5791 (let's just walk rather than run)

Hopes are embodied in dreams.

New Day, New Week. Frost is on the ground here, and a pretty hard one, too. Definitely Fall now.

Got some Ethiopian Yirgacheffe in the coffee pot (hey, my son said it was good). Irish Breakfast and Earl Grey in the teapots with other fine teas in the neat little wooden tea box on the counter. I'm keeping the pop stocked but I imagine there won't be much call for cold bevvies anymore so I'll only make iced tea if asked.

My writer's muse pulled a fast one on me yesterday. I was working away on the new Tana-verse story and ... yeah, I killed off a character I did not intend to kill. Gave her a hell of a death scene, too. Only problem is, she's supposed to be a major, recurring character in this sequence. I had already planned it out as a dramatic healing scene where she is critically injured but is healed by another character (there's some seriously powerful spirits in this one) but somehow went the other road instead. However, having her gone throws everything else into chaos so I am going to fork the story (thanks be to the electronic gods that Google Docs has robust versioning) and try to write that original ending.

But if I find the healing scene doesn't fly for some reason, I guess I'll need to revisit the rest of the story arc. Because I absolutely refuse to pull a Spock on this (Star Trek II : The Wrath of Khan and Star Trek III : The Search for Spock respectively kill off Spock and resurrect him). Either she's healed before she croaks or she dies and her companions must carry on without her (one of them is her partner, so major grief scene coming if I go that route).

As I plunge into the next set of stories set in the "Tana-verse" (yes, I'm really calling it that internally), I find myself starting to sort out the world a bit more. In the original series, I mentioned the existence of a priesthood called the Denith Lorn but did not really delve into religion beyond that. Obviously, in a world where spirits are a reality, religion is a bit of a different beast from what we have today. It will be more akin to ancient societies who believed their deities were really with them and affecting their world.

Now I am starting to flesh that out a bit, and two characters in the new story are Denith Lorn. One is an fully ordained Lorn, the other is what I am currently calling an "aspirant", basically a teenager seeking to become one of the Lorn.

I have decided that "Denith" is actually the name of their principle (and probably only) deity. Basically, the most powerful of the spirits who overarches the world and who rules and guides both spiritual and physical worlds.

The "Lorn" part means "servants" so the priesthood are the "Servants of God" essentially. I am also introducing some more powerful spirits, including an "angel" analogue called the Denith An ("Spirits of God"). The first story introduces a lot of this, but I am saving a fuller explication of the religion for a later story that will take place at the most important temple of the faith.

As someone with a fascination for mythology, theology, and religion, creating a faith is an interesting exercise. The hard part is making it feel real and lived, rather than something created as a framework for the story. I have lots of experience living in, and studying, religions from throughout the world and history, so I hope I can "keep it real". Of course, there is also the risk of making it into pseudo-(insert religion here), simply an analogue for some real religion which then introduces the risk of dissing followers of that faith indirectly and maybe unintentionally. Or, of course, promoting that faith, but that's usually more likely to be deliberate (c.f. C. S. Lewis).

One thing I am not doing is using the story to deconstruct or critique religion (well, mostly, a bit might creep in). My religious figures are going to be, for the most part, sincere, honest believers who seek to live out the best values of what they believe. I will leave the "religion is evil and religious people are corrupt hypocrites" stuff for others.

Quote by MikeHanson

I finished reading Steven King’s The Gunslinger, the first book in his Dark Tower series which is supposed to be his foray into the fantasy genre. I started reading this book back in the 1980s but quit reading it because it was too bizarre and violent. I also wasn’t into the old west setting back then. I finally completed it. My conclusion: It is bizarre and violent, and I’m not sure I like the old west setting that much. It seemed like there was not enough to the story, the characters seem to come and go at random. It did not inspire me to go out and read any more of the series. This is the only Steven King novel I have ever read. I imagine he does better in the horror genre. I had seen advertisements for this new novel Fairy Tale, but now I am not as interested in reading it.

The Gunslinger is, in retrospect, the weakest book in The Dark Tower. I quite enjoyed it, though. Later books are still weird but the Western element fades into the background a bit. And if you know King's post-apoc fantasy epic The Stand at all, its Satan-analogue Randall Flagg is the villain later in the series (he's actually a recurring villain in King's fiction, even if he is best known from The Stand).

But, yes, in general King is much better at horror than fantasy. While I kind of drifted away from him due to over-saturation in the eighties and nineties, I would still put some of his work (The Mist, Christine, Salem's Lot, The Shining) pretty high on my horror reading list. And he's done some excellent shorter works, like the four novellas in Different Seasons, not all of which are even horror (e.g. The Body, the basis for Rob Reiner's film Stand By Me, is from that collection, as is Rita Hayworth And the Shawshank Redemption, basis for The Shawshank Redemption film).

