I apologize for not posting for a couple of weeks. The regional center recently bumped up the Boyo’s therapy from 4 hours a week to 6. Between that and the speech therapy he receives twice a week through our insurance, every single day has something going on. Free time is a distant memory.

I did manage to do a little writing this week. A friend had sent me a picture she had found online, which reminded me of an idea I had been mulling over for awhile. A few seconds later, a little snippet had spilled out. It’s not much, but hopefully I can expand upon it in the future when things aren’t so crazy.

In addition to that I’ve been doing some research on Roman times. A lot of said research has been surfing around on Wikipedia (because all my Roman history books are missing) and watching HBO’s Rome. Rome is set way before Pompeii and Mount V blowing it’s top – but it’s better than nothing and it reminded me of a couple of things I had forgotten about Roman history.

For example, soldiers in the Roman Army couldn’t marry. It is possible that some soldiers were married, but joined the army because they had been kicked out by their wives. Some soldiers may have even ignored the law and gotten married anyways. Vorenus in Rome says he received a special dispensation that allowed him to get married – but I haven’t been able to see if this was possible or not (it is a tv show so they could have just came up with the idea). Also, the policies could have been different for higher ranking officers, since Caeser was marred three different times (again, I haven’t been able to find the details on that yet)

This posed a bit of a problem for the Descendants.

Originally Marcus, Caelia’s husband, was supposed to be an officer in the army. Since Caelia is either from the Patrician or Senator class (I haven’t decided yet), it’s doubtful that her family would just let her shack up with a soldier – even if he was an officer, and a part of the Equestrian class (who could become senators one day). So I decided to err on the side of caution and tweak the story line just a little. Now, Marcus is discharged from the army due to an injury before he marries Caelia so that solves that.

Other research has focused on seeing if certain natural abortifacients would have existed or been known about during the Roman era. It turns out that a lot more herbs and plants are abortifacients than I knew of. Like nutmeg, papaya, and pomegranate. All of those are perfectly safe for pregnant women to eat, but if they are mixed with other herbs or plants that are also abortifacients and administered in certain doses they could cause problems. Heck, Pennyroyal can even kill you if you take too much of it.

Roman food seems pretty normal up until you get to dormice.

Anywho, it’s Wednesday, which means it’s time for another WIPpet post.

I know I said I wouldn’t post any more of my old Star Wars fanfic for WIPpet Wednesdays since no one seemed to be interested in it. However, it’s May the Fourth (as in May the Fourth be with you) so you’ll have to humor me for today. (I bet you didn’t expect to read that after I went on about Romans for so long didn’t you?) Since it’s the first week of May, here are five sentences. I was going to try to do four to continue with the May the Fourth theme, but it just wasn’t working out, so five it is!

This snippet takes place several years before Anagha ended up trapped in the middle of a snowstorm with Hobbie.

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that the newest member on a squadron will be the victim of a great many pranks. Especially if the squadron happens to be the famous Rogue Squadron, home to two of the most notorious pranksters in the Republic’s armed forces. Which was why Anagha found herself checking both the interior and the exterior of her flight simulator as if it were her x-wing. She even went as far as having her droid, Shorty, check the programming to make sure there were no last minute changes to the system. Specifically no changes by anyone with the name Wes Janson, or his partner in crime, Derek Klivian.

After watching Battlestar Galactica, I have decided that Tahmoh Penikett would make the perfect Hobbie. But that may be typecasting, since he plays a pilot in BSG.

To read more WIPpet Wednesday posts, go here.