Ariella Moon's Blog, page 36

How to cast a Love Spell

With Valentine's Day rapidly approaching, my thoughts turn to romance and love spells. 

In my first book, Spell Check, Evie O'Reilly is desperate to prevent her best friend from casting a love spell directed at Evie's secret crush. As the Jefferson High gang quickly discovers, a love spell aimed at a specific person delivers terrible karmic repercussions. There is a better, safer way to attract love.




         A Safe, Simple, Powerful Love Spell:


Spells require focused intention. They are meditations. Think of the sort of love you desire while you follow these simple steps:   1.     Plan ahead so you can perform the love spell on a Friday, the day ruled by the Goddess Venus.2.     Gather the following:  A candle: Pink for love and friendship, or red for lustful love. A small bowl filled with enough olive oil to coat the candle.Petals from any of the following fresh garden-cut flowers (Do not use store-bought bouquets.): A pink or red rose, gardenia, hyacinth, pansy, jasmine, or orchid. Ground cinnamon.

3.     Create a handwritten list of the qualities you most hope for in a new love. 4.     Mix together the flower petals, oil, and a pinch of cinnamon (optional).5.     Have within reach some paper towels and the candle holder you plan to use. Using your hands (as opposed to a brush), coat the candle with the oil/flower/spice mixture. Begin at the bottom of the candle and work towards the middle. Then coat from the top to the middle. Infuse with positive thoughts of love as you work.6.     Insert candle into the holder then place the holder atop your list.7.     Burn candle completely in one day or one night, preferably a Friday.8.     Do not leave the candle unattended. If you must leave, snuff (don’t blow) out the candle and relight it when you return.
Don’t
Aim a love spell at a particular person. A binding love spell will harm you and the person you entrap. Trust the Universe will find you the best possible match.
copyright 2014 by Ariella Moonhttp://www.AriellaMoon.com

Photo credit for jasmine flowers on a branch: copyright Depositphotos.com/steho

Writing Unforgettable Characters. Part 2: Saving Mr. Banks

Writing Unforgettable CharactersPart 2: Saving Mr. Banks
A hero or heroine’s strength or brilliance can be measured by the quality of their opponents. Would Sherlock Holmes seem so brilliant if he were up against a common thief instead of a criminal mastermind? Would Harry Potter be just another child wizard if Voldemort didn’t symbolize supreme evil?
It’s difficult to identify the true villain in the recently released movie, Saving Mr. Banks.Screenwriters Kelly Marcel and Sue Smith present two indomitable characters with opposing goals. Walt Disney wants to adapt P.L. Travers’s book, Mary Poppins, into a movie. P.L. Travers wants to protect her characters from Disney’s perceived frivolity. She refuses him for twenty years, and agrees to meet Disney only when faced with dire financial difficulties.
From the outset, Mrs. Travers is prickly and oppositional. Walt Disney is affable and determined. Travers blocks his every move to transform her book into a fluffy, animated musical. The author appears destined to become a cartoon foil to the more loveable Disney. The great surprise in Saving Mr. Banks is the use of backstory to slowly shift the viewer’s perception of the contentious Mrs. Travers.
Importance of Backstory
The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines “backstory” as “a story that tells what led up to the main story or plot (as of a film).” Unforgettable characters have compelling backstories that drive their current goals. Walt Disney had promised his children he would make Mary Poppinsinto a movie. Late in the film we discover details about Disney’s father that provide further understanding of his motivation. But it is Travers’s Australian backstory —and what it reveals about her father and her relationship with him — that profoundly changes our understanding of her.
Shapeshifters
As Mrs. Travers’s backstory unfolds, Marcel and Smith slowly build her emotional foundation. The shapeshifter archetype comes to the fore. Spoiler Alert! Travers’s father shapeshifts from an imaginative, playful, doting father to a drunk who is unable to hold a job or grow up. As our perception of him changes, so does our empathy for, and our understanding of, his daughter.
Projection
On another level, the shapshifter archetype brings fresh comprehension to Travers’s assumptions about Disney. In The Writer’s Journey, Christopher Vogler states, “By nature we look for people who match our internal image of the opposite sex.” Subconsciously, Travers judges Disney’s whimsical, magical (pixie dust!) side through the filter of her past and projects her father onto him. She wants to save her beloved characters from Disney because she fears he is too much like her father. But a character’s greatest weakness can be his greatest strength. Without the destructive influence of alcoholism that killed Travers’s father, Disney transformed imagination, magic, and childhood wonder into a highly successive business.
Travers’s emotional journey from distrust to trust, from disempowerment to empowerment, makes her an unforgettable character.
copyright 2014 by Ariella Moon
http://www.AriellaMoon.com

Karen King's Perfect Summer

I'm happy to welcome back fellow Astraea Press author, Karen King, for the one-year anniversary bash of her first YA novel,  Perfect Summer. Karen has had over one hundred children’s books published. She’s written for many children's magazines too including Sindy, Barbie, Winnie the Pooh and Thomas the Tank Engine. She writes for all ages and in all genres; story books, picture books, plays, joke books and non-fiction. Perfect Summer was runner up in the Red Telephone books YA Novel 2011 competition.




