Helen B. Henderson's Blog, page 7

2024 V : Volcano's I Have Known

 

As a young girl, I lived for a period of time I lived on the island of Luzon in the Philippines in a compound just outside what was at the time known as Clark Air Force Base. It wasn't significant to me at the time but Clark was just 14 kilometers (8.7 mi) east of Mount Pinatubo. Pinatubo is most notorious for its June 15, 1991, eruption, the second-largest terrestrial eruption of the 20th century after the 1912 eruption of Novarupta in Alaska. Complicating the eruption was the arrival of Typhoon Yunya, bringing a lethal mix of ash and rain to towns and cities surrounding the volcano.volcano. We left the area in 1967 so we were not affected by the eruption. However, many years later while watching a documentary on various volcanic eruptions I watched Pinatubo blow her stack. And was quite grateful not to be part of Operation Fiery Vigil.

 

Mt. Pinatubo caldera.
Image by CuriosityDrivesTheCat.
Courtesy of Pixabay.

Volcanoes also appeared in both the Dragshi Chronicles and the Tear Stone Collectors. Mount Tagachim is mentioned in 2024 T : Tagachim. The volcano in the Tear Stone Collectors is unnamed, just known as the fiery lair of the Goddess. You can discover it here as Trelleir, who has spent time warming himself on a ledge above the bubbling lava pool, recounts his impressions.

~till next time, Helen

 

Sales Sites for:

  Fire and Amulet

First Change

 
 

If you're following other blogs in the challenge, here's the master list of the other participants.

 

2024 U : Unearthing #mfrwhooks

 

"U" is for "unearthing." In writing, unearthing a future event can be done by foreshadowing. Unearthing a character's past can be the use of backstory. In the real world , if lucky enough to participate in an archaeological dig, you can literally unearth the past in the form of fossils, lost artifacts, and abandoned structures.

Since the official theme for the challenge is "books, writing craft, and the writing life with some personal thoughts sprinkled in," this post is a diversion from books to a more personal insight. I have been fortunate enough over the years to be part of several archaeological digs.

Hunting in the cool waters of a tree-shaded creek on a hot day rewarded you with fossilized shark teeth. Items found on a Revolutionary War battlefield using the Bag-tag-and-flag techniques contributed to the history of the site. Horseshoes and hard-forged hinges were unearthed on my family's farm. Finding and recovering coins of the various ages may not be of high financial value due to their decades buried beneath the grass, but the memory was as precious as the antique buttons found.

If you have followed my blog for any period of time, you might remember I have also visited the dark side and written non-fiction. As part of my work in the museum field, besides the above, I have been involved in traditional trowel and sift archaeological research including a survey dig at a colonial-era home. Now to set the stage, a survey dig does not uncover the entire site. Open squares are separated by untouched earth to allow future researchers access to undisturbed ground. The reason for this is important because sticking out of the wall of one of the areas being dug was a decorated piece of porcelain. The urge to remove it was strong so there would be a displayable artifact. "No one will know."

Various excuses swirled in our mind. "It is sticking out so we are not really removing it." As to whether just the handle and side of the cup was photographed in situ, or whether a more computer image taken and the piece then returned to its hiding spot? "No comment." I will say if you dig in the backyard, three squares down, six squares over, using the tree as the starting point the item is still there.

~till next time, Helen

 

 

If you're following other blogs in the challenge, here's the master list of the other participants.

Since it's Wednesday, this post is doing double duty. The rest of the Book Hooks hop is at http://mfrwbookhooks.blogspot.com

 

2024 T : Tagachim

 

Writing the challenge posts is not necessarily done in alphabetical order. V : Volcano's I've Known gave the inspiration for featuring Tagachim, pushing aside the original topic of Trelleir. But the story of the rust-colored dragon who lived amongst humans is detailed in a meet the character post.

There were two sides to the volcano that is Mt. Tagachim. A narrow trail leads up one side to a thick ice field. The other branch of the trail winds through a forest of stunted trees to end at a rocky ledge overlooking a volcano's lava pool. 

The main inspiration for the mountain home of the mountain god, Tagachim, was the magnificent, snow-capped Mount Fuji in Japan. You can see the inspiration. Although I made a visit to Japan, I didn't do the pilgrimage.

Mount Fuji, Japan
Courtesy of Pixabay

Mount Tagachim appears in two the Dragshi Chronicles. It is where the Empress Mirabesh finds her destiny in the tale, "Fire and Ice" in the companion book, First Change. The legend is re-enacted in Hatchlings Curse when Lord Branin takes on the dragon form of his soul-twin and in the 300-year ritual presents the dragon law.

~till next time, Helen

 

Sales Sites:

First Change

Hatchlings Curse

 

 

If you're following other blogs in the challenge, here's the master list of the other participants.

 

2024 S : The Price of Surrender

 

It was a toss-up as to what battle to use to illustrate surrender. It could be one of the reenactments I covered as a correspondent or as a volunateer. The most logical examples should have come from one of the fights or battle scenes in one of the fantasy series. However, the villains didn't surrender, didn't ritually surrender their sword. Instead, they slunk away beneath a clown of invisibility. So, a different tact was taken. Not surrendering.

