jeriendhal | Nano and Life notes (Reply)

Life: Woke up at 3 am this morning thanks to Georgia waking up wet. Got her changed, checked my e-mail and lay down again, figuring I'd doze a little until my body got me up around 4:15 or 4:30 like it usually does.

I woke up at 6:18 am. That just doesn't happen to me, unless I'd been violently ill the evening before. Of course I'd been running a sleep deficit all week, average 5 hours at best, so I guess I was due for some shut eye. Bit of a rush getting the kids and my lunch together, eating breakfast before showering though.

Georgia started pre-school this week. She's been loving it of course, being always game for play and wanting to interact with everyone.

Nano Story Notes:

The People: That's the official name for the third race in my story. Their name for everyone else is The Others. Nice guys, huh? And at

chaypeta's suggestion I'm going to make them anthro hyenas. I know

ursulav did it first and probably better with her hyena tribe in her webcomic, but they aren't common enough to be a cliche yet.

And with that decision came another idea. Since I've got hyenas (okay, class conscious, anthropomorphic, Victorian tech level hyenas but hyenas nonetheless) and the equivalent of Middle Eastern tribesmen with the Wazagans, I just decided to give in and set the thing in a fantastic version of Africa. I'll probably ~~rip off~~ borrow an idea from Bujold's Chalion universe and set the whole thing on a map of Africa tilted on its side, as she canted the Iberian peninsula.

Which leaves with the humans. And since we're going to be in Africa anyway, there's no particular reason they should be white. So they won't be. Should be a nice contrast to the standard White European Generic Middle Ages fantasy setting that makes up 95% of commercial fantasy novels. (and we get all the fun of classic Orientalism while ~~avoiding~~ minimalizing the patronizing aspects of such stories.

So we've got the three races, human, wazagan, and The People. And we've got a nice set of extremes with the Wazagan's generally laid back nature contrasted with The People's uptightness, with humans rounding out the middle as they usually do.

Now I just need a fragging plot and characters...