Bad Fences, there's a church grim that moved into the state forest behind the neighborhood. It didn't get much attention for literal generations, including when it saved a lost hiker sometime in the 80s. The story made the local news at the time, but didn't really spread further.

Until podcasts, when one small supernatural stories podcast picked up on it, and then it spread, and now there's the West Trail Good Boy, and people will leave dog treats and balls and dog toys for the spectral dog that might save you if you get lost in the forest.

Barbara 1) knows the dog is completely real and 2) is pissy about people leaving stuff for it.

She's got a good point, though, because the treats draw wildlife closer to the houses, and that's all well and good until it's bears or mountain lions or other big and dangerous animals in someone's backyard.

The Wyldeborns are aware of the West Trail Good Boy, and they love it, and sort of believe? Maybe a little? But also Eden is a wildlife rehabber and if Barbara weren't such a difficult person, they could actually bond over being annoyed at people leaving food around for wildlife.

There are a lot of superstitions around ghosts, hauntings, and vampires (pre-Dracula type), but those are real world superstitions, and Barbara generally believes, and the Wyldeborns know some of them, but don't necessarily believe (until life gets weird).

[jlilycorbie]

Happy WBW! I've missed the past few weeks, so what's new in your world? Any new developments you're proud of or need to rant about?

Happy WBW!

I'll be honest, not much has happened with either WIP. I'm kind of finally making moves toward figuring out how to get back to the untitled fantasy WIP? I think I understand how it's going to work with some big changes I made a while back.

Also, I got stuck on Bad Fences because I kept trying to write events after Barbara from the POV of some of the Wyldeborns, and I think honestly none of them will ever be POV characters in the story. I'm pretty sure Maggs, Barbara's daughter, picks up and stuff to deal with.

But that feels wrong, considering all the Wyldeborns go through because of Barbara. It seems like some of them, at least, should get some say. I could be wrong. I still need to figure it out.

Otherwise, I've got a shiny new project! If I can't get anywhere on the other two, maybe a new thing will help? It doesn't have a title yet, but it's horror.

I've got Callie, who claims that's short for Calamity, but really it's short for Calliope. She's an artist of no particular success who just lost everything because of a stalker. She got isolated from her friends, her girlfriend broke up with her, she lost her job, and she moved across the country to start over again...only to get laid off from the new job she moved for less than a week after the move.

And she's going to find her way into the orbit of Caoimhe, who seems to be everywhere around town, who seems to know all of the artsy and writing type folks, who has booths out of fairs and festivals and farmer's markets around town, and who lives in an old church that now has some...strange stained glass windows.

It's sapphic cannibalism where they make each other worse and it's everyone else's problem.

I've always wanted to write a story that includes recipes, and I'm afraid the cannibalism one is going to be it.

[jlilycorbie]

Happy STS! How good are your characters at "adulting"? Ie. Cleaning the house, grocery shopping, paying bills, working out, etc.

Happy STS!

In the untitled fantasy WIP (I'm going to be so excited if I ever figure out a title), I was going to say all the characters are pretty good at adulting, but that would be a dirty lie.

Zaya is a pretty competent adult. She's good at taking care of herself and other people, she's fairly trustworthy, she mostly good at seeing when something needs to be done and doing it. It took her a little longer to get there than she wants to admit, but she's there and that's what matters.

Miyarki is probably the adultiest adult in the lot. She was more grownup than Zaya when they met, and she's a large part of why Zaya is now a reliable adult. She might sometimes be grumpy about it, but she can handle life.

Aleksani...projects a kind of intimidating competence, but she probably shouldn't be left on her own too long. She's so exclusively focused on one goal that she can't reliable feed herself, take care of her surroundings, be good to people around her...she's got a lot of growing to do, and she isn't likely to do it unless/until she reaches her only goal. Then she's going to be kind of lost and helpless.

Tsinte is a difficult one. She's still alive and is mostly on her own? But she's also constantly running away from something. I'm not sure she could handle herself if she had to actually settle down somewhere, take care of herself, and be part of a community.

I don't know if I should include Nideszda here since she got demoted from main character to side character. She very much is not an adult, and that's completely fair because she literally isn't one yet. She's close. She's getting there. She's also still learning.

In Bad Fences, Barbara would like everyone to think she's an adult. She thinks she's an adult. And an authority figure. She keeps a very lovely garden and tidy lawn. She raised two children as a single mother. She cannot keep a house, she does not take very good care of herself, she blames literally everyone else for all of her problems, and she's emotionally fragile and prone to lashing out. She's the oldest person in the story and only kind of more grown up than than the 8-year-old and literal infant.

Her daughter, Maggs, would not identify herself as an adult. However, she got herself out of Barbara's house when she was 17, she got herself into and through college, got a decent job, and supports herself. Her home is scrupulously tidy. Despite what she thinks of herself, she's extremely collected in emergencies and relatively good at regulating herself. She's not good at relationships, which is part of why she thinks little of herself, but all things considered, she's doing pretty good.

