Heads Up

Just to let you know that I may not be able to post at all for a few weeks. I will be in a place with little to no access to computers, and most likely no available Internet. And yes, it will be for at least three weeks. I may try to hijack a cousin's computer in September, but no promises. So, to tide you over, here is something I've discovered recently, which is not only insanely beautiful, but also ties into my great love of the Elder Scrolls games. Enjoy!

Belated Time-Write Tuesday

Apologies for missing last week's post; I was not up to just about anything that week. And this post is late because I spent last night and most of the day with my sister-in-law. My brother has a nice computer...with a weird keyboard. I don't even try to type anything extensive on it. I am making up for it this week, with two sets. Have fun!

Male Lead: Ithast: This elf has a terrible destiny, and needs someone to share that burden. His peach-colored hair seems to defy gravity. His mysterious eyes are crimson.
Female Lead: Izlilos: Often Kidnapped Princess has Hourglass build Pale Yellow skin Dark Brown hair Slitted Copper eyes enjoys Functional Clothing Plain coronets
Villain: Tarot Ambermage: This biased magic-user is driven by vengeance. She uses enchantment in her plots, usually engaging in blackmail of business leaders to achieve her goals. She has annoyed the gods.
Setting: Woods of Crystal
McGuffin: Animated Crown

Male Lead: Ushiwa: This samurai is a paragon of virtue. His coffee-colored hair is always wind-blown. His penetrating eyes are sky-blue. He has a charming accent. His comfortable outfits show off his slender build.
Female Lead: Mystery Flora: This spiritual magical girl has deep-set orange eyes and very short, straight, silky, coffee-colored hair worn in a practical style. She has a thin build. She has luck powers that are invoked instinctively. Her uniform is purple and white in even proportions, and it strongly resembles a gypsy dress.
Villain: The Terrifying Whisperer: This secretive mad scientist is motivated by hatred. She uses physics in her plots, commonly using teleportation gadgets to achieve her goals. She is from a bad family.
Setting: Warped City
McGuffin: Guardian-Engine

1: Setting: modern-day sword-and-sorcery. Theme:natural disaster story
2:Setting: high fantasy/space opera. Theme:love-against-the-odds/power fantasy story
3:Setting: science-fiction. Theme:occult/murder mystery story

Let's see what we can do with these!

Musing: Life Lessons from Fairy Tales

Ah, fairy tales. The sweet, happy little world, all hearts and flowers and bunnies, where the Fairest of Them All meets her Prince Charming, they fall in love at first sight, and ride off into the sunset together.
Or wait: maybe you mean the current trend of taking these innocent stories, splattering them with blood and gore and maybe some feministic motifs including no-strings-attached sex, where there is no happy ending and you're just happy if not everybody dies in the end?
No to both, actually: I'm talking about the real stories, not the sappy, sugar-coated things that emerged from the so-called Enlightenment, nor the bastardized drivel often a few eyefuls shy of pornography. I'm talking about the unchanged tales from the Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Anderson, and the nameless storytellers whose tales have been passed down to us. Though not exactly G-rated--for instance, I wouldn't recommend The Juniper Tree or Fitcher's Bird as bedtime stories for a wee one--they weren't as blood-spattered or gross as some critics would have us believe. And they all have lessons to consider.
The parable nature of the more popular fairy tales--Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Beauty and the Beast--has been discussed in length by authors wiser than I, so I won't bother with them. In fact, I'm not going to stray near the more known tales at all.
I'm going to discuss three more grisly tales, their current significance, and the lessons people--particularly teenaged girls--can, and maybe should, take from them.
These stories are Fitcher's Bird, The Robber Bridegroom, and Bluebeard. While the trappings and climaxes of each story are different, each one has a similar theme: a beautiful, if slightly naive girl falls for the easy charm of a handsome, smooth-talking man, and goes to his house. In two of the stories, she's given the run of the house with only one room forbidden; in the third, she simply finds someone who knows the true nature of her prospective bridegroom. Each girl discovers in a horrible manner that this charming fellow is a cold-blooded murderer--and in one instance, he's a cannibal. Each one of these stories has a happy ending: Mrs. Bluebeard's brothers arrive to visit at a highly opportune moment and save her life, while the girl in Robber Bridegroom escapes his house unnoticed and conspires with her father to reveal the man's doings and bring him to justice, and the clever girl in Fitcher's Bird tricks her murderous groom and his friends, so that her vengeful relatives arrive in time to lock the whole group in and burn the house down.
Now, I'm fairly certain that the number of young girls who get in a relationship with some smooth-talking charmer only to discover he's a cannibal or has a closet full of the bodies of his previous sweethearts is fairly small. But we all know someone who's fallen for a guy, and then discovered just what a bad bargain he is. We probably know several girls who have done that. And I can't help but wonder if familiarity with the 'Murderous Bridegroom' stories might help prevent that. Read the stories, then take these points to consider.
Point One: Reputations are there for a reason. In Bluebeard, Bluebeard already has a bad reputation, stemming from the fact that no one knows what's happened to his previous wives. Had the young lady thought a little harder about that, she might not have found herself in her bad position. Girls, if your hot new hunk is rumored to be abusive, find out the truth. If he is, you may have saved yourself a lot of pain and anguish.
Point Two: Listen to your instincts. In The Robber Bridegroom, the girl is not the one who picks the guy out; it's actually her father who is fooled by the robber's good looks and suave ways. But the girl senses something very wrong about him--so that when she discovers the truth, she isn't surprised. He may seem like the greatest thing since sliced bread, but if you have a funny feeling about him, do some research. It may save your self-worth, if not your life.

