Tew's Day

Administration
Hello to new readers ambelies_26 and ammepyre!

Medical
Exhaustion + nausea, and that's it so far, but the nausea's really profound and has been all weekend. I don't think I'm eating enough.

EDIT: Ach - note that I keep forgetting because it's gone by the time I get here - I get dizzy & get heart palpitations in the shower. Standing up too soon after waking up, I think. I think this can be solved just be taking things slower in the morning, but I do not have that luxury so long as I'm in Atlanta.

Also - I am what I call out of shape, but what docorion calls deconditioned. I'm not managing my walks well. Still, I persevere.

Over the weekend
Am still feeling fragile.
I created a gimp_squad community.
At docorion's request, I created a "care and feeding of 'song" wiki.

Wikis are the new blogs!

Cyberpunk Junkie
Just so you know, Hammerjack by Marc Giller is rocking my socks. And I'm wearing my Supergirl socks, so that means something.

Icons
I need a "Cyberpunk Junkie" icon, man. And I still need a '50s-clipart icon that says "PSA!". And a Boston one.

Blog-A-Thon

I won't be doing Blog-A-Thon this year.

I hate that. First time since I became aware of Blog-A-Thon that I haven't done it.

( Why? )

But this is not a bitching-about-health post. I'm just telling you why I'm not pulling an all-nighter.

The thing is this: In past years, I've raised almost $2,000 per year for charity.

That's kind of addictive. And I still want to do it.

And I was planning on changing charities this year. In the past, I've fundraised for RAINN.

But earlier this year, one of my LJfriends, tx_db8r, died of complications from probable viral meningitis. Liz had MS, and I was planning to raise money for her chosen charity, The National Multiple Sclerosis Society, in her memory.

I would still like to do a fundraising effort in her memory. Possibly coinciding with her birthday - July 13. Next week.

So my question for all of you is this - what would it take to get you to make a donation in Liz's memory? What can I do?

Timelining Act I

eyes_of_cyrene is reading back through tagged Shayara entries, and this reminded me how infernally difficult it probably is to try to keep my world straight from my little snippets here and there. The snippets don't come out of me in order. And very few people outside my head know the full outline of the story in any precise detail.

I started timelining in JavaMoonkey last week - had to stop when I got all agitated. (Yeah. That was *that* day.) And it struck me as funny that I had this:

Creation
The Fall (preceded by this)
The diaspora (outlined in intro story on the website)
Establishment of the Sanctuary
Creation of [character]
The stirrings of the call to return (also outlined in intro story)
Establishment of the Council
Creation of the Hounds
Birth of Alanna
Dissolution of the Talthar Kithrayna
Formation of the Kirayth
Julia's activation (seen in Shooting Star Comics Anthology #6)
The Purges

And then Our Story Begins... Yes. Millenia of Stuff. That's ignoring whole chunks of story - this is 100% bare-bones. All of that. Oh, and then Our Story Begins. *headdesk*

And the reason I'm all floofy about timelining snippets I post is that I'm just playing; most of this stuff won't make it into the comic. A lot of it happens before Our Story Begins. It's just background. This needs to have happened to Fenris, or Jeramie, or Jessamyn, in order for events to be as they are when Our Story Begins. Never mind that you'll never meet Jessamyn. Things that happened to her as a teenager shape Fenris and the core of Kirayth, shape Jeramie, shape Capri... and I like to know.

So. That all happened before the story began.

Want to tag more, but Memories are down. Again. *eyeroll*

What comes next?

As Our Story Begins, the Talthar Kithrayna meets in secret, at the prompting of Kieran (see intro story on website). He pushes through a vote to search for a girl who may or may not exist - Julia ni'Tamra, fourth daughter of Katrina Stone and Stephen ni'Tamra, presumed stillborn until that flare four years ago. Because hard evidence that Alanna is the Lishaya is in very short supply - and if there is a Lishaya, Julia is the best candidate.

Mission goes to Tessa and her crew of nomads, who take on the job on their way to pick up a profoundly damaged young Dasaroi girl who will soon be calling herself Lyric.

And that's most of Act I: Split between Shayara itself and the escalating situation there, getting to know those characters, and Tessa and her crew on the road - particularly the developing bond between Napalm and Lyric.

And I don't think I'll be spoiling anything to say that the very last event of Act I = them finding Julia.

And I'll be closing the first TPB on a hell of a cliffhanger there.

But. Does that help any? What can I add?