Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in Renfield's LiveJournal:

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Friday, April 30th, 2010
10:59 pm	30 dammit eery swing 30. Final question! Tag someone! And tell us what you like about that person as a writer and/or about one of his/her characters! No!   ^__^   And while we're at it, bite me! Current Mood: annoyed (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, April 29th, 2010
11:20 pm	30 wade minister gym 29. How often do you think about writing? Ever come across something IRL that reminds you of your story/characters? Every single freaking day. Every single day. Most things IRL that remind me of my characters are music. Guys in kilts will always remind me of Pareo, but that's about it. Current Mood: awake (Comment on this)
Wednesday, April 28th, 2010
6:06 pm	30 dames yew mitring 28. Have you ever written a character with physical or mental disabilities? Describe them, and if there's nothing major to speak of, tell us a few smaller ones. Well, Reaucisco starts off with amnesia, which is inconvenient, but hardly as limiting as the artificially split personality chaperoning him from the back of his head--too much suggestive interaction with the opposite sex, and he gets a migraine. Dr. Goss loses an eye and gains a burning thirst for revenge at roughly the same time. It's a form of insanity: her natural drive distorts & consumes her. Archer has no legs, but he was born that way, so it might not count as a disability. He just hates going out when it rains. Reddel loses an arm, two different ways in two different venues. Veles has a fear of blood so strong that a really prolific nosebleed could make him faint. It stems from an adolescent trauma that forked off part of his subconscious for spoilerific purposes. He has a similar aversion to violence, but it won't make him faint. Ah, and he's paranoid. Verano also has problems with blood, and with sunlight, sometimes debilitating. Zydeco is interesting, because her mental disability was deliberately programmed: she's unable to recognize groups (of people) in any terms other than medical (or mechanical, depending). She can't understand things like fan clubs, political parties, or unions; this is to minimize her instances of ethical quandary, and keep her life happy and simple. Current Mood: hungry (Comment on this)
Tuesday, April 27th, 2010
7:46 pm	30 named misery twig 27. Along similar lines, do appearances play a big role in your stories? Tell us about them, or if not, how you go about designing your characters. Sort of? In some stories more than others. I think Age of Winds has the greatest emphasis on appearances, partly because I wanted to use color themes to help illustrate things. That world (and all its people) is colored totally warm-bright, in reds, browns & yellows, and Reaucisco would stand out well by being colored all cool-dark, even if he weren't nearly two feet taller than everyone else. Flashbacks to his own world would also be in cool colors. Aside from colors, appearances are important because his adopted sister is the "Invisible Woman," as he calls her, and despite missing an eye, she can whip up a persona so perfect that even Reaucisco can't see through it until she tips him off. Appearances are important for Veles, because he's been doing something similar, only much more extreme, for about six years or so. It will be a very long time before he divulges his real identity. They're important to Verano, because he has to maintain a careful balance of plain/classy, the better to get hired instead of harassed. This sort of stuff matters a lot less to my other characters. Current Mood: bored (Comment on this)
Monday, April 26th, 2010
4:59 pm	30 miry mites gnawed 26. Let's talk art! Do you draw your characters? Do others draw them? Pick one of your OCs and post your favorite picture of him! ( Just one? ) Current Mood: glum (Comment on this)
Sunday, April 25th, 2010
6:21 pm	30 grim endways time 25. Do any of your characters have pets? Tell us about them. Reaucisco luuuurves cats, and would like to have an Abyssinian kitten called Monkeycat, but that will have to wait until the epilogue. A pet would just add too much cutesy and plot/art complications at any time before then. Verano has Formalin, a (mute) telepathic shape-changing construct made by his father. I didn't want him to have a pet, initially, but then he walked her through one of my dreams and let me know pretty clearly that her name was Formalin, so I really couldn't say no. Juniper has a pet poison-arrow frog, but nearly nobody knows this except her dad. She's fond of it for more than just the poison aspect. Falon once had a pet land nautilus named Celia: a massive, amphibious cephalopod which could whistle, and blow dust into the air instead of squirting ink. It was scrapped for being too cutesy & cumbersome, and having no plot relevance. Current Mood: bored (Comment on this)
Saturday, April 24th, 2010
5:45 pm	30 grimy mated swine 24. How willing are you to kill your characters if the plot so demands it? What's the most interesting way you've killed someone? Character death in my stories is rather more like apoptosis than any other process. I can't tell you how I sense it, or how it works; that's just how it seems the most. I've never bothered to kill off a main character, because usually there's only one, and his death would just end the story. It's two real deaths and two faked deaths that set off the big questy plot of Age of Winds, and the death of a whole village that does the same for Kinder. All the deaths in Falon's life occur outside of the plot; the death of one of Pareo's tourney opponents sets off a plot arc (F&P's deaths also occur long outside the story proper). Verano's mother, aunt and wife die just because they're more mortal than he is; his father dies from insanity and VHD. Knifegirl's whole life was changed by a suicide, and Reddel's by a car crash. Considering the terribly common causes of death, they feel more like casualties of probability rather than sacrifices to plot. My characters are most likely to die from heart attack, natural disasters, and stabbing. The most "interesting" death (putting aside how gruesome that question is) is probably Summer Ciel's, by snakebite, which is kind of anomalous considering how many monsters in her venue were much nastier than snakes--though it fits very well with Verano's Orphic template. Current Mood: irritated (Comment on this)
