Oh Canada ...

Fires raging in Canada are not good news for anyone.

Here's one LINK that might help to explain why.

Apparently for the time being there's no end in sight. Even when the wind pattern changes the risk isn't going to go away.

And here are only a couple of photos from media news sources. It's bad up there, folks. The sunshine I was hoping for today isn't going to happen I'm afraid, but having those hopes dashed pales to insignificance while my prayers go out to our neighbors to the north.

Link to a Tall Tale about Skeeters

Skeeters 

Click on the above link - it's a humorous Tall Tale about back when skeeters were skeeters and something to be wary of ... to say the least.

A couple of days without social media ... hmmm ...

Of course I can do this!

Think of all the things I can get done!

Imagine the progress I can make on my projects!

Yep. 

Gonna give it a try, I am.

I'll be back when I get back - probably with lots of updates!

#

*laughing*

Nope. I didn't even try very hard, to be truthful.

I did, however, make some good progress on my projects!

First hints of color going onto sketches

*laughing*

Dunnottar gets the first light coats of tinting over the bottom layer of pencil sketching as this experiment progresses ... the first three of many colors ... when this first light tint is done, it will get more pencil sketching and then more layers of tinting (haven't used my Prismacolors in way too long!) - repeating the process however many times it takes. This one I'm not going to hurry my way through. It will be a work in progress until it's finished. Which may be never ... :) ... kidding - eventually I'll get that 'feeling' that says 'Done!' In between, the Younglings are having adventures!

And I just realized that I've put this into my main 'everything goes here' blog instead of the one it belongs in. *sigh* Oh well.

It's getting closer to what I've been looking for ... 

Hearts and Hugs to Charleston

One more heart aching for Charleston ... words are so often not enough ... but sometimes they're all we've got when we're not close enough for real hugs.

Charleston grieves and we grieve with her. It hurts something in all of us. We want to hug you, but we can't reach our arms so far.

And yet ... 

And yet ... the hearts and hugs that many of us can only convey by way of words are maybe somehow a part of the those that the people of Charleston are sharing among themselves ... 

And so ... if you feel the need to hug somebody just one more time, please do. It might be from me, or from any of us around the world who would rather deliver our own hugs in person but cannot.

I Thought He Was Getting Old

And he will teach me to think! Look at this picture - such a sweeeeet iiinnocent adoooooorable doggy!

Ha.

He's Duke, a White Shepherd, and he will be nine this fall. He knows what's what around here. He knows that when the doors are closed he's not supposed to go outside ( ... well ... more on that in a bit). He knows that he isn't supposed to go running around the neighborhood. He knows all this stuff I tell you.

So.

Today's the first day of our County Fair, a sort of big deal in our little neck of the woods, so people are all over the place. Duke's inside with me and all is well. The doors are closed and he's a little pouty because he wants to be outside barking back and forth with his buddy barkers. 

But he hmmphs himself down with a disgusted thump in my studio and lies there looking through the doorway and out through the open window of my study. 

It's a beautiful day and lots of trees and flowers are blooming to beat heck so it smells like heaven out there - I've left the window open because the scent of our peonies wafts in through it, which pleases me significantly.

In front of that open window I've got a 40 inch barricade of sorts in front of the radiator, and there's a four foot drop to the ground outside of it. 

I'm sitting at my keyboard in the sewing room because I've been working in there, back and forth between my keyboard and the big sketch of Dunnottar that's on the wall in there (handiest thing ever, that wall, I have to say) and hear a noise in my study. Not a loud noise, just claws on wood floor noise, but not walking around clicking claws.

Going to investigate, I notice that Duke isn't sulking in the doorway any more.

Glancing out the open window I see why.

He's out there by the peonies, grinning in at me.

Bless his ever-lovin' sweeeeeeet doggy heeaart.

Which is not the least bit what I was saying out loud, let alone in my head.

Grabbing a leash, I head over to where the barker buddies are yapping their fool heads off, which is where he went the other time he got out. But Duke, he heads across the street (Main Street of Small Town USA, mind you, where there's actually traffic only a couple of times a year, today being one of those times), grinning happily at me over his shoulder.

Chasing him is a waste of time. He's a lot faster and more agile than I am.

I kind of give it a shot, though. It doesn't work.

Back in I go to my keyboard. If he gets dog-napped it's his own darned fault. And good luck to the 'nappers sez I.

In he comes to see where I am and what I'm doing. Before I can get between him and the front door which I've left open (closed the window) he's back out through it and sniffing at the tires of all the strange vehicles that are parked out front.

