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It's always hard to find the balance between giving readers the descriptive details they want, and not going overboard. Reader feedback on the Alpennia books has taken contrary positions: some praising me in relief at not being subjected to endless details of ballgowns and parties, some wistfully longing for more details of ballgowns and parties. The tight third-person point of view that I use can make it awkward to describe things that the characters would take for granted or consider unremarkable. But sometimes there are opportunities for such descriptions to be critical for character development, as when Serafina is unexpectedly invited to the Ambassadors' Ball in recognition of her work with Margerit on the All Saints' Castellum mystery. This enflames Serafina's social anxiety. In her academic work, she may move among people who are comfortable in high society, but she is quite certain that she doesn't belong there herself. Unfortunately, the protestation that she has nothing suitable to wear fails when she is put in Jeanne's capable hands...

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Chapter 7 - Serafina

The shop had a tidy little face with a bow window on which neat gilded letters proclaimed “Madame Dominique, Modiste.” The simplicity of the display was an obvious testament to the quality of the custom she expected.

Once more Serafina hung back. “Jeanne, I don’t think…”

“You needn’t worry too much about the price. I won’t insult you by making a present of it—Antuniet scolded me on that point! But I’ve brought her a great deal of business and she will return me the favor by charging only what you can afford.”

“No, but Jeanne…a society dressmaker! She won’t want—” How tiresome to need to explain.

But Jeanne had already opened the door, setting the bell above it jangling.

The girl who came out of the back room to greet them wore the sort of neatly elegant dress that advertised the proprietor’s skills in even the simplest fashion. But Serafina scarcely glanced at her clothing, instead matching gazes with the bold eyes looking out from a brown face, framed by a lace-edged linen cap.

The girl dipped a curtsey, saying, “Good day, Mesnera de Cherdillac.”

“Celeste, I do hope your mother has time to do something for Maisetra Talarico,” Jeanne said. “I sent a note this morning but there was no time to wait for a reply.”

She disappeared with a nod.

“Her mother?” Serafina began, a different question on the tip of her tongue.

“Dominique studied dressmaking in Paris as a girl—she came here with a group of French émigrés back during the war—but I think she was born somewhere in the Antilles. I think you’ll like her. She has a knack for choosing exactly the right style. God knows she’s done wonders for Antuniet!”

Serafina was barely listening. A knot eased inside her when the girl returned, followed by a tall woman dressed with equally quiet elegance. She was darker than her daughter—well, that was hardly surprising if Celeste’s father were Alpennian. If Paolo had given her a child, she might have looked much the same. The thought pricked like a tiny hidden thorn. Serafina found her voice at last, “Madame Dominique, I would be very grateful if you could dress me for a dinner with the Royal Mystery Guild.”

It was the girl, Celeste, who took her measurements, jotting down numbers on a slate while Dominique brought forth samples of fabric and discussed the details of tucks and ruffles. Jeanne participated with a few pointed suggestions.

“Nothing too fussy, I think. There isn’t time.”

Tactful of her not to mention the cost.

“Perhaps something like that wine color you chose for Mesnera Chazillen’s New Year’s gown?”

Dominique deftly turned Jeanne’s suggestions into her own, bringing out a soft red wool with a border of flower vases woven in golds and blues. “This, I think. It was meant to be cut into shawls but if we set the border design at the hem—” She held it up to fall from just under the bosom. “—and a bit more of the motif on the sleeves. No ruffles at all, just a few tucks along the edge of the corsage.” She pinched the fabric between her fingers to show the effect along the collarbone and looked up at Jeanne for approval.

“Yes, you’re right as always!” Jeanne laughed.

“Will you have jewelry?” Dominique asked.

Serafina started to shake her head but Jeanne suggested, “A string of pearls?”

“Perfect! Now how do you plan to wear your hair?”

By this time Serafina had abandoned the thought of having her own opinions, but they all stared at her in expectation. “I usually…” She unpinned a lock and wound it into a tight curl around her finger to hang along her cheek. “Like that.”

