Superpowers of the Anishinaabe, by J.C. Kavanagh

 

Book 3 of the award-winning Twisted Climb series

I continue to be pulled into the history of my country, Canada, and in particular, the history of the Anishinaabe tribes: Ojibwe, Algonquin and Cree. Also stemming from these tribes are the Potawatomi, Nipissing, Odawa, Chippewa, and Mississauga First Nations. If you follow my BWL blogs, you've read about the First Nation tribes and you know that their traditions and myths are woven into my latest book, A Bright Darkness. Still, I feel compelled to share the enlightenment and respect for nature that is intrinsic to the culture of the Anishinaabe. Their story is a fascinating tale of reverence and resilience.

Many thousands of years ago, the Anishinaabe lived in a place they called 'Turtle Island,' believed to be one of the Canadian Maritime provinces. The Elders of the tribe told the story of how the world came to be. Their legend, passed down from generation to generation, explained that the earth was made by Gitchi-Manitou (the Creator). Gitchi-Manitou created a family that preceded humans: Nookmis Dibik Giizis (Grandmother Moon), N’mishoomis Giizis (Grandfather Sun), and Shkagamik-Kwe, (Mother Earth). They chronicled the spiritual relationship between the environment and all living things, stressing that a natural balance was vital to all elements. They believed that all things in the universe had a connection, therefore a place of importance. And therefore deserving respect. From these sacred standards, the Anishinaabe developed the Seven Grandfather Teachings - wisdom, respect, love, honesty, humility, bravery and truth. These are what I believe to be the superpowers of the Anishinaabe. Remember - these sacred standards were developed tens of thousands of years ago. They are simple moral guides with an exceptionally high set of principles. The concept of respect/honesty/balance prevails in their traditions to this day. 

Anishinaabe Superpowers:
Wisdom, respect, love, honesty, humility, bravery and truth

While researching the Anishinaabe language, I found a great reference source - a book written by an Ojibwe Elder and teacher in Central Ontario. The Elder, B. Jeff Monague, is a former Chief of the Beausoleil Nation on Christian Island. His book, Ahaw, Anishinaabem (OK, Speak Ojibwe), was a valuable tool in understanding the nuances of the Ojibwe language. When Jeff was born, his parents were told they could not give him an 'Indian' name - only Anglophone names. This was due to the Indian Act restrictions at that time. His parents chose the names Brandon and Jeff which an agent recorded in the Indian Act Registrar. The Anishinaabe did not have surnames - each person had one name which was provided by an Elder after observing the child for a period of time, sometimes over the course of many years. One of Jeff's ancestors had the name Minonaakwhe, meaning 'shoots well.' In order to use that as a surname, the family had to substitute 'Minonaakwhe' with an anglicized version: thus 'Monague.'  (As a side note, Jeff is in the process of legally changing his name to Myiingan Minonaakwhe meaning, Wolf Shoots Well).

Thunderbird - the crest of the Anishinaabe people

A Bright Darkness, the final book in The Twisted Climb series, intertwines the traditions of the Anishinaabe and their mythological creatures. The three main characters, Jayden, Connor and Max, work with an Ojibwe Elder to release the lost souls trapped in the danademo nde' (place where the heart weeps) and seal the entrance to the Un-World. Action and drama abound in this epic conclusion. A Must Read!

Till next time, stay safe and happy reading!

J.C. Kavanagh, author of

The Twisted Climb - A Bright Darkness (Book 3)
and
The Twisted Climb - Darkness Descends (Book 2) voted BEST Young Adult Book 2018, Critters Readers Poll and Best YA Book FINALIST at The Word Guild, Canada
AND
The Twisted Climb,
voted BEST Young Adult Book 2016, P&E Readers Poll
Voted Best Local Author, Simcoe County, Ontario, 2021
Novels for teens, young adults and adults young at heart
Email: author.j.c.kavanagh@gmail.com
www.facebook.com/J.C.Kavanagh
www.amazon.com/author/jckavanagh
Twitter @JCKavanagh1 (Author J.C. Kavanagh)
Instagram @authorjckavanagh

Creating Characters by Paul Doucette

Check out all Paul's books on his BWL Author Page

Creating Characters 

     What makes a good, believable character? Is it someone created as an idealized persona or someone flawed with many of the everyday manifestations of being alive as a human? 

