Seasons and Senses

 

            Basically there are four seasons in the year, yet it dawned on me that those four sections of a year are very subjective and are not at all the same for everyone. Not only are they in opposite months in some countries, but some countries and even some states within a country don’t have the unique changes in season that others do.

            This makes it somewhat difficult to write about the seasons. To express the joy of newly flowering trees in, say October, may confuse the reader unless they are fully aware of where the story is taking place. Getting roller skates and bicycles for Christmas is only exciting if you live in Florida at the time, as I did as a child.

            Yet there is so much to be said about each season even without knowing the “where” of it. Spring is often considered the time of rebirth and new beginnings. Opposite on the spectrum is winter, when we tend to hunker down and hibernate, staying close to home and hearth.

            Which is your favorite season? What is it about that time of year you enjoy? I moved to Tennessee in the summer of one year and so looked forward to exploring the Smoky Mountains. But I contracted cancer and spent September through early May in and out of the hospital. I was unable to enjoy the changing leaves or the beautiful sunsets. That year, 2010, was the worse year for snow that the Nashville area had seen in quite some time, and I missed that too. My view out of my hospital window was a parking garage.

            You can’t discuss the seasons without combining it with your senses. After all, there’s something unique about the smell of burning leaves in the fall; how the cold wind of winter makes your eyes water and your cheeks burn. What is the single most memorable sound of summer? For me, it’s the musical jingles of the ice cream truck. Every season has its particular tastes, smells, sounds and sights.

            Have you recently read a book (or in your writing) that pulls you irrevocably into the pages because of the use of senses? You could actually hear the squeak of carriage wheels or the pesky buzz of a bug. Take a book and open it to any page. Read and note any use of the senses. In your own writing, do the same. If you don’t hear, see, taste, feel or smell something, perhaps some edits are in order. And stop to consider – you don’t want to “taste the lemon slice in the ice tea”, but rather know “the zesty slice of lemon made my cheeks pucker.”

            To help and enhance writing, make a list using the seasons and the senses. For each season, list something unique for each of your senses. Do you find it harder to list things for one sense over the others? Are you seeing things aplenty but not feeling them? Have you become immune to certain smells? Keep your list handy because you will find more to add as you approach and inhabit each season or if you travel to an area where the seasons aren’t quite the same as you are used to.

            Another exercise using your senses and or the seasons is to jot down phrases that explain something or someone without exactly explaining them.

            It smelled like home.

            She was a sight for sore eyes.

            It feels like football season.

            Her hair was as bright as the autumn day.

            His demeanor was as bitter as the winter countryside.

            One thing I found when I began writing time travel is that I had to be aware of the difference in sensual things in today’s world and that of the 1800s, where my stories were set. In “Spinning Through Time”, one of the first things Jack notices when she’s thrown back in time is the silence. Where was the traffic noise; the constant calliope of voices? Look for more differences when you read this 5 star novel that one reviewer said is:

“A Gorgeous story, it was lovely from beginning to end. A keeper. One of the best time travel romances I've read!”

Barbara Baldwin

http://www.authorsden.com/barbarajbaldwin

http://www.bookswelove.com/baldwin-barbara/

 

Guest Blogger Tami Cartwright - Dreams

 

Dreams: Have we neglected the single most valuable resource for combating the problems of our times?

 

The notion that we must “be the change we want to see in the world” (Ghandi) has been said a thousand times, in a thousand ways over a thousand years. This is a hard concept to grasp in a world where we are accustomed to blaming something or someone for the things that happen in our life. If we believe we are responsible for change, then why do we continue to expect governments, corporations, or others to solve our life’s problems? At the roots of the statement “we must be the change we want to see in the world” we can derive the meaning that we need to work on our own crap. When we work on ourselves, it impacts the people in our lives through our sphere of influence; and this ripples outward in the world. When we work on ourselves, we clear the clutter and can contribute from our highest potential. When enough people work on themselves, this has a compounding effect which creates cultural and societal changes. Of course, the opposite is true as well.

 

Psychologists nearly unanimously agree that our unconscious is driving us unknowingly and is at the root of many of our life’s problematic actions and behaviours. Consciousness is everything that we are aware of; and the unconscious is everything that we are unaware of. Swiss psychologist Carl Jung is a world-renowned teacher of the unconscious. One analogy describing his views about how powerful the unconscious is that of an iceberg, where 90% is below the surface of the ocean (unconscious) and 10% above (conscious). If 90% of what’s driving our actions and behaviours is unconscious, doesn’t this seem like an astounding opportunity?

