The AH Coffee Shop and Reading Room 09

[dmallord]

Speaking of numbers: BP 89/60 has me flat for a while with low grade fever. Nice thing is I have a new full-time aide at home with me. When I get some strength back, I'm going to write a tale over that scenario.

The Orphan
Never Meant to Be.
02/10/2025 in Non-Erotic Stories

PUBLISHED HOT 4.74 / 128 5 favorites 1.8k 14 comments [nice ones!]

 

[Duleigh]

I'm trying to break into poetry with a real poem and not just a limerick, but I slammed into a wall - does anyone have a synonym for the word "our"?

I can't find a single word synonym for one of the most common determiners/nouns in the English language! And a love poem written in the French alexandrine form is not the place to create one. At least not on a smut site.

 

[NotWise]

I'm trying to break into poetry with a real poem and not just a limerick, but I slammed into a wall - does anyone have a synonym for the word "our"?

I can't find a single word synonym for one of the most common determiners/nouns in the English language! And a love poem written in the French alexandrine form is not the place to create one. At least not on a smut site.

No context. Can't help.

You might need to find a different way to say the same thing. Isn't that what poets do?

 

[Duleigh]

No context. Can't help.

You might need to find a different way to say the same thing. Isn't that what poets do?

Yeah, but that's work. I write to avoid that kind of thing.

 

[Belegon]

my poetry muse is still MIA. I haven't written a single poem since coming back. not sure why...


My newest is up though. Only 6700 words, so pretty short by my standards. No votes on it yet, but it will get there. EC isn't the most read category... but that's where it fit. An Evening with the Queen (College homecoming queen that is. Red curls and a generous body. I did date the homecoming Queen in my last year at college, but most of this is pure fiction. Just building up my portfolio again, I guess. Didn't have anything strike me today, but I'll get something else started soon, I'm sure.

 

[MillieDynamite]

I've been working down my backlog of paid work. In my free time, when I feel well enough to do something other than sleep, I've been working on my alternate version of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. I presenting it as a follow-up to the original. It's set in the 1920s in New York City, and Dr. Helen Jekyll, a grand-niece of the original Jekyll, has made serious alterations to his original formula. She even fools herself into believing she's doing this to eliminate issues with career criminals. She has two serums she's working on, one for the criminal mind and another for people with gender dysphoria. In the 1920s, there had been at least one surgical attempt at a sex change. And, of course, it failed, killing the patient. So, there is some historical precedent that doctors were already working on the problems.

At any rate, her experiment is, as was her grand-uncles (grand or great, who knows, the terms seem to be interchangeable), go ary.

I want coffee.

 

[NotWise]

I'll have my WIP done for O's Pink Orchid event. I was starting to worry.

 

[Duleigh]

My WIP pile is starting to sway. I need to start knocking some of that down.

 

[Rustyoznail]

My WIPs are all on hold. The pup knows when I want to write, and demands that I pay attention to his cuteness.

 

[Rustyoznail]

Speaking of cute puppies, I went to a quiet surf beach yesterday to meet our pup's mum, dad, and one of his sisters. It was over 30c, so there were a few people turning up for a swim and a surf. Mum and dad were chasing a ball out in the waves, and pinching another ball from a couple of cattle dogs.

The pups were beating each other up, chewing seaweed and racing through the waters edge. Naturally, everyone that turned up went "awww, so cute"...

This included a mother and her late teens /early twenties daughter who came across from Adelaide for the dad's fathers funeral. The pups saw them and raced over for pats. It made mum and daughter's day.

 

[Candy_Kane54]

My WNMAP (Work Not Making Any Progress) pile is giving me the hairy eyeball ...

In any event, it's a sunny morning, albeit cold, so the coffee pot is brewing and the teapot is hot for those who want a cuppa. There are donuts (doughnuts?) on the counter and the gril is hot if you want something more substantial for breakfast.

I'll be over in the corner staring at the blank paper wondering about my life choices ...

 

[TarnishedPenny]

...the grill is hot if you want something more substantial for breakfast.

I bought some danish. Grilled danish, anyone?

 

[Duleigh]

My Sci-fi novel length story is nearing the climatic scene! Interstellar war! seven fighter squadrons in a pitched battle for the dominance of space around Mars! Actual SCIENCE! (no swooping and hard rudder turns) Commander Alan Scarlett is going to avenge the death of his sister!

- Wait -

Damnit! I missed that entire plot point. Christa Scarlett is fine and healthy with her lover and their one year old daughter in the Canadian forests on the banks of the Très Maigre River. Now I have to go back and kill her

Initiating re-write #18..........

