Goal Post: Half a Week of Work and Half a Week of Break

Posted on March 30, 2024 by Charles Yallowitz

Easter Break started on Thursday.  It’s not Spring Break this time because Passover isn’t until the end of April.  So, the holidays got split and we received two breaks.  Definitely needed the mini one.  A lot happened at work and in the home life . . . None of which I can talk about on the blog.  Sorry.

I can say that I’m really tired.  Partially from the craziness of Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday.  I didn’t get to begin recovering from those days until Friday.  By then, I was beyond exhausted.  I was barely able to do any editing on Darwin & the Halfling Hunt too.  Chapter 4 was done on Wednesday night, but it took me all of Friday to get through chapter 5.  I’m being fairly meticulous with the repairs and making sure everything flows, so I’m going slow.  It’s the first run through, so I should have expected this.  I still hope to get 6-7 done today and 8-9 done tomorrow.  I’ll have to tackle other chapters on Wednesday and Thursday nights to get to where I want to be.  If I even have the time with everything going on.

The only thing I really have to talk about is Thursday.  It was the first day of break, which I would normally spend resting.  Instead, my friend invited me into NYC to do an hour long archery lesson.  I hadn’t been in the city for a while, so I was eager to go.  Didn’t realize how much the price of a Long Island Railroad ticket costs, but I made it in.  Penn Station was not what I remembered.  Sort of.  As I told my friend, the main area looked nicer and shinier, but the offshoots were the same.  The smell and sounds were the same too.  Not to mention having to stay on the move while waiting for my friend to arrive in order to avoid the more colorful locals.

We met up with a high school friend of his, who I also talk with on Facebook, and his friend’s wife.  The archery place was in Chinatown and they showed up with a list of dumpling places.  All of these places sold dumplings for $5-$6.  The amounts ranged from 8 dumplings to 15.  So, my friend and I split dishes in order to make it through all of the locations.  They were all given nicknames too, which I remember instead of the locations:

  • Crack Dumplings– This is one we’ve been going to since 2000.  Used to be 5 dumplings for $1.  Now, it’s 13 for $5.  It got the name because they were SO GOOD that you kept going back for more.  The joke was that they put crack in it, but it was really just damn good cooking.
  • Chonky Dumplings–  These were 15 dumplings for $5 and they were meaty. Thick, dense dough and meaty filling.  We devoured these as if we hadn’t eaten a ten minutes earlier.
  • Dungeon Dumplings–  Named because it was on the lowest floor of an underground mall.  This was 8 dumplings for $5, but they had the best sauce.  The dumplings tasted a little like they were made with eggroll wrappers too.
  • Bridal Dumplings–  My friend and I actually got 6 pork buns for $5 while the others got the dumplings.  Forgot to ask how many for $5.  Everything was good.  The name comes from a bride and groom showing up with their photographer to have pictures taken while they eat.
  • Taquito Dumplings–  The last place was 13 dumplings for $6.  The sauces were good and the dumplings were open at both ends, hence the name.  Being at the end of the tour, I barely made it through this portion.  It was definitely the finale for me, but a great one.

Between dungeon and bridal dumplings, we did an hour of archery.  I’ve never done it before outside of playing around with a set when I was a teenager.  This was an official lesson and I didn’t do half bad.  My shoulders definitely ached, but not as much as my feet from walking so much.  This was my target:

Funny thing is that the one outside of the last circle on the left was from my second round, which also had three entire misses.  I was a mess that time for some reason.  First round was black, blue, and a red.  On the plus side, I tended to do good groupings even when I was missing stuff.  Need to find a place out here that I can take my friend to next time he’s out here.

Next week is back to work and school on Tuesday.  I’ll be helping out with a basketball team that our special education kids are a part of.  So, I’m going to be busy after school for the next two months.  Beyond that, I’m going to have the usual week with helping my son with his work and aiming to get as much done before the weekend as possible.  The NYC outing was a very early birthday outing, but it reminds me that it’s coming in about 1.5 weeks.  Not that I have anything planned since it isn’t a milestone birthday and this year has me feeling rather battered.  Just another day to me at this rate.  Maybe people will set up something fun and change my mind, but they have to compete with archery and a dumpling tour.

