bedlamsbard | I blame Sarah Connor and Nancy Botwin

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I blame Sarah Connor and Nancy Botwin

...the colonial fantasy novel is now going to include Lady Lucy Loring (oh god, I know), the single mother of the four siblings who raised them and was completely kickass awesome after her noble husband Colonel Richard Loring died/went missing only a few years after the penal colony he was governing was abandoned by the government.

Because. Everyone should have a strong mother figure who raises her kids to be awesome. It also makes me make the siblings slightly younger, which I like if only for the complete cultural FAIL that happens later, what with the home government coming back and all. And makes it MUCH more logical for them to be raised as -- to some extent -- royalty, without them all having the authority dropped on them at once. Because that makes no sense whatsoever, especially considering that Jaime (the oldest) was originally, like, somewhere between twelve and fifteen when Richard died (and the mother originally died in childbirth), and it's a PENAL COLONY; the hardened criminals aren't going to listen to soldier boy's kid, you know? But his wife, now -- strong-willed woman, four young children, abandoned in the wilderness with a bunch of criminals -- now there's something.

Also, this means I can make Jaime, like, somewhere between five and eight when Richard drops that whole, "Take care of them. Take care of them all," thing on him AS HE'S DYING (Jaime is probably the most screwed up of the siblings), and also means that the Loring siblings are much, much scarier because they've had more time to get that way. There is a lot of culture shock. It's basically Narnia without the wardrobe. Or the magic. The incest is there, though.

And, you know, me being me, the most pressing question is: guns or no? Because I'm kind of torn. (And then the question becomes, I don't want, like, rifles and flintlocks and that sort of guns, I'd want to skip that stage and go straight to the automatics. (Maybe?) But that just brings up the question of, "Wouldn't they have the technology to, you know, not lose people?" And then on the other hand, that kind of negates the whole point of it being colonial fantasy. OH LORD HELP. Maybe we'll just go back to...WWI tech? Or back to Napoleonic Wars tech? Or just go to swords and bows?)

So, clearly, research for Lucy Loring's personality is going to involve me watching more Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles and Weeds. Strangely, I am perfectly okay with this. I'm not sure how much of a role she's going to play in the story, but it's going to be interesting.

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I love Lady Lucy Loring. She should play a big role. A very big role. Because fantasy needs more kickass women.

Yes. Yes, she should. I mean, I have to juggle stuff because original she didn't exist and it was all about the kids, but now -- I mean, Home Empire (or whatever, nothing has names yet except five characters; one of the kids doesn't even have a name yet) isn't exactly the most progressive thing out there; she's going to be marginalized for being a woman, and for being a strong woman, and for being in charge.

And then there are issues with her husband. And how she raised her kids.

OMG yes.

(I love strong women who also manage to raise children. You can tell this, because I am writing Alternate History Tudors, in which Elizabeth I never reigned, but her neice, Katherine Hapsburg y Tudor is alive and kicking and raising eight good Catholic children.)

And probably for picking up and moving on after her husband died, too. (She probably got into relationships. WITH OTHER PEOPLE.)

And, you know, did not immediately decide to conquer the local peoples around the colony.

My love increases exponentially with each new detail.

She did, in fact, MAKE FRIENDS with the locals. (Actually, there's a fairly strong possibility that her kids spent significant amounts of time with them -- Jaime went missing and got rescued once, and he and Victoria possibly started sleeping together there.)

OMG I LOVE YOU SO MUCH RIGHT NOW.

No, really. Penal colony fantasy with a Lady Loring and look, I don't even know, but obviously IT'S AWESOME.

Oh, and no guns. D: NONONO. NO GUNNNS.

Then again, that could just be completely personal prejudice there. I have a dislike of guns, have for a while now. I just don't like them, they're all long-distance and impersonal (and yeah, I know really all fighting tends to be impersonal, BUT) and I just like swords so much more.

I am so torn about the gun thing. I mean, on the one hand -- but then again on the other -- *flaps hands*

SHE IS SARAH CONNOR AND NANCY BOTWIN AND...are there other strong single moms along those lines? I feel that there must be, but I can't think of any.