 

This is where dreams come in. Science has proven that everyone dreams, every night, but there is little scientific understanding as to why. Jung worked with dreams extensively in his form of psychoanalytic therapy and he isn’t alone. Many well-respected psychologists including Freud saw dreams as a key information source for advancing our well-being. Dreams come from the unconscious. They are a dialogue between the ego and the Self, using both a symbolic language; which has meaning on both a personal and collective level.

The Self is referring to that inner guide/wise person, which some might call the soul or other’s might even see it as god or the god-self (sorry, to use the “g” word). One has to believe in such things to follow this line of reasoning. But what are the options? You either have an outstanding inner resource that is part of you that can help you solve your own life’s dilemmas, or someone else outside of you is responsible to fix you and the problems in your life? I’ll take the former, more empowering option any day.

 

So, if dreams are a powerful resource what can we do about it? Start paying attention to your dreams and giving them life. Work with them, learn to understand their meaning, and begin following the guidance they offer. Find a dream group that resonates with you and work together with others. The Wisdom of Your Dreams by Jeremy Taylor is an excellent book for learning how to interpret your dreams. Sign up for an online course in symbolic dream analysis: www.dreamelixir.ca

 

Shadow | Dream Elixir | Canada Dream Elixir is a shamanic, transpersonal, holotropic, alchemical vessel for raising consciousness through onlin...

 

Tami Denice is a long time dream worker, mesa carrier of the Peruvian Q’ero tradition, Holotropic Breathwork facilitator apprentice, and Jungian analysand.

 

Spotlight: Seven Aprils Wins at the Chanticleer International Book Awards

 

Find my books here

Community, that’s what we creatives crave when we come out of our focused, turtle habitats!

Thankfully, there are organizations that provide a nudge out of our shells.  When I was considering entering my World War II romantic suspense novel Watch Over Me in the Chanticleer International Book Awards, I consulted with some writer friends about the organization.  “Oh, a great group with a wonderful small conference every year in the beautiful Pacific Northwest!” I was told.  And … CIBA knows how to throw a party!” They were right on both counts!  (Thank you Janet Oakley and Michelle Cox!)

Fast forward a few years and two conferences later. Not only did Watch Over Me achieve First in Category status in the Chatelaine Award for Women’s Fiction, but at this year’s virtual conference, held via ZOOM, I was delighted to hear: “Congratulations to the Grand Prize Winner of the LARAMIE Book Awards for Western, Civil War, Pioneer, First Nation Novels and Americana Fiction: “Seven Aprils by Eileen Charbonneau!” 

My cheering squad of husband Ed, daughter Marya and baby grandson Desmond were on hand. My tiara was in place! Our favorite bubblies flowed!

Here’s a glimpse at some of the topics covered in this years Chanticleer Book Conference:

• Virtual Author Events: How To Pivot from LIVE to VIRTUAL for Book Launches, Book Clubs, and Book Events
• Book to Film Panel Discussion 
• The Critical Role Authors Play in Fostering a Better Society 
• Writing and Selling Children’s Books
• Voice Driven Technology and the Future of Publishing 
• How to Create a Sustainable and Compelling Series 
• Don’t be Left OUT and OFF the Airwaves – Intro to Podcasting 
• Historical Fiction–how to both fictionalize real characters and realize fictional ones 
• Collaborating with Other Authors 
• Writers: Improve Your Productivity and Your Health by Correcting Posture 

Sound great?  It was!!  So, I encourage my author friends of all genres to stick your necks out, enter your books in award competitions, and come out of your shells once in awhile and join with readers, industry folks and fellow authors to celebrate our crazy but wonderful business!

Book Cover release during My Favourite Season by J. S. Marlo

 

J. S. Marlo's BWL Books

A few days ago, I received my new book cover for my upcoming November book release: Mishandled Conviction.  I'd like to thank our fabulous book cover artist Michelle. If I can say so myself, my new book cover is gorgeous!  Michelle, you're awesome!

I will tell you more about Mishandled Conviction next month, so stay tune. Now back to My Favourite Season.

