~Blog Archive June, 2008~
June 30, 2008: Let's end the month with demons
What a good way to end up the month--a little info on your friendly demon.
Demons have mainly been considered unfriendly or malevolant spirits and in the Christian faith, they are considered to be fallen angels. Demons are usually shown
to have been called by someone and they aren't easily controlled. So where does the
idea of a demon come from? It goes as far back as the Greeks. They probably came
up with the word, too. The Greek for demon is daimon and in Greek literature, the reference to a demon shows up in Plato. Demons appear in pretty much every religion and they represent creatures to be avoided and feared.
I recently read a great book by Jenna Black, The Devil Inside, and it was all about
demon possession. Definitely worth a look!
June 29, 2008: More about Witches
I thought I'd break away from fairies for a bit to find out more about
witches. Witches and warlocks are really the main characters in my first
book, Fire Burn and Cauldron Bubble. So, what makes a witch a witch? In short, witchcraft. And witchcraft is described as influencing another
person's body or mind or property against his or her will. And the way
witches do this? By casting spells. Usually spells consist of a verse, words or
action and can also combine all three. Spells were usually carried out by inscribing
them on an object to give that object special powers, by creating
a clay or wax representation of a person and putting the spell on this
(compare to voodoo) or by reciting incantations, performing rituals, using
herbs and potions or by doing divination.
So, while this
sounds bad, there is
also a positive form of witchcraft, those
who practice
it are dubbed "white witches".
This type of witchcraft is entirely benevolant and these types of witches find issue
with performing magic on someone without his or her consent.
June 28, 2008: The Goblin
Sticking with my idea about writing about the various types of fairies, today I'm discussing that happy creature otherwise known as the Goblin.
According to folklore, the Goblin is known as a cranky and usually evil
creature who is often described as being disfigured who varies in height from
being the size of a dwarf to the size of a human. The word "goblin" is
probably derived from the Anglo French "gobelin" which was related to the
German word for sprite. And so you don't get confused, anything
resembling
a goblin but larger than a human is a troll, just for clarification.
Apparently, there are goblin hills in Somerset, England. Guess that
should be my next
trip!
June 27, 2008: The Banshee
I wrote a bit about fairies in an earlier post but I really did a general
overview. I thought it might be interesting to actually look into the different
types of fairies. In Irish folklore, the Banshee is considered to be a fairy-
type creature. When I hear the word banshee, I immediately imagine a
ghost. And for good reason, according to Irish lore, the banshee is a female spirit,
usually thought to be an omen of death from the Otherworld. The banshee is also described as a fairy woman. In Old Irish and Gaelic Scottish, banshee means
"woman of the mounds" or "woman of peace."
In Irish lore, a banshee will wail around a house if someone in the household
is going to die. In other versions, the banshee might appear before death
and wail to the family members. Either way, lots of wailing going on.
Banshees, though called fairies, are though to be spirits of women who
have died and usually in childbirth.
Usually banshees are described as wearing long dresses of white or grey
and having long, fair hair which they brush with a silver comb. In lore, it
seems the idea of the silver comb got confused with mermaids who brush
their hair with silver combs. Anyway, if you ever see a silver comb lying
about in Scotland or Ireland, DON'T PICK IT UP! Apparently if you do,
the banshee who put it there will spirit you away!
June 26, 2008: Ghost Book
I was thinking about writing a book about ghosts--well, really not so
much about ghosts but more about a ghost hunter. There are a couple of
books out there on the subject--What's a Ghoul to do? is one of them. I've
ordered it so I can try it out and make sure mine is different enough. The
covers on those books are really great. Very eye-catching. Anyway, as part
of my research, I ordered a book (The Ghost Hunter's Guidebook by Troy
Taylor) on how to catch ghosts--the different things you need. I thought it
might come in handy in terms of describing what the character is using, etc.
Some of the questions answered in this book:
How to use ghost detection devices
The most common type of haunting
Why some ghosts wear clothes (sounds funny)
Are ouija boards really dangerous
How do you get rid of a ghost
June 25, 2008: Werewolves
So, I've blogged about fairies, witches and vampires but I haven't
discussed the good ol' werewolf...well, now I am. So the idea of the
werewolf goes pretty far back. The first use of the word "werewolf" dates
back to 1212 when someone named Gervase wrote about one. The idea of
the werewolf even precedes Gervase--the ancient Greeks wrote about the
notion of the werewolf although they didn't call it a werewolf. The Greek
name for werewolf? Lycanthrope. The name werewolf comes from the
old English wer (man)- wulf (wolf). So how did people used to determine
if a man was a werewolf? A uni-brow was one way (when you have one
eyebrow as opposed to two). Or if you had curved fingernails, low set ears
or a swinging stride, chances were you were a werewolf.
