Purple Monster

Eeek! Arg!!! I am not ready – not ready at all – eeek eek ek – of course this might be my problem with scifi stories – I’m never ready am I? I always get obsessed with researching the world and history and never write anything – well this time I have too! 30 days of manic writing and I should be well into my story by the end of November and hopefully I can then keep a similar pace up after nanowrimo is finished.

I am still aiming for 2000 words a day but I am going to have to continue my research and character building merliky!

I think I’ll put my actual story – warts and all up ever day and then a research/character/world building post every other day and then a how I’m coping with Nano on the missing days – hope that makes some sort of sense.

Well to all those who are taking part in this endevour – GOOD LUCK!

I also went to the first Gloucestershire meet last night – a sort of introduction thingy which was cool 🙂 And I’m looking forward to doing the write ins and drinking coffee 🙂

I wither inside everytime I see the bueaty that was him – its there is a thousand faces – ever generation he is there – in personality, in body motion, in face and yet none are him.

I look, befriend and cherish each I find but none are a perminate salve to the wound he left – those centries ago in desert heat. But time for such as he is so short, so quick I find them and they fade as remain the same. I do age but not like them. So fast you can almost see it happening and yet I can not forget him nor do I learn always picking up the next one and holding him close for a handful of years.

I love each – none of them are ever exact and each serse my heart and kills me a bit more until one day maybe I will be unable to love. Oh they love me but often when the apparent age gap is too wide they leave, no children yet for them, they need the saccour of fathering a child, to know they have made themselves as immortal as any human can get. I can not give them this and so they leave saying sweet things and longing to be youth personified once more – this is what they think I am.

But I am old, I feel it within me and I dispise what I am and yet I would not change it for death and I can die – that threat is always there, always lurking and squirming in my mind.

I have seen this culture grown, seen its seeds planted Millenia past and watched the distortions of religon and the change of lexicon. I know many things and I think I am basically human – maybe more so than those who are so genetically pure and to make me rentch – they can not know their origin – bred for specifics, to be slaves to the race they thought they were and as I saw the bodies piled high I could not but think of human origin and those of the Arian Elves of the Hatred of impurity that lead to annilation and almost the destruction of the world. Of the gene codes stripped naked and devoid of varience that lead to the death knell of a species already steeped in blood as they washed away their genetic cousins in war.

They bred humans – slave stock to ease the toil of the gods, Adam and Eve where there in vats and the rest flowed from those broken primates the Arian held prisoner.

I myself? I life longer than those Elfen hordes and have loved one of them with my own accord but the Arian champians seek purity still and whiped out my home, my loving family of a kind most humans would run screaming from. Their dark eyes designed to see under water like the seal and sealion, hands, feet webs and grey speckeled porpoise skin. These were my family, bred in a lab half them half human – random collection of genes – I look human, but I am a part of them and I am something else too. They sort out other ways of survivial and so they sort to stretch the lifetime of their dwindling race – I live a magnitude longer than them, as they live a magnitude longer than the humans. I age but so slowely.

So unbearably slowely and all that I love I see crumble before me and I ache with it.

Ok so I know how The Punk becomes and survives being Queen Elizabeth the First of England but how do I get around the fact she has to die and be laid out etc…

Well with some help from the Careys and a few others she manages to make a plaster bust/ hands etc… of herself and decorate them so they are realistic looking – Queen Elizabeth is renouwned for having said that no one was allowed to touch her body after she had died – so I think this deception could work – but how does the Punk then get out of the palace?

Well really she still looks like a teenager – so she starts way before she wants to ‘die’ appearing as one of her own servants or ladies in waiting or something. Then when the Queen ‘dies’ she can simple leave the palace looking like herself!

Carey does not become King afterwards nor any of his family as the UK needs to form to maintain peace basically and though Elizabeth doesn’t state who she wants to be heir – the King of Scottland is the obvious choice!

So the Punk is stuck as Princess Elizabeth – the inner court of nobles think she is a boy on the brink of becoming a man – so she is stuck pretending to be a man pretending to be a woman! And on top of that she doesn’t age! Three people know her truelly and they are Henry Carey and his sister Catherine and the real Elizabeth’s nurse maid.

The Punk has to think about how a man would masquarade as a woman – especially if his life depended upon it! The inner court of nobles are helpful with this aspect at least and it results in the fancy ridged dresses and the like. However there is the issue of stubble and not aging – to get round this Elizabeth a.k.a the Punk pretends to get small pox which scars her face so badly that it becomes fashionable to powder you face – the nobles think this is to help cover the stubble but its to hide its lack and her agelessness.

She also does basically stage makeup which is a bit dicey due to witchcraft laws of the time!

