First Hundred Words - I Promise

I've been playing with the first 100 words of some of my books. To avoid cutting off in the middle of a sentence, I'll go to 100 and then add the rest of the sentence in question. Here's the opening hundred of I Promise

Until she turned seven, on Christmas Eve 2001, Promise Grene loved her name.

It was easy to spell and easy to remember. It was unusual but not peculiar. It could be declaimed, in the style of a Roman emperor or an Asimovian robot. I, Promise! with an appropriate right-hand gesture.

She never did that anymore.

On Christmas Eve, on her seventh birthday, she made a promise to a red-haired boy. She didn’t keep it.

That wasn’t her fault, but she would never make another promise until she kept that one.

Promises were important. That was why her parents had given her that name.

First Hundred Words: Heather and Heath

I've been playing with the first 100 words of some of my books. To avoid cutting off in the middle of a sentence, I'll go to 100 and then add the rest of the sentence in question. Here's the opening hundred of HEATHER AND HEATH

       It had been late summer when the May Queen left the dock and now, a bare seventeen weeks later, it was summer again. Summer in December, when the loch-side would soon be mantled with snow and the herds keeping their sheep close ... the heather would be dim in the glens and up the brae.

            Ness McCleod tamped homesickness as her father had tamped tobacco in his pipe. No more Scottish winters for her, and just as well. Loch Haven was no longer home; not with Phemie wed again to Lachie Douglas. The thought was distressing, and Ness spared a thought for Phemie's son Donal, whose mother had turned against him to flatter the Douglas.

First Hundred Words - REPLAY

I've been playing with the first 100 words of some of my books. To avoid cutting off in the middle of a sentence, I'll go to 100 and then add the rest of the sentence in question. Here's the opening hundred of REPLAY, one of my favourites of my books

ELLIE

This time round, I am a human girl and Harry is a dog. This is inconvenient, because my parents didn't really want a dog with a jutting eyebrow fringe and a shaggy, untrimmed beard. Nor did they want a dog that cost five hundred dollars.

A pedigreed Schnauzer! I said in despair when I recognised him that morning at the agricultural show. Why did you have to be a pedigreed Schnauzer, Harry? I mean - why did you have to be a dog?

Harry looked sheepish. His beady little eyes peered out from underneath that peculiar fringe. Sorry, Aelfthryth...

First Hundred Words of Inspector Jacques

I've been playing with the first 100 words of some of my books. To avoid cutting off in the middle of a sentence, I'll go to 100 and then add the rest of the sentence in question. Here's the opening hundred of Inspector Jacques

Sarge was eating breakfast when the postman rattled the letter box.

Preacher and I shot out our dogdoor to play the Postman Game, but we were too late. Preacher gave a little howl of disappointment as the postman rode on past Foxie’s yard.

 ‘That new postman doesn’t play fair,’ said Foxie as he crawled under the hedge into our terrier-tory. ‘I don’t like him.’ He sat down to scratch his ribs, then sniffed about to see if Preacher and I had left any breakfast in our bowls. Of paws, we hadn’t.

Foxie grumbled about that. Then he left our yard (never mind how) and trotted off to visit Spotty Sprat.

First Hundred Words Betony Buys Adventure

I've been playing with the first 100 words of some of my books. To avoid cutting off in the middle of a sentence, I'll go to 100 and then add the rest of the sentence in question. Here's the opening hundred of Betony Buys Adventure

The week before her thirty-fifth birthday, Betony Field walked into an odd little café on the corner of Swift Street and Scuttle Lane. She was shivering, partly from cold and damp and partly because she hadn’t eaten anything worth mentioning since the week before.

She might have picked herself up, tied a knot and gone on after Jay gave her the not you it’s me spiel. They’d been together for five years, but it really wasn’t going anywhere. She knew he’d leave, but hadn’t expected him to jump ship just days before she stepped over the hill to nearer-forty-than-thirty.

First Hundred Words... Dog Den Mystery

I've been playing with the first 100 words of some of my books. To avoid cutting off in the middle of a sentence, I'll go to 100 and then add the rest of the sentence in question. Here's the opening hundred of Dog Den Mystery.

Round and round and round.

The paws are faster than sound.

Round and round, round and round, round and …

I was running my ninety-fifth lap of the boring backyard. There was nothing else to do, except sleep in my basket and chase sparrows.

Then Sarge came home.

‘We’re getting a transfer, Jack,’ he said.

Round and round and … ZOOOOP!

