"God protect me from what I want/And these places that you haunt"

[shadesong]

I'm taking tomorrow as a writing day, so I forwarded what I have of issue #5 to myself at work, so I can reread and get back into the flow. And I was thinking about the story on my way in today, and the title "and these places that you haunt" popped into my head as a good issue title. Problem is, it's already taken.

The subject line of this post is two lines from the bridge of "This Town", by Oysterband. The minute I heard this song, I seized on that... and these places that you haunt. That, and a phone conversation I had, sparked a story in my head... the story of Alexa - Lex - a young Guardian who's declared herself retired. She was working with a crew, a spook squad of sorts, in Vegas; something went massively horribly wrong, and she secured her team and bolted. Having settled down Way Far Away and declared herself to be just another soccer mom, she gets a call from Griffin, one of the old crew, telling her that Kellen - her old partner and the father of her daughter - is missing and presumed dead. And Lex has to go back to the place that haunts her and assume her mantle and find Kellen... or lay his spirit to rest.

This is similar, thematically, to the Bordertown story I've had in my head for years. I was one of the few 'townies on the Bordertown BBS that never wrote a Btown story, and well, I did, actually, it's just that it's all still in my head. Tamlayne. Yeah, a Bordertown adaptation & update of Tam Lin (info about Tam Lin here: http://www.tam-lin.org/ ), with Janet as a scruffy little punk-rock girl...who loses, who's unable to hold onto her Tamlayne and save him.

Common theme, of course, being the inability to save the baby's father. Which is something that still haunts *me*. That I did not do enough for Layne, that I should have saved him. And I guess the reason I haven't written these stories is that when I write them... it will be over. And he *will* be laid to rest. For good or ill, the circle will be closed.

But right now, I'm going to concentrate on Shayara. I have a team of psychometrists at the crime scene, years ago and far away, and Shawn is listening in on the line...

I'm going in.

Comments

[martinhesselius.livejournal.com]

I do like the Tam Lin site. FWIW, Tam Lin and True Thomas were the two main influences on my Moonlit Queen of Elphane and Harper.

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

Oooh, nifty stuff!

I've always felt extremely drawn to Tam Lin in particular... I even have Charles Vess's Tam Lin print (second from the bottom here: http://www.greenmanpress.com/merch/prints.html ) above my computer. There's just something in the ballad that resonates with something in me, at a very deep level...

[martinhesselius.livejournal.com]

Oooh, nifty stuff!

Thank you. And I'm impressed by what I know of your Shayara story/stories, as well - but you already knew that. ::Smile:: Hmm... I like the print. It seems to capture some of Janet's tenacity, and the Queen of Faerie's aloofness. Hmm... there is something about Miles' Cross that reminds me of the Ympe Tree from Sir Orfeo, as well as the Axis Mundi / Bo tree / World Ash (Yggsdrasil) / Tree of Truth (Thomas Rhymer of Ercildoune) / Tree of Knowledge / Tree of Life. It is a place neither in one world or the other. Ack! Rambling. Sowwy. ::Grin!::

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

Thank you. :) We're just getting started with Shayara... there's a lot there!

You and I need to just hang out and ramble about old ballads sometime. :)

[martinhesselius.livejournal.com]

I would not object.
::Smile::

[amberfox.livejournal.com]

You have read Pamela Dean's novel adaptation of Tam Lin, then, I hope?

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

Yep. Mine isn't anything like it, though... have you read any of the Bordertown books?

[amberfox.livejournal.com]

No. Actually, I don't think I've ever even heard of Bordertown before; it doesn't sound familiar.