Pssst. Check out the Navigation Bar.
No, it’s not a dive downtown. The Navigation Bar is that strip underneath the header where you can find links to loads of interesting stuff. And there’s something new there, which I adore, and would like to draw your attention to. So… go attend to it. It’s mythtacular. And a totally acceptable prologue, don’t you think? 
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No Not a prologue. (I’m starting to talk like Wolfie. “No prologues,” she barked.)
And now I think Abby should call her bar the Navigation Bar and run it like a website with the drinks menu listed as categories . . .
I don’t have the same rabid aversion to prologues as Jenny, I loved it. Poor Shar, no wildness in her eyes. Until the bas relief of course.
I’m curious about how any of you are finding time to write on anything else while you play with The Fun Book. Not that I’m complaining…just curious.
*waves* Hey, Jenny, I heard back from Heather.
She said: “As for Mesopotamian men and beards…. unlike Egypt, where the hair was almost invariably a wig and being clean-shaven was a good and desirable thing, it appears that in Mesopotamia the opposite was the case. According to three different people (and my own academic instincts) the beards were real. Moreover, there are some documents that seem to indicate that facial hairlessness is one of the characteristic markers of a eunuch and there is even a statue/carving of an Assyrian governor of Kullani/Kunulua (I think) who was apparently a eunuch and the carving has him depicted as smooth-cheeked. So the idea is that “real” men would be certain to keep their beards so it was obvious at a glance that they had all the family jewels still intact. So there. I hope that helps somewhat.”
So, Sam may be a leetle resistant to the idea of going beardless. There’s no point in being a sacrificial fertility god if no one thinks you’re fertile. I thought if he got a look at some facial-hairless men who clearly were not eunichs he might be a bit more amenable to the idea. I have this vision of Shar, Sam and some PPV porn…
Maybe some of the other men in the book could convince him that it’s okay to not have facial hair or something. I think you could make his acceptance of not having facial hair part of his transformation.
That’s what I’d figured. Samson, after all.
After being exasperated by it, I think the beard is a good problem, but it’s another way, along with language and action, to show that Sam’s assimilating to modern life.
So tell Heather she’s a goddess and I’m really grateful and I can definitely use that info. Thank you!
I find it amusing that the prologue revolves around Jenny’s character…
I love the idea of the Navigation Bar. Maybe that should be my life’s work instead!
I also love the background. It makes the story even better and more interesting!
LOVE the backstory. Great ancient mythology combo. But I have to say, probably shouldn’t exist as a prologue in the book, since it gives away too much.
Yes, backstory is very cool, but I wouldn’t want to start out knowing so much. Plus maybe the ancestors’ romance should be a novella if anyone needs to write one for an (you should pardon the expression) anthology.
Jenny - don’t read this part.
Oh, come on, people! How can I torture Jenny if you don’t hop on? Anyone who knows me knows I hate prologues, too, but it’s so much fun to watch Jenny get all hot and bothered about it. The fact is, if she said “Yes, prologue,” I’d say no, and so, probably, would Krissie, but it’s so much fun to poke her with it, because she always reacts.
Sorry. I don’t get out much.
Okay, Jenny, you can start reading again:
And that’s why I love Jenny Crusie soooooo much.
The End.
Collaboration is not for the sensitive.
And I TRIED to get Krissie and Lani to put in their histories, but they wouldn’t. This is actually the back story I wrote and gave to them so that they’d say, “Okay, here’s where that needs work.” And they said “Works for me” instead.
They do it to make me crazy.
Oh, no, THAT I didn’t do to make you crazy. I did it because Daisy doesn’t have anything that far back. The myth is all three of them, and that’s fine. But Daisy’s great-great wasn’t on the dig, and any history I put in for her would just be putting it in to put it in.
The prologue thing I do to make you nuts; this was just unnecessary.
I really liked the prologue… but I have a question. So are Ishtar, KG and the other one all goddesses to start with, then become servants? So they serve themselves? I’m picturing the relief with the goddess surrounded closely by 3 priestesses - but she is one of them? Slap the dunce hat back on me, but it sounds like they are both goddess and servant and my anthropology minor is not helping me sort it out. The rest was clear though.