Pffft.

I'm an old lady. I'm not going to go chasing a dog all over town, not when he thinks that's the most fun game in the world.

'Leave him alone and he'll come home, wagging his tail behind him.'

To paraphrase an old nursery rhyme.

It fits, though.

In he comes when he hears (probably from a block away) me crackling open a bag of mints. He probably smells them too. 

So I throw him a mint (away from the path to the open door) and go close it.

What the heck.

He didn't climb over that barricade; he didn't push it over or out of his way; he jumped over it (and the radiator, and the window sill), out the open window, and down the four feet to the ground. There's only about a foot's clearance between the top of the barricade and the bottom of the open window and he never even touched either. If I weren't so mad at him I might be tempted to be impressed. 

Once when he was a pup he went from sitting beside my chair on the floor to sitting beside my keyboard on top of the table. Surprised him more than it did me I think, but there he was. I thought he was too old to be pulling such shenanigans. 

As for closed doors ... he learned early on how to work doorknobs. That's why there are no doorknobs on the doors that go out to his yard and the north yard. My house is old and has locks that use skeleton keys - I key lock the front door, not to keep people out but to keep Duke in. He could easily open the door that goes out into my courtyard but never does for some reason. Even if he did, he can't get anywhere except the courtyard, so what's the point? 

Of all days, he has to pick today to decide to jump out my study window.

Good grief.

This town has leash laws, you know Duke. Gonna get me into trouble one of these days, he is. Grrrrrr ... 

'Shiela, you're not writing for any one particular audience ...'

Those are the words of a discerning friend. 

I've been fretting a little about how to deal with the darkness of the times of the books of SONG, whether to try to leave it out of the Youngling books, whether to try to explain it, justify its inclusion ... 

I think he was telling me to just let it ride.

Chances are that if something shows up it's there for a reason and should stay in. The darkness as well as the fun parts.

Essentially, the Character Mamm sends the same message, in one of those parts that I was thinking I should maybe have left out.

'To deny that is to deny a part of the balance of our lives,' she says.

And a bit later, 'That's because I know you're smart enough to figure the rest out on your own.' That was when I was griping because she starts to give some good guidelines or advice, and then stops before she tells us the Secrets of the Universe.

My discerning friend continued, in all seriousness, 'Just write what the Characters tell you.'

And so ... I go back into the book where I had written a spiel about this that and the other thing ... explanations, clarifications, definitions ... and I take it out.

Those are mine own words. They too have their place, but that place is not where I had put them.

And so ... in the four Kin Cousin books, it is Mamm who has the final word, not me.

Just the way it's supposed to be.

Pretty Darned EXCITED

The Younglings of Dunnottar have been busy busy busy!

They'll soon have their first four books out and are pushing hard to get to 'the fun stuff'!!

These needed to come first because, you see, they tell how the Younglings all came to be together on Dunnottar.

Brann alone was born there; then Diann came to stay; then Corrbed about a year later; then Rua right after Corrbed; then Merri and Dothann about a year after that.

So they've, most of them, had time to get to know one another and have already been having adventures!

Now that the 'hard part' is done (mostly) the really fun adventures can begin.

In the next few posts of this blog you will get very brief introductions to the Younglings of Dunnottar ... and the exciting part is that you'll get to see the 'rough drafts' of their Character Portraits, the pictures that will be on the covers of the books and inside of them in different places as we go along!

Frankly, these younglings have enchanted me - and I love it!

Pop on down through the posts. You'll see what I mean.

And ... welcome to our journey! Feel free to join us on our adventures!

Merri of Dunnottar

Merri has been traveling for all of her life - but now she has come home to Dunnottar, where she can climb into the trees of the Grove and just relax ... if she can find the time!

Diann of Dunnottar

Dedicated to learning the Healing arts, Diann's compassion and common sense make for just the combination she needs!

Corrbed of Dunnottar

Corrbed knows what needs doing and has what it takes to get the doing done. He takes his physical strength for granted and hones his intellect. That's Corrbed!

Dothann of Dunnottar

Dothann's exuberant high spirits only partially mask the very smart and very caring soul of this youngling.

Brann of Dunnottar

As Kin Cousins come to Dunnottar, Brann goes from being an 'only lonely' to being a proud member of the Younglings of Dunnottar!

Rua of Dunnottar

Youngest of the Younglings of Dunnottar (for the time being) this fire-headed sky-eyed little girl is going to steal your heart even while she's giving you heart attacks with her escapades.

