Mad Anthology Idea

[Guest Noelle Zingarella]

Alright, this thread is perhaps not quite so ambitious as that BUT it's still pretty cool.

@juls shared an article+ (M) on twitter about Aqua Tofana; a Renaissance woman who helped women...get rid of their unwanted husbands through poisoned makeup *_*

NO--we're not going into the husband-killing trade--

But what if we write some fic about this???

 

This thread is for brainstorming ideas on the if, when, and how to go about such a thing. Obviously the FROGs madness is upon us right now, but if you might be interested in authoring a one-shot (or two, or three...) for an anthology something along the lines of The Edge of Oblivion+, let us know here--along with any other ideas you have on how this might work best. 

 

Looking forward to seeing what we come up with...

[tatapb]

This is right up my alley, I have a morbid fascination with murdering murderers. I can definitely write a one shot about this, count me in!

What did you have in mind? Poisoning as an MO historically? Were you thinking fanfic or OF (I'd kind of like to do some OF for once and this seems like a good theme)? Is the Woman Poisoner the theme or is it the poisoning itself? Should the stories be interconnected in some way other than the theme?

I looked it up briefly because I remembered a similar story happening in France, and in the process discovered (though this is a bit tentative since I'm on my phone and can't really dive into it as deeply as I'd like to) that it wasn't just Tophana. There was also Hieronyma Spara in Napoli and Gratiosa in Rome who were all active around the same time in the poisoning business.

Historically there were a series of women that were in the poisoning business, quite successfully. It was a woman's MO, and, statistically, even if women account for only about 40% of poisoners, that's a far higher percentage than for any other MO. It makes sense: women had to food and drink preparations, which meant it was easier for them to do so unnoticed.

The infamous Affaire des Poisons had at its center Catherine Monvoisin and at its origin Madam de Branvilliers.

I think we all have very different writing styles and things we focus on in our writing, different enough that if we all ran with this separately we'd still probably come up with completely different stories. Still I think it would be fun to touch base first and share our ideas for our stories amongst ourselves.

Btw, this is a very snakey story idea :3

[Alexis Black]

Poison is such a lovely topic. So many fascinating options for method and delivery. One suggestion, though: don't get locked into wife poisoning husband/male lover only aspect. You can also do wife poisoning wife, woman poisoning rival (the 'other woman') or even poisoning the child of a rival via a wet nurse:

Quote

Because it is colorless, tasteless, and odorless, arsenic was the poison of choice for the Borgias, the Italian Renaissance family skilled at artful murder, as well as for Hieronyma Spara, a 17th-century Roman entrepreneur who ran a school that taught wealthy young wives how to dispatch their husbands and become wealthy young widows. Arsenic, the poudre de succession, powder of succession, helped ambitious princes secure thrones. Fed in small amounts to a wet nurse, the poison could be expressed in breast milk and kill infant rivals.

 

And while the following two relatively modern cases involve the husband trying to off the wife, the situation could easily be altered:

Poison via eyeliner, and via toothpaste .

[grumpy cat]

1 minute ago, Alexis Black said:

Poison is such a lovely topic

also. i don't really have any cool ideas right now that i feel i could write myself but someone could use mrs zabini and her ultimate badassery of having seven dead husbands

[Guest Noelle Zingarella]

On 2/22/2020 at 5:08 AM, tatapb said:

I think we all have very different writing styles and things we focus on in our writing, different enough that if we all ran with this separately we'd still probably come up with completely different stories. Still I think it would be fun to touch base first and share our ideas for our stories amongst ourselves.

Yes to all this! 

On 2/22/2020 at 1:53 PM, Alexis Black said:

Poison is such a lovely topic. So many fascinating options for method and delivery. One suggestion, though: don't get locked into wife poisoning husband/male lover only aspect. You can also do wife poisoning wife, woman poisoning rival (the 'other woman') or even poisoning the child of a rival via a wet nurse:

Excellent!

On 2/22/2020 at 1:54 PM, grumpy cat said:

also. i don't really have any cool ideas right now that i feel i could write myself but someone could use mrs zabini and her ultimate badassery of having seven dead husbands

This story MUST exist. 

 

I think that folks taking the theme "poison" and running with it is a great idea. Thoughts about a title for the collection? Also, @grumpy cat how would you feel about possibly making a banner for it if you have time?

[grumpy cat]

10 hours ago, Noelle Zingarella said:

Also, @grumpy cat how would you feel about possibly making a banner for it if you have time?

i'm a lil' busy rn and with the round3 coming up but maybe after that?

[Guest Noelle Zingarella]

7 hours ago, grumpy cat said:

i'm a lil' busy rn and with the round3 coming up but maybe after that?

For sure! I don't think we even have any title ideas yet.

[grumpy cat]

i know this was supposed to be a house thing but....how would everyone feel if we opened up the collaboration to everyone on the site? i think it could be something fun that would also promote interhouse friendships (but without the stress of competitiveness during a house cup event)? it's just a thought, and if you all would rather this stay in-house, that's completely okay

[juls]

I'm open for it being an open thing. Always - more stories, more authors, more the merrier. (Somehow, I think I butchered the analogy.)

 

 

[Guest pookha]

Always fine with more, too!

[Guest Noelle Zingarella]

Opening it up to a site-wide collab sounds good to me 

[tatapb]

Samesies. I'ma going to be listening to Alice Cooper's Poison for a while 'cause of this and I'm perfectly okay with sharing the madness with the other houses.

[Guest pookha]

The first part of this makes me think of Bell Biv DeVoe's song Poison (because the lyric 'That girl is poison') but Alice Cooper's is great too (and the cover done by Tarja is interesting). 

Title suggestion: A Dram of Poison (from Romeo and Juliet)

Some Guys Just Can't Hold Their Arsenic (From Chicago--Cell Block Tango)

or simply

Poison

[grumpy cat]

On 3/3/2020 at 9:35 PM, grumpy cat said:

i know this was supposed to be a house thing but....how would everyone feel if we opened up the collaboration to everyone on the site? i think it could be something fun that would also promote interhouse friendships (but without the stress of competitiveness during a house cup event)? it's just a thought, and if you all would rather this stay in-house, that's completely okay

just wanted to let you all know this will be happening when we figure out the exact setup from the mod side of things but it hasn't been forgotten

[tatapb]

5 hours ago, pookha said:

Some Guys Just Can't Hold Their Arsenic (From Chicago--Cell Block Tango)

I love this.

[grumpy cat]

@Noelle Zingarella came up with this really cool idea for an anthology in the slytherin common room and the rest of slytherin was open to expanding it to the entire site so we've moved the thread here 

let's..uhh....poison people together?

[Darling_take_off_the_mask]

YASSS I am here for this.

Also...of course this is what y’all do in the Slytherin CR...

[grumpy cat]

6 minutes ago, RonsGirlFriday said:

Also...of course this is what y’all do in the Slytherin CR...

i mean....sometimes we stab people instead of poisoning them

[Darling_take_off_the_mask]

Okay, well when the stabby collab happens, I’m here for that, too.

(Stabby collaby? I’ll see myself out...) 

[crowsb4bros]

I'm ready to poison. 

[ImaRavenclaw]

This sounds interesting *rushes to cabinet of illicit potions and poisons*

And I definitely like the Chicago inspired title, but it might have to be altered a little if we're just writing about poisoning and not men specifically being poisoned.

Looking forward to more details about this!!