Analyzing a Theme

سلام لكم في هذا اليوم

Occasionally, in the places of my mind where I process my story-stuff, I start musing over questions. Questions like- "What do I want my book to say at the heart of it?"

Needless to say, I don't ever necessarily have a point to what I write. My stories are just that - stories that are probably pointless and largely full of fluff and sometimes pointless drama that even I don't understand, and wish would stop (darn you, Tony and Enna!). But I suppose every book should have some core meaning, some theme that wraps it up.

So I was thinking about mine today.

Valiant's was pretty simple. Kind of. It's somewhere between love conquers all and your family isn't necessarily the people you were born to. There might also be something in there about how Centaurs are not always evil, or even people on the "wrong" side can be good, but we won't go into that.

Ravaged Time was a bit tougher. It doesn't end on a high note, where every conflict is perfectly resolved. I must admit that **spoiler** my main characters have to split up. Yes. They can't live together, because of a situation that is actually eerily like the end of His Dark Materials, now that I think about it. Oops. That was not intentional. But if I had to choose what the 'theme' was, I'd probably have to say that it was freedom is always worth fighting for. Throughout the whole book, freedom is found. Tony finds freedom from his own attitude. Enna finds freedom from the constraints of Alliance society. Terria and Dravin are fighting for political freedom. And yeah, they could have laid down and become good little Alliance citizens again, but they didn't.

I haven't yet discovered Dark Dawn's theme, or the theme for Stellae. I suppose you'll just have to wait for me to launch into editing to discover those.

What are the core themes of your stories?

爱於耶穌,
~Liberty

A Chat With Maerwen

سلام لكم في هذا اليوم

So...this was a thing on Facebook that several other writers were doing. You're supposed to write a short blurb with your favorite character from your stories, as if they were real. This was what I wrote. It isn't as good as Mirriam's, but I think it's pretty good.

I chose Maerwen because...I like Maerwen. She isn't my favorite character I've ever written, but she was the first one that came to mind, so...yeah. Enjoy. :D

I bite my lip and try to not to be completely frustrated that my characters aren't cooperating. Some people think that your characters don't have a mind of their own. I beg to differ. They're the most ridiculously independent things to ever be invented. I tap my pen against the paper, alternately glancing from it to the computer screen. Yes, I have them both open. It's how I roll.

"Just...write already." the voice of Maerwen comes from behind me. She's standing next to my bed, one hand gently laid on it, looking perfect and beautiful, and...yeah.

"Everything's written."

"Get editing then." she suggests with the cheery ease of somebody who doesn't have to do it - she just has to sit there and watch.

"You won't like it when I do."

Her smile freezes. "And why is that?"

I shrug. "Just because. You never know what I might do."

She comes closer, to lean over my chair and see what I have written. "Excellent. Throw Ionwe to Durion, I don't care."

"If Ionwe goes down, you're going with him." I say.

"No I won't." she insists. "He'll take Anarisia. He likes her better, anyway."

"Of course he does. They're falling in love."

"Pretty silly of them, if you ask me."

"Love isn't silly Maerwen."

"Sure it is. Just see if I ever fall in love."

A grin comes onto my face. She sees it. "What is that for? Stop it. I don't like it. What are you thinking?"

My hands go to my keyboard. "Watch and learn, Madame Pixie."

Haha. I don't think Maerwen is speaking to me anymore. Ah well.

爱於耶穌,
~Liberty

"His Dark Materials" Review

سلام لكم في هذا اليوم

So out of inordinate and perhaps insufferable curiosity I read the "His Dark Materials" trilogy, by Philip Pullman.

And...despite its admittedly anti-Christian message, I actually enjoyed it. I know, I know. I'm a bad person. But it is ridiculously hard to find good, solid, well-written YA fantasy. Do you know how difficult that is? The fantasy genre came to a sudden screeching halt after Lord of the Rings. LOTR was written, and people decided they shouldn't come up with anything new. So Philip Pullman's trilogy at least has a new storyline.

So, for those of you who know nothing about His Dark Materials, let me tell you the bare-bones of the plot: Lyra is a twelve year old girl living in Oxford, England - a strange sort of England, where people have dæmons, creatures that are literally the outward expression of their inner souls. These dæmons take the form of animals, and are usually the opposite sex to their human. Anyway. Lyra discovers a secret about kidnappers called "Gobblers." They're kidnapping children and trying to sever their dæmons, hence making them impervious to Dust, or Shadows, or sraf, or Original Sin. Yeah. There's a lot more to it than that, but it could take a whole book to tell you. And it did.

