Christine E. Schulze's Blog: Spinnet's Weave: The Golden Healer's Scoop
April 22, 2019
Sign Up to Win Cool Stuffs!!
Heya, fellow book-lovers!!
I have a newsletter now called "The FADBooks Review." In addition to sneak peeks of my upcoming novels and other fun things, I also do exclusive give-aways! Sign up now for your chance to win autographed books by me and other authors!!
https://christineeschulze.blog/newsle...
~ Christine E. Schulze
I have a newsletter now called "The FADBooks Review." In addition to sneak peeks of my upcoming novels and other fun things, I also do exclusive give-aways! Sign up now for your chance to win autographed books by me and other authors!!
https://christineeschulze.blog/newsle...
~ Christine E. Schulze
June 19, 2016
One Starry Knight Give-aways: Delayed Shipping
In regards to two of my give-aways for my novella, "One Starry Knight," running from March 2 to April 2 and April 2 and May 2, I would like to apologize to all winners for the delayed shipping. There was a delay with printing on my end.
I have never been this late sending out books to winners. To help make up for the delay, each winner will also receive an autographed copy of one of three of my short stories: "Dream Catcher, Heart Listener," "Larimar: Gem of the Sea," or "Follow Me." As for which of the three you will receive, that will just have to be a surprise!
Books are packaged and will be sent out tomorrow. Again, I apologize for the long wait, but rest assured the books will soon be on their way to their new homes with my wonderful readers.
As always, God bless, happy reading, and may you be inspired!
~ Christine E. Schulze
I have never been this late sending out books to winners. To help make up for the delay, each winner will also receive an autographed copy of one of three of my short stories: "Dream Catcher, Heart Listener," "Larimar: Gem of the Sea," or "Follow Me." As for which of the three you will receive, that will just have to be a surprise!
Books are packaged and will be sent out tomorrow. Again, I apologize for the long wait, but rest assured the books will soon be on their way to their new homes with my wonderful readers.
As always, God bless, happy reading, and may you be inspired!
~ Christine E. Schulze
July 11, 2015
New Kids' Books to Help People with Disabilities
Hullo, Goodreads friends and fans!! I would like to announced the official publication of my two newest kids' books, "In the Land of Giants" and "The Amazing K." Both books feature stunning illustrations by two different artists, fantasy, adventure, and coolest of all, feature main characters with disabilities.
My mission as an author has always been to include more diversity in my books. Lately, I especially have a passion for including characters with disabilities; my inspiration comes from my current place of work, Trinity Services in Mascoutah, Illinois where we run a day program and residential services for adults with disabilities.
Associated with Trinity is ALFA, a charity that provides supplies and volunteers so our folks can learn and engage in programs like culinary, art, music, and gardening.
To give back to the people I serve, I am donating 25% of all royalties of my currently published works to ALFA. So, in picking up a copy of any of my books, you are helping support the awesome individuals who are my latest inspiration!!
"In the Land of Giants" and "The Amazing K" can be found in paperback on Amazon, or as ebooks on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Smashwords. Also, feel free to join my give-aways for both books here!!
Thanks so much for your support. God bless, happy reading, and may you be inspired!!
~ Christine E. Schulze
My mission as an author has always been to include more diversity in my books. Lately, I especially have a passion for including characters with disabilities; my inspiration comes from my current place of work, Trinity Services in Mascoutah, Illinois where we run a day program and residential services for adults with disabilities.
Associated with Trinity is ALFA, a charity that provides supplies and volunteers so our folks can learn and engage in programs like culinary, art, music, and gardening.
To give back to the people I serve, I am donating 25% of all royalties of my currently published works to ALFA. So, in picking up a copy of any of my books, you are helping support the awesome individuals who are my latest inspiration!!
"In the Land of Giants" and "The Amazing K" can be found in paperback on Amazon, or as ebooks on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Smashwords. Also, feel free to join my give-aways for both books here!!
Thanks so much for your support. God bless, happy reading, and may you be inspired!!
~ Christine E. Schulze
February 7, 2015
My Life Through Quotes from Toni Morrison’s Sula
I recently bought Toni Morrison’s Sula not only because I love Morrison’s imagery in her writing, but because I was hooked by the book’s description:
“Two girls who grow up to become women. Two friends who become something worse than enemies… their friendship ends in an unforgivable betrayal—or does it end?”
As I was reading the book, I saw much of both people in my life and myself reflected in the characters. I initially identified most of all with Nel, though after some reflection, I can also see parts of myself in Sula and Shadrack—much as I can see others around me in them as well.
I recorded quotes throughout the book that struck a chord with me. Here they are; here is my journey through Toni Morrison’s Sula and how the book resonates in my own life:
My Life Through Quotes from Toni Morrison’s Sula
“There in the toilet water he [Shadrack] saw a grave black face. A black so definite, so unequivocal, it astonished him. He had been harboring a skittish apprehension that he was not real—that he didn’t exist at all. But when the blackness greeted him with its indisputable presence, he wanted nothing more.”
(p. 13)
“It had to do with making a place for fear as a way of controlling it.”
(p. 14)
“Once the people understood the boundaries and nature of his [Shadrack’s] madness, they could fit him, so to speak, into the scheme of things.”
(p. 15)
“The trip, perhaps, or her newfound me-ness, gave her [Sula] the strength to cultivate a friend in spite of her mother.”
(p. 29)
“Which was fitting, for it was in dreams that the two girls had first met… they had already made each other’s acquaintance in the delirium of their noon dreams. They were solitary little girls whose loneliness was so profound it intoxicated them and sent them stumbling into Technicolored visions that always included a presence, a someone, who, quite like the dreamer, shared the delight of the dream. When Nel, an only child, sat on the steps of her back porch surrounded by the high silence of her mother’s incredibly orderly house, feeling the neatness pointing at her back, she studied the poplars and fell easily into a picture of herself lying on a flowered bed, tangled in her own hair, waiting for some fiery prince. He approached but never quite arrived. But always, watching the dream along with her, were some smiling sympathetic eyes. Someone as interested as herself in the flow of her imagined hair, the thickness of the mattress of the flowers, the voile sleeves that closed below her elbows in gold-threaded cuffs.”
(p.51)
“Their friendship was as intense as it was sudden. They found relief in each other’s personality. Although both were unshaped, formless things, Nel seemed stronger and more consistent than Sula, who could hardly be counted to sustain any emotion for more than three minutes. Yet there was one time when that was not true, when she held on to a mood for weeks, but even that was in defense of Nel.”
(p. 53)
“But toughness was not their quality—adventuresomeness was, and a mean determination to explore everything that interested them…”
(p. 55)
“In the safe harbor of each other’s company they could afford to abandon the ways of other people and focus on the perception of things… Joined in mutual admiration, they watched each day as though it were a movie arranged for their amusement.”
(p. 55)
“Nel’s call floated up and into the window, pulling her [Sula] away from dark thoughts and back into the bright, hot daylight.”
(p. 57)
“There was a space, a separateness between them.”
(p. 64)
“…feel the oldest and most devastating pain there is: not the pain of childhood, but the remembrance of it.”
(p.65)
“Nel and Sula stood some distance away from the grave, the space that had sat between them in the pews had dissolved… They relaxed slowly until during the walk back home their fingers were laced in as gentle a clasp as that of any two young girlfriends trotting up the road on a summer day wondering what happened to butterflies in the winter.”
(p. 66)
“…inside she disagreed and remained convinced that Sula had watched Hannah burn not because she was paralyzed, but because she was interested.”
(p. 78)
“’I built that road,’ he [Jude] could say… ‘I built that road.’ People would walk over his sweat for years.”
(p. 82)
“Without that someone he [Jude] was a waiter hanging around a kitchen like a woman. With her [Nel] he was head of a household pinned to an unsatisfactory job out of necessity. The two of them together would make one Jude.”
(p. 83)
“Only with Sula did that quality have free reign, but their friendship was so close, they themselves had difficulty distinguishing one’s thoughts from the other’s. During all of her girlhood the only respite Nel had had from her stern and undemonstrative parents was Sula. When Jude began to hover around her, she was flattered—all the girls liked him—and Sula made the enjoyment of his attentions keener because she seemed always to want Nel to shine.”
(p. 83)
“They never quarreled, the way some girlfriends did over boys, or competed against one another for them. In those days a compliment to one was a compliment to the other, and cruelty to one was a challenge to the other.”
(p. 84)
“Nel’s response to Jude’s shame and anger selected her away from Sula. And greater than her friendship was this new feeling of being needed by someone who saw her singly. She didn’t even know she had a neck until Jude remarked on it, or that her smile was anything but the spreading of her lips until he saw it as a small miracle.”
(p. 84)
“The purpose of evil was to survive it.”
