TEASER TUESDAY OH MA GAWD

Sorry, I've been in a really great mood lately. A somewhat hyper mood, really.

Anywho, today's teaser is again from Eventide. Natura and Grena discover than Ina has not been completely truthful with them, and that this whole Guardian thing is really up to question. This is very recently written, and crappy first draft edition. Though, it is quite decent for my usual first draft material.

Teaser Time

“Ina suspects we may not be the true descendants of the Guardians of Icarthia and Rivalon,” Natura said, her voice quiet. She felt…betrayed almost, but also a small bit relieved. If she wasn’t a Guardian, then there was nothing holding her here. Natura pushed the thought away; what would she do if she wasn’t a Guardian? Go home, and leave Ina to handle this on her own? No, she couldn’t do that.

“The amulets,” Ina said. “They may be copies, or stolen from the true family, sold, handed down the wrong family line, anything. Possessing an amulet is not a definite sign of a Guardian of the Light.”

“But you found us,” Grena said. “You sought us out. Why would you have done so if we weren’t descendants. And how do you know you’re a descendant? Maybe we’re all fakes!”

Ina’s already pale complexion whitened even more. She stared back down at the book in her lap, her silver-blonde hair falling over her face. She was retreating, and if she did there was no telling when they would get any more information out of her.

“Grena calm down,” Natura said.

“Calm down?” Grena asked, jumping down from the windowsill. “How can you tell me to calm down? I left two helpless little girls back in Rivalon who needed me for this! And now I may not even be the right woman? What if something has happened to my sisters when I was gone? I could have protected them, and this will have been for nothing!”

“Grena calm down!” Natura said, getting up from her bed and approaching her. “This isn’t helping!”

“I can’t believe you’re not as angry as I am about this!” Grena shouted. “You didn’t even want to come; we had to force you here. You could have stayed back in your perfect little life in your perfect little village, but no. Ina dragged you here, and now your life back home might never be the same!”

Natura stopped, like she’d hit a stone wall. She turned slowly to Ina, who was staring over at her and Grena. “Ina, do you really doubt us?”

“I do not want to doubt either of you,” she said. “Facts are facts, though. I know that I am truly descended; I possess the power of Knowing. The fact that I sought you two, out of anyone else in Ascensia, is reassuring but never definite. Unless you show anything that proves…” She stopped and sighed, looking back down at the book in front of her for a moment. “I am sorry, but I doubt.”

“This is just great,” Grena said. She sat back on the windowsill, her hands clutching the edge of it, her knuckles turning white. “Couldn’t you have told us this before we followed you across the continent?”

“It is said that each of the Guardians of the Light possessed a form of magic that is no longer known to the people of our world,” Ina explained. “In the time of the earliest known Guardians, those who forged the amulets, magic was a well known thing. Elemental magic was not the only power that roamed this land.

“Then the Great War rampaged Ascensia, pitting not only our countries against outside nations, but against each other. It was a great, evil thing; many, many honorable men and women lost their lives to this evil of war. The Guardians of the Light came forth, and of course you know the legend. When they forged the amulets, they placed their acute magical abilities in these amulets.

“When they pushed the evil from this land, and ended the Great War, they also eradicated much of the magic from this land. In some places as punishment – as with Senai – and in some places as a safeguard against future war. Only weakened elemental magic remained, as well as the magic held in the amulets; though, only a true descendent of the Guardians of the Light would have the ability to unlock this magic and wield it.”

“You keep talking in circles, Ina,” Grena said, resting her head in one of her hands where she sat on the windowsill. “What do you mean by all this?”

“She means,” Natura said, “that unless we show we can use the magic in the amulets, there is no way of knowing we are true Guardians.”

“Alright,” Grena said, standing up. “Tell me what I’m supposed to be able to do and I’ll prove it to you.”

Ina frowned and looked back at the book in her lap. “Not every country keeps the detailed records of the past as Fearn and Tundarus keep,” she said. “Even then, no country keeps more recorded than it must, so only the history of that country will be recorded. I am doing the best that I can to find out, to know…”

Natura looked from Ina to Grena. Ina’s face was still as white as snow, and she looked almost like she was shaking. Grena, on the other hand, was glaring at Ina and Natura suspected that if she could, she would be growling like a wolf facing its prey. She clenched and unclenched her fists as she stared Ina down, and it would only be a matter of moments before she would go as far as to attack poor Ina.

