witterings and ramblings

 

A few things I wrote elsewhere I wanted to keep hold of: 

My brain is always going a million miles a minute, it feels like.. so this is just a taste of trying to put some of that down into text.

What is the concept of time?

"I've been thinking about this for years, since a dream I had in high school. Time is a fractured crystal/matrix on tangent point with the three dimensions of physical space, and -of itself the fractures in its own matrix become something like the Droste effect light going into infinite mirrors within mirrors - there is loss and duplication within the fractures of a magnitude we cannot quite grasp."

 I did have this dream - it was what, 1996, 1998?  somewhere around there, I remember looking at my computer in my mother's house and wondering how I could capture even a tiny bit of the idea to save it for later... I sat down and wrote 'The Crystal Matrix' and 'The Philosopher of Crystal Valleys' somewhere around that time.. and the type of dream still returns to me once in a while - and I can never quite grasp it - it falls apart the more I try to understand it.  I've written a bit about it in my book 'Time in December' in some ways, but had to mold the idea to fit the story in a way that was slightly more specific than the whole concept.  I do like the scene in the movie Interstellar (or, as I more commonly think of it, the movie with the girl named after Murphy's Law)... but I don't feel it quite hits the right 'umami' taste of the 'real thing' I experienced in the dream, very very close to the idea, but something was missing

 

Charlotte this morning : 

"Charlotte's blue heeler side was showing this morning - definitely herding dog there - I slept in today because it was Sunday and she was completely focused on getting me outside to feed the chickens, nose bump, alarm snooze, beleaguered sigh with chin on bed, nose bump, hard stare and excited eyebrows every time I move... okay you're FINALLY up....circle to door, sigh, head to stairs, ok.. yes human the coffee (but, chickens? you know about the chickens, right? *head twist and circle*), okay the cookie, I like cookie too.. but... chickens? Mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, turns circles.. *I get the chicken feed in the container* OK oh boy! *nearly soar through air on the way to the door* we're finally feeding the chickens! If that dog could fly, she would have all the way to the coop with me."

Mark says I could make four panel cartoons of this sort of thing.. and that is the best I can do in description.

 

And, about the night before last : 

"I had this dream last night where my brain was trying everything to wake me up, zombies, extra limbs, fantastic glass objects with light streaming through them in a temple where the water was rising, going through books that don't actually exist, seeing people in an office that I knew were TV actors and saying hello to them as their characters, walking through mazes that defied gravity, crowds of unfamiliar people, a ghost, papers and signs in foreign language, vehicle issues where my key didn't want to work, logging into work terminals with the wrong password, trying to open combination locks from years ago - just one puzzle/problem thing after another and each thing I faced I was like 'ok'.. go through the motions, get through this thing and you just know something else will show up etc.. but none of it actually pushed me to awake - and then, I picked Esme up at the bus stop during the rain in my mail vehicle (instead of my normal one) which the mail vehicle doesn't actually have a seat there, and I never take it home in the first place ---- and THAT did it --- it was such a surreal mix of real and 'wait, what - that isn't how this goes, this is never how this goes' that it finally did wake me up. And I thought.. wow, zombies, extra limbs, Japanese and Escher-type mazes didn't do it, but being in the wrong vehicle at the bus stop does. *that's my brain, I guess*"

... "still what makes me almost/ (the most) amused is that all the far-beyond-reality stuff doesn't 'faze' my sleeping brain, it just tries to find the way around it as if I am already knowing it is a dream and 'meh, these things happen' etc.. but the actually almost real normal thing but still 'hey the details are wrong' task was what shook me awake. In the dream I was asking myself 'is the stripe on Esme's coat just like that, I don't think it is....' and enough of those mismatches made me question enough to kick me out of the dream entirely" 

 

I really wish I could explain the glass figures - they were absolutely ethereal delicate, breathtaking and luminous - like sundial-shaped shells - - I worried if I tried to pick them up they would shatter just from the pressure of the touch - they were sitting on a shelf in front of some clerestory windows, but the water was coming in from the stairs above, rising in the sunken temple area (blue-green stone, similar to the minecraft underwater temples) and I needed to get out of there and continue my 'quest' - I think at that point I was looking for a bookcase to put the books in my office that I was sharing with several characters from Fringe and Warehouse 13, but really in the dream, I understood that my brain was playing with me there with the actors/celebrities/characters and the books that didn't exist were foremost on my mind (if I can see them and they are books I can make them again etc.) that if I was going to have them for a while yes I did need a bookcase... and then of course other things happened, in the crowd there was a girl in a yellow dress, who was asking me questions and I suddenly decided I could phase us into a ghost mode and get through the crowd and bring them to where they needed to be and warn them and some other people about some things, give them some philosophy etc. which was fairly basic, and then continue on my quest, saw my mail van, delivered some mail, sorted out codes, had the combination lock question, 39, 11 and I don't remember the last one, maybe 5 or 45, I didn't get it open - it was from ten years ago, and then I saw my daughter and two other girls getting off their bus, but not at the bus stop, and picked her up, but her coat had the wrong stripe, and I didn't recognize the other girls, and that my van doesn't have that seat there is a shelf there (which has happened in dreams before, conflation with another vehicle) and then I was still right-hand driving and somebody on the side of the road wanted us to pick up furniture in the van and I was dubious that it would fit or that I could lift it, but I got out and loaded it up with superhuman strength, and realized the texture of it was all wrong and at that moment I was investigating why it didn't feel correctly under my hand and that kicked me fully awake

kr-ack, ka-pow

 

Eh, I kind of want to do some Latvian review as well, after all this time... but I'm making such good progress in the Japanese that I'm actually recognizing words phonetically quickly, instead of sounding them out bit by bit, and the low level Japanese profile is doing a review of katakana, which I actually DO need... *sigh*

Patreon post with recipe below:

 

pea soup with yellow and green peas and onions, and cheesy toast forthcoming

It's turned a bit cold outside, the goat was sunning herself, as were the cats.  The cats have been seeking out warm blankets and sunbeams to curl up on here inside the house, as well.