One of the stories in the military tribute collection, Hearth and Sand, filled the need.

To set the scene, in a tale of a near-future, a pilot with no future fights an errant artificial intelligence in control on a civilian air transport. While he hid given up and stopped fighting his incurable disease, a sense of duty instilled by decades of service rises and he refuses to surrender his and the other passengers fates to a short-circuited computer.

Courtesy of Pixabay.

The aircraft reached cruising altitude and the last of Chippi’s strength deserted him. After a final pull on his seat belt, he dropped off into a sleep that was neither restful nor deep. From a habit born of years in the cockpit, one part of his mind retained an awareness of his surroundings. The bustle of flight attendants taking food orders and dispensing drinks served as a connection to the life around him.

The plane’s tilt as it entered a steep bank pulled Chippi to alertness. With flights now computer controlled to avoid weather fronts, he knew the steep turn indicated a major problem. Before he could summon an attendant, a computer voice, one almost indistinguishable from a true human’s, came over the aircraft’s message system...

Chippi looked out the window. However, instead of storm clouds, he was greeted by a clear blue sky. The view below disturbed him even more. This isn’t right, he thought. The NorPac dike follows the coastline from MexCal to Puget Sound. It should be just off our starboard wing. But the massive structure that held the Pacific Ocean at bay and served as the foundation for the desalination plants was not visible from either side of the craft. Only a vast unbroken expanse of water appeared in the viewports.

After the aircraft performs erratic maneuvers,  tossing people around, a piece of logic code buried deep within the plane’scomplex artificial intelligence triggered a relay and the aircraft pulled outof the spin to level off just above the crashing waves. The brief respite allowed Chippin the chance to move. Crawling from seat to seat, the sick, bruised and battered man reached the locked door that gave access to the cockpit.

Amidst the plane’s erratic actions, he tried to punch in the universal emergency crew code. Twice the number was rejected. He thrust his fingers at the keypad in frustration. A loud snick sounded as the cockpit controller recognized the code and released the lock. Tumbling through the swinging hatch, Chippi ended up on his back against a panel of blinking warning lights. “AI ERROR — AI ERROR” scrolled across a panel on the opposite side of the cockpit.

"Thank God,” was his unconscious comment, seeing an old-fashioned pilot’s chair. The passengers and crew would have had no chance for survival if the aircraft had been the latest model Douglas Orbiter 301. Unlike craft designed after the age of AI control, this cockpit retained control stick and rudder pedals just as those once used by the men who pioneered flight.

To find out who wins the competition, human experience or technology, read  "Live or Surrender To Technology" in Hearth and Sand.

~till next time, Helen

An author's note:  "Live or Surrender To Technology" was written as a tribute to a family member who after years in the sky took his last flight westward just days before 9-11.

Hearth and Sand: Stories from the Front Lines and the Homefront

Buy Links:   One Click Link to major book sellers.

 

If you're following other blogs in the challenge, here's the master list of the other participants.

 

2024 R : Remember

 

The characters we create (or whose tales we tell for them) do not spring into existence with the first words of a novel. Writers' guide often include the instruction to start the story 'In medias res.' Or in plainer language, in the middle of things.

So where does the character's existence prior to the novel's beginning reveal itself. What has come before the opening scene can be found in dreams, flashbacks, items left behind, and memories are ways the characters remembering past events. Writings such as letters or diaries can also be a way of remembering.

An author's note: Usually Q, X, and Z are the hardest posts to write for the challenge. This year "R" took the flag as the last topic to complete.

~till next time, Helen

 

 

If you're following other blogs in the challenge, here's the master list of the other participants.

 

Out and About at the BWL Blog, M is for ...

 Some thoughts on outdoor life over at the BWL Authors Blog. Hope you will stop by to check out "M is for 'Not Murder'"

~Until next time, Helen 

And don't forget Fire and Redemption, now available in print and ebook.

2024 Q : Queen

 

No, the topic of this post is not about the woman who rules a land. Instead, the queen referred to is a female dragon. From Hatchlings Curse, Crisiant, the blue dragon queen rises in a mating flight. (No, this is not erotic. Not even a true closed door event.) And this mating flight not only included queen and her mate Drak. In addition to the two true dragons, Branin and Liam of the dragshi took part as additional suitors. The problem? According to the ancient glyphs, suitors had been known to die.

Between one heartbeat and the next, Crisiant rocketed herself skyward. Speed enhanced by her mating urges quickly carried the blue dragon past the waiting males. A powerful kick thrust Drak into the air close on her tail.

Crisiant pulled away. Then hovering, snaked her head over a wing, teasing her rapidly-approaching mate. Before he got close enough to twine necks, she winged away.

Drak arrowed in close pursuit.

Lost in urges as ancient as time, Crisiant folded her wings and dove, pulling out above the tree line. She rose higher. Her hide, vibrant with arousal, blended with the sky. The smaller object that was Drak closed the distance between them.

