A Dragon's Journey

The prompt was Sunrise

---
When you grow up in Africa, the sunrise becomes a cliché. The pink and orange clouds. The obligatory acacia bush silhouetted against the vivid sky. The sound of the dawn chorus, a multitude of birdcalls. The calm, cool air with just the hint of the heat that is coming. The world still, quiet, a breath before the day begins.

When you grow up in Kwazulu Natal, it is inevitably accompanied with the smell of sugar cane fires – a vaguely sweet, molasses smell cloaked in smoke. Flakes of ash falling from the sky. The distant sound of flames. Kwazulu Natal is tropical, so the morning air holds more than a hint of heat. But early enough it is still cool. Breezes off the Indian Ocean waft, smelling of salt and sunscreen.

The day begins early in Africa. People walk to work in the dawn air. As a child, my house always smelled of coffee and toast before it was even light outside. I remember that half-awake, half-asleep moment, the ceiling fan whirring above me, dishes being washed, clinking in the kitchen. The air rich with summer.

Yes, sunrise in Africa is a cliché. You never see a movie set in Africa without at least one sunrise shot. The acacia bush. Or a giraffe. Or a herd of elephants crossing the horizon, heavy and pendulous against the fiery sky. (The movies don't show you how quiet elephants are, how you can drive into the middle of a herd of them without even seeing them if they're in the bush. Then suddenly a crack of a branch breaking, and you glance to the side, and there they are, right beside you. They rumble too. Deep belly rumblings. I am told this is how they communicate.)

The African sunrise is a cliché. It is on the cover of countless coffee-table books. Orange sky. Silhouette. They make prints of it. They sell them in airports and curio shops all over South Africa. I'd be willing to bet in many other parts of Africa too. Thousands of tourists take them home. Sunrise moments on the cover of a book, or to hang on their wall, to say, "I was there. You know, it's really like that." There are songs written about it. It is evoked like some kind of essence of the place.

The sunrise in Africa is a cliché.

So why do I still miss it?
---

For brigits_flame's December competition.

Topic was : Cue

---
She stands waiting, rocking on the balls of her feet, concentrating, unaware of the motion. Her lips move, silent, rehearsing lines. She is sure she knows them, but she fears that when the lights hit her, she will forget everything. Her face is slick with stage makeup, oily and heavy on her skin. She is watching, hidden behind heavy velvet curtains, waiting for that beat of music, that indication that it is her time.

So much has led up to this moment. She has worked and memorised, and stretched herself beyond her limits. And now, it all comes down to this: this moment in the wings, taut with anticipation, her stomach clenched with nerves. She has been on stages before, but never a stage like this. Never a stage with this reputation, this sort of audience.

She will step out, and forget her nerves, and play her part. She will discover that she thrives on the lights and the ineffable energy between a performer and her audience. She will be thanked with applause, and roses. People will see her out, later, in bars, and buy her drinks, commenting on the exquisiteness of her performance. She will discover the mad rush of adrenaline that comes of being on stage, addictive, powerful, euphoric, and deeply intoxicating.

In months to come she will be lauded, wooed by the rich and famous. People will take her to dinner, men will clamour for her attention. At some time in the future will come the inevitable fall from grace. The phone will stop ringing. The applause will die away.

But she is not thinking about any of that.

Right now she stands, rocking on the balls of her feet, waiting.

---

Little more literal than I normally go.

Hope you like it.

I am having a day already, and it's not even 10am.

Please somebody, anybody, give me some good news?

I won Nano. :D

The last 2000 words were rather fillery, and I will probably end up editting a lot of them out, but still. I now have a 50k manuscript to work with!!

Current Mood: accomplished
Current Music: 2 Unlimited - [Now That's What I Call Music 21 - CD 2 #05] Twilight Zone

1. I love reading, but I don't like reading book reviews.
2. I love travel, but I don't like reading travel writing.

Does this mean that the vicarious thing doesn't work for me? Perhaps. Hmmm.

I have some invites, if anyone who isn't on it already wants to give it a go. Comments are screened. Reply with email address, please. :)

One of these days



Britney is going to realise



that actually



she's writing/performing



alternative rock songs.

Current Music: Elton John - [Now That's What I Call Music 18 - CD 1 #03] Sacrifice

I just wrote 10000 words in a single day. my arms ache from typing, my eyes hurt from staring at a computer screen, my neck is sore.

But I am less than 10k away from the end of Nano. That's about 1600 words a day. I AM GOING TO WIN.

My story took an unexpected turn. But I think it's going somewhere kinda nifty.