Proud and Pleased ...

I'm not quite all the way sure that WE are ready for THEM, but the

YOUNGLINGS OF DUNNOTTAR 

ARE READY AND RARIN' TO GO!

(sneak peeks coming right up!)

I Am Terrible At Keeping Secrets

This one, however, by executive order, has to stay under wraps for a while yet.

It's driving me crazy, it is.

I tell ya.

If that last adventure story hadn't gone the way it did I'd have had pencils in my hands all day today and be a lot further along on getting this project out into the open! 

Now I want to stay up all night.

Not to work on the project because I know I'm much too tired for that since it's the middle of the night already.

What I want to do is try out the techniques I plan to use on it ... on a practice piece.

I can do that.

Not stay up all night, of course, because I have an appointment tomorrow - but I can at least see if my idea is going to work. Better to know ahead of time, sez I. If it isn't going to work I don't want to find out the hard way!

The Wrap-up Adventure for the Kin Cousin Books

It's hollering for my attention, it is.

But ... I need sleep.

Maybe I'll just do a quick outline.

Mm-hmmm ... 

It's just a short story! Does it need an outline?

Kind of.

Okay, not really.

I just want to be able to hop out of bed and write it, not have to think about it as I go along.

Since when did you start thinking as you write?

Shhhh ... 

*laughing*

What the heck. Here are the basics.

All of the Younglings of Dunnottar are now there; Merri and Dothann have just arrived from their lifetime of traveling on the Continent. Rua and Corrbed have been around for about a year and Diann has been there for two years, with Brann having been born there (he's now six, Rua's five, Dothann's seven, Corrbed's eight, Diann's nine, and Merri is eleven - just so you know).

The Kin Cousin books tell a little of the back stories of the younglings. They've come for training and for safety. Rua is now an orphan, Diann and Corrbed's homes are battlegrounds, and Merri and Dothann have been on the Continent and witnessed more than anyone realizes of the conditions there as the fifth century CE (the 400s) sees the fall of the Roman Empire - and the seeds being planted for the rise of the Holy Roman Empire. 

That's the background these kids live with.

At the time of this little piece, their individual and collective arrivals on Dunnottar are fresh in their minds, and their emotions are mixed. Of course the story isn't going to go into much, if any, of this stuff - but I want it as fresh in my mind as it is in theirs as I write their adventure.

This time their 'play pretend' has a bit of a dark edge to it. They're all glad to be safe (and together) on Dunnottar, but they're also angry and frightened.

They're angry at the circumstances of their world, and frightened by them. They've seen, they know, how horrific it is out there. Being safe on Dunnottar when their families are either dead or in danger is a mixed blessing. It's very hard for them to remain where they're supposed to be, doing what they're supposed to be doing, when they would rather be venting their anger on the bad guys (in this case 'Rome', the eternal enemy of the Celts from whose culture this family rises). 

They know that right now they are not yet ready to go out there and take on the battle, and they are also conflicted because theirs is a kind of specialized culture within the larger one of the Celtic Peoples - they are the People of Peace. The anger they carry is not natural to them; it hurts them in ways that we probably can't really understand, and nor do they understand it. They aren't going to go to the big folk with their worries - the adults have enough worries of their own.

So it is to their 'play pretend' clearing that they turn, and to one another, to try to work out how to cope with their feelings.

They've got terrific educations (relatively speaking) and part of that is taking the pieces of what they're learning and putting them together to form a complete puzzle that maybe ends up looking different from the 'original' one - but which will meet the needs that our own Younglings have at any given time.

This time it's anger, and pain, and loss, and fear that fuels them.

They're going to take the battle to Rome and they're going to do it their way.

As they choose their individual roles for the 'play pretend' time in the clearing, they're looking for powerful individuals, from whenever and wherever they find them in their studies.

Merri starts her Boudicca kick, which she is going to stay in for quite some time.
Diann chooses a goddess and it doesn't really matter which one - they've got all the times in their world to choose from and Diann knows that the deities fought and won some mighty battles back in their day.
Corrbed our scholar looks to actual history and picks Alexander the Great.
Dothann wants Loki of the Northern Tales, mainly because nobody can ever tell for sure about what Loki is likely to do at any given time.
Brann can't decide but is finally convinced to take on the role of Bran the Blessed, not the last time in his life that he gets put into that role.
And Rua, who is perhaps the most upset of them all right at this time, goes with Scathach, perhaps the most deadly woman to ever grace the face of the earth - she trains the best of the Warriors, which ought to tell us something.