Blurb for Perfect Summer
Growing up in a society so obsessed with perfection that the government gives people grants for plastic surgery, 15-year-old Morgan can't help being a bit envious of her best friend Summer. Summer is beautiful and rich, her father is a top plastic surgeon and her mother is a beauty consultant with a celebrity client list. Her life seems so effortlessly perfect. Whereas Morgan isn't so rich or beautiful and her little brother, Josh, has Down's syndrome - which, according to the Ministry and society in general, is a crime. Then Josh is kidnapped and the authorities aren't interested so Morgan and Summer decide to investigate. They, along with another teenager, Jamie, whose sister, Holly, has also been kidnapped, uncover a sinister plot involving the kidnapping of disabled children and find themselves in terrible danger. Can they find Josh and Holly before it's too late?
Extract
The street was deserted. I guessed everyone was at work and school. It was so quiet and peaceful. So normal. So hard to believe that anything as awful as a kidnapping could be about to take place.      Maybe we are panicking, jumping to conclusions, I thought. After all, Mila vans were quite common.       “The van could belong to a plumber or electrician going about their business,” I suggested. I hoped it was.            “Could be. But I think it’s a bit too much of a coincidence for it to be parked in the same street that Emma lives on, don’t you?” Jamie asked.I remembered how Josh was playing in the garden just before he was snatched. Emma could be doing the same thing, heartbreakingly unaware what fate was in store for her. We couldn’t take any chances.“If this van does belong to the kidnapper, it means he’s on his way to get Emma right now. We’ve got to stop him. How about we split up? One of us goes to the front of the house and the other to the back?” “I’ve a better idea. He’ll have to come back to the van so it might be best if I stay here and see if I can immobilize it while you go warn Emma’s parents? Then he won’t be able to get away.”
“Good idea.” I started to run off, anxious to get to Emma’s house before the kidnapper struck.“Morgan?”I paused and glanced over my shoulder. “What?”“If you do see the kidnapper, no heroics. Okay?”“Okay. Nor you.”I didn’t like leaving Jamie by the van alone. The kidnapper could be armed. Or there could be two of them. A gang even. There’s no way Jamie would be a match for a couple of men, but I had no choice. Emma’s life could be at stake.I raced along the street, looking for number fourteen, the address we had for Emma. I was at number thirty--‐‑four so I ran on.As I passed a small pathway separating a block of houses, two people came running out--both dressed in dark leisure suits. I barely had time to notice that one was a man, the other a woman, before the man charged into me, knocking me to the ground.“Ow!” I yelled as I hit the pavement, landing on my left shoulder. “What the heck…?”Furious, I pulled myself up and rubbed my shoulder. It stung like mad, and I could already feel the throb of a bruise forming. I glared up at the man then sucked in my breath as I saw the young girl, flung face down over his shoulder. I noticed theheavy boot on her left leg then the metal splint supporting it. She was wearing a calliper. She must be Emma. And they were kidnapping her!
Buy LinksAstraea Press
Amazon
Waterstones
Barnes and Noble

Ten Fun Facts About Karen King
1)   I have no sense of direction and am always getting lost. 2)   I had my first poem published when I was eleven. 3)   I love to sing but can never remember the words to songs and always sing out of tune.4)   When I was a child me and my brother spent all afternoon trying to dig to Australia.5)   I was about to start teacher training when I started getting my work published so I became a writer instead.6)   Me and my two brothers started our own detective agency when we were young and once ran all the way home in terror because we thought we’d spotted a wanted criminal.7)   I once tried to dye my hair blonde and it turned out bright pink.8)   I love chocolate so much I often eat it for breakfast.9)    I can’t ride a bike. When I was younger I tried to learn but fell off and landed upside down in a litter bin. I haven’t tried since!10)       I once wrote a horoscope page for a magazine.
Connect with Karen KingWebsite: www.karenking.net
Author Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/?ref=tn_tnmn&__adt=7&__att=iframe#!/KarenKingAuthor
Good Reads page: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/74448.Karen_King

