Guest Post Become Your Own Hero
Today I'd like to welcome a new author I've discovered who's book Ravena & The Resurrected I will be reviewing soon. Creative and outgoing, she writes and blogs from the greater Seattle, WA area, and has taken a unique approach to one of my favourite genres. Urban Fantasy.
Please welcome—>
Tami Jackson
I am just thrilled to be visiting Bianca Sommerland's blog today (thank you Bianca for hosting this visit)! I'm going to do something very different and will talk about something that no other writer ever does when they do a blog post. Why? Because I'm very brave. (I'm laughing after saying that because it's utterly not true. I can be a total wimp, sometimes.) Truth is, while I've been published repeatedly in newspaper and magazine articles, R&R is my first book and I'll admit that I felt completely terrified when it came time to release it.
To overcome my sense of dread, and to send my book off like a wee child attending its first day in kindergarten, without crying, I found a lot of encouragement and writing inspiration by studying J. K. Rowling with all her publishing success. In many ways, the Harry Potter series author is my hero because she has sold more books than anybody else. (What's not to admire about someone whose so very confident, creative, and successful?)
BECOME YOUR OWN HERO
The point about me admitting I felt afraid to release my own book, is to demonstrate that no matter what sort of work you do, dear Bianca Sommerland's blog-reader, you should pursue your dreams with all your might. Overcome your fears. Ralph Waldo Emerson is credited for saying "The characteristic of genuine heroism is its persistency." So never give up on your ambitions. Pursue without looking back or allowing thoughts of self doubt to enter your mind. Become the person your children and grandchildren will always look up to and admire. You can only do that by pressing beyond the boundaries that feel comfortable and familiar to you.
HEROES IN RAVENA & THE RESURRECTED
Ravena Doomlah (our heroine) always wanted to meet some great heroic vampire who would sweep her off her feet. While all of her colleagues from work feel very uncomfortable even talking about the possibility that vampires exist, Ravena is rather open about believing in them. She relies on self knowledge and looks to vampires for a more hopeful future because of how they seem to defeat death, disease and the legal system, quite successfully.
In chapter six, Ravena meets her first non-vampire hero. She's just recently been turned vampire – only for her maker to abandon her – and she mistakenly feeds on a violent drunk to suddenly realize, to her complete surprise, that she's terribly inebriated herself. After she removes her high heels and starts belting out lyrics to one of her favorite songs, shouting "I am a vampire" for all of Seattle to hear, a mysterious man appears to offer her aid: "Can I help you?"
EXCERPT from that story segment:
"S-s-sure," I slurred, still marveling at how head-over-heels I felt toward this delicious-smelling stranger. For a moment, I began to sway and felt I might fall, like someone slipping on a treadmill, but he caught me by my elbows and proved how heroic he truly was when he set me back on my feet.
Moments later, he offers to walk her to her small loft in a Belltown high-rise building. She slurs her approval while she can barely stand up.
"Oh I'm quite s-s-safe walking around S-s-seattle alone." I said, making my proposition a bit too loud, thanks to the alcohol. I did not care if I seemed too eager for him to draw closer while I leaned his way. "I mean. I us-s-sually walk alone but you can walk with me; if you're brave enough."
The man does walk her home and, the next day, Ravena cannot stop thinking about him, and she chastises herself for not even collecting his address or phone number before he slipped away. She realizes how careless she had been by not realizing how drinking a bum's blood could cause her own demise. She wants desperately to thank her rescuer for being her very personal hero.
ANOTHER SCENARIO
Later, in chapter nineteen, a number of homeless individuals take turns deciding to become a "hero" and save the homeless camp from the vampire who now proves harmless but lives among them, and they mistrust her. As they wield wooden stakes and crosses, they take turns attacking the young vampire, whose been starving herself due to grief over her friend's recent destruction. Because Ravena found shelter from her enemies by dressing to look like a transient herself, and because she hid in Seattle's dilapidated historic underground, where many escape extreme weather, the underprivileged know exactly where she sleeps. After the first person makes his brave attack, Ravena realizes that a common English proverb seems to fit her second aggressor to a 'T': "A hero is a man who is afraid to run away."
I felt curious when he cowered in the shadows like a frightened dog and wondered if he would ever gather enough courage to make his attack.
Even while she moves at heroic speed, Ravena feels the total opposite of "hero." She loathes how easily she can kill people. She especially feels remorse after meeting her first human-feeder (vampire blood-donor) named Karissa. Ravena adores her and regards Karissa as being quite innocent and sweet. True heroes are those, like Karissa, who inspire us to become better individuals ourselves, are they not?
Meanwhile, back at the large army camp for surgically altered humans, whose sole purpose is to destroy vampires, werewolves and metaphysical creatures, each soldier considers him or herself to be a "hero" who's destined to defend the masses. During one large military-like assembly, a motivational speaker says the following to energize the large crowd.
"Our mission is very great." She continued. "The task is much grander than what the boldest heroes have ever faced in history. When we succeed, our children will praise our names. We will be honored as celebrities by all of our colleagues. What we do today will have everlasting and glorious effects. Notoriety and fame will be ours!"
Thank you Bianca, for inviting me to be here and to briefly discuss "heroism" as it applies to Ravena & The Resurrected. My readers are finding your link from this author tour calendar: http://suntigermojo.com/book-tour-author-tami-jackson-blogs.html. Perhaps your subscribers will be interested in following along as well.
Author: Tami Jackson
Publisher: SunTigerMOJO ~ Novel: Ravena & The Resurrected
Online Identity: Vamchoir
Twitter: @Vamchoir
Facebook: Facebook.com/Vamchoir
Character Blog: Vamchoir.blogspot.com
Book Reveiw Blog: VampireReview.blogspot.com
