Smatterings, plus a "The Gryphon & the Basilisk" extract

          Smatterings, plus an extract from Narenta 3: 
                 The Gryphon & the Basilisk, volume 2

Smatterings

The Mica Keyhole
This story fragment was inspired by the artistry of Amy Brener (Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts; Art and Science Journal (circa Dec 15 2013)

Amy uses “cast resin, concrete and pieces of trash...” plus “...glass and fresnel lens to create light sensitive sculptures”. I found a photo of one of her pieces in A&SJ which inspired the following story snippet. 

"We straggle to a stop within the last sheltering trees & study the cliffside blocking our way.

The slanted crease we thought a passageway is lichen & plants none of us recognize. What now? 

Slivers of winter sun peek down through high branches & wander over our barrier. 

First one and then another of us cries out, 

"Look!" 

"There!" 

"Did you see?" 

We rush toward the fugitive sparkle. 

"A keyhole?" 

"Impossible!" 

"Why here?" 

"Does it matter? We have no key." 

"Wait! Look through it!"

(If you have any idea about what happens next, go for it!)

A Children's Story in cognito

I've been trying to find the title of a YA book I read decades ago. Not remembering it is still driving me crazy! (Now you know how I got this way.)

Here's what I remember:

Gargoyles(?) take over a town. The adults, including the mayor, don't notice so it's up to the children to save everyone. 

The gargoyles are either pretending to be the mayor and the other adults or they're controlling them.

One of the children gets counsel from a sage-like person or animal, who tells the child to "Call a spade a spade."

Which may mean if you use the real name of the gargoyle --or its captive adult(?)--the humans become their normal selves. The gargoyles's lose their power and their true appearances are revealed, making it easy for everyone to chase them out of the village.

Lipstick Shoes

Once upon a time, I dreamed that I was going somewhere fancy in a lacy dress. Someone suggested some shoes but I said I had a kit for making them. 

Evidently, a company sent me a free trial offer where you drew the shape of the shoes that you wanted to wear on your feet. When satisfied with the design, you did something or other and the drawn pattern became actual shoes. 

The drawing material was very much like a tube of lipstick --in an obnoxious pink like fake strawberry whip. I wanted to create elegant sandles but produced worn loafers. I wanted to "erase" part of the stuff but had no idea how to do it.

Which seems a good segue into the Gryphon and the Basilisk extract.

Narenta 3: 
                 The Gryphon & the Basilisk, volume 2

Have you read fantasies where a woman resists wearing a dress? I read comments to a blog entry once where that was being discussed at length.

Strange. I’ve commited a millions words to p/a/p/e/r/ back-up disk, but I don't remember  writing a scene where a strong female character rejected wearing an elaborate dress as long as it was in keeping with the situation. Earthen visitors are champions of the Narentan people against the Shadow during their brief visits to the other planet. Since a few of my characters come from Earth, they usually arrive in jeans. Some of the "Outworlders" wear chain or hardened leather "on the job".

There are exceptions.

Here are two connected scenes drawn from "The Gryphon and the Basilisk 2", chapter 40, which together shows such an exception. The character names have been changed from those I used in G&B. Hey, you never know! The Gryphon & the Basilisk may be published some day. All three/four volumes of it. By which time maybe the covers should feature flying pigs?

These extracts take place on Narenta. (duh)

The two Earth women mentioned here were captives of the "bad guys" for several weeks and were freed by some Narentans just a bit over a week ago.

They and their rescuers are now in a "safe house"--or so they believe--and an evening of celebration has been planned by their host.


“Good! You’ll go if it will help Boris.” Waros grinned. “And Angela will go if I borrow a gown for her from the archon’s daughter.”

Angela nodded. “I hope he has one. I’ll go anyway, Waros. You two are up to something and I want to be in on it this time.”

Laurie laughed. “Nothing mysterious.”

“Ooh! That means it is mysterious!”

Laurie followed Waros to the door of their room. Before the fighter could open the door, she stopped him. 

With a glance behind her at Angela, she whispered, “Do you really think this will force his hand? Won’t he just stay up here?”

***

(Later)
Her arms uplifted, Angela spun around in a circle.

“How’s this? Is this in style? I thought the skirt would be all puffed up and full like Cinderella’s.”

Her gown was nearly form-fitting to the waist and only slightly flared below that, the dark blue satin gored in flaming red.

Laurie mused, “You don’t think Cregic will find that a little overwhelming?”

Anglea asked in perplexity. “Cregic? Oh, that kid.” She smiled. “Yeah, I suppose he will.” The smile became a rather silly grin.

Laurie whispered, “Whoa! Angela the vamp? Remember, we have a job to do! Don't get distracted!

"Someone’s at the door. Can you get it? I can't find my shoes.”

Angela opened the door.

“Wow! Lord Boris, so glad you decided to go down after all! Is that what the best-dressed enchanters are wearing this year? You look great in navy. That’s a neat lion around your neck, too.”

She winked over her shoulder, then turned back to him. 

“Why Boris, we match! Navy and navy! It must be a sign.”

She stretched her arms toward him, and sighed in a seductive accent, “Darling, come with me to the Casbah and we’ll make beautiful music together.”

Boris gaped at her in astonishment.

Angela shrugged and pointed. “Oh, don’t worry about Laurie! We’ll just tell her it was bigger than the both of us.”

She reached up and gave the perplexed enchanter a peck on the cheek. Lifting her weapon, she slipped past him into the hallway and out of sight.