I am sort of in danger over on therealljidol this week, if anyone feels like going over and dropping me a vote. ;) Though, to be honest, if I get booted this week, I'll probably deserve it, since I knocked out this week's entry in no time at all. I probably should have taken a bye. Oh well. Hopefully I'll squeeze through. I can't get too upset, because I NEARLY HAVE A NOVEL WRITTEN!!!

It was pretty crazy to try do both at once anyway. :)

Now I am going to put away my computer, have a cup of tea, and watch the rain. Or read a book. Or something. I feel I have earned it.

Current Music: Rod Stewart - [Every UK Number One - 1971 #11] Maggie May

The Topic was Bearing False Witness

I've been focussing on Nano this week, so this isn't my best effort. Hopefully it'll be enough to get me through to the next round though!!

( Teachers are Human too. )

This particular instance is fiction, but, in my time working with kids, I have met kids (and parents!) like every one of the ones in this story, and have had MANY conversations a lot like this one. Those of you who have worked with kids may recognise some of them. ;)

Current Music: LEO SAYER - [Top 1000 Pop Hits of the 80's] ORCHARD ROAD

I am about 27000 words away from the 50k required to win Nanowrimo, and seriously lacking in motivation. So I thought maybe I could give myself some motivation, and do something for a good cause at the same time.

The Death Valley Child Cancer Challenge is a charity started by a friend and colleague of mine. I am not athletic, and have no particular skills that are useful to him and his cause, apart from general wordsmithing. But maybe I can turn my wordsmithing to some good use.

Here is what I propose. I will seriously attempt to write 27000 words in 9 days, and win Nano. I am calling out for sponsors. 10c every thousand words, or even a cent a word. The teeny tiniest bit would help. Or even just a once off payment.

All sponsors will get a pdf version of the final product – I make *no* promises about quality, since it will, to all intents and purposes, be a first draft. Should it even actually go to print, I will send 1 randomly drawn sponsor a copy. If I get more than 100 sponsors, I’ll send out 5. 150 sponsors, I’ll send out 10. If it gets higher than that, I’ll adjust accordingly. If it does not go to print, I will still edit and jazz it up and send out e-copies of the final draft.

This should give me the incentive I need to finish, and you’d be helping a good cause.
You can donate directly on the website, here, and then comment here letting me know that you have donated for this project.

If you wish to sponsor, rather than making a once off donation, simply comment here or on my Facebook note, and let me know what you want to pledge, and how you want to count it. EVERY LITTLE BIT HELPS.

Oh, and please, help spread the word. :)

I'll be x-posting this to various places, so forgive me if you see it more than once.

On the off chance that anyone wants to... erm... get me a present, and is out of ideas.

I bring you the art of Ursula Vernon. Some of my favourites:

Bad Egg

Giant and Fairy

Spring Flamenco

Punk Humingbird

The Elemental Mice Series.

Zebra Egg

Slug Rider

My Little Phalloi (That one's probably not worksafe, but it's SO CUTE!!!)

Morning Dragon (SO me)

Elder Porcupine

Little Red Riding Wolverine

March Hare and Dormouse

And, of course, The Biting Pear of Salamanca!

There are so many more fabulous ones. Spend some time meandering through her galleries. AWESOME stuff. :)

Current Music: KINKS - [Top 1000 Pop Hits of the 80's] LOLA

Good things.

* I did the dishes. So, the kitchen is clean.
* There is currently the beginning of chicken soup bubbling away merrily on the stove.
* Apparently, I don't fail at housewife today. Which is lucky, cos I seem to be failing at everything else.

Bad Things.

* I haven't touched my nano novel in three days. Which makes it hard to do so, because I am aware of how behind I am. And seeing all the people finishing already is just making me depressed. /writerguilt.

Actually, that's about it for bad things. But it is looming in my brain. *sigh* I know I should just take it 500 words at a time. BUT IT'S HARD. Meh. OK, I'm done whinging now.

In other news, sikander7 is in Auckland for three days at a conference. Which is great for him, but I miss him. :(
I am such a sap. ;)

Erm... That's it. I have very little exciting news. Work is winding seriously down, which gives me lots of free time, which you'd think would be a good thing, but it actually makes me less productive in general. I work better when I'm busy.

Aaanyway. That's all. How are you?

Current Music: JAKI GRAHAM - [Top 1000 Pop Hits of the 80's] SET ME FREE

This is my entry for Topic Three of therealljidol. We had a choice of topic. I chose Moments of Devastating Beauty.

I think it's my best entry so far. I hope you agree. This one is not fiction.

