Extra Reading Diary: Ovid's Metamorphosis (Books 8-10)

Myth-Folklore Ovid III Reading Unit:

(Adonis, boy in beauty)

Reading B:
1. Orpheus and Eurydice

• Traveling to Hell to find your deceased love one. She had a "swift" and wrongful death.
• Singing as communicating. Reminds me of bards from games like Dungeons and Dragons.
• Spirits in the Underworld still bare their killing wounds.
• He turned to see his wife, and because of that he could never see her again.
• He could never love again.

2. Ganymede and Hyacinthus

• The second person tense is awkward. That really cannot be used very often.
• I guess this story was sung by Orpheus?
• This story was really confusing!

3. Pygmalion

• The Propoetides are condemned to prostitution for worshipping Venus incorrectly.
• Pygmalion fell in love with a statue he made.
• Sometimes he thinks that it "kisses him back."
• He asked Venus to make her real, and she did.
• What an interesting concept. Story idea: a girl falls in love with a drawing she makes, asks for him to be real, and he becomes real!

4. Myrrha and Cinyras

• I had to look this myth up, because the one here was confusing. Apparently Myrrha fell in love with her father and trick him into *ahem*. She is also the mother of Adonis.

5. Myrrha and the Nurse

• This was super creepy to read! Not enjoyable at all.
• A hasty suicide, saved by someone, but not wanting to be saved. 
• Having a sinful thought that cannot be rid of.

6. Myrrha's Punishment

• This was so incredibly CREEPY! This was hard to read.
• But okay, she is now pregnant with Adonis.
• Her punishment was to become a tree. Very interesting. Reminds me Dante's Inferno and the forest of suicide, the people who were to become trees and then be pecked by harpies for eternity.

7. Venus and Adonis

• Naids are water nymphs.
• "Even Envy would praise his beauty..." (Ovid)
• Venus is accidently hit by cupid's arrow. She falls in love with Adonis.
• “Be bold when they run, but bravery is unsafe when faced with the brave." (Ovid) This myth has a lot of great quotes! 

8. Atalanta and Hippomenes

• A break from Adonis? This was a confusing read.
• Atalanta can run the fastest.
• Marriage will be Atalanta's doom, according to the oracle.
• The only man she can marry must beat her in a foot-race.
• Many came to race her. Hippomenes prayed to Venus, who tossed him three goldren apples. 
• During the race he threw these, causing Atalanta to slow down.

9. The Foot-Race

• "Lest your courage ruin us both!"

10. The Death of Adonis

• His dead body is transformed into a flower, anemone. This is a very delicate flower. Winds can blow away the petals.
• He was killed by a boar, sent by Artemis.
• Adonis was taken in by Venus, and then by Persephone.

Quoth The Raven, Evermore (Week 10 Storytelling)

(Image from: Pixabay)

Quoth The Raven, Evermore

I was depressed. It wasn’t like there was any reason. But did I really need to have a reason? I was so sick of people asking me, “What’s wrong?” As if it could be pinpointed to a single thing.

Sometimes you’re just depressed. Life is “what’s wrong” and there’s nothing more to it.

My mom was one of these nameless people asking me “what’s wrong?” So I screamed nothing and I ran away. As if I had the balls to actually run away.

I only made it to a pond across the street. It was more puddle than pond, and the trees were already deadened by winter—these black barren things.  What was wrong was how damned depressing everything was.

I was sitting on a park bench hating the tears that slid down my cheeks, when I heard a deep squawk. A big black raven landed on the barren tree in front of me. The tree branch bowed under the weight of the massive bird.

I loved Edgar Allen Poe’s Poem "The Raven", but that was all I knew about the bird. I’d never seen one in person, and was surprised by how big it was. It was almost as big as a cat.

It cocked its head at me, tilting to the side, its beautiful blue black feathers catching moonlight and shining like the dark waters of the pond. The raven seemed to look right into my eyes with its black-pearl eyes.

“Nevermore,” I whispered to myself and grinned. I realized the tears on my cheeks were dried.