(p. 90)
“She [Nel] knew it was all due to Sula’s return to the Bottom. It was like getting the use of an eye back, having a cataract removed. Her old friend had come home. Sula. Who made her laugh, who made her see old things with new eyes, in whose presence she felt clever, gentle, and a little raunchy. Sula, whose past she had lived through and whose present was a constant sharing of perceptions. Was there anyone else before whom she could never be foolish? In whose view inadequacy was idiosyncrasy, a character trait rather than a deficiency? Anyone who left behind that aura of fun and complicity? Sula never competed; she helped others define themselves.”
(p. 95)
“She [Nel] looked around for a place to be. A small place. The closet? No. Too dark. The bathroom. It was both small and bright, and she wanted to be in a very small, very bright place. Small enough to contain her grief. Bright enough to throw into relief the dark things that cluttered her.”
(p. 107)
“Sula was wrong. ‘Hell ain’t things lasting forever. Hell is change.’ Not only did men leave and children grow up and die, but even the misery didn’t last. One day she [Nel] wouldn’t even have that. This very grief that had twisted her into a curve on the floor and flayed her would be gone. She would lose that too.”
(p. 108)
“’Why, even in hate here I am thinking of what Sula said.’”
(p. 108)
“…Nel waited. Waited for the oldest cry. A scream not for others, not in sympathy for a burnt child, or a dead father, but a deeply personal cry for one’s own pain… But it did not come.”
(p. 108)
“She [Nel] even hoped their dreams would rub off on her and give her the wonderful relief of a nightmare so she could stop going around scared to turn her head this way or that and see it. That was the scary part—seeing it.”
(p. 110)
“When the word got out about Eva being put in Sunnydale, the people in the Bottom shook their heads and said Sula was a roach. Later, when they saw how she took Jude, then ditched him for others, and heard how he bought a ticket to Detroit (where he bought but never mailed birthday cards to his sons), they forgot all about Hannah’s easy ways (or their own), and said she was a bitch. Everybody remembered the plague of robins that announced her return, and the tale about her watching Hannah burn was stirred up again.”
(p. 112)
“That incident, and Teapot’s Mamma, cleared up for everybody the meaning of the birthmark over her eye; it was not a stemmed rose, or a snake, it was Hannah’s ashes marking her from the very beginning.”
(p. 114)
“And the fury she [Sula] created in the women of the town was incredible—for she would lay their husbands once and no more. Hannah had been a nuisance, but she was complimenting the women, in a way, by wanting their husbands. Sula was trying them out and discarding them without any excuse the men could swallow.”
(p. 115)
“The presence of evil was something to be first recognized, then dealt with, survived, outwitted, triumphed over.”
(p. 118)
“Eva’s arrogance and Hannah’s self-indulgence merged in her [Sula] and, with a twist that was all her own imagination, she lived out her days exploring her own thoughts and emotions, giving them full reign, feeling no obligation to please anybody unless their pleasure pleased her.”
(p. 118)
“She [Sula] had no center, no speck around which to grow… For that reason, she felt no compulsion to verify herself—be consistent with herself.”
(p. 119)
“She [Sula] had clung to Nel as the closest thing to both an other and a self, only to discover that she and Nel were not one and the same thing. She had no thought at all of causing Nel pain when she bedded down with Jude. They had always shared the affection of other people: compared how a boy kissed, what line he used with one and then the other. Marriage, apparently, had changed all that, but having had no intimate knowledge of marriage…she was ill prepared for the possessiveness of the one person she felt close to.”
(p. 119)
“Nel was the one person who had wanted nothing from her [Sula], who had accepted all aspects of her. Now she wanted everything, and all because of that. Nel was the first person who had been real to her, whose name she knew, who had seen as she had the slant of life that made it possible to stretch it to its limits. Now Nel was one of them.”
(p. 119, 120)
“She [Sula] had been looking all along for a friend, and it took her a while to discover that a lover was not a comrade and never could be—for a woman.”
(p. 121)
“In a way, her [Sula’s] strangeness, her naiveté, her craving for the other half of her equation was the consequence of an idle imagination… had she anything to engage her tremendous curiosity and her gift for metaphor, she might have exchanged the restlessness and preoccupation with whim for an activity that provided her with all she yearned for. And like any artist with no art form, she became dangerous.”
(p. 121)
“And there was the utmost irony and outrage in lying under someone, in a position of surrender, feeling her [Sula’s] own abiding strength and limitless power.”
(p. 123)
“There, in the center of that silence was not eternity but the death and time of a loneliness so profound the word itself had no meaning.”
(p. 123)
“…but her [Sula’s] real pleasure was the fact that he talked to her. They had genuine conversations. He did not speak down to her or at her, not content himself with puerile questions about her life or monologues of his own activities. Thinking she was possibility brilliant, like his mother, he seemed to expect brilliance from her, and she delivered. And in all of it, he listened more than he spoke.”
(p. 127, 128)
“Sula began to discover what possession was. Not love, perhaps, but possession or at least the desire for it.”
(p. 131)
“But Sula, the green ribbon shining in her hair, was flooded with an awareness of the impact of the outside world on Ajax.”
(p. 133)
“Ajax blinked. Then he looked swiftly into her [Sula’s] face. In her words, in her voice, was a sound he knew well. For the first time, he saw the green ribbon. He looked around and saw the gleaming kitchen and the table set for two and detected the scent of the nest. Every hackle on his body rose, and he knew that very soon she would, like all of her sisters before her, put to him the death-knell question ‘Where you been?’ His eyes dimmed with a mild and momentary regret… He dragged her under him and made love to her with the steadiness and intensity of a man about to leave for Dayton.”
(p. 133, 134)
“She [Sula] could find nothing, for he had left nothing but his stunning absence.”
(p. 134)
“It was as if she were afraid she had hallucinated him…”
(p. 134)
“’When I [Sula] was a little girl the heads of my paper dolls came off, and it was a long time before I discovered that my own head would not fall off if I bent my neck. I used to walk around holding it very stiff because I thought a strong wind or a heavy push would snap my neck. Nel was the one who told me the truth. But she was wrong. I did not hold my head stiff enough when I met him and so I lost it just like the dolls.”
(p. 136)
“She [Nel] had practiced not just the words but the tone, the pitch of her voice. It should be calm, matter-of-fact, but strong in sympathy—for the illness though, not for the patient… For the first time in three years she would be looking at the stemmed rose that hung over the eye of her enemy. Moreover, she would be doing it with the taste of Jude’s exit in her mouth, with the resentment and shame that even yet pressed for release in her stomach.”
(p. 138)
“Nel was glad to have a concrete errand. Conversation would be difficult. (Trust Sula to pick up a relationship exactly where it lay)
(p. 139)
“It was funny, sending Nel off to that drugstore right away like that, after she [Sula] had not seen her to speak to her for years.”
(p. 140)
“Pain was greedy. It demanded all of her attention.”
(p. 141)
“’Yes. But my lonely is mine. Now your lonely is somebody else’s. Made by somebody else and handed to you. Ain’t that something? A secondhand lonely.”
(p. 143)
“’How you know?’ Sula asked.
“’Know what?’ Nel still wouldn’t look at her.
“’About who was good? How you know it was you?’
“’What you mean?’
“’I mean maybe it wasn’t you. Maybe it was me.’”
(p. 146)
“A crease of fear touched her breast, for any second there was sure to be a violent explosion in her brain, a gasping for breath. Then she realized, or rather she sensed, that there was not going to be any pain. She was not breathing because she didn’t have to. Her body did not need oxygen. She was dead. Sula felt her face smiling. “’Well, I’ll be damned,’ she thought, ‘it didn’t even hurt. Wait’ll I tell Nel.’”
(p. 149)
“Other mothers who had defended their children from Sula’s malevolence (or who had defended their positions as mothers from Sula’s scorn for the role) now had nothing to rub up against. The tension was gone and so was the reason for the effort they had made.”
(p. 153)
“If he [Shadrack] was lonely before, he didn’t know it because the noise he kept up, the roaring, the busyness, protected him from knowing it.”
(p. 155, 156)
“The messier his house got, the lonelier he [Shadrack] felt…”
(p. 156)
“She [Sula] had a tadpole over her eye (that was how he knew she was a friend—she had the mark of the fish he loved)…”
(p. 156)
“…he [Shadrack] tried to think of something to say to comfort her, something to stop the hurt from spilling out of her eyes. So he had said ‘always,’ so she would not have to be afraid of the change…he had said ‘always’ to convince her, to assure her, of permanency.”
(p. 157)
“Still, when the day broke in an incredible splash of sun, he [Shadrack] gathered his things. In the early part of the afternoon, drenched in sunlight and certain that this would be the last time he would invite them to end their lives neatly and sweetly, he walked over the rickety bridge and onto the Bottom. But it was not heartfelt this time, not loving this time, for he no longer cared whether he helped them or not. His rope was improperly tied; his bell had a tinny unimpassioned sound. His visitor was dead and would come no more.”
(p. 158)
“They killed, as best they could, the tunnel they were forbidden to build.”
(p. 161)
“It didn’t take long, after Jude left, for her [Nel] to see what the future would be. She had looked at her children and knew in her heart that that would be all. That they were all she would ever know of love.”