Friday, April 23rd, 2010
5:19 pm	30 wing my diameters 23. How long does it usually take you to complete an entire story—from planning to writing to posting (if you post your work)? I can whip up a story in one night, if it's an English/creative writing assignment. This is no guarantee of quality or anything, but it can be done. I used to put out The Xellos Show weekly, but always took the time to run it past my betareader. Most stories, I won't start writing until I have an ending. The best and most grand of those, I can't begin to express until I'm better at drawing. I imagine a fair number of stories won't ever see the outside of my head, tragically--but those will be the ones with no endings, unsatisfactory plot structure, or other glaring flaws. Current Mood: contemplative (Comment on this)
Thursday, April 22nd, 2010
4:56 pm	30 immigrated newsy 22. Tell us about one scene between your characters that you've never written or told anyone about before! Serious or not. Greedy! Well, at one point in his story, Reaucisco is held for one night in a tower cell famous for hosting royalty, and for being escape-proof. The tower is solid; there's no way out below. There are building all around, but nothing he could hook onto with his grapple, even if he had enough rope to reach. The only way to or from the penthouse cell is via a walkway that cranks out sideways from the wall of one of the nearby buildings. So of course he enjoys the view & gets a good nights' sleep. :) The next morning, he gets up bright and early, makes his bed & leaves a nice thank-you note for his captors (because he is so well-mannered). When they come to bring him breakfast, just as they're unlocking the doors, he climbs out the window onto the roof, which he crosses in an unhurried fashion as his captors are freaking out about his absence from the tower cell. Since they're inside now, he simply drops down onto the walkway and locks them in, and takes the breakfast cart along with him back to the surrounding buildings. Where he retracts the walkway, wondering aloud if those guys ate breakfast, and when they'll be found. Current Mood: content (Comment on this)
Wednesday, April 21st, 2010
7:02 pm	30 wry idea stemming 21. Do any of your characters have children? How well do you write them? Huh. Juniper's dad has a mess of adoptees, and Falon & Pareo will spawn twice, but that's about it. Children are significant to exactly zero of my stories, so mostly they just make background noise. No, wait--Kit is five or six, but he's not human. In human years, he seems anywhere from seven to ten. He's very easy to write, so I guess I write him well. Current Mood: tired (Comment on this)
Tuesday, April 20th, 2010
6:30 pm	30 egad tiny swimmer 20. What are your favorite character interactions to write? Well, the funny parts; the exchange of zingers; pranks of opportunity and cunning feats. My favorite of the feats is when a character has a single, simple solution to a glorious monster of a problem. Current Mood: bored (Comment on this)
Monday, April 19th, 2010
6:52 pm	30 my tandemwise rig 19. Favorite minor that decided to shove himself into the spotlight and why! That would have to be Reddel. Originally, I made him as an excuse for Siloque's story... but then he started venue-hopping, which is fairly rare for my characters, and then he surprised the hell out of me by volunteering for an RPG. He's turning out to be a fascinatingly ordinary guy, for all his weird powers and standoffish-ness, and much more creative than I would ever have guessed. Current Mood: full (Comment on this)
Sunday, April 18th, 2010
4:29 pm	30 retained gym swim 18. Favorite antagonist and why! Foxworth Lamington II. I really, really suck at writing antagonists/villains, but there is just no foil for Reaucisco more perfect than Foxworth. He just thinks differently--enough to get a commission in the gendarmerie (roughly the imperial/national guard) despite being a pacifist. And because he never actually attacks Reaucisco, there's very little the man can actually do about it besides escape, and retaliate with silly pranks. Probably the only thing he's bad at is relationships. He complains about getting pressured to marry, and about how he just never meets anyone who's "right" for him, but then when he finally does meet one of those people, all his charm and wits go right out the window and he's suddenly a tongue-tied twelve-year-old. X3 Current Mood: relaxed (Comment on this)
Saturday, April 17th, 2010
11:19 pm	30 my dreamiest wing 17. Favorite protagonist and why! Aaaah, I hate having to choose. ;_____; It will probably be Reaucisco for a while. He's just so complete, dimensionally, and his charisma is comparable to a gravitational force. He's also got the most epic, thoroughly satisfying story in the most vivid & detailed world, and an adversary who gives him a good run for his money. There's really not a single thing I'd change about him. He did have the potential to be a grotesque, dull Gary Stu, but his fantastic naivete, crappy health, and problems with doorways cancel that out pretty entertainingly. Current Mood: tired (Comment on this)
Friday, April 16th, 2010