When she becomes monarch she brings Henry Carey and his sister to court and they are her closest confidonts – of course the inner court of nobles think that Henry is a possible half blood imposter who was sired possibly even by King Henry but to a maid girl – they would not have counted such a youth as being the Kings son but it would allow him to become a noble man especially if it got them out of a sticky wicket!

Of course as she ‘ages’ she has to pretend to be covering up male patten balledness! She simply starts shaving her hair off :/ A wig is made for her.

There is also the possibility that some of the sailor types she is so fond of get taken into her confidence becuase they are women dressed as men inorder to have adventure on the high seas – but I need to think about this one carefully!

So this is what I have so far for the Elizabethan part of my story and I think I am actually starting to amass a plot!

King Henry is in fear that he will not leave a male heir and so turns to the old concept of Bastard sons – this was a tradition ranging back to William the conquorer! He fathered Henry Fitzroy who he was priming to be King. Later on around the time the a second Bastard son was born Henry Carey (Elizabeth’s half brother and cousin!) and his sister Catherine who was also suppected to be Henry’s – plots began from the Catholics who wished to have Mary Tudor a Catholic on the thrown to reclaim England in the Holy Empire – rather than Henry Fitzroy who had been raised protistant.

In fear of little Henry’s life the King does not proclaim him and goes to great lengths to ignore his issue to ensure their saftey whilst getting his then wife and the childrens aunt (Anne) to become their ward! Thus ensuring their educatiion and saftey – he made sure the inner court and therefore his most trusted know about little Henry.

Henry Fitzroy is then assasinated at the age of 17 as part of a plot.

Not long afterwards the Black Death strikes and the Princess Elizabeth is evacuated to Overcourt near Bisley – this happens to be where Little Henry is living as he is being educated at a local Monistry.

The Punk is either residing at the court or the Monkery! and befriends the children. About six months after the Princesses arrival the Bubonic plague arrives in Gloucestershire and the Princess sickens and dies.

King Henry is becoming more unpredictable so those incharge of the princess don’t tell him she’s died – after all the King isn’t interested in her – But a few years later he wants to visit her and obviously she’s not there – the inner lords and advisors of the King know the Princess is Dead and think of it as the perfect way of getting the young Bastard prince onto the throne without fuss and danger.

But the young Prince doesn’t want to and the Punk is ‘found’ as a girl substitute but the Lords don’t want non royal blood so insist on the young Henry. The teenagers as they would have been by this point talk with the Punk and they come up with an idea and the Punk pretends to be Henry and is dressed as the Princess!

Ok so I need Henry Carey a possible iligitamet of King Henry to be in Gloucestershire when his mothers estate is in Essex – my plan?

Well it turns out his aunt Anne Boleyn sent him to a Cistercian monastery – I can’t find where this is but have decided it will be around here and when his cousin is sent to Bisley during the plague they both reside at Overcourt.

If there is any problem with me doing this – any historical fact anyone knows of – could you let me know please?

Thankyou 🙂

From my research I found that Mary Boleyn did indeed have an affair with King Henry and that some historians think that her two eldest may have been his – unlike the film though she had a daughter first called Catherine. Then she had Henry (called Henry interestingly enough!) and around the time he was born they broke off the affair.

Now this does seem to be a bit of a controversal issue as King Henry was desperate for a son and does not openly declare Mary’s child as his. Now some think this is due to legal stuff involving his annulment with Catherine his first Queen on the grounds that she had been Married to his brother and therefore under the law they could not be married as it sort of made her his sister – to admitt his fiances nice and nephew were his would have created the same sort of tie between him and Anne. (This last bit is me supposing things from what I’ve read by the way!).

The other thing is there was a recognised son called Henry (what a suprise) Fitzroy – the surname was made up – it literally means son of the King. He was given lots of stuff and titles to ligitamise him more and the King put things inplace that ment he may have been crowned instead of Mary – Henry’s duaghter.

But he died around the time Anne was beheaded – he was 17 – some thought that Anne had given him a slow poison but this seems to have been part of a plot against her! Though married I can’t find anything about him having fathered any kids – he was married to a relative of Anne!

Some historians say it was a lung complaint probably TB similar to the consumption that killed Henry’s one legit son Edward. But I did find that some believed at the time if not now that he was the victim of a Catholic plot as Mary Tudor was a Catholic and it was she they wished to rule!

Now if I was Henry and my son had been killed of or even just suspected of dying in suspicous circumstances I would think twice about announcing loudly that little Henry was also my son – I’d make sure that the inner trusted advisors knew and leave it at that – I would then further distance myself from the family whilst providing for him. If the plots were already a foot before one succeeded I would have gotten my new wife and the childs aunt to look after his well fair – Oh look she did!