(p. 165)
“One of the last few pedestrians, Nel walked the shoulder road while cars slipped by. Laughed at by her children, she still walked wherever she wanted to go, allowing herself to accept car rides only when the weather required it.”
(p. 166)
“’You. Sula. What’s the difference?’”
(p. 168)
“What had she [Nel] felt then, watching Sula going around and around and then the little boy swinging out over the water? Sula had cried and cried… But Nel had remained calm.”
(p. 170)
“All these years she [Nel] had been secretly proud of her calm, controlled behavior when Sula was uncontrollable, her compassion for Sula’s frightened and shamed eyes. Now it seemed that what she had thought was maturity, serenity, and compassion was only the tranquility that follows a joyful stimulation.”
(p. 170)
“’Sula?’ she whispered, gazing at the tops of trees. ‘Sula?’
“Leaves stirred; mud shifted; there was the smell of overripe green things. A soft ball of fur broke and scattered like dandelion spores in the breeze.
“’All that time, all that time I thought I was missing Jude.’ And the loss pressed on her chest and came up into her throat. ‘We was girls together,’ she said as though explaining something. ‘O Lord, Sula,’ she cried, ‘girl, girl, girlgirlgirl.’
It was a fine cry—loud and long—but it had no bottom and it had no top, just circles and circles of sorrow.
(p. 174)
“Two girls who grow up to become women. Two friends who become something worse than enemies… their friendship ends in an unforgivable betrayal—or does it end?”
As I was reading the book, I saw much of both people in my life and myself reflected in the characters. I initially identified most of all with Nel, though after some reflection, I can also see parts of myself in Sula and Shadrack—much as I can see others around me in them as well.
I recorded quotes throughout the book that struck a chord with me. Here they are; here is my journey through Toni Morrison’s Sula and how the book resonates in my own life:
My Life Through Quotes from Toni Morrison’s Sula“There in the toilet water he [Shadrack] saw a grave black face. A black so definite, so unequivocal, it astonished him. He had been harboring a skittish apprehension that he was not real—that he didn’t exist at all. But when the blackness greeted him with its indisputable presence, he wanted nothing more.”
(p. 13)
“It had to do with making a place for fear as a way of controlling it.”
(p. 14)
“Once the people understood the boundaries and nature of his [Shadrack’s] madness, they could fit him, so to speak, into the scheme of things.”
(p. 15)
“The trip, perhaps, or her newfound me-ness, gave her [Sula] the strength to cultivate a friend in spite of her mother.”
(p. 29)
“Which was fitting, for it was in dreams that the two girls had first met… they had already made each other’s acquaintance in the delirium of their noon dreams. They were solitary little girls whose loneliness was so profound it intoxicated them and sent them stumbling into Technicolored visions that always included a presence, a someone, who, quite like the dreamer, shared the delight of the dream. When Nel, an only child, sat on the steps of her back porch surrounded by the high silence of her mother’s incredibly orderly house, feeling the neatness pointing at her back, she studied the poplars and fell easily into a picture of herself lying on a flowered bed, tangled in her own hair, waiting for some fiery prince. He approached but never quite arrived. But always, watching the dream along with her, were some smiling sympathetic eyes. Someone as interested as herself in the flow of her imagined hair, the thickness of the mattress of the flowers, the voile sleeves that closed below her elbows in gold-threaded cuffs.”
(p.51)
“Their friendship was as intense as it was sudden. They found relief in each other’s personality. Although both were unshaped, formless things, Nel seemed stronger and more consistent than Sula, who could hardly be counted to sustain any emotion for more than three minutes. Yet there was one time when that was not true, when she held on to a mood for weeks, but even that was in defense of Nel.”
(p. 53)
“But toughness was not their quality—adventuresomeness was, and a mean determination to explore everything that interested them…”
(p. 55)
“In the safe harbor of each other’s company they could afford to abandon the ways of other people and focus on the perception of things… Joined in mutual admiration, they watched each day as though it were a movie arranged for their amusement.”
(p. 55)
“Nel’s call floated up and into the window, pulling her [Sula] away from dark thoughts and back into the bright, hot daylight.”
(p. 57)
“There was a space, a separateness between them.”
(p. 64)
“…feel the oldest and most devastating pain there is: not the pain of childhood, but the remembrance of it.”
(p.65)
“Nel and Sula stood some distance away from the grave, the space that had sat between them in the pews had dissolved… They relaxed slowly until during the walk back home their fingers were laced in as gentle a clasp as that of any two young girlfriends trotting up the road on a summer day wondering what happened to butterflies in the winter.”
(p. 66)
“…inside she disagreed and remained convinced that Sula had watched Hannah burn not because she was paralyzed, but because she was interested.”
(p. 78)
“’I built that road,’ he [Jude] could say… ‘I built that road.’ People would walk over his sweat for years.”
(p. 82)
“Without that someone he [Jude] was a waiter hanging around a kitchen like a woman. With her [Nel] he was head of a household pinned to an unsatisfactory job out of necessity. The two of them together would make one Jude.”
(p. 83)
“Only with Sula did that quality have free reign, but their friendship was so close, they themselves had difficulty distinguishing one’s thoughts from the other’s. During all of her girlhood the only respite Nel had had from her stern and undemonstrative parents was Sula. When Jude began to hover around her, she was flattered—all the girls liked him—and Sula made the enjoyment of his attentions keener because she seemed always to want Nel to shine.”
(p. 83)
“They never quarreled, the way some girlfriends did over boys, or competed against one another for them. In those days a compliment to one was a compliment to the other, and cruelty to one was a challenge to the other.”
(p. 84)
“Nel’s response to Jude’s shame and anger selected her away from Sula. And greater than her friendship was this new feeling of being needed by someone who saw her singly. She didn’t even know she had a neck until Jude remarked on it, or that her smile was anything but the spreading of her lips until he saw it as a small miracle.”
(p. 84)
“The purpose of evil was to survive it.”
(p. 90)
“She [Nel] knew it was all due to Sula’s return to the Bottom. It was like getting the use of an eye back, having a cataract removed. Her old friend had come home. Sula. Who made her laugh, who made her see old things with new eyes, in whose presence she felt clever, gentle, and a little raunchy. Sula, whose past she had lived through and whose present was a constant sharing of perceptions. Was there anyone else before whom she could never be foolish? In whose view inadequacy was idiosyncrasy, a character trait rather than a deficiency? Anyone who left behind that aura of fun and complicity? Sula never competed; she helped others define themselves.”
(p. 95)
“She [Nel] looked around for a place to be. A small place. The closet? No. Too dark. The bathroom. It was both small and bright, and she wanted to be in a very small, very bright place. Small enough to contain her grief. Bright enough to throw into relief the dark things that cluttered her.”
(p. 107)
“Sula was wrong. ‘Hell ain’t things lasting forever. Hell is change.’ Not only did men leave and children grow up and die, but even the misery didn’t last. One day she [Nel] wouldn’t even have that. This very grief that had twisted her into a curve on the floor and flayed her would be gone. She would lose that too.”
(p. 108)
“’Why, even in hate here I am thinking of what Sula said.’”
(p. 108)
“…Nel waited. Waited for the oldest cry. A scream not for others, not in sympathy for a burnt child, or a dead father, but a deeply personal cry for one’s own pain… But it did not come.”
(p. 108)
“She [Nel] even hoped their dreams would rub off on her and give her the wonderful relief of a nightmare so she could stop going around scared to turn her head this way or that and see it. That was the scary part—seeing it.”
(p. 110)
“When the word got out about Eva being put in Sunnydale, the people in the Bottom shook their heads and said Sula was a roach. Later, when they saw how she took Jude, then ditched him for others, and heard how he bought a ticket to Detroit (where he bought but never mailed birthday cards to his sons), they forgot all about Hannah’s easy ways (or their own), and said she was a bitch. Everybody remembered the plague of robins that announced her return, and the tale about her watching Hannah burn was stirred up again.”
(p. 112)
“That incident, and Teapot’s Mamma, cleared up for everybody the meaning of the birthmark over her eye; it was not a stemmed rose, or a snake, it was Hannah’s ashes marking her from the very beginning.”
(p. 114)
“And the fury she [Sula] created in the women of the town was incredible—for she would lay their husbands once and no more. Hannah had been a nuisance, but she was complimenting the women, in a way, by wanting their husbands. Sula was trying them out and discarding them without any excuse the men could swallow.”
(p. 115)
“The presence of evil was something to be first recognized, then dealt with, survived, outwitted, triumphed over.”
(p. 118)
“Eva’s arrogance and Hannah’s self-indulgence merged in her [Sula] and, with a twist that was all her own imagination, she lived out her days exploring her own thoughts and emotions, giving them full reign, feeling no obligation to please anybody unless their pleasure pleased her.”
(p. 118)
“She [Sula] had no center, no speck around which to grow… For that reason, she felt no compulsion to verify herself—be consistent with herself.”