June 24, 2008: Fairies
I thought it would be fun to write about fairies since I'm really in fairy
country at the moment--the UK. The idea of the fairy is taken from the fae
of medieval Western European folklore (French). Sometimes the word fairy
is used to describe other mythological creatures such as gnomes and goblins
and other times it is particular to just what we consider fairies to be. Lots
of fairy folklore talks about stealing babies and leavine changelings in their place.
Our idea of the fairy as more of a pixie aka small and winged is somewhat recent.
According to old myth, fairies were tall, radiant and more like angels. Some
interesting beliefs about fairies through history:
That fairies are dead and ghosts.
That fairies are elementals, or a separate species from humans and angels.
That fairies are demoted angels.
That fairies are demons and a form of witchcraft--a Puritanical view.
That fairies are actually humans.
That they are pagan deities.
June 23, 2008: Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe is one of the best horror/ macabre writers in history.
I remember reading his stories as a kid and enjoying them even back then.
So, I thought it might be interesting to find out a bit more about the man...
He was born in 1809 and died in 18489--pretty short life. He is considered
to be the inventor of the detective-fiction genre. And even though his life
was fraught with financial difficulties, he is considered to be the first
American to earn a living by writing alone. He began his literary career
doing literary criticisms in the East Coast. He wrote his first selection of
poems in 1827 to which there wasn't much response. In 1835 he married
his 13 year old cousin (ick) and in 1839, he published his Tales of the
Grotesque and Arabesque which didn't get very good reviews. In 1845,
he published his now famous poem, The Raven. It was instantly a success.
2 years later, his wife died from tuberculosis. Some say her early death
may have inspired his writing. Poe, himself, died in 1849 and no one
knows what he died from.
June 20, 2008: What is Urban Fantasy?
You may have noticed a rise in a new category of books called Urban
Fantasy. Prior to becoming an author, I didn't really understand what
this meant. I found myself gravitating towards stories about vampires,
werewolves and the like but I always just thought of them as belonging to
the paranormal book world. Well, not so much anymore. I now consider
myself more of an urban fantasy author. What does that mean? It's
basically
a subset of fantasy that sets stories in a contemporary setting
rather than
a fantasy one. The characters can be fantasy characters such
as vampires, witches, warlocks, werewolves, shapeshifters, whatever. But
it's really the setting that makes a story an urban fantasy and like the
name implies, usually these stories take place in an urban setting. What
really set this genre on fire was the Buffy the Vampire series and Laurell
K. Hamilton's, Anita Blake series. There have been a multitude of authors
and books that are now part of this exciting and recent genre!
June 19, 2008: Witches
I thought I would find out a bit more about witches today. My first book,
Fire Burn and Cauldron Bubble, is the story of Jolie Wilkins, a psychic who
finds out she's a witch. My idea of what a witch is and the classical ideal of a
witch are very different, though. Jolie doesn't mix potions or do that type
of stuff--she's more a metaphysical type witch and all her powers come
through her own psyche. Of course, she does get training along the way
--
from her handsome warlock boss, Rand, and from the fairies.
So, what makes a witch in terms of what most people think of witches?
Well, traditionally, most witches are women although they can be men also.
Most witches are known by spellcasting and conjuring the dead, also called
necromancy. Witches show up in almost all religions, and from all over the
globe, Europe to Africa!
June 18, 2008: Frankenstein
Today I was thinking about Mary Shelley's, Frankenstein, and thought
it would be interesting to find out more about it. Mary Shelley wrote the
novel when she was 19! Published in 1818, it was published anonymously
and Mary Shelley's name only appears in the third publication, in 1831.
The book is considered the very first science fiction novel. So, how did
the novel come to be? This is my favorite part:
Mary Wolstonecraft Godwin and her soon to be husband, Percy Shelley,
visited Lord Byron in Geneva, Switzerland, where the weather was so bad,
the three of them were stuck indoors. They decided on a contest--each one
to write a horror story--the contest won by whoever's story was the
scariest. Mary came up with the idea from a dream she had whereby she
saw a student creating a hideous creature. I couldn't find any information
as to who won the contest! Anyway, Mary finished the book and it was
published by a small publishing house and the book was received
somewhat unfavorably by reviewers. As to the general public, they
loved it!