Point Three: Give charity—and accept chivalry—with care. The sorcerer in Fitcher’s Bird disguises himself as a beggar to get into the houses of pretty girls. When they handed him bread, their hands would touch, and they would fall under his enchantment, willingly going with him to their deaths. Now, you might not find a sorcerer in disguise…but by giving or accepting kindness from the wrong guy, you might find yourself in just as bad a situation. 

Point Four: It's all yours But. In both Bluebeard and Fitcher's Bird, the young ladies were given the run of the house...with the exception of one room. Once they gave in to curiosity and opened the door, their fates were sealed. Unless you've actually fallen for a serial killer who keeps his gruesome trophies in a forbidden room--unlikely--the 'Sealed Door' is probably going to be the womb. Dare to get pregnant, and these modern-day Bluebeards will either force their girlfriends to get an abortion, beat them into miscarriage, or kill her. If your guy is violently against the idea of kids, he's not going to like it when the birth control fails.

Point Five: Get help. In all the stories, the girl, while able to trick or delay her murderer, does not take him down on her own. Mrs. Bluebeard is rescued by her brothers. The girl in Robber Bridegroom recruits her father and then the rest of the town, while the clever girl in Fitcher's Bird sends her rescued sisters home with orders to come back with reinforcements. They don't try to fight on their own. I would advise that all girls get a small-caliber gun and learn how to use it...but I would also advise that you get strong friends of good repute, who will help you if you need it. 

Reader Review: Niahm and the Hermit

Come away, oh mortals; come away from this world of dreary cares and dismal doings. Enter into a rich world of mystery, wonder, and danger, where the pageantry of the court and the stubborn day-to-day living of the common world sit comfortable together, and where the woods hold constant danger and the possibility of breathtaking beauty.

Niahm and the Hermit is a marvelous piece of high fantasy that flows like a deep, slow river toward a satisfying, if tear-jerking, conclusion. The plot never feels hurried, moving on at a steady pace to allow the reader to understand everything going on--and be aware, there is always a lot going on. The world of the Twelve Kingdoms is well-imagined and filled with its own mythologies, often referencing old tales and goings-on that happened well before the story takes place. The settings move from the pageantry of the court to the goings-on at a common inn in the town below the castle, from the eerie depths of the Dark Wood to the merriment of a Faerie's woodland hall, from the rough life on the road to the simple life of a peasant--flowing seamlessly from one setting to the other, and doing it so well it never feels jarring.
The book boasts several villains: the sophisticated Count, whose fall is detailed in the first few chapters until you are not surprised at the depth of his depravity, an ancient evil that roams the mountains, and a bitter, spiteful old witch with ambitions beyond her powers, in addition to numerous monsters roaming the Dark Wood and three demonic shadows serving the Count. And these villains are written so well that, despite the fact that the entire rest of the cast is, if not heroes, at least innocents, they never seem overmatched.
But the heroes are the real reason the book works so well. Despite the poetic, archaic prose they speak and act in, every one of them comes across as a real person, cheerfully shattering the myth that truly good people are boring to read about. The heroine, in particular--a princess who is so beautiful she blinds almost anyone who sees her without her veil, and is as good as she is beautiful--never comes across as cloying, silly, dull, or without humor. Even more impressively, her devoted, feisty cousin Elowen never reads as bitchy--though her role as uninterested heartbreaker of the court could easily degenerate into that. And the hero, Gethin, the mysterious Hermit, is completely believable as he seeks out his beloved, whom he knows only through a few letters and one conversation in the moonlight.
The book is not for everyone. Just for starters, the prose is rich, generously embellished with verbal equivalents of purple, lapis lazuli, and gold leaf. The language is also archaic, the characters addressing each other as 'Thee' and 'Thou' except in informal circumstances, and the descriptive scenes can take up to half a page to read. Admittedly, that's one of my favorite things about the book: I really like gorgeous description and lush prose.
The story has a tone of high morals without being preachy. Actions have consequences, and if your actions aren't the best, then you might find the consequences unpleasant--which is all it really has to say on the subject, aside from a mild sorrow indicated when certain characters fall. In one instance, the Count uses crude language--which is in keeping with the scene, where he is trying to drive his guard into madness--and there are a few mentions of premarital sex, all of which are mentioned so lightly, or so subtly, that a preteen probably wouldn't pick them up at all. (Three captives in the camp of the Wolf King are said to have been trysting when they were caught, and a sassy old lady telling a story makes a reference to a girl who would "give her all, and have worse for her pains in nine month's time.")
There are dozens of characters, all of whom have Welsh or Gaelic-styled names, and this makes the glossary and pronunciation guide in the back of the book vital. The good thing is, even the appendices are are so well-written that you don't mind going through them to look up different characters or backstories. In fact, I look forward to paging through and reading the legends of the Twelve Kingdoms.
So if you like deep stories where there's always another thing to discover, rich language, and vibrant characters, I would heartily recommend this book.