And we live to fight another day.

Mal ,'Objects In Space'


The Great Write Way, Chapter Two: Twice upon a time...  

A place for Buffistas to discuss, beta and otherwise deal and dish on their non-fan fiction projects.


-t - Jun 01, 2006 7:30:57 am PDT #6886 of 10001
I am a woman of various inclinations and only some of the time are they to burn everything down in frustration

I was thinking along those lines, Liese, but yours more sharp and vivid than anything I was coming up with.

Because deb's reminded me of a fairy tale:

The daughters who said they loved him more than gold and jewels had cast him out and kept the treasure. The daughter he had cast out for not loving him enough had taken him in. She had won her kingdom without his help or blessing, yet she opened it to him.

It took a banquet of his favorite dishes turned bland and tasteless to convince him. She loved him more than salt. At last he understood.

Did he weep for the wasted years and wrong choices, his tears flavoring the food? Or did each flavorless bite fill him with joy?


deborah grabien - Jun 01, 2006 7:32:07 am PDT #6887 of 10001
It really doesn't matter. It's just an opinion. Don't worry about it. Not worth the hassle.

Oh, lovely, _t!


SailAweigh - Jun 01, 2006 8:24:05 am PDT #6888 of 10001
Nana korobi, ya oki. (Fall down seven times, stand up eight.) ~Yuzuru Hanyu/Japanese proverb

OMG, you guys rock! I can't single anyone out because you were all so very excellent. I'm thinking on mine, now and, hopefully, will actually have time later to write it down. Too. damn. busy. Keep on writing, please! Everyone has taken a topic I honestly thought didn't have that much to say and have said so much. Made of awesome, you are.


juliana - Jun 01, 2006 8:34:31 am PDT #6889 of 10001
I’d be lying if I didn’t say that I miss them all tonight…

Life By The Drop

His comfort food used to come from the grill – veggie skewers, T-bone steak, pineapple with teriyaki sauce brushed on. He made it all himself – he was a fantastic and dedicated cook, grilling at all times, even in winter.

Gradually, the grill fell into disuse, the comfort food replaced by another kind. Corn mash, filtered through maple charcoal and aged in oak for two years, drunk with water and ice. Hey, at least he was still getting his vegetables, right? That’s what he told himself, that’s what we told each other as we watched him waste away. That's how it happens, sometimes.


-t - Jun 01, 2006 8:55:22 am PDT #6890 of 10001
I am a woman of various inclinations and only some of the time are they to burn everything down in frustration

Thanks, deb. I wasn't sure if that one was working.

Ouch, Juliana. The, I don't know, atmosphere of that one just hurts.


deborah grabien - Jun 01, 2006 1:14:30 pm PDT #6891 of 10001
It really doesn't matter. It's just an opinion. Don't worry about it. Not worth the hassle.

That's how it happens, sometimes.

God. Yes. And sometimes we don't notice and can't do a damned thing to make it stop.


Steph L. - Jun 01, 2006 3:14:48 pm PDT #6892 of 10001
I look more rad than Lutheranism

This was supposed to be about macaroni & cheese, damn it. But it wanted to be this, instead:

* * * * * *

Comfort. Food.

The phrase, of course, is a lie. Food offers me no comfort; it never really has. Nothing human hands can cook has the capacity to comfort me when my heart is bruised or my mind refuses to be still. What I need instead are those hands themselves, those arms holding me close.

Failing that, I turn yet again to the pantry. It's always there. But that's all that food can offer me – its presence. It's there, it's constant, mine for the asking. If it were a person, that truly would be comfort. Instead, it's just a poor substitute that ultimately leaves me empty.


SailAweigh - Jun 01, 2006 5:34:42 pm PDT #6893 of 10001
Nana korobi, ya oki. (Fall down seven times, stand up eight.) ~Yuzuru Hanyu/Japanese proverb

Finally got it down on "paper."

Comfort Food

She looked at the grocery bags, her nerves calm. Inside one bag could be found sirloin tips to braise with onions and peppers, noodles to be coated with butter and chives, chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce. She stared at the seven bags; they had cost her four hundred dollars. It was worth it for the comfort she could find in them.

Later that night, feeling nervous, she stood over the toilet bowl for the fourth time. All the groceries were gone, nothing left in which to take comfort--only an empty soul and an empty wallet.


Liese S. - Jun 01, 2006 9:33:46 pm PDT #6894 of 10001
"Faded like the lilac, he thought."

It's interesting, isn't it, how we can get down to the blood and darkness in anything? There's always something deeper to be explored. These last two were both really strong, Steph & Sail. And I can definitely relate to yours, Steph. It is about that availability, and control, and constancy.

Mine ended up sharper than I intended. I can never tell. Sometimes I really bleed over them and I temper it somehow, and sometimes I just don't. But I never know what it's going to be until it's out. Anyway, now that I got the bile out, I have a sweet one brewing, too. But I'll sleep on it. Try for it this weekend.


SailAweigh - Jun 02, 2006 4:00:07 am PDT #6895 of 10001
Nana korobi, ya oki. (Fall down seven times, stand up eight.) ~Yuzuru Hanyu/Japanese proverb

I relate a lot more to Steph's, myself. But since she wrote it, I had to find something else! A very close friend of mine is bulimic and I can remember being mesmerized by her stories of excess. She told me, once, that a bulimic's esophogus can burst from the erosion done by vomiting and I used to have nightmares of walking into the bathroom and finding her in a pool of blood. I was one of the first people she ever admitted this to and I think sometimes I would have rather lived in ignorance. But, yes, it is amazing how something that is intended to nourish our bodies gets so much symbolism attached to it and it's actually lower on Maslow's hierarchy of needs than love is. I guess when you feel unloved you can't go higher on the list to meet that need so you have to go lower and make it fit.