Last week, my little granddaughter asked me what was my favourite season. Without hesitation, I said Autumn. So she asked if it was because it was my birthday. That was a fair question coming from the mouth of a six-year-old girl who'd just opened two birthday cards that I'd received  in the mail that day. As I replied it wasn't because of my birthday, I knew her next question would be Why then? And I was right, except I wasn't sure how to explain why.

For as long as I remember, Autumn has always been my favourite season. I grew up in Eastern Canada where autumn means vivid fall colours. My grandparents had a cottage by a lake and we were there all the time. My most memorable memories are walking in the surrounding forest by myself. I could be gone all day, only coming back when my stomach growled in hunger. The cottages were far and few between, so in retrospect, I don't know how my mother didn't worry about me. I never encountered any strange characters or big animals like bears, moose, or wolves, but I saw wild cats, raccoons, otters, and other smaller animals.

 

 

Nature is full of sounds, and in their midst,  there was a peace and tranquility that I couldn't find anywhere else. It was particularly true in the fall. The temperatures were cooler, the air was crisper, and the sounds and the colours were sharper. Walking in a tapestry of red, orange, and yellow with leaves twirling all around me was magical. In these precious moments, I felt free and carefree, almost invincible. Time stood still and nothing could touch me or hurt me. Maybe it was the innocence of youth...or maybe it was something more...something greater than me.

 

 Decades ago, I moved from the eastern part of Canada to the western and northern part of the country. There are no maple trees here, and to this day, I miss the autumn colours, but to my amazement, the magic didn't die. I still experience that peaceful feeling when I gaze in awe at the northern lights dancing in the night sky. 

Northern lights are more frequent toward the end of September, and though they are mostly green, I've also seen them in their glorious purple, pink, and red colours.

Happy Thanksgiving weekend to my fellow Canadians! Many hugs!

JS

 

J. S. Marlo's Website

Legend Tripping and the New England Vampire Panic

 

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Click here to visit Eileen O'Finlan's website

As I finish the revisions on Erin’s Children, the sequel to Kelegeen, to be released by BWL Publishing, Inc. in December of 2020, I’m already looking ahead to my next historical novel. It will be set in Vermont, moving between the 1830s and 1970s. One of the threads connecting the two time periods is an activity known as legend tripping. For those unfamiliar with this term coined by folklorists and anthropologists, it pertains to the adolescent rite of passage whereby a pilgrimage is made, usually at night, to a location where some horrific event occurred. If the site is rumored to be haunted, all the better!

During the 19^th century several New England states, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Vermont prominent among them, saw the odd phenomenon of what would later become known as the New England Vampire Panic. 

Tuberculosis was rampant at the time, but often not well understood especially in isolated, rural areas. The highly contagious disease ravaged families and, sometimes entire communities.old Tuberculosis, or consumption as it was called in the 19^th century, causes the victims to appear to be wasting away. Towards the end, they may cough up copious amounts of blood and complain that when trying to sleep it felt as though someone was sitting on their chest.

These symptoms put people in mind of a supernatural force sucking the life out of the patient. Folklorists and anthropologists believe that in their desperation to save a dying family member, people harkened back to an ancient European superstition, which claimed that a recently dead relative was returning at night to feast upon family members. The only cure for this was to exhume the bodies of relatives who had died of consumption to see if the corpse appeared fresh. If so, they had found the culprit! Removing the heart and burning it, then dismembering the corpse and rearranging it were believed to be the remedy as it prevented the “vampire” from rising from his or her grave.

Excavations have shown this practice to have been employed numerous times throughout New England in the 19^th century. Once this became known in the 20^th century, the graves of acccused vampires became obvious destinations for legend trips.

Interestingly, those who engaged in this practice rarely, if ever, used the word vampire. It wasn’t until this phenomenon was nearly over that Bram Stoker’s Dracula was published and became popular in the United States. Nonetheless, the notion was similar. Though it occurred mainly in rustic locales, the practice of exhuming and damaging a corpse for the purpose of stopping a vampire was well enough known at the time for Henry David Thoreau to mention it in his journal.

So how does this play into my next novel after Erin’s Children? Imagine a young woman studying for a degree in anthropology with a specialization in local folklore finding out that one of her own ancestors was one of the supposed vampires.

Nineteen year old Mercy Lena Brown of Exeter, Rhode Island aka 

"The Last New England Vampire"

Mercy Lena Brown's grave stone in

Chestnut Hill Cemetery, Exeter, Rhode Island.

Of all the supposed vampires, her grave became

the most popular with legend trippers.