I skidded to a stop. I wagged my tail and did the paw thing. Sarge isn’t the brightest biscuit in the pack, but he knew that meant—

Great! Where are we going? Is Auntie Tidge coming?

‘Place called Doggeroo,’ said Sarge. He kicked my squeaker-bone so it squeaked.

First Hundred Words: Man Overboard

I've been playing with the first 100 words of some of my books. To avoid cutting off in the middle of a sentence, I'll go to 100 and then add the rest of the sentence in question. Here's the opening hundred of Man Overboard.

Once in a blue moon, extraordinary things happened to Zach Rowan. They sprang from things he did in good faith, and they had the potential to be wonderful or excruciating, or sometimes both at once.

The first blue moon affair happened when he was seventeen, and he screwed up his courage to invite the most beautiful girl in his year to their college dance. He was prepared for a refusal, because he knew he was punching above his weight with Honeycomb Bakewell. She had long, crinkly honey-gold hair and amber eyes, a tart personality, and she carried herself like a queen.

First Hundred Words: Sheet and Bones

I've been playing with the first 100 words of some of my books. To avoid cutting off in the middle of a sentence, I'll go to 100 and then add the rest of the sentence in question. Here's the opening salvo of Sheet and Bones:

It all started when the edge of the city lapped up against the old boneyard. For years the place had slept in the sun near an old church, surrounded by paddocks and cows.

            “Hungry!” roared the city.

            “Get lost,” mooed the cows. “This is our place.”

            “Gimme your land,” ordered the city.

            “No,” said the farmers. “This is our place.”

            The city licked its chops. The farmers growled. The cows mooed.

The city won, of course. Cities always win.

Within a year the city had eaten the paddocks. The farmers went to work driving trucks. The cows packed their bags and found somewhere else to live. 

First Hundred Words: The Peacock's Pearl

I've been playing 7/7/7 for a while, but now I've had a new idea; the first 100 words of some of my books. To avoid cutting off in the middle of a sentence, I'll go to 100 and then add the rest of the sentence in question. Here's the opening salvo of The Peacock's Pearl:

I know it isn’t usual to begin a book with a chapter numbered zero, but this isn’t a usual kind of book.

I could have called this the prologue, or a foreword, but then you might have skipped it and it is important to me (and I hope, to you) that you understand what you’re about to read.

You see…I have a story to tell. Actually, I have seven stories to tell, but they’re all part of the one big story. This first one is about the peacock’s pearl, the Beckingham Bride Chest, an annoying boy with orange hair turned up to the max and my kind-of-dead 5Xgreat granny.

First Hundred Words... The Pear Tree

I've been playing 7/7/7 for a while, but now I've had a new idea; the first 100 words of some of my books. To avoid cutting off in the middle of a sentence, I'll go to 100 and then add the rest of the sentence in question. Here's the opening salvo of The Pear Tree:

Nelis Winter’s Leavers’ Dinner was held on a Friday night in November, 2009. The night was stuck in Nelis’ mind forever, like a nail in the coffin of her school years. Daisy Comice, probably trying to make up for years of indignity heaped on Nelis during their life with Snowland Winter, got right into the spirit of the thing. She booked her daughter into Affinity to have her hair and makeup done, and took her to Beautiful Signets to buy a dress and shoes.  

Wot, no home-sewn mumu made of home-dyed homespun? the imp in Nelis’ brain demanded. No lecture on the ills of mineral makeup and the beauty of natural skin?

First Hundred Words... The Red Cat

I've been playing 7/7/7 for a while, but now I've had a new idea; the first 100 words of some of my books. To avoid cutting off in the middle of a sentence, I'll go to 100 and then add the rest of the sentence in question. The first is a w.i.p., The Red Cat; a love-story lasting over 70 years.

Emer Drumwiddy looked down at the small creature clinging to her skirts. She was wearing good braeside wool, so the rose-prickle claws would do no harm to her clothing. She was less confident about her skin.

The kitten yowled and stared up at her with wide, amber eyes.

“I was wondering when you’d show up, wee mannie,” she said. Her voice sounded oddly calm to her but then…how could she feel excited about something eight years in her future?

She bent and unhooked the kitten’s claws from her skirt, before she lifted it to eye-level.

Its eyes widened and its pink mouth opened in silent appeal.

7/7 The Mares of Merryland Chase

There's a game where one posts the seventh line of the seventh page of the seventh chapter of a novel.

The seventh chapter of The Mares of Merryland Chase is six pages, so here are the 7th sentence of Chapter 7 (Work it out and You'll be Fit)  and also the 7th paragraph.

