Author's Afterword
Mother Love
by aeryncrichton
This was the third story I wrote for this project. Yes, I was obsessed. *g*
This one just popped out. We'd been talking about having mostly the "big events" in Aeryn's life, and bittersweet (or worse) ones, at that, and while I'd written the race story ("More") in an attempt to hit an "everyday event," it hadn't turned out very light, either. So, I thought I'd try again to turn out something lighter....
Loco said something about Aeryn learning to cook....and it occurred to me that, hey, Aeryn has a mother-in-law in this universe - and I thought it might be funny to combine the two.
Well, the story still didn't turn out funny, but I think it's my favorite of the bunch I wrote for this project.
I hadn't intended for this to be "first person mom-in-law" - but Dorca took over from the beginning, and told the story the way SHE wanted it told. She's a fussy old woman who's protective of her son, but she'd never actually *interfere*.
I wanted her to be sympathetic - after all, she's only disappointed that her son has made this bad choice of a wife who doesn't love him - but at the same time, I wanted *us* to feel she was being unfair to our Aeryn. (For example, Aeryn wasn't trying to play "keep the baby away from Grandma," it was just time for him to go to bed....)
And in the end, Dorca figured that out.
Imagine that!
Aeryn, on the other hand, felt she was totally out of her depth, but gave it her all (once she'd failed to get someone *else* to do it!). She approached this thing as a field exercise, carefully following orders....and it turned out a lot better than she'd expected. I love Aeryn in this story.
The cake baking disaster is based on a cake I made from scratch, many years ago when I was first married. I was in tears at the time, but my husband and I have laughed ever since about the "earthquake cake" - which was held together by toothpicks....
aeryncrichton
Created on ... March 21, 2002