Queen Elizabeth then took great pains in installing her cousins in court when she came to power – this is fantastic news for me – I can make it that the Punk is friends with the children and when the young Elizabeth dies the inner group of nobles wants the illigitamate son to be on the throne with thoughts of reveiling it later on – there can have been some attempts on his life etc… The punk is supposed to dress up and replace him but he convinces her to swap with him!

She doesn’t name his family as successor for two reasons – one she wants England and Scotland to be at peace and secondly she fears that if it is discovered after her death that she was not a man pretending to be a woman his family would be in danger from conspirators etc…

Now my only problem is Little Henry lived in Essex or at least thats where his mothers estate was!

http://tudorhistory.org/queryblog/2006/01/question-from-jennifer-henry-viiis.html

http://books.google.com/books?id=UM4LUoSbyegC&pg=PA37&lpg=PA37&dq=Monastery+Bisley&source=bl&ots=_-uOSUJk74&sig=ydx-hZZU8pOoW3fPnNBfbHafofg&hl=en&ei=EPDMSqWZKcLp-Qaq85nnBA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4#v=onepage&q=Monastery%20Bisley&f=false

http://www.bisleyonline.net/content/view/18/65/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_FitzRoy,_1st_Duke_of_Richmond_and_Somerset

As part of my research I am watching films/dramas and documentaries from the Elizabethan time period – which is nescassary as my main character is Queen Elizabeth the First – but what I also need is back ground on the Tudor period of history completely as obviously the desception of the Punk occures when Elizabeth was a princess and not a Queen!

So this means all those Henry the VIII films – the first one to come through on my love film list was The Other Boleyn Girl. I am awear that these films are not ‘historically accurate’ but I think they will give me a feel for the era, at least an over view of the history at the time if not the societal structure and maybe as has actually happened – a few ideas!

The film itself was well made but still had me thinking insipid romance – I don’t really like romantic films so I would say the failing is me and not the film. The costums where fantastic, the lighting and camera craft brilliant and the characterisation good.

And it only bent a few cough historical bits – it also made me cry with the impending doom you can see for shadowed from the beginning.

The film got better as it went on and I was enthralled by the end – if feeling alittle queasy and like I wanted to shot gun the entire Tudor court.

Anyway the film is actually more about Mary – Anne Boleyn’s sister (Anne being one of the wives of Henry). The film portrayed Mary as his mistriss before Anne with the result of a son. The film ends with Mary taking the young princess Elizabeth away and has her playing with her son! Perfect for my needs.

Why? Let me explain – I am using the local legend of the Bisley Boy and for that I need an illigitamate son of the King to be playing with the young Elizabeth at the local Tudor Court where Elizabeth actually stayed and were the local rumour is a ‘bastard’ of the King actually lived. This infact would be even better becuase they would be cousins and half siblings meaning genetically they would be even closer than normal half siblings and therefore the resemblance would be more marked. But the Punk is taking his place so why does the resemblance matter?

I’ll answer that one later.

I’ve already done some reading around this subject and the viladity of events as portrayed in the film – it gets quiet complex so will have to wait for the next post!

Again I’m still looking for suggestions for good Elizabethan stuff – books, films, funky facts etc…

For the Questions on there own go here! And don’t forget to post a link as a comment on the originators blog here!

When and how did you find out about NaNoWriMo? How did you go?

I found out about NaNoWriMo the year before last – so that would be 2007 but as we were still struggling with our house having been flooded and I had no internet I a) didn’t find out about it until it was about half way through. I did some off line writing for myself for the time remaining and thought that it seemed very doable. I met my own target and worked out how much I would have to do to catch up but vetoed it as I was typing in a cramped bed in my husbands aunts attic and it seemed a stupid thing too do with Chronic Pain issues.

I found out about it from my friend Ella’s Live Journal – she not only completed it but had twice the word count – her novel is now a series that she has worked on with the help of last years nano too!

How many times have you done NaNoWriMo?

I haven’t yet – oh I was going to last year and mentioned it on my personal blog but as I was doing stuff for my MRes at the time – there just really was no time and I had a massive issue with my hands which ment that all typing time had to be given priority to coursework :/ I dictated a few days worth of stuff to my husband before he got too busy – I think I knew something like that was going to happen though as I hadn’t actually signed up to the challenge!

How many times have you won? If you haven’t won, what was your best result?

Erm I haven’t and as I haven’t officially participated yet I don’t know! But I have managed to write 85, 000 words of a novel outside of the challenge but my writing really was derailed by the being out of our home for so long!

How did you go last year?

This I think is answered in the above two answers .