Goals of the week:

  1. Edit more Darwin & the Halfling Hunt.
  2. Clean bathroom.
  3. Pokemon Go with son.
  4. Make lunches for the week.
  5. Rest when I can.
  6. Watch ‘Great Teacher Onizuka’ when it hits Netflix on April 1st.
  7. Cry if Netflix is pulling a prank on me.
  8. Sleep in tomorrow.
  9. Bike once I can feel my feet again.
  10. Maybe order the ‘Dungeons & Dragons’ 50th anniversary Lego set.  Might wait until after my birthday in case people pick up my hints of wanting Lego giftcards.
Posted in Goal Posts | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 11 Comments

Happy Mermaid Day!

Posted on March 29, 2024 by Charles Yallowitz

Figured it would be fun to cover manatees on Wednesday and then Mermaid Day.  Though, I didn’t expect it to be so difficult to find mermaid funnies that weren’t either about ‘The Little Mermaid’ or perverted.  So, enjoy what few I could find.  What do you think about mermaids?

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The Garden Party by Wendy Clarke

Posted on March 29, 2024 by Charles Yallowitz

“The Garden Party” by Wendy Clarke is a novel that beautifully marries the essence of gothic mystery with a contemporary setting, making it an …

The Garden Party by Wendy Clarke
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The Last Guest House by Caroline Mitchell

Posted on March 28, 2024 by Charles Yallowitz

“The Last Guest House” by Caroline Mitchell, set in the Isle of Skye, presents an intriguing premise and attempts to weave a complex narrative around…

The Last Guest House by Caroline Mitchell
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Poetry Day: Icarus Reborn

Posted on March 28, 2024 by Charles Yallowitz

Icarus

(Written about the constant reaching for hope, which is followed by an inevitable crushing of disappointment.)

I see a pattern

That I follow to perfection

Reaching for the ring

High above my head

Basking me

In a golden glow

Barely sensing the burn

I blindly soar to grab

Believing the ring my fate

So sure that it is mine

Only to begin my fall

As I fail to hug the sun

I plummet to the depths

Cursing my short sight

I am Icarus reborn

Falling to my doom

Never learning my own limits

Fated to fly too high again

Posted in Poems | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 17 Comments

The Reality In Myths

Posted on March 27, 2024 by Charles Yallowitz

Manatee/Mermaid

It’s fairly well-known that many, if not most, creatures of mythology are born from a real animal or event.  For example, the concept of mermaids could have come from sailors seeing manatees or sealions.  Supposedly, Christopher Columbus saw ‘mermaids’ and said they weren’t as attractive as they were painted.  He was looking at manatees, but we know how he was with understanding what he was seeing.  So, what are some other possible explanations for myths?

Dragons

Let’s start with a big one.  Dragons have appeared in cultures across the globe and have done so fairly independently of one another.  So, saying the stemmed from crocodiles wouldn’t work when they weren’t found the areas.  What could ancient people have seen that would make them think giant creatures were around?  Two likely suspects are DINOSAUR BONES and WHALE BONES.  Without seeing these within the context of their living forms, a person could imagine that they stemmed from a monster.  If you haven’t seen such a big creature, you may think it has wings to stay in the air and hide among the clouds.

Bigfoot, Yeti, Etc.

Large ape-like creatures may have come from the same source.  The bones of Gigantopithecus, largest ape ever, would make a person think that there is a large, humanoid creature around.  Another likely suspect could be someone seeing a bear standing, but not get a clear look at them.  Fog and snow always seem to play a role here.

The Kraken and Sea Monsters

Well, the Kraken is obviously based on the giant squid.  I mean, it’s typically depicted with tentacles, beak, and simply being a humongous squid.  Sea monsters with the long, scaly bodies are different.  Many believe these were caused by encounters with a very rare creature called the giant oarfish.  They can reach 36 feet long and typically stay in the depths, but will rarely come near the surface.

