Writing Prompts for The Feast of the Charities

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I don’t want to be tone deaf.  I know right now some people have to work and feel unsafe (are unsafe).  And I know others need to work and can’t.  And still others are cooped up at home and may receive pay without working or be struggling with the reality of working from home and all the other distractions that come with that.  

A lot of us want to remain productive or on an even keel.  I’m making these writing prompts for folks who find a creative project distracting and helpful but might need a suggestion to get started.  If writing isn’t healthy for you right now or if you can’t write, it’s ok.  Please don’t take this as a condemnation.  We’re all coping differently and do what’s best for you.  The last 3 prompts incorporates pandemic themes as part of the prompt.  If you’re struggling, that may be one to skip.

Introduction: 

This series has a simple goal: provide basic history on a holiday/event and use that history to spring board potential writing prompts and themes. For some, the history on its own will be enough.  For others, I’ll suggest prompts I thought of.  

Happy writing and please share a snippet or link to your inspired works ^_^ I’d love to read them.

Feast of the Charities: 

There isn’t a lot of information on the Feast of the Charities. The day of this holiday vary but one suggested date is April 18-19, and the holiday itself is so little known that neither Wikipedia nor Encyclopedia Britanica.  I found these dates in Shirley Twofeather’s pagan calendar and she sources  Llewellyn… which isn’t encouraging for historic accuracy.   The only creditable resource I could find on the day itself is ancient.eu and they write: 

“The Graces were the subject of cult worship across the Greek world, but especially southern Greece and Asia Minor. They were particularly important at Orchomenus in Arcadia where they had an annual festival, the Charitesia, held in their honour.”

But ancient.eu doesn’t give any dates or times for the Charitesia.  They expound on Charities cult worship and imply that different charities were integrated into local celebrations. 

The “charities” also known as “graces” were Aglaica (splendor), Euphrosyne (joy), and Thalia (mirth).  They are minor goddesses or nymphs descended from Zeus and the Oceanid, Eurynome (nymph of water ways and clouds).  They attended Aphrodite and Hera.  Their major relationship with mortals was to inspire attraction to wisdom, love, culture and social interaction.  The three are most often depicted dancing naked.  They have associations with spring flowers and are the youthful embodiment of beauty from physical to intellectual, artistic, and moral. 

It’s worth noting the Feast of Charities seems to celebrate these three charities, but there are at least nine different Graces/Charities.

Llewellyn suggests orange as a predominate color and sage as the preferred incense.  Given what I could discover about the charities, I’d think offering any spring flowers/scents would be more appropriate.  A drawing or free write dedicated to the charities ideas could also be a fun way to pass the day.

Llewellyn writes, "Get some friends together and dress up. Arrange each other’s hair. Dance and sing, or perform some sacred theatre. Visit an art gallery or walk through a street fair. Alternatively, do something nice for the less fortunate. Bundle up old clothes you never wear anymore to recycle for the less fortunate, or hold a food drive and donate the results to a local charity."

Other days for The Feast of the Charities include: January 17-18, January 30-31, May 26, July 9-10, or October 13. 

I like a holiday which inspires creativity and kindness.  Its floating date is a positive because you or your character could celebrate/honor/acknowledge the Charities multiple times a year or whenever it’s relevant. 

Sources:

http://www.talesbeyondbelief.com/nymphs/three-graces.htm

https://www.theoi.com/Ouranios/Kharites.html

https://www.ancient.eu/Graces/

https://www.llewellyn.com/spell.php?spell_id=2651

https://shirleytwofeathers.com/The_Blog/pagancalendar/feast-of-the-charities/

Writing Prompts:

1. What are some Spring blooms in your area?  Do they have any associations?  Mash up those local correspondences with The Graces.  How would splendor, joy, and mirth impact these flowers, are they inherent with blooms?  

2. Write a scene with your characters embodying one of these three characteristics (splendor, joy and mirth).—Can I suggest the villain interact with these elements?

3.  Have one of your characters meet one or all three Graces.  

4. Depict your characters performing an act of kindness or charity.  

5. Create a scene where an early act of kindness/charity is rewarded.  

6. Create a scene where an early act of kindness/charity is punished.  How does your character react?  Does this diminish their desire to do good?

