And a character piece, exploring one of my protagonists:

The general still rides as hard as any man in the army, but it’s been a year since he beat Jack at sword practice. Today he’s forty, the son of a father who never saw fifty. He has no house, no wife, no sons, nothing a man of his years should have--only an army that would fall apart without him.

He doesn’t lack for companionship. He has Jack for conversation, Margaret in his bed, though not as often as he’d like, and an army that marches at his whim. But he is alone. The center is a solitary point.

We're rocking the new thread! Awesome.

I have poetry like that, sarameg. It's handwritten in a folder somewhere (I think) and there are only two that I don't cringe to think about. I love poetry, but it's not my, uh, medium.

Post them, though! I love to read poetry.

How deeply amused am I that with the one thread we could kill with haiku and be on topic, we didn't? Deeply amused.

Great drabbles, though, all.

You should definitely post them, sarameg. I've got volumes and volumes from that age, probably quite horrid. But I always think one should share. Writing wants to be free!

Writing wants to be free!

Next thread title!

"You can't take the text from me!"

These all rock. I love the imagery in Sail's - it makes the whole deadline-driven creative process snap and sparkle. Beverly's makes me want to know what happens next.

Sara, thank you for sharing that. I agree with the others who say you should share more of these.

Susan, that sense of dread regarding aging and loneliness in yours hits close to home.

The center is a solitary point.

I love this. By itself it's just a bland geometric truth, but put into context it holds so much more meaning on a personal level, something we can all feel.

Thanks, Anne and Sail! This character is the first major character I've written who's near my own age--I started writing seriously right after I turned 30, but I've tended to write 20-somethings. So it's a change from my usual coming-of-age and seeking adventures to have someone who's a bit further along on the journey.

ION, DH wants to buy me this shirt: [link]

It's time to play "Help Susan Name a Character" again! English woman, upper class, born around 1780, slim, dark hair, pale skin, light eyes. So far I've determined that she's very intelligent and possessed of a certain practical ruthlessness that makes her a wonderful person to have around in a crisis, but she's not exactly what you'd call sweet or warm-hearted, and if you stood between her and something she wanted, she'd find a way to justify shoving you out of the way.

The name can't start with A, C, J, or M. Some possibilities I've thought of:

Beatrice
Eleanor
Elizabeth
Frances
Georgiana
Hermione
Isabella
Olivia
Philippa

Do any of those sound especially right or wrong for such a character, or can you think of anything in the same vein? I'm inclined toward Hermione. Is it too soon to have a Hermione outside of Harry Potter?

I like Philippa, which is English and the fact it contains a male name is a subtle hint of her determination.