In The Subtle Knife, we meet Will, the wielder of a knife that can cut portals between worlds - Lyra's world, his world, another world, all the worlds. Later we discover the knife has to be destroyed or bad things will happen. In The Amber Spyglass, the real bad guy dies, and Will and Lyra fall in love. Then have to split up, because their dæmons can't survive outside their own world for very long. Remind my little sister never to read these. She'd hate them for the ending only.

Anywho. Yes, these books are very anti-Christian. God ('the Authority') is portrayed as a bad guy - in fact, in Philip Pullman's universe(s), he's not a God at all, he's simply an angel who fooled every one else. But paradoxically, the Authority isn't even the real bad guy. In The Amber Spyglass, he's portrayed as a decrepit old man who can't hardly move, and dissolves the moment he steps out onto the ground. The real bad guy in His Dark Materials is Megatron/Enoch/the High Regent, a despot who wants to control all the worlds and kill any mortal who stands in his way. He's killed in The Amber Spyglass. In most places, however, it almost seems more anti-organized religion. Anti-Catholic Church in many places, actually. At the end, God is "dead," and Lyra and Will free all the dead people from the netherworld that was their home, and they become part of everything.

Word of warning, however - if you're not secure in your faith, if you're not ready to be challenged, don't read it. Because that's what these books will do, and I think that's what they're intended to do: completely rock your world and make you doubt. That's okay. It challenges us (or at least, it did me) to seriously evaluate "Why do I believe what I believe?" I think that's a good thing.

So, to sum up:

The pros are

1. Original storyline
2. Superb storytelling and detail
3. Dynamic characters

The cons are

1. Anti-God, more than anything
2. Rather confusing in places, it must be admitted

Yeah. So.

爱於耶穌,
~Liberty

Random Happenings

سلام لكم في هذا اليوم

So in good news: I've gotten roughly $170 for my trip this past week! Hoping to do better this week, since my bake sale is this weekend. Pray that I'll get enough donations in goodies to make the sale awesome.

Anyway. This afternoon, about fifteen minutes before I had to be at Good News Club, I stepped on a piece of glass and cut my foot pretty good. It hurt like crazy, let me tell you. So now I have bandaids on the bottom of my foot...which is awesome, as always. [/sarcasm]

Good News Club was crazy today - the kids wouldn't sit still for love 'nor candy. v.v

Anyway. That has been my life. OH! One thing I forgot.

There's this man in our church, a really awesome Christian. This past week, he was robbed and beat up pretty bad. A car ran over his ankle, and he has some internal bleeding and stuff. He's pretty bad off: they're keeping him in a coma for the moment, so that he won't mess up what they're doing to try to fix him. Please be in prayer for both his healing, and for his family - he has a son and step-son, a wife, and their baby. So yeah. Thanks. :))

I'm probably going to bring you all something deep and profound on Wednesday or something, probably concerning the spiritual applications of brownies. So stay tuned.

爱於耶穌,
~Liberty

Tangled

سلام لكم في هذا اليوم

We went and saw Tangled last night.

And it was amazing.

I loved it very much.

Rapunzel is my new favorite Disney princess.

Anyway.

For those of you have not yet been exposed to the awesomeness that is Tangled, it's basically the story of Rapunzel. **Possible spoiler alert**

Rapunzel's mother, due to a sickness, was forced to drink the juice of a magical flower that healed her and made Rapunzel have glowing hair that can heal people.

Yeah. So basically then there's this creepy old lady who used the flower to stay young. She discovers that Rapunzel has in essence become the flower, and she steals her away to use her, all the while telling her that the world outside is just as evil as she really is...even though Rapunzel doesn't know that.

Enter Flynn Rider, who is a wanted thief because he (heh, heh) stole the lost princess' crown. Rapunzel gets him to take her to see the lanterns that are set loose to honor the princess, and hilarity ensues. Along the way, they fall in love, Mother Gothel nearly kills the both of them, Flynn becomes my favorite Disney prince, and Tangled becomes my new favorite movie.


Yeah. This is the most amazing movie of all time, and you should watch it, if only because Flynn is awesome, and Rapunzel is pretty.

The best part of this movie was that it was clean. There was no crude humor, and nothing but a kiss between Rapunzel and Flynn.

All in all, it was an excellent movie. Better than Princess and the Frog, at least. Go see it. Naow. I should hopefully be going to see Narnia this week, too! Yay!!

爱於耶穌,
~Liberty