Celeste paused over her slate to say matter-of-factly, “I wish mine would do that.”

“Then I think just a small band,” Dominique concluded. “To tie around in back. No feathers, no ribbons.” She kissed her fingers to set the seal of approval on her own vision.

ETA: So here it is April 16, 2017 and I'm preparing the beds for the new tomato plants and I discover that of course I kept track of exactly what was planted where, becasue I tucked each plant ID tag right along the edge of the wall of the bed where it was planted. These tags were, of course, impossible to see in mid-summer when the plants were lush. So I've annotated the entries below with the correct IDs when I guessed wrong.

Tuesday is supposed to be Alpennia Teaser Day, but I can tell that I'm not going to have the energy to write something up by the time I get home after dragonboat practice. So I'm swapping in the post that was meant for Random Thursday instead: the 2016 Tomato Review!

Tomatoes are the keystone of my vegetable gardening. If I could grow tomatoes and nothing else, I'd be ok. (Though it's really nice that I can grow other vegetables too!) Since moving to Concord, I've had good tomatoes every second year and I don't know if it's something about what I'm doing or the luck of the weather. After a disappointing crop last year, I decided to put in three new raised beds in a solidly sunny location and fill them entirely with tomatoes. Seventeen different varieties of tomatoes. (Not sure why I didn't round it out to eighteen. I may have simply run out of momentum.)

Well, they delivered. I'm in the stage where I have tomatoes for all my lunches, tomatoes as part of my dinners, and I'm freezing a couple quarts of tomato puree every weekend. And because I'm just that sort of person (i.e., a cataloger), I thought I'd do a detailed review of the crop. This is hampered somewhat by the fact that I didn't quite keep track of exactly what got planted where. I did fill in the spreadsheet with the names. And I sorted them out by color into the three beds (reds, yellows, and a miscellaneous that includes all the purples and blacks plus spillover). But I hadn't accounted for the fact that I have three plants with different names that produce functionally identical-looking fruits. So I'm reviewing them by location, and attempting to assign a name as best I can.

In several places I refer to a "cherry habit" by which I mean that the fruits grow in clusters rather than individually. Some of the medium-sized tomatoes follow this pattern, but others of the same size don't. When I describe a shape as "heirloom" I mean the sort of over-large, irregular, often cracked shape that gets this label slapped on it in grocery stores.

Standing on my little patio, the beds are numbered 1-3 from nearest to farthest. Each bed has a near row and a far row. And each row has a left, center, and right plant (except for the one short row which is missing the right one).

Bed 1: Tomatoes with purple or black highlights, plus spill-over from the reds

1. Near Left: I’m highly confident this is the Black Krim, a large “heirloom” style shape, dark red with a greenish top.  (Tomato varieties advertised with “black” in the name may include colors that range from greenish-black to purple-black.) Like most “heirloom” style varieties, it’s prone to cracking and may assume some peculiar shapes. The Black Krim is very mild in flavor--one might even say bland. It’s not particularly sweet and has low to medium acidity. 

2. Near Middle: Based on the process of elimination, this should be Black Prince. It’s described as being “pear-shaped” in the catalogs though I’d call it more “round with a slightly pointed bottom”. It’s on the small size of medium but grows with a standard habit rather than a cherry habit. A fairly uniform dark red in color. I guess I can see some dark highlights on the shoulders. Mild but flavorful and slightly sweet. Medium acidity.

3. Near Right: Indigo Rose. Quite small in the small-medium size range but without the cherry habit. A bright almost orangey red with purple-black patches on the shoulders where exposed to sun. The flavor is disappointingly bland. It’s low on both acid and sweetness. Use this one for visuals, but not for flavor. 

