Now taking requests

Wow, you're right, Nimue. A meeting between Gunnilda and Egelric would make for some interesting chemistry. I will give it some thought.

I've been toying with an idea for Cedric, but I'm not sure some of you are going to like it...

Good catch, Devin. I fixed it and made her 18 when she was born instead. Let's call it a typo.

Yes! Of course. If they live long enough, that is. But I find that the elder Sims are quite elderly looking, so I probably won't turn them into elders until they are 60 or so. That would be quite old for an 11th century person.

Yes, it is. Egelric, Bertie, and Eadwyn do too. For the most part I try to make red = Sigefrith's knights, green = Alred's knights, blue = Cenwulf's knights. Orange is the color of Theobald's family. I did put Stein in blue, even though he is Sigefrith's knight, because he is just so cute in blue.

Gwynn wears green out of loyalty to her father. Margaret wears purple because Margaret loves purple and she wears what she likes.

Heh, I think I've discussed this elsewhere, though I cannot remember where so I can't point you at it. At the rate I'm going now -- I've spent nearly 4 months on 1085 and I'm still in September -- I will not live long enough to get to 1300!

However, I do not presently have plans to stop writing... I have ideas to last me until at least 1095, and that's when the First Crusade starts. I am considering "starting over" with a new blog at that point, but with the same story and all the same characters. Hopefully following the guys to the Holy Land.

But it is probably a little silly to imagine now what I will be writing in 1095. At this rate I won't get there for years. We will be playing The Sims 3 by then!

Devin, those are Enayla's "rich black" eyes, which you can only get by downloading her Golden Grace skintone.

I created Sela myself. I don't know whether I used a model or which one I would have used. I created Aia by breeding a clone of Sela with... someone I can't remember. A clone of Dunstan maybe? Using the pacifier option in CAS until I got one that looked a lot like Sela.

Oh, Devin, to be honest, the #1 feeling is embarrassment. The first dozen or two of the chapters are abysmally bad because I didn't even know what I was doing then -- a royal kingdom challenge or a story or what. And then for "years" afterward, the writing was so lame and the pictures were so bad...

It wouldn't bother me so much except that there are people who try -- bless their hearts -- to get to 1085 by reading from 1067 on up, and anybody who can make it through the first ten or fifteen years deserves a trophy if you ask me. I am sure there would be more "modern day" readers if the first million words weren't such tough going.

But, at the same time, in spite of my awkward writing and my awkward pictures, the characters are there. Don't you think? It's still Alred, with all his poetry and his silliness, and even his old sort of philosophical optimism, back in those days. It's still Sigefrith, head-butting his way through life. It's still poor, unhappy Iylaine.

So I would never erase those old chapters, because 1085 Alred depends on 1070 Alred getting his nose broken by Theobald, and Margaret's birth, and later, Matilda's death, etc. And as I was saying the other day, you can't forgive or even begin to understand 1085 Iylaine's unhappiness if you haven't seen all she has been through in her life.

And I think I should reread some of those old chapters more often, because some of those things happened so long ago that I have forgotten the importance they had at one time. And sometimes I have the feeling that my readers haven't forgotten, so perhaps my characters haven't either. There is still a lot of demand for a resolution to the Egelric & Gunnilda relationship, for example. (*waves at Nimue*) Maybe Egelric really has grown past that stage in his life and moved on (though I think Gunnilda never has), but maybe it's just the writer who moved on too quickly.

So perhaps I should just take a week-long sabbatical and reread everything myself! Right in the middle of National Kleenex Month! Right around 10 PM on November 16! *evil laughter*

Each year gets more chapters than the last, it seems, so you're not there yet. But I think the reading gets better the farther you go.

I have answered that question before, but I have changed my style in the last six months or so. I often used to try to write first, then take pictures, because then it was easier to take the pictures: I knew exactly what actions and facial expressions I needed.

But gradually I noticed that some of the best moments where in chapters where I had taken the pictures first, because sometimes the Sims did some surprising or cute things that I was able to work into the story.

Now I always take pictures first. However, unlike a lot of people, I don't "play" the game at all. When I take pictures I already know approximately what I want to happen in a chapter, and I'm still taking pictures according to the story -- I just haven't written it yet.

Sometimes it helps with the story, too... sometimes I only know that a few characters will be brought together but I don't know exactly what they say or do. Then taking pictures of a couple different scenarios (fighting, not fighting, laughing, etc.) will give me some ideas. Sometimes a Sim will make a face that is so perfect, I know I have to use it.

I will probably do some more but that's just one more thing that takes time away from chapters...

Also practically all of my buildings are in various stages of (re)construction right now, so they don't look like much. Usually the only rooms that are decorated are room that have actually appeared in chapters.... and since most of my castles are being rebuilt many of the rooms from earlier chapters are now gone.