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SEE...
Ahhhh... my weekly SEE fix!!! Thank you Penny!!
I was just thinking about
I was just thinking about this, and wondering how you (Penny) were doing. Apparently you're doing better!
I think this one was done well, and with a reasonable realistic feel.
I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.
Better? Sort of
The cold has thankfully passed but it has triggered off (i) a periodic sore throat and (ii) my Fibromyalgia, which means I tend to fall asleep a lot.
This has meant that I couldn't sit down at the keyboard and bash out the chapter in my usual fashion. I prefer to do it that way because the writing flows better. This chapter has lots of seams if you know where to look... fortunately I don't think it has affected the final product too much.
This chapter, too, was fairly structured because of the content. The next couple will be more difficult as they will deal with the group settling properly into Blackstone. A number of different things have to happen before the next big adventure...
Thank you for reading and for your concern.
Penny
Dogs have owners; cats have staff. Grand-daughters have minions.
Hopefully that's that and
Hopefully that's that and Garia now now go about her business, I wonder if the letters to Uncle Gil will have him turning up.
I just had a funny thought, what if Trogan was sent by another noble, you know fleece Blackstone to cover their own taxes and make a profit too. Maybe it's a plot to undermine the Blackstone Barony before it has chance to be fully established, especially as very few know of the wealth it affords. Maybe they just aren't happy Garia was promoted, Can't wait to find out.
Curiouser a curiouser
Big hugs
Lizzie :)
Bailey's Angel
The Godmother :p
Agree
I keep thinking in a certain son of Gilbanar and his odd behaviour when Garia was sent to Blackstone.
Nicely done
The little extra cruelty in the death of Trogan is something that must be avoided in the future. Perhaps a guilhotine is in order?
Cruelty
Garia's weak point is her temper, which flares up from time to time.
She can control it to a certain extent by using her training but to do that she has to be aware that she is losing her temper in the first place.
In Trogan's case I don't think anyone objected to the variation in method of execution, although it took Brydas by surprise. I don't foresee Garia having to sit through a court like that again, at least during the run of this story.
Penny
Dogs have owners; cats have staff. Grand-daughters have minions.
Tough decisions
But necessary. At least these cases were very clear cut, with it obvious to the whole town who the gang were and some of their crimes - although I think many were shocked at the extent of what was going on.
Hopefully Garia, Keren and company can get back to more pleasant and mundane matters in the days and weeks ahead, while staying vigiliant in case the two escapees are stupid enough to return.
Thinking of how high profile the case was, perhaps once the printing press encounters wider adoption, occasional newsletters can be printed as a means of keeping remote communities in touch with each other until faster methods of communication arrive. As for photography, pinhole cameras and camera obscuras should be simple enough, but would anyone know anything about photosensitive chemicals (e.g. silver halides) so that photographs could be captured?
As the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body, then only left-handers are in their right mind!
Photography
Will probably not get a lot of further mention in this story.
We are indeed fortunate that Gary/Garia is, just, of an age to remember how photographs used to be produced. All he/she needs to remember is the magic phrase "silver salts" and that should be enough for the locals to figure out the method.
In a few years the number of people who remember how old-style cameras used to work will dwindle sharply, I think. How the heck would any future transferee describe such a process to his/her new hosts?
How the heck would any author manage to cover the technology gap? I'm just glad that today we're "on the cusp" and that at least some of the old knowledge still remains, albeit as history only.
The two escapees? Their day is yet to come.
Penny
Dogs have owners; cats have staff. Grand-daughters have minions.
Justice served on
Trogan has surely given Garia and Keren something to reflect upon. The authority that Nobles have over their subjects can all too easily lead to delusions of deity
May Your Light Forever Shine
Fantasy
A public comment...I don't often read fantasy or science fiction stories on here, but I am a Fan in 'real life'. My sort-of-reputation here is all about real life, real worlds, real issues. The reasons I follow this serial closely are many and various. Firstly, it is wonderfully well-written, literate and eloquent. Then, the whole world is well-imagined, well shown, well displayed as an offering to your readers. The whole concept of the estuary ferry a few episodes back was a delight.