7. Create a scene where your main character (or villain) receives charity from a stranger.

8. It seems like the Feast of the Charities was a time to bring people together for a meal and performance.  We’re in a time of social isolation where we can’t get together in sizeable groups.  How else could one honor the ideals of the Charities (using a video chat or virtual Meetup/play is cheating, come up with something wacky or wild for you or your characters!). 

9.  What in our current world embodies the Charities’ virtues?  What doesn’t? 

10. During this pandemic, many of us are being asked to act not for our own health but to safeguard the health of others.  How does this play into the virtues of the Charities? Are these themes you could bring into your writing?  

Looking for more prompts?  Check out April's full moon,  Mid-summer prompt or Matralia

Writing Prompts For April's Full Moon

image from publicdomainvectors.org 

Introduction: 

This series has a simple goal: provide basic history on a holiday/event and use that history to spring board potential writing prompts and themes. For some, the history on its own will be enough.  For others, I’ll suggest prompts I thought of.  

Happy writing and please share a snippet or link to your inspired works ^_^ I’d love to read them.

April’s Full Moon: 

Names include: the Wind Moon, the Seed Moon, the Hare Moon, the Growing Moon, the Pink Moon, and the Egg Moon.

April’s moon has obvious associations with growth (seed moon or growing moon).  In the Northern Hemisphere we’re experiencing differing phases of spring.  Euro-centric countries enjoy early blooming flowers like daffodils and tulips steal the gardening show.  April can be a wonderful to celebrate early progress on a goal, to start new goals if current efforts haven’t yielded results, or to continue to nurture past commitments.

Old folklore suggests the full moon until the last quarter is the best time to kill weeds, thin or prune a garden, mow the lawn, cut timber, and to plant below ground crops.  If you’re looking for more lunar-based gardening information, check out alamanac.com.

Some claim April is the Pink Moon because creeping phlox is in full bloom this time of year (and it’s a pink flower).  Others claim April became the “Pink Moon” because pink is Venus’ color and she is the governor of the house of Taurus (The horoscope sign we’re about to enter).  The connection to Venus, Goddess of love, can make April a delightful time to work on relationship magic, whether it’s a plutonic or romantic relationship.

While we portray March as a stormy month, April is the windy one—hence “Wind Moon.”  It’s suggested one meditate on seeds carried or pollinated by the wind.  Allergy season intensifies around this time.   Patti Wigington suggests this moon can be an excellent time to meditate on the power of the air element and how winds from different directions have varying associations and energies one can use.  

This moon happens after Ostara (spring equinox), why some may call it Egg Moon and it is the last moon before Beltane (May day).  Often people reflect on the building fertility/growing energy during this time.  They either wind down their Spring Equinox celebrations or they charge and prep for Beltane.

This year April’s moon will be the biggest super moon of 2020, so if you have a clear sky, it might be worth a gander.  April’s moon falls in the house of Libra this year, so it’s an agreeable time to check in and seek to rebalance any element in one’s life.   

Sources:

learnreligions.com

simplewiccanmagickspells.com

magicalrecipesonline.com

almanac.com

earthsky.org

Writing Prompts:

1. Stare at the moon, free write and associate with whatever suits.  

2. What aspect of this moon lore would your character most identify with?  

3. Is what your character identifies with the same as what they most need?  

4. Use any of the elements of the April moon to write a quick scene with one of your characters.

5. Create a character who embodies any of the April moon’s energies.

6. Write a full moon induced romance scene.  

7. Write about something that grew under the light of the April moon.  

8. Write a scene where your character reacts to what’s carried on the wind (a smell, a conversation, a note or seed, ect).  

9. Write a story where the moon actually appears pink—why—what happens, does anyone even notice?

Looking for more prompts?  Check out the Mid-summer prompt or Matralia

Head Hopping as Lazy

This post continues a discussion we began at the NAWG blog regarding 1st person and limited 3rd person narratives where the character narrating changes through out the book.  Feel free to check out that post or just start here!

Yes, head hopping, like any story telling device can be lazy.  Answer unlocked we can all go home now.  

But lazy how and to whom and what metrics can we use to verify? 

In my novel Follow Me: Tattered Veils, I have 3 chapters that are told from minor character’s perspectives.  Each of those chapters are HUGE moments in the book.  They may be my 3 favorite chapters.  