Griffin

I’m a little disappointed in this one.  Coming from another fossil, it’s a possibility that the lion with the head an eagle was a dinosaur.  This would be the protoceratops, which had a bird-like beak.  Griffins aren’t always depicted with wings, but they always have the head of an eagle.

Cyclops

Another downer, which is harder to believe.  The Mediterranean Sea region was once home to the dwarf elephant.  You might wonder why anyone would think the skeleton of this extinct animal would lead to a giant with one eye.  Well, the skull has a large hole in the middle because of where the trunk came out.  It could easily look like a single, giant eye-socket.

Unicorn

This one is a tough challenge.  Some believe that the rare okapi is the origin since males have small horns.  From the side, it could look like they only have one, but they aren’t that long.  The oryx is another contender and we can’t forget rhinos.  A fourth possibility is that people found narwhal tusks washed ashore and came up with the unicorn.

Nessie

That’s a plesiosaur.  Nobody really can deny this one.

Phoenix

Found a few possibilities for this one too.  The one I think has the most merit are flamingos.  They have the fiery colors, but it’s more than that.  Africa had areas of volcanic lakes where you had a lot of steam and mist.  People would briefly see a bird with bright red feathers come out of the area, but then disappear.  Not knowing what it was, they came up with the phoenix legend.

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A Beggar’s Bargain

Posted on March 27, 2024 by Charles Yallowitz

Let’s all welcome Jan Sikes today. She has a new story to share with us. Jan is one of my Story Empire partners, a great author, and a good friend. …

A Beggar’s Bargain
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Finding Me: The Defiant Sisters Duet- Book 2 by Jacquie Biggar

Posted on March 27, 2024 by Charles Yallowitz

Today, I’m happy to welcome Jacquie Biggar, New York Times best-selling author. Jacquie is here today to discuss her new book, Finding Me: The …

Finding Me: The Defiant Sisters Duet- Book 2 by Jacquie Biggar
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Questions 3 and a Look Back at ‘Sleeper of the Wildwood Fugue’

Posted on March 26, 2024 by Charles Yallowitz

Art by Jason Pedersen

Sleeper of the Wildwood Fugue had a lot going on.  The big thing was introducing Dariana, who was the final champion.  I was going to make her origins a big reveal later, but realized that it might be more interesting to go in the opposite direction.  So, you find out right away that she is the daughter of Baron Kernaghan.  This isn’t a spoiler since the point of this became seeing how the other champions would react to being aligned with their destined enemy’s daughter.

This book marked me bringing the Luke/Sari/Kira love triangle to the next level.  With the backlash against Kira, who hadn’t made an appearance for a while, I got fairly clumsy with this plot.  Nothing devastating, but I tried too hard to repair her reputation even though the readers who turned on her stopped reading the series.  I softened it a bunch in edits since I realized that Luke and Kira could now officially go through with the ‘meeting of potential suitors’ part of the traditions.  This kind of started a rivalry between Kira and Sari, but only one of them was really invested in it.  By the end of everything, Kira definitely changed and it was locked in that she was going to be the one with Luke even if he continued doing things with Sari.  Don’t remember if I had that happen though, so the love triangle pretty much ended here.

Speaking of Sari, this is the book that made me realize she was still broken from losing her family and being tortured by a vampire during her debut.  I originally started thinking she would love Luke solely to avoid being alone, but I noticed I had her show love to the other champions.  That seemed to be her way and I always sensed that I was having her use her love and focus on others as a way to avoid facing her own demons.  They kind of came out in another volume, but Sari ended up being a very sad character.  She had no interest in her own happiness and focused on making those around her smile.  As much as she was Kira’s rival, it was clear that she was only acting the part with the belief that she was strengthening Luke and Kira’s relationship.  Did I get to put this out in the open?  No, because I could never figure out how to have any other character notice that this was going on.

