I didn't mean to go to market...

[desperance]

...Well, actually I did mean to go there, obviously, but only to buy mushrooms and look at books.

I appear to have come home with two ducks.

It's not my fault, honest. Two fresh ducks, for a fiver? This is not the kind of deal I turn down.

I think I shall curry the breasts, confit the legs and make soup with the carcasses and wings. Oh, yes. Should you want me, these autumnal days, you will find me in the kitchen.

Why yes, as it happens, I do have an urgent story to write. Why else would you seek me in the kitchen...?

But seriously: this morning, in bed early, I had pretty much decided it had to be a ghost story. A ghost story told in a fantasy world: I liked this, as a conceit.

This morning late, here at the machine, I read through what I'd written - 4000 words, more or less - and wanted to tear it entirely up. Or not that so much, perhaps, but to distil it all to a single sentence that I haven't actually written yet.

So I went shopping, and had the retail experience described above; and in the last two minutes of walking home, the story completely remade itself in my head, so it now has a plot (of sorts), and a theme (of a kind), and I can keep the material I have (for the moment). So that's all right.

It's going to be a heartbreaker.

Comments

[szandara.livejournal.com]

Clearly, your story needed ducks, or at least, needed you to go out and find unexpected ducks.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Hee. It shall have ducks! (I was about to say 'damn you, szandara, now I have to look for a place to put ducks,' but before I came to type it I realised the perfect opportunity. There shall be a skein of wild ducks in the dawn sky. Lovely stuff...)

[szandara.livejournal.com]

I was going to suggest that you put a duck somewhere in your story, but then I thought that was too pushy. But yay ducks in the dawn sky! Muses in disguise, they are...

[dedbutdrmng.livejournal.com]

I'm not feeling very well. I'm a bit fuzzy. Which is why I read your last sentence as 'I'm going to be a hairdresser.'

I wish I had ducks.

Well, not today I don't. When I'm ready to eat again, then I'll wish I had ducks. The worst resteraunt meal I ever ate was duck. You could have used it to sole shoes. Terrible, but I was too English to send it back.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry you're not well. Tell me when you're hungry again, and I'll repeat the duck-smugness so's you can be properly envious.

Worst restaurant meal I ever had was venison - and I was With Other People, so I couldn't possibly send it back. Make a fuss? In public? Embarrass everyone else at the table? Not I...

[dedbutdrmng.livejournal.com]

I was with a huge group of people and lots of us ordered duck. It came with boiled vegetables and I'm not meant to eat vegetables. So I wanted to change that. Which led to one of the most surreal conversations I've ever had.

Me - Could I have the duck with chips, please?

L/Lady - It doesn't come with chips.

Me - I know. But I can't eat vegetables. So could I have chips?

l/l - No, how would I know which plate was yours?

Me - Err, it would have chips on...

L/l - But what if I put the chips on someone else's order? Then they wouldn't get their vegetables?

Me - Err. Well. I'll just sit down.


I once interviewed Kim Newman, he had venison stew. Is it a writer thing?

[desperance.livejournal.com]

That is a bizarre conversation.

I think people other than writers do eat venison; it's probably not worth keeping it on the menu, just for the writers who happen along. Perhaps we all have sympathy for the stag at bay?

So why aren't you meant to eat veggies? Is an odd proscription...

[dedbutdrmng.livejournal.com]

My insides are all messed up. I can't eat vegetables but can eat potatoes. Which is odd. Basically, anything which is good for normal people is bad for me. I miss peanuts. And brown bread.

This time a year and a half ago I weighed under 7 stone. I'm more normal looking now. But it foxed real life for a bit.

[mizkit.livejournal.com]

You English are very bizarre.

[wishwords.livejournal.com]

Isn't it lovely when everything falls into place, including the makings of several meals worth of food for the writer?

[desperance.livejournal.com]

The writer and other people too, most likely: I may keep the soup to myself (mmm, duck soup. with noodles...) but confit is a social thing, and I'm planning a big Indian meal soon, so the curry may be kept for that...

And, yes. When I set off into town, I was half-thinking "I don't need to do this, I'm just prevaricating." Came back with food and story. Lovely...

Comment reposted due to a VERY unfortunate typo

[esmeraldus-neo.livejournal.com]

This whole thing is beginning to take shape now, but will make more sense if the ducks were, uh, pre-deceased.

Because when you say you butchered ducks, I think of LIVE ducks. And wonder why in god's name you were killing waterfowl INSIDE your house.

Re: Comment reposted due to a VERY unfortunate typo

[desperance.livejournal.com]

*snigger*

It was a very giggleworthy typo. And yup, I do draw a distinction between slaughter and butchery: it may not be obvious outside the house, but in here we know what we mean. The only fresh-slain birdies I have to deal with are those dragged in by the kitties - and that is entirely theoretical. They sit in windows muttering "I could take that pigeon," and I fail to let 'em out to prove it. (One time my late lamented Misha-cat did haul a sparrow in - but I took it from her, and I swear, it had been dead for days...)

Re: Comment reposted due to a VERY unfortunate typo

[esmeraldus-neo.livejournal.com]

I do draw a distinction between slaughter and butchery

Ahhh, yes, you're right. I overlooked that, in my confusion.

The typo...I saw it, I swear I saw it and said, "oh, better make sure I don't type that..." but I only saw the SECOND instance of the word, and had already made the error in the first instance. Post in haste...

Re: Comment reposted due to a VERY unfortunate typo

[pennski.livejournal.com]

Would that be the pesky d and f being next to each other on the keyboard kind of typo?

*Sniggers and runs away*.

Re: Comment reposted due to a VERY unfortunate typo

[esmeraldus-neo.livejournal.com]

No, it was the "i" being next to the "u."