Writing Unforgettable Characters

Writing Unforgettable CharactersPart 1: Downton Abbey
In years past, Julian Fellowes, writer and creator of Downton Abbey, has stunned viewers by killing off beloved characters. (Thankfully, nowhere near the body count found in HBO’s Game of Thrones.) Spoiler Alert! In the Season Four opener, Fellowes delivers another shock only this time it is the rape of a beloved character.
Reader/Viewer Empathy
Over the course of three television seasons, viewers have come to know the large cast of aristocrats and servants that make up Downton Abbey. Arguably, the most relatable character, the one with the biggest heart, is Anna May Bates, played winningly by Joanne Froggatt. Viewers became invested in her happiness. They hoped she and Mr. Bates (Brendan Coyle) would overcome seemingly insurmountable odds and be able to marry. Anna’s happiness finally seemed assured, and then the horrid violent act occurs.
Writers are instructed to raise the stakes, build tension. Fellowes accomplished this by:1.     Building viewer empathy.2.     Heightening the sense of danger through foreshadowing. Mr. Bates warns Anna he doesn’t like or trust Lord Gillingham’s valet, Mr. Green (Nigel Harman), who later rapes her. Personally, I had some discomfort with this. It could be construed that the rape could have been avoided if Anna had just listened to her husband —thus insinuating the victim is to blame.3.     Raising the viewer’s sense of helplessness. By juxtaposing scenes of an opera performance upstairs to the struggle downstairs, the viewer becomes increasingly nervous and realizes no one will hear Anna’s screams and come to her rescue.  
A Character’s Greatest Strength Can Also Be Her Greatest FlawAnna’s greatest strength is her unwavering ability to see the best in people. But the very characteristic that makes us like her so much also endangered her. Someone with a more suspicious nature might have reached for a knife when confronted in the kitchen. In Fellowes’s scene, Anna is slugged and falls to the floor in the second she realizes she is in harms way.
Was the scene gratuitous? Whether writing a book or television series, an author must consider a character’s arc within each book/episode as well as over the entire series. Writer risks reader/viewer alienation if a beloved character is pointlessly harmed. When Season Four debuted in the United Kingdom, Julian Fellowes told The BBC , “The whole point of the way we do things on Downton is we don’t do them gratuitously. We are interested in exploring the resultant emotions and the effect these things have on people.”
Time will tell. Meanwhile, Fellowes has given us a Master’s Class in Character Development. For that, I will forgive him for the unforgettable shot of the long empty hallway in Downtown Abbey and the sound of Anna’s screams.

copyright 2014 Ariella Moon Photo credit: www.mirror.co.uk

Wolf Moon Magic

Wolf Moon January’s full moon (11:52 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, January 15) is known in the Northern Hemisphere by many names, including the Cold Moon, the Moon After Yule, and the Wolf Moon. As a shaman, I detect three magical meanings associated with this moon.

Illuminating Your PathWhether or not you made a New Year’s Resolution on January 1st, chances are you reflected at least momentarily on your life. The first full moon of the year illuminates your path for the coming year. If possible on January 15, spend a moment outside in the moonlight, or sit or sleep where the moonlight slants through your window. Write down your New Year’s resolution and place it beneath your pillow. Before you fall asleep, ask to be shown in your dreams how best to achieve your goal.
Wolf Totem                                                               Photo, Wikipedia

Some Native American First Nations named the January moon the Wolf Moon because they could hear the wolves, lean from winter’s scarcity, howling in the night. Wolf totems provide powerful lessons regarding:
1.     Self-reliance and trusting your instincts and inner power.2.     Choosing well — wolves mate for life.3.     Trust and cooperation — pack survival, cooperative parenting of the young, and balancing solitary time with group activities.On the January Full Moon, meditate on how Wolf can best guide you.
Moon in LeoThe moon enters Leo the morning of the 16th. Leo’s motto is I WILL, an excellent energy to jumpstart resolutions and to define one’s path.

Photo: Wikipedia, UK Wolf Conservation Trust

RitualAdorn your sacred space in white. Anoint a white or silver candle with olive oil sprinkled with nutmeg for luck, money, and good health. Ask your guardians or angels to protect you as you meditate. Then light the candle and ask Mother Moon to illuminate your path. Call upon Wolf’s spirit to aid you on your journey. Know that the great lion, Leo, empowers you with strength and willpower. Write down whatever comes to you in your meditation, whether or not it makes sense at the time. When your meditation is complete, thank and release your angels or guardians. If safe to do so, allow the candle to burn down. Otherwise, extinguish it with a snuffer or by pinching the flame between your forefinger and thumb.
Copyright Ariella Moon 2014

Palm Springs International Film Festival Returns

Cars crowd the parking lots, and restaurants that were half-empty a month ago are teeming. The press of people goes beyond the annual influx of Canadians and other snowbirds. Why are people flocking to Palm Springs? Yes, it's time again for the Palm Springs International Film Festival.