And she's kind of awesome. I'm not really sure what her role in the story is going to be, but it's going to be kind of awesome. (Actually, I'm not really sure what the story is going to be aside from the Home Government coming back to take over about ten, fifteen years after they originally abandoned the colony, and in which there is a lot of culture clash.)

I know the dilemma, it can get rather difficult. D:

Strong single moms... eh, I don't know? I don't watch much TV. Like, Merlin. And maybe some Kings (because that guy playing David looks really cute. ALSO, BIBLICAL REWRITING. I AM SO DOWN WITH THAT).

I hate it when that happens to me! Lovely, amazing characters, all just wanting to be written and being all 'you loovee us, you know you do!' And yet, there... there is a main plot back there somewhere, right? RIGHT? Um, characters? ANYONE HAVE SOMETHING FOR ME TO WRITE?

At which point they all shuffle back and are all kind of *shifty eyes*. 'uhhhhh... well, we've got ... issues?'

But that does sound really awesome in general. And so Lady Lucy Loring and her four children are how old around this time? Oooooh, and have you got names for anyone other than Jaimes and the Lady?

... haha, now I have this image in my brain of everyone just saying 'The Lady' and everyone knows it's CAPITALIZED, OF COURSE, because that is just how awesome The Lady is.

Well, I know that the main plot is something along the general lines of "abandoned colony, Home Government comes back to take over, there is flailing about this, culture class, the colonists are torn because on the one hand it's the Home Government and on the other hand it's their damn land," and then there's another plot regarding the two oldest kids back at Home (which...is what I'm just calling the empire right now, because otherwise it has no name) when they get sent there for various reasons. And the dead father? He's...not so dead.

And possibly Lucy also gets shipped Home at some point and gets put on trial for adultery? Or something? I don't know. (The two younger kids, on the other hand, are missing.)

And let's not even get into the fact that Jaime and his next youngest sister, Victoria, are sleeping together and have been for a while now. And Lucy is...more or less all right with this, given the circumstances and some of the local customs? Or something? And the second son, Skandar (...shut up), runs the special forces branch of the military/secret service/oh my god whatever, while Jaime's the more public face.

Lucy's probably in her mid- to late- thirties? Jaime's the oldest, he's around twenty, give or take a year or two, and then Victoria (Tori) is about a year younger, Skandar's two years younger than her, and Littlest Sister (has no name) is two years younger than Skandar. She was probably around one or so when Richard went missing.

YOU ARE SO BRILLIANT, IT MAKES ME WANT TO CURL UP AND DIE.

Only I won't actually, because OMG ROMAN WALLS AND CREATURES AND THE LADY OF THE WALL and you really probably won't get ANY OF THAT because suddenly my brain, it is being all busy and even I'm not exactly sure what it thinks it's doing up there.

Haha, you and incest. ALSO SKANDAR, OMG LOL. Dead father not so dead OHSNAPWHATNOW.

Haha, I can just see the scandals, especially if Home is anything like England was around the time Australia was colonized (for some reason this is the comparison that fits best for me). The titters behind fans, the shock. "I've heard that the girl is never in her bed in the morning. They say she's sleeping with her brother." And because in my head these kids are kind of Pevensie-ish (I mean, really, you've even got the shadowy younger sister, because Lucy can be so awkward to write), everyone's also thinking "But dayum they're pretty together!"

Also, thinking about the capitalized The Lady made my brain think over a former Lady goddess I had once, and from there my mind drifted on to how there's obviously The Lady of The Wall in this random Hadrian's-wall-like place my brain is coming up with, and she was a real person not so long ago but she died and now HALF THE WALL PRAYS TO HER.

I am being really incoherent over here. Suffice it to say that my brain, it is working too fast for my fingers to keep up. *woe* And I now feel an urgent need to at least get some CHARACTERS down or something, and now I want to find out what this girl did that made her a DEMIGODDESS for the next hundred years till the lights go out. I mean, really. THAT'S OLD MAGIC THERE. *dies*

*snaps fingers* The youngest sister, she has a name and a personality! Her name is Julianne -- or possibly Juliet -- Jules for short.