---

I am nine, and I am underwater pretending I'm a mermaid. I dive right down to the bottom of the deep end, curl up at the bottom, and use my feet to shoot myself up through the water, breaking the surface with a splash, and gulping lungfuls of oxygen. My eyes are burning from the chlorine, and my skin is tight with sunburn, but I have learnt to do a full length without taking a breath, and that has made my day.

I am thirteen, and watching the boy I like running across an expanse of grass towards me. He has a teddy bear in his hand. He trips over his own feet, and I laugh. It is the first time I have ever been given a Valentine by someone I like, and I am feeling an inkling of what it must be like to love someone who loves you back. I don't know yet that this will be the high point of our relationship, that this boy will shatter my heart into pieces more than once, and remain, bittersweet and distant, in my life, forever. But for now, I stand on the grass, the sun high, joyous and laughing.

I am seventeen, and it is dusk. I am sitting in a window seat, staring out at a tiny patch of sea between the cane fields. The air smells of summer, sugar cane fires, Christmas holidays. From downstairs I can hear the sound of an electric guitar playing "Stairway to heaven". I love this painted room with all my heart, a room in which I have danced and sang and acted. But I know I am going to have to leave and go into the world. I am listening to the conversation of the friends I am leaving. But, for a moment, I know I belong in this place, with its hadedah cries, and salt air. And I am filled with love.

It is my eighteenth birthday. I am sitting on a beach in the dark with two of my dearest friends. Between us, an open can of peaches and three forks. We laugh, and gossip. I know it's not possible, because we have we no mp3 players (they haven't been invented yet), but in my memory, The Verve is playing in the background. My world is full of possibility.

I am twenty, and have become jaded and sharp around the edges. I am sitting on an uneven wooden floor, a bowl of spaghetti bolognaise in my lap, and a glass of vodka and lime beside me. The drink is bitter on my tongue, but the people around me are quick-witted and shine like spotlights in a dark world. They are glorious, young and beautiful. And I know, in my heart, that I am one of them. Later, we will run, in high-heeled boots, down a hill, and go dancing in the night, gorgeous and untouchable. Or so we believe.

I am twenty-one, and leaving again. I walk in a graveyard, a cup of tea in my hand, with someone who knows all my secrets. It is quiet, the sun bright on the faded stones. We rehash a million memories, laughing, until the sun begins to set, the African sky fiery in a way I will long for when I go to foreign places. There is a reason African sunsets are such a cliche. I catch my breath, and breath it in, the orange, the heat.

I am twenty-two, far from home, and yet completely at home. I am at a camp in New York State, amongst the forests. It has been a hot, burning day, and now, at dinner time, the clouds come rushing in. The thunder rocks the world, lightning arcs across the sky. People laugh, and run, splashing in puddles, soaked to the skin. I taste the rain on my lips, and the laughter in my throat. The kids look on, astonished at the playfulness of the grownups who have been tasked with their care. I will always remember this thunderstorm.

I am twenty-three, and driving through a desert with a man I have been dating for only a couple of months. The sand dunes stretch out for miles in every direction. The air-con in the car hums, ineffective against the blasting heat of the place. He is talking, and as he talks he lays a hand on my leg. My stomach explodes in butterflies, and I realize, suddenly, irrevocably, that I am in love. Three years later, I will marry him.

I am twenty-six, and sitting with my husband at a small little-known restaurant in France. It is high summer, and the sun sets slowly and lazily, taking its time. We have just spent our last money on a three course meal before we fly back to what is currently home after two glorious months touring Europe. We have enough petrol in our hired car to get back to the airport in Paris. The taste of wine will never be as good as it is right here, on the edge of a river in the Loire valley.

I am twenty-nine, and I walk out of my house and stop in awe. Across the valley over which my house looks, in a perfect band against a steely grey winter sky, is a rainbow. Gloriously bright in the rising sunlight shining from the horizon below those steely grey clouds. I cannot remember ever having seen such a perfect one, and I call to my husband to come and look. It is early, and there is ice on the ground. But the corner of winter has turned, and we are heading towards spring. This place is colder than I like, but has moments of startling beauty like this one. In amazement, I gaze at it, traditionally a symbol of hope, and look forward to the future.

---

My best childhood friend (the one from the graveyard piece above) and I used to talk about perfect moments in existence – those startling moments when everything is beauty and magic. They don’t last – that is part of their beauty, but there are always more. These are some of mine.

ETA: You may now vote, if you feel so inclined.

Current Music: DURAN DURAN - [Top 1000 Pop Hits of the 80's] NOTORIOS

Because people are posting cool things today.