You have characters who are believable, with the slight reservation that Garia is perhaps a bit too well-trained, but then I do not (yet) know why (s)he was chosen to be transported Elsewhere. Said characters cover a wide range of personalities, and are wonderfully (that word again) real.
There is a plot here, and it makes sense without sending sodding great signals as to what is about to happen, and IMHO it is avoiding a lot of the tropes of TG fiction. Garia's menstrual cycle, for example, is a delight. Er... in the way you write, I hasten to add. Reality observed and returned to your readers, which is the essence of good writing.
In other words, I like this a lot.
Oh, dear
Your kind words have so swelled my head that I now have to sidle sideways through doorways...
What can I say? Praise from a writer I always look up to is overwhelming. That you like my scribblings is amazing.
I just hope that I can write the rest of the story to at least the kind of standard I've tried to keep so far. I will only add that this has turned out somewhat different than I originally intended, but the basic plot outline still holds true. It's just all these pesky characters who keep insisting on having proper lives... not to mention an entire and very strange planet.
Thank you very much for your comment, it is much appreciated.
Penny
Dogs have owners; cats have staff. Grand-daughters have minions.
Don't be silly, girl
You are one of the best writers here, for the reasons I have identified at least. And I understand your angst at having so many characters...which is why I set up my 'cast list'. Confession time: I refer to it regularly to work out who is upposed to be who. The important thing is to have people that the readers CARE about. Jenet, for example, or Sooky, real people who share the stage with Garia and Keren but make us care for them.
Justice served
I have been dancing like a three year old waiting for an occupied toilet waiting for this chapter. It didn't disappoint.
DJ
Let There Be Justice
I'd say justice prevailed in this chapter. It was gruesome but laws are laws.
Garia and Keren make a good team. I like how he supported her after the executions.
I'm still waiting patiently for a certain frayen to show up. I'm sure he'll be back soon enough though. I'm good.
Thanks and kudos.
- Terry
Not only justice here.
Garia has shown herself in other ways to be a ruler the people of Blackstone can trust. And eventually love?
At any rate, she has shown that she has the backbone to run things, and the intelligence to do it in the best way possible for everyone concerned.
Her dislike for what she had to do, and Keren's support says a lot about both of them. What a King and Queen they would make.
Maggie
To be
a Judge and executioner at such a young age and coming from a life where most people do not have to concern themselves with such things, wow! That had to be extra tough for Garia!?
That is one job I definitely would not wish to have. But if something must be done then it must be done. Like Garia I would rather have taken care of something such as that in battle rather than an execution.
Great story.
Vivien
A general thank-you
I don't comment often...but I just wanted to say Thank You for a wonderful story.
Dance the dream you're in
A wonderful story
I have been following since the beginning and I love your developement of the people and places.
I had just one point of confuion and that was the point where Yanda was offering dinner then Jenet was asking about Garia not sleeping. A little more transition may be called for perhaps. I had to read through a couple of times to figure what had happened.
Continuing to love it,
Much Love,
Valerie R
Well spotted
This looks like some kind of editing fubar. I'm not sure it was there when I originally put this up... there's supposed to be a ~o~O~o~ in there to indicate the passing of time.
I'll edit it back. Thanks for noticing!
Penny
Dogs have owners; cats have staff. Grand-daughters have minions.
She needs staff
She needs a business manager/steward, and aide de camp, housekeeping management and legal support etc.
Essentially she needs to have all of the support she already enjoys at the palace.
Thing is there is no formal vetting process for it and she suddenly has a lot of voluntary help from townspeople of whom she knows nothing about.
Considering the size of her in-house staff, the Claw will probably barely have sufficient room for, say, about 24 people plus all of the belongings needed to support them. She will then have to build up her garrison to, say, three files. Less would be needed if the servants lived in town of course.
Once she has income from coal coming in she should have ample funds to expand I guess. She has a lot of teething pains ahead of her. And now I will be wondering what will happen with those escapees. I suspect they will do some mischief in Blackstone that will result in deaths for which she will kick herself for not being able to prevent. I hope it does not cause a problem with those closest and dearest to her.