I touched on three different stories the past few days, but there are so many in my files I can bounce around and come back to each one with new eyes and do something a bit more on it.  The story I've put on my bench to work on today is about 3,000 words and the two that I published at the beginning of the month were both around 5,000 give or take, so it's in the range if I just get some knuckles down on it and make sure it still says what I want it to say, at the same time.

The story is called 'INGie', I've been working on this story off and on since 2019. Since it has been years now and it has sort of sat there waiting for me to do more with it - I'm trying to see if it's ready for the 'publish a thin book' treatment, like Mikki Mack and Salt Magic, which I published earlier this month.

The story is by nature sad, but also full of wonder and possibilities and think-outside-the-box.  It is about an alien that has crash-landed and there is a mutual protective relationship between him and the first human that found him.  The alien has strange powers, but also a distinctly non-human way of looking at things, so the things he creates with his powers and the materials in the warehouse are by definition ethereal and nearly impossible.  I posted a little excerpt on my art page : so I'll repeat here

"He is getting better at language, but still it is slow and he takes his time to find the right word.  Often he will stand there peering at me trying to project an image long enough that I might pick up on it.  The problem is these thoughts are not easy to form in my mind - he is the one working a masterpiece down to the barest shapes and forms to wedge it into the squishy clay of the human mind.  Is it you? Is it me? I focus on the image he has sent to me, trying to make it come together with the object I see in front of me.  It is him, he says, or at least his clothes. He is making his goodbye clothes. I don’t like the sound of that. "

 

Mikki Mack book released for sale

Mikki Mack!

 I released this book on Amazon today, It is available for sale in paperback and in Kindle.  

I had been working on it since last November, but mostly in fits and starts.  Esme made the beautiful cover image, which continues to the back of the paperback with a glorious long fluffy tail, just like the description says.  I didn't feel, at first, that I could do anything to match her talent on the digital images - but I pushed myself to go out there and do something, so that the story could get out.  Mikki is a very sassy little cat - and she tells the stories of several cats of our own, and of friends, all wrapped up in one fluffy gray ball.

I am spurring myself to put out more of my stories just to get them OUT - I have so many just sitting here that I don't feel are good enough, or were waiting for some larger anthology... but in this day and age... getting it out and into the world is more important.  You never know when 'someday' isn't going to happen at all, for one reason or another.  Especially when you have social anxiety in general.

*sigh*  so yes, today is an 'oh my introvert' day.  I'm going to have to drink a lot more coffee and finish my Japanese and see where my brain is at before continuing with either : the little pig story, loosely based on a story Esme told me when she was a toddler, or setting up one of the House of Sunlight stories to edit separately and see where that gets me for page count.

I could comb through the Pinocchio's Grandniece is a Dachshund story sometime soon.. but as I said, I have so many things piled up that I freewheeled and had a great time writing, and then put in the drawer and said no one will like it.  They won't get a chance to like it or not like it if it never goes anywhere other than the drawer.  (That's easy to say, not easy to do).

And I did a video interview for online tutoring.  Another 'oh my introvert'.. but I just went and did it - because I do feel the experience was important and that I did have something to say about what I could do to teach words and reading.  I have a lot of experience with learning not only English, but other languages - and with having the kind of brain that doesn't immediately get it from the regular perspectives, so I can see lots of ways other people might get lost, and try to help them get to the goal.

1.)  Duolingo Japanese profile on level 20 : done

2.)  Duolingo Japanese profile on level 11 : did some but then I fell over for a nap

3.)  babadum to 50 cards at least : done

4.)  Baltoslav to 25 or more : 90 done

5.)  Clozemaster Japanese and Chinese 10 sentences each (that is their free daily limit)    : done

//I went and did some WaniKani - it's been such a time since I did that.. and I've forgotten so much of the onyomi and konyomi spellings but not doing it isn't going to help me get them right.

6.)  work on some more book stuff

:: started a Kindle Vella.... based on a writing prompt I have in a file.  It's called 'Tiger Stories' and it says it will take up to 72 hours for the first chapter to become live online

And I made lasagna - I'm about to go check on it in the oven right now.

Recipe at Patreon Neurodivergent Cooking : warning, it's leftover meatloaf in there... but you use what you got, use what you keep, keep what you use, that's one of the mantras of this style of cooking

The Random Light

 

The Random Light

“Step out of your comfort zone, before it steps out of you…”

story by Marie Lamb

 

I have sat in the same seat on the subway, give or take, for the past three years. I sit with my shopping bag held defensively in front of me and watch the crowd pass in and out of the automatic doors. I listen to the familiar voice of the driver and count the stops until home. I know what every stop looks like, through the wet and the dry, with people in their coats and Christmas decorations, tourists and schoolchildren and elderly people and guide dogs alike trying to stay cool in the baking heat of summer. So, this last week, I knew that the random light I was seeing on Drake Street was not normal. I would have seen it before. And I could not remember, in any of the times having passed that stop, having seen it before.

It wasn’t really random. But, it shouldn’t be there. As far as I could ever tell that wall was solid brick. Beyond it was probably machinery or compacted dirt - definitely nothing of notice. The first few times I mostly ignored it. But, it wasn’t really very easy to ignore. It reached out with fingers across the subway station even at speed, and yanked at my awareness. Now, this light had my full attention. I could almost hear it, almost feel it, almost taste it. It was like remembering tea - herbal and citrus. Even though I denied it, there was something there calling to me. Tonight, I had been looking for it ever since I got onto the train. I had been telling myself it wasn’t really there. Deep down, there was a hope within me that it actually was.

   

My shopping bag shook and rattled. It was vibrating as if something with tiny feet was running back and forth at the bottom of it. I was just about to open it up and take a look with my cell phone camera when a lady with a red jacket brushed by me. As I looked up the random light was shining through the windows with such intensity it took my breath away. The urge to go see it was so strong that, even though this was not my stop, when the driver called ‘Drake Street’ I found myself rising with the small crowd, bag in hand, edging towards the doors. I thought hard about calling Alec and telling him I would be delayed, but I was just too absorbed. My eyes were on the light.