Our Cast of Characters goes straight to the heart of the issue (from their perspective) and decides to head for Rome to try to talk some sense into the connivers who are plotting to take over the world of the Younglings of Dunnottar. If the connivers won't listen, they'll tie them in caves with poison dripping on them forever without killing them, with nobody to catch any of the venom in a cup, either. The Younglings are pretty angry right about now, not feeling much mercy.

Naturally, as these are mainly Warriors they've chosen, they have to fight their way across the Continent. They find foes aplenty and they find friends and allies as well, some in unexpected places.

Just as naturally, some of them fall in battle and the rest have to go on without them.

Finally there are only Scathach, Loki, and the goddess left as the mortals die along the way. They worry a little about Scathach because nobody really knows whether or not she's immortal - but she isn't worried. She just wants to fight the bad guys, come what may ... and so she does.

Ironically, when they finally make it to Rome and find the connivers, nobody can see them or hear them. They have the head of Bran with them, of course, but nobody in the Rome of 487 CE is likely to pay attention to a head that has no body to go with it.

The dragons show up and get a little attention but are gone with their riders before anyone has gotten over the shock of seeing them so the attention is short-lived and soon forgotten.

They go get Bran's Cauldron, collect Boudicca, Alexander, and the body of Bran, get everyone back to 'normal' - and are in short order back in their own 'play pretend' clearing.

They're disappointed that they haven't been able to change anything in their world, but the 'battles' have vented much of their rage, which helps at least a little. 

Their conclusions?

They decide that what they've gotten out of their adventure is that all they can do is the best they can do in the time and the place that is given them, with whatever they have to work with - and to know that always there have been, are, and will be others who are also doing the same in their own times, their own places.

Then they set up their targets while a flock of doves flies into the clearing to sit on the branches of the surrounding trees.

Hmmm ...

That's pretty dark all the way through. Loki and Scathach are going to have to provide some comic relief as we go along.

Good Lord.

I'm liable to have nightmares.

If I can't sleep, I'll get up and write the darned story and get it out of my system.  

*sigh*

Welcome to my life.

God Took A Whole Extra Day ...

He did, I know it. And never told anybody.

He had to have, just to get Dunnottar put together exactly right.

Joy - and Peace

When the world seems to have gone around the bend, when I look around me and know that there's so much I can't do, so much I don't have, so much that's wrong and I can't fix it ... it can get more than a little disheartening ... 

On the other hand, lots of the time I end up looking around me, and inside of me for something, anything, to give me hope. Lo and behold, there's always something there. Maybe not much of something, but still ... enough to make something.

That, my friend, brings Joy, and it brings Peace.

There are things I can't do physically, intellectually, spiritually ... lots and lots of them. There are things I don't have the money to tend to the way I would like, lots and lots of them. There are things I don't own and never will. There are times I'm hungry or cold or miserable. There are people I don't see enough of, and people I may never get to see, and people I will never see again in this life. There are places, as with people, I don't see, may never see, won't see again ... There's stuff going on in our great green world that will turn our green to dark if we don't watch out.

And yet ... sometimes when I'm feeling the most down there will come to me a warm embrace, like a strong hug from Someone who loves me despite all. Here is Peace, I seem to hear. Make something of it.

And yet ... in the darkest of dark a tiny flicker will catch my eye for an instant only. What was that? Was it real? Where did it go? Oh, there it is again. Here is Hope, I seem to hear. Make its light stronger.

And yet ... into the depth of my utter loneliness will come a Voice, perhaps from a far distance, perhaps from near to hand, and I am blessed with an unexpected gift. Here is Friendship, I seem to hear. Let it in.

And yet ... and yet ... and yet ... all of the Circles of Dunnottar come one by one, turn and turn about to bring their gifts: Faith, Family, Friends, Freedom, the Future ... just when they are most needed. They didn't spring from my imagination; they've been gifting me, and you for that matter, all along.

So too the Voices of SONG: Choice, the Spiral, Peace, Faith, Healing, Hope, Love ... they aren't just parts of the fiction I write - they are parts of the books because they have been first parts of each and all of us.

I write because it is in me to do so - and out it must come whether I would will it or no. Perhaps there may be only one person in the entirety of this world for whom the words are meant; perhaps that one person is yet unborn. That is not for me to know. What is for me is to do - to do the best I can with what I have to work with at any given time.

When despair is but a heartbeat away ... I look around me, and inside of me, and make a Choice. To make something or to not make something out of what I find, no matter how small or insignificant.

