Okay, this isn't *about* bells, but it incorporates them....

MEMO
Re: S. Claus makeover

Our client, Mr. Claus, has come to us with a problem. His primary goal -- slipping in, leaving presents, and slipping back out unnoticed -- is fraught with possibilities for discovery. In this day and age of high-tech surveillance equipment and nannycams, the odds of the Jolly Elf being caught in the act are greater than ever. To minimize that risk, we recommend the following:

* eliminate jingle bells, as they create too much noise
* limit self to one "ho ho ho!" per house (see above, re: noise)
* trade reindeer for stealth bomber, as reindeer on a rooftop are unusual and will attract undue attention; also run the risk of leaving behind tell-tale Holiday Dung
* lose weight; people remember a man of his size more easily (also, less likely to get stuck in chimney if thinner)
* change costume from bright red velvet trimmed with white fur to something in a matte black or charcoal grey, possibly in a jersey or gabardine; think ninja, not Liberace

To sum up: less jolly, more stealth = a risk-free holiday season for our client.

Bwah!

DebetEsse: I like it. A Circle of Siblings sort of thing. Watching kids grow up and out of their older selves is always so interesting.

Teppy: Bwah!

Debet! I like it, and I'm thrilled you're starting to post here.

Teppy just made me startle my cat with loud laughter.

Inspired by Santa->Holiday->back to bells...

The holiday season is a melodic phrase.

"Hark how the bells, sweet silver bells, all seem to say, throw cares away..."

It plays on the stereo in my house every year, as we decorate the Christmas tree.

I sang it in church choir twice in my youth, first as an unchanged seventh-grade "tenor," and then as a full-voiced senior-year tenor.

I sang it in college at the Christmas concert, the lone tenor voice in our almost-octet.

A simple song, a beautiful song, a song designed for voices. A song designed for the holidays.

My holiday song.

I was JUST about to post that I earwormed myself with the Carol of the Bells!

I was JUST about to post that I earwormed myself with the Carol of the Bells!

Totally unavoidable.

My head can sing all four parts at once. It's kind of awesome. I wish my voice could do that too.

Man, I am LOVING these drabbles. What an incredible variety of stuff. I have an idea for one, but haven't quite put it together yet...

Your drabbles have been momentarily interrupted so that I can follow deb's lead and post a lyric. I'm posting this one 'cause I like it, and 'cause I can't really work out what to do with it. It's not hard enough for my boys' band. Please resume your regularly scheduled drabbling thereafter.

walking on down

i'm walking on down again tonight
i'm walking on down again tonight
don't wait for me, i got a ways to go
'cause i'm walking on down again

grows the crocus in the early morn
falls the locus of the poisoned dawn
let me whisper sorrows in your ear
still you'll miss her with every breath of fear

stray dog choking on a bit of broken bone
old man smoking on his curb of cobblestones
drops of ether fall on the lens of morning
you'll be with her waking without warning

still walking on down again tonight
walking on down again tonight
don't you wait for me, i got a ways to go
still walking on down again tonight

Anyone want to help me pick a title for the work-in-progress? I've been calling it Anna and the Sergeant, to parallel its prequel, Lucy and Mr. Wright. I like the Lucy title. While it's not an old-school traditional Regency, it has much the feel of one--it's just 20,000 words too long and a little too sexy. So I think the retro title works well. But Anna's story is very different. Where Lucy is a comedy of manners taking place at a house party in pastoral English countryside, Anna is a gritty war story with death and sex and forbidden passion across the class divide. So I feel like the existing title doesn't fit. Now, I know publishers often change titles, but I want to make sure my title fits, A) to make it easier to market it and B) to increase the odds of the publisher keeping it and not saddling my poor book with some generic, forgettable title like Dangerous Passion or Forbidden Ecstasy.

Which is all a longwinded way of asking if I should keep my current title or go with something like The Sergeant's Lady.