Smiley has gone to work as a groom for the Mares of Merryland Chase. They are not nice mares...

The Mare who had grabbed her was a plump bay with a black mane and tail and a shiny brown coat.

One of the other Mares, a golden palomino with a white mane, snickered. ‘One can always try, Neighdene.’

7/7 Ramses Rat and the Great Cat, Bastet

There's a game where one posts the seventh line of the seventh page of the seventh chapter of a novel.

The seventh chapter of Ramses Rat and the Great Cat, Bastet, is short, so here instead is the seventh sentence of Chapter Seven, Tau the Scribe.

Ramses Rat, newly arrived in the city to make his way in the world, has entered the Temple of Bastet where he's just encountered a boy scribe in an argument over the ownership of a honey cake...

I stared back and chittered my teeth again.

7/7/7 New Dreams

There's a game where one posts the seventh line of the seventh page of the seventh chapter of a novel.

The seventh chapter of New Dreams has only six pages, so here instead is the seventh line on that chapter: What They Need to Know.

The orphans of the crashed ship Elysian Dawn are trying to make a go of it on a strange planet. So many people are dead that there are serious gaps in their knowledge. Marianne Arcadia, the eldest survivor, finds Edsen Balm, one of the older boys, fiddling with a  damaged communicator.

He peered up at her with the usual toss of his fringe.

7/7/7 The Silvering

There's a game where one posts the seventh line of the seventh page of the seventh chapter of a novel.
Here's the seventh paragraph of the seventh page of the seventh chapter of The Silvering. "Kissing Fruit".

Elysian Dawn, a generation colony ship, is eighteen years into its journey when it crashes on a remote planet. Marianne Arcadia, one of the survivors, has never been outside the ship before, but she explores and uses her botanical knowledge to find food. Her fiance Jeremiah is less confident.

“I wish you’d be more careful. You survived the crash. I don’t want you dying from eating something bad,” Jeremiah said.

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7/7/7 Elysian Dawn

There's a game where one posts the seventh line of the seventh page of the seventh chapter of a novel.
Here's the seventh paragraph of the seventh page of the seventh chapter of The Silvering. "Kissing Fruit".

Elysian Dawn, a generation colony ship, is eighteen years into its journey when it crashes on a strange planet. Two of the survivors are Marianne Arcadia and Jeremiah Rain. Marianne, who has never before been outside the spaceship, explores, using her botanical knowledge to find food on the planet. One fruit is in two loves, and she dubs it kissing fruit. Jeremiah is a bit less adventurous...

“I wish you’d be more careful. You survived the crash. I don’t want you dying from eating something bad,” Jeremiah said.

7/7/7 Court in Between

There's a game where one posts the seventh line of the seventh page of the seventh chapter of a novel.
In Court in Between, the seventh chapter has enough pages. Therefore, here's the seventh sentence of that seventh chapter. "Greensleeves".

Chloe, who lives locally, is inviting a guest artist at the music festival. He has just said he doesn't much care that his singing partner knows little about him...

Chloe looked as if she was thinking, you do care, but she said, “Would you like to come back to the tower for a drink? Bring anyone you like.

7/7 Sunshower

There's a game where one posts the seventh line of the seventh page of the seventh chapter of a novel.
In Sunshower, however, the seventh chapter has one page. Therefore, here's the seventh sentence of that seventh chapter. "Goodnight Sweetheart".

Tab and Josefa love one another, but Josefa is twenty-two to Tab's eighteen. Therefore, she hesitates to give him a positive answer to his wish to make it official. Tab presses her and she says...

“You haven’t said anything about forever.”

7/7/7 Counterpoint Questions

There's a game where one posts the seventh line of the seventh page of the seventh chapter of a WIP.
In Counterpoint Questions, I've gone for the seventh paragraph in the seventh chapter. "Silver Lady".

Louise and her friend Illya have met for coffee, but in the next booth are Illya's husband and his brother. When they emerge, Illya points out that her brother-in-law, Yestin, looks the most like their father.  Yestin wonders aloud if that's a good thing. Illya responds...

Illya shrugged. “Your dad must have something good going for him to attract a pisky maid.”

7/7 The Red Cat

There's a game where one posts the seventh line of the seventh page of the seventh chapter of a WIP.
In The Red Cat, however, the seventh chapter has five pages. Therefore, here's the seventh line of that seventh chapter. "Wednesday".

