Amaranth, Up in Smoke

Amaranth.

It's a lovely sounding word. Reminds me of alabaster plaster (ooh, a rhyme) scroll work cut into the wall of some rich person's sitting room. The kind of place that is painted scarlet and can hardly be pictured outside of a store window, or a Victorian pamphlet. Apparently it can be said as 'love-lies-bleeding' and means 'deathless.' That's some flower power, if you ask me.

Smoke and fire are weird things. I'm thinking about it quite a bit, while I'm writing Vinnialia. It's coming along well, by the way. Smoke and fire....smoke is beautiful, if you ask me. It smells like being little, smelling the fire, watching the shapes of the smoke twist and swirl. Smoke is harmless. Fire is another matter entirely. I don't have arsonphobia (yes, it's a word) but fire, for me, has the power to destroy more than warm, or anything else really.

If something is deathless can it burn?

Freen!

Today is Freen's day.

This could be difficult, you see, because Freen Mackenzie England's identity is quite important to the story- so I can't tell you much about her.

Yes, I am speaking about the story that always comes with the tag 'VAL', in case you didn't realize this. I haven't a title for the story, it's usually called 'Vinnialia' if ever mentioned.

I do like her (Freen's) name (it sounds a lot like mine) but I hate her very much. She's disdainful and mocking to Rhoslyn, of all people. Rhoslyn is so imperial that Vinnialia fears her! She listens to what she says, for the love of Pete! (Speaking of which, what would happen if I ever met a person named Pete? "For Pete's sake!" "For the love of Pete!" What do the Petes of the world say? "For the love of Bob!"?)

But as for a physical description (which is prudent, seeing as Freen is horribly vain), she has kind of white-blonde hair, with striking violet eyes. She is thought (by some) to be even prettier than Rhoslyn and that one Princess Someone that I cannot remember the name of.

She is drastically important, fantastically evil, and really, really weird.

Lindsay England, Otherwise Known As Rhoslyn Roxanne Eolande- Oh Forget It

Since I've already written about Aster and Vinnialia, I guess I'd better tell you about Lindsay, the oldest book character in my tale.

Lindsay is Aster's adopted sister, but she's is his (and Vinnialia's) actual cousin. Of course V and A don't know this. At the moment I am writing, she is cavorting with the enemy, a federation of ghost-children, to kill Vinnialia while Vinnialia is eating Aster's cheese sandwich. Aster is greeting everything in his room. ("Hello, lamp! Hello, half-eaten pastry!") But this post isn't about them.

Oh, and she isn't trying to kill Vinnialia because she is eating Aster's cheese sandwich. Although I know some people *cough* B and K! *cough* who might attack someone for eating their cheese sandwich. Maybe.

'Lindsay R. England' is her disguise name. Her real name is Rhoslyn Roxanne Eolande Tania Vendil. She goes by Rhoslyn. I don't know what I was thinking when I named her that. It's a really crazily long name. I've just now realized how utterly irritating that would be.

"Your full name please."

"Okay." [deep breath] "Rhoslyn Roxanne Eolande Tania Vendil."

[pause] "What did you say? Could you...repeat that?"

[sigh] "Franklin. My name is Franklin."

Later, I am hoping I can make her nicer, because at the moment, plotting to kill your cousin, especially when your favorite cousin believes that she is the only real family he has, does not make people feel like they can trust you. It probably will make people feel as though they can lock you up in a padded cell.

Quote for Saturday, September 5, 2009:

All That You Can't Leave Behind and How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb are both really mad long titles. As I've just said them, I've just realised how ridiculous the titles are.

-Bono, CNN Interview, after the 2006 Grammys (9 February 2006)

(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Bono)

Muse for Today:

Clio, Muse of History, because 'Clio' comes from the Greek root meaning 'to recount' or 'to make famous' and I am concocting a story in my head about being famous. Hark.

Aster

Aster is Vinnialia's brother, and don't make fun of his name, okay? I certainly didn't know aster was a kind of flower until my cousin (we'll call her J) told me, and Aster doesn't know either.
Anyway, Aster is a bit of a wimp. Only very slightly, though. Mostly he is brave. He's loyal, and a daydreamer, and a piano player. He has the (ahem) misfortune of having Vinnialia as a sibling, which, naturally, can get hard sometimes.
Aster dies, much to J's sadness. Aster is her favorite character, and it's "necessary" to kill him off. I explained this away by saying, "The good die young!" but now I know the reason why.
Did I ever tell you Vinnialia and Aster are orphans? Aster and Lindsday are the closest thing Vinnialia's got to family, and she is not vulnerable in any way. Aster is like her 'rock', because, quite frankly, Vinnialia is too much of an idiot to be anyone's anchor. And when her anchor gets misplaced, what happens? *da da daaaaaaaah*

Vinnialia

*singsong voice* You don't know who Vinnialia is...
...so I'm going to tell you. (I've stopped the singsong voice.)
Vinnialia M. DeLunes and Aster and Lindsay England are all book characters! My book characters, to be exact! My first, to be even more exact!
Vinnialia is greedy and selfish, so naturally, she's my favorite. She's brazen, brave, and strong, too. So something needs to stop her, to scare her. Almost nothing's unstoppable. (Except for maybe Chuck Norris.)
To go off on a tangent (I'm famous for that), I just saw The Dark Knight, that Batman movie. The Joker, who is creepy in the extreme, is hanging off a ledge on a rope by his ankle and saying, "So this is what happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object. You're incorruptable, aren't you?"
So what does happen? Is Vinnialia unstoppable? Immovable? Incorruptable? *suspenseful music*
I bet I'm not keeping you in suspense very well, but I'm hanging on the edge of my seat!
No, I don't think she is. But it's all in due time, m'lad! All in due time... dinner time! Yes, it's dinner time. That good time of the day!