Still, in a 29 chapter book where all the other chapters are told from my protagonist’s or my antagonist’s view points, I had to ask myself “Are these 3 chapters lazy?  Are their other ways I could give the readers this information?” Or conversely “Should I add more split perspectives from minor characters to make these three chapters blend more?”

Since these chapters remain in the final book, it’s clear what my conclusions were, but I believe there’s a valid argument one could make for why these chapters were lazy.

1. I could have told all 3 of these chapters from either Roxi or Gerry’s perspective.  

• “Snares” wouldn’t have been as much of a gut punch, but it’s almost unchanged if I split the perspective between Roxi and Gerry.

• “Waiting, Waiting, and More Waiting” COULD be more tense with a split perspective between Roxi and Gerry.  On one side we’d have Roxi idle chit chat and waiting in line and the other is Gerry watching, waiting for his moment to hit Claire’s Facebook feed and get the group to come his way.  I would have lost the opportunity to redeem Alice or to make her more than a “mean girl” but I may have gained more story continuity.

• “After the Party” can be told from Roxi’s perspective, though it’s WHOLE POINT in the book would be lost.  The reason that chapter exists is because I want readers to see more of Conor and they get that from his take on the night, not from the events themselves—but people could argue that readers don’t need to know Conor.

2. OR I could have added more head hopping to make these chapters “fit” better. 

• The most obvious place to add split perspectives is in faeryworld.  One chapter Roxi’s journey and the next chapter check in on where another character is and how they’re handling their night.—I didn’t do this because I like the flow of Roxi’s journey for place to place without the breaks these chapters would create.  AND I wanted readers to be surprised with Roxi at what she encountered, not spoiled through someone else’s perspective. 

• I could have created mini-adventures for each character and created more “slice of life” in the middle sections—I was so busy pairing things down in this section, adding anything non-essential seemed terrible.

I stand by my literary decisions.  I love these chapters, but I 100% see where people might argue they are lazy.  

So yeah, even head hopping done well might be lazy.  There might be more interesting, more complex solutions to a story issue and one should explore them, but that’s not the same as choosing it.  I compare head hopping to a showing vs telling issue.  I think there are cases where telling just moves the story on to the good stuff faster and head hopping may do the same.  You don’t know any of that until you do both and see which works best for your story.  

MY BOOK IS AVAILABLE AT AMAZON!!!  Please go look at "Follow Me: Tattered Veils" and see if it might be a story that interests you.

Looking for more posts about the writing and publishing process?  Check out more posts on my novel publication process: Going Through Copy Edits, 1st Daft vs 2nd Draft, Goal Planning: Getting Through the First Draft, My Character Looks Nothing Like My MC, Cover Art: Truth in Advertising, and Post Book Launch: Reflections.  

Want to know more about my novel?  Check out my childhood stories recapping themes in my life I hope prepared me to write this book: Remember the Magic of Santa?, Closet Monsters: Gone too Far?, and Garden Gnomes and other Evils.

OR check out my series where I find similarities between my novel and other popular media.  Hopefully it gives you a better idea whether there are elements in my book you may enjoy. Lost Girl Comparison, American Gods Comparison, and The O.A. Comparison.

Post Book Launch: Reflections

from publicdomainvectors.org

I had a bad cold rolling into the launch of “Follow Me: Tattered Veils.”  It kept me from being as active on social media as I’d planned.  It kept me from feeling either excited or nervous.  Most of me just wanted everything to be over.  It felt like a slow grind towards an inevitable conclusion.  I wasn’t even a little happy, and I don’t feel different now that we launched the book.  

The one bright side to my illness is I also don’t feel let down.  All this time I’ve been pushing for a strong release of “Follow Me: Tattered Veils” and bracing for silence.  It’s been hard to stay so positive and strong while trying to keep expectations low.  Realistically, only my friends, family, and husband’s friends/family will read or buy this book.  And that stings because I’ve gone way out of my comfort zone to promote this book.  I’ve spent a lot of time and energy trying to be friendly and charming and trying to find the right audience to enjoy my book.  And I love “Follow Me: Tattered Veils” like it’s a living person and part of me feels like I’ve failed her.  I’m like that parent that couldn’t figure out how their kid’s skill set could land them a successful career… or I saw that potential, but I couldn’t steer the kid in the right direction.  