Kim
Yes... and no
Remember, Garia isn't supposed to be permanently moving to Blackstone, so anyone she employs will likely be out of a job in a month or so - or, more likely, has to return to whatever they were doing before.
Blackstone isn't so large (yet!) that there are people in the town unfamiliar to everybody else so the question of who works in the Claw should resolve itself fairly easily. The Claw, incidentally, should support a lot more than the figure you mentioned, depending how the rooms are allocated. Remember, there's space for servants over the stables as well as that usually occupied by visitors when the place was an inn.
The question of Garia's retinue is never going to be resolved, I suspect. Her household is just going to grow and she will struggle accepting that. However, there are other factors at work which may help to resolve some of the points you mentioned.
Thank you for commenting,
Penny
Dogs have owners; cats have staff. Grand-daughters have minions.
Well at least for financial matters than
It is nice of the queen to kinda handle the matter for now but she needs to be able to manage those aspects herself or delegate to someone else. Even if she does not live in Blackstone, she still needs a representative presence as well as a place to call home when she is in residence. A minimum designated staff will be needed, a core if you will who will represent her eyes and ears so she can keep tabs on the place.
She needs a representative on the town assembly, or the entire town council will have to make sure she stays in the loop but a representative makes more sense. For her home, she will at minimum need a caretaker and a money person to ensure she gets the monies coming to her from the coal and stuff. In short she really needs people who are answerable only to her though in theory all of the town is answerable to her but retainers are more reliable as they are less likely to poison you or try to kill you in your sleep as a blunt example.
Kim
Oh, I could see four to six
Oh, I could see four to six full time employees, easily. The Ptuvil's Claw may only be in use _by her_ for two or three months out of the year, but that leaves the building able to take custom all year round. So, she'd have a representative that would basically become an innkeeper the rest of the time. (Maybe a combination Factor and Innkeeper. He or she would have to track everything going in and out of the town, etc, even if they had no real authority over the town council itself. He'd be a voice and an ear, as well as a way for the building to earn income and stay in good shape. Empty buildings degrade.)
BW
I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.
I Have To Ask Myself
One of the reasons I am in principle against capital punishment is that I have to ask myself could *I* administer it personally. Could I kick the condemned person off of the platform with a rope around their neck? Could I throw the switch on the Electric Chair? And I really don't think I could do it (and if I could I don't want to find out), so is it fair for me to contract out the job to somebody who can?
Having said that, there are clearly crimes that deserve nothing less, such as the horrific rape and subsequent death of the Indian girl recently. I can read this story and agree with the viewpoint that Trogan and his confederates deserved to die. They held a town captive for months and pillaged it, imprisoned and starved those who resisted them and raped the young hostages repeatedly, plus there were really no suitable facilities to incarcerate them, so for justice to be done...and be seen to be done... there was no choice. In my view, a fair comparison for them would be to the prison guards in a Nazi death camp. Mercy does not come into it.
You keep this story riveting not only by fine writing but by changing the thread in various ways, from Garia's initial appearance, through the technological changes that she introduced, to the social circumstances of the civilisation, and the development of characters that we can care about.
More power to your writing fingertips,
Joanne
Capital
I wouldn't use that as an excuse for being against capital punishment. Many people have a hard time killing something that talks. We spend enormous amounts of money, time, and effort to train our soldiers to do it; our society has mostly stopped seeing it as what it really has been - a normal part of life. (historically).
The reason why you shouldn't use it as an excuse? There are people, such as myself, who wouldn't _like_ to do it, but if I had to - give me the lever. There are humans out there who have given up any right to the name 'people', and are no better than 'vermin'. When you come across a dangerous animal that's threatening those around you, you don't pat it on the head, put it in a box, and just hope that it doesn't break out. You put it down. You simply can't predict what it will do if you don't.
BW
I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.
What You Wouldn't Do
Has little to do with what I wouldn't do. In fact I consider imprisonment for life to be a harsher sentence in many cases than a death sentence. The perpetrator has a lot of time to reflect on his/her crime and has...perhaps...an opportunity to regret and even atone for that crime, or even for society to change its opinion of the offence.