Richard is very much with the not dead, and has been back at Home doing army stuff for the past ten years or so -- I mean, lobbying to go back to New Crane (which was the official name of the colony? maybe? maybe not) for a while now, obviously, but it never went through, so he's been colonel-ing along, doing his job, until the navy happened to find the colony again. At which point things get...interesting. They ship back Jaime first (and let me tell you, Jaime has MAJOR daddy issues, I mean MAJOR. He was the last person in the colony to see his father alive! He saw his father dying! He rode hellbent for leather back to the house with his father's life's blood drying on his face! His father's last words to him were, "TAKE CARE OF THEM ALL"!) and Richard tries to make him into a proper Homeland gentleman -- he actually wants him to go to the military academy as a cadet, and I think we can see that this is going to go badly. Then they ship Victoria home, which is at the same time Skandar and Jules go missing, and Jaime and Victoria take up with each other again. Of course, Richard is just trying to pretend that nothing's happened except some minor mishap that needs to be corrected as soon as possible, which, okay, NO. These kids are warriors and politicians and GROWNUPS, more or less.

He tries to marry Victoria off. That goes badly. And, oh, the rumors, which Richard steadfastly tries to ignore -- there are the rumors brought back with the sailors who ferried them Home, because it's fairly common knowledge, and of course that somehow makes its way into Society. As well as their level of education and/or civilization -- there are the people who just flock to the Society events to see them and wonder, "I heard they wear skins and speak in grunts!" "No, I heard that he eats with his bare hands!" and while they are more or less perfectly civilized -- different manners, different body language, different experience, but quite well trained by Lady Lucy -- one of these days Jaime's going to snap and do something savage just because he's tired off being stared at.

*cough* I...have certain parts of it thought out?

Oooh, that sounds interesting!

Hey, that sounds distinctly plot-like to me! Lucky you, I has no plot.

Jaimes, Tori, Skandar, Jules. Awwww. Although I feel an urge to point out that YOU WILL OBVIOUSLY NEVER ESCAPE FROM THE NARNIA FANDOM. EVER.

OMG I LOVE JAIMES. (He does sound a bit Peter-ish.)

See, the awesome thing is? It's really perfectly fine (if you end up doing that) to use part of your personalities for the Pevensies for these kids, because in canon-Narnia, the Pevensies have like thismuch characterization. Most of what you write about them is you expanding and being, y'know, BRILLIANT.

Hmm, how'd they 'lose' the Colony in the first place? Just pulled out? And what would make them do that?

OY RICHARD. JAIMES = 20-something. NOT A KID. *shakes heads* THEM DADS. REALLY.

Also, now I am SO CURIOUS as to why Skandar and Jules go missing. Haha.

I just feel like it's missing something. *ponders* I think it's maybe not concentrating enough on the overarching plot -- it's too much about the Loring Family Issues.

I know. I know. *dramatic sigh*

There was some kind of war or something about fifteen years earlier, and the Crown decided that they were going to cut their losses and leave the penal colonists alone while they fought the damn war. They were actually going to withdraw the governor (Colonel Loring), his family, and the troops present, but Loring elected to stay behind, along with some, though not most, of the troops. He did offer to send Lady Lucy and the kids away, but she said, "No, I'll stay with you," and they stuck it out. And then Home just kind of...lost track of the colony. It kind of became one of those legends, like the missing Roanoke colony, and it was pure accident that they actually found it later on.

The guy hasn't seen his kids in more than ten years! Hard to treat the boy you used to know as a very earnest eight-year-old as a grown man, warrior, and leader, especially when he's still about the same age that military cadets are, at which point they do still tend to be...pretty much kids. (The question here is if I go with, "Oh, let's make it a military academy," which is a little more modern, or go with purchasing commissions, which is more Victorian. Questions, questions. I like the academy, though.)

Skandar runs the Delta Force, sneak in through windows, steal documents, and cut throats, branch of the military, and he and Jules figured out that what was going down was NOT RIGHT; Home was going to screw over the colony. (They're also much more native than Homelander; they barely remember their father, while Jaime and Victoria distantly do.) Skandar and his team went off to track some of the politicos and military leaders around the globe, and eventually get Jaime and Tori back (as well as Lady Lucy, but she's got a couple aces of her own up her sleeve), and Jules stayed behind in the colony to hide out and watch from that end.

