WeWriWa—Another new Thanksgiving guest

Welcome back to Weekend Writing Warriors and Snippet Sunday, weekly Sunday hops where writers share 8–10 sentences from a book or WIP. The rules have now been relaxed to allow a few more sentences if merited, so long as they’re clearly indicated, to avoid the creative punctuation many of us have used to stay within the limit.

This year, my Thanksgiving-themed excerpts come from Chapter 13, “Thanksgiving Break,” of A Dream Deferred: Lyuba and Ivan at University. It’s 1948, and one of the holiday celebrations is at the home of Lyuba’s mother and stepfather. Also in attendance are the family of Lyuba’s stepsister Dinara

Dinara’s oldest daughter Zhenya finally arrived with her new boyfriend Kuzma and a kind stranger who drove them there. While Zhenya and Kuzma were walking to the subway, Zhenya was knocked over by a car running a red light, and both of her legs were driven over. From the details provided, the other people in attendance figured out the guilty party is their family’s longtime antagonist Boris Malenkov.

“Thank you very much for bringing Zhenya here,” Dinara says. “It’s also nice to finally meet you, Kuzma. May I ask if you have a place for a Thanksgiving meal?”

Kuzma shakes his head. “My parents are traditional Russians, and don’t celebrate any American holidays. They only have some fireworks for the Fourth of July, nothing else.”

“Please join us. Marusya’s young man already agreed to join us, so you won’t be the only non-relative. It’ll be our treat.”

“We insist,” Mr. Lebedev says.

The ten lines end here. A few more follow to finish the scene (and the chapter).

“Does the other gentleman have a place?”

“Yes, Sir, I was on my way to my parents’ apartment after running a few errands,” Mr. Palomer says. “I hope you find the madman who did this and punish him.”

“Oh, we all wish Malenkov would stay out of decent society forever, but the next-best thing is avoiding contact with him. He’s unfortunately the blood father of one of my granddaughters, but he’s not welcome in this family. We have more than enough people to not miss his disgusting presence.” Mr. Lebedev looks hopefully at Kuzma and Yulian. “Sometimes we’re blessed enough to welcome new people to our family, and that’s something we can all be very thankful for.”

WeWriWa—Zhenya arrives

Welcome back to Weekend Writing Warriors and Snippet Sunday, weekly Sunday hops where writers share 8–10 sentences from a book or WIP. The rules have now been relaxed to allow a few more sentences if merited, so long as they’re clearly indicated, to avoid the creative punctuation many of us have used to stay within the limit.

This year, my Thanksgiving-themed excerpts come from Chapter 13, “Thanksgiving Break,” of A Dream Deferred: Lyuba and Ivan at University. It’s 1948, and one of the holiday celebrations is at the home of Lyuba’s mother and stepfather. Also in attendance are Lyuba’s stepsister Dinara and her husband Yarik, who were concerned about their three adult daughters being late.

Second and third daughters Marina and Bogdana just arrived, and Marina came with her new boyfriend Yulian. When Yulian said his family doesn’t observe any American holidays and only follows Russian customs, he was invited to stay. Bogdana then said oldest sister Zhenya went to a Chinese restaurant for breakfast with her new boyfriend Kuzma.

The bell rings loudly and insistently, followed by frantic knocking. Mr. Lebedev sets his newspaper on his armchair and opens the door to find Zhenya supported by two strange men. The younger man, on Zhenya’s left, has honey blonde hair and dark blue-grey eyes, and wears a full Army dress uniform. Zhenya holds onto him more than the other man, and has a very odd standing position that looks more like one of Lyolya’s ballet poses.

The younger man introduces himself first. “I’m Zhenya’s beau, Second Lieutenant Kuzma Demyanovich Nikulin, and this is our accidental chauffeur, Clarence Palomer. Some svoloch ran a red light and plowed into Zhenya while we were crossing Lafayette onto Canal to get to the subway. We don’t think anything’s broken, though he banged her left knee pretty badly, and drove right over both of her lower legs. Mr. Palomer offered us a ride, though I was prepared to carry Zhenya on my back the rest of the way.”