Boris stared after her a moment and then turned to Laurie. He whispered, “Do you think it wise to let her go downstairs like that?”

“Oh, she’s not drunk! It’s stuff from old movies. She’s just horsing around.”

“Horsing?”

“Teasing.”

Melwood Forest in The Provence of The Two Rivers, Tethra, Narenta

Four Stories Incognito

Have you ever known the entire plot of a story but can't remember the author or the title? I have and so have friends. Films can be worse since they have more variables. You begin describing what happened, only to stray from the plot in pursuit of an actor's name, the film title or the director.

At least we're not the only people with this problem. Someone on a mailing list just asked the group for help identifying the title of "a time-travel movie" which "takes place at a party". I could only sympathize. Is anything more frustrating than trying to use IMDb when you don't know the title, the director or actors? In my experience searching IMDb armed with just a plot is fool's errand territory. With luck, the database may remind you of a couple movies you had forgotten.

Are you burdened with a years long search for the title of a book, story or movie? If so, you might want to write about it in the Comments. Someone may know the answer.

~~~~~

The titles and authors of four stories have eluded me for years. 

When I was in college, I read a pastiche of Homer's "Iliad" set in modern times or rather what was modern times back then. Really all I remember about this book is characters talking and flirting at parties. Rereading is pretty low priority. I would just like to know the author's name.

~~~~~

I read a YA or children's book in elementary school or junior high in which gargoyles (maybe) had taken over a town. I think the gargoyles were pretending to be the mayor etc or else they were controlling those people in some way. Possibly the adults were unaware of what was going on, so only the young protagonists could save everyone.

A girl (?) received counsel from a sage(?) or wise animal. They told her/him that the solution was "to call a spade a spade."  If you named the fake person with their real identity--aka that they were a gargoyle or whatever they were--they lost their power.

Does anyone remember a book based on that garbled description?

~~~~~

Perhaps early in my twenties I read an engrossing but gritty time-travel story--the kind where the author alternates present and past day scenes. The plot is very complex.  I only remember one scene with any certainty. It involves a pregnant woman who may have been having an affair. A woman, possibly an in-law who is a midwife, helps with the delivery but she loathes the baby's mother. She takes the baby, leaving the mother to die. 

For years, I was convinced the book's title was either "The Octagon Room" or "The Octagon House" but trying to use that title to search for the book didn't help.  I have no clue re the rest of the plot or the author.  It's not Andre Norton, who actually did write a book with that title--which is probably why I latched on to it as the title of my mystery book.

~~~~~

The last mystery story is the one I would like most to solve.

I bought a paperback of fantasy stories in very late 2000 or 2001. The largest entry was either a novelette or a novella. I lean toward the latter. The author was a well-respected fantasy author but I have no idea who she is. Based on when I bought the book, I assume it was published in 1999 or 2000. I wonder how many fantasy anthologies were published during those years. Anyway, I told a teenaged girl how good the story was & she asked to borrow the book. I lost contact with her shortly after that and she never returned it.

I recall a substantial part of the plot compared to my other mysterious books. Does any of this sound familiar? I would so love to know who wrote this story!

The protagonist is a young woman being held captive in a tiny suite of rooms on the top floor of a keep. The story is entirely in her POV. It's winter, brutally cold and her garments aren't made for the season. If she wants to see outside she has to step out on to a tiny balcony. The balcony offers no escape route but she can look down at a small building surrounded by a high wall. (A wing of her building?)

Within that wall a man older than she is and of some importance is being held captive. He walks about the bit of grounds every day. Eventually he looks up when she's on the balcony and sees her. He takes care to look away and never calls out to her--possibly to prevent their captors from realizing they've seen each other?

Periodically, a man with a guard visits the woman. He asks her questions she can't answer, in fact questions she doesn't understand. Back when I read this, I theorized that the woman might have amnesia about recent events in her past, severe enough that she couldn't understand the context the questions. Near the end of the story, I began wondering if her captors might have the wrong person in custody. Her interrogator frightens her because he has say over her living conditions, possibly her life, and because he gets increasingly frustrated with each visit. I don't remember him physically hurting her. I think, maybe, he can put psychological pressure on her via magic. Or not.

My remaining memories of the plot are pretty scattered. The people in the castle are at war, likely with people in another part of their own country. The captive man is of high rank, perhaps an earl, and they may be holding him for ransom in the European middle ages sense. His son/nephew visits him briefly. The earl has much more freedom in his captivity than the heroine does. He uses it to send blankets and warm clothes up to her. At their traditional winter feast (Yule?) she receives a basket of non-prisoner type food from him and an encouraging note. I think she's able to send a note in return.

She guesses that their captors have lost the war when the earl is released and rides away. Eventually she's freed from her living quarters. Having nowhere to go or rather not knowing where home is, possibly due to amnesia, she stays in the keep. She spends her days half-expecting and hoping the earl will send for her. He doesn't, but news arrives that he and his bride-to-be have been reunited and that their wedding is imminent. Giving up the now obviously misplaced hope of the earl's return, the protagonist begins working in the keep. (perhaps as a maid?)

A very dissatisfying end for someone hoping for a romantic conclusion!

~~~~~

Now it's your turn, oh fellow losers of plots or titles or names of characters and actors. Have fragments of stories eluded you for years to the point where you no longer expect a solution?

Take heart! Describe your plight. Maybe someone will know exactly what you're talking about.