Still a Month to Submit!

Just wanted to drop another reminder about my Fan Art contest! Details here. The deadline for all submissions is April 24th, then three judges will score the pieces. The winner will receive signed copies of all three published Tales of Goldstone Wood! Second place will receive a signed copy of Moonblood.

I have received some fun submissions so far, including a particularly clever comic-strip done in stick figures, several lovely pencil drawings, and some beautiful photography. There has even been one Moonblood-related submission already! Looking forward to seeing more of this awesome creativity.

X is for . . . X-tra!

Just like with Heartless last year, there really isn't a single X-related thing in Veiled Rose that I can write a blog post on. So X is, until further notice, becoming my wild card slot, and I will blog about whatever I wish to!

Last year, that meant writing a post about my foster kittens. So, hey! Why not make that a tradition too? Prepare to meet 2012's batch of rescue kitties . . . thus far . . .

For those of you new to my blog, I'll let you know that my husband and I do feral cat rescue and spay/neuter. Feral cats are wild animals that have had no domestication whatsoever. Most of them cannot be tamed. But if you catch them as kittens, it is possible to domesticate them . . . if you devote several hours of each day to their taming!

So, on to the 2012 batch. First, let me introduce you to Mo.

Yes, I heard your sudden squeal at the cuteness.

This little guy was very quiet and solemn when I first caught him. Other than a few pitiful "Merrrowls" to prove his Siamese heritage, he just sat in a lump for several days, unwilling either to fight or flee. This actually made his taming process easier since he didn't resist me. Within three days, I had him purring in my lap, and Mo proved to be just the sweetest, most thoughtful little kitty!

His sister, however, was MUCH harder to work with! Meet Muppet:

Don't let that image of furry sweetness fool you! When I first caught Muppet, it was like having a tiny, terrified tigress on my hands! She weighed scarcely more than a pound, but she was ready to FIGHT FOR HER LIFE! I had to wear heavy-duty gloves when handling her. She also proved remarkably adept at leaping and ended up spending a couple of days behind the light fixture above the bathroom sink, tucked away where I could not reach her (without losing a hand, that is). Long after I had Mo purring in my lap, I was wondering if I would ever make a break-through with his sister!

I did.

Snarling Tiger?

They say that the more terrified and wild a kitten is when you first catch it, the more thorough the breakthrough is when it happens. Well, it's true! Muppet turned into an absolute LOVE BUG, always wanting to be in my lap, purring and kneading the air with her sweet little paws.

Rescue babies!

Mo and Muppet have both gone to their new homes now. Mo went to a friend of ours who has renamed him "Stig," and Muppet went to a young lady I found through a cat-rescue organization. She has been renamed "Cairo" in honor of her Cleopatra eye-liner, and is a very happy snuggle bug. Hoorah for success stories!

After catching those two, I decided to pursue catching all the adult wild cats in the neighborhood and getting them spayed and neutered so that we wouldn't continue having this kitten problem. So I made an appointment at the vet, set my trap, caught a wild, snarling adult cat:

Actually, I caught this girl.

It was a fluffy female, one that I recognized. When I caught the litter of kittens last year, there was one that I never successfully trapped. The one girl in the litter. The one girl who was now . . . oh yes . . . hugely pregnant!

Turns out, along with being pregnant, she was also totally tame and loving. Which surprised me! Kitties that grow up in the wild practically never turn out tame. But this sweetie was the exception to the rule.

So, since she was tame, we decided to foster her and give her a safe place to have her kittens. Well, at least, I thought we would foster her! Instead, Rohan came home from work, she hopped in his lap, started purring, and he said, "Can we keep her?"

Yeah. Miss Magrat (Rohan named her) is now a permanent member of the Rooglewood menagerie. And she had her kittens last week!

Four kittens! Two black, two white.

Yes, we will be overwhelmed with felines for a little while. Say a prayer that the perfect homes will come around for all these bitties! In the meanwhile, we are enjoying our first newborn kitten experience. If you'd like to read more about it, you can check out Minerva's Blog . . . Minerva, being a cat, has a unique perspective on all the doings of this household.

Would you like to see last year's rescues in their new homes?

