(no subject)

[derien]

I needed two long rests during yesterday's walk, but I got some writing done on Chapter 9 of Swept Away during those breaks. :) Today I finished up putting the drawstring in the pyjamas (good lord I hope you have a better method than what I devised, littleredhead, because that took me for freaking ever and I kept sewing the drawstring down by accident and having to rip out stitches!), and typed up all of the stuff I've written over the past ... however long it's been. My god. Now it's hanging over poor Eor's head to proofread. And I got up to Chapter 8 posted on my trivial little website - for some reason the project of posting it on my own website had been languishing. (Although the font on Ch 8 needs to be fixed. Tomorrow.) I also had a walk, did a little cleaning (not much), and fooled around with my dulcimer a bit. I tried to tune it, but not really having a musical ear, who knows. And my brother, Hawk called. He's just recently moved in with his gf, which is going... kind of up and down, apparently.

Also I watched the rest of the Hitchhiker's Guide tv show. Love that version. Ford looks so damned young and cute to me, now. :)

Comments

[kryptyd.livejournal.com]

You have a dulcimer?! How long have I known you, and I only find this out now? I love those things ever since I was a young kid and woke up in the night to hear music downstairs and was was completely convinced that the fairies were having a party down there because I had never heard anything like it. It turned out to be just my folks and a load of their hippy mates, one with a dulcimer, but it's still a happy memory.

I'm delighted there's more Swept Away! to read. I'll have to go back to the start again though, because it's been a while since I read it. But that's no hardship.

[derien.livejournal.com]

I was a young kid and woke up in the night to hear music downstairs and was was completely convinced that the fairies were having a party down there because I had never heard anything like it

I had the same reaction when I heard the one my teacher had when I was a kid!

You didn't know I had this one because I never play it. It's been mostly an ornament on our wall (or, right now, on top of the barrister bookcase) pretty much since my grandfather made it for me - and he died shortly after I began keeping this journal, around seven years ago I believe. It's a mountain dulcimer, shaped much like this one (http://www.boredbard.com/CDcover.jpg). (My teacher's was the hourglass shape, pretty much exactly like this (http://www.musicalinstrumentsandmore.com/image_manager/attributes/image/image_3/8451331_2423775.JPG).)

And I don't know if it's that I can't tune it (probably) or if my lack of coordination and stiffness in my fingers has gotten much worse since I was a kid (likely) or if I've become more critical, but the noises I make with it sound pretty cacophanous to me, now!

I heard a guy at the Faire playing a hammer dulcimer (http://www.marcillewallis.com/Dulcimer_hands.jpg), and talk about fairy music, though... oh my. Looks difficult to play, to me, though.

[kryptyd.livejournal.com]

I never heard of a mountain dulcimer! How pretty!

It was a hammer dulcimer at that party, all those years ago.

[derien.livejournal.com]

I kind of thought that would be the case, as I think the mountain dulcimer was developed in the U.S., the Appalacian mountains. I don't even know why it has the same name, with such a different structure, but it does sound like fairy music when played right. Maybe it's the combination of strings, such that it gives a similar sound even though it's played differently?

[derien.livejournal.com]

(And I didn't want you to imagine me playing something really difficult. Seriously, what I do cannot be called 'playing' at all.)

I also wanted to thank you for your kind words re Swept Away. I've been poking along so badly on this story that everyone has to go back and re-read whenever I put up a new chapter, and it seems really unfair to put people through that. It must test some people's patience! In this chapter I can promise more physical contact, though I'm wondering if I should have played it up a little more slashy... if you want the sneak preview of the un-betaed chapter I'd be happy to send it along, so you can tell me if I should play up more "Tom's hightened awareness of their bodies touching" or that sort of thing. ;)