(p. 119)
“She [Sula] had clung to Nel as the closest thing to both an other and a self, only to discover that she and Nel were not one and the same thing. She had no thought at all of causing Nel pain when she bedded down with Jude. They had always shared the affection of other people: compared how a boy kissed, what line he used with one and then the other. Marriage, apparently, had changed all that, but having had no intimate knowledge of marriage…she was ill prepared for the possessiveness of the one person she felt close to.”
(p. 119)
“Nel was the one person who had wanted nothing from her [Sula], who had accepted all aspects of her. Now she wanted everything, and all because of that. Nel was the first person who had been real to her, whose name she knew, who had seen as she had the slant of life that made it possible to stretch it to its limits. Now Nel was one of them.”
(p. 119, 120)
“She [Sula] had been looking all along for a friend, and it took her a while to discover that a lover was not a comrade and never could be—for a woman.”
(p. 121)
“In a way, her [Sula’s] strangeness, her naiveté, her craving for the other half of her equation was the consequence of an idle imagination… had she anything to engage her tremendous curiosity and her gift for metaphor, she might have exchanged the restlessness and preoccupation with whim for an activity that provided her with all she yearned for. And like any artist with no art form, she became dangerous.”
(p. 121)
“And there was the utmost irony and outrage in lying under someone, in a position of surrender, feeling her [Sula’s] own abiding strength and limitless power.”
(p. 123)
“There, in the center of that silence was not eternity but the death and time of a loneliness so profound the word itself had no meaning.”
(p. 123)
“…but her [Sula’s] real pleasure was the fact that he talked to her. They had genuine conversations. He did not speak down to her or at her, not content himself with puerile questions about her life or monologues of his own activities. Thinking she was possibility brilliant, like his mother, he seemed to expect brilliance from her, and she delivered. And in all of it, he listened more than he spoke.”
(p. 127, 128)
“Sula began to discover what possession was. Not love, perhaps, but possession or at least the desire for it.”
(p. 131)
“But Sula, the green ribbon shining in her hair, was flooded with an awareness of the impact of the outside world on Ajax.”
(p. 133)
“Ajax blinked. Then he looked swiftly into her [Sula’s] face. In her words, in her voice, was a sound he knew well. For the first time, he saw the green ribbon. He looked around and saw the gleaming kitchen and the table set for two and detected the scent of the nest. Every hackle on his body rose, and he knew that very soon she would, like all of her sisters before her, put to him the death-knell question ‘Where you been?’ His eyes dimmed with a mild and momentary regret… He dragged her under him and made love to her with the steadiness and intensity of a man about to leave for Dayton.”
(p. 133, 134)
“She [Sula] could find nothing, for he had left nothing but his stunning absence.”
(p. 134)
“It was as if she were afraid she had hallucinated him…”
(p. 134)
“’When I [Sula] was a little girl the heads of my paper dolls came off, and it was a long time before I discovered that my own head would not fall off if I bent my neck. I used to walk around holding it very stiff because I thought a strong wind or a heavy push would snap my neck. Nel was the one who told me the truth. But she was wrong. I did not hold my head stiff enough when I met him and so I lost it just like the dolls.”
(p. 136)
“She [Nel] had practiced not just the words but the tone, the pitch of her voice. It should be calm, matter-of-fact, but strong in sympathy—for the illness though, not for the patient… For the first time in three years she would be looking at the stemmed rose that hung over the eye of her enemy. Moreover, she would be doing it with the taste of Jude’s exit in her mouth, with the resentment and shame that even yet pressed for release in her stomach.”
(p. 138)
“Nel was glad to have a concrete errand. Conversation would be difficult. (Trust Sula to pick up a relationship exactly where it lay)
(p. 139)
“It was funny, sending Nel off to that drugstore right away like that, after she [Sula] had not seen her to speak to her for years.”
(p. 140)
“Pain was greedy. It demanded all of her attention.”
(p. 141)
“’Yes. But my lonely is mine. Now your lonely is somebody else’s. Made by somebody else and handed to you. Ain’t that something? A secondhand lonely.”
(p. 143)
“’How you know?’ Sula asked.
“’Know what?’ Nel still wouldn’t look at her.
“’About who was good? How you know it was you?’
“’What you mean?’
“’I mean maybe it wasn’t you. Maybe it was me.’”
(p. 146)
“A crease of fear touched her breast, for any second there was sure to be a violent explosion in her brain, a gasping for breath. Then she realized, or rather she sensed, that there was not going to be any pain. She was not breathing because she didn’t have to. Her body did not need oxygen. She was dead. Sula felt her face smiling. “’Well, I’ll be damned,’ she thought, ‘it didn’t even hurt. Wait’ll I tell Nel.’”
(p. 149)
“Other mothers who had defended their children from Sula’s malevolence (or who had defended their positions as mothers from Sula’s scorn for the role) now had nothing to rub up against. The tension was gone and so was the reason for the effort they had made.”
(p. 153)
“If he [Shadrack] was lonely before, he didn’t know it because the noise he kept up, the roaring, the busyness, protected him from knowing it.”
(p. 155, 156)
“The messier his house got, the lonelier he [Shadrack] felt…”
(p. 156)
“She [Sula] had a tadpole over her eye (that was how he knew she was a friend—she had the mark of the fish he loved)…”
(p. 156)
“…he [Shadrack] tried to think of something to say to comfort her, something to stop the hurt from spilling out of her eyes. So he had said ‘always,’ so she would not have to be afraid of the change…he had said ‘always’ to convince her, to assure her, of permanency.”
(p. 157)
“Still, when the day broke in an incredible splash of sun, he [Shadrack] gathered his things. In the early part of the afternoon, drenched in sunlight and certain that this would be the last time he would invite them to end their lives neatly and sweetly, he walked over the rickety bridge and onto the Bottom. But it was not heartfelt this time, not loving this time, for he no longer cared whether he helped them or not. His rope was improperly tied; his bell had a tinny unimpassioned sound. His visitor was dead and would come no more.”
(p. 158)
“They killed, as best they could, the tunnel they were forbidden to build.”
(p. 161)
“It didn’t take long, after Jude left, for her [Nel] to see what the future would be. She had looked at her children and knew in her heart that that would be all. That they were all she would ever know of love.”
(p. 165)
“One of the last few pedestrians, Nel walked the shoulder road while cars slipped by. Laughed at by her children, she still walked wherever she wanted to go, allowing herself to accept car rides only when the weather required it.”
(p. 166)
“’You. Sula. What’s the difference?’”
(p. 168)
“What had she [Nel] felt then, watching Sula going around and around and then the little boy swinging out over the water? Sula had cried and cried… But Nel had remained calm.”
(p. 170)
“All these years she [Nel] had been secretly proud of her calm, controlled behavior when Sula was uncontrollable, her compassion for Sula’s frightened and shamed eyes. Now it seemed that what she had thought was maturity, serenity, and compassion was only the tranquility that follows a joyful stimulation.”
(p. 170)
“’Sula?’ she whispered, gazing at the tops of trees. ‘Sula?’
“Leaves stirred; mud shifted; there was the smell of overripe green things. A soft ball of fur broke and scattered like dandelion spores in the breeze.
“’All that time, all that time I thought I was missing Jude.’ And the loss pressed on her chest and came up into her throat. ‘We was girls together,’ she said as though explaining something. ‘O Lord, Sula,’ she cried, ‘girl, girl, girlgirlgirl.’
It was a fine cry—loud and long—but it had no bottom and it had no top, just circles and circles of sorrow.
(p. 174)
January 22, 2015
"Wish Granter" Released!!
Hullo readers, friends, and fans!
I am happy to announce the ebook release of Wish Granter and Other Enchanted Tales, the third and final installment in my Christian Fantasy series for YA, The Stregoni Sequence.
The entire series has been based upon the concept of breaking spells or curses, which I suppose makes it sort of fairy-tale-esque. In each book, there has been one or more characters under a spell that needs to be broken, and the fun of course always lies in figuring out how to break the spell. From vampires to banshees to genies to my own creation, the memory charmer, the books also place a new spin on many different types of magical beings.
The first two books, Golden Healer, Dark Enchantress and Memory Charmer are available in both ebook and paperback forms. Wish Granter is only available as an ebook at present but will eventually be available in paperback as well.
The books don’t need to be read in any particular order. They are connected but each contain their own stories with their own main characters. So, if you’re looking for a fun, light read filled with mystery, adventure, unique fantasy, and a dash of romance, head over to the writers-exchange website to pick up your copy of Wish Granter!
http://www.writers-exchange.com/Wish-...
Thanks for your support, and God bless you all!
~ Christine E. Schulze
I am happy to announce the ebook release of Wish Granter and Other Enchanted Tales, the third and final installment in my Christian Fantasy series for YA, The Stregoni Sequence.
