"When you know you can't have what you want, where's the profit in wishing?"

The clock in my brother's old room (on the only desk in the house with space to use a laptop) has one light burnt out... it's the bar at the lower left side of the 8 in the hour digit. Which it took me some time to figure out, as one initially assumes the clock is just an hour off. Or posessed, because sometimes it's early, and sometimes late, when both 5 & 6 are 5, and then both 8 & 9 are 9...

But in any case, I made a somewhat haphazard end to chapter 5 (and why, oh why, is it that the bit about Big Eater's Wife, which was totally innane and pointless, was the last bit I had? I'm such an idiot. And if I don't finish this within the next couple of months and PRINT IT OUT and pick a few people for editors-- anybody want to be considered?-- every one of you has permission to kick me.) last thursday, and then failed to write much of anything this weekend because I kept not being here. sigh. (not that I mean to complain of not having enjoyed the other places I was or the company or anything; there's just not enough time in the world is all, and I don't concentrate well enough when I have it-- note the writing this instead of more chapter six.)

So, there are a couple paragraphs of chapter six, and I'm wondering if knowing what all actually happens to the kids is going to be a problem for talking about their about-to-graduate the Academy lives. It's like trying to remember my hopes and dreams in high school, only I wasn't them to begin with...

Moral: The wish to murder one's wife is balanced by the knowledge that one cannot live without her.

(I swear I don't make these things up... the above is a quotation I copied down when doing my research on native american ghost stories. Not that I have my bibliography anymore...)

Scenerio: You are a mouse. The King of Cheshire Cheese has announced that he will grant half his kingdom and the inheritance rights to the other half to anyone who can make him call them a liar. What do you say?

all improbable fragments welcome, complete stories will be pillaged for details and not used entire, but don't give me anything you'd be offended if I used. Thanks.

And the classic "You called me a liar yesterday" is cheating; Dunya has no intention of using it.

"Woe, woe, woe!" cried the Key Rabbit.

and why, oh why, can I not remember anything about the conversation between Scheherazade and the snake? Not to mention the walled garden and the sparrow...

And I went back and reread a couple things, and they're better than I remembered from while I was writing. damnit. Because the rest was, too. Or most of it. (with most likely the exception of the story Dunya told the king the first time 'round, which was awful, and I seem to recall involved subway trains and being swallowed by a baby... hence why it must be better this time. No point in writing drivel twice, right?)

Soul Description: knotted up half it's size and pulsing dim & gray, and centered behind my breastbone (where there's a nice bruise from saturday, incidentally) with occasional awkward forrays to the base of my throat