K.D. Dowdall's Blog, page 42

The Seven Ravens: a Tale for International Women’s #FolkloreThursday

In this wonderful story, presented by author, A. M. Offenwanger, for International Women’s Day, The Seven Ravens reveals how a young girl saves her brothers – no damsel in distress was she, and the age old warning, “be careful what you wish for”.

I love fairy tales, discussions about fairy tales and writers who write fairy tales. I believe that fairy tales, in many regards, are a litmus test for how a society is behaving. It is a form of free speech, disguised as a fairy tale when free speech is limited in many societies. Fairy tales often describe what is noble in the human spirit, that doing the right thing often brings its own rewards, and how the down-trodden can fight for their human dignity. Elements of fairy tale like stories, in the modern era, are found in all genres of fiction. Fairy tales, in my opinion, were never meant just for children, they often were meant for a society, like the Little Match Girl and Little Red Riding Hood, the age old good vs evil, yes, but much more than that, it was a way to change hearts and minds, a way to build character and a conscience.

amo vitam

It’s International Women’s Day today. It’s also Thursday, which invariably generates a flurry of Twitter posts under the hashtag #FolkloreThursday. So, of course, today a fairy tale nerd’s Twitter feed is awash in tweets about women in folklore.

“Ah, women in fairy tales,” you say, “damsels in distress, passively waiting for a prince to come rescue them – right?” Bwhahahahah! Excuse me while I laugh loud and long (not to mention a little scornfully). Yes, sure, they exist, the Sleeping Beauties and Snow Whites in their glass coffins or rose-covered castles (and we love ’em). But just as common are the wide-awake Beauties who are the ones that do the rescuing – of Beasts or Frogs, for example, to mention just two of the best-known tales. And not all of those tales’ happy endings are weddings, either – there are people other than lovers or boyfriends to rescue, you know.

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How Not to Become a Troubled School Shooter

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jennie, what you wrote is so incredible and should hang on every teachers wall and written in stone on every school building! This is everything a child needs to know while in elementary school, high school, and college and it would be nice in the work place too. Perhaps people would not grow up to be mean to their own children by taking out all their pent up anger from not receiving love and kindness from their parents and the cycle goes on…. Why is it that so many religions focus on hell and damnation? They should focus on love, kindness, joy, with lots of hugs and that everyone should be good to each other. Love doesn’t care if you are rich or poor. Hate is a thief, that steals our humanity and creates all fear that is a destroyer of love.

A Teacher's Reflections

Make Friends

Be Kind

Share

Play

Read Books, Together

Laugh

Know That Crying Lets The Hurt Come Out

Tell Stories, Real and Make Believe

Tell your Mom When You Feel Angry

Say Please and Thank You

Ask For Help

Accept Help

Remember That People Love You

Play Outside

Run, Jump, and Swing Really High

Be a Listener

Know That Scared and Lonely Does Not Feel Good

Remember That a Hug Feels Really Good

Watch the Wonders of Nature and Animals

Love a Dog, Pat a Bunny

Let Ladybugs and Beetles Crawl on You.

Write Your Stories

Draw Pictures and Paint

Sing Loud

Dance

Follow the Golden Rule

Jennie

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Hues of life

This is so emotionally touching, the kind of poem that makes one feel the suffering, the struggle to look up and as you so beautiful wrote, ‘let go the darkness, embracing the light, gifted of love and peace.

Peace, Love and Patchouli

Mixed in moments of everyday

we turn to seek the colors of balance,

moving ever forward

we twist and turn in search of the light

rising before us so splendid

we return to the source.

Like water running to the feel of gravity

up, down and around

slipping past the walls that hinder,

finding a way in the time needed

to find the way back to being.

Faces here and then suddenly absent

we ponder the strangeness of change,

and the ghosts of memory surface

we face the truth of our everyday lives,

moving to a higher ground

as the emotion flows into a quiet place

we embrace the little things

and let go the darkness

embracing the light gifted

of love and peace.

I have been absent of late as a very special visitor has been here visiting(Hey Mom)and time has been spent sponging up any available moment to…

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My Mother’s Fairy Tales

This is a must read post from Jennie about the real purpose of fairy tales.

A Teacher's Reflections

My mother gave me her childhood book of fairy tales when my children were young.  This wasn’t a book she had ever shown me, or my brother and sisters.  I think it was my teaching and my newfound love of children’s literature that prompted her to give me the book.

I was thrilled and excited.  I read many of the fairy tales, especially the ones I knew.  I remember calling Mother and the conversation we had on the phone.  It went something like this:

Me:  “Mother, these fairy tales are terrible.”

Mother:  “What do you mean?”

Me:  “They’re violent.”

The silence was deafening.  I could see the stiffening and the tension, and I wasn’t even there.  I could see the eyes tightening and the chin rising, even though I wasn’t there.

My mother was a no-nonsense, tough woman.  She always idolized her grandfather who was a coal miner from Wales…

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Quotations on Patriotism

Theodore Roosevelt, Mark Twain, and George Washington, gave us a warning about imposters who do not have patriotism at heart, but instead, a goal to be a supreme ruler that stamps out democracy under their feet. Thank you Charles for these patriotic truths.

charles french words reading and writing

It seems appropriate in these times of turmoil, in which terms like patriotism are thrown around easily, to put up some quotations about it. After reading Trump’s so-called joke about hoping for a President for life in the United States, I am compelled to point out that when he took the oath of office, among what he promised was, “. . . I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.”  (The emphasis is mine.) This is a sacred duty, and it must never been made a butt of jokes, nor must any President make claims to want to be “President for life.” Anyone who does that is not patriotic, and any American who is patriotic should be offended. My parents’ generation fought a horrific world war to…

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Blog Tour Banner For Gallows Hill: The Investigative Paranormal Society, Book 2 by Charles F. French — charles french words reading and writing

Hello to all! I wanted to reveal the blogtour banner for my new book: Gallows Hill: The Investigative Paranormal Society, Book 2. Gallows Hill can be found here in ebook. Gallows Hill in paperback can be found here. An interview about Gallows Hill can be found here. Please follow the following links to […]

via Blog Tour Banner For Gallows Hill: The Investigative Paranormal Society, Book 2 by Charles F. French — charles french words reading and writing

Blog Tour for Charles F. French and Gallows Hill: The Investigative Paranormal Society, Book 2: An Invitation to Participate!