Mya and Max

Mr. Mycroft

And Monster! The one we kept.

Who is now 15 lbs and growing!

All right, sorry to any of you out there who aren't cat people! I'll be back to literary topics next week.

W is for Wolf Lord

"Did you see the Wolf Lord's ghost? He was said to prowl these parts back in the day." (p. 13)

The Wolf Lord is dead. He has been dead for a very, very long time. By the time Leo comes on stage, there hasn't been any living sign of the Wolf Lord for approximately sixteen hundred years, in fact!

And yet, how many references are made to and about him? How often is his shadow glimpsed or his voice thought to be heard?

This monster of legends has cast a long shadow that extends through history and even now gives the people of Southlands shivers at the very mention of his name. But who was the Wolf Lord exactly?

We only get bits and pieces of his story through the course of Veiled Rose. Most often, riding in tandem with his name is that of his foe, Maid Starflower, Southlands' most famous heroine. These two--the maid and the wolf--are inextricably linked through history. In Southlanders' minds, they are as inseparable as Red Riding Hood and her wolf are to us! You cannot have one without the other.

But though Starflower is gone from the realm, living on only in stone carvings and classical Southlanders' art forms, the Wolf Lord is still glimpsed by those fearful souls who find themselves alone in the woods at night. Like Leo . . .

And Leo started to glimpse shapes that flickered on the edge of his vision, deep in the forest shadows. His heart beat faster and his pace increased. The laughter around him continued, and more and more often he kept glimpsing things not there. Or things he hoped were not there.
He saw a wolf.
It was as big as a horse, loping between the trunks. Faster and faster it approached, and Leo could not see its face, for it was nothing but a shadow, but he could feel eyes like daggers fixed upon him. Predator and prey. Yet Leo could not run. He came to a standstill and watched as the shadowed horror drew nearer. He could almost hear the panting of hot breath, could almost smell the musk of the hunter, until it was but a few feet away and leaping . . .
It passed through Leo's chest. Then it vanished. (p. 79)

The Wolf Lord is dead. It can no longer cause harm to the mortals of the Near World.

But it can certainly still prey upon their fears! In memory at least, Starflower's nemesis lives on.

We have an opportunity to meet the Wolf Lord later on in the story, for Rose Red, our intrepid heroine, finds herself venturing down into the Realm of Death where ghosts such as he still dwell. Rose Red carries with her the Asha Lantern, a gift of protection from her Imaginary Friend . . . and a gift that the Dragon does not want her to have. The Dragon commands all the creatures of his realm to take that light from her and destroy it.

But the gifts of the Prince of Farthestshore are not so easily taken. Though the Wolf Lord is as huge as he is brutal, his cunning alone will serve him in his attempts to carry out the Dragon's command. And Light of Lumé, is the Wolf Lord ever cunning! See his initial interaction with Rose Red:

"That cursed light," he snarled. His voice heaved as though speech gave him pain. But his eyes gleamed in the glow of the lantern, glaring at Rose Red with hatred and despair. "Who dares bring that poison light and shine it in my eyes? Have you no compassion?" (p. 257)

"Have you no compassion?" Not a very monster-like phrase, is it? This is enormous creature, this ravenous destroyer, this wolf of nightmares faces our little heroine and accuses her of cruelty! Rose Red, gazing at this terror of Southlands sees a wounded, frightened, suffering creature. And it is her compassion that is aroused, not her fear.

We learn more hints about the Wolf Lord's back story through this encounter with Rose Red. Half-hints and half-truths, to be sure, but we can pick out bits and pieces of the bigger picture. For instance, when he says:

"They tore into me! . . . My own! My own! She betrayed me, though I loved her. Yes, my love was all too violent, too terrible and great for her to comprehend. But she betrayed me, and they tore me to pieces." (p. 258)

We can guess that it is Starflower he refers to when he says "she." Whether or not there was "betrayal" involved, who's to say? After all, we only have his point of view on the subject. Who the "they" that "tore" him were, we don't know for sure. Perhaps the Southlanders themselves? After all, the Wolf Lord tells:

"I ate them; I devoured them, the mortal insects! I enslaved them with fear and worship, made them offer me gifts upon this stone. And they hated me . . . They hated me, though I loved them, the little crawling things. They were ignorant and dirty; they needed my guidance." (p. 259)

So perhaps the Southlanders of ancient days rose up against him? There is little else for us to go on as far as the "they" who "tore into me" are concerned!