I stepped down from the car onto the platform and looked around. The few passengers that had exited with me were already on their way, down the side trail, up the stairs, waiting for another train. I felt silly, and more than a bit worried about breaking my routine. What would Alec say, when I finally arrived home? Would he not even wait that long, but call me a few minutes after six, worried to death? But even as I thought these thoughts, the amber pink light seemed to glow more intensely. I could see it stretching out golden tendrils like I have only ever seen before in fairy tale books. I was encountering magic. It had to be. And I could not even gather up a third of me to run away from it.

My feet were moving without my head telling them to. I stood in front of the wall and stared hard at the glowing light. I dropped my shopping bag to the ground. It rocked and swayed before coming to a balance. My jacket and hat were discarded next, untidily onto the ground. There was no common sense to this. My very shoes started to be too binding, but the ground was fading away and it no longer mattered. I tried to lean my hand upon the wall but it seemed to melt into it like warm frosting. I had one shoe on and one off. I should be mortified, worried about who was watching, but I couldn’t even turn my head to look around.

I leaned in further and began to taste the joy radiating off the threshold. The glow was intense and surrounded me like peach ice cream on the hottest beach vacation with caramel sauce and brandy. The air had grown hushed and close, like cotton around my ears. I held my breath and did not feel the need to breathe again. The brick surface turned to warm sand under my fingers and then broke away in a crystalline surface, thin like brittle wax, melting around me and pulling me through the soft silk of summer.

There was a cascading of feathers and soft grasses that came down around my face. The golden light was everywhere and piercing my very skin to share in its glowing. I swam through honeyed sound and silken waves like a child’s timeworn blanket on a safe warm bed. I remember the light turning from gold to white, and the air solidified around me like a grid. The warmth melted away to rest only within myself, pooling down into my center like a warm glut of rich and satisfying soup. I felt myself slowly released from the pull to rest upon the ground, clear and open and relaxed. I did not even have the energy to pull my head up on my shoulders. I lay there, listening to the sifting of the sands and the crackling of the air.

It took a moment for my vision to focus. I was looking at a pair of shoes. My own shoes, on legs wearing my hose, and a hand carrying my bag. I looked all the way up to a mass of brown curls that were conveniently looking the other direction. I wondered if I was imagining myself in two places at once? The other me turned and reached for me. Things were happening so quickly. I tried to twist and turn limbs that were not responding, and ended up only turning in circles three times over. I could not fathom how she picked me up with one hand and dropped me, small and fuzzy, into the white shopping bag.

She opened the bag and stared at me for a long moment. I froze completely still, a tiny yowl caught in my throat. My whiskers were twitching, and I wanted to scratch her with a vengeance. Her eyes were too green, but they began to equalize, less catlike and more like I remembered my own human eyes. As she closed the bag and began to walk in a rhythmic swaying, I heard my phone snap open. She said ‘Yes Alec, don’t worry. I just got off at the wrong stop. No, I don’t know how, it was all in a rush. I even lost a shoe! I’ll be home soon, love, there’s a little someone you should meet…. I think you’ll be the best of friends.”

short story : Apollo's Phaeton

Apollo's Phaeton, by Marie Lamb

 It was the oddest job request I ever had.  It was literally 'out of this world' and right into the next one.  The little silver car didn't seem like much, so I signed off on the contract to take it to Mount Olympus, Georgia, and deliver it to a man named Apollo Zeiss.  I got in, turned the key, and at first thought there must be something wrong with the transmission.  The vehicle glided smoothly through all gears entirely by iteself, and with a strong odor of honey in the air.  Then the little car put itself in reverse and I was no longer in control of my limbs.  I imagined my name burning away from the contract in the back of my mind - all evidence of my existence being destroyed by some supernatural force.

I knew this area quite well, but, after a while I had lost track of the twists and the runs, the hills and the little dirt roads winding over creeks and through fields I had never laid eyes on before.

I was already quite worried by this time, but no moreso than when the little car began to climb a hill that seemed to go to nowhere - and kept climbing, until I could have sworn it had no tires on the ground and it was simply pedaling through the clouds on a full tank of ambrosia.  And that , my friend, is when the lightning began to strike.  Inside, the well-upholstered coupe sedan I was insulated, but the flashes of light cracked everywhere, pink and purple arcs that then became blindingly white.  It left little red streaks in my vision that faded to green slowly.  Then the clouds began to converge around me, like vaporous horses pulling along a chariot toward its awaiting master.

The car came to an uncertain footing at the edge of a white sand beach that spread out for miles.  I had been at least half the country away from the nearest ocean - so I immediately began to crane my neck through the windshield trying to see any landmarks, houses or other roads.  There were none.  White sand stretched out unblemished in either direction.  Then, the door of the car opened up with a shot and I could feel the tendrils of the air itself form tiny whirlwinds about my arms and legs.  I was fully and completely jerked outwards and held down into the fine sugar sand.

 

I got up spitting, only to see a flashy young man in a white suit and bright gold lame tennis shoes stroking the side of the car with obvious affection.  I've seen men fawn over numerous things, including vintage machines worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.  If I had not just been taken for a completely inexplicable ride in said car, I would have wondered even more what a mid-2000s sedan could do to evoke such tenderness.  In fact, most people would have called the car a dog, but I knew for a fact that it was quite the opposite.  I could swear, having had that trip, that if a car could arch its back and purr like a cat, this one definitely did.

The man dropped his shades for a moment and peered down at my kicking body.  None of my extremities were entirely cooperative yet.  He stooped down to get a closer look at me and cocked his head.  He laughed a strangely musical noise at me and then thwacked me with his finger and thumb right between the eyes.  The world looked very bright for a moment and I felt like there was a fish inside my brain gasping for air, flopping uncontrollably, and then disappearing.  