“Grena,” Natura said softly, going to her and placing a hand on her shoulder. “Calm down–”

“I thought we already went through this!” she barked. “I’m not going to calm down!”
“Grena,” Natura said again. “You need to leave; you need time to let this sink in before you do anything.”

She wrenched her shoulder from under Natura’s hand. “Don’t you feel betrayed?” she demanded. “Look what she’s done to us! Look at all that has happened. We shouldn’t have had to go through it, and now we might not even be descendants!”

Natura took a daring step between Grena and Ina, hoping she would be enough to stop Grena from tearing Ina apart if she felt like it. “But we still might be descendants; it’ll just take time to be sure. Now you’ve been protecting me, and now I’m protecting you. Go and think about this before you do something you’ll regret.”

“I don’t appreciate being lied to,” she said through gritted teeth. “And you shouldn’t either.” She went back to the window and pulled herself all the way through this time.

Natura went straight to Ina’s bed and started picking up the books scattered over it and placing them in neat piles on the floor, as well as straightening the other piles already on the floor. She took the book from Ina’s lap – Ina was still yet to budge from her frozen position, staring fearfully at where Grena had been only moments ago

“Hey,” she said softly. She sat down on the bed next to Ina. “She doesn’t mean it; just give her a little time to cool off. Get some rest, now.”

Ina nodded slowly and inched her way down on her bed until she was lying flat. Natura went to her own bed but kept looking back to Ina, checking on her. Every time she looked, it was always the same: Ina lying motionless, staring into the empty space beside her bed, unblinking, unflinching.

End Tease

I'm really pleased with this bit. It throws a big pile of rocks in the middle of the road for Ina and the Guardian hunt, but it also gives Natura an opportunity to grow up a bit. Plus it's going to make it easier to bring Grena back in a way that settles her relationship with Natura. They need to get along better in order to help a much later plot point.

Hope it was an enjoyable read, and not too atrocious.

-Lauren-

A Journey of Heroes

The Hero's Journey is an amazing little thing. It's a very well-used skeleton for a story. So well-used, in fact, that you can look at almost every story ever written and see the Hero's Journey in it.

Not only is it known that most of literature is based on the Hero's Journey (both strictly and loosely), I have found that real life events can also be based off it. Here is an outline of the Hero's Journey that is more detailed than the picture above, and also how I have placed it around a specific event in my life - my first dating experience.

A. Departure
My notes will be made in italics, see how this works? Anyways, the Hero's Journey can be split into three bigger sections, Departure is the first.

1.The Call to Adventure
The call to adventure is the point in a person's life when they are first given notice that everything is going to change, whether they know it or not.
A young man began to show interest in me, in the form of writing many many notes to me.

2.Refusal of the Call
Often when the call is given, the future hero refuses to heed it. This may be from a sense of duty or obligation, fear, insecurity, a sense of inadequacy, or any of a range of reasons that work to hold the person in his or her current circumstances.
I, being an insecure pre-teen girl at the time, am nervous and basically avoid said young man.

3.Supernatural Aid
Once the hero has committed to the quest, consciously or unconsciously, his or her guide and magical helper appears, or becomes known.
Several of my friends begin to convince me that yes, I should date this young man. Being an impressionable young girl, I agree.

4.The Crossing of the First Threshold
This is the point where the person actually crosses into the field of adventure, leaving the known limits of his or her world and venturing into an unknown and dangerous realm where the rules and limits are not known.
I decide to agree to date this young man.

5.The Belly of the Whale
The belly of the whale represents the final separation from the hero's known world and self. It is sometimes described as the person's lowest point, but it is actually the point when the person is between or transitioning between worlds and selves. The separation has been made, or is being made, or being fully recognized between the old world and old self and the potential for a new world/self. The experiences that will shape the new world and self will begin shortly, or may be beginning with this experience which is often symbolized by something dark, unknown and frightening. By entering this stage, the person shows their willingness to undergo a metamorphosis, to die to him or herself.
I start dating this boy, which means a lot of big things in a pre-teen's life. The scary acts - scary to a nervous pre-teen girl - such as holding hands, dates, and phone calls begin to occur.