And am I the only one who can’t print out the header? I’m trying to print from IE and it just gives me text, no pictures or colors. So when I try to get the prologue with the header because it’s cute, I don’t. And I can’t figure out how to change the settings locally to make it work. Extra dunce grrl today.
You guys need a time out. Or maybe some Cheetos and Kool-Aid.
Lani, I’m sorry I can’t help you torture Jenny, but I’m gonna have to say no prologue. Love the backstory, but it should definitely come out in drips and dribbles instead of all there at the beginning.
As for the Navigation Bar, I think you’re onto something. They have internet cafes…why not internet bars?
———————————————
And now for something completely unrelated:
Jenny-I think it was you who said in one of the chats-I don’t really remember at this point-”Dogs and cats living together,” which I know is from a movie, and it has literally been driving me NUTS trying to remember which movie. Please, please put me out of my misery.
Ghostbusters.
No, Kammani and the rest aren’t one goddess. Really, this was just back story. You can ignore it.
I have no idea on why the header won’t print, but I really, really want a t-shirt that says “Dogs and Goddesses: Three Authors, One Book, No Cows” on it with Bailey hanging from one of the O’s. On blue or black, I think.
So can’t we have stories for each century? Anything to keep from calling it a prologue.
However did you all think up those goddess names? They sound authentic to non-Mesopotamian scholar me.
Ummm, in my experience it’s somewhat difficult to make a line perpendicular to a square. Maybe perpendicular to the line formed by the Front of the square.
Sam! Cool! He must die but gets reborn each spring. Really, that would provide Shar a yearly vacation.
Ghostbusters. Thank you. I may now resume my normal life.
Somebody get me a copy of that picture of Bailey, and I can arrange that t-shirt design.
Cranky Otter-I tried printing the header, too, and no go. I’m sure that there’s some technical-html-mumbo-jumbo reason why it won’t print. If you have a Mac, you can use the Grab utility to take a picture of the window and then print from that. If you don’t have a Mac, then I got nothin’. Sorry.
You’re welcome. I’m sure as soon as the dig site gets its internet connection connecting better and Heather has better access she would be happy to answer any more questions. We’ve been friends for 13 years, I know when you get her talking on this stuff you can’t shut her up. Seriously. She knows her stuff and if she doesn’t know something the people she’s working with do.
Heather is going to be my new best friend.
The names are from records from about 2000 BC, as I remember. I think they’re farther south than our story, probably Babylonian, but they’re real, all of them, including Bikki and Ummi.
If you right-click on the header and then choose the option “View Background Image” it will open the header in a separate window. You can print it from there (it worked for me). I’m pretty sure you could also email it as a jpg (didn’t try that). That’s using a PC and Firefox.
The myth is very beautiful, wise and almost, gosh…biblical or something. Nah - spiritual is a better word.
Loving Shar. Cant wait til she gets her groove back. Well….just gets her groove.
I really really think that Lani and Krissie should stop holding back. I want their myths too godamn it! Anyone else?
I thought the “Dogs and cats living together” was from SNL when Bill Murray would do something on Weekend Update.
From IMDB:
Dr. Peter Venkman: This city is headed for a disaster of biblical proportions.
Mayor: What do you mean, “biblical”?
Dr Ray Stantz: What he means is Old Testament, Mr. Mayor, real wrath-of-God type stuff.
Dr. Peter Venkman: Exactly.
Dr Ray Stantz: Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies. Rivers and seas boiling.
Dr. Egon Spengler: Forty years of darkness. Earthquakes, volcanoes…
Winston Zeddemore: The dead rising from the grave.
Dr. Peter Venkman: Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together - mass hysteria.
Just a little side note on the navigation bar on the right. “People We Like” makes me laugh every time I read it. It is so high school! I keep wondering if there will be a list of people you don’t like but instead of links to their websites, the links take you to pictures of graffiti on bathroom walls.