Branin fought to keep up with Drak and chased after the pair. His muscles burned as he continued to mirror the true dragons’ intricate maneuvers. Finally, his chest heaving, he slowed, letting Liam take up the competition.

The other dragshi surged forward. His hide glowed gold from his exertions.

Drak swooped down on Liam. The dragon’s teeth closed around the shifter’s neck.

Trying to save his friend, Branin screamed, <Drak, stop.>

The dun-colored dragon ignored the order. A wing’s distance away, Crisiant hovered, watching to see which of the pair she would allow to mate with her.

Branin tried another approach. Ignoring the pain in his joints, he drew upon hidden reserves and surged past Drak. <Crisiant,> he whistled in a lover’s croon.

Crisiant answered with one of her own.

Fighting the urge to succumb to the lure, Branin called out again.

Drak released Liam and charged Branin. <Crisiant is mine.> He reached out with a claw as he passed, ripping flesh from Branin’s shoulders. In almost the same motion, Drak grabbed Crisiant around the waist and twined necks. Their silhouettes rose until they were nothing but small black motes against the clear sky.

I hope you enjoyed this excerpt of the flight of a queen. The price to cure childlessness is high. To see the full price, read Hatchlings Curse.

~till next time, Helen

 

The Dragshi Chronicles-- action-filled, romance-laden fantasies.

Buy Links:   One Click Link to major book sellers.

 

 

If you're following other blogs in the challenge, here's the master list of the other participants.

 

2024 P : People

 

Earlier this month I was one of the authors at Bookstock 2024 in Memphis, Tennessee. The event at the Memphis Tennessee, Benjamin L. Hooks Central Library, featured exhibits and book signings by 60 authors. This post was supposed to be a photo array, but time behind the table precluded having any photographs other than the official ones. I wasn't in the group photo. After hobbling to the rally point three times, I couldn't stand any longer. There were individual shots taken, but the library hasn't posted anything newer than 2020 on the website, so those were out. So I will share a few thoughts of the event.

It was a chance to talk to readers of all ages. There was a young man in a wheelchair who said "writing is hard." And a teenage girl who loved fantasy but who was young enough her mother checked books for heat level because not all dragon shifter tales were as I used to say, 'wouldn't make my mother-in-law blush." Several veterans from various fights from Vietnam to the desert of the Middle East stopped by the table to look at the military tribute and were thanked for their service before they left.

There were others who made the rounds of the tables. A few were handing out business cards for their friends. Others were promoting author services. Some offered advise. One piece was to get out from behind the table. That you had to stand in the aisle to engage the people. They failed to acknowledge that it was hard to do when in a wheelchair.

The event was a lot of people watching and a few discussions of how to get published intermixed with handing out handcrafted bookmarks. Like many of these events, you never know what sales will result from them.

If you missed the event, all my books are available at Amazon and other sites. Just click on the cover in the banner or the series pull-down menu.

~till next time, Helen

 

If you're following other blogs in the challenge, here's the master list of the other participants.

2024 O : Outdoors #mfrwhooks

 

In a slight departure from my writing, some images of a more personal side of my life. For many years, bicycling was a favorite past time. There were more than a few hiking and biking trails within an hour drive, and one not more than a block away from my home. 

From the spot I visited most, images of the Henry Hudson Trail that ran from Keyport NJ to Sandy Hook, part of the Gateway National Recreation Area.

Another rail trail often traveled was the 70 miles of the Delaware and Raritan Canal State Park. It had quite a few opportunities to stop and take a break between the antique shops of Frenchtown and Lambertville, or the quaint town of Stockton. While the D&R route was pretty with views of the canal and the river, there was one issue. Every time I rode through one spot, my bike developed a flat tire.

~till next time, Helen

 

 

If you're following other blogs in the challenge, here's the master list of the other participants.

Since it's Wednesday, this post is doing double duty. The rest of the Book Hooks hop is at http://mfrwbookhooks.blogspot.com

Out and About, Visiting J. Q. Rose

 

It is always fun when a project involves similarities. Had a fun interview sharing a heritage recipe with J. Q. Rose  as part of the Recipes 'n Reads series on the Focused on Story Blog. Hope you'll stop by for a modernized version of my grandmother's lokse. ~till next time, Helen

 

PS - She also has a new book that is the perfect Mother's Day gift.

 

Mom’s Memories and Reflections on Motherhood: A Guided Journal is adorned with bright yellow sunflowers and created with pages to chronicle mom's unique journey, capturing the laughter, tears, and growth that define motherhood. Each page is thoughtfully designed with prompts that inspire reflection on daily joys and challenges, accompanied by insightful quotations that resonate within a mother's heart. Use the journal pages to sketch scenes, pets, or persons who are important in your life, scribble notes and memories you want to be reminded to write, ask questions, recall snippets of conversations, and reflect on new understandings revealed during the writing. Whether it's a personal purchase or a heartfelt gift for mom on any occasion, this journal promises to be a timeless heirloom, safeguarding memories and reflections for generations to cherish.

Click here to order in time for Mother's Day gift giving.