lovecraft68
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The Official Author's Hangout 2014 Earth Day Contest Support Thread
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LesLumens
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RejectReality
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JagFarlane
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Well fudge, looks like I confused sweetmeats with sweetbreads. Damn people naming something made with flour after meat and something made from an animal after a flour based product.
RejectReality
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It happens
You have an orphan "center" tag in your sig line ( at the very beginning )
LesLumens
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Getting into the main plot driver that everything else is tied to at about 3k words. Think my title is changing, though. A theme is beginning to emerge as I write that's shifting it another direction, and what I thought was going to tie into the original title is splitting itself off into a potential side story.
Have the beginnings of an idea or two for RR stories as well. They're staying on the back burner until this one is finished or I hit a frustration point, though.
Only twenty some-odd days to the starting gun.
Have the beginnings of an idea or two for RR stories as well. They're staying on the back burner until this one is finished or I hit a frustration point, though.
Only twenty some-odd days to the starting gun.
Seanathon
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I thought of doing a Dryad story at first, but a quick search showed that a Dryad story has been an Earth Day Contest winner in every year since 2009 (and also one Nude Day winner in 2012). So, not being sure if that meant these stories were overdone for ED or a guaranteed winner, I decided to hunt down a new bunny.
That being said, I wouldn't discourage anyone else from writing a Dryad tale as I'm sure every writer will find it tough to find a bunny that hasn't been used before. As LesLumens said, with the right ingredients and the right approach, nearly any plot bunny can be made to seem like a brand new dish.
sheablue
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Interesting! Well, that means either I'm a shoe-in, or I'll feel even worse when I don't win.
In all actuality, I don't join contests to win, I just like to get more reads and readers. And the dryad story is all I got so I'm going for it. I wonder if it would be better to do a little dryad research, or just make it up as I go along?
patientlee
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Interesting! Well, that means either I'm a shoe-in, or I'll feel even worse when I don't win.
In all actuality, I don't join contests to win, I just like to get more reads and readers. And the dryad story is all I got so I'm going for it. I wonder if it would be better to do a little dryad research, or just make it up as I go along?
It seems to me that when you write anything with a, how shall I put this delicately, nerdy audience, you better do your homework.
(And just because I didn't know what a dryad was doesn't make me not nerdy, so fantasy nerds, please don't take offense. I'm a whole different kind of nerd.)
lovecraft68
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Interesting! Well, that means either I'm a shoe-in, or I'll feel even worse when I don't win.
In all actuality, I don't join contests to win, I just like to get more reads and readers. And the dryad story is all I got so I'm going for it. I wonder if it would be better to do a little dryad research, or just make it up as I go along?
I would think the good thing about sci fi or nonhuman is its all made up so people shouldn't lock you into anything like "No, a dryad wouldn't do that"
Its your setting so it should be your method.
sheablue
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LesLumens
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No real worries about nerd rage when it comes to dryads, as long as you aren't defining them as coming from a specific mythology. There are already so many versions and variants with none having real dominance over the other that saying, "That isn't a dryad," just doesn't happen unless you diverge wildly from the basic "nature entity" root.
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Hypoxia
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Think outside boxes. Think of desert dryads inhabiting joshua trees and mesquites. Think of water spirits inhabiting hot springs and rock pools, and tide pools and kelp beds. Think of selkies transplanted to Marine World. Try it sometime.
LesLumens
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I have a huge notes file full of exactly that
My intention has always been to spread some of the family out, though most of them are going to remain close to home. I started it with Kindred, moving Mara to the BWCA, and introducing naiads.Desert and Mountain nymphs are leading the race for which I'll introduce next.
lovecraft68
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patientlee
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So, what's mince meat?
lovecraft68
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Not sure what the true definition is, but its what I was supposedly going to get made into if I ever got caught with the Minister who lived down the streets daughter.
RejectReality
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Nasty.
I swear a three-year-old smearing things on a highchair tray came up with the idea. That's more or less what it is: things that should never be combined glopped together and put in a pie shell. Apples, raisins, meat, carrots... *gag*
patientlee
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And served for dessert, no less. Sounds like adults scamming children, if you ask me.
RejectReality
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Every recipe varies, but when you serve something you're calling "desert" that has meat in the name, I don't care if it actually has meat in it -- I ain't touching it.
Besides, raisins are nothing but ruined grapes to me. That's pretty much standard in all of them, and eliminates it regardless of what else is in it.
Besides, raisins are nothing but ruined grapes to me. That's pretty much standard in all of them, and eliminates it regardless of what else is in it.
MSTarot
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Belgariad, Silence of the Lambs, they all blur together
A few less giant flaming blue swords in Silence of the Lambs. Although I could see Anthony Hopkins as the sorcerer Beldin.
I always pictured Jeremy Irons as Belgarath.
JagFarlane
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If I recall right, which from above it's obvious I don't always, it was a way to preserve foods a couple of centuries ago. Originally did contain meat, thus the name. These days usually just fruits and fairly sweet. Actually like eating it on occasion myself...
MSTarot
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Before refrigeration there where hundreds of way to preserve food so it would last through the winter. Mince meat was one of them.
Strip the last of your grapes and let them dry out not only concentrated the sugars but helped preserve them. Same for most fruits.
They added chopped animal fat, ( similar to the way we use lard or shortening now) for taste and to add caloric intake and to keep it from going bad.
They would pack jars of this mixture and fill them with left over brandy, (never a really big item, wonder why) or other spirits and with what spices they could find.
They would also use the grape skins from wine making and other such types of cooking things so that they let nothing go to waste.
When sugar began to be made more easily they moved away from mincemeat as a savory main dish or side and more towards an desert.
It's one of those things like fruitcake. It's meant to travel well without spoiling and, to last a long time without needing to be stored in the cold.
sheablue
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Best to avoid nerd rage at all costs!
I appreciate everyone's advice/opinion. I suppose I had better get writing or it will all be for naught.
MSTarot
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Had an idea for a Dryad story I never used. Guy working for a timber company helping to clear cut a small forest.
Only he can see the dryad, maybe because he's still young at 18. Everyone else sees her just as a small willowy tree. And even he doesn't see her at first.
They break for lunch he sits down next to her tree. When everyone else walks off she shows herself to him pleads with him to save her. Makes love to him to show him how wonderful she is. He agrees to try and move her tree. He goes to get a shovel to dig up her feet (root ball).
When he comes back to his horror he seen her go into the wood chipper.
As I said just a story idea.
Only he can see the dryad, maybe because he's still young at 18. Everyone else sees her just as a small willowy tree. And even he doesn't see her at first.
They break for lunch he sits down next to her tree. When everyone else walks off she shows herself to him pleads with him to save her. Makes love to him to show him how wonderful she is. He agrees to try and move her tree. He goes to get a shovel to dig up her feet (root ball).
When he comes back to his horror he seen her go into the wood chipper.
As I said just a story idea.
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