The Wyldeborns are mostly perfectly fine and functional adults.

Tish is sort of the head of the household and keeps everything running smoothly.

Ollie has a hard physical job and is still around to handle her part of the chores at home and take care of everyone.

Blue feels the least adult, but holds down a remote job, handles his share of the work around the home, and actually handles his crippling agoraphobia better than he gives himself credit for.

Eden handles the bulk of raising Melinoe, and has been a huge part of raising Trystin, and handles her work in wildlife rescue well. She's also been a huge support for Kore since Mal died.

Kore does not want to talk about how good she is at adulting these days, but she's handling both the loss of Mal and a staggering dose of PTSD. She had to quit a job she loved, she's depressed, she's struggling...she's got a good support network, and she's proven through her life that she's a reliable adult. She deserves the rest and support.

Robin and Wistie would probably consider themselves the least adult in the family, and they're also the newest parents. Both of them hold down steady jobs they love, Robin is less good at keeping up with chores (even before pregnancy and having an infant), and Wistie likewise has a slightly higher mess tolerance than most of the family. Luckily they have the garage apartment.

Rebel isn't officially part of the Wyldeborns, but is one of the new baby's parents, so they're around a lot. They're actually a very reliable adult. They're a great mechanic, always happy to help out a friend, and good at handling their own life.

Trystin is 17. He feels very grownup and still actually has a ways to go. Which is completely fair for a teenager. He's really somewhat mature for his age, but he still has his moments.

Melinoe is 8. She seems a little young for her age, but actually she's doing fine.

Sprout is a literal infant.

Over to the shiny new horror WIP that also has no title, there are only two characters so far.

Callie's life recently fell apart. She had a stalker who drove away her friends, her girlfriend, and got her fired from her job. She just moved across the country to both get away from her stalker and start over again only to get laid off from her new job the week after she arrived. She's desperately searching for a new job and feeling like a real failure of an adult. Honestly, she's doing as well as anyone could.

Caoimhe is vaguely amused by the idea of adult and adulting. It's rude to ask a lady her age, but she's existed longer than the city where she currently lives, so she seems to have figured out life well enough for herself.

[jlilycorbie]

In honor of the giant nap I took to ward off the mega anxiety attack yesterday, HAPPY STS! Do any of your characters deal with anxiety? How do they handle it?

Happy STS! Sunday? Still catching up!

I'm gonna be honest...right now in the fantasy WIP, I don't think so? At least not on purpose? I'm such an anxious person that I don't know if it seeps through unintentionally, but that's not something the folks in that particular story are up against.

Bad Fences, though? Full of a bunch of anxious messes. Some of Barbara's problem probably includes undiagnosed, untreated anxiety (even treated, she'd still be a nightmare person, though). Her daughter, Maggs, is well aware that she desperately needs therapy and probably medication, but she isn't there yet.

Meanwhile, in the Wyldeborns, there's a more than fair share of anxiety to go around. Blue is severely agoraphobic, Kore is suffering from (diagnosed, getting treated) PTSD, Ollie probably has a base level of anxiety at all times, and Melinoe is young enough that she hasn't expressed it much in ways the adults have picked up, but kid's anxious, too.

As I think about it, Tish probably has her fair share of it, and literally everyone around her knows but her. Meanwhile, she's more or less the head of the household and keeps all of these people functioning, and I'm not sure that could be accomplished without some anxiety.

[jlilycorbie]

Happy STS! Which of your OCs can cook and which is banned from the kitchen?

Happy STS (on a Saturday, even! Still catching up, though)!

For the untitled fantasy WIP, Zaya can feed herself, but she isn't the first in line to do that if there are any better options around.

Aleksani not only can't cook, she often needs someone else to remind her to eat.

Miyarki is a pretty good cook, and she even likes to cook when she's feeling up to it.

Tsinte can cook, but she'd rather no one know.

For Bad Fences, Barbara is a relatively decent cook, but there are a lot of reasons you absolutely should not eat any food she offers you. Maggs, who grew up on Barbara's cooking until she started learning what her mother does to food and stopped eating at home, has a rough relationship with food. She can cook very well now, but she's reluctant to share with others still, and she has some issues trying food other people made, including from restaurants.

Among the Wyldeborns, most of them can cook, though they have varying levels of enthusiasm. Tish is often the primary cook for the family, with Robin as a second. Robin only makes vegan food, and sometimes they arrange for Robin to make a vegan meal for everyone who wants it and Tish makes something with animal products.

Blue means well but doesn't really handle much above instant ramen or anything that goes in a microwave, and Ollie is technically a little better than him, but not much.

Eden bakes more than cooks, and Kore can whip up perfectly fine food, but doesn't enjoy it at all.

Trystin is a pretty good cook, and everyone else in the family made sure he learned as he grew up. Melinoe is just old enough to start learning, and she's not super into it yet, but she likes being able to make things she personally like.

Sprout is a literal infant and is not required to do anything in the kitchen yet.