And comes Joy, comes Peace ... and all the rest of it.

It doesn't necessarily have to be 'good enough' for the rest of the world. It has only to be the best I can do, and that's good enough.

Huh? What?

Before we begin, I must make it clear that my own personal Faith is based on the Holy Trinity: the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit. In no way is the following to be construed as anything except a part of my own journey as I seek Guidance from the One who does the Guiding. My religious education may be searched; my Faith is quite very secure. There is but One God. Each and all of us human beings are Mind, Body, and Spirit, in the likeness of God. On this my Faith stands.

I just read two articles of interest to me. The first is a blog post about a young person deeply affected by thoughts of Hell ...

The other one showed up in a related comment and has something to do with the validity of Hell. 

Both are worth looking at, but I kind of fail to grasp the real connection between the two, to be honest. 

I'm no scholar of any kind, let along a Biblical one. I've read it, and my father was a Southern Baptist Preacher, so I heard plenty about it growing up, but I'm by no means an expert.

Being as I'm an alleged 'grown up' now, and me being me, I went looking for answers in more educated minds than my own.

" Does the word hell appear in the Bible " is the question I wanted an answer to.

And I was shocked out of my Baptist-trained mind at what I found.

Look it up, my friend. That's the best advice I can give you. 

My next question was in reaction to my discoveries.

Me being me, I wanted to know where on earth Hell came from, since it didn't come from the Bible.

Here's another link that I found interesting. I've got thoughts that go along with it and might get to them here, or save them for another post, or both ...

" Development of Hell " didn't come along until Jesus had long since been born, lived, died, lived again, and went on up to Heaven. Hell was not in the vocabulary of Jesus, nor in His teaching, and most certainly not the Hell we've been raised to fear. Jesus never threatened anyone with eternal hell-fire. Ever. Not once. 

Look it up, my friend. That's the best advice I can give you.

And here I will insert an aside.

Here's a quote from the above link:

'... The Jewish Yeshua and those in the Jerusalem church, especially James, Yeshua's brother, held a traditional conception of the Messiah. The Messiah would be a man, perhaps descended from David, who would be anointed by God to rout the occupying army, the Romans, and establish an earthly kingdom ... '

I've only just this moment had the following 'ah-ha!' moment.

As a part of the research for the Mamm Books, the change-over from the Roman Empire to the future Holy Roman Empire demanded some looking into as it is pivotal to the development of the SONG series. And I connected the dots between the survival (and widespread growth) of the early 'Jesus Movement' despite Rome's best efforts to annihilate it, Rome's subsequent toleration, and finally its adoption of this tenacious Faith - which just so happened to 'coincide' with the 'fall' of the Western Roman Empire.

There were plenty of factors at play during that whole time span. It's just my own thought patterns that lead me to say, 'God works in mysterious ways, and it is not for us to know the mind of God.'

Me being me, in the fiction I write, behind the assortment of 'barbarian' peoples who ultimately brought the Western Empire to its knees was indeed a 'conspiracy' of a sort. It was led by those who saw the 'politicizing and militarizing' of their Faith as a threat to its true and original meaning. Our fictional Characters, who historically had no reason to much like what Rome had dished out (tried to) to their people so far, weren't overly trusting of this new interpretation of the Faith they had been celebrating for centuries. 'Rome has replaced her legions with priests and her governors with bishops,' was their take on it and they wanted no part of it.

And what on God's green earth does this stuff have to do with Hell?

Nothing.

There was no such concept in the teachings of Jesus, nor in anything anywhere at the time that the foundations of the Faith of the Characters of the Mamm Books would been laid. What references there were came from belief systems to which our Characters would not have adhered in the first place and so would most surely not have been part of their Faith.

And so I have to conclude that 1) the second of the above links, while no doubt the author sincerely believes what he says, is based on absolutely zilch that makes any sense, and 2) the author of the first of the above links has been, like many generations of us, tormented by something that has no basis in reality, and 3) people need to be taking a closer look at what they 'believe'.

Pointing fingers is a pointless exercise at this point. The fabrication occurred so long ago that the statute of limitations has long expired, along with the fabricators. The effects ... those have lingered ... but there are no living feet of flesh and blood at which we can lay the blame. Just because a hundred or more generations have believed something does not necessarily make it true.

When I was a kid, the grown ups used to ask us, regarding peer pressure, 'If they all jumped off a cliff would you jump too?'

So does this mean that Hell is no longer a cuss word?