Whoever they were, they destroyed the Wolf Lord beyond even Rose Red's aid, though she tries to help him even in his ghastly, ghostly state. But when the Wolf Lord tells Rose Red that she cannot help him, I can't help but wonder if he is refusing to let her help. If he has created a hell for himself in this place of death, and no ministering hand will reach him in that place.

His voice, though that of a wolf, came as a sob. "You see, you cannot help. You and your cursed light. It hurts beyond bearing. I beg you to stop." (p. 260)

A pathetic creature, this beast of legends. Not at all what one might expect to meet after hearing all those half-stories about him! But then again, the unexpected quality itself is terrible, perhaps more terrible than if he had been all wolf and ravening.

Personally, I find him quite horrifying!

V is for Veils

It probably won't surprise any of you to learn that veils are my favorite literary symbol.

If literary symbols are something you have "favorites" of . . .

By "favorite," I mean, it's a symbol about which I have written several college papers, both for English and theology classes. One was for a class devoted to the study of Nathaniel Hawthorne (whose Scarlet Letter I have STILL not read, despite this class!) and Herman Melville (of Moby Dick fame. Which I did read. Yeah . . .). That paper was titled "The Choice to Unveil" and dealt with characters and themes from Hawthorn's lesser known novel, The Marble Faun. It began as such: 

"Throughout literary history, veils have been used as symbols to represent a variety of themes, including sin and repression, innocence and lies. In her article, “To Veil or Not to Veil,” feminist Marla Del Collins writes, “The veil has wound its way through . . . patriarchy, classism, sexism, colonialism, ethnicity, religious beliefs, national pride, extremism, modesty, shame and oppression” (14). No matter what it is used to symbolize, however, and no matter what context, the chief feature of the veil is this: The Prevention of Knowledge.

"Nathaniel Hawthorne in his final novel, The Marble Faun, makes use of veils in this sense. By comparing his two heroines, innocent Hilda and guilty Miriam, one may see both unintentional and intentional prevention of knowledge. Both heroines experience “unveilings” at traumatic moments that change their lives forever. One is forced into knowledge that she cannot accept; the other is forced to reveal knowledge she desired to remain hidden. When faced with the choice to either reassume their veils or live with revelation, these two characters, by their separate and surprising choices, illustrate the difference between innocence and true virtue."

I'm not offended if you didn't bother to read all that. Let me sum-up the gist for you: "Veils Prevent Knowledge."

If you did read that whole thing, however, you might be able to pick out similarities between Hawthorne's Hilda and Miriam and my Rose Red and Daylily. One innocent, one guilty . . . but which is which?

Of course in Veiled Rose, my main character, Rose Red, lives with a physical veil disguising her face . . . not to mention rags covering every inch of her body so that that knowledge of her true self is completely withheld from both the reader and the other characters. In fact, Rose Red herself is apparently unaware of her true face and form.

But could not the same be said, ultimately, for Lady Daylily? Have a glance at this scene:

"It's my secret," Rose Red repeated. She wanted to back away, but the baron's daughter held her locked in her gaze. So she closed her eyes behind her veil, hoping somehow to gain the courage to flee.
Daylily set her teeth. Then she reached out and removed the veil from Rose Red's face.
The fire crackled on its heart. Outside, the wind pressed up against the window, rattling the glass, then moved on its way with a howl. The Lady of Middlecrescent and the prince's chambermaid stared at each other in the dimly lit chamber, and in that moment, neither wore a veil. (p. 178)

We as the reader are not privy to the knowledge revealed in that moment. All we know is that right there, in that tense moment of time, Rose Red and Daylily saw each other for what they truly were. Knowledge was granted, knowledge that neither was entirely willing to give or accept.

There is another moment later on that contrasts this idea of veils between Daylily and Rose Red. It is the scene that describes their journey from the Eldest's House after the coming of the Dragon. They have the poisoned Lionheart on a horse and are struggling across deserted countryside attempting to get him (and themselves) to safety.

