Rhobin Lee Courtright's Blog, page 32

The WHAT? Moment

On death, survivors and secrets.

Someday most us have to weed through the possessions our parents or other loved ones left behind. In most cases, their stuff will be familiar—the furniture, cars, boats, and other vehicles, perhaps their craft tools, and the objects, photos and art they kept on display. Drawers and closets hold the products most people buy and keep, clothes, shoes, health care, beauty and cleaning products. Some things bring sweet memories. Others we deem junk and wonder why t

New Book Contract

While I've been mulling over my thoughts about the mythic journey the characters of Pride and Prejudice (see previous posts) take, I received a contract for my first contemporary romance. Except I've learned it will be classified as a romantic suspense story.

Next April, check out STONE HOUSE FARM at Champagne Books! My first impression has been what a great company. The story is set in Manistee, Michigan. Hopefully the first of several Michigan romances.

Here's a teaser:

Wade's eyelids flickered,

Domestication

I know I am off my own topic, which I plan to return to, but I just had to post this.

As a cat owner, I just had to read an article in June 2009, Scientific American Magazine article, The Evolution of House Cats. Authors Carlos A. Driscoll, Juliet Clutton-Brock, Andrew C. Kitchener and Stephen J. O'Brien discuss their research into the genetic and archaeological findings. They give a creditable argument that house cats developed earlier than the Egyptian times previously thought. It was interesti

Where The Story Starts 2

So how does this work? I’ve taken three romance stories many people have read. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, published in 1813; at the very beginning or romance writing. Devil’s Cub by Georgette Heyer, published in 1932, one of the first historical romances and Legally Blonde, the movie, released June 2001 based on a novel by Amanda Brown, a romantic comedy.

Why not use science fiction or fantasy stories? Because that’s where you expect to find mythological and folktale characteristics. If

Where the Story Starts

Most stories start with an ‘Initial Situation’ or a depiction of the main character’s ordinary world, his home. Here the reader learns about the main character, his family situation, and any prophecies or forewarnings about this character. This setting indicates the hero’s condition, the world in which they currently live. Valdimir Propp called it the ‘Initial Situation,’ and Joseph Cotton, the ‘Call to Adventure,’ which he says, ‘signifies that destiny has summoned the hero and transferred his

The Illud Tempus

Most fairy tales start with what is called ‘illud tempus,’ (now and forever) or a temporal-spatial determination meant to take the reader from their world to the world of the story. In stories from oral traditions it used to be the opening line, ‘Once upon a time.” That clearly informed listeners that the story did not take place here and now, but some timeless place both now and forever.

Admittedly, stories no longer begin with ‘once upon the time.’ However, the ‘illud tempus’ shows up in ot

The Collective What?

For those readers unfamiliar with the phrase 'collective unconscious' it is similar to actions you take that are driven by your personal unconscious, but on an deeper level. This is where boogymen, demons and angels are found, along with many other dream characters. According to Calvin Hall and Vernon Nordby in A Primer of Jungian Psychology, "Man inherits these images from his ancestral past, a past that includes all of his human ancestors as well as his prehuman or animal ancestors."

The archet

Reading and the Collective Unconscious

During the last century several scholars and scientists published studies on mythology, folklore and fairy tales, stories that had started with oral storytellers in man's early history. They wanted to understand the persistence of these stories. Moreover, they knew certain story motifs were encountered in many unrelated cultures and time epochs.

Ideas developed from the emerging study of psychology. One of these ideas claimed these tales were necessary for the development of the human psyche. Th

Are You Helping to Make A Difference?

If you don't watch NBC nightly news and have missed the Making A Difference segments, you are missing some inspiration from everyday Americans, the type of thing that is going to get us through this financial crisis faster than in the '30s. Go to Making A Difference and see what ordinary, every-day Americans do for strangers. I am a huge believer in random acts of kindness. It balances so much that is bad in life.[image error]

We're to blame, too.

The economy is a catastrophe. Our government bought wholesale the idea that business institutions were immune from the greed, stupidity, lack of foresight, market unawareness as well as social ignorance, and unethical behavior of those who might run those same institutions. In other words, humans run our financial and business markets.

Perhaps that’s why man originally decided on laws and regulations a couple thousand years ago. So tell me, just why did our governors give up on this idea?

Oh, yes!