Kate's twins brainstorm

'You know, if you make that face while you're wearing those sunglasses, you look hung over.'
'I am hung over.'
'You haven't had a drink in two days!'
'Precisely. I have an inverse hangover.'

'I object to your reading the USA Today. There ought to be a UK Today.'
'Yes, but we're not an empire anymore.'
'We bloody well are! We have Australia, and the Virgin Islands.'
'Australia's independent, and the Americans have Virgin Islands too.'
'Well, ours are more virginal.'
'I'm sure you can fix that.'

Ok, so: brewing thoughts for writing. There's no defined plot in mind (is there ever, with me?) but I'm going to just start typing things and, then, well, we'll see.

Two brothers, twins, of a frightfully wealthy British family - the sort that has titles, goes to court, still has their manor house no matter how much taxes have gone up, and if the right number of people died successively one of them would become king, sort of wealthy. They are the only sons of an only son, who fell in love with and married a vivacious American woman who died when the boys were too young to have clear memories of her, although they absorbed her sense of mischief, disregard for English propriety and deep love for her family. Their father withdrew after her death, throwing himself into his business, traveling extensively and keeping a series of mistresses, for which the boys felt more of a sense of pity than anger - they didn't see him as betraying their mother so much as grieving for her. Their (paternal) grandfather/great-grandfather had extensive colonial holdings, and the family still holds houses in India and Africa.

The elder brother is quieter and more introspective while the younger is always ready to prod him into some sort of adventure, (also ready to have a drink and tell jokes in an increasingly loud voice). I like the idea of naming the younger boy Thomas (as the name means "twin") and haven't settled on a name for the older one, but I like the idea of one of the John derivatives, meaning 'God is gracious" (a la both our brothers' names, and, according to thinkbabynames.com, 83 other forms) - I like the idea of their mother having a deep faith, and also being Catholic (another contrast to their British upbringing).

They grew up at the country house and at boarding school, mostly in the care of a staff and possibly distant relatives, as their father was next to never home. We're picking up with them at the end of their years at university, as they are facing the possibility of a lifetime of the stuffy English life they were raised to and feeling more and more that they don't want it. They (mostly Thomas) hatch a plan to get out of the country and see the world a bit. The plan is still forming in my head - one possibility is that Thomas has decided that they should go out in search of a wife for his brother (Thomas goes back and forth on being gay or simply being an incredible womanizer - either way, any real romance goes to the older brother).

'And we're looking where, brothels in Singapore?'
'Absolutely not! Don't forget, if the right eleven people snuff it she's going to be queen of England.'
'Ah, of course.'
'Strip clubs in Vegas, at least she'll be blond.'

Another is that they decide to imitate their father's world tour, which he took at their age, as an attempt to get a better sense of him. A third is that that they discover that the family owns another house, one that has been closed up most of their lifetimes, in the small American town where their father met their mother. They go and open it up, and discover pieces of their parents' pasts and an entirely different sort of world than the one they grew up in. In combination with that plot, or perhaps on its own, they pick up a group of lower-to-middle-class American friends and introduce them into their lavish and exclusive life back home.

They jokingly call each other by the names of famous pairs of British men (Mr. Darcy and Mr. Bingley, George and Ringo, Harry and Ron), they're friends with the princes, and I even had an idea originally that they each have a pet tiger, given to them as cubs by their grandfather, but depending on where the story goes that bit of whimsy may not make it through.

Anyway, I hope this perks up your Monday morning - give me your thoughts! I'm going to keep trying to call you until you give in and pick up, so talk to you soon-ish!