Allison Symes - This World and Others
All images and text on this website are the original works of Allison Symes
  • Home
  • News
  • ANTHOLOGIES
  • Blog - Creating Worlds
  • Chandlers Ford Today - My Blog Posts
  • Alfie Dog - Allison Symes author page
  • Alfie Dog Bites - Fantasy Dinner Party Guests by Allison Symes
  • Bridge House Publishing
  • Cafe Lit Blog - Allison Symes stories
  • Cafe Lit
  • External Link - Ironpress.co.uk
  • External Link - Lulu.com
  • External Link - Shortbread Short Stories
  • Allison Symes - Introduction
  • Allison Symes - Q&A
    • Allison Symes - Q&A Part 2
    • Allison Symes - Q&A Part 3
    • Allison Symes - Q&A Part 4
    • Allison Symes - Q&A Part 5
    • Allison Symes - Q&A Part 6
    • Allison Symes - Q&A Part 7
  • Short Stories
    • Short Stories - 2
    • Short Stories - 3 (Life and Other Fairytales)
  • Novels - The Trouble With Mother
    • The Trouble With Mother - My Dream Cast List
    • The Trouble With Mother - My Dream Cast List 2
    • The Trouble With Mother - My Dream Cast List 3
    • The Trouble With Mother - My Dream Cast List 4
  • Novels - The Cherry Tree
  • FAQ
    • FAQ - 2
    • FAQ - 3
    • FAQ - 4
    • FAQ - 5
    • FAQ - 6
    • FAQ - 7
    • FAQ - 8
    • FAQ - 9
    • FAQ - 10
  • What I Like Best In My Characters - Eileen and Jenny
    • The Fairy Queen and the Chief Witch
    • L'Evallier, Chief Elf and Rodish, Chief Dwarf
    • Hanastrew and Melanbury
    • Stanrock, Whespy and Roherum
  • What I Loathe About My Characters - Brankaresh, the Queen and Eileen
    • What I Loathe About My Characters - Jenny, Derek and Paul
  • What My Characters Would Do As Hobbies
    • What My Characters Would Do As Hobbies - 2
    • What My Characters Would Do As Hobbies - 3
  • Life in the Fairy Kingdom
    • Life in the Fairy Kingdom - 1
    • Life in the Fairy Kingdom - 2
    • Life in the Fairy Kingdom - 3
    • Life in the Fairy Kingdom - 4
    • Life in the Fairy Kingdom - 5
    • Life in the Fairy Kingdom - 6
    • Life in the Fairy Kingdom - 7
    • Life in the Fairy Kingdom - 8
    • Life in the Fairy Kingdom - 9
    • Life in the Fairy Kingdom - 10
    • Life in the Fairy Kingdom - 11 (FNN Schedules)
    • Life in the Fairy Kingdom - 12
    • Life in the Fairy Kingdom - 13
    • Life in the Fairy Kingdom - 14
    • Life in the Fairy Kingdom - 15
    • Life in the Fairy Kingdom - 16
    • Life in the Fairy Kingdom - 17
    • Life in the Fairy Kingdom - 18
    • Life in the Fairy Kingdom - 19
    • Life in the Fairy Kingdom - 20
    • Life in the Fairy Kingdom - 21
    • Life in the Fairy Kingdom - 22
    • Life in the Fairy Kingdom - 23
    • Life in the Fairy Kingdom - 24
    • Life in the Fairy Kingdom - 25
    • Life in the Fairy Kingdom - 26
    • Life in the Fairy Kingdom - 27
    • Life in the Fairy Kingdom - 28
    • Life in the Fairy Kingdom - 29
    • Life in the Fairy Kingdom - 30
    • Life in the Fairy Kingdom - 31
    • Life in the Fairy Kingdom - 32
    • Life in the Fairy Kingdom - 33
    • Life in the Fairy Kingdom - 34
    • Life in the Fairy Kingdom - 35
    • Life in the Fairy Kingdom - 36
    • Life in the Fairy Kingdom - 37
    • Life in the Fairy Kingdom - 38
    • Life in the Fairy Kingdom - 39
    • Life in the Fairy Kingdom - 40
  • What I Like Best About Writing
  • Writing Bug Bears
    • Writing Bug Bears - Part 2
  • The Joys and Frustrations of Writing
    • The Joys and Frustrations of Writing - 2
    • The Joys and Frustrations of Writing - 3
    • The Joys and Frustrations of Writing - 4
    • The Joys and Frustrations of Writing - 5
    • The Joys and Frustrations of Writing - 6
    • The Joys and Frustrations of Writing - 7
    • The Joys and Frustrations of Writing - 8
    • The Joys and Frustrations of Writing - 9
    • The Joys and Frustrations of Writing - 10
    • The Joys and Frustrations of Writing - 11
    • The Joys and Frustrations of Writing - 12
    • The Joys and Frustrations of Writing - 13
  • My Thoughts on Writing
  • Contact Form
  • FROM LIGHT TO DARK AND BACK AGAIN

LIFE IN THE FAIRY KINGDOM

The Queen’s bedroom ceiling is made up of one huge landscape showing the rolling parklands and the lake feeding the Fountain of Youth, her favourite view.  It’s like having a giant photo stuck to the ceiling but it is painted and intricately so.  The Queen commissioned this herself shortly after her accession from her late mother’s favourite artist.  Every monarch gets to choose what landscape they’d like on their bedroom’s ceiling.  The rest of the Palace has hundreds of portraits, mainly of the royal ancestry, with smaller landscapes of the better looking regions in between.  Art is a compulsory subject at school - not necessarily to draw or paint etc as it is recognized not everyone has the natural ability here and it is felt art should not be forced but where people don’t take part, they are expected to read about it, visit galleries, (on certain Open Days visit the Palace) and be able to tell the artists apart.  It is felt a working knowledge like this prevents barbarism.  Sadly it hasn’t prevented the sprites being a complete pain - they just’re a pain who know their art!

When Eileen was still resident at the Palace, her own suite was more simply decorated, reflecting her own wariness of fuss.  She liked good quality furniture, simply decorated walls (though even she liked gold rimmed mirrors) and plain white ceilings.  The result was pleasing so if Eileen was hoping to rebel against the gorgeous excess so common in Palaces around the universes and to prove a point to her cousin, she failed.  Eileen won an award for The Most Tasteful Suite in a Historic Building Award for three years running.  She herself thought the award judges were taking the proverbial out of her (though she wasn’t going to argue.  Who’s going to moan they’ve got good taste?).  Both Eileen and the Queen collected pieces of art, the former sticks to landscapes while the monarch also gathers sculptures (and occasionally turns someone into one!) and even some photography items, one thing from Earth she really likes.

The staff quarters are well appointed.  The royals have been generous for centuries to “their people”.  The critics (including L’Evallier) have wondered out loud if royal generosity has bought a lot of servant silence.  The royals insist now Gwendolyn’s gone there isn’t any silence to buy.  Staff work in rotas - three weeks on, one week off in any one month.  Staff are assisted if they want to take holidays outside of the Palace grounds (these are huge, you could have many walking holidays) as the royals arrange easy transport to save staff using their lesser powers.  This is the equivalent of someone working for the railways getting a free railway pass.  Every department in the Palace has its manual as to how things are run, why they are run that way and what happened to the last folk who tried to challenge the system (the latter is never good though as Eileen told L’Evallier once, surely this is proof the royals are not guilty of bribery.  Coersion and threats, yes; bribery, no.  Unsurprisingly the elf is not impressed
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.