Where do you write and with what do you write?

I write in a mirade of places with a mirade of objects (and does anyone know how to spell mirrade?). Mostly I end up sitting at the living room table using my laptop but I’m hoping to have my office space upstairs storted by November so that I can sit in my nice chair at my nice desk but it gets very cold in the office as it basically has no heating 🙁

On nice days I like to take my note book out side and sit at what I term my poetry table!

I used to take the laptop and write in Zanadoo – a place in the garden with an old mill stone for a table and a rock for a chair but my husbands aunt decided to plant lots of plants there so thats not really doable anymore 🙁

This year I’m planing on seeing if I can keep warm enough in the gazebo or summerhouse thing that I’ve spent the summer trying to make usable with my dads help! My father-in-law put it in a lifetime ago and it’s just on wooden blocks with no precerver or anything so was in and is still really – in a bit of a state – but I reason I can put the poetry table and chair in there on an old bit of carpet and have a parabolic heater in there and write away! With NO interuptions!

Well thats the plan anyway 🙂

How do you find time to write?

Well my little girl has just started school and will be going full time after the half term – just in time for Nano! But basically I come home and do 20 minutes of sitting down writing/checking emails etc… and 10-20 minutes of house work and alternate. This is part of my pain management – I struggle sometimes to pull myself away from the writing and hope that one day I’ll be back up to an hour a time!

Are your partners, friends and family allies or enemies?

Well that depends on who we are talking about really – my husband is really understanding and tries to give me space and time to write, my little girl wants to ‘join in’ so I can’t really write what I want to when she’s around!

My husbands aunt is having TIA’s and things meaning she forgets things and is sometimes a bit bargy in and shouty – normally right when I’m in the flow! And Mum thinks its a waste of time and sort of tells me off about not having a proper job! But then she did that with the illustrating too.

What are you strengths and what do you use to help you get to the end?

Strengths? Obstanant – if thats a strength – determined?

Good at research.

What are you weaknesses, obstacles and challenges that hinder you from finishing?

A tendency to panda to everybody elses needs leaving me no time to do me things, chronic pain flare ups – I can’t control when these will happen and I’ve been quiet bad this year, I also get fatigue with it which is a pain in the back side and I swear I get thicker – ho hum :/

My domestic stituation is a bit tricky and hubby’s away half the week.

Do you plot/outline/plan or do you write by the seat of your pants? How much do you plot or how unprepared are you?

For some reason I am going all out on the preperation for this Nano – hence this blog really!

Do you participate in the real life community, go to write ins and meet ups in your area?

I hope too – again this is one of the things I’m really looking forward too – I don’t know many people in the area still and so tend to end up feeling isolated even though we have been here for 4 yrs now. It is an excuess to get out and I work better with human feedback!

What are your writing aids? Special snacks, music, totems, rewards or punishments?

writing aids would be coloured pens which I tend to use in a rather OCD kind of way!

Special snacks would be cheerios carrot sticks and chocolate/yogurt covered nuts and raisins! And erm… Pizza :/

Music wise I’m compiling a few hours of listening for this sepcific writing project – it will be heavy on rock, thrash, electornica, emo, alternative etc… you know the type of thing – dystopia type music with some high tech sounding stuff – if I can get hold of some sort of music like the Aztecs etc… would have had along with some Elizabethan music I’ll be even happier!

Totem – I want to make a writing buddy Wiggly Pet.

I have had some people saying I am making my life unnessasarily complicated by worrying about the history of the elves and the like – but I was a coherant, consistant world for my protagonist to inhabit.

I also want to thread the story around real events both historical and geological and climatological – these events will give me a skeleton on which to build a solid story.

However I am abit worried about time – I wont be able to do as good a job of research in a month as I would like too but then this is always the problem with my scifi stories – I never get anywhere as I’m too busy looking up interesting things I wont to put in them and that is part of the reason I wanted to do NaNoWriMo. I have written a complete novel length story in the past approximatly 85, 000 words but it is not scifi or horror or any of the genres I actually want to be writing – it was a self propelled story that wanted to be written – it also had a pretty straight forward time line so wasn’t exactly taxing in the continuaty area though I’m still finding mistakes as I type it up!

From my own reading I know that good fantsy/scifi/horror novels inhabit believable worlds this is what I want in my story, something so real and vivid that when you are reading it – you are there, you are the characters etc…

However there is a danger I have seen good authors fall into and that is putting everything you find out into the story! I don’t want to do this and infact think it would be impossible but what I do want to do is immerse my mind in the facts so that I can taste the world in immense detail allowing me to convey it in a stronger more emotive way!

I would love to hear others opinions on this by the way!