Mr. Palomer tips his hat.

The ten lines end here. A few more follow to finish the scene.

“The maniac who did this had an orange Bentley. From what I could see of him through his windows, he was extremely fat and had an odd pipe clenched in his teeth.”

“His name is Boris Aleksandrovich Malenkov,” Ilya says from his easel. “He just got out of debtors’ prison over the summer. We ran into him on our way over here. That jerk dropped me on a hard hospital floor when I was six weeks old, and did lots of horrible things to my mother.”

“He was indirectly responsible for a medical emergency I had when I was a newborn too,” Igor chimes in. “He runs an opium den now.”

Zhenya hops into the house, still supported by Kuzma and Mr. Palomer. Vsevolod and Rostislav get up from the davenport to give her enough room.

WeWriWa—Thanksgiving invitation accepted

Welcome back to Weekend Writing Warriors and Snippet Sunday, weekly Sunday hops where writers share 8–10 sentences from a book or WIP. The rules have now been relaxed to allow a few more sentences if merited, so long as they’re clearly indicated, to avoid the creative punctuation many of us have used to stay within the limit.

This year, my Thanksgiving-themed excerpts come from Chapter 13, “Thanksgiving Break,” of A Dream Deferred: Lyuba and Ivan at University. It’s 1948, and one of the holiday celebrations is at the home of Lyuba’s mother and stepfather. Last week, Marina Sheltsova, middle daughter of Lyuba’s stepsister Dinara, arrived with her new boyfriend Yulian, whom the family hasn’t met yet.

Marina’s father Yarik just invited him to sit and stay awhile.

Yulian looks around. “That’s a really swell offer, but I can’t crowd your house even more. I haven’t yet decided if I’ll make my own lunch and supper, or if I should go to a Chinese joint and order enough food for leftovers for supper. My family doesn’t follow any American holidays, not even really the Fourth of July. It’s all about Russian customs and Russian customs only.”

“Would you like to eat with us?” Dinara asks. “We’ll be more than happy to make an extra seat for you at the table. My father and stepmother never object to surprise guests when they’re family or dear friends of family.”

Yulian smiles.

The nine lines end here. A few more follow to finish the scene.

“That’s a really swell offer, Mrs. Sheltsova-Lebedeva. I’ll help in the kitchen to earn my free grub, wash dishes, clear the table, anything you’d like me to do.”

“You don’t have to pitch in any manual labor when you’re our guest,” Mr. Lebedev says. “Though it’s very nice to learn my granddaughter has found herself a standup beau.”

WeWriWa—Surprise Thanksgiving guest

Welcome back to Weekend Writing Warriors and Snippet Sunday, weekly Sunday hops where writers share 8–10 sentences from a book or WIP. The rules have now been relaxed to allow a few more sentences if merited, so long as they’re clearly indicated, to avoid the creative punctuation many of us have used to stay within the limit.

It’s been a few years since I featured Thanksgiving-themed excerpts during November. The ones I selected come from Chapter 13, “Thanksgiving Break,” of A Dream Deferred: Lyuba and Ivan at University. It’s 1948, and one of the holiday celebrations is at the home of Lyuba’s mother and stepfather. The guests include her stepsister Dinara’s and Dinara’s husband Yarik, who are wondering what’s keeping their three daughters.

The doorbell rings, and Mr. Lebedev gets up to get the door. Marina, wearing a rabbit fur coat dyed dark pink, is hand-in-hand with Yulian, who’s in his full dress uniform. Bogdana is behind them, but Zhenya isn’t anywhere in sight.

“Dedushka, this is my boyfriend, Second Lieutenant Yulian Filippovich Zefirov. He served in the First Infantry Division, and now works as a soda jerk and lives on Seventh Avenue South, by the Village Vanguard. Yulik’s also studying engineering at Columbia.”