I'll take a grilled cheese Danish if you have one. I'm going to need a bit of a sugar rush this AM

 

[NotWise]

Mine's going more smoothly than @Duleigh's. I'm probably down to one more full editing sweep. Maybe I have a title. I need a different short description. Time to start on the tags.

The female protagonist in this story was originally named Laura. I renamed her Rachel before I got very far. My big gotcha so far was finding one scene where I still called her Laura.

I think I'll call a landscaper and find out what it will cost to rebuild my lawn and irrigation system. The lawn, well, and irrigation system I have now were in place long before we bought the house, but the well's yield has dropped, and yesterday I dug up a section of leaking. inch-and-a-half irrigation line and found that it was split--probably from freezing. If it happened in one place it probably happened in others.

The future looks like a smaller lawn, fewer shrubs, and irrigation with city water. Not sure what to do about the well.

 

[MrPixel]

Xeriscaping may be in your future.

For us? Too much water! We're about halfway into the thaw part of three consecutive freeze-thaw cycles with lots of snow, and the cinder-block fence 'tween us and the neighbor to the east collapsed this morning due to the oversaturated ground. I know from estimates on the west fence that this may get into five figures. The only thing holding up the similar west fence is a come-along to an anchor, so it's gotta go, too.

Oh, joy.

 

[MillieDynamite]

My story goes well, 4 chapters and 14,000 words so far. I have it outlined for 12 chapters. I'm being chewed out by both Mum and Jo telling me how I'm doing to much. And to be honest, I do feel a bit worn right now. But a cup-a-coffee should set it all right again, don't cha-think?

 

[NotWise]

I submitted mine. It wasn't going to get any better. Now we'll see what the readers think.

 

[Duleigh]

Damn, I have to finish something, I write a story until I hit a dead spot and move to the next project till that one goes stale. So I start a new project, and as I get into that, a fix to the deadspot on the first story comes to mind so I drop #3 go back to #1 and as I wrestle my way out of that dead spot I realized that somehow I transferred a character in #1 to #2 and have to go back and fix that before I forget ...

This is why I never get any time off.

 

[NotWise]

Damn, I have to finish something, I write a story until I hit a dead spot and move to the next project till that one goes stale. So I start a new project, and as I get into that, a fix to the deadspot on the first story comes to mind so I drop #3 go back to #1 and as I wrestle my way out of that dead spot I realized that somehow I transferred a character in #1 to #2 and have to go back and fix that before I forget ...

This is why I never get any time off.

You're pretty damned productive despite your complaints.

 

[Duleigh]

You're pretty damned productive despite your complaints.

I keep a schedule of when I WANT to publish something, problem is, my schedule is far more optimistic than what my fingers are and I can't type fast enough to keep up with it............

I haven't touched my April Fools story in weeks, is it because I hate April Fools or is it because that's where all the trolls wait to attack. If Laurel truly wanted to crush the creativity of a bunch of independent writers, allowing trolls to run free is the ticket.

 

[NotWise]

I keep a schedule of when I WANT to publish something, problem is, my schedule is far more optimistic than what my fingers are and I can't type fast enough to keep up with it............

I haven't touched my April Fools story in weeks, is it because I hate April Fools or is it because that's where all the trolls wait to attack. If Laurel truly wanted to crush the creativity of a bunch of independent writers, allowing trolls to run free is the ticket.

I did one April Fools contest so I completed the cycle, and I didn't have an issue with trolls. Mine didn't place or even come close, but it did OK. It was a reminiscence set in 1976 of an April Fools Day 25 years earlier. The ending was so heavily foreshadowed that it wasn't even a surprise when it happened, but it was sentimental.

 

[MrPixel]

...is it because I hate April Fools...

I know I do. It was all fine and wonderful when we were children and the "April Fools!" part was silly and harmless, but the misdirection required to pull it off as adults too frequently crosses the line into cruel or even sadistic. And amateur setups sometimes get dangerous, or damaging. Life these days especially is so complicated because of the hard demands on our attention, so commanding our attention to just have it end in a great big "never mind"? Not into that. The only April Fools setups I appreciate have been obvious parodies.

And don't get me started on Allen Funt, of Candid Camera fame. He'd do these ridiculous setups taking advantage of regular folks' being nice or concerned, and then whammy them that it was all a ruse. Always, always made me cringe.

 

[Candy_Kane54]

Well, it's time to get the coffee going and heat up the teapot. There are some scones and buttermilk pancakes on the counter.

I'll be over in the corner for now trying to get some writing done. I doubt I'm going to get a lot written because I'll be having guests staying with me for the next week or so.

