I’ve just joined a new group of authors who are doing a travelling blog on fantasy. The participants are Sylvia Kelso (this month’s host), Andrea Host, Carol McDonnell, Warren Rochelle, Deborah J. Ross and me. The topic this month is “One Step Sideways: What’s Fantasy FOR?” Click here to read the posts.
Short Story Just Released
I have a short story in a fun anthology from Tyche Books called Ride the Moon. This collection takes the moon back from the usual suspects, werewolves and vampires, and explores the lunar legends of different creatures and cultures. It’s up on Amazon now and you can buy it by clicking this link. For other eBook formats or print copies, check Tyche’s website.
My story “White Moon” is based on the legend of the Mayan goddess Ixchel. She is the mother of the four jaguar gods of Mayan legend, the elder goddess of midwifery and healing, of fertility and procreation. Her consort is the Sun God, Itzamna, the father of her children. Being a ball of fire, Itzamna has a fierce temper, and when Izchel tires of this, she goes to Cozumel to spend time with women.
I took this theme of the tides of relationships and showed it in three couples. This story was inspired by meeting the crystal skull named Ixchel at the 11.11.11 conference in L.A. Several real people inspired the characters, but the situations are purely fiction–meant to play with the theme of Ixchel’s myth. Below is a picture of Ixchel.
Short Story Sale
I’m honored to have a story included in the anthology Ride the Moon from the new Canadian science fiction/fantasy press Tyche Books, Ltd. Just look at this list of great writers.
My story is “White Moon,” based on the story of the Mayan Goddess Ixchel. Ixchel is a moon goddess, the consort of the sun god, mother of the four jaguar priests. And it’s the name of the mystery crystal skull that was revealed at the 11.11.11 conference in L.A where my own consort, Stephen Mehler, was a guest speaker. The story includes Mayan mythology, magic, crystal skulls and sound healing.
In her myth cycle, Ixchel marries Itzamna, the sun, but grows tired of his hot temper. When she leaves him, she goes to her island, Cozumel, where she lives among women as a midwife and healer. I took this theme of the ebb and flow of relationships, and the ebb and flow of human consciousness.
A special note: if you find that you resemble a character in this story, remember not to read too much into it. This is not really you, but a character in a story written for fun.
Podcast–Reading from Beneath the Hallowed Hill
Listen to Megan’s trip to visit the fae in Beneath the Hallowed Hill with a couple of new paragraphs not in the current edition.
The latest Broad Pod, September 2011: Fairy Tales for Grown-Ups, is available for you to enjoy!
Thank you, L.C. Hu, writer, artist, and all around geek, for hosting and assembling this episode. Dragons and magical beasts, peasants and princesses, heroes and tricksters—fairy tales are some of the first stories many of us hear as children; is it any surprise that they continue to inspire us into adulthood? This month brings us five new interpretations of the fairy story, as varied and wonderful as the tales that enchanted us as children.
Catherine Lundoff tells us of Vadija the Merry, whose laugh inspires a talespinner to begin a life-changing journey. Shauna Roberts gives us a
science fiction retelling of the old tale Maid on the Shore. Theresa Crater leads us down beneath the Tor to meet the fae, as we follow a young woman’s initiation to become a priestess. Vonnie Winslow Crist spins us a tale about a young man who makes a deal involving death, deceit, and
devotion with a swan maiden. And Trisha Woolridge enchants us with the story of a young woman wandering her uncle’s manor, who discovers a curious portrait in a dusty side room.
So sit back, and let yourself be swept away by these five fantastic fairy stories.
Crystal Skulls
Mystery writer Steve Berry puts a section at the end of his books that talks about what’s real and what’s made up. Yes, mystery and fantasy writers do research and use it in their novels. What we do with that research is sometimes made-up, but it’s the mix of the real and the imagined that makes for a compelling read.
In Beneath the Hallowed Hill, Megan attends an Emergence Ceremony at the age of thirteen to discover her place in Atlantean society. She travels with her parents to the Temple of the Oracle where she consults with a circle of crystal skulls.
