a meme-widget thing:

[capri0mni]

Also: I think you should know that I have a warm black cat nestled in the crook of my arm, and she is purring loudly. I bet, if I had Dragon dictate, I would get so much more writing done, 'cause I wouldn't have to type around a cat.

BTW, I've had this chair almost 5 years. It has a different armrest/joystick design than my old chair. That difference has put Trixie off from lap cuddling, until we had a cold snap last weekend. ...I think she's been making up for lost time ever since. :-)

[Edit to add: Here's the open question I posted on the NaNoWriMo Fantasy Forum (discussion welcome here, too, BTW)--

A rapid change of mind, combined with a prior writing commitment, means that this year, I'm starting NaNo 3 days late, with Zero Planning... 2,300 words in, and panicking.

The story so far: My teenage MC has just been given what she's calling "the Hansel and Gretel Treatment" -- because of hard times, her mother has arranged for her to go live with an older, distant, relative (that the mother knows only slightly, and my MC not at all) for a year or so, while the mother looks for work (or while she's temporarily laid off, while the company restructures, or something). My MC is an old enough teen to leave school for a year, and I think part of this relative's proposal is that he will homeschool her for the duration -- perhaps focusing on teaching history, or language, or something.... which it will end up being will depend on the answers to the following questions.

Right now, I'm thinking of him as her foil (will probably turn out to be a mentor/ally, even if she's uncertain at this point) . He's an older, retired, gentleman whom she sees as "ancient," but he's probably only in his mid 70's, at the latest. He lives in this world, but is a wizard (yes, a la Harry Potter, except in my fictional worlds, magic is something you learn, like philosophy, physics, or history, rather than something you inherit genetically -- no more distinction between "muggles" and "wizards" in my worldview than between mathematicians and restaurant chefs -- and it doesn't pay the rent, so you need a day job to keep body and soul together).

Also, my world is atheist in structure, but there's still an Afterlife, with ghosts, and Otherworld, with spirits, et alia.

A) What's a good job for him to have retired from? and
B) Any ideas on what sort of Thing should Go Awry, in order to present a puzzle for them to solve and conflict to resolve?]

Comments

[jesse_the_k]

a) Something v v mundane, such as restaurant chef, or refrigerator repair tech, or x-ray/MRI tech.

b) Drought.I'm dull that way.

[capri0mni]

As I answered on the LJ side: since I posted this question, I've pinned it down in actual words that he's "retired from the University," but I've not pinned down, yet, what he did when he worked there.

But I'm leaning toward him working as a technician of some sort at the University's FM radio station (pulling 'hidden' energies out of the air and making them audible/visible --for pre-digital TV, at least), and that he started out, in his youth, attempting the traditional academic, tenured professorship track, but got disillusioned and went for something more hands-on. At least that would give my MC's mother the idea that he's qualified to provide advanced homeschooling education to her daughter for a year (He really is, but not exactly in the way the mother thinks).

Oh, and drought is not dull if you're going through one. But I'd like it to be something that has them dealing with the ghosts and Otherworldly ones, somehow.