11:36 pm	30 midway regiments 16. Do you write romantic relationships? How do you do with those, and how “far” are you willing to go in your writing? ;) Romances are fairly rare for me, and usually subplots. The most normal one is Falon & Pareo's, I think. When a romance is the main part of the story, there's always going to be something seriously weird going on. Long before Twilight, I had a vampire/human romance in mind... except it was a Legacy of Kain fanfiction concerning a human slave & one of the doomed Razelim. arharhar Now Herald Colin (oy, another fanfic) has a whole lot of interesting social barriers and other awkwardness with his relationship, the least of which is his literal inability to see the grotty birthmark which makes his foreign girlfriend a paraiah. Juniper falls for Reaucisco because he gives her a daddy-figure impression, first by not "spoiling" her, and second by being just impossible for her to beat. Poor Cuttleboy was not intended to love just one person, but it happens anyway. :\ Bia & Justin have a twenty-year age difference, massive social awkwardness, and a bunch of problems with his job, since he's a police mage in a Victorian-style setting. How far I go writing a relationship is really dependent on the characters. All the menfolk with healthy libidos horndogs will readily tell me every happy detail of their adventures, but I think only Falon would let me peek on her & Pareo. I don't use sex or even romance gratuitously, so if it's not plot-relevant and doesn't develop the character significantly, I won't bother. Smut is different. Generally there's no romance at all--Farrel and whatsisface (Val?) are an exception. More frequently I'll have characters that dedicate their whole beings to smut stories, like Pleco; the ones that get named generally stick around longer, and tell longer, better stories. Current Mood: tired (Comment on this)
Thursday, April 15th, 2010
8:23 pm	30 days me met wiring 15. Midway question! Tell us about a writer you admire, whether professional or not! They're all dead. ;___; Well, I admire Hunter Thompson, but so do a zillion other people, so I don't think I have to explain that. My very favorite nearly-unknown writer is Jo Clayton (who is also dead, boo). I've never seen anyone write mysticism into science fiction as elegantly as she has. There's psi, of course, tons of sci-fi has psi, but I've never seen anyone else package it as totem animals. Not only does she focus primarily on social aspects, but the societies she designs are never snooty, rigid constructs showcasing her political or religious views, or predictions based on contemporary society. Earth isn't even in the picture--I can't recall her even once writing about Earth. She had a bad habit of writing Sue-ish characters at first (Aleytys had alien sex in every volume, I swear) but when she got up the nerve to write main characters without Magical Healing Powers and powerful friends, the size of her brass fucking balls impressed and delighted me. Current Mood: content (Comment on this)
Tuesday, April 13th, 2010
9:23 pm	13 comes -before- 14; yes I know =___=; 13. What's your favorite culture to write, fictional or not? Oh, New Eleusia. It's like Girl Genius in San Francisco, with giant helpings of Silicon Valley and fabulous. The high percentage of genius types (it's a science/medicine mecca) makes a seriously fun and interesting culture. Current Mood: blah (Comment on this)
4:31 pm	30 days wet mini germ 14. How do you map out locations, if needed? Do you have any to show us? Rarely. :D I'm one of those uncommon ladies with a talent for spatial orientation, so it's easy for me to hold a map or a shape in my head. I've only ever drawn up a map once, and that was mainly for seeing how the geographic features worked together. It's a PIA wrangling that--much easier to just let the characters tell me what's where and how it all fits. In Age of Winds, there are kiosks here and there with maps of the area/territory carved in stone and set out where the public can make crayon rubbings of them. Some guys make nice pocket money selling map rubbings from more remote areas to prospective travellers & assorted cartographers, sort of like AAA. But I've already decided the reader will never, ever, ever get to see a map of anything bigger than a runway. >;) Current Mood: chipper (Comment on this)
Monday, April 12th, 2010
5:18 pm	30 days wee grim mint 12. In what story did you feel you did the best job of worldbuilding? Any side-notes on it you'd like to share? Huh. This is also hard to say, because some worlds just come to me entirely, some open up gradually, and some I have to fight tooth and nail just to figure out. The very young worlds like Canry's and Tiercel's are easiest to figure out or make. They're small and sweet and full of harmony, even after genocidal warfare. Very old worlds like Falon's and the Widow Empire also fall together easily, because everything happens nicely according to the effects of local history & science fiction. Getting a grip on Age of Winds was like pulling teeth, probably because the world is so old and so young at the same time. The characters just wouldn't tell me anything, so I tried making shit up to see what stuck. The airships were cool, if a bit primitive, but I just couldn't figure out how one nation could get so much use out of something as cumbersome and pricey as lighter-than-air flight. When it finally hit me that all their major cities were built on plateaus, it sort of blew my mind for a couple of days. The design of Midair is also impressive to me, though I'm not sure if it's even remotely feasible. Current Mood: thoughtful (Comment on this)
Sunday, April 11th, 2010
10:49 pm	30 days merge mi twin 11. Who is your favorite character to write? Least favorite? At present, my favorite is probably Veles. He's got all the brilliance of Reaucisco & Foxworth, but he's in a much worse situation, and with worse mental problems--yet he's still fantastically easy to write. He makes up his mind pretty fast, for a guy that creative with options. My least favorite character is Will, who is outstandingly dense and bland, and loves suspense faar too much to ever give me an ending, to say nothing of an interesting plotline. Current Mood: cold (Comment on this)