Now that I’m recovering from the cold, I feel like there’s all this lost time to make up for.  I’ve got all these posts on writing and goals I have for 2020, and I haven’t hit most of them.  I have to face it: I won’t meet a lot of my goals (writing and otherwise).  And it’s leaving me feeling desperate to make up for lost time.  

I’m anxious to write, and it’s been so long, the creative writing part of my brain feels rusty and misused.  

So now you want me.  When I was romping and playing in the background, shouting for you to stop and write, you didn’t have time or you felt too sick, but now you want me just to appear on demand.  Well, good luck.  

People talk about “recovering from the book launch” and I’m sitting here and laughing because I am literally recovering from being sick as much as the nerves of the launch and the pressure to be “on”.  But some things I’m trying to keep in mind as I move forward:

1. Be kind to me.  There’s stuff that’s fucked up this book and it’s too late to take it back.  I need to forgive myself for any missteps or things I didn’t do or know to do for this launch.  

2. Don’t linger.  I need to get up and move the fuck on.  I’ve got two major drafts I’m working on.  I have a novella I’d love to find a sensitivity beta reader for and I would love love love love love to self publish it.   I work a full-time job, I have a dog and a husband and I have all this work I want to do.  I can’t wallow in lost time.  And I can’t wait for my creative side to be ready, I might need to force it a little until I find my routine.

3.  The book is out and published.  Same way I didn’t wake up and have a complete novel ready to publish, I can’t expect people just come in to buy it.  It will be a war of attrition to make back the money spent or to get people to read and enjoy the book.  

4. It’s not 100% over.  I have a few more promotional blogs to write/publish.  AND starting March 15th I launch “Roxi’s Podcast” where I do a read along for “Follow Me: Tattered Veils.”  My intentions are to reward early adopters of this story with some further insight into the creation and meaning of the story AND to entice some readers who are on the fence.  My team and I pre-recorded most of the podcasts, but we have at least two or three more to record.

Looking for more posts about the writing and publishing process?  Check out more posts on my novel publication process: Going Through Copy Edits, 1st Daft vs 2nd Draft, Goal Planning: Getting Through the First Draft, My Character Looks Nothing Like My MC, Cover Art: Truth in Advertising, and Post Book Launch: Reflections.  

Want to know more about my novel?  Check out my childhood stories recapping themes in my life I hope prepared me to write this book: Remember the Magic of Santa?, Closet Monsters: Gone too Far?, and Garden Gnomes and other Evils.

OR check out my series where I find similarities between my novel and other popular media.  Hopefully it gives you a better idea whether there are elements in my book you may enjoy. Lost Girl Comparison, American Gods Comparison, and The O.A. Comparison.

MY BOOK IS AVAILABLE AT AMAZON!!!  Please go look at "Follow Me: Tattered Veils" and see if it might be a story that interests you.

4 Ways I Use Sigils as a Writer

sigil for my word of the year "Manifest"

While sigils have different uses historically, here we’re considering them symbols that represent another word or phrase.  They embody a whole string of words or ideas in a more simplistic way.  

The writer in me loves dead languages, codes, and creating whole cloth new words/ideas.  It’s little wonder sigils have lasting appeal.  Today I will cover 4 ways I use sigils to help me write.   

1. I make sigils for my book titles (and working book titles) and it helps me get into the atmosphere of my books.  So “Follow Me: Tattered Veils” is a mouthful, and its acronym FMTV feels ugly, plus the TV reminds me of television and I HATE that.  So instead, I use a sigil for the book.  Since I created the sigil, something about its flow and design helps me feel more true to the contents of the book.  It looks like this:  

2. I make sigils for characters in my books.  I’m not an artist.  I make mediocre chibis sometimes, but nothing I’d share or want to represent my written ideas.  You can make a collection of lines that look cool with little skill or time.  So I collect the character’s name and defining traits and make a sigil from that, which represent the character in my outlines.  

3.  Sometimes I use sigils to refer to spoilers or different endings.  Here’s the paranoid writer in me.  I don’t like for people to see what I’m working on until I’m ready.  Sometimes I use sigils to further obscure what I’m working on in case there is a casual person looking over my shoulder (my husband and I KNOW he doesn’t care, but I don’t want him to read even a stray word).  But the symbols take on their own emotional resonance.  They can help color the events of a story with their curves and points before I even write the scene. 