B. Inititation
1.The Road of Trials
The road of trials is a series of tests, tasks, or ordeals that the person must undergo to begin the transformation. Often the person fails one or more of these tests, which often occur in threes.
I must inform my parents of this relationship, I must aknowledge this young man in public as my boyfriend, and must become a girlfriend toward this young man. Several of which I did a very pathetic job at.

2.The Meeting with the Goddess
The meeting with the goddess represents the point in the adventure when the person experiences a love that has the power and significance of the all-powerful, all encompassing, unconditional love that a fortunate infant may experience with his or her mother. It is also known as the "hieros gamos", or sacred marriage, the union of opposites, and may take place entirely within the person. In other words, the person begins to see him or herself in a non-dualistic way. This is a very important step in the process and is often represented by the person finding the other person that he or she loves most completely. Although Campbell symbolizes this step as a meeting with a goddess, unconditional love and /or self unification does not have to be represented by a woman.
This one I have a difficult time applying. Perhaps it is the acceptance felt in that first real boyfriend/girlfriend relationship.

3.Woman as the Temptress
At one level, this step is about those temptations that may lead the hero to abandon or stray from his or her quest, which as with the Meeting with the Goddess does not necessarily have to be represented by a woman. For Campbell, however, this step is about the revulsion that the usually male hero may feel about his own fleshy/earthy nature, and the subsequent attachment or projection of that revulsion to women. Woman is a metaphor for the physical or material temptations of life, since the hero-knight was often tempted by lust from his spiritual journey.
Rather loosely, I'd say this is the point where my one very innocent friend starts to discourage me from dating this young man. This young man is also beginning to freak me out because he is becoming far more attached to me than I to him.

4.Atonement with the Father
In this step the person must confront and be initiated by whatever holds the ultimate power in his or her life. In many myths and stories this is the father, or a father figure who has life and death power. This is the center point of the journey. All the previous steps have been moving in to this place, all that follow will move out from it. Although this step is most frequently symbolized by an encounter with a male entity, it does not have to be a male; just someone or thing with incredible power. For the transformation to take place, the person as he or she has been must be "killed" so that the new self can come into being. Sometime this killing is literal, and the earthly journey for that character is either over or moves into a different realm.
Yes, this relationship is freaking me out. Plus, the young man went an entire summer without calling. Rude, much? I think it's time to break up.

5.Apotheosis
To apotheosize is to deify. When someone dies a physical death, or dies to the self to live in spirit, he or she moves beyond the pairs of opposites to a state of divine knowledge, love, compassion and bliss. This is a god-like state; the person is in heaven and beyond all strife. A more mundane way of looking at this step is that it is a period of rest, peace and fulfillment before the hero begins the return.
Once the breaking up has happened, I feel so much better about my relationship with this young man. Now, perhaps, we can be friends like we probably should have stayed in the beginning.

6.The Ultimate Boon
The ultimate boon is the achievement of the goal of the quest. It is what the person went on the journey to get. All the previous steps serve to prepare and purify the person for this step, since in many myths the boon is something transcendent like the elixir of life itself, or a plant that supplies immortality, or the holy grail.
Though the relationship was a major bust, I did get some valuable dating experience which would in return lead to another few busted relationships. Yay dating?

C.Return
1.Refusal of the Return
So why, when all has been achieved, the ambrosia has been drunk, and we have conversed with the gods, why come back to normal life with all its cares and woes?
Man, I just had a boyfriend. Now I have none. Do I really want to go back to the world of single pre-teen girls? Not particularly. Besides, one of my friends keeps holding over my head in a very "I told you so" manner.

2.The Magic Flight
Sometimes the hero must escape with the boon, if it is something that the gods have been jealously guarding. It can be just as adventurous and dangerous returning from the journey as it was to go on it.
I return to the world of single life, trying to make said friend shut up by holding the fact that I at least have had a boyfriend over her head. Yeah, this one is pretty loosely based as well.

3.Rescue from Without
Just as the hero may need guides and assistants to set out on the quest, often times he or she must have powerful guides and rescuers to bring them back to everyday life, especially if the person has been wounded or weakened by the experience. Or perhaps the person doesn't realize that it is time to return, that they can return, or that others need their boon.
Friends eventually bring be back to reality, plus it's tiring to be obnoxiously holding things over your friend's head. Plus, I found out one of my friends was epically jealous, and that's just weird. The guy was pretty much a creep.

