Everyone I Ever Was and Everyone I Ever Will Be

“Comment to this post with “I love libraries!” and I will give you seven topics I want you to talk about. They might make sense or they might be totally random. Then post that list to your own blog with your commentary.”

Zombres gave me:

Greek mythology!
Steampunk!
Werewolves!
OT3s!
Jeffrey Dean Morgan!
Gay rights!
Formative Film Experiences!



Greek mythology:

One of my first loves. The first book I can really remember reading is D’Aulaires’ Book of Greek Myths— the illustrations were just gorgeous and the stories had me hooked. Then I kindof got to rediscover everything all over again as I got older and realized, “Wow, there are a lot of rapist douchebags in these stories”. I will also grumble about Hades not being a bad guy in the stories to anyone within earshot when something like Clash of the Titans or Hercules or … well, 3/4 of Greek Mythology movies come on.

Steampunk:

One of my latest loves. ;) I really started getting into it at an anime convention Ashley took me to last year; they had several steampunk booths in the vending area and I was immediately addicted. I’ve combined my first and latest loves and am working on a steampunk novel about the Greek Gods and Goddessess. One of my main concerns with it is that I’ll accidentally do the literary equivalent of the “stick a gear on it and call it steampunk” thing that seems to be a constant grumble in the craft circles. So research research research.

Werewolves:

I do not care if they’re one of the major standbys/cliches/tropes/what have you of the horror genre, I adore them. In the same way I adore haunted houses and vampires (okay, aside from the Twilight version)— they’re timeless, and so much can be done with the idea. Possibilities everywhere! The ones who can control when they change and the ones who can’t; the ones who keep some shred of their humanity after they turn and those who don’t; full-out wolf or some combination of the human and the animal; gimme them all.

OT3s:

My bread and butter, and I’m constantly finding new ones. Just today I read one of goddamnhella’s fics, which was Tony/Loki/Pepper, and HNGH. I just love the character interaction potential, and OT3 stories tend to have more than their fair share of snark, and I’m big on my snark. That type of romance is starting to show up more and more in my novels, too, which doesn’t surprise me one bit. Though I cannot seem to figure out whether the endgame in the Greek Steampunk novel might be Aphrodite/Dionysus/Ariadne, or Aphrodite/Dionysus/Hephaestus, and I have the sinking feeling that “hey, why not three?” is going to quickly turn into “hey, why not four?” My brain is clearly not going to be satisfied until I write a novel called “First There was Drama but then Everyone had an Orgy”.

((OT3s I love can also be platonic: see zombres’s Weird USA, with Charlie, Olivia, and Ben. There are some characters who are great on their own, fantastic playing off of one other person, but get the three of them together and everyone just SHINES.))

Jeffrey Dean Morgan:

So I have a feeling it would be cheating if I just keysmashed for this entire entry. ;) I first saw him on Supernatural (wish I could still see him there on occasion, AHEM WRITERS) and then in P.S. I Love You. By this time I was in fangirly enough mode that I went ahead and looked up some pictures online, and also found some interviews. He rescued and bottle-fed a two-day old puppy. He saw a guy beating his girlfriend and ACTUALLY INTERFERED instead of doing the whole ‘eh, it’s not my business’ thing that’s so horrifically widespread. He seems to be a genuinely good guy, and see above: keysmash-levels of attractiveness. I’ll basically watch anything he’s in (except Grey’s Anatomy. That I just cannot do. Sorry!)

Gay rights:

Should not be any different than ‘straight rights’. That seems absolutely obvious to me now, but it didn’t always. I grew up (and still live) in the middle of the Bible Belt, and “Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve” is still considered witty commentary in way too many places here. The “I don’t really care one way or another because nothing they do hurts me, but— ew. I just don’t get it” is really one of the better attitudes I’ve found. ((don’t even get me started on ‘love the sinner, hate the sin’ bullshit)) It wasn’t anything that really crossed my mind for a long time, and then during stage setup for one of our plays, a friend of mine put on the soundtrack to RENT. And it was literally like nothing I’d ever heard, told from the pov of people whom I’d always heard spoken about in sneering tones, if they were spoken about at all. I remember thinking, “okay, if I’m wrong about that, what else am I wrong about?” And thus a conservative became a liberal. :)

Formative Film Experiences:

Stand By Me— LOVE ETERNAL. The first Stephen King movie I ever saw. It came out when I was five (yes, I am an Old Lady of Thirty) and I think I saw it about three/four years later. Can still quote it in full, and it remains the movie with the absolute best film-dialogue-to-ending-song transition ever for me.

FernGully— my love of faeries, OT3s, animation, and extraordinarily bright colors can all probably be traced back to this film. First soundtrack I ever bought.

Labyrinth— Given the aforementioned Greek Mythology love, anything about a labyrinth was immediately interesting for me. This was the movie I’d most always put on first any time I was home sick from school (other one was Muppet Christmas Carol). Also, when I first saw it I identified with Sarah so. much. Watched it again recently, thought that she was being such a brat at the beginning. Heh.

