Free eBook to Celebrate Balticon

Balticon, the wonderful science fiction and fantasy conference sponsored by the Baltimore Science Fiction Society, begins tomorrow. Now held at the Hunt Valley Marriot (Hunt Valley, MD), Balticon is always interesting. I usually attend a few writing, publishing, and art focused programs I’m not involved with — plus participate in and moderate several panels on Saturday and Sunday.

 This year, my Balticon schedule begins early with a 4 PM Reading on Friday, May 25. I’ll be reading from my fantasy short story collection, The Greener Forest. (And maybe give listeners a taste of my next collection, Owl Light). Per usual, I’ll be moderating the Poetry Workshop on Sunday afternoon with writing exercises and publishing tips for all.

If you leaf through the 2012 BSFAN book, you’ll see a promo I drew for my upcoming book, Owl Light. There are 30 birds hidden in a “Bird Search.” For those who can’t attend Balticon, watch for information here and on my website shortly on how to download the “Bird Search,” and try it at home.

Cold Moon Press, the publisher of several of my books, is making a special Balticon offer. A Kindle version of my fantasy eBook, Blame it on the Trees, can be downloaded for FREE from now until Monday, May 28th, 11:59 PM. I’d be grateful to anyone who re-posts the free book link below. I’m trying to reach 1,000 readers by Monday at midnight. Won’t you please help?

Have a magical weekend, and please download, review, like, and re-post the link for Blame it on the Trees:

http://tinyurl.com/vonnies-blame-trees-story

May the Fourth be with you!

Older, but no wiser than the last time I blogged, I wish each of you a Happy Star Wars Day!

As for me, I fell in love with George Lucas’s saga from the opening frame of Episode IV, and have over the years read most of the Star Wars books and watched (multiple times) all 6 of the movies. And unlike many diehard fans, I have no problem with Star Wars Episodes I thru III. I enjoy them for what they are, and don’t compare them to Episodes IV thru VI.

Nevertheless, Episode IV will always be my favorite Star Wars movie. As I sat in the darkened theater those many years ago, spellbound by the action unfolding on the screen, I was reminded of my love of adventure tales with heroes, villains, damsels in distress, sidekicks, and exotic locales. Whether Treasure Island or Tarzan or Buck Rogers or Lord of the Rings, I’ve always been a fan of adventure tales. And that’s what Star Wars is – an adventure tale.

Wait, you say. It’s a science fiction world built by George Lucas and the various writers who’ve contributed to the Star Wars universe. True. But location, spiffy space vehicles, and lightsabers aside –  it is the sense of daring, of plunging forward against incredible odds, of using wits and magic and luck to battle the dark forces of the world, and the friendship between unlikely allies that lure us into the story. And oh what a story!

For writers like me, there’s much to be learned from Star Wars: world-building, appealing characters, redeemable villians, fallen heroes, complex non-human species, gadgets and gizmos, and creating a compelling adventure tale that is fun to read. Remember, dear readers and fellow writers, good storytelling is good storytelling whether it’s classified popular fiction/cinema or literary fiction/cinema.

For those who’d like to revisit a bit of the Star Wars world, the place to be is: www.starwars.com For those even geekier (I say that with no judgment. How would I know of the link had I not visited it?) — there’s Wookieepeida: http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page

So on May 4^th, all puns aside – May the Force be with each of you!

Owl Notes

I’m hard at work putting together Owl Light, my next collection of speculative short stories. Owls and darkness play a role in each tale. And as in my 1^st collection, The Greener Forest, I’ll be using a few poems and illustrations for transitions between the stories.

While researching owls and owl folklore, legends, and superstitions, I came across lots of fascinating information. Much of that info found its way into the stories and poems. Here are a 6 fun facts:

1-There are over 150 species of owls (and some folks think that number to be over 200 species).

2-As predators, owls have a long, hooked beak that is useful in tearing apart their prey.

3-The tufts of feathers that look like ears atop an owl’s head are nothing but feathers!

4-Owl ears are actually located behind their eyes and concealed by feathers.

5-While most owls are nocturnal, a few species feed during the day or at dusk.

6-Mice, voles, rabbits, insects, birds, and even fish are on the menu of owls. Since owls cannot chew their food, they swallow chunks of their prey. Later, owls regurgitate pellets of bone, fur, teeth, feathers, and other indigestible material.