Nearly a week of this life would drive anyone mad, and Daylily's careful mask threatened to break with tears on more than one occasion.
All that kept her going was Rose Red.
Daylily could not see behind the veil. She could not tell how the smoke, the subtle poison, or the bone-weary journey affected the maid. Perhaps she too was crumbling. Perhaps she felt nothing at all. More than once Daylily longed for a veil to hide her own weakness. She could not let this person--this goat girl--see her break. (p. 198)

Here we have another case of the veil preventing knowledge, in this case, Daylily's knowledge of Rose Red's mental state. Rose Red's physical secret is out, but there is a deeper part of her that Daylily cannot penetrate . . . and because Daylily's soul has already been laid bare to Rose Red, it is Daylily who stands in the more vulnerable position.

Veils, of course, have a strong spiritual connotation as well. I wrote a paper for a theology class dealing with the passage in 2 Cor. 3:

"Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very bold. ¹³ We are not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face to prevent the Israelites from seeing the end of what was passing away. ¹⁴ But their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away. ¹⁵ Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. ¹⁶ But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. ¹⁷ Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. ¹⁸ And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate^[a] the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit."

But this discussion will better serve an article for Moonblood, so I won't pursue it now . . .

So yes. I really love the symbol veils which the genre of Fairy Tales allows me to deal with on an open level!

Allow me to take this moment to express a word of encouragement. I know that several (if not many) of my blog followers are college students, and perhaps some of you are pursuing an English major while simultaneously fostering a dream of fiction writing. I want you to know that I remember vividly that period of my life in school when everything was taken up with research papers and class assignments, and the opportunities for creative writing were few and far between. It  can be discouraging, I know, and it is easy to start thinking, "What am I doing here? I want to write! When will I ever get the chance?"

The writing will come. But your current opportunity--this chance to throw yourself into deep literary analysis, to learn what secrets the great writers of old have to share, to study symbols and themes and archetypes and all the brilliant ways they can transform a story from a mere story to a work of gorgeous, meaningful art--that is the opportunity of a lifetime! It's work, yes. But it's wonderful work!

That English Lit. 101 class might just hold the key that will unlock the mysteries of your future great novel. So keep your eyes open!

On a last (and slightly gushy) note.

Do you know, it's due to my love of the literary veil (and the fact that I had just drafted Veiled Rose in the months lead up to it), that I chose to wear a veil for my wedding?

While I understand that the traditional reason for a wedding veil was so that an unwary groom didn't run away at the first glimpse of his sight-unseen bride . . . I love the symbol of innocence revealed, of transformed glory, of a coming to true understanding in the context of a pure and godly marriage. Which is why, while I know many brides who raise the veil through the ceremony, I wore mine until we were pronounced man and wife, and it was Rohan lifted it to kiss me as his wife.

While I'm not terribly traditionalist when it comes to weddings, that's one tradition that I truly love! Especially as a former English major . . .  

U is for Una

Okay, okay, I know I used this "U" for the last series of A-Z blog posts! But there really isn't another U to be had in all of Veiled Rose (unless you're aware of something I'm not . . . which is embarrassingly possible). Next A-Z series I promise to use a different "U," but this time around, dear reader, do please indulge me and let us consider Princess Una of Parumvir once more . . .

After writing an entire novel about her (Heartless), I was a little wary going into Una's scenes come Veiled Rose. She was no longer either my heroine or my view-point character, and I wasn't certain if that would make me like her more or less. I really enjoyed writing Una in her novel, but familiarity breeds contempt, and I was a little tired of her by the time Heartless had reached its bazillionth-and-one draft. What would it be like to revisit her--and some of those familiar old scenes--a full novel later?

 I was pleasantly surprised how much I enjoyed the experience! For one thing, we see Una entirely from Prince Lionheart's perspective this time around. And Lionheart is blessedly unaware of all the drama and turmoil going on in Una's girlish young mind. He sees simply a sweet, pretty girl with a good sense of humor and a bright smile. He sees a princess who is down-to-earth enough to walk in the forests alone with messy braided hair, unspoiled by pomp (unlike Daylily), but also still full of good breeding (unlike Rose Red).