If Nelson Mandela had been sentenced to death for his resistance to the South African government of the time then modern history might have been quite different and not for the better. That's just one example.
You obviously didn't read what I wrote. I said I am against the death penalty in principle but allowed that there are exemptions. If the man who shot 20 little kids and 6 teachers at Sandy Hook had lived I don't think I would be recommending clemency.
In the circumstances confronting Garia I think she had little choice,
Joanne
That is a very big if
... if the person will actually suffer. For sociopaths, imho, not so much as far as they are concerned, they got what they wanted before being imprisoned and in prison they can just do more of the same but on a smaller scale. They can kill again if they want without fear. They can have the fun of having regular meals and planning to do harm as a pastime, like a Hannibal Lechter type ( not talking about cannibalism necessarily. ) They will just continue to consider their imprisonment unjustified and just unfortunate side-effect of being caught.
Even the vaunted 'Bird man of Alcatraz' in real life was not that nice of a person in real life. Don't go by movies.
No, a blanket prohibition is stupid also as trying to reform people like that who is literally organically unable to regret is a waste of society's time and money. A penitentiary is worthless if a person is incapable of becoming penitent.
Kim
What ifs and might have beens
Joanne, you postulate Nelson Mandela being sentenced to death resulting in a worse world. It would be equally reasonable to postulate a world in which Adolf Hitler was sentenced to death for treason for his part in the Beer Hall Putsch. It was a sentence available to his judges, but they chose 'leniency'.. The 'extreme' sentence would likely have resulted in a far better world. Again, only one example.
Hindsight is always 20/20. Unfortunately, it is never available to the judge when he sentences the criminal. So you should never use hindsight to opine on a judge's decision.
How true
I have read this story several times and never felt able to talk about this subject. I did serve on a jury for a trial for multiply homicides. It was a very widely publicized case. I realized that the person deserved the death sentence, but also came to realize that I could not bring myself to vote for it. Thankfully, the prosecution chose not ask for the death sentence thus relieving me and the rest of the jury from that decision. About that same time, I stood in the Nuremberg courtroom and very firmly believed that the Nazi criminals who were convicted and condemned to death truly deserved the verdict. Does that make me a coward compared to the judges at Nuremberg or am I a more enlightened and humane person? I don't know the answer to that question. The moral dilemma was crushing then and it still is.
Pippa NewHouse
NO lawyer for the
NO lawyer for the defendant
Defendant be asked to testify against them selves. No 5th amendment here.
https://mewswithaview.wordpress.com/
holding power
it is a terrible burden, but I think she's capable of doing it.
My second reading
and I am further amazed at the quality and depth of this story. It has everything, adventure, romance, SF, fantasy, historical fiction and non fiction, mystery, and incredible coming of age stories tg and cis-gender (I am sure I am forgetting something).
Since this is the second reading, I know of future tribulations of our protagonists, but as far as any test that the queen and king might plan I would give them a A+ thus far.
The genius of the Penny Lane is more evident to me as I read the story multiple times.
Growing up
It looks like Garia is going to have to grow up early.
hugs :)
Michelle SidheElf Amaianna
I just had a thought...
Shouldn't Kerens' standard also be flying above the Claw? When a King or Prince is at Residence of a Vassal, their Standard, Flag or Pennant should fly as well as the Landholder.
Aine
A missing point
The three who were hung designed their own endings by the life they chose. They have no one to blame but themselves for thinking they'd never get caught. And the world is better off without those three.
Garia has questioned herself about the exdcutions, if they were right, thinking back to the US and how things would be handled. She told Keren that she could see how someone get used to the power she has, but because how terrible she feels after the executions, the authority she's been given will never go to her head. Had she not felt terrible after the executions then it would be necessary to worry about her abusing her authority.
Others have feelings too.
It can seem strange
That those who concern themselves about the positive and negative effects of the power they wield can be generally trusted with the power that has been placed in their hands. Yet those who who do not concern themselves with the negative (especially) effects that their power can have on the lives of their people are not worthy of the power they have, nor are they worthy of the power they will often attempt to grasp.