The raven stayed with me through the night, sitting on the tree branch, watching over me like a gargoyle.

I told the raven about my mom,  and how the boys at school were stupid, and how my best friend was a jerk, and blahblahblah--which I supposed all the raven heard was the blahblahblah.

***

The next night, I ran to the pond, and to my surprise the raven was sitting on the same tree branch.

I lay on the park bench, told the raven about my day, and fell asleep talking to the raven.

“Hey, you okay?” Someone asked, stirring me from my sleep.

I opened by eyes and saw a guy kneeling in front of me, he had blue black hair that hung in front of his black eyes. He had two shiny black lip rings across his thick lips, and another in his septum.

“Yeah,” I whispered and sat up. "I guess I fell asleep."

He wore a tight black shirt, tight black pants, with black combat boots. He looked like he was probably sixteen, like me.

“A strange place to sleep,” he said.

“I suppose.” I noticed that the raven was gone and grimaced. I didn’t really want to be around anyone, no matter how attractive they might be.

I stood up and started to walk away.

“Going already?” He asked.

I turned to him and snapped, “Yeah, so what?”

“Sorry I—” He scratched the back of his head.

“No, I’m sorry.”

I felt an odd tug, like I didn’t want to leave. I looked at the waters of the pond, and he turned to the pond, watching the moonlight reflect onto it with me.

“What’s your name?” He asked.

“Kyra. You?”

“Raven,” he said.

“Cool name,” I said, and when I looked into his eyes, I couldn’t help but see the similarity to the black pearl eyes of the raven. But surely not. I mean, it was impossible for boys to turn into birds, right?

We talked about nothing really, but it was nice. I did like talking to the raven, but having someone respond was nice for a change.

I smiled as I walked back to my house.

***

I walked to the pond, hoping to see the raven and Raven. When I reached the pond, I saw Raven sitting on the park bench. I smiled as I approached him.

“Hey.”

“Hey.” He was twisting a black raven feather in his hand. He held it out to me and said, “Here.”

I took it from him and whispered, “Nevermore.”

“Evermore,” he said.

“It’s ‘nevermore’, you know—Poe’s poem?”

“I know, but why not ‘evermore’ instead?” He cocked his head to the side, and it reminded me of how the raven had looked at me. “Kyra, I’d rather see you evermore.”

I opened my mouth to ask him something, something insane, but I shook my head. I mean was I really going to ask this (very attractive) boy “Hey, can you turn into a bird?” That’s how you get boys to run away from you. Well, or or fly if I was right…

It was clear that Raven wasn’t like the boys at my school.

“Do you think there are things like…shape-shifters?” I asked him. “People that can turn into animals?”

He laughed.

“Don’t laugh! I’m serious.”

His smile fell into a straight line. “Do you think they exist?”

“I don’t know. I mean, kind of.”

“I kind of do too,” he said.

“I’d like to hope magic like that exists.”

“Me too.”

We didn’t say anything after that.

I had placed my hand on my lap, palm facing up, and he held my hand, interlacing his fingers with mine. I fell asleep like that, and when I woke up, Raven was gone, but the raven was sitting on the tree branch.

I smiled and said, “Hello again.”

The raven squawked.

***

Weeks passed by, and I either saw Raven or the raven when I visited the pond. I was no longer running away. After all, there wasn’t anything wrong anymore.

“I want to show you something,” Raven told me. “Do you promise that you won’t run away?”

I laughed. “What are you a serial killer or something?”

“Or something.”

I felt a chill dance across my body. I didn’t really know Raven, and that realization sunk in. I wondered if I had been too trusting. But something, maybe stupidity, made me stay.

Maybe I should have ran, but I said, “Yeah, okay. What is it?”

He flashed a wicked grin and then he titled his head back. I stepped away from him as his body convulsed. His skin rippled over cracking bones. Suddenly it was no longer Raven, but the raven sitting in front of me.