The entire series has been based upon the concept of breaking spells or curses, which I suppose makes it sort of fairy-tale-esque. In each book, there has been one or more characters under a spell that needs to be broken, and the fun of course always lies in figuring out how to break the spell. From vampires to banshees to genies to my own creation, the memory charmer, the books also place a new spin on many different types of magical beings.
The first two books, Golden Healer, Dark Enchantress and Memory Charmer are available in both ebook and paperback forms. Wish Granter is only available as an ebook at present but will eventually be available in paperback as well.
The books don’t need to be read in any particular order. They are connected but each contain their own stories with their own main characters. So, if you’re looking for a fun, light read filled with mystery, adventure, unique fantasy, and a dash of romance, head over to the writers-exchange website to pick up your copy of Wish Granter!
http://www.writers-exchange.com/Wish-...
Thanks for your support, and God bless you all!
~ Christine E. Schulze
March 21, 2014
Need your support in creating Bloodmaiden manga!
Fellow readers, writers, and artists!
Please consider supporting my first Kickstarter project which will allow me to transform "Bloodmaiden" the novel into a manga! I alrady have a brilliant artist--now all I need is YOU to get me started! The project funding will run through April 20th, which is my birthday, so helping make the project happen would be a great birthday gift to me!
Everyone who gives will win either ebooks or autographed print books from yours truly.
Thanks so much for joining me, and let the fun begin!
Here's the link to the project: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/...
~ Christine E. Schulze
Please consider supporting my first Kickstarter project which will allow me to transform "Bloodmaiden" the novel into a manga! I alrady have a brilliant artist--now all I need is YOU to get me started! The project funding will run through April 20th, which is my birthday, so helping make the project happen would be a great birthday gift to me!
Everyone who gives will win either ebooks or autographed print books from yours truly.
Thanks so much for joining me, and let the fun begin!
Here's the link to the project: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/...
~ Christine E. Schulze
February 13, 2014
Interview With Myself
So, Smashwords has this awesome new feature where authors can basically conduct an interview of themselves and post it on their author page. I had a lot of fun working on mine thus far; feel free to check it out and learn a little about me here:
https://www.smashwords.com/interview/...
https://www.smashwords.com/interview/...
October 27, 2012
The Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses (Chicago)
October 25, 2012
Today was the big day! Jonny and I had tickets to Chicago to go watch The Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses. I’d discovered the show months back, but for financial reasons, we decided we could go next year. Then, a couple weeks back, I discovered the symphony is on tour for this year only. I scrambled to buy tickets, buy Amtrak tickets, and we found a hotel to book. The sad thing is, with it being an unexpected trip, we could only afford to stay overnight, so it would be a rushed trip! But, maybe next year, we can stay longer.
So, we rose at 3:30 am. Already packed, we donned our matching Link and Zelda t-shirts. It was nice warm day, really. Stopped at the Motomart to get Jonny a year’s supply of energy drinks, and then headed to SWIC to board the Metrolink. We were riding to St. Louis to board the Amtrak there; it was my first experience riding a train anywhere.
At the train station, I was starving, so Jonny got me a highly over-priced apple. It was good apple though. I also found some nifty coupons for Meramec Cavern tours, and their zipline tours too. That’s an adventure for NEXT year…
Our train left on time, and I will say that riding the train was one of the funnest parts of the whole experience. I wasn’t feeling well that day, but Jonny kept me distracted. We passed some nice towns and forest scenery along the way. We spent a large part of our time hanging out in the dining car, playing games. Jonny is still in school for web development, and he’s helping this group of people who are designing a game called “Sun and Moon.” It’s mythos is based on the newest “My Little Pony” show, and it’s built a lot like chess. There are earth ponies, unicorns, Pegasus, and the Princess. They each have their own ways of movement. The real game will be online once finished, but we had a print-out of the playing board and used paper to draw and tear out playing pieces. Honestly, I thought it would be an easy game, but it was harder for me than chess. After being tortured for about an hour, Jonny finally won and ended my suffering.
After “Sun and Moon,” it was my pick of games. I decided to play “Hang-Link,” which of course is hang-man, but, you know, considering the trip, we had to do all things Zelda. If you check out my picture gallery, you’ll find that the games will a “J” next to them are puzzles Jonny had to solve, while I had to solve the puzzles marked with a star. Honestly, this was pretty funny, because for the first three puzzles Jonny came up with for me, I took a look, thought about it a moment, and solved the puzzle without even asking for a single letter. He finally stumped me with “moblin” though; those one-worders are a toughie.
About 12:30, we arrived in Chicago. The first order of business was finding food. Stepping out into the city for the first time was a little overwhelming, and I was glad Jonny was there, with his street-smart confidence. Street after street of towering buildings. So much culture surrounded us, various restaurants and stores and people, the classic sight of a man playing a saxophone on a street corner. Everyone seemed to dress with their own artistic flare.
We would have gotten lost a lot, but everyone we spoke with was very friendly and helpful. We were directed to a food court that had an Arby’s. I know, not that exciting, but I was determined to eat only “safe food;” I’m allergic to milk and sugar and didn’t want to get sick before the show. The Arby’s really did taste better than at home, if that counts for anything…then again, we were both famished by that point.
While at the food court, Jonny had me sample my first Indian food. The spices were good, but overwhelming, and I would only eat a small pinch. He said we’d have to find a good Indian restaurant when we got home; he’s always wanting to take me to one.
After eating, it was time to catch the bus and check out our hotel—not that we’d be spending much time there. But Jonny had found coupons for a place called “The Willows,” so off to find it.
On the bus, we passed beautiful lakes and parks, and made a mental note of the zoo, nature conservatory, Shedd’s Aquarium, and other places I’d like to visit when we have time to plan a REAL trip to Chicago, maybe in a couple of years.
After a time, the busy city quieted to a place lined with more elegant, historical-looking apartments, hotels, and other buildings. The Willows itself was a quaint place, small but elegant, and comfortable. We spent an hour or so there resting before we made our way to the theatre.
We had some time to kill, so we walked around, observed the shops. They had a Disney store which was awesome, but alas, none of the Rapunzel shirts were big enough for me. I was hungry at that point, so we stopped at one of the million Walgreens and CVS stores and bought some strawberries and pretzels.
When we stepped out of the store, it was all of a sudden POURING down rain. Now, we’d already discovered that Chicago truly was the “windy city,” because the wind had been nearly knocking me off my feet all day, and back at the Arby’s, it had been essential for Jonny to braid my hair and get it out of my way. However, rain plus wind? Well, that was an interesting combo. We stood outside on an overhang for a while. Then, when the rain lessened a little, we made a break for it.
Lol, but as we were crossing this street, there was another sudden downpour, and it was hilarious to watch everyone scatter to the nearest overhang. I mean, it was humorous, but everyone acted like it was the natural way of life in Chicago. Kudos also to the loads of people carrying umbrellas; how they’d predicted the rain and cold when it had been so warm minutes before, I don’t know, but good for them.
So, it was getting late and we decided just to run for it. By the time we reached the theatre overhang, we were both soaked, and the water on our glasses had pretty much blinded us. We tried to clean them off, and then we stood with the many gathered in line, munching strawberries and pretzels.
As we stood waiting, I observed the many fellow Zelda fans surrounding us. These were MY people. I’d taken Jonny to a Final Fantasy symphony in the spring for his birthday, and while I enjoyed the music well enough, I’ve never played a Final Fantasy game. He was in his element then, but now, I was totally in mine. I saw some awesome Zelda shirts; there were a few Zeldas, including a Goth Zelda. There were Links of all colors—red, blue, green, purple—and most of them girls, interestingly enough.
Though I will say that girls DO make very good Links. There was even someone dressed as Groose, which was awesome. Also, several Sarias whom I’m sure were very cold considering the abrupt change of events in the weather…whom everyone proceeded to blame on people wearing “Song of Storms” tee-shirts.
Then, a little after seven, everyone cheered wildly. The doors had opened, and everyone began pushing forward. Now, I have to say that the events that followed honestly reminded me of a WW2 concentration camp experience. All those people, pressing forward with excitement and hope. But then, as soon as we get inside, there are these people with sticks rudely demanding we open our bags and purses, searching for food and drink. I have never been to a theatre that did this. Thankfully, we’d eaten all the strawberries, but we were forced to throw away a full bag of pretzels. AND my water bottle. Jonny tried to ask if he could just empty the water and keep my bottle, but we were just shoved aside and told to empty our food and get back in line when ready. Meanwhile, one of the other gentlemen checking bags was announcing, “No food or drink allowed inside—and that includes water, and water…not sure how funny he was trying to be with that, but the whole experience was far from amusing…
The madness didn’t end once we were inside either. There was this long line where you could buy souvenirs. The souvenir choices were only t-shirts or posters, but they didn’t give you time to know this. I left Jonny in line, thinking I had time to use the bathroom and then come rejoin him. Now, this was a LONG line, and it never takes me long to use the bathroom. But when I returned, Jonny was nowhere in sight. I scoured that line, but he had vanished. How had he gotten through so quickly? I was sort of in a panic; there were loads of people bumping and pressing against me. I got out my phone and tried to call him, hoping he’d think to call me, because there was no way he’d actually hear his phone in all that craziness. After several calls, we connected and met up. He said he’d been pushed fast through the line, but when he got to the front, he didn’t know what they had or what I had wanted and got pushed out of line for taking too long.
