During part of the game several characters hooked up with each other, or hooked up with NPCs, and then two of the main NPCs helping out the player characters were already engaged and got married during part of the in game down time. So, you have a werewolf marrying someone of were-raven blood, a werewolf marrying an actual were-raven and then possibly a werewolf marrying a cyborg if they could ever get their act together; and also the possibility of the reincarnated equivalent of King Arthur hooking up with one of the werewolf’s cousins who can’t shift.

All sorts of intriguing things. I’m trying to stay away from so much of that in the actual story. There are relationships during the course of the novel most notably the previously mentioned werewolf/were-raven one, but at the same time most of the other characters are more focused on other things, there are hints and crushes and desires but not so much acted upon because there are so many other things going on.

I try to steer away from romance in stories but at the same time through talking with several friends I’ve realized and accepted that given romance and even just “hooking up” is integral to our day to day existence I shouldn’t avoid it like the plague, instead I should embrace it as a sidebar as something which would strengthen many of the characters’ drive and need to actually complete the plot because they do so for caring about their family, their significant others and their future family.

On the one hand I know what you definitely do NOT give a werewolf groomsman: anything silver!

In keeping with the trying to get away from living in the stories things something else came up as a sort of colon cleanse for my brain, which was to try my hand at a romantic comedy sort of story. I’m still not sure if I’m up to that but it has sparked a few interesting thoughts about the ‘Too Deep’ universe, not necessarily that story but about other stories I have which hook into it, and whether or not I can work on one of those instead and hopefully remain more detached or whether I should shelve the whole universe for the time being and instead write something else, such as the weird and whacky version of “Rapunzel” that had been in my head for a while.

So this is my quandry for now, do I write up the McCahill end of the ‘Too Deep’ universe which involves several comparisons of romance from arranged marriage, stalkers, first loves and a ‘business arrangement’ which is more based on love than many of the other supposed romances in the story, or the story of Eryssa’s quest to rescue her older sister from the clutches of an ‘evil’ wizard so she can be back with her true love the captain of the city guard while Eryssa hopefully finds a way to get her own magic to work properly in the mean time…

I hear a lot about people wanting to get engagement jewelry and spending a lot of time trying to make a selection and often wondered why they don’t just ask their prospective spouse. I was reading about the engagement ring on Bellatrue and felt a bit ambivalent about a lot of the advice there because we really didn’t do things traditionally when my husband and I got together.

My husband proposed to me before he got the ring, then we went together to get the ring, and when we did we bought a colored gemstone ring, a marquis cut sapphire with two small diamonds around it laid on white gold, so that it looks silvery as I don’t wear yellow gold.

My step-father was mortified when we picked up the engagement ring that we didn’t get a “set” where the engagement ring would fit with the wedding ring, but that wasn’t important to me, what was was being economical. Sure I could have had my then fiancee spend several thousand dollars on a ring but then I would have been afraid to wear it lest something happen to it.

The engagement ring is unusual. I continue to wear it now on my opposite hand because it doesn’t fit with my wedding ring, but I love it so I wear it.

When it comes to other pieces of jewelry I still go towards more unusual things. I don’t wear jewelry often and tend to wear the same few pieces day after day. It’s only a special occasion that will prompt me to up the anti and wear a necklace as well as my customary two pairs of earrings and three rings and I much prefer colored gemstones rather than white diamonds.

So something like this:

is what’s going to catch my eye because of the unusual combinations and styles. I remember when we were shopping for a wedding ring several jewelers were extremely perturbed by my lack of interest in gemstones on my ring. I wanted a white gold band with a little bit of design on it, something with weight rather than the flimsy strips of gold they were showing with tiny sapphires and diamonds in them. I put one of them on and I couldn’t even feel it on my finger and that terrified me.

At least something like this:

would have some weight to it, but it’s all a matter of personal preference. I’m just not the type of girl who has to have the latest jewelry.

I cry icy tears that burn my eyes,
This weakness holds you strong around me,
A sanctuary I remember fondly
Embracing wave,
inside a fountain,
beside a waterfall,
despite my innocence we proved wise,
despite conversation we remained
yet now desolate again

It’s funny how lost love tends to cause poetry but also how it tends to cause sucky poetry that has to be improved once the emotion is less fully active.