Mr. Lebedev smiles. “It’s nice to finally meet your beau. Did you walk here?”

“Yes, Sir, I went to visit Marusya this morning, since I knew I wouldn’t have another chance to see her all day, and I wanted to walk her over to her family celebration to prolong our time together.”

The ten lines end here. A few more follow to finish the scene.

Yulian extends his hand. “I hope I didn’t offend anyone by not introducing myself sooner, but I wanted to make sure I really liked Marusya before taking such a serious step.”

“We’re pleased to meet you,” Dinara says. “You look like a very nice, respectable young man, and none the worse for wear.”

“You can sit for awhile and talk to us, unless you have to hurry to your own family’s Thanksgiving,” Yarik says. “Please don’t feel you’re intruding upon us because you’re not family.”

IWSG—October odds and sods

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If you’re observing Yom Kippur, may you have an easy and meaningful fast!

It’s time again for The Insecure Writer’s Support Group, which meets the first Wednesday of every month to commiserate over worries, fears, doubts, and struggles.

This month’s question is:

What do you consider the best characteristics of your favorite genre?

I love the rich worldbuilding of historical fiction, and all the little details helping to bring a time and place alive (clothing, food, architecture, interior design, social mores, language, transportation, car models, schools, medicine, technology, music, you name it). Good historical writers spend a lot of time researching, and often enjoy the process at least as much as the actual  writing.

The trend towards hist-fic lite, or Gossip Girl in period clothes, annoys me so much. You need to give your head a shake if you truly believe insisting on historical accuracy is gatekeeping and censorship. More like a basic key feature of the genre!

As always, much of my October writing will consist of my blog posts about classic horror films with landmark anniversaries this year. Much to my great disappointment and annoyance, the Monster template I used every year since I believe 2012 was quietly retired in late 2021, and there’s no more way for WordPress users to access our own previously-used retired themes. Since I’m only a WordPress.com user, not a dot org user, I also can’t install a premium Halloween theme.

At least I still have my old October header, and perhaps WordPress will introduce a new Halloween template in future.

My original plans for NaNo were to finally finish Dream Deferred and write the new chapters and scenes. However, I came to feel the writing would be a lot slower because it’s out of order and combined with moving things around.

I believe my disappointing (but never failing) performance on some prior NaNos and Camp months was partly a result of working on a rewrite instead of starting fresh or adding to a first draft already in progress. That constrains my speed.

I thought about resuming my alternative history about Dante and Beatrice, which I’m very eager to get back to, but vetoed that as well. NaNo proved to be an inopportune time to work on such a research-heavy book. There’s nothing wrong with writing slower and more carefully, but that’s just not conducive to NaNo success.

Instead, I’ll be starting my radical rewrite of Almost As an Afterthought: The First Six Months of 1941 (which doesn’t have a new title yet). It’ll be almost a complete gut renovation, with very little original material retained from the 11,000-word first draft which I wrote in fifteen days in August 1997. With any luck, I’ll finally regain my normal daily wordcounts of several thousand.

It dawned on me a few months ago that I never shared the print cover for the book formerly known as The Very Next, now called Movements in the Symphony of 1939. Since I took such a long break from proofing the final version, it kind of slipped my mind. And now I’m leaning very strongly towards new editions of How Kätchen Became Sparky and Movements in the Symphony of 1939.

To my great embarrassment, I discovered the Dante quote featured several times in each is a 20th century fake. The short paragraph I included in the front matter for Movements no longer seems like enough. Why would Cinni’s father, who’s such a passionate Dantephile, be fooled by a fake quote that rather contradicts Dante’s own vision? It’s sticking in my craw more and more.

But before I do some tweaks for these new editions, I need to find a real quote with a comparable message.

Do you plan to do NaNo? Ever discovered there was an error in a book you had to correct in a new edition?