Beauty and the Beast— Favorite fairy tale! A heroine who’s a bookworm! SIGN ME UP. The animation and the music are so gorgeous.

My cousin and I also used to build enormous pillow forts on/around the couch and watch a triple feature of The Little Mermaid, Singin’ in the Rain, and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang just about every weekend.

Not too long ago zombres did a Top 5 post, and one of the subjects was Favorite Fiction Tropes. I absolutely could not resist that one, so here are mine:



1) Father/Daughter, No Relation

Favorite Example: Artie and Claudia on Warehouse 13. Their interactions have me in a constant state of Dorky-Clapping-and-Grinning when I watch that show.

Example of Mine: Jaren and Thiare from Karavan's Dawn.


2) Epic Quest

Favorite Example: The Stand. Always and forever The Stand. I remember lugging that enormous book around middle school and not even caring because I *had* to find out what would happen next.

Examples of Mine: Stealing Time; Jia's Charms; Karavan's Dawn; And This is Fate; Atmidos, to an extent. I think Pale Moon is the only project of mine where Epic Quest isn't used. That might change between now and publication. ;-)


3) Enemies Becoming Friends ((or at least starting to grudgingly respect each other))

Favorite Example: Jake Lonergan and Col. Dolarhyde in Cowboys and Aliens. My love for that movie is all-encompassing. I need fanfic and icons. And a chance to morph myself into the movie and pounce on Daniel Craig.

Examples of Mine: Simon and Finn in And This is Fate.


4) "Have you ever been with a warrior woman?"

Favorite Example: Beckett & Castle. Castle definitely has his badass moments, but when it comes right down to it, Beckett's going to be the one drawing a gun while Castle asks if anyone in the room's heard of a little something called diplomacy. I think she's physically braver than he is, but he's emotionally braver. Which is partly why they balance each other out so well. Why isn't Season 3 out yet I need my fix

Examples of Mine: Jaetina & Kynn from the Karavan series; Stace & Finn from And This is Fate; Maia & Xavierre from Stealing Time.


5) Threesomes (no, not that kind**)

Favorite Example: Zoe, Wash, and Mal from Firefly

Examples of Mine: Kynn, Ki'Rana, and Trader from the Karavan series; Finn, Stace, and Simon from And This is Fate; Persephone, Iris, and Hades from Atmidos.

**except when they are-- Maia, Nayara, and Xavierre from Stealing Time

This entry was originally posted at http://changeyourstars8.dreamwidth.org/357505.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

Writing the scene where Hades and Persephone meet. It's sweet and twenty different kinds of awkward and just all-around FUN.

This entry was originally posted at http://changeyourstars8.dreamwidth.org/355103.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

Full outline of Atmidos: A Steampunk Story of the Greek Pantheon is done! Going to start writing on it tomorrow. I'm thinking of working on Atmidos on Tuesday afternoons, Pale Moon on Wednesday afternoons, and clay work can be done over the weekend.

Tracie Thoms
Jodi, from Pale Moon

She was ten when her older sister Sarah was killed in a convenience store robbery. Their parents have always hated the idea of Supernaturals. Even after their child was killed, they couldn't cope with the idea of what she is now, hate the thought of her being 'stuck' between worlds-- and so they've never been to visit. Jodi, however, moved to an apartment less than a mile away as soon as she turned eighteen, and when Elspeth bought the former convenience store a couple of years later to start her coffee shop, she immediately applied for a job as a waitress. She and Elspeth are the only two Normals on staff.

Also cast as:

Eris, from the Greek Pantheon series
The Goddess of discord, strife, and rivalry, she delights in a good game of Torment the Humans. When that begins to bore her (she does enjoy playthings that don't die quite so quickly), she turns her attention to her fellow immortals. She and Ares are best friends, largely because they're the only ones who can stand each other's company for more than five minutes. It's one of her schemes that sets the second Olympian war in motion. She couldn't be more proud.

Because apparently I'm in a spammy mood tonight...




Hannah Spearritt as Iris
Oded Fehr as Zeus

Tania Raymonde
Medusa

She was a worker in one of Athena's temples, completely loyal to the Goddess, until Apollo came along. She was charmed by him at first, but knew she didn't want to give up everything she'd worked so hard to become for the sake of a brief tryst with a God.

Problem was, he didn't take 'no' for an answer.

Athena discovered them, in her temple, and believed her fellow Deity's word over the mortal's. Medusa was cursed to be repulsive to everyone from then on, and to turn to stone anyone who dared actually look her in the eye.

She hides, not wanting to hurt any innocent people-- she does not count the occasional Heroes who come looking for the 'monster' to slay as innocent-- until Perseus comes along. With his help, she plans to do what she's been dreaming of for years . . . take down the Gods.

Death Doesn't Take a Holiday
Characters: Hades, Hermes
The prelude to a famous meeting. . .





Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Hades
Alan Tudyk as Hermes



She lay in the bed, pale, unmoving except for the occasional twitch of her eyelids. He remembered her when she was young. Beautiful, long dark hair up in an unruly bun as she stretched out on the grass, absently nibbling at the end of a pencil as she studied a book. Their time together had been short-- seemed shorter to him than to her, Hades knew, given that she'd only had eighty-six years and he'd been around many hundreds of times that-- but it had been good, and now she was here.

He heard a low humming sound, the blur of wings that always accompanied Hermes' arrival catching the edge of his vision. He didn't turn to look.

Beth opened her eyes, large and brown like he remembered and for an instant she seemed to remember *him*; and then her gaze lost focus and she disappeared back into the monitors and bedpan and the thousand other well-meaning humiliations that came with this stage of mortal life.

"Sure you don't want me to handle this?" Hermes asked quietly.

"I'm sure," Hades said, still not looking at him. Gathering mortal souls was a full-time job; Hermes had to be in so many places at once that his form was always out of focus. It made his head hurt.

"You can't keep doing this to yourself, you know. You really should--"

"What? Act more like Zeus?" He wasn't sure if his brother ever remembered the name of a woman he'd been with after the sex was over. Demigod children were all over the place thanks to him, and sometimes the other Deities had no idea until Atropos didn't cut their life thread for decades after a regular mortal would've died. Would've gone through this.

"Hey now, one of him is enough," Hermes said cheerfully. "I just mean you can't always take this so seriously. They're mortal. They die. It's what they do."

Ignoring the younger God, Hades took her hand. "Goodnight," he told her quietly, and then he stopped holding back, stopped focusing his energy on keeping a safe mortal form for her sake, and what he truly was seeped into her.

Living in the realm of the dead for so long had poisoned him, put death so deeply into him he doubted that it would ever be gone. As soon as he let go of the facade that let him move among the living, her last breath left her body.

"Let me do you a favor," Hermes said a moment later. He'd moved over to stand next to the window, his gaze fixed on a point in the distance. "Let me take her down. All right? You just go talk to someone who isn't a creepy shade."

He cleared his throat and looked away from Beth's body. "I talk to you all the time."

"Yeah, well, I'm not always going to be around."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Means I'm thinking of taking a vacation. This stuff's too heavy to do all the time. And if *I* need a break, then I know you do." He nodded toward the window. "Go talk to her for a while. Get some sun for once. I'll take good care of Beth."

Curious despite himself, Hades got up from Beth's deathbed and moved to the window. The field across from the hospital was dotted heavily with Demeter's spring flowers. Her daughter, Persephone, was wandering among them, gathering a few. Probably at Hestia's request; as soon as spring began the Goddess of the Hearth became obsessed with bouquets.

Through the cold, clear glass was normalcy, something the other Gods up on Olympus took for granted every single day, sunshine and warmth, the companionship of someone who was alive and smiling instead of drifting and pale.

And suddenly Hermes's advice was ringing in his ears and he more than wanted a peaceful conversation in the spring air, he *needed* to see her, talk to her, and part of his mind tried to remind him that he'd maybe spoken five words to her in the past hundred or so years but it didn't seem to matter, suddenly he was heading down the stairs, toward the main doors.

He may have heard a quiet chuckle as he left Beth's room. He paid it no mind.

Perseus
Nathan Fillion

Years ago, he was one of the famed Heroes. He still benefits from that, attending the best parties and never having to wait in line in any restaurant. What not even his best friend knows is that he's a Hero largely due to taking credit for others' work. But when one of Andromeda's relatives seriously offends Poseidon, she makes a drastic deal to get him to back off. And now Perseus has to do his part alone, unable to ride on anyone else's coattails.


Andromeda
Stana Katic

A much beloved Daughter of the City, Andromeda's never wanted for anything. She puts on a show of being shallow and frivolous, never photographed without a recent purchase from an expensive store on her arm, but she's much more serious than she'll ever admit to the press. She works tirelessly behind the scenes to improve things for the people she considers 'her' citizens. After making a deal with Poseidon, she's counting on Perseus, but her best friend might not be as much help as he'd always promised he would be.



((In completely unrelated news, CASTLE IS AWESOME))

Because now I'm starting to ship Perseus/Medusa from the Greek Pantheon series. And those characters aren't even in the original outline. Thanks, guys. The plot bunnies, they have no respect for my initial novel structure.

((but seriously, it is going to be awesome. I will borrow from the story origin where Medusa was a mortal woman fooling around with Apollo in Athena's temple and Athena got mad and turned her into the Medusa of legend-- which so fits in with my characterization of Apollo as a charming, heartless s.o.b. who usually skips away from all consequences-- and so Perseus is going to go on a quest to save Andromeda but then he's going to meet Medusa, and meanwhile Andromeda's working to take care of her own situation just in case Perseus doesn't make it back in time, AND))

So I need to cast Perseus and Medusa, it looks like. Also, Andromeda. Suggestions always welcome.

*plots*