It's 1952 and Emer Drumwiddy is about to marry her love, the parson-to-be, Rory. She has made him a clerical collar and embroidered it, and her friend Nairn, who provided the wool, asks if he likes it.
Emer says;

“He says so. He says he’ll wear it as long as he lives.”

7/7/7 Under the Christmas Tree

There's a game where one posts the seventh line of the seventh page of the seventh chapter of a WIP.
In Under the Christmas Tree, the seventh chapter has eight pages, but the seventh line was in the middle of a sentence. Therefore, here's the seventh sentence of that seventh page of the seventh chapter. "Ancel de Libre".

Ancel is having problems with his mount, the kelpie mare Blessed. He lured her with gingerbread, and Suzette, watching, is interested.

Until recently, her great uncle had been chief confectioner at the castle, but this didn’t smell the same as the gingerbread he made. 

2019 in Focus: April

2019 in Focus: April
This is number four in the 2019 in Focus series.

Every day in April I went out for a walk with my tablet or camera and took photos. I chose one or more to represent that day and wrote some accompanying verse. Almost every photo and verse was created on the stated day. The photos are not all in focus, but when I chose a fuzzy one it was for a good reason.

April was full of autumn images, most of which, sometimes with a little stretch, had to do with the April theme of embellishment.

I made some of the photos into sets or collages. A few of them have been digitally altered to remove something ugly and intrusive. This was done in Paint. The colour, brightness and contrast are left natural and I didn’t use any effects. The coloured frames and text were mostly done using sampled colour from the photos.

After March’s excesses, I promised a slimmer vol this time and it is… a bit.

It has around 79 poems in it. To the left you can see the four covers so far.

Glossary T-W

Glossary Terms T-W

Keeping people and terms straight is one of the challenges of writing a large series. Along with the compendium Lark's People, I keep a directory of places, things and terms. 

Here are the T-W entries as of May; 2019

TTT

TA

Tango’s Vineyard

The vineyard Tango Merriweather has via tree rule over there. It’s quite near Quinn’s enchanted valley house. Tango’s crop goes mostly to Summercourt, but he gives some to people who have helped him…including Quinn

Tattie Pastie – potato paste; one of the ingredients in the flakey rolls Rogier makes

TH

Le Théâtre de la Pantomime Anglaise A theatre in France where Promise Grene worked backstage

The Thicket Oak : An odd oak tree at Erin a’ Fee.

Thrifty Buys. The cut-price shop where Frances buys the fairy doll Fairy on the Christmas Tree. Tab gets bamboo pillows in the Sydney shop

Thymelines: Kris Peckerdale’s gallery. Pen Inkersoll sells prints there.

TI

The Tisdales. A TV programme Kay enjoys in the mid 1980s. The Kissing Ring

TO

Topsy Investments Run by Lance Brill until its spectacular crash. Taken over by Mac Tilley. Betony Field works there, as did her boyfriend, Jay.

Topsy-Turvy Estate – associated housing where Betony has a second floor flat she used to share with Jay

TR

Trace fay. A person with a quarter or less fay blood. They may have no idea they’re not fully human.

Trace pixie. A person with a quarter or less pixie blood. They generally don't use pixie dust and don't flush green.

Treborrow. Pisky village where Merryn Pendennis lives. Pisky Business

Tree maid/ tree lad. A fairy associated with trees. Heidi Ash, Sash and Tally Beech are tree maids. Empathetic and sweet-natured. Timbre Merriweather is friends with a tree lad with whom he has an arrangement to milk a cow in exchange for a share of the milk.

Tree rule If someone grows a tree or trees for seven years and no one objects, then that plot of land becomes his or hers by tree rule.

TS

An t-slighe gaisgeil (the heroes’ road) a causeway between Heather and Bodhran Islands, passable only by a leap of faith at low tide. Betony traverses it with the piper.

TU

Tulpenmanie. Bart Merriweather’s yacht. Man Overboard

UUU

UN
Under-caves. Caves under the falls Si Bakewell visits in Wish-Matched

Undertaking The term harvest hobs use for a bedding and, by extension, a relationship

VV

VA
Van Dyk Performing and Presentation College of the Arts. College where Honey Bakewell works as a communications officer in 2017. She has a flat there.

VE
Venus Bath Bar. The soap originally used by Annabel Verhoven The Kissing Ring

VI

Vinterhester. Fijordfee winter horses.

Violet Veritas The perfume Kay wears in The Kissing Ring. Also worn by Ryl’s music teacher at St Dorothy’s College

VO

Café Vouch-Safe. Corner Swift Street and Scuttle Lane in London. Run by Ishlene Chancery.