I think we may also meet Lady Lucy's two brothers, the Babingtons, who aren't particularly friendly with Colonel Loring and aren't happy that their sister and her children just got abandoned -- they're not happy with the way Jaime and Tori are being treated now, either. (Home Government was originally treating Jaime, sort of, the way they treat foreign dignitaries -- of the uncivilized, we are about to conquer your country, type -- and then they dumped Jaime on the colonel at some point. Tori got shipped in later. Lady Lucy didn't even get the dignitary treatment; they just dumped her with her brothers.)

Colonel Loring also has a live-in mistress.

AWESOMENESS.

Although I do have one question - if the Colonel said that he was going to stay behind in the Colony, how did it end up that he was dying when Jaimes saw him and then somehow got on a ship to Home? This confuses me.

Wait, and he's having Lady Lucy tried for adultery? BAD, HYPOCRITICAL COLONEL. *glares*

Don't places like Home ALWAYS screw over the colonies? Silly peoples.

Haha, lost colony (of Atlantis)! But if they actually forgot about the colony, thought it was a myth, it would have to have been barely developed etc., about zero maps/captain's logs to it. Also, if technology is very advanced at all, you're going to have records of it. And then there's the people withdrawn from it, surely they'd know it was there and would be advocating for a return?

*can be horribly annoying and detail-oriented*

*cough* The Colonel and Jaime were out hunting when they were attacked by...someone (locals?) and the Colonel was badly injured. He sent Jaime back to the colony for help, but when help got there, he was gone. What actually happened was that he was taken prisoner and eventually rescued by a wandering trader/missionary from a rival country (Home not being the only empire out there) and eventually, through some complicated procedure, got traded back Home.

I think he's pissed at Lady Lucy. It's a little up in the air regarding that point.

Well, for one thing, penal colony, so they're all, "Oh, the criminals can take care of themselves!", and the colony's just started. And I think the ship with all the records may have sunk. Or something. And it's in a dangerous part of the world and there are other countries out there with colonies in the general area; the colony may or may not actually have some contact with them, though more as an independent nation than as a Home colony.

Ooh. Oh dear. Poor Jaime. *pats poor boy*

Also, you're brilliant, and I have no more annoying detail-oriented questions ~~except for the exact style of dresses and the names of every lady in Home society and who's saying what when~~. :P

It sounds like a pretty awesome story, I really hope you develop it! *bounces in excitement* I mean, you probably won't post it on your LJ, but hopefully we'll get updates on how it's going if you decide to do it.

Jaime has Issues. The rest of them, not so much. I mean, yes, of course, but not nearly so much.

I want to write it, oh my god! I need a good original fantasy novel, anyway.

Truth? Halfway through your post I was so stunned by awesomeness to forgot you were talking about something not already written and was on my way to Amazon already to buy this.
IT SOUNDS *THAT* AWESOME.

I vote for Napoleonic tech. It feels fitting, cos you've got to have the significant tech advantage to do srs Imperialism. This is only slightly because I just read all five Temeraire books in a week. (Are you aware of the Sharpe series? Lots of Napoleonic gun action in that - and Sean Bean!)

Also? GO DO YOUR HOMEWORK.

Which is funny, because it doesn't have a title yet. *grins* Or...any words written. At all.

Oh, but the thing is that the Athenians managed it back in the day, and there have been Greek colonies forever, so you don't really need THAT significant of a tech advantage. I'm kind of playing with the idea of bringing in a little bit of magic, too -- I'm not sure how much, though. Maybe just the Scott Lynch amount in The Lies of Locke Lamora -- little things, some odd combinations of magic and science, etc. And then the locals are nonhumans? Although in some way that seems to be giving in to the cliches about colonialism, that the natives are lesser beings than the conquerors. *winces* But it's interesting.

I am aware of the Sharpe series! I am slowly working my way through them. And Temeraire, yum. I haven't read the fifth one yet; I'm waiting for it to come out in paperback so that my set will match (and also it will be cheapter), but I tore through the first three VERY QUICKLY when they first came out, then the fourth one when that followed.

...homework?

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I blame Sarah Connor and Nancy Botwin

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