"Miss Madison, I presume?" he said with a voice that could cure all ills.  'Ye..e...s..sss', I stammered in return.  He reached a hand down and now carefully took me by the hand and pulled me to my feet.  "I am so happy you could take the position and bring my transportation with you.  It has been a LONG time since he had a good run through the countryside.  And if you knew how long it took to find him and then get him to agree to a new form in the first place... Well, what he lacks in pizzazz he has always made up for with enthusiasm."  He was, of course, talking about the car.

"What WAS that?  What IS that?  Who are YOU and..."  Although I wasn't sure what I wanted to hear for answers... I saw his joy turn to slight annoyance and stopped in my tracks.  The distant summer horizons were turning a little dark, and the air had a crackle about it that I did not want anyone, or anything, to elaborate upon further.  He had dropped my hand and was beginning to heap the sand from the beach up in great net-like swathes around the little car.  I had no idea how he was doing this with just his hands, but any questions would have fallen more productively upon a brick wall at that point.  "Are you Apollo Zeiss?"  I asked, pulling the crinkled contract out of my pocket.  "Miss Madison.  You know I am.", he said, and removed his shoes, one by one.

I was still staring with  what must have been a fly-catching expression as he set one shoe on the back of each side of the little sedan's trunk and then gave it a huge slap on the trunk.  The car reared up on it's hind wheels and shot off into the sky before I could barely blink.  What in the world, or at least this place, was going on?

"Well, now we have to figure out what to do with YOU, Miss Madison.  I have to admit, most of the contracted help don't actually make it much past the first few miles.  They err.. disintegrate."  He said this last bit while staring at some bit of sand caught up under his fingernails, but then immediately flashed a huge blinding smile back at me.  "But NOT YOU, my dear girl.  I think he likes you."  I felt taken aback, horrified and a bit relieved all at once.  I took a step back from this avant-garde Greek God and looked soulfully up and down the desolate but stunning beach.  "So, I lived.  Is that a good thing?  Do I get to go home?"  

Apollo looked me in the eyes with a slow smolder and said 'You could.. perhaps.. I could pluck this memory out of your mind and send you back with a nice bankroll.  But, then you'd right back to where you were, running 'important' things around the country back and forth, back and forth... is that what you want?  Or are you interested in things of a less.. mundane.. nature?  It isn't every  day I find a mortal brain that can withstand electrically conducive embrosia AND form a complete sentence afterwards."  He raised two very shaped and sculpted eyebrows at me from beneath his shades, struck a pose against a car that was no longer there, and waited for my response.  My eyes drifted down, uncontrollably, to his bare feet that did not actually sink into the soft white sand.

I had to admit, the offer was out of this world.  And, so was he.  Could it hurt to try at least one more job?  Mr. Apollo Zeiss held out my contract, smoothed and only still slightly singed at the edges.  He handed me an expensive Italian pen.  "Sign on Miss Madison, and we'll get you your wings."  I set the tip of the pen to the paper and a silver ink came out nearly of it's own accord and signed my name.  "Welcome my dear... let's go meet the Family.  But first, these CLOTHES...'

short story Shadows in the Lens

 It began several years ago, the white shadows. I would see them, walking across the room - from here to there, every day, the same ones, shadows of a past gone by. I began to realize, the older the place, the more populated it had been, the greater the number of shadows. In some places, they were stacked on each other so deep it was like looking through a London Fog. 

For example, the airport. The first time I had to go through O'Hare to get to a plane they thought I was having a panic attack. I don't know how I made it through - mostly by following the feet of the people in front of me. When they called our plane, I knew the number, and it was only by luck and chance that the man and woman who jumped up and began to run for the other gate were really going the same place I was. The plane was not old, but while it was on the ground the shadows continued to walk through, around, and up and down. When we left into the air, things cleared. When we landed, I was so glad to have someone there to pick me up and take me home. 

Now, I actually have to employ someone to walk me through the crowded places. I bring a cane, and dark glasses. Sometimes they are in the know, and sometimes they really think that my panic attacks render me blind. But mostly, I try to find the quiet places - the out of the way places, where few have come before. It isn't an easy life, trying to photograph the beauty through what is invisible to most - to see only through my camera lens that which, when I view it with the naked eye, is nearly obscured. 

 

I guess that is why I have thrown myself into my work so completely, and why it has shown in the sheer number of awards that I have now raked in. 'Most Remote Photograph of the Year', yes - that's me. 'To Go where None have Gone Before', yes, I'd love to. For someone who once was so entranced by history, by the bright lights, the stages and the exuberance of life, now I seek solace, vast empty spaces and the quiet of the midnight and dawning hours in the places where most would have been asleep and dreaming. 

 Perhaps I am dreaming all of this. It is hard to prove that Mr. Alistair came down these stairs one night at two a.m., and yet, I see him - just once - carrying the lantern. It is hard to know or investigate who the little girl is running up the mountain path, on this farm that has been abandoned for a hundred years - or that she also sits on the beach down there by the rocks, huddled against some storm that no one remembers. 

Perhaps one day I will wake up and there will be no fog in the social places, no strange things to catch the corner of my eye when a reporter is asking their questions on the phone, no mysteries that I really do not wish to solve. 

Tomorrow I will take these bandages off and we will see if the surgery has made any difference at all. I am ready to wake up from this dream into a new day. But if I stop seeing the past, what will I do with my future? If I see nothing at all, will I have a future? If I start seeing the future, will it be black or blindingly white? //fiction -- first draft, thoughts floating through my mind today

Druisi village

Druisi village.. southeast of the Fish Clan, southwest of Vaya village.  There is some shared blood here with the Kriganzy people, as you might notice by some common elements between their houses.. although they are also different in some key ways.  I've been working on the village for a few days (in between my real-world work!).  I feel I need to do a bit more before they can enter into the Rob Riggins story, but that will really flesh out an idea of why there are such internal conflicts in the Kriganzy nation.. which is already a 'conglomerate' of different peoples.  But still - why are they so upset at Vaya?  Maybe the Druisi know why. 