Vouch-Safe. A company offering vouchers for anything from a singing telegram to a honeymoon retreat. These are always mystery vouchers so those who have them never know where they'll be or who they'll see. They are collected and taken home by the Vouch-Safe vehicles - a pale blue car or a van with the logo in dark blue and curtained windows.

WWW

WA

Want-you-so. A tropical tree with golden wood that is soft when green and hardens when dry. It is useful for making boats. The trees’ leaves are used for cloth and thatch, and the long, pendulous orange flowers exude nectar. Betony Field sees them on Arrival Island

Warmth, to give warmth...Term for something practised by waterfolk and some others, including Si Bakewell. It’s used to help deeply unhappy people.

The Water Carol; a fay Christmas carol that Yvanne Skipton played for Paris when he gave her the eight reed flute

Waterfolk/ water maid/ water lad. Fairies associated with the rivers, streams and falls. They are attracted by pheromones and love sex. They are happy and generous people, and are pleased to facilitate the use of their waters for other human or fairy lovers.

Wavefire The galleonfee name for phosphorescence around Dawn Island in the Star Pin

WE.

Wedden-choosen; fjiordfee ceremony

Wedden-house. A small stone house in Langskipland used by couples at wedden-choosen

WH

What good may come...Term used in the hob ​undertaking ​ritual to imply acceptance of possible pregnancy 

WI
Wish. Wishes can be processed/serviced only under quite strict conditions. Wishes can't be for concrete items or wealth. They are usually for experience or a state of being. In general a wish will be serviced (if at all) by the nearest available fairy who is capable and ethically able to do the service. Thus a monogamous fairy who is already committed can't and won't service a wish for someone truly desiring a one night stand. Wishes can be made by humans, hybrids and fairies. Sometimes they backfire.

Wish-matched / wish-match. If a couple come together in the service of a wish they may be together for more than the day of the wish. If the relationship develops, they are wish-matched. 

WO
Woodlin A drum with three strings attached. A Sylvan instrument. Sam Silver and Tab Merriweather both play one.  Oash the sylvan has one which s/he plays with more facility than the others.

Glossary Q-S

Keeping people and terms straight is one of the challenges of writing a large series. Along with the compendium Lark's People, I keep a directory of places, things and terms. 

Here are the Q-S entries as of May 2019

RRR

RA.

Rabbit in Bunderland A  film from 2000. Pisky Business hires on as waiting staff for the wrap party

RE.

Recycle Sally’s The bo-ho boutique where Josefa works

Renoir Variations (ballet) An excerpt is performed at the Patterdale Music Festival, starring Flori Almaclair and Gervais

RI.

Emer Inkersoll’s ring box. (see EM)

RO.

The rockslides gateway. A gateway in Queensland

Rory Inkersoll’s cottage: timber and thatch with a low-fenced flower garden and shallow steps and crystals in the window. Tom and Ryl visit there in 1985 when Rory lives there with Emer and Duffy is visiting. Flori visits it with the best men in 2017, when Rory lives there alone, and Sheelagh Chalk conducts Tab and Josefa there in 2018. Sofia Silver goes to stay with Rory there. Jisinia Peckerdale visits Rory there looking for direction and Quinn and Yvanne go there to be married.

Rose Jordana Dane’s third solo album

Rosemaiden A “chick film” Ryl went to see at the cinema with her friend Kelly in 1985. Tom went with Mish, and Guy Popplewell with his little sister, who met “ a mate from school with her mum” and so Guy and Mish went out for popcorn and didn’t return.

Rose Wine; wine with essence of roses in it, made on Summer Isle. Betony and the summerman share some in the Coeur des Roses, the rose maze.

RU.

To rub up the green. Pixie and part pixie men can bring up the green colour on a forearm or pulse point by rubbing it.

SSS

SA.

Saint Dorothy’s College The school Ryl attends in The Kissing Ring. Natalia Echo goes there for a while as an “exchange student”.

Salve: A wonderfully effective salve that smells of seaweed in the sun. Invented by seaman Lore Mor Arlodh’s grandsire Mull for a braewife, who paid him with a suit of clothes he never wore. Lore uses it, but adds oil of sweetwood and “a few other things” to make it more pleasant.

Sandahl soap. Tom Merriweather’s preferred soap until the incident with Annabel The Kissing Ring

SC.

Scotch on the Rocks – a television program Betony enjoys

SE.

Seadown: A soft, feathery seaweed found on Arcadia Island. It is used for stuffing mattresses.

