This morning, I went to the restroom to brush my teeth. I work on a university campus, so it was not strange to see a backpack in one of the stalls. What was strange was the complete lack of any noise. No shuffling. No breathing or sighing. Silence. So, as I’m putting toothpaste (Colgate Total, […]
I wanted to have the novel take place in someplace that could be real, so I researched how towns might be named. I eventually chose Liniste Sat, which means quiet village in Romanian. This is a great name because it evokes the feel of a real Romanian name, while having an underlying meaning of what […]
“Vampire world bank protest16”. Licensed under CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
First, they didn’t call them vampires. They were either called moroi, which comes from the Romanian word “mort” meaning “dead” or the Slavic word meaning “nightmare,” or they were called strigoi, which apparently come in both live and dead versions.
Living strigoi were more like witches. They had two hearts, or two souls or both. At night they would send out their souls to visit with other strigoi and, on occasions snack on local livestock and neighbors.
Dead strigoi were reanimated corpses that consumed blood and attacked members of their living family.
Interestingly enough, you could be born with an predilection for becoming a vampire in Romanian lore. If someone was born with a caul, an extra nipple, a tail, or extra hair — no doubt about it, he or she was doomed to vampirism. And, watch out families with lots of children. If the first six were the same gender, the seventh child of the same gender would become a vampire. And poor preemies — they were also doomed.
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Photo Source: MorgueFile.com
Maria hummed as she walked into the chicken coop. The hens seemed to cluck in tune with her as she reached beneath them to collect the morning’s harvest of eggs. The chill air didn’t seem to bother her this fine day. She had a bounce in her step and was brimming with joy. She looked forward to whatever the day would bring.
Taking her modest collection of eggs, she walked along the vegetable garden path and in through the kitchen entrance of her cabin home. She put the eggs away and gathered her gardening tools.
Bobbing back out of the house she plunked herself down by the carrots and began digging them up. All the while, her happy tune never faltered. She was so engrossed in her task that she didn’t hear Arian’s footsteps clumping through the fallen leaves in the nearby forest.
It wasn’t until Arian’s approach caused the chiffchaff in the nearby spruce to flutter loudly away that Maria looked up. What she saw made her catch her breath.
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Photo: By AllisonMiller (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
I researched flora, fauna and Geo-political history. And then, in 2005, I had the opportunity to visit the country for 10 days, which was really amazing. I took a lot of pictures, some of which are below. Click on the thumbnails to see the larger picture.
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Writers, poets and storytellers need to be marketers and online marketing makes that some much easier. Check out some tips on how to market your creative writing on my other website. The Creative Spirit in Online Marketing Marketing Short Stories Online Marketing Poetry Online Online Book Marketing for Fiction Blogging Tips for Fiction Authors […]
I read this story about how tadpoles become frogs and I love using it as an metaphor for how we should look at obstacles in our lives. I recently included this story in a speech I gave at the Toastmasters club and thought I’d share it with you.
This morning, I accidentally hit the space bar in my browser and the list of suggested search terms was as follows: hollywood walk stars windows system32 config system hollywood walk of fame cuban restaraunts in celebration florida eating too much praise the mighty name of jesus membrane bioreactors and molecular seives book excerpt charlotte’s web […]
Last night, around 12:15 am, I heard someone crying out in the alley behind my apartment. At first, I heard him say something about mercy. Then there as a loud bang and he started shouting, “Nobody help me!” This would be followed by a few explicatives. As he passed the Red Rum dog, the dog […]
Yesterday, I watched Green Lantern starring Ryan Reynolds as the DC Comics hero. It was a fun flick … but it also had a pretty profound underlying message.
The premise of the story is that there is an intergalactic police force who harnesses the green energy of will to keep the peace. Their biggest enemy is Parallax, who harnesses the yellow energy of fear. You see, fear is the natural enemy of will.
And, if you think about it … that’s very true.
At one point, Sinestro (one of the green lantern core, played by Mark Strong) is sparring with Hal Jordan (Earth’s green lantern, played by Ryan Reynolds) and he tells him, “Fear is the enemy of will. Will is what makes you take action; fear is what stops you, and makes you weak… makes your constructs feeble.”
When you put this into the language of universal laws or law of attraction, you can see the truth of Sinestro’s words. Whenever we give into our fears, give them power, all the positive thoughts and affirmations (our will to make our life better) will be for naught.
For me, the most thought provoking and powerful moment in the movie was when Hal was doubting himself and the woman he loved tells him what she had always seen in him.
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