I should have been more shocked, but I wasn’t. I smiled and I bent down to pet his soft feathers. He cocked his head at me, and then as soon as he was a bird, he was back as a boy.

“Wow,” I whispered.

“I understand if you want to run away, forget about me,” he said. “I know I’m a freak.”

“No!” I quickly said. “I…I like you as Raven and the raven.”

“Really?”

“Really,” I told him. “I like you for evermore.”

(Raven by: Nebraska Oddfish) 

Author’s Note:
This week I read the Alaskan Legends, which had the myths of the trickster-hero, Raven. The actual Raven in those myths is a bird that can turn into a man. I thought this was such a cool concept!

So, I brought the idea of a boy that can turn into a bird into a Young Adult story. As usual, it has some romance. I am now aware that nearly every story that I write is a YA Paranormal Romance or Urban Fantasy with romance. But I write what I like to read, and I always hope that other people like to read it too!

Also, if you’ve never read Edgar Allen Poe’s poem "The Raven", I suggest you do that now, like right now! It is a spectacular poem, and reading it will make their little inside joke make more sense!

Anyways, this story was fun to write! I was happy that I was able to fit both a romance and a character transformation into 1,000 words! That is hard to do. If you didn’t notice, Kyra is quite a dynamic character! She overcame her depression and was able to trust and depend on something. That sort of character transformation is usually hard to fit into a short story, so I’m pretty happy about that element.

Reading Diary A: Alaskan Legends

Mythology and Folklore Native American Reading Unit: Alaskan Legends

(Image from: Pixabay)

Reading A:
1. The Raven Myth: Raven's Creation

• A raven turning into a man: a were-raven!
• People and animals created from clay.

2. The Raven Myth: Raven Creates the People

• I've noticed four come up a few times, atypical of the usual three's that are in myths.
• Way to go "man" for making mosquitoes pests! (Sarcasm.)
• Bears created out of fear of Man killing all the animals was an interesting idea.
• The pod that humans come from is strange.

3. The Raven Myth: The Skyland and the Sea

• Sky land. I thought it was going to be heaven. It is beautiful, but filled with small humanoid creatures, who are later referred to as dwarves.
• The birth of polar bears!
• Turning over while one sleeps is how many years they sleep. (He slept for four years--see, fours again!)

4. The Raven Myth: Raven-Boy and the Sun

• Like God in the bible, Raven the creater is becoming vengeful and violent.
• Creating darkness so that Man won't kill all the animals.
• Giving offerings makes it day again.
• Why ravens fly low.

5. The Flood

• Exchange of words as a ritual. Story idea: What if you didn't know you were part of a ritual!

6. The Origin of the Tides

• A house under a rock. (A house made for a sea fairy?)

7. Raven's Feast

• A burial feast. A special hat/crown for a funeral.

8. Raven's Marriage

• The repetition is interesting. ("Who will marry me? I'm a nice man.") Story idea: a repetitive statement like that, denied many times, and then accepted at the end.

9. Raven and the Seals

• A hunger that cannot be satisfied. (Remind you of a certain supernatural creature? Vampires!)

10. Raven and Pitch

• The colorings of half black half white of a fish. There could be other interesting creatures that are half black and white.
• A creature melting. Now imagine the half black and half white creature melting. Story idea maybe?

11. Raven and Marmo

• Carrion. A new very morbid word. It is the decaying flesh of a dead animal.
• The raven is told he only eats carrion, that is why he says he will eat Marmot.
• Marmot tells Raven, "Dance, Sing, then eat me, but first dance for me."An interesting ordeal.

12. The Bringing of the Light by Raven

• The sun and the moon in the sky at the same time.
• A despised orphan.
• A hill half lit up, and half dark.

13. The Naming of the Birds

• One will never starve so long as one has four pebbles. (Four again!)

14. How Raven Stole The Lake

Week 9: Curation Spaces

We spend most of our time online. I think this can be said about most people. We're on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest Youtube, Tumblr, (insert your favorite social media here) almost all of our day.

