The Wordsmith's Forge

This is your free serial poem, selected by the audience in a poll, since the September 6, 2011 Poetry Fishbowl met the $150 goal.  It was prompted by laffingkat and jenny_evergreen.  minor_architect also wanted to see another Fiorenza poem with magical aspects, and marina_bonomi and I have been discussing Italian fairytales.  One of my favorite fairytales has been written down with such names as "Sir Marzipan" or "Mr. Semolina," and an Italian version is "Pintosmalto."  However, Fiorenza takes a rather more practical approach.  If you look closely, you can see multiple motifs that are traditional to European fairytales.

Sfogliatelle  are Italian pastries that resemble seashells and may contain various types of filling.  Filone  is an everyday yeast bread.

See a lovely illustration of "Husband by Hand" drawn by meeksp.

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Video and article.  Whoever said romance writers don't do their homework, never met THIS lady.  Three cheers for taking verisimilitude all the way!

Check out "Nightlights" by chrysoula.  It's a paranormal YA story with action/romance.

This poem came out of the May 3, 2011 Poetry Fishbowl.  It was inspired by prompts from janetmiles and jenny_evergreen.  In case you're curious, green lacewings are among the top-rated beneficial insects for devouring pests.  For folk songs, I highly recommend "The Contemplator's Folk Music Site," a terrific archive with lyrics and music; but be careful, it can suck you in for hours.

We set them to music,
The things we remember:
The flowers of April,
The leaves of September.

The ballads of romance
Have set hearts a-sighing;
The ballads of murder
Have left eyes a-crying.

For "Thomas the Rhymer"
And "Undaunted Mary"
We sing of true lovers
With tunes bright and airy.

But for "The Two Sisters"
And likewise "Tom Dooley"
We sing slow and sadly
Of those who slew cruelly.

The plots of folk ballads
Show off all their paces;
We paint ourselves fairly
In both of our faces.

For humans are nothing
If not good and evil;
We are the green lacewing
And also the weevil.

10iloveyou has a set of seven inspiration tables intended for love stories.  Most of those consist of word or phrase prompts, but one is filled with lyric quotes.  There are 10 prompts per table, so if you want to mix and match them, just break out your d10.

I realized that I just wrote Fala's first love scene on Valentine's Day, so I wanted to share a little teaser with you.  This scene unfolds the evening after her age-set passes the adulthood tests at the summer gather.  It's relatively safe-for-work, as I don't plan to decribe more than heavy flirting in this particular story -- the rest happens behind closed tent flaps.

At first they just watched, but soon Fala found herself swept up the the dance.  She frisked around the circle, her hands in the air, feet flashing through quick high steps.  Her hair escaped from its ribbons and stuck to her sweaty face, but Fala didn't care.  It was all exhilirating.

Eventually Fala wore herself out and flopped down on a bench to rest.  Her eyes still followed the dancers as they wove and leaped against a backdrop of golden flames.  One in particular caught her attention, a tall young man with powerful muscles that humped and stretched as he moved.  His skin gleamed like bronze in the firelight.  Black hair framed his face as he paused to flash her a wide white grin.  In that moment, she could see his eyes too, a pale hazel almost the color of raakorn.  Then he spun away and vanished in the swirl of bodies.  Fala sighed.

"That's Dareg," said a smooth voice as someone sat down beside her.  "He's quite popular with the women, though you're a bit young for him yet."

Fala turned to see an equally handsome man sharing her bench.  "He smiled at me," she said.

"He smiles at everyone."

"Would you smile at me?" Fala said, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.

He did, a beautiful big smile framed by dimples.  It made Fala's heart flutter.  "Gladly," said the man.  "I'm Karavai, ranger of Itrelir."

"Fala," she said, then remembered to add, "ranger of Itadesh."

This poem came out of the January 5, 2010 Poetry Fishbowl.  It was inspired by a very plotty prompt by fortunavirilis which was itself inspired by a science article; the storyline is also an exploration of how people can grow apart from each other, or toward each other, for reasons that may seem utterly inexplicable.  The poem was sponsored by laffingkat as part of the 2010 Holiday Poetry Sale.  Merry happy calendar markings and assorted gratitudes!

(I'm pleased to have some extra sales out of the January fishbowl, because it was inspired by some victim of testosterone poisoning making a claim that women can't write hard science fiction.  So I took the claim out back and stabbed it with pencils, then my friends helped beat it to death with merry bundles of cash.)

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Here is a brilliant article discussing the use of alien sexuality as a conflict driver in science fiction.

I agree that sexuality makes for awesome conflict, that studying wildlife is a great idea mine, and that introducing characters from different backgrounds can create long-term challenges that go beyond whether or not they'll ever get together as a couple.  Many of my stories that feature romance/sexuality account for cultural or biological differences.  "Did You Get Your Answers Questioned?" in Genderflex was about dealing with a new partner's unfamiliar gender identity.  "Peaches from the Tree of Heaven" in newWitch dealt with divergent reproductive expectations.  In Torn World, my main storyline angles to introduce Fala (a Northern ranger) and Rai (a Southern shopkeeper) as a way of playing out some of the cultural conflicts; and the sexual/romantic arrangements in those two societies are wildly  different.  My poetry does likewise.  "The Underground Gardens" presents not a couple but a trio -- a male elf, a female dwarf, and a male (but asexual) human -- and how their family structure influenced their choice of home.  One of my unpublished epics, "Courting on the Porch" (currently on sale for $24.25 in the 2010 Holiday Poetry Sale) describes the sexual process of an alien species with very  different sexes, and how that affects their lifestyle.

Among my favorite examples from someone else's work are haikujaguar's Jokka stories, some of which are now available for individual download in electronic format.  The Jokka have three sexes -- male, female, and neuter -- with varying degrees of durability.  Their efforts to cope with their biology are a prevailing force in society; and I think some aspect of that appears in every  story about them that I've read so far.

How does divergent sexuality play into your reading and/or writing?

Characters are people, and people tend to get involved with each other.  If your characters have a relationship, it's up to you how much of that to describe, depending on whether you're writing erotica, romance, or something totally unrelated. 
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aldersprig wrote the flash fiction "Down by the River" based on my prompt.  This was the original prompt:

Green also makes me think of subtle dangers. Absinthe, poison, poison ivy. It's a life color, a safe color, but it isn't always safe. Red is a danger color but not all dangers are red. Here I'd like a story on the theme of unexpected threats and the painful betrayals of nature, something short and sharp like a thorn. 250-500 words.

You can read the call for prompts here; other prompted stories are linked below it.  There is also a summary post listing previous stories available for sponsorship.