Can’t really talk about Sleeper of the Wildwood Fugue without touching on Nyx since her temple gets involved.  This was the last full book to be connected to a game campaign, but I changed so much.  I believe this was the book where Nyx finally got a full sense of what she was too.  I used her primarily to help bring Dariana into the fold because I saw some irony in the champion who has known her destiny since childhood being the first to fully accept the daughter of her greatest enemy.  For her own character development, Nyx started to become a smarter fighter and not relying so much on overpowering her opponents.  She was still a monster in terms of power, but she was restrained enough that the others could do more even when she was around.

Let’s play with some questions:

  1. Should children of evil people be judged by their lineage?
  2. How would you console a friend who is grieving?
  3. What is the weirdest food you have ever eaten?
Posted in Legends of Windemere, Questions 3, Sleeper of the Wildwood Fugue | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 14 Comments

Exaggerated Conditions in Fiction

Posted on March 25, 2024 by Charles Yallowitz

Google Image Search

I was watching a show, which was rather good.  The name was ‘Almost Paradise’ and it was a crime show with some comedy.  The main character goes to a tropical island because he suffers from high blood pressure.  This means he can’t continue being a DEA agent until he gets the condition under control.  You can figure out the rest, but I want to focus on the high blood pressure.

Now, I had and still have hypertension.  This is something that doesn’t have symptoms, but can still kill you.  In the show, the hero has a few episodes where his BP tracker goes off and he gets physical symptoms.  Fatigue, sweating, dizziness, and basically what you would expect from an anxiety disorder.  These two conditions can go hand-in-hand, but it felt like it was focusing on the hypertension as the culprit.  There was some talk of everything stemming from PTSD.  Yet, the show really pounded on the hypertension for the first season.  Not a bad thing since it made it unique.  Just kind of strange that it was being exaggerated.

This seems to be common in fiction too.  You take a condition and push it either to its real extreme or an exaggerated version.  I saw this done a lot with autism way back.  A child with autism would always be constantly screaming at the top of their lungs with no way to calm them down.  They’d get triggered by lights, sounds, and other environmental things as if they’re just a bomb waiting to go off.  Now, this can be possible, but it was used as the standard, which colored people’s opinion of autism.  For many, they wouldn’t believe a person had it unless they were like this.  So, you can see how exaggerations in fiction can be harmful here.

Is it inevitable though?  I think you can’t really avoid some exaggeration.  Authors introduce these conditions for flavor and need to make them count.  There has to be moments where they pose a problem, so you can’t have them be benign for the entire story.  Otherwise, readers won’t really care or believe.  This would be causing the opposite issue of downplaying.  An author could even downplay it to the point where they forget and have the character take actions they wouldn’t do.  For example, a person with asthma running after an enemy and never having breathing trouble.  Again, these are added to be part of the character, so they need to come up and that might require a small level of exaggeration.

An issue or cause for this could be lack of research.  Many times, we think we know about these conditions or do a surface search for information.  Get the general idea and off we go thinking we can utilize it.  Doesn’t always work out that way because there’s always some nuance, especially in health situations.  This is really true for the stuff we hear about all the time like hypertension, diabetes, asthma, insomnia, etc.  Commercials and stories use these so often that we think we know about them.  Yet, we could be falling for another author’s exaggerations.  Kind of like a cycle if you think about it.

I don’t know if I’ll ever try it.  Part of the reason is because fantasy brings up the question of ‘why they exist’.  A world like Windemere is high magic, so you’d thing asthma, allergies, and hypertension would be easily cured.  Can’t say I’d disagree with that.  Other ailments would arise like curses, which I will play around with.  Yet, the real world ones can be tricky.  If I did use one, I’d have an exaggeration issue because I’d start looking for reasons to bring it to the forefront.  I’d have to justify including it in the character and that could lead to overcompensation.

What do you think about the use of medical conditions in fiction and their exaggerations?

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