Your One Thing

This is going to be just a short note from me today. After this, I'm going to curl up somewhere in my blanket with a lovely book, and try to forget that my throat is sore and my nose is all plugged up. Ugh.

Sitting here, I can hear the wind blowing up outside. The house isn't super heated, but there's just enough warmth coming from the fireplace to lend a feeling of coziness to the living room. The lights are mostly dim, and the clock's ticking is just a faint little sound I can hear over my clicking keys.

Then, there's the wind.

Wind is such an element to a story. Have you ever noticed in books how wind, or the absence of wind, makes such an impression on the writer?

1. The MC enters into a frightening situation: something happens, and there's silence. Not even a breeze stirs.
2. An MC is on a life-and-death escape, and the wind is snatching at her as she monkey-bars her way across a balcony's rafters.
3. The MC has just lost her one true love. She stands on a hill top and weeps. The wind pulls her hair up like a banner.

There's just so much good USE one can get out of the element of wind in a story. Wind adds that aura of mystery, tension, and poetic imagery that all stories need. Wind is one of my favourite elements to work with. It's a sense that I use frequently in my books.

What about you? What's the one thing you find you're drawn to the most, the one thing you like to insert that adds a heightened sense of drama, tension, or pacing to your story?

From High Fantasy to Historical Fiction. Any takers?

What is your favourite genre to write?

I used to think I could ONLY write one genre, and that genre was fantasy, all fantasy, high, low, comic, light, dark. You name it, I wrote it. However, I like to think I have matured just a little. :) I owe my "maturity" to two different sites, two sites that still give me tons of inspiration and writing confidence.

One is Critique Cafe, my little niche of the cyber world where I can chill with my critique friends and just talk about our hopes, excitements, bummers, and joys of writing life.

The other site is the Writer's Retreat at the Institute of Children's Literature's website. It is a great place to connect with hundreds of other writers. It's a place where people are willing to critique stories for you, where people lift you up when you are down, and where you get so much helpful news into the publishing world of writing.

Both of these sites have helped me in more ways than one. They've helped me gain confidence in myself as a writer. I know I can write MORE than just fantasy.

Granted, all of us have our own special niches. Me, I still love to sit in her little world of fantasies and mysteries and plot out stories that combine a little bit of each fantasy/mystery element. Even though I have since experimented with picture books, steampunk (a genre that is fast becoming a favourite style of mine, to read AND write), and science fiction, fantasy and mystery are my two genres that I LOVE to write.

But because of Writer's Retreat, and Critique Cafe, I have been able to experiment with different genres outside my comfort zone.

Next on my agenda for "experimentation" is Historical Fiction, because I've heard that Historical fiction is on the rise. We've gone through vampires, fairies, and angels. Time to take it to the next level, right? Agent Ginger Clark says to think of this uprising Historical Fiction trend as "Tudor for teens." That could be interesting.

Hey, I've tried (nearly) everything else. Historical Fiction is a lake waiting to be jumped into. Do you want to come with me? The water's fine.

St. Brigid of Kildare

I'm a fantasy fanatic. I love to read and write fantasy. There's just something about reading worlds that are not of our world, reading about worlds that inspire me to be a better person. Fantasies and fairy tales are my absolute favourite genres.

A lot of times, I think saints are some of the best fairy tales you can read. The best part about them, is that they're real.

My favourite saint's feast day is today. She is my favourite saint, because she was incredibly generous and charitable to the poor, but she was so human!

Her father was a pagan Irish Chieftain, and her mother a Christian slave. Brigid grew up a Christian, and she was most notable for her incredible generosity. She would help her mother with her duties, and though none of the property she worked belonged to her but to her father, Brigid had no qualms about distributing the wealth of the land to the poor. Once, she gave away the whole store of butter her mother had churned, but God matched her generosity by replenishing the butter a hundredfold.

One of my favourite stories about her is the one when she was traveling with her pagan father in his coach, and her father left her for just a moment alone as he tended a small matter of business. While she waited for him to return, Brigid was approached by a peasant, and since she had nothing of her own that she could give to the peasant, she picked up her father's jeweled sword and gave it to the peasant. When her father found out he was understandably upset. When he asked her if she realised what she'd done, she responded, "I gave it to God."

She saw God in everyone. That was her gift. That was the greatest part of her, the complete unselfishness that allowed her to give a smile to everyone, no matter how grim or unhappy they were, or how miserable they were to her. She was charity.

She is a true fairy tale. She is one of those saints that is an inspiration to read about. She is a saint that inspires me to be a better person.

She is known as the Mary of the Gael.


The Prayer Of St. Brigid

I wish I had a great lake of ale for the King of kings, 
and the family of heaven 
to drink it through time eternal. 
I wish I had the meats of belief and genuine piety, 
the flails of penance, 
and the men of heaven in my house. 
I would like keeves of peace to be at their disposal, 
vessels of charity for distribution, 
caves of mercy for their company, 
and cheerfulness to be in their drinking. 
I would want Jesus also to be in their midst, 
together with the three Marys of illustrious renown, 
and the pople of heaven from all parts. 
I would like to be a tenant to the Lord, 
so if I should suffer distress, 
He would confer on me a blessing.

Amen.