I should be writing the Presentation mountain village story.. but after finding this area and having this idea for a housing style, I decided it's cold outside I'll run with this for a minute.  Plus the person who is helping me write the Drox tribe is still busy... and I don't really want to go on without her.

 

a larger style house with one more set of wooden pillars in the corners

 

a smaller style house (roof off above) (roof and porch on below)

We even had visitors after this one!

the inside of the two largest houses in the village

 

I decided to go an entirely different way for the school meetinghouse than previous, which had been rows of desk and teacher desk like Western Education has.  I imagined a more open four-corners format for specific studies like weaving and smithwork and a platform meeting area in the middle for debates, talks and plays.

The outside of the school building (above) and the inside (below)

Game tech: The villagers from the nearby houses have actually been coming into these houses briefly and looking around - nobody has slept in the beds, yet... but it might happen.  I'm watching to see if they are increasing in population or if I need to actually build one of these houses right up next to theirs before it counts as one village to them.

 

The Fish Clan village in Kriganzy and North City Expedition preparations

 

Five family homes and a central storage building like a silo, but with chests 

The Kriganzy Fish Clan village by the river.. home of the parents of Dagan, Giselle and Bevy Weller, and also Marhel and Joan Arwen.  It is evolving a little as I go.   There is a natural cave with bats spawning in it, and mushrooms - that is really an interesting find.. that is why there is a cave right in the middle of the village that has not been sealed up.   The village will be important to Rob Riggins' Scout story, as well - see his horse there in the pen with the saddle?  It was in the main village of Kriganzy in the last post... which is not very far away from here at all.

 

Outside of the storage building

The Rivertown descendants have storage places as well, called 'annexes' or 'crop trusts'.. but they are usually just a smaller house with a few chests in it.  I wanted something different for the Kriganzy tribe, that sort of followed their house building rules, but was more round.

inside the storage building.. if I'd made the roof one higher there could have been more chests on the upper shelves of the walls.. have to think on this

1 2 3 house

storage building step by step construction

Where we are approaching YEAR 70 : The North City Remnants Expedition : Some thirty humans have been chosen from around the Known World to come together on this huge project/expedition.  (go to end of link post to read the groups)

The Saga is being worked on.  There is one more story in the Presentation Mountains that has to happen, (Rob Kenzie, Nyah Perkins, Amos DeCroix and Minerva Strong, and the Daniels brothers that went missing)... before the Western group starts heading to Ravenna for the Expedition stories to begin.  It has almost approached True Midsummer at Ravenna.  Marika Otrio is working with the group leaders she has selected to try to make supplies and a travel plan.  A lot of the residents of the cities are going to have to provide backup supplies and transport, even if they aren't the ones actually going (logistical stuff).   A base has to be chosen near Hallgren, and the medics and scientific instruments need to be set up.  

Hopefully the Drox tribe (with Ender as their queen) will be able to work out their conflicts, and come to a meeting with Talyn Orak in the East Pirate Shores.  As Jamie North found out with Timeshifter, east of his Isle of Horses by Sunvale... they don't like people much.  They call us 'scavengers'... and have lots of rules of engagement.  Timeshifter doesn't have a lot of those rules apply to him because he shuns his own people AND human people... sort of like Jamie North, which is why the two were able to put aside their own differences and have a friendly conversation or two.
 

Some Kriganzy style houses

Kriganzy is a 'nation to the Southwest' in the McElvaney Enterprises world.. and it has several native style elements that are their own, although the children and grandchildren that have moved throughout the world have been adapting these features into other places.   

The original 'nation' of Kriganzy is a natural Minecraft spawn village in a spruce forest going up a mountain but also near a river plain teeming with fish, horses and sheep.  But, I imagine a bit more, and with the population expanding, they are spreading down closer to the river and their factions and/or clans are starting to break off and have conflicts.

So, in our story, some of the Kriganzy natives have went out into the rest of the Known World.  Their emigration started a bit after Tan Vandreas tried to steal his wife from here - a red-haired girl named Krissainia, when she was already betrothed to a Leader's son...  There were some language-barrier problems at the time... and tempers were raised with issues never really resolved.  From then on, well, things have only gotten more fraught and disputed even inside the clans.  The clans are disagreeing about many things, but especially incidents involving Outsiders.

In our history, Terezea protected Tan and the other Amularia islanders from being killed, and made a sort of uneasy peace, at least for Amularia.  She convinced Tan to marry her, and to leave the rest of Kriganzy alone to stop the tensions his meddling had caused.  Terezea turned into a sort of ambassador between her people and our Rivertown descendants... 

Also, Terezea is one of the few in Kriganzy that possess a special talent of waterbreathing - which is hereditary but not to every child.  She has passed her ability along to her son Tanji.  Only a few other people know about this ability, mostly on Amularia.  It is not known how Marika Otrio seems to know of it, but it is the reason she has appointed him leader of the Western branch of the Expedition to the North City Remnants.   Tanji does not agree with his mother's use of the talent to obtain potentially dangerous artifacts from under the Sea, as he has seen the sickness some of these artifacts can bring.  It is possible her bringing some of these artifacts to the Sorcerors of the Eagle Clan of Kriganzy has caused some of their troubles, as well.

Within the factions of Kriganzy, individuals have been leaving as well, many of them expert horsemen.   Mavic Rigginson moved to South of Rivertown, Hawk Riggins (relation?) moved to Whitmoor, and Terezea's sons Rygo and Rega Vandreas are helping Garan Eastham build and defend Palima Castle.  They have married the daughters of the Fish Clan, located along the river bank, and Dagan Weller and Marhel Arwen have moved into the territories to live near their sisters and help protect the new community.  Palima is located in the the valley beyond Kriganzy and before reaching the plains city of Vaya.  Vaya, (home to Arturo and Carmide Aristo, and their warrior sister Sofia, who married Kevan Thomas) has not quite explained yet what reasons they have to fear invasion, or their full past history with Kriganzy.