But I have a different way for you to use these websites, and incorporate it into Curation Spaces.

Since we're all in Mythology, make the most of it, and learn as much as we can!

Also, are you running out of creative steam for your Storytelling Posts or your Final Project? This will additionally help to fuel your creativity!

Want to learn more? Was there a week with Mythology that truly interested you? OR if there a Mythology that we haven't looked at that interests you, such as Norse Mythology?

Start by going to your favorite social media place. My favorite places to find Mythology-related posts is on Pinterest of Tumblr!

Search for any Mythology that interested you. Example: Greek Mythology. You might start to see Gods or Goddesses that interest you, so search for them next!

On Pinterest you can make a board for that Mythology, or a board for each deity. If you're on Tumblr, why not make a Mythology side blog?

Need to spark your creativity? Use Social Media and Curation Spaces to find interest for your Stories for Storytelling or for your Final Project (Storybook/Portfolio.)

For example, I wrote a story last week for my Storytelling post about werewolves. So, I hopped on Pinterest and found pictures of werewolves to insprire me.

Additionally, my Storybook is about Vampires. So, I often go to Pinterest and search around for images of Vampires there! I even made a Vampire Pinterest board to inspire me!

Here are my three favorite finds from this week:

1. Valkyries

(Image from: Pinterest)

(Image from: Pinterest) 

This week I found several beautiful images of Valkyries. 

If you did not know, Valkyries are beautiful winged maidens that carry Viking warriors that died in glory in battle to Valhalla. Valhalla is a giant mead hall with Odin. They stay there until Ragnarok. (Read about Ragnarok next!)

2. Ragnarok

(Image from: Pinterest) 

Ragnarok is the end of the world according to Norse Mythology.

3. This week's underappreciated Norse Goddess is...

(Image from: Pinterest) 

Skadi! She is the Norse Goddess of Winter. 

Week 9: Growth Mindset

I've been thinking a lot about Growth Mindset this week. In particular, beyond class, when I'm writing my novel.

I've written 10,000 words, which is about 50 pages. 

The problem? I had no idea what goes next! I felt like I was caught in quicksands, and all of my motivations were being sucked down.  

I was beyond discouraged until I spoke with one of my teachers, and he informed me that  this is the part where most author's get stuck at! 

I had another teacher call the middle of the story the "muddy middle." I never understood what that meant until now.

Apart from figuring the "muddy middle" out, I also have to edit all of those 50 pages that I wrote. 

Editing is a painstaking process. You have to cut out parts that don't work but cutting those parts outs hurts. It's as if you are cutting off a part of you.

Sometimes I want to give up and zone out to Netflix.

But then I remember Growth Mindset.

I remember my present and most basic goal in my writing career: to publish a novel! 

I remind myself that without struggle, there is no progress. 

I remind myself that it isn't about the end of the journey, it is about learning along the way.

Sometimes learning feels so difficult, it feels like struggling. But nothing truly worth anything in life is easy to obtain, is it?

And then I remember my motivations, and I write one word at a time, like one step at a time, and I am moving forward out of that so-called "muddy middle!"

(Image from: Growth Mindset Memes)

(Image from: Growth Mindset Memes)

Revenge: Best Served Under The Full Moon (Week 9 Storytelling)

(White Werewolf by: katmary)

(Warning: This story contains violence and difficult themes such as death and murder. If that is not your cup of tea, Laura said it's okay for you to choose another of my other stories. You can find my other stories in my Storytelling label.)

Revenge: Best Served Under The Full Moon

It’s a funny thing. Dying, I mean.

First there’s the shock, the whole: “Oh no! I’m dead”. (Insert explicative after explicative.)

The next part is when you realize that you’re not in Heaven, or Hell. No, you’re just a spirit, looking down at your dead body that's lying in the middle of the woods.

That’s when you find out how you died.

How did I die? Oh. I was murdered. You know, a big tragedy. My ex-boyfriend, that asshole Trent, his weird brother, and his best friend, stabbed me to death. So many times, in fact, that I looked like Swiss cheese in that ugly white sweater that I wanted to throw away, but mom insisted I kept it.