Next, a bit of owlish folklore: Owls are associated with sorcery and dark magic in numerous African cultures. Some people believe that owls carry messages back and forth between our world and the spirit world. Therefore, an owl hanging around a home is a sign that a powerful shaman lives in the house and is using the bird as a messenger.

Lastly, a pinch of literary owl lore: William Shakespeare wrote of the owl as a premonition of death in Julius Caesar: “…yesterday, the bird of night did sit Even at noonday, upon the market place, Hooting and shrieking…”

So if you hear an owl hooting, count the hoots for a peek into the future:

1 hoot for impending death

2 hoots for success in a venture

3 hoots a woman will marry into the family

4 hoots for a disturbance

5 hoots for travel

6 hoots for guests arriving

7 hoots for mental distress

8 hoots for sudden death

and 9 hoots for good fortune

Home from Laurel Springs

 I’ve just returned home from a visit to my uncle in Laurel Springs. The journey back and forth to the North Carolina mountains was long, but the time spent with him was wonderful. And even in the most normal day-to-day activities, writing and art inspirations were present.

On the drive south (and on the return drive north), the forsythia, Bradford pears, redbuds, and crab apple trees contrasted with the ever-present pines and splashed the Virginia and North Carolina hillsides with color. In particular, I found the deep purplish pink blooms of the redbuds (also known as Judas trees) stunning. There were swatches along I-81 awash in vivid purple-pink from these small trees. And upon arriving at my uncle’s home, the trio of weeping cherry trees along his driveway greeted me with their gnarled trunks and streaming branches of pink blossoms.

How easy it is to believe in dryads – those lovely wood nymphs who are bound to their own particular tree, and carefully look after it. Typically shy, they will occasionally dance in the shadows of the forest or in the moonlight. The twisted trunks of my uncle’s weeping cherries did indeed have a womanly shape to them, and the strands of blossoms that sprang from the top of the trunks looked like locks of hair. Oreads, or mountain pine tree nymphs, seemed to watch from their swaying evergreens on the slope behind my uncle’s home. Known for being a bit testy – I let them be.

 Always careful to honor nature, and cherish her creatures whether animal or plant or something magical – I did not snip a few branches of cherry blooms to pop in a canning jar. Though they’d have been a cheerful addition to the kitchen table, I didn’t want to hear the tree’s spirit screaming as I cut through its flesh. Not to mention, the revenge for hurting (or worse destroying) a dryad’s tree can be quite dreadful.

Instead, I brightened my uncle’s kitchen with a bunch of narcissus that I’d plucked from the edge of the woods back home, and transported to Laurel Springs in a Mason jar. What a joy to celebrate Spring with her promise of new beginnings – even as I watch my uncle slip away.

Angels Everywhere

Angels aren’t confined to heavenly choirs and altar paintings. I believe their enchanting presence can be felt everywhere. And that’s how I present angels when I include them in my writing.

The angels in the 10^th story in The Greener Forest sing in the trees. They also tell a wood-carver named Porter what to carve, and who to give his angel carvings to. Yes, I’m geeky enough to have selected Porter’s name because according to several baby naming books, “Porter” comes from the Latin “keeper of the gate.” How appropriate a name for the man whose wooden angels transform into real heavenly beings and lead the newly dead to the afterlife.

At the moment, I’m working on a story that features guardian angels. These comforting creatures are near the central character all of the time, and leave feathers for him to find as a sign that they’re watching over him. I’m hoping to have a polished version included in my upcoming book, Owl Light, so you’ll be able to read what the guardian angels do in “Feathers.”

How many of us have found a feather in the grass or at the beach or on the sidewalk? Sometimes I view these feathers as a gift from the wild birds that I feed. Perhaps they’re a sign an angel is close at hand. Or a swan maiden. Or even a fairy with feathery wings rather than one with butterfly-like wings.

If the feather I find is tattered or in ill-repair, I still say, “Thank you,” to whom ever left it for me. Then, I make a small wish (just in case the feather has got a pinch of magic) and place its shaft’s tip in the earth. I’m returning the feather to nature, and perhaps it will be useful to a forest creature of the animal or magical kind.

If the feather I find is whole, I thank the giver, and take it home. In my house at Wood’s Edge, I have jars filled with gift-feathers. Whether crow-black or sparrow-brown or cardinal-red or gull-white, every time I glance at the feathers, I feel blessed by the spirits of nature and the angels.

