Writing again, albeit more slowly than I would like (although I knocked out another unrelated one-shot on a whim today;)

(you can blame Olga Sluchanko for this Amberfic)(grin)

h t t p s : / / w w w . d e v i a n t a r t . c o m / p t i - s p b / a r t / R a n d o m - 7 2 7 5 9 6 7 9 2

And for those few of you reading Sarah of Shadows, this is the _exact_ head I had imagined on Raven. This guy, but with full wings, sans clothes and human parts. Thirty feet tall. (just delete the spaces, as always)

h t t p : / / c a n y o u a c t u a l l y . c o m / r a v e n - c o s t u m e / ? f b c l i d = I w A R 0 R 8 R Y j C 9 z L k h X A u G U M K C r Y r U c a K O Z f B 0 Q 1 a O E c u 5 e a D 8 p G N Y f F _ b a q y y k

Quick notes for Dream, Gerard

The title is of course a riff off the Traffic song 'Dream Gerard'; no relation to the story, just caught my eye for obvious reasons. :)

Title of chapter 1 is from A Midsummer Night's Dream (Bottom, after he wakes up.)

Title of chapter 3 is from Richard III

Title of chapter 4 is from Hamlet (of course) (and the other part just seemed to fit:)

I don't have many specific song selections for this story, but I was listening to selections from Cusco 'The Ring of the Dolphin' and 'Mystic Island' for chapter two (if you dig it up, they should be obvious to a degree), along with the soundtrack for The Fellowship of the Ring (but I tend to use that for emotional and action sequences just to get the words out on paper.) Chapters 3 and 4 I was listening to 2Cellos 'Let There Be Cello' almost nonstop on loop, as well as selections from their album 'Score' (should also be obvious if listened to at the same time.) I like the idea of the 'older' instrumentation for these 'old-world' guys, but with the newer themes... Also some Karliene covers from Game of Thrones (you can find some of her stuff online for free!)

Sarah of Shadows

Alright, you strictly 'I only read Laby fics with JARETH in them!' Labyrinthians: In Sarah of Shadows, Jareth will be in chapters 'The Two Js', 'Not the Big Apple', 'Worldfall', and the last page of 'Perception'. The title for chapter 6 (5), 'The Two J's', is of course a riff on the title of the Jack Nicholson Chinatown sequel The Two Jakes - totally unrelated, but a film my father is fond of; it just came to mind...

(for the one lonely Zelazny fan who might eventually read this, look for the subtle references to Creatures of Light and Darkness and Roadmarks here and there, and a couple of the other short stories; I read the whole huge compendium over the summer while writing this, trying to absorb more of the author...)

Labyrinth of Chaos (miscellanies and music notes - where to find the rare tracks):

Chapter 2: title from Linkin Park's Runaway (mostly the refrain)

Submersible can be found at h t t p s : / / d r o p b l a c k s k y . b a n d c a m p . c o m / t r a c k / s u b m e r s i b l e - b l i n k - m i x

Holes in Space at h t t p s : / / u r o b o r o s c h o k e . b a n d c a m p . c o m / t r a c k / h o l e s - i n - s p a c e (the graphic seemed oddly fitting, too)

Faces of a Fashion at h t t p : / / t r a s h 8 0 . c o m / # / c o n t e n t / 3 8 / f a c e s - o f - a - f a s h i o n

Chapter 3: title from R.E.M.'s It's the End of the World. Of course.

Sorry folks, but I can't find the hidden track from Trillian Green's Metamorphoses anywhere online, it's like people don't even know it exists because it isn't listed, but it's a fun upbeat fast number that sounds nothing like their normal music, really silly, highly danceable. Go listen to the album for free (it's in several places, just google) and if you like it buy the CD (I know, I'm old-school) - it's track 14 :)

Chapter 4: Excuses at h t t p s : / / w w w . y o u t u b e . c o m / w a t c h ? v = q h - S L L G 6 r x E

Chapter 5: title from Tori Amos' Another Girl's Paradise (the thing one girl fears in the night...)

Impact of Silence at h t t p : / / t r a s h 8 0 . c o m / # / c o n t e n t / 3 7 / m p 3

I didn't plan it this way, but if you pay attention, the food itself turns into it's own motif, almost like a character; it starts giving clues about different people, who's providing what and when. In the books Zelazny doesn't really describe all that much in detail when it comes to food (George R R Martin he wasn't), but it occurred to me that when one of your main characters is interested in this, it has to become a lot more prominent. That and the ubiquitous-seeming rolls at any meal of the day ("he broke and buttered a roll") X) I had to do more.