To Lionheart, Una must appear the perfect combination of everything he's ever wanted in a prospective bride.

I found it interesting to watch (yes, I wrote it, but often times it seems as though the scenes simply play out before my eyes and I type what I see) Lionheart fall for Una so quickly. In Heartless, we aren't privy to his  side of the story and don't really know what he's thinking or feeling for her until pretty late in the day. Here, however, we see him basically fall in love with her at first sight . . . in a rather atypical moment for Lionheart!

It makes sense to me, however. Lionheart has been exiled for five years, separated from all warmth and comfort and sense of security. All he has is his jestering to support himself, and even that is not welcome everywhere he goes. But to have this sweet and pretty girl (he doesn't even realize she's a princess at first), laugh and enjoy his humor even when, just moments ago, he had nearly scared her out of her mind . . . well, that's got to be gratifying to a young man's ego!

 Perhaps not the most solid foundation upon which to build romantic love. But not an unrealistic one.

I found Una singularly adorable as seen from Lionheart's perspective. Though in Heartless, she can come across as a bit of a pill and very naïve, seen through Lionheart's eyes, we see a simple, sweet, straight-forward sort of girl, a little spoiled, but honestly so. There's no artifice to be had in her, no game-playing, no secrets.

 Can we really blame Lionheart for the promises and half-promises he made to her, right there at the end of his long quest? Do we not suddenly have more sympathy for the despised jester-prince from Heartless? I do, at any rate!

Reminder!

Don't forget about this contest! Details here. The grand prize is signed copies of ALL THREE Tales of Goldstone Wood . . . Heartless, Veiled Rose, and Moonblood.

I have already started receiving some awesome submissions. Would you like a sneak peek?

And there are plenty more! Keep up the creativity, my friends!

T is for Throne

It was a hideous creation, up on a black marble pedestal and carved like intertwining dragon skeletons, polished and dreadful. Bloodstained, it stank of death. (p. 332)

This is Rose Red's first impression of the Dragon's throne when she, having ventured deep into the Netherworld, glimpses it. But at that time, she doesn't pay a great deal of attention to it. Oh, it's ugly enough, to be sure. But her eye is distracted by the sight of Daylily sitting before the throne, he feet dangling over the pedestal's edge. Daylily, whom Rose Red has come to rescue. Daylily, who wants to die.

Daylily has been experiencing a horrific downward spiral throughout this novel, especially once she enters the Netherworld. But I can't help but wonder if her proximity to the Dragon's throne might have affected her. Here the Dragon's poison must be especially strong.

 "I've watched my dreams die," Daylily says. "Every one of them, burned to oblivion. I will enver marry Prince Lionheart. I will never fulfill the expectations placed upon me. I wish--I wish you would go and let me die." (p. 333)

 Surely that awful throne must be the central apex of all the Dragon's power. It is there, before his throne that the Dragon nearly overcomes even Rose Red's indomitable spirit. Indeed, if not for the timely arrival of Beana (and the Prince of Farthestshore), we could not say that Rose Red would have survived that encounter, though she had been strong to resist the Dragon's persuasions up to that point. Did he lure her down here, to this seat of Death, in order to work the full power of his poison upon her? The novel never tells us for sure, but we certainly must wonder.

We have glimpsed this throne before when Una ventured to the Dragon Village in Heartless. Her experience gives us a slightly new perspective.

Weaving his way through the shadowy figures, her guide [the yellow-eyed dragon] led her to the very center of the cavern. There sat a giant stone throne.

It was covered in blood.
"This is his throne," the yellow-eyed boy said. "This is where we worship him, our lord, our master. Here he sits and judges us. And if he deems us worthy, we live. But if we have failed him in any command, he devours us."
The dragon girl felt a shiver run through the boy's arm. "Devours you?" she whispered.
"Us, sister. Yes, such is his right, for he is our Father. Sooner or later, we all fail and give our blood to him."
(Heartless p. 275)

We are definitely going to see more of the Dragon's throne. I hate to end every post like this, but . . . watch out for it come Moonblood!