New story that I have underway.

One day, I will succeed.

Cute - Mute (getting too noisy)

5773 (just sit around and write, like me)

There. A day late, but I'm caught up again. Good field. Looking forward to seeing (and disagreeing with 😋) the top ten.

And I actually first discovered the second song through a cover by Canadian heavy metal band Helix, who hailed from my birthplace.

Music to celebrate our recent comp. Wish I had thought of this post earlier. Songs entitled "Dream On"

23! Hip hip hooray! C'est fantastique, as my Quebecois neighbours might say. On to the judging!

Did you hear about the barista who got ... mugged?🤪

Bonjo ... er ... Good morning. Back to no longer having to start each conversation with "Avez-vous Anglais?" Don't get me wrong. The Quebecois are lovely people. It just feels weird having language issues when I am nominally still in my own country. For now. There's still a strong nationalist tinge to their politics

Coffee is a fine Jamaican Blue Mountain. Teas are Irish Breakfast and Red Rose.

Looks like the comp ended up with 23 entries. That is wonderful. Now to see which ones catch the judges' interest.

Plus tard, les alligators.

Bonjour from Trois Rivieres. Crashing here before heading home to the jungles of Southwestern Ontario. Decided to just enjoy our time in La Belle Province and leave poor NB for another trip.

Will read the three poems that I have not tonight, so just under the wire. Saw some scenery that could inspire new poems but some actually fits well with my comp entry as it is. Will post a few pics once I am home and have consolidated my camera photos with the ones on my phone.

Quote by Molly

It's not just you, I've mentioned making it a tad bit lighter blue.

Thirded. I thought Like wasn't working but finally realized that the change in colour was too subtle for my crappy colour vision.

Quote by Molly

I love that we have 20. They are all so good. I know there are a few people working on theirs... Two more days to go, you can do it!

Ape was happy when he popped by and saw the new entries. 20 is fantastic but beating 20 would be even better. Go poets!

Quote by DenimAngel
I believe Ape Is on VACATION

Indeed, I am. Just checking in on the comp from Chicoutimi, Quebec. Spent the day hiking in Fjord du Saguenay National Park (which is really a provincial park but Quebec thinks they are a nation so whatever). Gorgeous place. Worth a visit. We even met some cruise passengers on a shore excursion and saw two cruise ships in La Baie, Saguenay's port.

Still thinking about the rest of the week. We had dropped plans to visit New Brunswick because of Hurricane Fiona but the areas we were to visit seem to have largely recovered, or at least settled so might revisit those plans.

Later, alligators. Au revoir as they say hereabouts.

And the poems keep rolling in. In case you missed it in the competition thread, TheShyThespian has delivered entry number 18: https://www.storiesspace.com/stories/poetry/hunted

Yay, TheShyThespian is in!! And we are at 18 entries. This is shaping up really nicely.

Imagination is a wonderful tool.

Tire - Tore (and tossed the bits all over)

Soon the ape is going away

But he will be back some day

To make great coffee

To make great tea

For our little community.

Good morning! Coffee is brewed and there's Sunday Tea (vanilla) and Irish Breakfast in the teapots. Getting cool here but I'll make iced tea one last time for those who may be dropping in from warmer spots.

Bumping for a new entry from LunarVenom:

Mirrored Thoughts | Stories Space

Oo, and just noticed there's another comp entry, from LunarVenom. By my count, that's now 17 poems.

Mirrored Thoughts | Stories Space

Day is brighter than night.

Quote by JustAnotherSapphic
Then on Tuesday somebody messed up on a game in a way that hadn't been seen since 1990.

It is just insane that PiR is old enough that you can have something that only happens twice in 32 years.😀

Quote by JustAnotherSapphic
On Monday, someone won $51,000.

Was it deliberate due to the season number or a happy coincidence?

Quote by verbal
The first draft of the novel that began its life at this very site is finally done! Huzzah!

Yay! Verb's a novelist now! Not a published one but that's the next step, eh.

Quote by DenimAngel
Sorry for the absence folks I am dealing with bruised ribs .

Ouch. Take care of those. A friend on another board spent a chunk of this year dealing with a cracked rib.

Watching to see what impact Fiona might have on our plans. She's rolling through the Canadian Maritimes this weekend and could impact a couple of our destinations. Radar right now, though, looks like she might stay East of where we are going. But I'm an ape, not a meteorologist, so who knows?

Lilt - Kilt (goes well with bagpipes)

Fortunately, the ape was only wearing the tent while he located some sharp sticks to use as pegs.