In the actual Kriganzy village, just TEEMING with villagers doing some odd sort of gathering up around the central bell as Rob Riggins (Hawk Riggins' son, and scout for Palima) rides a horse through the village in disguise

 

Designing the Kriganzy House

They are fairly small but pack a lot of utility into every little bit of space.  The basic pattern for a 'Kriganzy' style house is four corner pillars, usually logs, that are topped with a stair-step, then log crossbeams for the first layer of the roof.  There is a front door and a back or side door, and each of them have 'patios' in front of them made of stone and/or gravel.  

There is almost always some sort of center column support, and the log crossbeams range in size from 2 log-lengths to 6 or 7, on average.  If there is stone used in the roof, it can only be directly above a column or within the 8 squares around it as if supported by the column.  The windows are glass and most often do not have stone above them, only wood planks.

1 - 2 - 3 house

Polished andesite, granite or diorite is used for the central columns, and the stove is fire-proofed sometimes into the central column, sometimes just with stone of some sort all around it including the walls wherever it ends up.  The floor inside the back and front door is stone for at least that block, and always stone underneath the doorframe.

The houses will have a table and chairs, crafting table, chest, stove furnace and at least two bedrooms but most of the time three with separate walls and doors.  Each bedroom will have enough space hopefully for a chest and some carpets beside each bed.  Often, colored banners with no pattern on them will be hung inside the house for warmth, just not near the furnace.

Banners hung up for warmth

Many of the houses will have an exterior porch with at least one chair and a small diorite or polished andesite framed water source.  Why?  Not sure.. maybe for the garden that will be nearby or animals?  It's there.

Inside of the same house before and after adding the interior bedroom walls.

Although the same general pattern is used for each house in the village, each one will turn out just slightly different due to the size and materials that were on hand during the build.

A sort of hybrid Kriganzy with log beams directly on top of the walls and a square room built off the back.  Not every style rule is followed in these 'way outside the territory' homes, but the main elements are there, mixed with some new, as happens when people move around to new places.

Three of the 'Kriganzy-style' houses that residents have built in different cities throughout the Known World.. following a basic style pattern with whatever native elements were on hand.  top to bottom : Marhel Arwen at Carmide Station south of Whitmoor, Tanji Vandreas at Southerland and Mavic Rigginson at Riggins Ranch, south of Rivertown.

Spotlight in Palima Castle : Atrium and secret tunnels

detail post about some of the elements at Palima Castle 

Palima is built for defense, quick escape / movement around the base and also to house the people who will keep this area safe in an attack.  It is hard to do all these things at once - and the families that live here know the danger they are in being on the Frontier.  This post showcases some of the protective details built into the castle and surrounding area.

 

Palima Castle lies South and West of Whitmoor, and is the defense between Whitmoor, Vaya village and the country of Kriganzy. Read the story of Palima for more on this...

The Atrium, seen from above.  The trapdoor panels in the wall can be brought down to shoot things with a crossbow, or walk out on to the lattice structure and back again

The downwards staircase in the Atrium leads down to barracks room that has tunnels going out to four places in the castle.  One tunnel comes up near the mines beside Garan's house, to the left, another on the other side in the barracks room underneath Rega's house.  A third tunnel comes up straight into the docks area (seen below) in the back of the castle, and a fourth runs long and comes up in Rygo's house at the stables in the back of the complex.  

 Dagan Weller's house with Helena Robinson on the left, Rega Vandreas' house  (with Dagan's youngest sister Bevy) tucked into the back of the castle (with a dormer room that comes up in the hill)

There is a door in the dock area here that goes down into the barracks room and mine entrance under the castle.  Dagan can come down from his house to the left with the villagers that live on the plain and get into the safety of the castle fairly quickly.  Another tunnel is planned (in the future) from this place behind the plain, but what is holding up construction is it will need to be defended as enemies could sneak in unawares otherwise.  Since no one is available full time at the moment to protect such an entrance with a house or guard station, it has been put on the back burner.

There is a natural cave here with entrances into the mines below the castle.  It could be used as an escape route if someone knew the way well, or if it was constructed with a better tunnel.  In the future it is planned to have someone construct a house or a new guard tower here to help protect the plains area a bit more.  The population of Palima has to grow just a bit more, as everyone present has plenty of work to do already!

 

The blacksmith building and the barracks house / stables

Rygo Vandreas and his wife Joan Arwen live in an apartment tucked to the side and above the ride-through stables.  The barracks has an underground tunnel leading back to the castle barracks, and just behind the stables there is a natural cave leading further East that outlets near the river.

Defense of the Southern Towns : Palima Castle

Partner cities:  if you haven't read about Quarterpoint, do so first at this link!

In Year 69 Erik's shirt-tail cousin Garan Eastham from Whitmoor went off to build Palima Castle, even further West.  Garan faces a very similar task as Erik did, in a place smack dab in the middle between Vaya City and the unstable nation of Kriganzy.  For years emgrants from Kriganzy have been coming out to the North and the East from their villages, bringing their families, horsemanship skills and words of warning.  The villagers of Vaya have been more than concerned, as they are simply a day's ride away from the main city of Kriganzy, and all alone otherwise on the plains. 

 Talk Tactics:  This is the place of Defense between the mountainous hills and the wide open plain.  It is the stopping point in the river where anyone would need to ford over boats, and from a high enough vantage point one can see the entire plain to Vaya on one side and the plain before the Kriganzy Forest on the other. 

Garan was assisted by Rega and Rygo Vandreas, half-Kriganzy themselves, in selecting and planning a point of Defense to be held against the country, being torn apart by internal conflicts.  Garan took a page out of Erik's book and gathered a group of Castlemen to live and begin their families at the Defense, provide supplies and protection that no one person can do alone.  

Garan and the Vandreas twins have partnered with one of the Clans of Kriganzy, the Wellers and Arwens, marrying into them and inviting Dagan Weller and Marhel Arwen to come and live.  Dagan and Marhel are first cousins.  Garan married Dagan's elder sister Giselle, and Rega and Rygo have married (respectively) Dagan's younger sister Bevy and Marhel's younger sister, Joan.  This secures the alliance between Palima and the Fish Clan of Kriganzy, of which Dagan's father and Marhel's mother belong.