This is a 5 star book. I was a beta reader for Gallows Hill. It is an absolutely creative and imaginative horror story. Terrific!

charles french words reading and writing

Hello to all of my readers and followers. I have recently finished the second book in my series of The Investigative Paranormal Society, and I invite you to participate in a blog tour that will run over the course of about one month. If you choose to help, I will greatly appreciate it. The tour is designed so that you do almost no work; you simply choose a day to host a blogpost for the tour, and you choose from several options what you would like to do.

You may choose from:

*Conducting an interview with the author,

*Conducting an interview with a character from the book,

*Doing a review;

*A publicity announcement for the book;

*Perhaps menus from meals the characters like to make;

*Posts on my thoughts on writing or other issues;

*And other possibilities. I am open to ideas.

If you are interested please, contact me by…

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Eternally

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Like the day knows the dawn,

As twilight anticipates the night,

we know each other.

Two spheres of the universe are we

Revolving around each other,

Inexplicably.

As our paths move away from each other,

Moving in a circular motion,

Returning.

We bring to each other,

the clarity of the universe,

Enlightened.

Promising to return,

for our inevitable reunion,

was traced upon the heavens,  

Eternally.

By K. D. Dowdall  

Beyond Tomorrow

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BEYOND TOMORROW

Face forward into a windy day and listen,

Feel the sun upon your face and dream,

Watch the clouds and learn to change,

Look to a starry night and know light even in darkness,

Gaze upon fields of wheat and see the gold,

Go barefoot on a stony path and dance,

Watch the trees in the forest and learn to see,

Look upon mountains high and know the nobility in a blade of grass,

Hear thunder on a stormy day and feel the power,

Feel rain drops fall upon your face and drink,

Watch lightening cross the sky and learn to strive,

Look onto the heavens and know the magnificence of you,

Feel the sand beneath your feet and run,

Watch seabirds fly and learn to soar,

Listen to the ocean and hear the siren’s song,

Look to the endless blue horizon and know infinity,

See life as one brand new so that you will remember,

That you have come and gone before,

And delight in all you see that you may learn,

To look beyond tomorrow that you may know forever,

By K. Demers Dowdall 

Copyright 2010  

Interview with Writer and Author, Charles F. French, Part 2

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Good day to you Professor Charles F. French!  Thank you  for taking time, in your busy schedule, between teaching literature at two universities in eastern Pennsylvania and writing great horror novels! I just read your latest horror novel,  Gallows Hill, and it is a blockbuster of a horror novel!  I am very interested in discovering more about why reading, writing, and teaching is the love of your life.  Thank you for answering the following questions.  I know your readers are as anguish to know all about you as I am.

1.  How do you get your ideas for writing books, such as Maledicus, your first published book, but not the only novel you have written?

This may sound odd, and I do not know what it says about either me or the creative process, but I see characters and wonder what their stories are. I begin to think about them, and I jot down my ideas. And I never seem to run out of ideas.

2.  Do you feel that novels should have a moral dilemma that must be addressed?

I do not think that all novels should have a moral dilemma in them—that must be up to the author to decide, but I can say that in my novels, I always have at least one, if not more, moral dilemmas that the characters face in the course of the action.

3.  Do you research your story before you begin to write a novel?

I do not have a set pattern when it comes to research for my novels. I usually do the research as I come across something I do not know for the books. Then I attack the research to learn as much as I can about it. Because I never outline a book, I cannot be sure what it is I will need to learn until I reach that point. I am not suggesting that anyone else should follow my way of research, only that it is what I do. Each writer must find his/her own paths.

4.  In your latest novel, Gallows Hill what single idea inspired you to write this story?

Its origin is found in the first book in this series: Maledicus: The Investigative Paranormal Society, book 1. The three men who create the ghost-investigation group all have lost someone very close to them to death. The first book focused on Roosevelt, and this one focuses on Sam, who lost his teenaged son, Josh to suicide. Sam carries deep grief with him, and the book is about his search to find answers about his son’s death. So, the theme of the past intruding on the present also informs the creation of the supernatural villain of the book, a former executioner/fundamentalist preacher who just cannot seem to let go of his need to punish those he considers to be sinners.

5.  Are you presently writing another novel and can you give us an idea of what it is  about and why did you chose this subject matter?

Yes, I have written the first of a Young Adult series that I am currently pitching to agents, and I hope that I can break through into traditional publishing with it. It is an environmental post-apocalyptic novel, informed by the middle ages. I am also working on the first draft of the first book in a fantasy series that I thought would be midgrade but now I realize is adult fantasy. The themes of the evils of the world and how they intrude through fantastic events into the lives of several youngsters is too powerful, vivid, and horrific to be anything but adult fantasy.

6.  I have been told you that have also written another novel that has not yet been published. What is the name of this novel and when will it be published?

The name of the next book in the paranormal investigation series is Evil Lives After: The Investigative Paranormal Society, Book 3, and it will come out around Halloween in 2019.

7. Is there anything else that you would like to add to this discussion?

First, thank you to K. D. Dowdall for conducting this interview with me. Second, I want to say to all writers out there: continue to do what you do, and never lose hope or dedication to your craft and your art.

 

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