We rejoined the line, and, after a surprisingly short time, bought each of us a t-shirt and a poster. Then, at last, we entered the theatre and took our seats. Once sitting in the theatre, we could have some peace.
The symphony began with the classic Zelda theme; mingled in with several singular pieces was the actual symphony of the show. There were four movements, each correlating to one of four Zelda games: Ocarina of Time, Wind Waker, Twilight Princess, and a Link to the Past. It was cool the way they did it, because they showed clips from the game that took you from the beginning of each story to the very end. Ocarina is of course one of my favorites, so of course I was more critical and it’s movement was actually my least favorite. However, that’s just because I’d really been hoping they’d do the creation of Hyrule, the end of Ocarina, or both.
However, my desires were largely satiated by the encore…or should I say, the TRIPLE encore. Yeah, so, the producer guy walks out, announces an encore. They play “Ballad of the Wind Fish” from “Link’s Awakening,” a game I’ve never actually played. It was a nice song…but I suspected it wasn’t the end. Then, the guy comes out a second time, and it’s ode to the Gerudos! YES! They played one of my favorites, the Gerudo Valley theme, and I mean, people cheered wildly for that, so it must be the favorite of many.
However, we all cheered most wildly for the third and final encore which was well worth the wait: A Majora’s Mask movement. I wish I could have recorded it, but my batteries had died, and I didn’t want to get thrown out changing them. I mean, if they don’t even let pretzels into the building, who knows what they would do if they catch you recording something. Anyway, the MM music was AMAZING. That game’s story is full of emotion, especially at the end. Some of the temples are just awful to get to (particularly everything proceeding the Ikana temple), but if you can get that far, the game really has a beautiful story and message behind it.
I’m not gonna lie, I got teary for that one. Though, I also got teary for Twilight Princess, because the ending of THAT story, well, for those who know what I’m talking about, I know you understand. Same with Wind Waker—though I haven’t quite finished playing the game, and now, after watching the clips they showed at the symphony, I NEED to know why Link sails away from his sister and grandmother at the end!! It was also cool because the conductor, who was this adorable English woman, actually had a Wind Waker baton that she conducted with for the Wind Waker movement.
Okay, well, needless to say, the show was phenomenal. I wish I’d been a little more awake for it, but it been a long journey, to be certain.
Afterwards, we returned to the hotel for what few hours of measly sleep we could muster.
OCTOBER 26, 2012
Slept a lot on the train. Had to be up at 5 am after, like, only three hours of sleep!!
Five hours later…
Back home in Missouri! It was nice to see the Arch again as the train, now gliding slowly along as we entered city borders, crop up over the hills. Jonny is right; compared to Chicago, St. Louis seems an itty-bitty town now. He also says that St. Louis is a lot more ghetto, while everyone in Chicago was very artsy and liberal, very nice and friendly and helpful. I told him we probably just never got around to seeing the ghetto parts of Chicago; we’ll work on that next trip. ^_^
It was good to get home, but we weren’t quite ready for our ventures to end. Perhaps we couldn’t afford to stay in Chicago more than we had, with it being such an unexpected trip, but we still wanted to finish out the day together properly. So, we made for the movie theatre to watch “Cloud Atlas,” which had just come out. We saw new trailers for “The Hobbit” and “Breaking Dawn 2” that looked AMAZING. Then, our film began.
Now, I’ll be honest: for the first half of the movie, I was sitting there not sure if I was going to like it at all—except for following the oriental girl’s story, which is totally like an idea for a book I’ve had in my head for some time now. However, at some point, something just “clicked.” The pieces fell together, and it was beautiful to see at last how some of the story threads connected and what messages they were meant to portray. My favorite line is when this one character is yelling at his daughter and son-in-law who are wanting to move east to become Abolitionists. He makes this big speech about how there is a natural order to things, and what good will their work really come to? After all, what they try to accomplish will be but a single drop in a giant ocean. And then the son-in-law looks at him and says one thing: “What is an ocean, but a multitude of drops?” Ha! In your face, Hugo Weaving…
Honestly, it’s one of those movies you’d have to probably watch a million times to figure out how each person’s past life connects to their future lives, and so on, because some characters had as many as five or six reincarnations. One thing I did truly like though, from a Christian’s perspective, was the story’s view of time and eternity. God sees all time stretched out before him; He sees everything that has happened, is happening, and will happen, as though it already is; for Him, time doesn’t really exist. On that note, it was interesting to see how what some of the characters did in the future actually affected their lives in the past, not just the other way around. Almost like time didn’t really matter in this story.
As the credits rolled, I do have to say one thing that cracked me up: One of the six story threads in this movie followed a group of elderly folk. One of the old men was named “Mr. Meeks.” Apparently, he had a “stunt double.” I was just sitting there laughing, but now I’ll have to go back and rewatch the movie, because I honestly can’t remember why this little old man would have need for a stunt double…
Well, so after the film, we had a nice, romantic little dinner at India’s Oven. It was both mine and Jonny’s first time going there. He loves Indian food and has been wanting me to try it for ages. Since I’d sampled some in Chicago and liked it, I agreed for him to take me out. The place was small but beautiful; I love Indian art work, and the atmosphere was quiet, peaceful, and warm. I tried some kind of flatbread with seeds, mango juice, garlic nan, and chicken curry. It was nice, because they could tell us which dishes had no sugar or dairy, which I’m allergic to. The food was good, but the spices are strong and strange to me. I think after eating Indian a few times, I may grow to quite like it; my taste buds will need some time to adjust, because the tastes, while good, are stronger than I’m used to.
Well, that concludes my Zelda Symphony ventures. If you’re reading this on Facebook, feel free to check out my photos of the experience. If you’re on one of my blogs, you can reach the pictures here:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?se...
Also, I was able to record audio only for two of the symphony pieces. Take a listen here:
Ocarina of Time Movement:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9BL6v...
Ocarina and Majora’s Mask Medley:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhuA3B...
Thanks so much for sharing the experience with me! If you’d like the chance to still see the symphony yourself before the year’s end, here are the remaining symphony times and places:
http://zelda-symphony.com/schedule
And with that, I bid you tingle, tingle, koo-loo limpah!
~ Christine E. Schulze
Today was the big day! Jonny and I had tickets to Chicago to go watch The Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses. I’d discovered the show months back, but for financial reasons, we decided we could go next year. Then, a couple weeks back, I discovered the symphony is on tour for this year only. I scrambled to buy tickets, buy Amtrak tickets, and we found a hotel to book. The sad thing is, with it being an unexpected trip, we could only afford to stay overnight, so it would be a rushed trip! But, maybe next year, we can stay longer.
So, we rose at 3:30 am. Already packed, we donned our matching Link and Zelda t-shirts. It was nice warm day, really. Stopped at the Motomart to get Jonny a year’s supply of energy drinks, and then headed to SWIC to board the Metrolink. We were riding to St. Louis to board the Amtrak there; it was my first experience riding a train anywhere.
At the train station, I was starving, so Jonny got me a highly over-priced apple. It was good apple though. I also found some nifty coupons for Meramec Cavern tours, and their zipline tours too. That’s an adventure for NEXT year…
Our train left on time, and I will say that riding the train was one of the funnest parts of the whole experience. I wasn’t feeling well that day, but Jonny kept me distracted. We passed some nice towns and forest scenery along the way. We spent a large part of our time hanging out in the dining car, playing games. Jonny is still in school for web development, and he’s helping this group of people who are designing a game called “Sun and Moon.” It’s mythos is based on the newest “My Little Pony” show, and it’s built a lot like chess. There are earth ponies, unicorns, Pegasus, and the Princess. They each have their own ways of movement. The real game will be online once finished, but we had a print-out of the playing board and used paper to draw and tear out playing pieces. Honestly, I thought it would be an easy game, but it was harder for me than chess. After being tortured for about an hour, Jonny finally won and ended my suffering.
After “Sun and Moon,” it was my pick of games. I decided to play “Hang-Link,” which of course is hang-man, but, you know, considering the trip, we had to do all things Zelda. If you check out my picture gallery, you’ll find that the games will a “J” next to them are puzzles Jonny had to solve, while I had to solve the puzzles marked with a star. Honestly, this was pretty funny, because for the first three puzzles Jonny came up with for me, I took a look, thought about it a moment, and solved the puzzle without even asking for a single letter. He finally stumped me with “moblin” though; those one-worders are a toughie.
About 12:30, we arrived in Chicago. The first order of business was finding food. Stepping out into the city for the first time was a little overwhelming, and I was glad Jonny was there, with his street-smart confidence. Street after street of towering buildings. So much culture surrounded us, various restaurants and stores and people, the classic sight of a man playing a saxophone on a street corner. Everyone seemed to dress with their own artistic flare.