4. Sigils can be motivational.  I made a sigil out of my writers’ goals for the year and I look at them/doodle them just whenever.  I reinforce those commitments and sometimes drives me back to them when I was clowning around.

Did you enjoy this post and want more sigil goodness?  Check out An Urban Fantasy Writer's Toolkit: Sigils. 

Looking for more posts about the writing and publishing process?  Check out more posts on my novel publication process: Going Through Copy Edits, 1st Daft vs 2nd Draft, Goal Planning: Getting Through the First Draft, My Character Looks Nothing Like My MC, Cover Art: Truth in Advertising, and Post Book Launch: Reflections.  

Want to know more about my novel?  Check out my childhood stories recapping themes in my life I hope prepared me to write this book: Remember the Magic of Santa?, Closet Monsters: Gone too Far?, and Garden Gnomes and other Evils.

OR check out my series where I find similarities between my novel and other popular media.  Hopefully it gives you a better idea whether there are elements in my book you may enjoy. Lost Girl Comparison, American Gods Comparison, and The O.A. Comparison.

MY BOOK IS AVAILABLE AT AMAZON!!!  Please go look at "Follow Me: Tattered Veils" and see if it might be a story that interests you.

My 2020 Writer's Goals

image from publicdomainvectors.org 

I have my own mental and physical calendar that is different from the traditional western yearly calendar.  My system allows me to reflect on the close of last year and to structure my plans.  If my goals appear more thought out than yours, know I’ve been meditating on them and planning what they are and how I’ll measure them for 50-ish days. 

1.   1.  Launch my debut novel Follow Me: Tattered Veils. While I often treat this as a fait accompli, it’s far from that.  I’m still creating blog posts and considering what kind of author media I need. Even after the book becomes available for purchase, there are some blog posts and little extras I want to include as a “read along” style content.

2.   2.   Complete the first draft of both Follow Me: Gods and Monsters and Cress Legacy (working title).  Both are novel length projects with some word count already invested.  I imagine I’ll need 130,000 more words to complete both.  Given my calendar structure I need to write about 3,000 fiction words a week.  I’m most concerned with achieving these draft goals.

3.    3.  Co-teach “Hello World and Introduction to Creative Writing” with Ashley once and finish all PowerPoints and course material for “Aggressive Self-Editing” with a possible course run in July/August?

4.   4.   Weekly blog posts going into the release of “Follow Me: Tattered Veils” and bi-weekly posts after its release.  Remember I write for 2 blogs.  That means I will still have a new post up every week, but I will change which blog I’m posting in.  I am reducing production goals to improve consistency.

5.    5.  Social media circus has to come back up.  Each week I will dedicate 2 hours to Twitter, an hour to Facebook and an hour to Instagram.   I don’t have a consistent schedule, so I will have to change the days and times I provide for each.

6.    6.  Reading and reviewing books.  There are 44 weeks in my calendar year, I think it’s appropriate to read 44 books or a book a week.  And I’m committing to 1/3 of those books being in either my genre (fantasy/urban fantasy) or being independently published works. 

Talk to me!  What are your 2020 goals?  Do you have any advice on how I can achieve my own plans?

Want to see more?  Check out my 2019 writing goals and my 2019 wrap up. 

Curious as to how I plan to achieve these goals?  Check out my post on how to create realistic 1st draft goals here.  I also have a post on how Habitica, an online fantasy goal tracker can help and I have one more post reviewing my own personal planning system.

Want to see my year in books?  I have my 2019 year here and my top 5 for 2018 along with a full detail list of 2018.  For more what on what I'm reading, check out my GoodReads profile.  

2019 In Review! Did I Meet My Goals?

Me and Roxi in Big Spring Park all rights reserved

In January last year I set up some personal writing goals.  For fun I want to review them and see what I accomplished vs what needs work.

