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A Drift of Quills for July 2019

7/12/2019

5 Comments

 
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It's July, and time for A Drift of Quills to bring you a joint post. This month our theme is to share one or more pictures that illustrate a person, place, or thing from our work. I'm anxious to see what my fellow Quills have for us. Please be sure to follow the links to find the "rest of the story" for each of them!
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Robin Lythgoe, author of As the Crow Flies, is first up today. What have you for us today, Robin?

​Robin's site is here.

This recurring theme is one of my favorites! I love sharing with you the images that have inspired my stories (or the images I’ve had to hunt for, trying to match a description!). 

I’ve come back to Sherakai’s story—I figure it makes sense since his first book, Blood and Shadow, is currently part of the Self-Published Fantasy Blog Off (SPFBO). Hosted by Mark Lawrence, author of The Broken Empire series and other books, a total of 300 books are judged by 10 bloggers. Am I nervous? (Gulp!) Mostly, I try not to think about it. There is some serious competition in the running!

Since we already caught a glimpse of things in my previous post about him, I thought I’d share some images from the second book of The Mage’s Gift. In Flesh and Bone, Sherakai receives…
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P.S. Broaddus, author of A Hero's Curse, is sure to have some great stuff for us. Well, Parker?

Parker's site is here.

I love illustration and I think it works well for the young reader genre and age. One of my favorite things to do as a kid was to flip through a book looking for the pictures, and things haven't changed.  

I'm a particular fan of simple sketches. I have a collection of them, some commissioned, some that were done by readers. I think that's something I wish I could do as well, but my sketch art is little more than a series of stick figures ...
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And now ... for my thoughts. 

I’ve chosen to sprinkle a few pics throughout my post today, all relating to the same part of the storyline from Oathtaker, The Oathtaker Series Volume One.

Before sharing any pics, let me open by saying that while perhaps a bit odd, I’ve always been fascinated by the words we give for groups of animals. Here are just a few great ones:
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To the above, I would add a couple I’ve made good use of in my stories, including the words used for a group of vultures, namely, kettle, committee, or wake, depending on what they are up to at the time. Then there is my favorite, which is the word used for a group of crows: a murder. (What a great name for this group of animals!) 
In Oathtaker, when Lilith is on her mission to kill the infant twins, she arrives in the City of Light. A murder of crows accompanies her. The following is an excerpt that is edited with the use of ellipses (...) instead of blank spaces, but so that I don’t give away any key details:
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Making their way through the streets and byways of the City of Light, the travelers slowed their pace as they neared sanctuary. Crowds meandered from one street vendor’s stall to another, all the while trying to steer clear of the thousands of crows that had descended on the city. Food smells, both savory and sweet, filled the air: roasting lamb, fresh bread, cinnamon sprinkled almonds, sweet fruits, and fresh herbs.

Lilith … rode ahead, seemingly oblivious to the black varmints flying overhead. 

Velia frowned at the flock. It seemed to grow by the minute. It called to her mind an old childhood verse: 

Black and loud 
Like a cloud, 
Come the crows 
Murdering rogues. 

​Occasionally one swooped down to snatch food from the hands of a babe, or pecked someone who tried to keep his food away from the winged thief so hard, that the person’s hands bled from the assault. 

Lilith glanced at the crowds. Dressed in nondescript brown, and with her hood up, no one recognized her. She motioned for Velia to pull up. 

“Where to?” the Oathtaker asked. 

“Just there.” Lilith designated with a nod, an inn situated on a corner. The Home Place, read its welcome sign. Already crows lined the ridge of the roof and sat on the veranda’s railings that ran the full length of the building. When she lifted her arm, one of the flock landed on it. The creature looked her full in the eye. She stroked the animal, then raised her arm into the air to push it off again. With a caw sounding distinctly like a scream, the vagrant flew away. It landed, seconds later, at the apex of the building. 
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Mara and her friends discover the presence of the murder of crows in the city, and of the dangers they pose, as follows:
“Say, I’m curious, have the crows been over this way?” 

“Crows?” Ezra asked. 

“Yes, it’s the strangest thing. A murder of them invaded the city earlier today. I saw them causing no end of problems in the main square when I made my way through there a short time ago.” 

“Now that you mention it, I saw a few earlier today.” 

“I hate those birds,” Nina said. 

Me too,” Erin agreed. 