June 17, 2008: Haunted Houses
Whether or not you believe in ghosts, the ideal of the "haunted house"
seems to be a subject that keeps us guessing. So, I looked up what exactly
a haunted house is considered to be beyond the obvious--haunted! Here's
what I found:
It seems that the majority of hauntings are associated with some form of
tragic death such as murder, suicide, etc. Ghosts that go beyond the
occasional moving of things or shutting doors, etc. move into the realm of
poltergeists, meaning "noisy spirit" in German. Interestingly enough,
haunted houses are not just a recent literary device--Roman authors
Plautus, Pliny the Younger and Lucius all wrote about haunted houses.
And what's even funnier--haunted houses entered the legal system when
in Stambosky vs. Ackley, it was decided that a seller must disclose that a
house is haunted, or believed to be haunted, to a potential buyer.
Some famous books on haunted houses:
The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794): Ann Radcliffe
The Fall of the House of Usher (1845): Edgar Allen Poe
The Turn of the Screw(1898): Henry James
The Rats in the Walls (1924): H.P. Lovecraft
The Shining (1977): Stephen King
From the Dust Returned (2001): Ray Bradbury
June 16, 2008: Definition of a Warlock
In Fire Burn and Cauldron Bubble, one of the chief characters, Rand
Balfour,
is a warlock. When I made him a warlock, I was thinking of him
as a male witch. I thought it might be interesting to find out exactly what
the word "warlock" means. So, here you go:
In the Christian tradition, "warlock" means much the same thing that I
took
it to mean--merely a male witch. But, instead of riding a broom as
female witches do, warlocks were said to have ridden pitchforks. In
Scottish lore, warlocks were believed to just be wizards.
The word "warlock" comes from the Old English, Waerloga, which
meant "deceiver" or "oathbreaker". The Old Norse word, varolokkar,
also
is
believed to have roots in "Warlock" and this word means "caller
of spirits." Wiccans believe the word to mean someone who's been
banished from a
coven. In Satanism, the word "warlock" means someone
who is a part of
the coven.
Interesting! Well, my version of "warlock" as far as Rand is concerned,
is a much softer, happier version!
June 14, 2008: Fire Burn and Cauldron Bubble
Lots of people have told me they really like the title of my book, Fire
Burn and Cauldron Bubble, the story of a woman who becomes a witch and
the host of characters she meets along the way: warlocks, vampires, ghosts
and fairies. I actually pulled the title from Macbeth--the scene where the
three witches chant above the cauldron as they mix a spell:
Fillet of a fenny snake,
In the cauldron boil and bake;
Eye of newt and toe of frog,
Wool of bat and tongue of dog,
Adder's fork and blind-worm's sting,
Lizard's leg and owlet's wing,
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.
Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.
June 13, 2008: Vlad the Impaler
In further thinking about my post on Dracula from yesterday, I wanted
to find out more about Vlad the Impaler. Even though it's
debatable as to whether Count Dracula was modeled after Vlad, he still
seems to be an interesting character. So, without further ado:
Vlad's last name was Draculea which was derived from his father's title:
Dracul. He was born in 1431 inTransylvania--now I'm wondering if there
is more Vlad to the Count than I discovered yesterday. Vlad was known for
exercising extreme and bloody punishments, most notably impaling
people, hence the title: the impaler. Apparently, he'd arrange the spears
in patterns and the height of the spear indicated that person's rank.
Going back to the vampire connection with Vlad, there really isn't one.
Vlad's claim to fame was more in his barbaric treatment of his enemies.
There aren't any accounts of him drinking blood or involving himself
in any other vampire pastimes. The Romanians consider Vlad to be
one of the best rulers Romania has ever seen.
June 12, 2008: Thoughts on Stoker's, Dracula
I was thinking about Bram Stoker's, Dracula, really the first book that set
off the ardor for vampire books in general. Here's some interesting
information I learned about Stoker:
Dracula was published in 1897. Stoker spent 7 years researching vampire
folklore before actually writing Dracula. His first title for the book was:
The Dead Un-Dead. Sounds weird to us now, but I guess a rose by any
other name would smell as sweet, right?
Count Dracula was originally going to be called Count Vampyre but in
Stoker's research, he found the word Dracul and was intrigued. Dracul
comes from the word Draco from the Romanian and means: devil. How
fitting! No one is sure if Stoker based Count Dracula on Vlad the Impaler
but it's doubtful.
When Dracula was published, it wasn't immediately a bestseller although
it
did receive quite a bit of literary praise. It was proclaimed the classic of
Gothic horror, a title it still deserves today.