Chapter 8 title taken from an old samurai proverb about 'the sword (warrior) that cuts itself (a great strength can become a great weakness if it is leaned on too often and your opponents get a feel for it.)

Chapter 9: Pain Fade Down at h t t p : / / t r a s h 8 0 . c o m / # / c o n t e n t / 5 7 / p a i n - f a d e - d o w n

Checkmated at h t t p s : / / u r o b o r o s c h o k e . b a n d c a m p . c o m / t r a c k / c h e c k m a t e d

Bread Death Sex & Masks at h t t p s : / / u r o b o r o s c h o k e . b a n d c a m p . c o m / t r a c k / b r e a d - d e a t h - s e x - m a s k s

Chapter 13 title is a tongue-in-cheek riff on Vladimir Nabokov's King Queen Knave, a book my father really likes (no literary connection, just sounds similar.)

Chapter 14 title is a double (if not triple) entendre, of course: the city of Amber, the code for 'missing child' in the United States, and the 'terror level' color!

Mine or Major at h t t p : / / t r a s h 8 0 . c o m / # / c o n t e n t / 5 5 / m i n e - o r - m a j o r

More that It Is at h t t p : / / t r a s h 8 0 . c o m / # / c o n t e n t / 5 6 / m o r e - t h a n - i t - i s

Nobody at h t t p s : / / w e b . a r c h i v e . o r g / w e b / 2 0 0 6 0 5 0 7 1 7 1 3 1 2 / h t t p : / / w w w . t r a s h 8 0 . n e t : 8 0 / m p 3 s / t r a s h 8 0 _ - _ n o b o d y . m p 3

(I know that last one's funky, but this is really old)

Chapter 15 title a tongue-in-cheek reference to the song of the same name by Al Jolson (I think that's it)

Veneration: Earthship at h t t p s : / / w w w . y o u t u b e . c o m / w a t c h ? v = k j 9 g 1 q g s d C k

If somebody ever manages to get around the legal problems in Zelazny's will that have been tying up producers for years and finally make a decent cable series out of the Chronicles (genuinely excited about the current attempt from the Game of Thrones people), "Blue Monday" should be the theme song, any version of it - too many sadistic montage possibilities... :)

'Let's Talk' - Coldplay (seems Amberish to me). As does 'Saturn's Children' by Timothy Lamb (Trash80) - so epic and sad. (didn't realize how hard that was to find - here.)

h t t p s : / / w e b . a r c h i v e . o r g / w e b / 2 0 0 6 0 5 0 7 1 7 1 6 4 4 / h t t p : / / w w w . t r a s h 8 0 . n e t : 8 0 / m p 3 s / t r e s k _ - w e e k l i e s - _ s a t u r n s - c h i l d r e n . m p 3

One for Chaos (or, really, all of them): 'Way Down We Go', Kaleo.

h t t p s : / / w e b . a r c h i v e . o r g / w e b / 2 0 0 6 1 1 0 4 0 5 2 9 0 4 / h t t p : / / w w w . t r a s h 8 0 . n e t / m p 3 s /

Adding to the playlist: Uroboros Choke h t t p : / / u r o b o r o s c h o k e . b a n d c a m p . c o m /

(Nailed to the Sky - all of it's free and now the missing lyrics from Checkmated are partially back, how annoying. Keeps playing around with them.)

I've been in the Laby fandom since late 2002 and I've been staving off the inevitable burnout from reading too much fanfiction!

(guess I need to mention this, too, now) Was introduced to Zelazny's Amber around the same time - found it working in the college library, under the new acquisitions of all things X) It was definitely a shock at first - never read anything like it, and certainly nothing as scary (sci-fi horror is not my cup of tea)... and yet I was hooked. Read them all (including the prequels)... and then sort of left it behind for a while, liked but not obsessively loved. Until the movie version of Neil Gaiman's Stardust came out five years later and reminded me of those bickering princes and the magical ruby and kingdom they're all fighting over. Simmering interest, but still more involved in Labyrinth. Finally picked up a copy of the big tome at ye olde used book shop for just ten bucks a few years after that... and couldn't put it down for months. And by the end I had a story idea...

Not much to know about me: worthless college degree, unemployed for over nine years now but finally found an alternative therapy for my condition that seems to be helping, albeit _very_ slowly (my body can't tolerate much all at once it would seem). My writing and my craft projects are keeping me relatively sane. Big Labyrinth of Jareth Masquerade fan (been twice). Guess that's about it for now. Laters!

-Shadow (I haven't actively been Tink pretty much anywhere in years now, maybe on one old forum yet)