     In my story telling, I opt for the later, mainly because I want my readers to see in them characteristics they can easily identify in people they see or know. This allows them to form a ‘connection’ with them, one where they can care about what happens to them, one where they can cheer their successes or their failures, depending on their role in the story. 

     When I create a personality in my stories I attribute to them characteristics drawn from people I know or have seen in a myriad of situations both personal and general (social). In choosing the genre of detective fiction I found that my main problem in developing a cast of characters was to avoid the trap of making them more than they would be in reality. 

     My stories are populated with people you would see everyday; people you may recognize among people you know. Remember that the cast you create in a story are another component of the environment they live in and therefore have to be recognizable, believable. I, for one, do not know many forty plus year old policemen who go to the gym everyday for two or more hours and beat on heavy bags or press two hundred and fifty pound weights, at least who families. This does not make that man any less a hero or good at his job. I have been fortunate in my writing career thus far to have received several reviews of my stories that put the emphasis on my locations, characters and language. 

     So, I will end by recommending that when you think about your cast of players consider them as people not stereotypes. Think of them as people who would like to have a beer with you at your favorite watering hole. Paul

Artificial Intelligence – Can You Program Creativity? By BC Deeks, Paranormal Mystery Fiction Author

Visit B.C. Deeks' BWL Author Page for Book and Purchase Information

http://bookswelove.net/deeks-bc/

Artificial Intelligence, or AI, is a trending topic these days, with applications like ChatGPT and Jasper being touted as replacements for human writers. These applications are models trained on a large codex of text data that can generate responses to questions, summarize long texts, write stories and much more. It is often used in conversational AI applications to simulate a human-like conversation with users—You’ve probably already been chatting with AI if you’ve contacted online Customer Service.

The jury is still out on whether the latest AI language model, ChatGPT, is actually intelligent, as defined by a machine's ability to behave like a human. They are still basically just a computer program designed to respond to text inputs and generate outputs based on patterns in the data they’ve been trained on.

So far, many uses for AI are controversial if not outright negative, including creating malware, Phishing and scamming, and cheating in school by letting students submit papers written by their computers.  A consultancy firm reportedly found that applications written by ChatGPT beat out 80 percent of humans.

In theory, AI can even be used to write a book. But would that book be a good story or just be a distillation of characters and plot from previously published works? If AI does not have intelligence, could it take the data and CREATE a unique and imaginative piece of work the way a human author does.

From my research, I gather AI software can generate a list of book plot ideas, suggest opening paragraphs, and output a batch of character sketches. If an author provided the program with a detailed outline of a story, it might produce a workable first draft of a novel. AI language models seem best suited to generating non-fiction web content or product copy and even then should be proofed and fact checked by the writer. I read an article generated by the Jasper AI application and it contained 7 typos and grammatical errors. The author had clearly not bothered to check the work before publishing.

Getting back to fiction, I don’t think authors will be out of work any time soon. If an AI language model was asked to generate a bestselling novel with a dragon and a wizard in a magical dimension, I believe the key components of a saleable novel would be missing — imagination and creativity. AI models can only pull from what has already been done; not imagine the things that are new and exciting. AI language models are, IMHO, another tool in a writers’ toolbox that might speed up the process of generating the words on the page. I'll admit to using a copy editing software program to help with my revision process for practical reasons. It helps me spot awkward sentence structures, grammatical errors and typos in my manuscript. But at the end of the day, human intervention is required to bring the magic to the story.

For the time being, I’ll be writing REBEL SPELL, book 3 in my Beyond the Magic trilogy, with minimal aid from artificial intelligence. Besides I love writing, so why would I want to give it up?

