...right

Well, okay. I wake up and my brain has happily presented me with Peter/Caspian in England, where Caspian has somehow fallen from Narnia into England and has been wandering around for a few years now -- and has been really confused, obviously -- before he ends up in the same bar that Peter walks into. And they blink at each other in astonishment and relief (on Caspian's part) and then Peter takes Caspian back to Casa Pevensie, where the other Pevensies kind of do the same thing. And Susan has a moment, because she's just been starting to tell all the other Pevensies they're crazy like crazy things.

And then...something.

you ain't been to heaven till you been down here

Dude. I just realized I have a totally legitimate reason for making Cair Paravel New Orleans, and it doesn't have anything to do with the Cair Paravel of now (a.k.a. Dust), but the Cair Paravel of Caspian's time. Of course Cair Paravel neighborhoods are going to (originally) be divided up between humans (Telmarines) and nonhumans (Narnians). Of course. Now, three hundred years later that may have changed to more ordinary demarcations of rich and poor, noble and commoner, but when it started out, it would have been Telmarine and Narnian, just like New Orleans was Creole (the French Quarter) and American (the Garden District). (Obviously this did not happen when New Orleans was founded, but it goes back there, you know.)

This realization brought to you by my Natural Diasters professor's use of the phrase "neutral ground" during the field trip on Saturday, and my subsequent googling, which gave me this tidbit of trivia. And it is SO PERFECT that I am borrowing it. (Along, with, like half the other stuff in New Orleans. Going through my Cair Paravel is like trying to pick out all the New Orleans references. Garden District! Drink! Mare's Quarter! Drink!)

(...I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that "Sangria Street in the Mare's Quarter, the most notorious street in Cair Paravel" is pretty friggin' obvious.)

*winces*

You know those days when you feel a little dizzy but don't really have a headache, you can't concentrate (and don't you love it when that's a week before a paper's due?), your throat hurts, etc., etc.? Yeah.

And I'm all frustrated over the fact that I haven't fucking produced anything. Dust is moving along at a rate of, like, 500 words per day, which doesn't sound that bad until you remember the time I turned out about 7K in five hours. Also the day I wrote 10K.

And even if you put Dust aside, I've still got a fair handful of WIPs -- the post-LWW fic (which is moving slowly if only because I'm handwriting at the moment), and Human Voices (no one get me started. no, seriously), and Old Timber (ARGH. that is all I have to say on that subject), and Must Be Tuesday (which is just plain missing something, and I can't figure out what the hell it is), and Legend (DEATH. I just don't want to think about anything PC related), and Water (waiting for my last two betas to get back to me, and then, god, it's back into the salt mines, although I don't want to work on Water until I finish up the Cair Paravel arc with Dust, although at this rate VotDT will come out before that happens). I FEEL SO UNPRODUCTIVE.

Although. Speaking of Tuesday, and I don't even know what state it's in right now because looking at it makes me cry (it's short, it's only 3K), is there anyone who wants to look at it and tell me what the hell is wrong with it? It's early Golden Age, Peter and Edmund and assassination attempts, and it's missing something. It has no soul.

Why, yes, before you ask. It is that time of month, and isn't life just fabulous? Maybe chocolate will help.

(no subject)

Oh my God, I just got the most gorgeous and heartbreaking idea for a pre-VotDT ficlet ever. I blame this on the fact I'm listening to Heather Alexander's album Arms of the Sea, although I'm about to switch to Celtic Woman in a moment to go back to Dust.

Oh, gosh, beautiful and gorgeous and heartbreaking and creepy. CREEPY LIKE WHOA.

Remnants of a vanished era...

(I mean, I could probably work this into Dust rather than a Caspian-era ficlet, but we'll see.)

quick question for the non-american english speakers

Okay, here's a quick question: is the use of the word "moonshine" so very American that it will really, really stand out in Dust, or is there a more British word that I should use instead?

The OED gives moonshine as being British originally, but it's so engrained in my head as being American that I have no perspective on it.

...no, seriously, it's for a throwaway comment. Dust! Totally legitimate! There is nothing illegal in this chapter! Except for all the other stuff.

ETA: Moonshine as homemade alcohol, I mean.