 

Carmide Aristo went South to Colsey Station, then further south to the village of Pazzi, and brought back his childhood sweetheart Marina.  Once he had returned with her to Whitmoor, he was asked to help guard Palima by his brother Arturo, and warrior sister Sofia.  He made the journey to help Garan know the lay of the land and how best to protect Vaya from attack.  

Palima Castle, after the fortification, but before Garan, Dagan, Marhel and the Vandreas' began to build the fields and houses.  Soon after this, Carmide arrived, and then Heath and Agbi.

The Defense line is strong from this side of Palima.  Rega's house is in the granite extension to the right.

Palima Castle after everyone has a house and the first harvest is ready to come in from the fields

Further developments : 'A fort gathers a city like a rock by the river gathers moss...'

Heath Dee, from Vanter, arrived with his wife Amya.  He had spent a little time in Whitmoor, where he was then tasked with using his Excavation skills to clear the river path from the new castle all the way back to Vaya.  Soon after that Agbi Tesril, a native from the East Pirate Shores east of Cambrey, arrived with his wife Ulari (a weaver), to provide farming support on the plains now protected by the Walls of Palima.  Ulari can help turn the wool of the sheep into blankets, uniforms and banners for the castle.  

Heath Dee and Agbi Tesril have built their houses in the plains to the Southeast, while the other Castlemen tucked their homes up in or around the castle walls.  Another citizen from Vaya, Heath's brother-in-law, Cosimo Veraccio, has built a house, as well.  He is planning to move his family here to help take care of the farms and animals after he helps Heath clear the river.

A castle like this needs not only a large supply of food, but people who can work those fields while the Castlemen keep watch from the walls.  Heath and Cosimo can fish and work on the river, while Agbi is glad to work the fields and bring in stores of food, but also keep a watch on the plains for attacking forces. They all will appreciate the protection the Castle provides for their families, if necessary.

 

Marhel Arwen's house at Carmide Station, outside (above) and inside the tiny house (below).  If he marries and makes a family, he will likely need to expand it, but for now there are three single beds and he can host wayfarers or residents from the other cities to help with projects.

After Palima had been built, Marhel Arwen decided to head further East to Carmide Station and take up the waystation there, while Dagan Weller wooed Joiner Robinson's youngest sister, Helena while she was visiting Whitmoor from Cambrey.  Dagan is a dashing blacksmith and horseman - and everyone was very surprised when Helena gave up her place in the family mead business to build from scratch out in the Frontier.  Dagan built a house on the hill and moved out of the castle, but is still within a stone's throw of the docks, which eventually will have a steady trade between Vaya, Carmide Station and Palima.

 Rob Riggins is going to have his hands full running out to gather map information for the new map wall at Palima

Garan has also started a separate cartography and mining office, to work on the map wall at Palima.  They will need to send out Scouts to the West to see what extent Kriganzy is expanding or fortifying, and also to look for and talk to refugees.  He has asked Rob Riggins, Hawk Riggins' son, just fourteen years old, to come down to the castle and be the first mapping Scout.  Hawk and his family came to Whitmoor when Rob and his sister Ava (now Joiner Robinson's wife) were young, to escape the internal conflict in Kriganzy.  Between Rob, the Vandreas twins and Dagan, there are enough Castlemen to sweep out beyond Palima and return with refugees while Carmide, Garan and Heath guard the walls with crossbows.

NEXT : Read more about the protective details and structures at Palima in this spotlight post

Defense of the Southern towns : Quarterpoint Station

 Erik Eastham had been given a mission to build a waystation and, eventually, a community at Quarterpoint Station, south of the Aryl village.  Erik had found that he couldn't do it all by himself, and enlisted his younger brother Ivan to come be his right-hand man.  The Council at Cambrey heard about their progress in year 59, and some things were put into motion.  Pamela Eastham (Benson) took one of the matters into her own hands, and told Erik that by the time he reached back home he would find his wife waiting for him.  'She'll help you get organized - Ivan told me you are terrible at keeping things stored, stacks everywhere - don't even know half of what you have where!'  Sadly, this was true - but Erik didn't think adding another mouth to feed was going to help much with this.

the community at Quarterpoint Station (in year 66)

Actually, Erik was very unhappy about this all the way home.  He had already been worried about bringing more people into the Station, because of the Pillager attacks and the weeks he had spent under siege.  Erik is a big guy, and he had nearly run out of supplies before his brother came and rescued him, by leading the Pillagers around on a merry chase.  Part of it had truly been he didn't know where half of it was at the moment, but in general he just hadn't had enough time to really store things away after the repeated attacks.  The group had restocked the Station, but now with the addition of the Aryl families, Erik was going to be responsible for even more people relying on him for supplies, organization and protection.

Since his mother had already sent this mystery woman along the week before - by way of Meadowview Farm and the Allens there, Erik had no choice but to rush back home and try to get there before anything terrible happened.

He stewed all along the way at the meddling, looking at his grandmother Penny Benson's ring he was supposed to give his new wife when he arrived.  His mother had not even told him who it was, but that he'd know her when he saw her.  Ivan kept his tongue silent the entire way there, but Erik could tell by how red his ears were that he knew exactly what was going on.  But if Ivan didn't choose to divulge information, there was no getting it out of him short of imminent death.  

So, Erik and Ivan completed the day's hike and got back to the Station.  They entered Blackburn Hall, where they had left two Aryl city couples with their supplies.  Aren Fisher and Emmed Roper and their wives had moved in to help Ivan build his house, plant and harvest crops and provide a line of defense for their own Village to the North, as well.  Kama and Alet had built a loom in Blackburn Hall and had begun weaving blankets, banners and rugs for the homes their husbands had been building with Ivan south of the Hall.  Seated there with the women was a face Erik had never expected to see again.  Ivan quickly got himself out of the way as Erik sank down onto a bench and stared.

