Skip down to ROW80 with me…
I just wrote a wedding scene. The story is romance…SciFi Polyamorous Romance, to be specific. But this doesn’t mean I’m almost done with this WIP; this story still has a ways to go.
I admit I have a fondness for romances where the wedding happens early on. Marriages of convenience, arranged unions and the like can be very romantic. You also have the advantage of getting to the sex sooner, but I digress…
One of the first Kingdom Come stories I began to write was about the arranged marriage of the Duchy of Drakeshead, on the western edge of the Kingdom. I focus on Charity, the Violet Duchess. You may have seen her on the blog before; I interviewed her once, and she appears in several stories in Under Loch and Key.
I was writing this shortly after giving birth to my youngest child, adding handwritten chapters to a journal as I used the breast pump. (Yeah. The breast pump did something fun to my hormones.) It’s quite steamy… a traditional political marriage on Kingdom Come forms an oligarchy of four men and four women. I have a spreadsheet that tells me how their honeymoon week functions. For seven days, they are paired with a different spouse, which forces the eight of them to have exactly one day and night where they get to know each spouse. On the eighth night, they’re all together. Of course, by then, they’re also all probably very tired.
I never finished Charity’s story, but it flavors many things that happen in the other stories. Her wife, Royal, (the White Duchess of Drakeshead) knows that Charity is disappointed that she’s still not pregnant several months after their wedding. (Royal gets pregnant on their first honeymoon night, with the Red Duke.) Royal asks Charity and one husband to accompany her on an extensive business trip, which is her sneaky way of helping her wife, Charity, get what she wants. Charity and Forest (BTW…he’s one of my Christian Slater characters) have plenty of free time on the trip, and by the time they come home again, Charity is happily pregnant.
This trip is seen in Allergies as Royal scouts out prospects to fill the positions of Counts and Contessas in the duchy. I haven’t rewritten that one yet… it head-hops badly. But I might keep Royal as a POV character, even though I usually reserve POV for main characters who end up in the HEA.
I digress. A lot. Woah… I’ve just rambled horribly.
Time to cut bait and skip to the goals:
The ROW80 Goals for the week:
- Do something writing-related every day: Yes. I’m almost done with the WIP and I have a short story due soon…they’re competing for my brain’s attention.
- Do some actual writing every week: Definitely. I’m almost done with The Postman in Shining White Armor.
- Engage with other writers every week: The usual, and I’ve been connecting with my Anthology-mates.
- Stay away from the NaNo story for at least a month: So far so good.
- Get sleep: I’m doing the right things (Ironically, that’s the title of the next WIP…) but they don’t always work. In particular, last night was horrible. I think it’s because I knew I had to teach today. I’ve taught that class for more than 10 years. I love doing it. Being in front of the class is easy. (It’s the grading of papers I hate.) But my stupid brain just has to race the night before, leaving me sleepless and miserable and sick.
The good news… The Garden of Eden anthology is out on Amazon, and it’s only 99 cents for now! It should be out on Nook and other outlets soon. My short story The Genesis of the Incorporeum appears in this anthology of weird speculative fiction.
My short story “The Genesis of the Incorporeum” appears in this anthology, out Feb. 7
AmyBeth Inverness 
I’m not a big romance reader, but I do kind of like the idea of stories that take place *after* the wedding. To me, that’s when the more interesting things happen. I mean, falling in love is very nice but it’s like an appetizer before the main course.
I love the set up for the Kingdom Come political marriages! And the fact that you have a spreadsheet to keep the honeymoon week straight is awesome. I also use spreadsheets for keeping track of things — character ages, birth years, etc. They are a very helpful tool!
Ha! My dayjob is teaching spreadsheets lol!
But I don’t usually use the polyamorous honeymoon one as a classroom example…
I hate the way my brain will do that racing around thing once I get settled into bed for the night. Mine usually involves a dog event (I trial working Australian Shepherds). I go over and over my runs, all the things that could happen, conversations with people I’ll see there….it’s crazy. Lately it’s been noodling on me when I want to sleep.
My sleeplessness sometimes involves a dog. He’s very well behaved, but… ugh… he is SO noisy when he licks himself lol! I have to wear earplugs. I had no idea such an activity could be so NOISY lol!
That drives me absolutely nuts, so I can definitely relate. That and old dog mouth smacking. Grrrr
That polyamorous honeymoon does sound exhausting – although much more fun than being a sister-wife, if I do say so! Love the title “Under Loch and Key” by the way.
Thanks! I never liked the “sister-wife” idea. Sure…if the women feel more sisterly with each other, that’s fine. But they shouldn’t have to defend their relationship, saying “It’s OK if each of us has sex with this ONE man, our husband, but NOOOO, of course we’d NEVER touch each other in a sexual way.”
I like “Under Loch and Key” too! It’s a good place for USNessie’s stories.
‘Kingdom Come’ definitely sounds like there’s a lot of fun and games going on behind the scenes…
There is indeed! I hope, when the books are published, that it comes across as a diverse world. Just diverse in different ways than earth is…
I’ve read some really good “marriage of convenience” romances. I’m always amazed how every writer can add a unique twist to the same idea. There’s always something new, and that just fascinates me. Your world sounds interesting.
Good luck with your goals!
Thanks! I love playing with how the idea of “marriage” can be so different, yet still wonderful to everyone.
Congratulations on your latest publication. I enjoyed that stream-of-consciousness update on your current stories, kind of a meditation on how every character connects. Thanks also for the tip on using Excel to keep characters and dates straight. Very useful. I tend to use tables, but they get bogged down in a lot of info. Maybe Scrivener someday. May the week go well with lots of writing — and more sleep!