 

[Belegon]

Got me a Yeti full of coffee and shoveled two bowls of Capt. Crunch Peanut Butter down my inner pipe. I need to figure out where I'm going to direct my writing energy. space...fighter Squadrons... I've yet to attempt an actual science fiction piece. I've down some fantasy and some urban fantasy, but no space opera. Odd that I've never tried considering how I devoured the TieFighter and X-Wing games and the Wing Commander games, plus being a big Battelstar Galactica and Star Wars fan. I've read all the Rogue Squadron books too. I've never tried to write domething along those lines even though it seems I should be right comfortable doing so. Maybe too comfortable.

I'm even a character in such a world, as Colleen Thomas used me as the bartender at the bar where the pilots hang out in her piece The Furies. But I'm kind of thinking it might suit me to go the opposite way on the timeline and explore a similar dynamic by doing something involving a WW1 fighter squadron. Maybe a multi-national volunteer Squadron, flying for France in 1916. I can use the multi-national angle to bring in outside perspective the way SF fighter squadron books often do with alien pilots. Of course, that's gonna require me to do some extra research on Spad's and Fokker F2's, but I'm alright with that. If the first story goes over well, I'll need to research Sopwith Camels and F3's, and maybe even have one of our heroes face the Baron's Flying Circus, including the blood red Fokker tri-wing, maybe hanging back as a threat before actually bringing Richtofen into the combat for a finale. I consider myself a bit of an amateur historian, so I'll want to be as accurate as possible... meaning reaching deeper into the research to learn the "stats" on the F3 and decide which of the 'new' planes my allies will fly.

I'm leaning towards the Sopwith purely out my memories that it is what Snoopy flew against the Red Baron... no harm in making readers feel comfortable by delving into something that fits what little they know about WW1 flying Aces. I might even come to a spot where I can flout a distant relative. I'm related to the #2 American Ace of the Great War, Douglas Campbell. I believe he had 17 victories against Eddie Rickenbacher's 28. Both of them served in the premier American flying unit of the war, the 'Hat In The Ring' 94th Squadron.

 

[NotWise]

Got me a Yeti full of coffee and shoveled two bowls of Capt. Crunch Peanut Butter down my inner pipe. I need to figure out where I'm going to direct my writing energy. space...fighter Squadrons... I've yet to attempt an actual science fiction piece. I've down some fantasy and some urban fantasy, but no space opera. Odd that I've never tried considering how I devoured the TieFighter and X-Wing games and the Wing Commander games, plus being a big Battelstar Galactica and Star Wars fan. I've read all the Rogue Squadron books too. I've never tried to write domething along those lines even though it seems I should be right comfortable doing so. Maybe too comfortable.

I'm even a character in such a world, as Colleen Thomas used me as the bartender at the bar where the pilots hang out in her piece The Furies. But I'm kind of thinking it might suit me to go the opposite way on the timeline and explore a similar dynamic by doing something involving a WW1 fighter squadron. Maybe a multi-national volunteer Squadron, flying for France in 1916. I can use the multi-national angle to bring in outside perspective the way SF fighter squadron books often do with alien pilots. Of course, that's gonna require me to do some extra research on Spad's and Fokker F2's, but I'm alright with that. If the first story goes over well, I'll need to research Sopwith Camels and F3's, and maybe even have one of our heroes face the Baron's Flying Circus, including the blood red Fokker tri-wing, maybe hanging back as a threat before actually bringing Richtofen into the combat for a finale. I consider myself a bit of an amateur historian, so I'll want to be as accurate as possible... meaning reaching deeper into the research to learn the "stats" on the F3 and decide which of the 'new' planes my allies will fly.

I'm leaning towards the Sopwith purely out my memories that it is what Snoopy flew against the Red Baron... no harm in making readers feel comfortable by delving into something that fits what little they know about WW1 flying Aces. I might even come to a spot where I can flout a distant relative. I'm related to the #2 American Ace of the Great War, Douglas Campbell. I believe he had 17 victories against Eddie Rickenbacher's 28. Both of them served in the premier American flying unit of the war, the 'Hat In The Ring' 94th Squadron.

You might want to watch "Wings"--the late silent movie that won the first Oscar for best picture. It's a little long. You can view it on Amazon.

The movie follows three home-town types to France to do the romantic thing. The director flew in WWI, though the actual record of that is sketchy. The dog-fight sequences are remarkable. It also has an unclothed Clara Bow and the first speaking role for Gary Cooper. It's one scene, his character dies immediately after the scene, and the home-town boys eat his chocolate.

It was filmed in San Antonio (Kelley Air Force Base, I think) and went way over schedule and budget. Cast and crew were all housed in one hotel. Clara Bow (who was recently married) laid Gary Cooper, and most of the women on the hotel staff got pregnant.

At least, that's how the legend goes.