Maple Sugar Moon

                                                                   My BWL page

Here in Vermont, we are into Sogalikas, the Sugar Maker Moon, fourth in the lunar year. The Abenaki people say that they learned of a delicious treat from the red squirrel nation. Squirrels nip off the end bud of a maple twig and drink the sap flow from the tip at this time of year. The Abenaki were quick to imitate Brother Squirrel!

Now we boil down the sap in sugar houses all over Vermont. It’s a festive time of visiting and telling stories around the fires.

March is also the month to celebrate all things Irish— literature, song, dance and history, myth and legend. What rich heritage we can draw on from both the first peoples and the many immigrants, rich with their own stories, who came to our shores!

A Bit of Blarney for St. Patrick's Day

                                         Please click this link for book and author information

I kissed the Blarney Stone! Well, almost. 

Last June my travel companions and I arrived at Ireland's Blarney Castle in a downpour. Since rain isn't unusual for the Emerald Isle, we were prepared and dressed in our full rain gear.  

 

The weather prompted us to duck into the castle, rather than stroll through the extensive gardens. We joined the line for the climb up a narrow, winding staircase to the top of the tower. Along the way, we enjoyed occasional views of the grounds and noticed the rain was letting up.   

Our goal was the legendary blarney stone, which was built into the castle battlements. Kissing the stone is said to grant someone the gift of the gab. Eloquent Irish politician John O'Connor Power defined gab as "flattery sweetened by humour and flavoured by wit." Myths abound about the blarney stone's origins. Some say that Irish chieftain Cormac MacCarthy asked a goddess for help with a lawsuit when he was on his way to court. She told him to kiss the next stone he saw. He followed her advice, won his case, and incorporated the lucky stone into his castle. A variation of this myth is that MacCarthy was en route to plead his right to keep his lands and title to Queen Elizabeth I. He met an elderly woman advisor, kissed the stone, and, thanks to his brilliant 'gab' convinced the queen to grant his wish. Other stories claim the blarney stone is a magical rock brought to Ireland from Stonehenge, Scotland, or the Holy Land during the Crusades. Scientific studies have determined the stone is local Ireland rock, but who can argue with legend?

Judging from the crowds on that rainy day, the stone's blarney works for drawing tourists. The long lineup snaked slowly towards the top of the castle. We paused at this warning. 

As we drew closer, we wondered if we'd have the nerve to lie down in front of all the tourists and kiss the stone. We saw an attendant give the stone a quick wipe between people, but was kissing it sanitary in this day of COVID-19?  

I decided I couldn't come this far without trying. Here I go - awkwardly. In addition to virus concerns, in order to touch the stone with your lips you have to lean your head way back through the gap along the castle edge. A man holds your body and bars prevent falls to the ground. At worst, you'd bang your head. But arching backward over a high drop-off is a creepy feeling of letting go. Did I really need any more gab to write my novels? Hundreds of lips had touched the stone already that day. I blew the blarney stone a kiss and was content with getting close. 

The view from the top was worth it. In the past, Blarney stone kissers didn't have bars for a safety net. Here's how far they could fall. 

By the time we returned to the ground, the rain had stopped and the sun came out. A fellow tourist snapped a picture of our group, with the castle in the background. It's the only picture of all five of us we have from our two-week tour of Ireland. 

The Irish are known for their sayings, blessings, and proverbs. I'll leave you with a few.  

May your home always be too small to hold all your friends. 

May you get all your wishes but one so that you will always have something to strive for. 

Every man is sociable until a cow invades his garden. 

May you have the hindsight to know where you've been, the foresight to know where you are going, and the insight to know when you have gone too far.

A kind word never broke anyone's mouth. 

May your thoughts be as glad as shamrocks

May your heart be as light as a song. 

May each day bring you bright, happy hours that stay with you all year long.    

Happy St. Patrick's Day! 

 

The Emerald Isle