Kama elbowed the tall young woman in the ribs and pointed at the open doorway and speechless Erik.  The woman stood up from the loom, her auburn hair falling down to her hips and she clapped her hands together 'You're home, that was quick!'.  Erik quickly found his feet, fumbling around in his pocket for the ring he had been steaming over, just to make sure he could still find it.  Before he could say a word she was opening a keg of apple cider and pouring up mugs, and opening up one of the furnaces to reveal the smell of pies, baking potatoes and fish.  

Erik didn't know how to contain all of the combatting feelings that were running through him at the moment.  He wanted to strangle his brother for not telling him.  He wanted to express his amazement at his mother for whatever foresight and bargaining skills she had used to arrange this.  He wasn't sure if he wanted to run out of the hall and try coming back in or if he should just put on a false bravado and greet this woman, all six feet two of her, just a few inches shy of his own height.  

This was June Garvey, of Benson's Pointe.  The last time he had seen her was at the Midsummer festival in Ravenna, a year and a half before he had left for Quarterpoint.  The memory of that day was still firmly impressed upon his mind.    She had thrown him into the river for fighting with her brother.  He couldn't even remember what Paulie and he had been fighting about - it had been an odd thing they were fighting at all as Paulie was one of the most easygoing people he had ever met.  But they had come to blows and were facing each other down like two young bulls with horns.  Then the next thing he could remember was the cold water hitting him as someone had simply picked him up and thrown him over the railing of the bridge.  It hadn't been very far to fall - and the water broke his fall - but his hot boiling anger melted away to absolute shock when he looked up to see her staring down at him, her long hair hanging down over the railing, and an expression that dared him to come up there and try it again.  He hadn't.  She just stood there in the middle of the bridge and stared at him.  Paulie had come down and offered to help him out of the river, but instead Erik had swum to the other side and stalked back off to Cambrey.  No one had spoken of it again for the entire summer, except Ivan - once.. for which he received a punch to the arm.

Now, she had even grown a few more inches and Erik had to admit it was only all for the better.  All of his worries on the return trip from Cambrey about a wife who would need constant protection melted away.  June could take care of herself, and maybe even throw him in the river again!  His stomach rumbled at the smells of the food cooking as he tried to figure out what to say.  He stared down at his mug of cider, and then downed it one gulp.  He held the mug out to her and asked her for a refill.  She was about to tell him to get it from the barrel himself but there was something about the way the vein in his neck was vibrating and Ivan was holding his breath that made June cross the room and pour the mug full again.  

Quarterpoint after the school / meetinghouse was completed by Liam Eriksen

Erik took her hand gently and placed the ring in it - 'It was Mam Penny's.. she'd want you to wear it .. if ... you'll marry me?  June?'  It was the hardest thing he had ever asked.  He wondered how she would react.  June's eyes softened up and she put the ring back in his hand.  Before he could protest, she held her own out in the 'proper' fashion for him to slide the ring onto her finger.  He did, and she said with a wink 'Alright then, let's all eat this food then before it gets cold.'  

When plates were served, Erik had his wife beside him, his brother across the table eating more food than either of them put together, and his four newest friends telling him all about the things they had been working on since he had been gone, what was needing to be looked at next and what they would need to find to get the job done.  Erik looked at June and she smiled at him - 'We'll start on that tomorrow, get this place shipshape and working like a well oiled machine.'  Yes, Erik thought... tomorrow sounded like a good day to start on that.  

 

  That Wandering Trader sure gets around fast!

In Year 62 Ivan had his own adventure over the bridge in Ravenna, along with Liam Eriksen, son of Berg Eriksen and Sheena Thomas of Benson's Pointe.  They were corralled by the Pippington sisters at the Festival and danced and made quite fools of themselves before heading back off to Quarterpoint.  Liam had been selected to take his blacksmithing skills to Quarterpoint and provide the iron and other metals the growing station needed.

The Fishers and Ropers had each built their houses, and Ivan's house, and were now supporting young children with the produce from the fields and animals.  Liam was commissioned to build a small waypoint house for travellers, so they would not have to stay in one of the Halls, and then to start on a School to be built within the fences of Quarterpoint, to provide a safe meetinghouse.  It was only a few months later Ivan proposed to Polly and brought her back with him to Quarterpoint.  Her younger sister, Sally, was still studying with Melodie at the clinic in Ravenna, but Liam had made his intentions known to her father Perry.  Under the radar, Perry began to ask around to see if there were other blacksmiths that would work with Liam and get an 'idea' of what kind of man he was.  Liam spent a week each with Kallum in Piper's Cove, and Alan Kenzie in Vanter, before returning to Quarterpoint with plenty of iron ore and a blast furnace at his disposal.

With the supply of iron well taken care of, Liam worked hard in the mines at Quarterpoint to bring up enough Granite for the roofs of both of the new community buildings.  Whenever he brought up a load of the pink stone, the cousins from Aryl would help him start forming it into stairsteps and help haul the pieces one by one up on to the roofs.  Once they had gotten the buildings finished, Aren and Emmed helped him build a house for his bride-to-be Sally in keeping with their own house style.  All of the houses were surrounded by a fence that would hopefully ward off some danger in a Pillager attack.  At Midsummer, year 63, Liam and Sally were married at Ravenna and made their way back to become the fifth family at Quarterpoint.

Now Erik and June, who welcomed daughter May in that same year, don't see new citizens at Quarterpoint as simply another mouth to feed - it is a growing community of people who care about and are supporting each other in this far off Wilderness.  Erik has made contact with Whitmoor to the West - not really as far away as it once seemed.  And on a chance meeting, Erik found a family from the SouthEast Pirate Shores at the Eastern mouth of the Long River.  Agbi Tesril and his family are moving West, like their ancestors before them, distant cousins that founded the Aryl village Aren and Emmed hail from.  Ivan now takes his boat down the river every few months all the way from Uixil (the Tesril's farm) to Whitmoor, completing the task of keeping the river clear and navigable.

Continue on for the next installment - Palima Castle with Garan Eastham