Favoritest quiz meme ever and NaNo picking

[msmcknittington]

Which Historical Lunatic Are You?
From the fecund loins of Rum and Monkey.

Sometime Marquis of Tichfield, Earl of Portland, Viscount Woodstock, Baron of Cirencester, co-heir to the Barony of Ogle and renowned as the finest judge of horseflesh in England, you took the tradition of aristocratic eccentricity to unprecedented heights. Having inherited the stately home of Welbeck Abbey, you proceeded to construct miles of underground tunnels and a ballroom, in pink, beneath it. The ballroom was complete except for one small detail. It had no floor. Despite this vast home, you lived exclusively in a suite of five rooms, each one also pink.

Having been turned down by your opera singer objet d'amour, Adelaide Kemble, in your youth, you suffered a broken heart and never married. This did not stop you from caring deeply about the wellbeing of your servants. Occasionally you would even help them muck out the stables. However, you did not neglect discipline, forcing disobedient underlings to skate themselves to exhaustion on your subterranean skating rink. Servants were given strict instructions regarding conduct: if they met you in a corridor, they were to ignore your existence while you froze to the spot until they were out of sight; and a chicken was to be kept roasting at all times in case you felt like sneaking into the kitchen for a snack.

You became ever more eccentric with age. You built another tunnel, this time to the railway station, through which you would ride your carriage. When you reached the station your carriage, with you inside, would be hoisted up onto the train in its entirety.

Upon your death, your multitude of titles passed to your cousin, who was obliged to delve into your curious domain to find your body once the servants had reported your absence. Entering your private rooms, he found that, aside from a commode in the centre of your bedroom, the only objects in the whole suite were hundreds of hatboxes, each containing a single brown wig.

Rollerskating as punishment? I am so there.

And now for some info about my three possible NaNoWriMo novel ideas. I really don't know which one to go with, which may be a good or bad thing. It might just be that I find all three equally interesting or that they're all equally uninteresting. We'll see.

1. A River Darkly Flowing -- Last year's novel. I got to about 32,500 words, and hit a wall. I think I got to the point where it was starting to come together, and that idea scared me.
   • Summary: A young woman is dredged out of the river by a local businessman and his sister in 1840s England. She is thought to be a young woman who was abducted by highwaymen after her parents were killed and the coachman shot and left for dead. Unfortunately, she doesn't remember a thing. Ninjas appear. It turns out that she is actually a young woman who argued with her sister over a man, and in the course of doing so, fell into the river and drowned. You know, three or four centuries ago. Magical hijinks ensue.
   • Word count: 32,402 words
   • Advantages: Hey, I've got the plot all worked out! Including subplots.
   • Disadvantages: I am kind of bored of it. I'm not sure I can get my writing mojo on again with it.
   
   
   
2. Steampunk Romance Novel -- Brand spanking new idea! I have the feeling it will be totally tongue in cheek. The initial idea was to write the sort of novel that a person in a steampunk world would read, not just a novel set in a steampunk world. It would be very meta.
   • Summary: I know I want an airship captain, and I want it to be like those pirate/sea captain bodice rippers from the '80s. The ones with a man on the cover in a poufy shirt and leather breeches, with the shirt open to his navel, and a mullet on his head, and the woman with ridiculously curly hair and blue eyeshadow. Only steampunk. But the idea of kickass female airship captain as the heroine and a land-loving hero is so appealing. The second one would not be a romance novel written for a steampunk world, but a straight up romance novel set in a steampunk world.
   • Word Count: 0 words
   • Advantages: New exciting idea! A chance to be silly! Leather pants for everyone!
   • Disadvantages: New idea -- ugh. The idea of crafting two worlds: the world the novel is written for and the one it is set in. See my initial thoughts on that here. Something that I didn't mention there: Sci-fi/fantasy often has contemporary social commentary in it, and being all "Victorian women were oppressed, uh!" won't do much for contemporary commentary.
   
   
   
3. Medieval Historical Fiction Romance Novel -- You guys, I am still surprised no one but aesiron picked up on my love for trashy books in that quiz meme. Really damned surprised. Anyway . . .
   • Summary: Margarethe is in a nunnery, with the intent to become a nun, but her father will not give his permission. Her uncle (or maybe her father? I never did say) is fighting with the English, because they are Welsh, and this is what Welsh people did in the 13th century*. Their solution to end the fighting? An arranged marriage! The bridegroom is Luc Cheatham, middle son and heir to Roger Cheatham, Earl of Somethingorother. Wait! Middle son an heir? Well, his older brother decided to become a monk, so there's that. Anyway, Margarethe and Luc get hitched, removing her uncle (or father) from the fight for Wales, and Wales is conquered (though not as a direct consequence of that). Um, there's also fighting like cats and dogs and some falling in lurve on the parts of Margarethe and Luc. Big climax is that battle where Llywelyn ap Gruffydd was killed, which wasn't a very big battle at all.
   • Word count: about 8,000 words
   • Advantages: It's straight up historical fiction. I know I can do a better job of research than Julie Garwood, she who claims cotton chemises were worn by 10th century people in England. It's mainstream enough that I think I could find a publisher, though I've probably just jinxed myself by saying that.
   • Disadvantages: Ugh, research. I'd need to research Wales hardcore, because I know fuck all about it, especially nunneries. I think a Welsh girl named Margarethe ought to be evidence enough of that. Also, my knights/soldiers in it are suitably earthy, which is historically accurate but not popular amongst medieval romance. The knights in historical romance are all Galahads. I'd also have to find a way to fit my agnostic brain into a devoutly religious woman's brain.

I will admit that the medieval romance novel was born out of the fact that all the other medieval romance novels are so poorly written. I'm not even joking. So anachronistic it's disgusting and very cliché. I mean, I can get the desire to have medieval romances be fairy tales, but there's also a lot to be said for medieval people acting like medieval people and not storybook characters in trews. I'd like some recognition of the fact that these knights had their squires scouring out their armor with urine and sand, you know?

So, now the poll.

[Poll #1279562]

When I started writing this entry, it was supposed to be about costume plans for CC28, which is going to be in Milwaukee. I can do Milwaukee! But somehow NaNo took over. So, another post? Maybe. I think I might actually go to sleep at a reasonable time tonight.

_{*Did you guys know that Edward I had in excess of fifteen children? Seriously, like 19 kids, 16 of which were with Eleanor of Castile.}