4. Far Left: In theory, this bed was for varieties with some black or green coloring, but I seem to recall I had to fill in with spill-over from other beds. So based on appearance and the process of elimination, I’m pretty sure this is the Brandywine but there are two others I’m not certain about distinguishing: Mortgage Lifter and Beefsteak. (That is, I seem to remember planting a Beefsteak, though it isn’t in my spreadsheet.) In any event, this is Tomato #4. It’s a large, “heirloom” style shape in bright red. Prone to cracking. Moderately flavorful with mild acidity. Low sweetness. [ETA: yes, this is confirmed as Brandywine by the tag.]

5. Far Middle: Black Pearl. A standard cherry size and fruiting habit. Dark red with a faintly greenish-black top. On the higher side of acidity and not particularly sweet, but nicely flavorful. No tendency to split after picking, unlike some of the other cherry varieties.

6. Far Right: Cherokee Purple.  Large to very large, with the larger ones taking an “heirloom” shape and a tendency to crack. A sort of pinky-red with dark green shoulders. A very interesting flavor, with an almost “hoppy” under-taste. Not sweet, moderate acidity.

Bed 2: Yellow Tomatoes or with Yellow Highlights

7. Near Left: Golden Jubilee (I think). I’m not entirely certain I have my two yellow tomatoes identified correctly. The main difference is that #9 is more in the orange-yellow range while #7 is more lemon-yellow. So on the basis of the names, I’m going to guess that #9 is “Persimmon” (because the color matches a persimmon) and this one is “Golden Jubilee”. Medium size and standard shape. Bright lemon-yellow, sometimes with a slight pink blush on the underside. No cracking. Either I’m picking them too early or this variety is simply a bit on the hard side when ripe. Mild flavor, low acidity, slightly sweet.

8. Near Middle: Mr. Stripey (This was the last one to come ripe and it wasn't until the color developed that I was confident of the ID.) Medium size and standard shape. a Medium red with yellow blush that is supposed to develop in a striped pattern. The first ones ripe are a little cracked but that may be a weather issue. Like all the yellow tomatoes, very sweet (though not as sweet as the Sun Golds) and low acidity. A pleasant, mild flavor--not strong but not bland. 

9. Near Right: Persimmon (based on the color).  A standard shape and bright orange-yellow color. Both of the ones that have come ripe so far have had an odd  brownish blemish (about the size of a silver dollar) on the flower end, which contributes to the “persimmon” appearance, though I suspect it’s because this plant is at the end of an irrigation line and may have been underwatered at a key develpment point for these specific fruits. Very flavorful, sweet, with medium acidity. 

10. Far Left: Yellow pear. A pear-shaped, lemon-yellow, cherry-type tomato. Mild and pleasant flavor but not particularly sweet and low acidity. 

11. Far Middle: Sun Gold. A cherry-type with considerable variation in fruit size, from the small end of the standard cherry range down to chickpea-sized. Wait for the darker orange color to develop for best results, though you can pick them ad a more lemon-yellow stage. When ripe, prone to splitting after being picked, but they don’t seem to crack while on the vine. Extremely sweet and flavorful with medium acid. Probably the most flavor per unit of any of the varieties I grew this year. Eat them one at a time, sun-warm, and put the memory away for a rainy day. 

Bed 3: Red Tomatoes

12. Near Left: By process of elimination, this may be Mortgage Lifter, though as noted above, I’m not entirely certain I have that, Brandywine, and Beefsteak distinguished properly. Size and shape ranges form a large standard shape to very large “heirloom” shape. Medium red, sometimes with a faint hint of green on the top. Mild and sweet with fairly low acidity. Very “meaty”. I’ll probably earmark these for sauce. [ETA: Curiously enough, this turns out to have the tag for Shady Lady, which I had thought was one of the small-medium varieties. I think this must be a mis-placed tag because otherwise one of the small-medium plants would end up being Beefsteak by process of elimination, and that just can't be right.]

13. Near Middle: There are three varieties that have ended up being nearly indistinguishable in appearance.  All three are bright red and have a size that would be quite small for a standard tomato, but they all have a cherry-type grown habit but are very much on the large size for a cherry (ranging up to almost pingpong ball sized). These three are planted in positions 13, 14, and 16 and match up to the labels Early Girl, Shady Lady, and Cherry. The review descriptions are based on planting position and I haven’t attempted to guess at which variety they match up with. #13 is sweet and flavorful with very mild acidity. [ETA: This was the plain "Cherry" variety.]