Servicing/ Servicer To do with wishes. A fairy who helps deliver a wish is a servicer.

SH.
Shamrock Village. A large village on the Green Way, where Eileen o' the Mist, Kieran Shamrock and the rest of the family live. Includes a green, a great hall, Kieran's cottage, Eileen's cottage, the dairy/byre, the forge where Grainne and her man live, the shamrock banks and a clover meadow.

Show-me-the-world; a computer site that gives a virtual tour of places.

SI.

The Sight

Mild clairvoyance. Some fay have it

Singing the tree A song charm hobs use to encourage healthy growth in trees and babies. ​Pisky Business 

SK.

Skipton Manor. Holds a Midsummer Ball in Midsummer Melody

The Skipton Swan

The Skipton family emblem

The Sky Pool. A beautiful pool, open to the sky, reached only be diving through a gap in the base of the falls. (Unless one falls from above.) Hob and Honey swim there. Honey and the Harvest Hob

The sky-roofed hut. Where McTavish takes Flori in Floribunda and the Best Men

SO.

Soul-cold. Despair or depression in fay

Soup. Soup is a feature of Peckerdale Grene Tower. It is on offer for anyone.

Souper room – Chloe’s name for the communal kitchen and dining room on the ground floor of Peckerdale Grene Community Tower. Serves soup, bread spreads, tea, coffee and ht chocolate

SP.

Spillikins – The English chain store where Betony buys her knickers in Betony Buys Adventure

Springyweed. A fluffy-seeded plant the fay use for stuffing matresses

Spritzer soap. Soap Mish Verhoven uses The Kissing Ring

ST.

Stable house: A house where Ancel lives a lot of the time on Île d'eté. He takes Suzette there after their wedding

Stag St. Martins: a blink-or-you’ll-miss-it village in England. Home town of Daniel Fanshaw.

Stag Stone. A standing stone a few miles from Stag St. Martins. Site of the Stag Stone gateway. The other side is Arrival Island.

The Star Pin  or Chain of Delight. An archipelago over there, reached by the Stag Stone gate.

Islands run east from Arrival to Arcadia Island, to Bodhran Island, to Summer Island (Île d'eté or  Isle o’ Samhradh), to Dawn. A central island is called Stella Iris

Station 41. A petrol station halfway between London and Stag St. Martin.

Stella Iris: A delightful jewel of an island in the Star Pin; birthplace of Foss Chancery

Straw Street – the club Cats’ Pyjamas is there in the 1980s

Studio – the music studio where 4Ts-Quad play. On the 7^th floor of the tower and soundproofed. It has a small annex.

SU.

Summercourt Fairy Port. Port made at the Summercourt Winery in Victoria.

Summercourt Wines Winery/vineyard fifteen minutes from the B&B near Patterdale. Run by Roderick and Melody, with help from Kris and Alexander in the 1980s. Probably established to provide a believable provenance for Ryl while she was at school. Federation style house. Cellar shop. Combination of house and business.

Summercourt ‘85 – A white wine Kris orders for himself and Mimi at Cats’ Pyjamas in Calico Calypso. Made by Summercourt Wines.

Summerleigh Grange in Lilyfield, Adelaide. Nursing home where Sofia Silver, Beatrice Florin and her neighbour and sister in law Sib were.

Sunrise Carol: a carol Yvanne Peckerdale composed

SW.

Swans

Two black swans and their three cygnets live near the enchanted valley house

Swashbucklers. A karaoke club that runs an open mic swinging pirate karaoke night on Friday. Ike plans to perform. Duffy Inkersoll decides to take Pen along. Pen and Ink

Sweetwood. A kind of tree with soft, sappy but fibrous wood. Yields a sweet sap and can be made into flutes. See oil of sweetwood

Sweetwood flute. A very high-toned flute made from the sweetwood tree in the pixie forest. It requires a large hand span to play it. 

SY.

Sylvan aubade. A love song/lament which was Sofia Silver’s “our song” with Jessamine. Sofa learned it from her grandmother who presumably got it from her Sylvan lover

Sylvan. Fairies associated with the forest. They are laconic, kindly, and less mercurial than some of the more extreme nature fay. A sylvan looks young (a sixty-year-old may look twenty) because they age more like trees than like people. Sylvan can morph into either sex. Both sexes use the same name. Oash is a sylvan.

Sylvan tunic. A laced tunic in green, brown, cream or similar colour, form fitting, and very soft and comfortable. Laced at the side.