We would have gotten lost a lot, but everyone we spoke with was very friendly and helpful. We were directed to a food court that had an Arby’s. I know, not that exciting, but I was determined to eat only “safe food;” I’m allergic to milk and sugar and didn’t want to get sick before the show. The Arby’s really did taste better than at home, if that counts for anything…then again, we were both famished by that point.
While at the food court, Jonny had me sample my first Indian food. The spices were good, but overwhelming, and I would only eat a small pinch. He said we’d have to find a good Indian restaurant when we got home; he’s always wanting to take me to one.
After eating, it was time to catch the bus and check out our hotel—not that we’d be spending much time there. But Jonny had found coupons for a place called “The Willows,” so off to find it.
On the bus, we passed beautiful lakes and parks, and made a mental note of the zoo, nature conservatory, Shedd’s Aquarium, and other places I’d like to visit when we have time to plan a REAL trip to Chicago, maybe in a couple of years.
After a time, the busy city quieted to a place lined with more elegant, historical-looking apartments, hotels, and other buildings. The Willows itself was a quaint place, small but elegant, and comfortable. We spent an hour or so there resting before we made our way to the theatre.
We had some time to kill, so we walked around, observed the shops. They had a Disney store which was awesome, but alas, none of the Rapunzel shirts were big enough for me. I was hungry at that point, so we stopped at one of the million Walgreens and CVS stores and bought some strawberries and pretzels.
When we stepped out of the store, it was all of a sudden POURING down rain. Now, we’d already discovered that Chicago truly was the “windy city,” because the wind had been nearly knocking me off my feet all day, and back at the Arby’s, it had been essential for Jonny to braid my hair and get it out of my way. However, rain plus wind? Well, that was an interesting combo. We stood outside on an overhang for a while. Then, when the rain lessened a little, we made a break for it.
Lol, but as we were crossing this street, there was another sudden downpour, and it was hilarious to watch everyone scatter to the nearest overhang. I mean, it was humorous, but everyone acted like it was the natural way of life in Chicago. Kudos also to the loads of people carrying umbrellas; how they’d predicted the rain and cold when it had been so warm minutes before, I don’t know, but good for them.
So, it was getting late and we decided just to run for it. By the time we reached the theatre overhang, we were both soaked, and the water on our glasses had pretty much blinded us. We tried to clean them off, and then we stood with the many gathered in line, munching strawberries and pretzels.
As we stood waiting, I observed the many fellow Zelda fans surrounding us. These were MY people. I’d taken Jonny to a Final Fantasy symphony in the spring for his birthday, and while I enjoyed the music well enough, I’ve never played a Final Fantasy game. He was in his element then, but now, I was totally in mine. I saw some awesome Zelda shirts; there were a few Zeldas, including a Goth Zelda. There were Links of all colors—red, blue, green, purple—and most of them girls, interestingly enough.
Though I will say that girls DO make very good Links. There was even someone dressed as Groose, which was awesome. Also, several Sarias whom I’m sure were very cold considering the abrupt change of events in the weather…whom everyone proceeded to blame on people wearing “Song of Storms” tee-shirts.
Then, a little after seven, everyone cheered wildly. The doors had opened, and everyone began pushing forward. Now, I have to say that the events that followed honestly reminded me of a WW2 concentration camp experience. All those people, pressing forward with excitement and hope. But then, as soon as we get inside, there are these people with sticks rudely demanding we open our bags and purses, searching for food and drink. I have never been to a theatre that did this. Thankfully, we’d eaten all the strawberries, but we were forced to throw away a full bag of pretzels. AND my water bottle. Jonny tried to ask if he could just empty the water and keep my bottle, but we were just shoved aside and told to empty our food and get back in line when ready. Meanwhile, one of the other gentlemen checking bags was announcing, “No food or drink allowed inside—and that includes water, and water…not sure how funny he was trying to be with that, but the whole experience was far from amusing…
The madness didn’t end once we were inside either. There was this long line where you could buy souvenirs. The souvenir choices were only t-shirts or posters, but they didn’t give you time to know this. I left Jonny in line, thinking I had time to use the bathroom and then come rejoin him. Now, this was a LONG line, and it never takes me long to use the bathroom. But when I returned, Jonny was nowhere in sight. I scoured that line, but he had vanished. How had he gotten through so quickly? I was sort of in a panic; there were loads of people bumping and pressing against me. I got out my phone and tried to call him, hoping he’d think to call me, because there was no way he’d actually hear his phone in all that craziness. After several calls, we connected and met up. He said he’d been pushed fast through the line, but when he got to the front, he didn’t know what they had or what I had wanted and got pushed out of line for taking too long.
We rejoined the line, and, after a surprisingly short time, bought each of us a t-shirt and a poster. Then, at last, we entered the theatre and took our seats. Once sitting in the theatre, we could have some peace.
The symphony began with the classic Zelda theme; mingled in with several singular pieces was the actual symphony of the show. There were four movements, each correlating to one of four Zelda games: Ocarina of Time, Wind Waker, Twilight Princess, and a Link to the Past. It was cool the way they did it, because they showed clips from the game that took you from the beginning of each story to the very end. Ocarina is of course one of my favorites, so of course I was more critical and it’s movement was actually my least favorite. However, that’s just because I’d really been hoping they’d do the creation of Hyrule, the end of Ocarina, or both.
However, my desires were largely satiated by the encore…or should I say, the TRIPLE encore. Yeah, so, the producer guy walks out, announces an encore. They play “Ballad of the Wind Fish” from “Link’s Awakening,” a game I’ve never actually played. It was a nice song…but I suspected it wasn’t the end. Then, the guy comes out a second time, and it’s ode to the Gerudos! YES! They played one of my favorites, the Gerudo Valley theme, and I mean, people cheered wildly for that, so it must be the favorite of many.
However, we all cheered most wildly for the third and final encore which was well worth the wait: A Majora’s Mask movement. I wish I could have recorded it, but my batteries had died, and I didn’t want to get thrown out changing them. I mean, if they don’t even let pretzels into the building, who knows what they would do if they catch you recording something. Anyway, the MM music was AMAZING. That game’s story is full of emotion, especially at the end. Some of the temples are just awful to get to (particularly everything proceeding the Ikana temple), but if you can get that far, the game really has a beautiful story and message behind it.
I’m not gonna lie, I got teary for that one. Though, I also got teary for Twilight Princess, because the ending of THAT story, well, for those who know what I’m talking about, I know you understand. Same with Wind Waker—though I haven’t quite finished playing the game, and now, after watching the clips they showed at the symphony, I NEED to know why Link sails away from his sister and grandmother at the end!! It was also cool because the conductor, who was this adorable English woman, actually had a Wind Waker baton that she conducted with for the Wind Waker movement.
Okay, well, needless to say, the show was phenomenal. I wish I’d been a little more awake for it, but it been a long journey, to be certain.
Afterwards, we returned to the hotel for what few hours of measly sleep we could muster.
OCTOBER 26, 2012
Slept a lot on the train. Had to be up at 5 am after, like, only three hours of sleep!!
Five hours later…
Back home in Missouri! It was nice to see the Arch again as the train, now gliding slowly along as we entered city borders, crop up over the hills. Jonny is right; compared to Chicago, St. Louis seems an itty-bitty town now. He also says that St. Louis is a lot more ghetto, while everyone in Chicago was very artsy and liberal, very nice and friendly and helpful. I told him we probably just never got around to seeing the ghetto parts of Chicago; we’ll work on that next trip. ^_^
It was good to get home, but we weren’t quite ready for our ventures to end. Perhaps we couldn’t afford to stay in Chicago more than we had, with it being such an unexpected trip, but we still wanted to finish out the day together properly. So, we made for the movie theatre to watch “Cloud Atlas,” which had just come out. We saw new trailers for “The Hobbit” and “Breaking Dawn 2” that looked AMAZING. Then, our film began.
Now, I’ll be honest: for the first half of the movie, I was sitting there not sure if I was going to like it at all—except for following the oriental girl’s story, which is totally like an idea for a book I’ve had in my head for some time now. However, at some point, something just “clicked.” The pieces fell together, and it was beautiful to see at last how some of the story threads connected and what messages they were meant to portray. My favorite line is when this one character is yelling at his daughter and son-in-law who are wanting to move east to become Abolitionists. He makes this big speech about how there is a natural order to things, and what good will their work really come to? After all, what they try to accomplish will be but a single drop in a giant ocean. And then the son-in-law looks at him and says one thing: “What is an ocean, but a multitude of drops?” Ha! In your face, Hugo Weaving…
Honestly, it’s one of those movies you’d have to probably watch a million times to figure out how each person’s past life connects to their future lives, and so on, because some characters had as many as five or six reincarnations. One thing I did truly like though, from a Christian’s perspective, was the story’s view of time and eternity. God sees all time stretched out before him; He sees everything that has happened, is happening, and will happen, as though it already is; for Him, time doesn’t really exist. On that note, it was interesting to see how what some of the characters did in the future actually affected their lives in the past, not just the other way around. Almost like time didn’t really matter in this story.