14. Near Right: For identification problems and physical description, see #13. Very sweet with bold flavor and medium acidity. ETA: This was "Early Girl".] 

15. Far Left: At least I don’t have to guess at which plant is the Roma, since I didn’t plant more than one of this shape. It’s...um...Roma-shaped (elongated and slightly bulbous toward the bottom). A later ripener than all but one of the other varieties. Bland in flavor and very low acidity and sweetness.  Very “meaty”. Romas are designed for sauce and that’s what I”ll earmark it for.

16. Far Middle: For identification problems and physical description, see #13. Sweet and very flavorful with mild acidity. [ETA: See my note on #12. I think this must actually be Shady Lady, despite the tag for that variety having been in position #12.

17. Far Right: See my comments about being uncertain I have Beefsteak, Brandywine, and Mortgage Lifter sorted out, but we’re just going to call this one Beefsteak arbitrarily. A large to very large “heirloom” shape, somewhat prone to splitting, in a medium red with a slight orange blush to the shoulders. Fairly flavorful and somewhat sweet with medium acidity. Very meaty. [ETA: this turned out to be Mortgage Lifter.]

You just know that these reports are going to get briefer and less coherent as the con goes on. It's a wrap at this point and here's what I recall from the last 24 hours.

Saturday Evening

When last we heard from our valient heroine, she was about to dress up a little and head off to join up with various other folks from File 770 to attend the Hugo Award ceremony. OK, so not all my readers may know what all that means. The Hugo awards are the annual member-voted awards from the World Science Fiction Society, given at Worldcon. There are awards for both professional and amateur writers, artists, etc., and for fiction, commentary, various types of activity (podcasts, either print or online magazines, etc.) relating to science fiction and fantasy writing and the SFF community. File 770 is a "fanzine", that is, an amateur publication of news, commentary, and discussion of the SFF scene, originally founded as a print periodical, but now also existing as a website that has developed a very active discussion and commenting community. It's a forum where I've been quite active in the past year and where I've made a number of new friends. And both File 770 and its founder, Mike Glyer, were finalists for Hugo awards (for Best Fanzine and Best Fan Writer). So those of us who had gotten to know each other through the site did a lot of socializing at this year's Worldcon--especially given that Our Gracious Host, Mike Glyer, was not able to attend for health reasons. So we sat in a group and were able to cheer together when Mike and File 770 both won in their respective categories. Here's a picture of the physical awards, held by John Hertz, who stook in to accept them for Mike...and he let me hold one of them for the picture.

After that, it was another evening of having startling success at finding fun conversations at the Marriott bar, but for the life of me I can't remember all of them. All I remember was that I succeeded in doing a few chained introductions where all manner of amazing people who hadn't previously known each other now do.

Sunday

I had two panels, with the earlier starting at 11am, so I had to skip the last business meeting, but as I expected, the various decisions were ones I would have supported. The first panel was "When the Magic Goes Away", discussing stories and settings where magic is in transition, the magic-technology interface, the continuing echoes of the "lost golden age" motif, and the various purposes that both magic and its loss serve in stories.

The second panel was "Austen and Shelley and their influences on SFF" which was an amaingly fun discussion moderated by Mary Robinette Kowal that covered the literary, historic, and social contexts of Austen and Shelley's works, the reasons why the themes in their work continue to inspire SFF today, and all sorts of ways that readers engage with them. Really, you should have been there. It was a lot of fun.

I finished up by attending a panel sponsored by some of the con committee for next year's Worldcon in Helsinkii on "How to talk to Finns". Lots of humorous presentation of cultural differences and expectations, with a bit of practical Q&A for those expecting to travel from the States for the convention.