4.The Crossing of the Return Threshold
The trick in returning is to retain the wisdom gained on the quest, to integrate that wisdom into a human life, and then maybe figure out how to share the wisdom with the rest of the world. This is usually extremely difficult.
Shall I use my dating experience to look into having another, less creepy boyfriend?

5.Master of the Two Worlds
In myth, this step is usually represented by a transcendental hero like Jesus or Buddha. For a human hero, it may mean achieving a balance between the material and spiritual. The person has become comfortable and competent in both the inner and outer worlds.
Nope. I'll be single for quite a while.

6.Freedom to Live
Mastery leads to freedom from the fear of death, which in turn is the freedom to live. This is sometimes referred to as living in the moment, neither anticipating the future nor regretting the past.
Yeah, single life is good. I'm happy.

And that's that! Amazing, isn't it? What's even more amazing, is just think about this Hero's Journey for a minute. Then think about Star Wars. See? Ah, how literature never ceases to amaze.

-Lauren-

Summary of the Hero's Journey taken from: http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/smc/journey/ref/summary.html

English as a Second Language

It seems that in America today, no the world today, English is becoming a second language. Of course, most Americans learn English as children and grow up speaking it. It’s when those children grow up and wander into the world of Technology and the Internet that English is pushed aside for a wild and mysterious language that has few rules and a million exceptions.

What is this language? The most common term for it is chatspeak.

Chatspeak is basically that use of abbreviated words and phrases that has become so common on the internet that it’s seeping into everyday language.

Chatspeak has several loose rules to follow.

1.Use as few letters as possible when writing out anything.
2.Avoid vowels like the plague.
3.Never ever use any punctuation at all. Unless it is an exclamation point or a question mark, in which case you must use at least seventeen in a row.

Chatspeak rarely makes sense, which I suppose could be rule number four. And somehow, the majority of the world is okay with this. Grammar, spelling, and proper sentence structure are meaningless, and I can’t for the life of me figure out why.

Maybe we’re all just too lazy to make that extra keystroke or two to capitalize something, or put in an apostrophe. We just can’t possibly take the time to move our fingers less than an inch in order to type one extra letter into a word.

“Texting is meant to be fast, you don’t have to worry about grammar.”

That was actually said to me by a very educated friend of mine. She blames the fact that I’m a writer and an English-major-to-be for my frustration with her consistently bad grammar and spelling in texts and even on Facebook.

I don’t even think that makes sense. I know plenty of people who aren’t writers and who aren’t English majors who value at least proper spelling.

The fact is that chatspeak is not only an eyesore, it tends to make one seem uneducated. Take a look at this example:

“OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I ttly sah tht ttly hawt guy frm clas n h3 sed ima qt n askd m3 0ut tmrrw @ 8!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” – 23 “words”

“Oh my goodness! I saw that really hot guy from our class today. He told me that I’m cute and he asked me out for tomorrow at eight! I’m so excited!” – 31 words (and I even added a few words)

Which one sounds more intelligent? And then, which one is easier to look at? I really hope you say the second one.

In the end, the second one was a little bit longer, but not even by that much. Not much time is saved at all by scrunching up your words until they are almost unreadable. I’d also like to point out that one of those words is longer in chatspeak than regular English.

Hawt
Hot

How much time is actually saved by that? None at all.

Then what is really frustrating is when chatspeak seeps into everyday spoken language. I don’t know how many times I heard “OMG” at my high school, or “prolly” or “probly” instead of “Probably”.

I don’t think I’ll ever understand the chatspeak phenomena, but I just wish people were aware of how unintelligent they look and sound when they use it.

Teaser Tuesday At Long Last

Well it's been a while, hasn't it? Not only for Teaser Tuesday, but for blogging in general. As you may have noticed, I've done some work on the ol' blog. I think it's looking pretty fancy, and I hope to be blogging more often now as well as blogging about more interesting and blogworthy things from now on.

These interesting and blogworthy things may only be about reading, writing, and general english concepts but there may be some interesting anecdote about life every once and a while too. ;)

I know, I know, where's the Teaser? Yes, it sucks to wait. So here it is; this weeks teaser.

