Currently Reading

I've always been big on reading.  However, I went and slacked off in the last few years.  Shamefully, I only read like a small handful of books (like, less than 5, probably) within the last several years.  And that's just not me!  So, I've set a goal to read 33 books total this year.  And I have already read 16!  Yeah!  Go me!  ^_^

For some strange reason, I'm one of those people that entertains a few books at a time--dunno why.  Sometimes the plot of one moves slowly or something.  I know with the non-fiction I read, occasionally I must take my time to chew and swallow it, then give it some time to digest.  I try not to be reading more than 3 books at a time, however, because that sets of my weird procrastination spirals.  @_@  And I'm really trying to be better than that!

Anyway, here's my current reading list:

1. Hold Me Tight by Sue Johnson -- I'm on page 207 0f 300

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2. Beauty's Punishment by A.N. Roquelaure (Anne Rice) -- on page 73 of 233

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 3. The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley -- just started (okay, page 8 of 876)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A small smattering of my thoughts thus far:

I enjoyed the first Beauty book, but I'm sorta struggling through Prince Alexi's bit in the village.  He interested me in the first one, but not so much in this second installment.  I really just want to get back to Beauty, but I can't just skip Alexi's portion as his journey here is probably important to his character development.  *le sigh*

On the "self-help" book, Hold Me Tight, it's frickin fantastic!  It's a super book.  It is so helpful.  It's nearly unbelievable how amazingly helpful it is.  I recommend it to anyone in a relationship as it just helps foster better communication and deeper understanding between you and your partner.  It's such a relief, honestly.  And FYI, your relationship doesn't have to be in turmoil for it to help.  I do get the Beatles' song of the same name stuck in my head every time I look at the cover (which is annoyingly frequent as it sits on my bedside table) but that's really not the book's fault (hint: it's my brain's).  I'm moving slowly through it only because I've really been taking my time to put the exercises into practice with my partner, ensuring that I integrate these teachings into the depths of my being.

As for Mists, yes, I am aware of the controversy surrounding MZB now, but honestly that's part of the fun of reading books.  I really don't think anyone can be truly "morally pure", otherwise they'd just be sitting around in a white jumpsuit in a white room drinking tepid tea with their pinky and nose in the air trying to keep their mind totally blank.  And while that may be safe from "bad associations", that's just not living.  But anyway, so far I really am enjoying the stylistic voice MZB writes in.  I'm barely into the story, but it's very rich, descriptive, and sensuous prose.  I look forward to getting deeper into it.

I'll be sure to post some more in-depth book reviews once I've finished these.  I'm also on Goodreads, so if you'd like, you can track me there as well.

May black light guide you <3

~Teresea Fae Ghouleh

I LIVE!

 Ah, I live!  And so does this blog!  There were some rough times in the past--lost jobs, a parental passing, relationship troubles, and then a new job and a new relationship (not to mention stupid covid lockdown, ugh!)...y'know...the "usual" life stuff that kicks you to the curb and knocks out all the teeth in your head and you're left scrambling around putting the pieces back together--but I am back for more here!  

I know, I know..."Teresea Fae, that's what you said in your last post that was FIVE YEARS AGO!"  

Okay, you know what?  Life happens (see 1st paragraph).  Sometimes it's one step forwards, two steps back...and vice versa--I've danced a complex rhumba over the last several years and I think I'm in a pretty great place now, thank you very much.  And I want to return here, to this blog, The Faerie Ring.

 Why not just use social media?  Well, hmm, lemme think...  Maybe it's because I really, really, passionately detest the social media atmosphere and I really, really, truly missed this space of mine, so I am raising it from the dead--just like a necromancer.  A digital necromancer.  A digimancer?  No, not a Digimon.  Pokemon all the way, dudes.

Joking aside, I am excited to share new vistas of Arts and mysticism on this blog again.  I've got some neat things planned--graveyard photos, sketches, piano music, mythology musings, and lots of writing, just to name a few--to share and I can't wait to document what I'm up to again.

Onward!

Yo! Update!

Yo dudes!  Long time no see (but that happens with me...cue the promise to be active more here...)!

I've been a busy little bumblebee!  My S.O. & I are finally living together again and I have been going back to school!  I've also been writing like crazy!  And it's not just fanfiction, either!

I took an intensive creative writing course this last summer and it really lit a fire under my butt!  I have been writing not just more short stories, but I have revisited poetry and have written a ton of poems with my rekindled love of poetry found again!

Not only that, but I put together a writing group with another classmate and not only have we recruited members and meet regularly, but we also have been encouraging each other to submit our work to contests!  I have entered into one poetry contest and one short story contest already, with one more of each on the way!  We'll also be looking at what it takes to go the publishing route after this upcoming NaNoWriMo (which I WILL be participating in this year!  I already have 1100 words and counting!!!)!

So there's a lot going on in my life writing-wise, which is probably what will be coming up on this blog here for the next few posts.  I'll be posting some stories, poems, a few essays, as well as some light fanfiction peppered throughout because I honestly can't resist my sweet tooth.  I hope to also post blurbs of my NaNoWriMo, but we'll see how that goes with everything else I got planned:

I may re-organize this blog.  The tags are quite messy and could really be condensed, I think.  But that's a project to ponder and one that won't take place until probably after I am done with this school quarter.  In the meantime, look out for new Pages at the top of the blog - I'll be a good Capricorn and organize the writings and such in one easily accessible place.