Accomplished: 

I wanted to finish my second draft of Follow Me: Tattered Veils and succeeded (what's the difference between the 2 drafts?  Talked about that here). More than that!  This year I:

-Sent Tattered Veils off to a copy editor (some further blogging about that experience here) 

-Made the corrections from the copy editor

-Have a Copywrite on Tattered Veils—which means a copy of my work will be available in the Library of Congress

-Commissioned a cover artist and have cover art complete for Tattered Veils

-Got a publishing team together and have that team:

       -Created a website for me and a landing page for Tattered Veils and future works

       -Created an author’s Facebook page

       -Discussed, created, and sent A.R.C.s (advanced reader copies) to people for an early review

       - Had a proof copy of my novel in my hands

       -Chose a date of publication (and I’m thrilled to announce I will self publish Follow Me: Tattered Veils on Amazon this Feb the 29th a leap year ^_^)

I taught a free Intro to Creative Writing class with Ashley and we plan to run our course again this year.  It is exciting to continue refining our class. Hopefully this class will turn into a way we can give back to the writing community, inspire other writers, and create a closer community of people with similar goals.

I met my book reading goals for 2019 and reviewed most of the books I read (check out my Goodreads profile).  I also created shelves for my read Goodreads books so they are easier for other readers to sort through.  

2019 was a great year for esoteric folklore.  I learned about this thing called “#folklorethursday” on Twitter and it’s awesome.  The community connecting and telling different little bits of trivial there is soooooo cool.  I read a couple great pagan books that reconnected me earth based traditions, some will even work in my southern environment even if British weather is colder and rainier.  I also had the chance to write up a bit of info on traditional holidays and some different writing prompts to accompany the holidays.  My well for inspiration seems full.

Opportunities: 

I didn’t maintain a constant blogging habit.  At my personal blog, I posted about 11 times.  I posted 12 times in the N.A.W.G. blog.  Along with less frequent posting, I’ve dropped the ball in my social media game.  This may have cost me an audience or sense of reliability.  I promise I’ve been very busy in my writing life, it just hasn’t all been on display for the people who might watch at home.

My goals for blogging and social media were too lofty.  Given how much socializing even online takes out of me and given how each blog post takes time I could write creatively off the table, it was never realistic I would both complete my Tattered Veils goals and maintain an active blog presence.  No regrets over which I chose.  Now I have a book, if I’d stuck with the blog who knows how far away holding a copy of my work would have been?  

While blogging and social media has to play a role in my writing goals, it will have a lighter touch in 2020.  If these posts help or interest other people, I see it as “worth it,” but I can’t say this style of writing is a “passion" of mine.

I kept making new goals for myself as the year went on.  Some of that was beneficial and some of it was a time waste under the guise of “being efficient.”  There were days  that planning took the place of “doing”—so not the goal of making plans.  As this new year rolls in, I plan to compromise with the person who wants to plan vs the person who wants to do work.  More on that in 2020 goals though.  

Overall, I think I had a powerful 2019, even if it wasn’t everything I wanted.  How did your year go?  What was a major accomplishment for you?  What was a major failing?  What are your plans for 2020?

Not sure how to create good yearly plans?  Try my post that helps break down goal planning.  Or try a post I have exploring Habitica and how it can help you meet your goals. 

Curious about my my 2020 goals, check out this post!  Wondering how I track my goals?  I've written more here.

Closet Monsters: Gone Too Far?

Jessica, Emma, Maurice, and Kyle going on a floom ride.  Photo taken by Elena Lewis.

Remember when the closet monster was a real prospect?  There are many varieties of the beloved creature.

First is the tidy child’s monster.  Their closet door presses shut, but somehow in the shadowed night, the door looms like a dark doorway, waiting for brave children to traverse to a realm of unspeakable horror.  

Next is the messy kid’s monster.  They shove their toys into the closet at the last minute, and the door never quite closes.  Frustrating in the day when they try to convince their guardians the room is clean and can they please go out and play.  At night, the door gapes open, a toothless maw.  The dark beyond is bottomless, any evil could await them.  

Third is the run down home’s monster.  This closet door never fully shuts.  Maybe the hinge isn’t lined up or maybe the door lost its latch.  No one cares about the why.  These children go to bed with a closed closet door, secure in their knowledge that nothing will harm them and wake up for water or to use the restroom, to an open door.  They race for the light and throw the switch like a medic to a defibrillator.  The world is incandescent, but it’s too late.  Something old and terrible lingers.  No light or company will ever make what crawled out of the closet go back in.  Creaky floorboards are its footsteps, drafty windows become its breath.  Whatever that thing is, it’s living in your house now, and there’s no way to exorcise it.  