Crystal skulls do exist. Crystal skull researcher Nick Nocerino classified three types of crystal skulls: contemporary (less than 100 years old), old (more than 100 years old), and ancient (more than 1,000 years old). There are thousands of contemporary crystal skulls carved in Latin America and China predominantly.
But why? After all, the skull and cross bones is used to label poison. We think of them as representing evil. Mexican and Latin cultures use these skulls on the Day of the Dead and to meditate on death, but the Maya see these skulls as images of enlightenment.
Why enlightenment? Next time you’re in a crowd of people, look around at all the faces. Notice how different everyone is. Yes, we have two eyes, one nose and mouth, etc. (for the most part), but we all have particular features and are each different from the other. But imagine the bone beneath the face. Imagine the skull. They all look alike.
The skull represents this underlying sameness. It represents Divine Consciousness, that I Am presence that we all are at our very foundation.
Are there really ancient crystal skulls? We’ll talk about that in another post.
Guest Blog on the Myths of Avalon
Today I’m guest blogging at Amadis of Gaul on weaving mythologies together to write Beneath the Hallowed Hill.
My Guest Blog on Atlantis
I’m guest blogging today at Loconeal Publishing on the research I did and how I represented Atlantis in Beneath the Hallowed Hill.
Guest Blogger Faith Van Horne on Atlantis in Fiction
Both Faith Van Horne and I have used myths of Atlantis in our latest books. Here’s what she says about it.
Playing with Mythic History
By Faith Van Horne
When I started germinating ideas for my young adult novel Slideways, I didn’t know the lost continent of Atlantis would play a part. But by the time I’d created my character sheets and a rough plot outline, it had become a significant setting for the story. However, the version of Atlantis that appears in Slideways bears little resemblance to the island Plato described. I researched the myths, played with the history, and came up with an alternate past (and present) that suited my novel.
One of the possible locations for the mythic isle is the present-day island of Santorini. In its factual history, Santorini experienced a huge volcanic eruption that caused the center portion of a much larger island to slide into the sea. According to Plato, Atlantis sunk into the ocean in a single day. Santorini now consists of the crescent shaped shell of the former island, which fit my story perfectly. Why? Because in my version, that round crater wasn’t caused by the earth crumbling beneath the waves. Instead, the guardians of Atlantis magically transported the island to a separate dimension. But they didn’t have the power to take all of the land with them, so a small portion remains here in our world.
In my mythic history I blend magical elements with fringe science, which is quite fun. See, in Slideways, all magic that once existed originated from Atlantis and flowed outward to the rest of our world. But instead of using magic for peaceful ends, non-Atlanteans used it to gain wealth, power, success in war, and so forth. The elders of Atlantis became enraged, and vowed to cut off their peaceful nation, and its power, from those who would abuse it. So they cast a powerful spell that cut out the center of Atlantis from our world, transporting it to its own. In (pseudo) scientific terms, they created their own pocket universe. A single element, the book containing the spell, was hidden here to maintain the
existential barrier.
The upshot of the island’s departure was that our magic source was cut off, leaving us with our current mundane existence. But the spell couldn’t last forever. It required constant magical energy to keep that universe intact. As Slideways opens, our antagonist discovers the hidden spell book and removes it. This simple action leads to cracks in reality when the spell begins to lose its power. Our heroine, because of her psychic bond to one of Atlantis’ residents, is the only one able to keep the growing rip between the worlds from destroying them both.
I took liberties with the myth because an Atlantis sitting in a pocket universe was better for my story than one destroyed by the ocean. Instead of rising from the sea, the island causes magical stress on our world, creating tension in the novel. And that’s what writing fantasy fiction is all about.
If you want to try a fun writing exercise, start with an existing myth. Then take that story and ask, “What if?” Turn the satyr into a bank teller, or Tartarus into a greasy spoon. Even if you don’t come out with a fully fleshed story, you’ll have a great time.
Bio: Faith Van Horne’s short works have appeared in Beyond Centauri, Poor Mojo’s Almanac(k), and other online publications. She is the blog editor for Loconeal Publishing, an independent book publisher in Ohio. She keeps her own blog at faithvanhorne.blogspot.com, and you can follow her on Twitter @fvanhorne.