And then I died in that ugly sweater.

I remember it clearly. My death, I mean.

Trent did the stabbing. His weird brother had smashed my skull in, and Trent’s best friend? He watched the entire thing. Sure he said “stop” a few times--wide-eyed and mouth agape--but he never stopped them. He never called the cops.

What did I do to deserve this death? Not a thing. Nothing.

The only thing I was guilty of was a terrible taste in men, clearly.

But that’s not the end of my story. No, just the beginning for me.

I looked down at my body, and that’s when I saw something glow. I looked up and saw that the Full Moon--big and yellow--was shining down onto my body.

The next part is kind of a blur, but I was back in my body again. My wounds healed, and I was back to life.

But as soon as I started to get up, I doubled over. I felt like I was dying all over again.

Bones cracking and crunching. I wanted to claw my skin away, it felt like it was rippling over thin and moving muscles. That’s when I looked down and saw paws, claws, and white fur.

I had turned into a wolf.

I felt alive in whole new way. I ran through the woods, wild and free. Eventually I tired out, and fell asleep on the forest floor.

When I woke up I was human again.

At first I wanted to tell someone. I wanted to tell the cops, after all, I was murdered. I did die. But by some miracle under that moon, I came back, stronger and more alive.

How do you explain that anyway? Go to the cops and say, “Yeah, so, um, Trent, his weird brother, and his best friend killed me, but I came back, and now I’m a werewolf.”

“Yeah, okay, crazy person!” They would say--and then shove me into a mental ward for life.

So that was out of the question. But then I thought of a deliciously devious idea. But was it really devious to plot to kill your murderers?

I found the clothes I was murdered in, dressed in them and found my way home, and I acted like nothing happened. Not a thing at all.

“Mara, what happened to your sweater?” My mom asked me as I walked through the front door. Not even a, “Mara, where have you been all night?” or “Mara, are you okay?”
 
She wasn’t worried about me--she was worried about the sweater.

I pulled the sweater up and over my head. I looked her straight in the eyes as I tossed it into the trash.

A side effect of dying and becoming a werewolf? You grow a pair.

***

I went to school, walked by The Murderous Trio, and flashed the biggest grin at them.

Trent screamed various explicative after explicative, his brother probably peed himself, and his best friend? Cried.

“What’s wrong?” I said. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

I went home after that. Another side effect of dying and becoming a werewolf? Apathy for school.

I waited until nightfall, waiting to turn into a wolf, but I never did. I guessed that it was true then what they say, that werewolves turn under the Full Moon.

I guess that’s also how I turned into one in the first place. There may not have been a God or a Heaven, but there sure as Hell was that moon shining over me.

I went to school everyday, just to walk by The Murderous Trio, and everyday I scared them. But they only knew half of my plan.

***

(Image from: Pixabay) 

 Finally after a month, it was the next Full Moon.

“I know what you did to Mara,” I wrote on a note, and left it in each of their lockers. I also said, “Tonight, go to where IT happened, or I’ll tell the Police.”
 
So, I went to the the woods. The Moon, full and shining, rose up to the sky. My bones cracked, and skin rippled, and I turned into a wolf again.
 
I howled in the distance and ran to the spot that I had died at. Sure enough Trent, his weird brother, and his best friend stood, shaking in their shoes.

I will spare you the gruesome details, but I chased them, and then I attacked them as brutally as they attacked me, and I didn’t stop until they were dead. I pulled them out of the light of the Full Moon, so that they wouldn’t come back from the dead.

They never woke up.

The next day it was all over the news: “Three teenagers attacked by a wild animal.” Along with their innocent faces from their school pictures, and…cue the crying parents! (Really tugs on your heartstrings doesn’t it?)

I laughed while they cried.

After all, would they have cried over them if they were actually convicted of my murder? If they were sentenced for life? If they were sentenced to death?