Today's teaser comes from Eventide (as usual).

Background Information:
This is skipping a bit ahead from the last post. Actually, a lot ahead. The Trials are all said and done, Natura has passed and traveled to the Ascensian Academy in Lindai and is already settled into her living arrangements and so on.

Now, you may notice that Natura is referred to by both Natura and Liana in this novel through my teasers. I don't know if I've explained it or not. Since Natura wasn't even supposed to go to the Ascensian Acadmey, when Grena and Ina showed up and dumped the whole "you're a descendant of the Guardian's of the Light and we need you to come with us because Ina thinks that maybe something bad might happen in the distant future" thing on Natura and demanded she attend the Ascensian Academy some interesting things had to be done.

One of which is Natura being registered at the Trials as a girl who had been planning to compete but died. Yeah. So, Natura goes by Liana Halle at the Academy.

Teaser:
Natura stood at the open doorway that separated the stairway from the common room and looked around. It was a pretty little room; a few shiny wooden tables, comfortable looking seating, and wall-high windows along the wall of the circular room exposed to the outside.

“You!” someone shouted.

Everyone in the room diverted their attention to the entrance of the common room. A tall red haired woman Natura recognized as one of the women sitting at the table the previous day stood in the doorway, a smaller version of herself standing behind her. Or rather, hiding behind her. The smaller woman’s face was bright red and she was pulling on the first woman’s arm and whispering something.

The first woman grabbed her by the hand and strode across the room. “You!” she said again, though slightly less loud than the first time, as she made her way towards Natura.

She pulled the younger woman up beside her and smiled at Natura. “I remember you from yesterday, Lily was it?”

“Liana,” Natura corrected, though hesitantly.

“Liana, yeah,” she said. “I’d like to introduce you to Aqua. She’s in your year, and a great kid.”

“Arianna,” Aqua said quietly, stepping behind her sister. “Stop.”

“Hey,” Arianna said, loud and annoyed. “I told mother I would make sure you made friends. Here,” She pointed at Natura, “I found you a friend. Have fun.”

She flashed Natura a big smile before turning on her heel and hurrying out of the room.

----------------

I love the awkwardness of this scene. It's very rough, very first draft material. And I personally believe the first draft of most things I write sucks. Second drafts are where I shine. Plus, Natura's personality is hard for me to capture in a first draft. I have a better sense of her when I'm dredging through already written prose than when I'm letting the story pour out of me.

The Eventide goal is coming along pretty well, I suppose. If I stay focused and write everyday, and write more everyday than I do now, then hopefully the first draft will be done by the time I leave for Miami. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Plus, I'm kind of looking forward to getting back to my NaNoWriMo disaster from last year as well as trying to slog through another year of the madness this November. I have a few ideas going around in my head right now.

And then there's always the one or two novels that follow Eventide to look forward to. Still can't decide if the plot will require one or two. I hope it's one.

That's all for now!

-Lauren-

Love In Many Manners

I'm feelin' the love today. I posted the complete first chapter of my novel, Eventide, today on YWS and recieved three postive reviews on it. I'm so happy, you probably can't even understand. The first chapter has come so far, and now I'm feeling good about keeping going with this thing. I'm peridocially editing, and trying to write new stuff regularly.

The Big Goal: Have a complete first draft by the time I leave for college.

I'm regularly astounded by the kindness of people who have never met me. I have a lot of friends all over through YWS and everyone is so nice. I hope to forge closer friendships with these people, and make new friends this summer through the site.

My parents love me. It's crazy, sometimes, parental love. My dad spent the week fretting over my car (I'm leaving for a long distance car trip tomorrow) and made me learn how to change a tire and fill my tires with air and instructed me on where everything is under the hood. Both of my parents are madly concerned about my electronics (laptop and camera) which are rather expensive toys, as well.

My dad also keeps reminding me of what to watch out for and how to be safe at the beach. He's so worried, it's almost funny.

I love my best friends. We're leaving for a week-long vacation tomorrow. I won't be seen around the interwebs for a while, so try not to miss me.

Yeah, this blog was mostly pointless. I'm feelin' the love, though, and hope you're feelin' it too.

-Lauren-