Brittany Maresh

writer

So I was going to write about LeakyCon. About seeing Evanna Lynch in person (she’s flawless), about seeing Beverly and Lindsay and Brianna (who were my roomies last year), about meeting the amazing songbird Genevieve (she’s from Australia), about going to the panel on Pottermore (but not about Pottermore — just bragging, I suppose), about CityWalk at night with my friends, and wrock music concerts, about Karina (a contradiction — she is popular, and nerdy, and friendly, and has such a heart, she doesn’t seem real, she’s so grand), about lunch in the Three Broomsticks, butterbeer, seeing Team StarKid and Corey Lubowich, about changing a tire at the con (and the person who would think it’s a good idea to walk up and go, “hey, you’re from Alaska, we met yesterday, can you change a tire?), about the dealer’s room, and Alaska Kedavra, and the t-shirts, about the Esther Earl Charity Ball (and my dress, which I didn’t make), about the feeling of belonging, about the Green Brothers (so much taller in real life) and Maureen Johnson (well, everyone’s tall compared to me, anyway). About reading an ARC (Australia had won it), and HP7.2, the awkward Draco-Voldie hug, lines, and Conflict Resolution.
There’s so much I was going to write about, so much I felt I had to share before I ran out of memories, and words, and the right time to share it..

But I’m not going to, right now. I’m going to risk losing it. Because this novel is begging to be finished, and the words are flowing easy today, and I have half an hour before I go back to teaching archery.

It’s the holiday season so I’m thinking about…

summer camp.

I live and work out in the woods, surrounded by trees, small children, and the constant buzz of mosquitoes, all summer. Some of you might consider it torture, but I like to think of it as novel fuel.

I’m the archery instructor and director of the archery program at a Cub Scout camp during the summer and programming details are due at annual camp staff new years party.

Our theme for Summer 2009 is knights with the general leaning towards an Arthurian legend, horribly romanticized dragons-and-castles, princesses and princes fantasy novel perspective. I’m not complaining—it means I’ll get to teach archery in a princess dress.

My boss-and-mother decided that since women weren’t traditionally knights and our armor pattern isn’t designed for women, we’d be better off as damsels in distress. I’m good with this. I’ll be the awesome damsels who can shoot a bow and is only distressed if it rains enough that I’m knee-deep in mud, like it does every year. Plus, new princess dress. I can handle that. I love a good sewing project.

I’m having one problem with my program: we can’t shoot at anything exciting, like a dragon or a chimera. No, it can’t be an animate object or a facsimile of an animate object. Must be purely inanimate.

In the past few years, we’ve done candy for the seventy-five years of scouting, hoops for Ancient Greece (trials of Hercules), and mountains (Alaska-themed, complete with a gold mine bulls eye).

I’m thinking something about apples (William Tell), but I’m not sure. Who really wants to shoot at apples? And isn’t that something better for our Folk Tales theme, coming up next year or the year thereafter?

Better ideas, that’s what I need!