The closet monster fascinated me.  How did it creep in at night and why did so many children assume it fled in the morning?  Does light hurt its skin like a vampire?  Does it sleep during the day like a bat?

And what did the monster want?  Was he guarding something on the other side of the darkness?  Did he eat socks, is that why I could never find matching pairs?

“Oh no,” my uncle told me, “he just wants to get you.”  

“Get me?” I asked. 

“Yeah you know, take kids.  He got my younger brother,” he said.

“No you’re the youngest brother!  Everyone says so,” I said. 

My uncle shrugged. 

“Yeah, now I am,” he said with a wink.

My siblings and I were hooked.  Yes, the closet monster lived in everyone’s home, but my grandparents' home, became its main den.  When we were there, we hunted it in cupboards, basements, and closets.  Why, because there was a missing uncle we might save.  Even if that uncle was long gone, we could at least “get” the monster back and keep it from ever taking another child.  Bring the fight to its home and all those great metaphors.  As eldest, I was good at rallying the younger ones to a worthy campaign.

And my uncle played his part.  He’d hide in basements and closets waiting for us and then roar and grab us.  We’d charge the monster and hit it or kick at it and he’d let the trapped sibling go and we’d run out, believing we’d narrowly escaped the monster’s clutches.  

As I grew older, and began to understand the game we were playing, I added new rules to keep my siblings believing for longer.  We would use flashlights and “light” formations to keep the monster back.  In reality, my uncle couldn’t sneak up on us if we all used our flashlights together, but the reasoning I gave was that the monster’s eyes were photo-sensitive.  The light blinded it, giving us time to move past it.  

When one of my siblings would doubt the closet monster’s existence, I’d dare them to go in alone to the closet.  There in the dark my uncle would shake clothes hangers and growl, stomping closer and further away.  The terrified sibling would go to the door and try to open it, only to find it stuck closed (I was barricading the door).  

They’d scream and plead for help and I’d say things like: 

“It’s sealed the doors, I can‘t open them!  I think it’s mad you don’t believe!  Quick say you believe in it before it gets you, maybe then the door will open!”  

My sister or brother always agreed. 

“I believe, I know you‘re real, I’m sorry, please!”

And I’d let them out.  We’d go eat cake, because sweet things help you recover and then we’d play in the sprinkler, because the monster can’t get you outside.  It hates fresh air.   

So how do I capture this dark childish terror for adult readers in “Follow Me: Tattered Veils?”  Instead of using an uncle to help make the monsters more real, I use old myths.  Stories told and retold in many time periods with different players but the same over reaching themes.  Hear the same story enough but different people and anyone will wonder— is this real?

And I use humanity’s limited scope of empathy.  I terrified my siblings, not just with stories of monsters, but actions that validated those fears.  I thought nothing of this fun game, but there was casual cruelty in the act.  We all carry a thoughtless capacity to scar each other.

Lastly, I use the closet monster himself.  Because the fathomless darkness where all kinds of good or evil could spawn lives in my heart and I think it might live in your heart too.  Don’t we all have a certain wardrobe we think might take us to Narnia or a certain set of words we think will release Bloody Mary?  “Follow Me: Tattered Veils” lives in a world where we investigate the wardrobe or we say the right words.  The roads to different possibilities open and I hope you’ll walk one of them with me.  

Like this, there's a whole series!  Check out  Remember the Magic of Santa? and Garden Gnomes and other Evils for more childhood stories. ^_^

Looking for more posts about the writing and publishing process?  Check out more posts on my novel publication process: Going Through Copy Edits, 1st Daft vs 2nd Draft, Goal Planning: Getting Through the First Draft, My Character Looks Nothing Like My MC, Cover Art: Turth in Advertising, and Post Book Launch: Reflections.  

Want to know more about my novel?   Check out my series where I find similarities between my novel and other popular media.  Hopefully it gives you a better idea whether there are elements in my book you may enjoy.  Lost Girl Comparison, American Gods Comparison, and The O.A. Comparison.

MY BOOK IS AVAILABLE AT AMAZON!!!  Please go look at "Follow Me: Tattered Veils" and see if it might be a story that interests you.

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