As the credits rolled, I do have to say one thing that cracked me up: One of the six story threads in this movie followed a group of elderly folk. One of the old men was named “Mr. Meeks.” Apparently, he had a “stunt double.” I was just sitting there laughing, but now I’ll have to go back and rewatch the movie, because I honestly can’t remember why this little old man would have need for a stunt double…
Well, so after the film, we had a nice, romantic little dinner at India’s Oven. It was both mine and Jonny’s first time going there. He loves Indian food and has been wanting me to try it for ages. Since I’d sampled some in Chicago and liked it, I agreed for him to take me out. The place was small but beautiful; I love Indian art work, and the atmosphere was quiet, peaceful, and warm. I tried some kind of flatbread with seeds, mango juice, garlic nan, and chicken curry. It was nice, because they could tell us which dishes had no sugar or dairy, which I’m allergic to. The food was good, but the spices are strong and strange to me. I think after eating Indian a few times, I may grow to quite like it; my taste buds will need some time to adjust, because the tastes, while good, are stronger than I’m used to.
Well, that concludes my Zelda Symphony ventures. If you’re reading this on Facebook, feel free to check out my photos of the experience. If you’re on one of my blogs, you can reach the pictures here:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?se...
Also, I was able to record audio only for two of the symphony pieces. Take a listen here:
Ocarina of Time Movement:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9BL6v...
Ocarina and Majora’s Mask Medley:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhuA3B...
Thanks so much for sharing the experience with me! If you’d like the chance to still see the symphony yourself before the year’s end, here are the remaining symphony times and places:
http://zelda-symphony.com/schedule
And with that, I bid you tingle, tingle, koo-loo limpah!
~ Christine E. Schulze
July 21, 2012
New Editor, New Books
I've just received the last in a long line of emails from Kira Lerner, the brilliant editor whom I will be working with from now through 2014 to professionally re-edit and re-publish three of my YA and middle grade fantasy series, "The Hero Chronicles," "The Legends of Surprisers," and "The Gailean Quartet." Keep an eye out here for release dates, book give-aways, and more!!
First expected release is "The Prism of Ashlei" for Winter 2012.
First expected release is "The Prism of Ashlei" for Winter 2012.
July 5, 2012
"Silent Hero" Re-vamped
Dear Readers of Silent Hero, Both New and Old,
As some of you know, I am in the process of re-vamping many of my self-published works. Most of these are those which were not on the market long, which I published hastily in my impatient youth, and which I now wish to see perfected before being re-released into the world. Thankfully, having been on the market a short time, hardly any copies were sold, which leaves me a broad audience hungry for fantasy and adventure upon their re-release. Currently, I’m working with the brilliant Kira Lerner to restore two of my series, The Gailean Quartet and The Legends of Surprisers; the goal is to complete both by the end of 2013.
That brings me to Silent Hero, my first and only fanfic, inspired by Nintendo’s Legend of Zelda game series. Even though it is merely a fanfic, I did want to do another read-through and address any issues I came across. And did I find some! Readers had spoken of minor plot holes; I am ashamed to have found several of these myself, from things like our heroes finding the Zora’s sapphire twice, to a couple of other moments which make one just stop and scratch their heads. Thus, I’ve read through, fixing these issues. While I am sorry to have found such problems, I am also glad too; it means I am learning much as an author and can begin to see and fix such problems for myself.
I’ve also sought to tighten up the writing a tad; I’ve been learning that, while one of my strengths is being a very visual writer, I can also tend to be too “flowery” with my language, I vice I’m working to improve upon and which I hope reflects in this newly edited version of Silent Hero.
Silent Hero is still a fan-based work; therefore, I see no need to pay to work with a professional editor like I’m currently doing with many of my original works. However, after reading through, there were certainly some small errors and plot holes which needed addressing, as well as some things which could use better explanations. Our heroes end up collecting Shards, Songs, and Stones, which makes things sort of convoluted. And while I wasn’t prepared for a complete overhaul, this again being a fan-based work, I at least wanted to explain what was going on better, such as what exactly our heroes were looking for and why, and how these things would help them.
Is the plot still convoluted? Honestly, from all I’ve learned from my editors thus far, I can say, “Yes!” And, was this an original work and not a fan-based one, I would seek to correct it. As it is, I’ve kept in all the hodge-podge stuff from several Zelda games, although, as said above, I’ve worked to make it make more sense.
Again, though I recognize the book as still being convoluted, my recognizing this is a good thing. It means I’m learning; I’m working on a book with my editor right now which, before her input, had a very confusing mythos with far too many rules. Now, the mythos is simpler, but better for it. As I said, Silent Hero is a fanfic, so I’ll let what is be, especially as many of the readers who enjoyed the book liked seeing all the different elements of the different games that I included. However, were this an original work set in an original world of mine, I would definitely improve upon the that aspect of the book.
I apologize to the thousands of fans who have already downloaded the book, both those of you who have enjoyed and those who haven’t. To those who enjoyed, you deserve something even better! To those of you who didn’t, I can’t guarantee you’ll like the book now, especially if you don’t like Midna and the bits of romance added in. Many of the changes I made were necessary, but small, and the overall story is still the same. However, like it or not, at least I’ve addressed some of the issues.
So, on then with the adventure, and enjoy reading! Oh, and enjoy the new cover too; I’ve learned a lot about cover art the past year or so as well and quite enjoyed the subtle but very impactful changes to Silent Hero’s cover.
Thanks again to all of my readers, fellow Zelda-fans included!
God bless, happy reading, and may you all be inspired!
~ Christine E. Schulze
As some of you know, I am in the process of re-vamping many of my self-published works. Most of these are those which were not on the market long, which I published hastily in my impatient youth, and which I now wish to see perfected before being re-released into the world. Thankfully, having been on the market a short time, hardly any copies were sold, which leaves me a broad audience hungry for fantasy and adventure upon their re-release. Currently, I’m working with the brilliant Kira Lerner to restore two of my series, The Gailean Quartet and The Legends of Surprisers; the goal is to complete both by the end of 2013.
That brings me to Silent Hero, my first and only fanfic, inspired by Nintendo’s Legend of Zelda game series. Even though it is merely a fanfic, I did want to do another read-through and address any issues I came across. And did I find some! Readers had spoken of minor plot holes; I am ashamed to have found several of these myself, from things like our heroes finding the Zora’s sapphire twice, to a couple of other moments which make one just stop and scratch their heads. Thus, I’ve read through, fixing these issues. While I am sorry to have found such problems, I am also glad too; it means I am learning much as an author and can begin to see and fix such problems for myself.
I’ve also sought to tighten up the writing a tad; I’ve been learning that, while one of my strengths is being a very visual writer, I can also tend to be too “flowery” with my language, I vice I’m working to improve upon and which I hope reflects in this newly edited version of Silent Hero.
Silent Hero is still a fan-based work; therefore, I see no need to pay to work with a professional editor like I’m currently doing with many of my original works. However, after reading through, there were certainly some small errors and plot holes which needed addressing, as well as some things which could use better explanations. Our heroes end up collecting Shards, Songs, and Stones, which makes things sort of convoluted. And while I wasn’t prepared for a complete overhaul, this again being a fan-based work, I at least wanted to explain what was going on better, such as what exactly our heroes were looking for and why, and how these things would help them.
Is the plot still convoluted? Honestly, from all I’ve learned from my editors thus far, I can say, “Yes!” And, was this an original work and not a fan-based one, I would seek to correct it. As it is, I’ve kept in all the hodge-podge stuff from several Zelda games, although, as said above, I’ve worked to make it make more sense.
Again, though I recognize the book as still being convoluted, my recognizing this is a good thing. It means I’m learning; I’m working on a book with my editor right now which, before her input, had a very confusing mythos with far too many rules. Now, the mythos is simpler, but better for it. As I said, Silent Hero is a fanfic, so I’ll let what is be, especially as many of the readers who enjoyed the book liked seeing all the different elements of the different games that I included. However, were this an original work set in an original world of mine, I would definitely improve upon the that aspect of the book.
I apologize to the thousands of fans who have already downloaded the book, both those of you who have enjoyed and those who haven’t. To those who enjoyed, you deserve something even better! To those of you who didn’t, I can’t guarantee you’ll like the book now, especially if you don’t like Midna and the bits of romance added in. Many of the changes I made were necessary, but small, and the overall story is still the same. However, like it or not, at least I’ve addressed some of the issues.
So, on then with the adventure, and enjoy reading! Oh, and enjoy the new cover too; I’ve learned a lot about cover art the past year or so as well and quite enjoyed the subtle but very impactful changes to Silent Hero’s cover.
Thanks again to all of my readers, fellow Zelda-fans included!
God bless, happy reading, and may you all be inspired!
~ Christine E. Schulze