Why the war on drugs is futile, and what we should be doing instead. This is basically what I have been saying for years about drugs, prostitution, and abortion. In order to protect the people who are being exploited/hurt, these things need to be regulated. Call me a pragmatist.

I believe, morally, that women (and men, for that matter) should have the right to do what they want with their bodies. Just for the record. But the pragmatic argument is a good one, IMNSHO.

As for drugs, I think that, in order to be consistent, either all narcotics (including alcohol and cigarettes) should be banned, or none of them. I don't think there is a qualitative difference between heroin and alcohol - it's a matter of degree. So make it all legal, and then it can all be properly regulated. This is a fabulous article.

For something a little lighter, How to Survive a Stephen King novel. Courtesy of bardiphouka. Rather entertaining.

And, for something even lighter, some narrative analysis of Buffy. There are some spoilers. Quite a fun read though.

And for the 'Yay!' portion, Emma Thompson's name has officially been removed fomr that damn petition. YAY for Emma! I can now buy her work again!


Happy Thursday, everyone. :)

I can't even talk about this coherently. Brought to my attention by shadesong:

Apparently, a group of male students at Sydney University thought it would be 'funny' to create a 'pro-rape' facebook group.

This actually makes me feel ill. If these were my sons or my brothers I'd be beating them about the head right about now.

Feministing talks about it here.

Jezebel talks about it here.

OK, seriously? If you would think of joining a group like this, if you think it's just a little bit funny, if you are considering saying anything to me along the lines of "it's just boys being boys' or telling me I need a sense of humour, you need to leave. Now. Unfriend me, and move quickly away from my life.

This makes me despair of the world a little.

Current Mood: aggravated

This is my entry for November Topic 2 at brigits_flame.

( It went to an oddly dark place )

Hope you like it. :)

Meme from nevacaruso
Leave me a comment saying "Resistance is Futile."

• I'll respond by asking you five questions so I can satisfy my curiosity
• Update your journal with the answers to the questions
• Include this explanation in the post and offer to ask other people questions.


1. What is your biggest pet peeve?

Biggest? Oi. That's a tough one. I have a few, but mostly they boil down to this: willful ignorance. I can forgive not knowing. I can forgive being wrong about things, if people are willing to admit when they are wrong. But I can't forgive people who refuse to learn.

Also, and relatedly, any kind of bigotry or intolerance involving telling other people how to live their lives where it doesn't concern you. Believe in whatever gods you wish, marry who ever you want, but don't go around telling other people they should do it your way.

I am very live and let live. :)

2. What is your NaNoWriMo project about?

It's about a boy who can understand lizards. And possibly a dragon in the Karoo. I am still working out what it's about. It also seems to have decided that it has a feminist agenda I didn't know was there to start off with.

3. What has been your biggest writing challenge (for this year's NaNo or something else) so far?

Just finishing. I have a lot of ideas, and I start a lot of things, but I inevitably just let them drop. Sticking to it till it's done is something I am still working on.

4. What are some of your favorite moments in Buffy?

Wow. SO many. I think ( cut for spoilers, just in case )

5. In what countries have you lived?

Lived? South Africa, The US (if a few months counts), The United Arab Emirates, England, New Zealand.

I have visited a lot more though. ;)

So, yesterday there was Real Life. Lots of it. And sunshine. And it was a gorgeous lovely day, but it means I did not write a single nano-word. (heh).

Which means today, I have to write extra.

Here I go....

Current Music: Nina Simone - [Now That's What I Call Music 10 - CD 2 #09] My Baby Just Cares For Me

Happy Birthday to amberwitch!!!

Current Music: BILLY OCEAN - [Top 1000 Pop Hits of the 80's #05] CARRIBBEAN QUEEN

I'm writing a novel.

Like, seriously.

I have started many novels before, but honestly? There has always been that thing in my head saying, you're not going to finish this.

But this time? I will. You know why?

Because I wrote a thesis. Because before I did that, I couldn't imagine having so much to say about one thing. But I'd put a lot of money into it. So I had to finish it. And not finishing stopped being an option. And a side-effect of that was that I learnt something very important. I can finish things. I just have to stop thinking that not finishing is an option.

This is the big difference between the last time I did nano and this time. Last time I didn't think I could finish. This time, not finishing is not an option. I will write 50000 words. Whether they will be any good, publishable, anything is questionable. But that they will exist is not.

I really have grown up. I really have changed.

You guys.

I am writing a NOVEL.

Cool. *verybiggrin*

Current Music: Guy Mitchell - [Every UK Number One - 1953 #05] She Wears Red Feathers