No one knew what really happened, and no one would ever know that that they had murdered me. No one even knew that I had died.

But that didn’t matter. I didn’t care.

“Such a tragedy,” they said on the news.

Hah. What a joke. It was my triumph. 

Author's Note:
This is what watching too many Law and Orders, reading Dark Places by Gillian Flynn (the author who also wrote Gone Girl,) and reading Young Adult Urban Fantasy (with vampires, shape-shifters and such) will do to you. (And Halloween is coming up soon, as well!)
   
The wolf idea specifically came from "The Wolf Man" in the Blackfoot Stories. In that story a man turned into part-wolf--with a wolf head and wolf hands. But my mind thought: werewolves! And thus, I set out to write a story about werewolves this week!

I knew I wanted to write a story about a teenage girl turning into a werewolf, so I looked up myths on how people turn into werewolves. I found two interesting myths on Werewolf.com that you can turn into a werewolf by having the Full Moon shine on you, and then another where you can turn into a werewolf from being brutally murdered under the Full Moon. I combined the two and ta-da!

Reading Diary B: Blackfoot Stories

Myth-Folklore Native American Reading Unit: Blackfoot Stories

(Blackfoot Stories)

Reading Diary B:
1. The Smart Woman Chief

• So, all that about women not being "made as well" as men was really cool... (Can you feel the sarcasm?)
• The vegan in the class is loving all of the hunting in these stories. (Yes, more sarcasm, and hint: I am the vegan.)
• A divided society. Makes me think of the world that I have created for my Storybook in which the vampires and the humans are divided. What if there were some humans, or some vampires that did not know about the other and were shocked to find the other species?
• Yeah, so, don't mess with the other tribe, they will turn you into a pine tree.

2. Bobcat and Birch Tree

• More talking animals, awesome! (Sorry, this is the most sarcastic Reading Diary that I have ever typed up. I just want to read about Kut-O-Yis, he sounds interesting. He is the reason I picked these Blackfoot Stories.)
• There are so many stories with Old Man!
• "Teach me your ways" trope.
• Reminds me that ravens are used as an omen.

3. The Red-Eyed Duck

• Awesome, more talking animals and more of Old Man. But, last story before The Blood Boy!
• Imagery of a face full of ashes.

4. Kut-O-Yis, The Blood Boy

• A clot of blood fell from a buffalo's wound, and that clot became Kut-O-Yis, The Blood Boy!

5. Kut-O-Yis, The Blood Boy (cont.)

• The bit about the baby growing up to be his wife was extremely creepy, and I didn't quite follow what was going on. And the fact that they would kill it if it was a male was horrible! I am not like this myth thus far. When does he become the Hero figure?
• This doesn't seem very heroic, he is fighting his son-in-law?
• Hiding precious objects
• Bears--what about were-bears? Yes, that is a thing! I know them from Dungeons and Dragons.
• Kut-O-Yis is not the hero I had imagined him to be. They compared him to Jack the Giant Killer, and he is nothing like that. All he does is hunt. He's not a hero, he's a hunter.

6. Kut-O-Yis, The Blood Boy (cont. again)

• I like the idea of the cliff in these myths. A cliff is an excellent setting for a story, as it is dangerous. A cliff could also translate into a Urban Fantasy setting as a rooftop!

7. Kut-O-Yis, The Blood Boy (cont. yet again)

• Snake person, a shape-shifter, skin-walker, or a lamia!
• I don't think slaughtering the snake family was far at all or heroic for that matter! The snake didn't attack him.
• "Don't go there, there is danger!" "Okay, I'm going to go there!"

8. Kut-O-Yis, The Blood Boy (end)

• A woman who wrestles with men and then kills them.
• I suppose Kut-O-Yis is acting more heroic, in that he dashes towards danger like a knight in Arthurian Legend and Lore.
• "Oki" means welcome.
• Kut-O-Yis killed the big bad guy.
• He also arose from bones.
• Someone arising from bones. What supernatural creature could this be? A banshee, a ghost, ghoul, something of that nature.