I didn't feel like trying to go off somewhere for a real dinner, so I grabbed a sandwich in the bar and hung out with Renay Williams and other folks from the Lady Business blog (who were also finalists for Best Fanzine). And now I'm about to go meet my interviewer. (Someone I met through facebook, not related to Worldcon except by geography.) I'll probably have time to do some more summing up tomorrow since my plane doesn't leave until after noon, but at this point my brain is completely toast.

Oh, and I got an email to expect the editorial feedback on Mother of Souls to be waiting for me when I get home, so there's no rest for the wicked.

In theory, Friday is supposed to be review day, and I have a review partially drafted up. But it still needs some polishing and my brain is rather wrung out, so you just get the continuing con report instead.

Thursday Evening

Maybe I should have talked up my Kaffee Klatsch a bit more because only half the available slots were filled, but we had a good time. I talked about future plans for the series, answered questions, and did a short reading from Mother of Souls. Bringing the special print edition of The Mazarinette and the Musketeer was an excellent idea, because I've been handing out copies right and left, and it has served the intended function of being something I can sign for people if they don't have a hard copy of anything else available. My original idea was to suggest adjourning to dinner afterward if anyone were interested, but it turned out all the likely candidates were planning to head for the File 770 dinner at the Flying Saucer pub, so the two concepts were combined.

An evening panel on how media invite and adapt to various queer "gazes" was on my list to see, so I headed back to the main convention space. While I was killing time before the panel, I ran into Bogi Takács (one of the panelists) who was on my "Twitter people to meet in the flesh" list so we chatted a bit until it was panel time. The panel was one of those contexts where one is reminded of the mild absurdity of lumping together of all the various identities and interests covered under the label "queer". Lively conversation, though.

After that I tried the Marriott bar again, and worked my way through several conversations, both ones I inserted myself into and ones I was invited into. So: success. Very exhausting, though.

Friday

Slept in a little then grabbed breakfast at Starbucks with my roommate Fade Manley on the way to the business meeting. I have to say that WSFS business meetings are a fascinating universe, but I don't know that I'll continue to have long-term interest in attending them. A surprising amount of business got finished up.

Someone at my Kaffee Klatsch had mentioned that Larry Smith Books had sold out of my books, so I swung by and asked if they'd like a few copies to re-stock. It turned out they still had a couple, but did want the additional ones, and the displays had thinned out enough to give me face-out on an end cap. Of such things are authorly dreams made!

My tentative schedule was looked solid from there until 7pm. Took in a very packed panel on keeping track of characters and data in epic fantasy doorstop series (which I attended primarily for Kate Elliott). Then "We Deserve Better" a venting panel on the treatment of lesbian and bi female characters in tv. Finally met up with Twitter friend @Sandstone. There was a panel on cookbooks in the next hour that I'd liked, but decided to hang out and chat for a bit, and then went off to hide in the Green Room and collect up my notes for the panel I was moderating later on supporting characters in steampunk. Which people said went well. But first was my first panel as a particpant on "Queers in Heroic Fantasy" which was quite lively, covering subjects like "does sexuality even matter when you're being epic?" and issues of genre expectations. I tossed off some of my favorite tidbits of classic epic literature.

I thought I'd had some vague plans to meet for possible dinner plans after the steampunk panel, but they didn't materialize and instead I took up an invitation from Cat Faber to join her dinner party. After rejecting a 40-minute wait at our original (noisy) venue, we just got deli & salad bar takeout from Cosentino's, which also had a small area with tables.

And now I'm decompressing a bit before deciding which parties to try. (Haven't made it to the SFWA suite yet, though that's always pretty random in who's there. Will probably stick my head in at the Tor party, since people I know are likely to be there.) The weather forecasts have been promising lightning storms this evening, and I see by my window that they're finally delivering. Fortunately, I needn't stick my nose outside to get to any of the places I might go.

I have no programming commitents tomorrow, so I can finally take in the art show and do a serious circuit of the dealers' area, if I want. Thinking seriously of actually attending the Hugo ceremonies rather than catching them on video-cast, but it will probably depend on whether I get together with other people who want to do that.