The Awards Gala
Kudos to festival board Chairman, Harold Matzner and his committee. Tonight's Awards Gala sold out all 2000 seats before they announced any honorees. Mary Hart returns as the Gala host. Everyone from Meryl Streep to Bono will attend. Here's the full list of honorees:

Ensemble Performance Award: The cast of American Hustle. 
Amy Adams, Christian Bale, Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, & Jeremy Renner
Spotlight Award: Julia Roberts, August: Osage County
Desert Palm Achievement Awards: Matthew McConaughey, Dallas Buyers Club, and Sandra Bullock, Gravity
Director of the Year Award: Steve McQueen for 12 Years a Slave
Breakthrough Performance Award:  Lupita Nyong'o for 12 Years a Slave
Career Achievement Award: Bruce Dern, Nebraska
Frederick Loewe Award for Film Composing: Thomas Newman, Saving Mr. Banks. (He also composed the music for Skyfall, WALL-E, The Shawshank Redemption, & American Beauty)
Sonny Bono Visionary Award: U2, Mandela
Icon Award:Meryl Streep, August: Osage County

Chairman's Award: Tom Hanks, Captain Phillips, Saving Mr. Banks

5 Things You Should Know About the New Moon on New Year's Day

 Graphic by Daniel Kmiec1.     It’s a SuperMoon.There will be 5 SuperMoons (perigee moons) in 2014. Two will occur in January. Each will bring an extra energetic boost to any magic or intentions.             2.     The New Moon on January 1st carries the Capricorn push to change and cleanse. The goat and the motto I USE, symbolize Capricorn. Any resolution you make on January 1st will have the full force of the goat butting you up whatever mountain you choose to conquer. So only set intentions you plan to keep. Remember to shed that which no longer serves you, in order to make room for the new.      3.     Planets in Retrograde      The retrograde movements of Venus and Jupiter may hinder workings around love, relationships, luck, and travel. 
4.     The Earth Energy of CapricornThe Capricorn New Moon is good for building up to a breakthrough. But first you must face up to your responsibilities (the grounding aspect of earth signs)  5.  New Moons are New Beginnings     Look within and ask yourself, “What is in my highest good?” Then have faith you can manifest the life you say you want.    
  
Copyright 2013Ariella Moonhttp://www.AriellaMoon.com

Spell Struck Gets a Movie

Technically, it's more of a book trailer than a movie, and no, there wasn't a red carpet or glam stars. But Brilliant Beautiful Daughter and I were in a triumphant mood after finishing our first Moon Maiden Production. With two books published in rapid succession - Spell Struck then Spell Fire, I didn't want
Salem and Aidan's story to be overlooked. So here it is, told in slightly over a minute.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmlOmUJd7p0

Four Star Review for Spell Fire

Zili in the Sky http://www.ziliinthesky.blogspot.com
"4 stars in my sky!"
"Ariella Moon does a great job of incorporating the pagan and magical stuff without it seeming unbelievable. When I initially saw the words dragon shaman in the blurb I really didn't expect to like the story, but once I started reading Spell Fire I was quickly engrossed in the plot and the characters."
My thanks to Zili in the Sky for her review! I particularly took note of her comments about to the guys in Spell Fire, Jett and Thor. Hmmm...I think I may have to revisit them at some point! Thor may appear off camera in book 4. I can't see either of them in book 5, but after that...! Thanks Zili for getting me thinking. There is definitely a lot more to Jett and Thor. What do you think? Should I bring them back? Give Jett his own story?
Be sure to scroll down and enter the two amazon gift card/Paypal cash giveaways!
Amazon  *  Barnes & Noble

Spell Fire Connects with Readers

Like actors, authors sometimes feel like they live or die by their reviews. The Spell Fire Blog Tour has introduced me to several new reviewers. It has been both an education and rewarding!

It takes time to read a book and craft and a thoughtful review. I so appreciate all who have taken the time to post their feedback on blogs, review sites, Amazon, and Barnes and Noble. You writing has inspired and enlightened me! I look forward (with some trepidation) to the reviews to come.

Here are the latest tour reviews:

"This story took risks... The risk in showing such private wounds which haunt so many teens was risky. Mental illness has a stigma attached to it and having such a character was risky. I fell in love with her the first time she washed her hands, and the 100th. Because, like may young adult books, it was written from our Ainslie’s point of view it was like peaking into someones diary, almost. I am all smushy inside I liked this book so much! Oh and of course young love, what story would be complete without it?" Cabin Goddess gave Spell Fire a 9 out of 10http://www.cabingoddess.com

"I would recommend this book to just about anyone." Bonnie Gets a Say posted 3 out of 5 smiley faces
http://bonnieharris.blogspot.com

Happy reading! Be sure to scroll down for two separate raffles to win 
Amazon Gift Cards or Paypal Cash

Now back to writing the next installment in the Teen Wytche Saga!
~Ariella Moon