“Well . . . use care when they’re around,” Jamison cautioned. “They’ve attacked a number of people in the city. It might just have been rumor, but I heard that one guy lost an eye.”
Later, Mara travels through the city streets. This is what she saw:
In the center of the city, the vendors remained on alert. Many in the crowd carried things overhead to keep the crows from their faces. Mara couldn’t recall ever having seen the creatures behave quite so aggressively before, but she felt she had a new understanding for why a group of them was known as a murder.
Still later, Velia encounters the creatures yet again:
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As she stepped off the veranda, a crow chased at her heels. She danced around it. When she couldn’t get free of the beast, she kicked it with all her might, finding intense satisfaction when it hit the side of the building and fell to the ground. She hoped it never moved again. 

She rushed to the stables as more birds darted at her. 
It may be wholly wrong of me, but I admit that crows seem evil to me. I'm not sure where that comes from, but I don't even like them hanging around my property. Perhaps they remind me of the old Alfred Hitchcock movie, The Birds. When I saw that film for the first time, I was just a kid. It was haunting. In any case, I wouldn’t say that I’m exactly afraid of any group of birds, but if I saw a murder of crows coming toward me, I might rethink that position …
We Quills would love it if you shared your thoughts on our pics and stories.
5 Comments
Andrea Stoeckel
7/13/2019 07:29:34 am

A Crash of Rhinoceros
Song by Carrie Newcomer
OVERVIEW
LYRICS
PEOPLE ALSO SEARCH FOR
When Adam went out to name the animals
He sat on a rock and he figured
Horse and cow and goat and sheep
Were the best names that he could deliver
But Eve looked around at all of that glory
Said Hon I think we should consider
Something a bit more unique and refined
For each and every critter
It's a crash of rhinoceros a pomp of Pekinese
It's a gaggle of geese and a swarm of bees
A parliament of owl and a gam of whale
A pandemonium of parrot and a watch of nightingale
A huddle of walrus, company of moles
Exultation of lark and a murder of crow
A simple flock sheep and a herd of deer
Its a bask of crocodiles and a sleuth of bear
Adam looked shocked and scratched his head
Eve stood there happy and beaming
The animals gathered in close to their feet
With roars of delight, barks and singing
She's on a roll and just getting started
The birds and beasts held their breath
What fine appellation would they receive
And which one of them would be the next?
It's a team of oxen and a mob of kangaroo
It's a charm of flinch if there are more than two
A troubling of goldfish, a cluster of cats
A bloat of hippopotami, a cloud of bats
Ostentation of peacock, a barren of mules
An army of ant, nursery of raccoon
A parcel of penguins, a dray of squirrels
A bed of oyster with or without the pearls
All that naming lasted far into the night
Until even the insects had groupings
Eve was still bright eyed and willing to finish
Though her shoulders and fig leaves were drooping
Adam said, â??Darling I'm proud and amazed
You're really one heck of a woman
So let's go to sleep and tomorrow we'll rise
And we'll start naming the rocks plants and woodlandsâ??
It's a tittering of magpie, company of mole
It's a pride of lions and a tribe of goats
A plague of locust and a pack of dogs
A leap of leopard, an array of hedgehog
It's a caravan of camels, a drift of swan
A sulk of foxes and the list goes on
It's a an prickle of porcupine, a battery of hens
A cohort of zebra and now once again
It's a colony of rabbits, and a sounder of boar
An ambush of tigers, now just a little more
It's a business of ferrets, a swarm of eels
A covey of quail and a pod of seals
It's a parade of elephant, a dole of dove
A bale of turtles and all of them I love
And she kissed the horde of hamsters
On their furry little heads, sighed with satisfaction
And she went to bed
Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: Carrie Newcomer
A Crash of Rhinoceros lyrics © BMG Rights Management

Reply
Patricia Reding link
7/13/2019 09:02:30 am

This is THE BEST! I'm "sighing with satisfaction." :) Thank you so much for sharing!

Reply
Robin link
7/13/2019 09:22:28 am

Crows definitely have a dark purpose in your books! I think they get a bad rap. 😄 Crows are incredibly intelligent, clever, and social. Did you know they mate for life? And if you take care of a crow, it will bring you gifts. And they're handsome. (Ask anyone. Ask Tanris! Hehehe!)

Reply
Patricia Reding link
7/13/2019 09:29:20 am

Right! I think they're too clever by half. :) Interesting, isn't it, how two people can think about the same thing in such different ways?

Reply
P.S. Broaddus link
7/15/2019 10:05:57 am

I loved how you paired your pictures with snippets of story. Well done, that brought it to life. I should have done that!

Reply



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