Sketchbook pages 50-53

I've been doodling in my sketchbook!  Hooray!

1.   2.

3.

4.

1. Gesture sketches.  I referenced poses from a book about Bruce Lee called Bruce Lee; The Art of Expressing the Human Body.  The quote reads, "Knowing is not enough, we must apply.  Willing is not enough, we must do."

2. I read an article about Marilyn Manson's love and use of make-up and wanted to use some red and blue paint.

3. A collage; "Shamanism.  Explore. Learn. Discover.", "Impulse.  Mania.  beauty.  liven up.  day-night.  amazing.  choices."

4. An important reminder collage; "Wake-up call: The 'Not Good Enough' Trap.  Some of us are so used to feeling bad about ourselves, it's become normal.  We have to make a change now, to let go of the 'ideals' we've been taught to achieve, and to stop being ruled by fear.  Essentially, we are addicts, addicted to viewing ourselves in a negative way.  Basically, we're crippled by the fear of not being enough in general.  We have learned...to be afraid of being imperfect - and of being human. That's no way to live. It's tiring and uncomfortable and time-consuming.  We need to stop thinking of ourselves as insufficient, as not good enough.  Essentially, we are addicts, addicted to viewing ourselves in a negative way. A wise woman once told me you can't just stop thinking something, because that leaves a void; you have to replace the old thought pattern with a new, healthier one. What if we replaced our negativity with positivity, replaced the hate with love?  I look in the mirror everyday and say, 'I love you; you're beautiful.'  My mind didn't want to break the habit of hating myself. But the more I did it, the more natural it felt...until it eventually felt good.  I'm over feeling bad about myself."  "Be your beautiful you."  "Kick the habit."

HP&THBP 1.6180339887...Ch.4

Title: HP&THBP 1.6180339887...

Genre: Fan Fiction, Spiritual/Drama

Current Chapter: 4 - Heirlooms

Chapter Word Count: 2,698

Total Story Word Count: 10,809

Summary: Two years after the Final Battle, Harry Potter receives an unexpected and rather unwanted letter amidst his already tumultuous life. He embarks upon a new quest, this time a more deeply interpersonal one as he blazes a trail down what's left of Severus Snape's memory lane. Is he truly ready for his parents', or more accurately, Severus Snape's history?

Find the story on FF.net!

Read the story with its original format!

IV

Heirlooms

SHOCK was what Harry felt when he read that sentence in Snape’s new letter to him.

Harry Potter, I also have memories from both your parents.

But, how?! Harry wondered, his mouth hanging open.

The letter didn’t say and there wasn’t too much to the letter after the shocking bit, just detailed instructions on how to mix the catalyst to view the memories, which sounded suspiciously like complicated Potions brewing to Harry.  

After staring at the letter with the glow of his wand for some indeterminate amount of time, he had finally lit one of the two candle-filled lamps in the sitting room and had continued to sit staring off for another indefinite length of time.  

This is mental!  This has to be some cruel joke!  A very elaborate cruel joke, mind you.

Harry’s mind kept coming back to how.  How had Snape set this up?  How had Snape gotten a hold of memories from Harry’s parents, who were dead long before Snape died?  How, how, how?

It just couldn’t be possible...

Story Maps

As I'm gearing up to release Chapter 4 of my Harry Potter fanfic and finding that my plot needed some restructuring, I thought I'd share some of J. K. Rowling's own plot maps.  This first one is allegedly from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix:

I am absolutely amazed and humbled.  I mean, look at the level of detail here!  She organizes by chapter number, the date an event takes place, the chapter title, major plot points (we call these "set-pieces" in writing), how the prophecy relates to each bit, and then characters and their interactions and relationships.  This is so cool!  My plotting is not nearly as intensive as this, although for my own personal full-length work, I hope to achieve an outline like this (also outlines are tools - obviously she didn't follow this perfectly {I think I spot some discrepancies} but she did use it to guide her to keep her on track with all her subplots and weaving of relationships and the setting up and resolution of each scene and set-piece, as I hope to do with my own work).

I also just read Rowling's 2012 novel The Casual Vacancy which was very riveting, with extremely rich characters, and a plot that was almost too real, too close to home for my liking but I liked it because of that, too.  I couldn't put it down, I read it in three days after borrowing it from my local library (it's also being adapted into a TV mini series; the first episode just premiered in the UK on the BBC on the 16th of this month!  It comes to the US on April 29th, partnered with HBO).  I was fascinated by the "braiding" in the novel - the characters were intricately woven together and it was amazing to watch the separate strands come together to form something "solid".  I found a handy little chart depicting those interactions:

Complex, yes?  But important for solid writing!  

Circling back around to Harry Potter, I also found a good fan-made Black Family Tree:

Also neat, character-relationship wise.  

(And, yes, before you ask, I am quite familiar with Tolkien's level of family trees!  No need to go into them here, though!)

All in all, story mapping is obviously very useful in both the pre-work and to explain a work after-the-fact.  I only hope to have this much attention to detail in my own works, both fan-made and from my heart and head!