To read an early version of my story, Angels, for free: http://tinyurl.com/vonnie-angels To order The Greener Forest or to watch for updates on Owl Light: http://coldmoonpress.com/vonniewinslowcrist.html

Free eBook

I love my readers, and so does my publisher. So, for a limited time, Cold Moon Press is offering its readers one of my stories, Blame it on the Trees, as a FREE eBook. You can download it for Kindle here: http://tinyurl.com/vonnies-blame-trees-story Now, let me tell you how this eBook came to be…

Last January, I thought The Greener Forest, my 1^st fantasy short fiction collection was complete. But Editor Katie had another idea: “You’ve got trees and tree images in all of these tales. I want one more story where the trees are a character that interacts with the rest of the characters.”

Yikes! Trees as a character. So, I thought about what sort of person trees might care about. I’d used fairies, a Brown Man, she-elf, applehead gnomes, swan maidens, mermaid, dragon, Mud people, and other nature spirits in the book’s stories already. I needed someone different. While leafing through A World of Baby Names [T. Norman] trying to find a name for a main character that might spark a tale, I spotted, Berg: “Directly derived from berg (mountain).” Woot! I’d found my name and my Faerie race: a giant.

I decided to write against type, and make my giant kindhearted. But where would a giant go to interact with others and why? My answers: a zoo, because he likes to hunt animals – with a camera, of course. What kind of job would a giant have? That’s easy – one where he counts gold, or in this case, money. So I made Berg an accountant. Besides being tall with big hands and feet, I also gave him the “typical” large, scary, yellow teeth readers associate with giants. But Berg is embarrassed by his ugly teeth.

Next, I need someone who chooses to interact with a giant. A damsel in distress seemed a reasonable choice. My damsel, Shelly, is a woman babysitting her nephew. Since opposites attract, I made her short and good with words rather than numbers.

And here’s where the trees come into the tale. From placing a wire-like rootlet on the path so the  stroller’s wheel gets tangled, to pushing up the sidewalk with a root and tripping Shelly, to shoving a teen into the grizzly bear pen – the zoo’s trees play an active role in the love story. And, yes, it is a love story.

When Editor Katie suggested giving away one of my stories as a gift to my readers, Blame it on the Trees seemed a natural. Now, I needed cover art. I’d done a watercolor (with a few inks & a touch of acrylics) called Poet’s Moon which seemed perfect. A small square of the painting had been used by Scifaikuest as the cover art for their February 2012 issue, but over half of the painting remained unpublished. That half was filled with trees in the pinks and purples one often associates with Valentine’s Day.

So – a belated Happy Valentine’s Day to my readers. Visit http://tinyurl.com/vonnies-blame-trees-story for your FREE copy (or enjoy it as the last story in The Greener Forest should you like to read more magical tales). There is a time limit on the FREE, but I hope to have the eBook available for those who want a quick read for quite some time.

And should you decide to read either Blame it on the Trees or The Greener Forest, I hope you’ll take the time to “Like” the book and give it a brief review. Thanks, readers. I really do appreciate your support.

The Re-animated Dead

A month ago, I spoke at the Library of Congress along with Katie Hartlove, editor at Cold Moon Press, and Michelle D. Sonnier, a fellow Cold Moon Press author. Wow, is the only word I have for the marvelous building, helpful staff, and receptive audience. For those who’ve never taken a tour of the building, I highly recommend it.

The title of our presentation was: Zombies & Angels & Boogeymen, Oh my! Though I’ve used all 3 characters in my stories, my area of presentation was Zombies. I did a bit of research to show that the idea of the re-animated dead is shared by many cultures. Here are a few of the tidbits I unearthed:

Africa: The word zombie comes from the Kongo zumbi or zombi [Matthews, p.641] which means an enslaved spirit.

Caribbean: Priests in the Haitian voodoo religion sometimes use a nerve toxin to simulate death for up to 2 days. Haitian lore says that people who are dug up after being buried can no longer think for themselves because of oxygen deprivation, and therefore become slaves to another’s will. Feeding a zombie salt will return it to the grave.

Wales: In the story of Branwen, dead warriors are put in a cauldron and returned to life. These re-animated dead warriors are then placed back into battle.

Ireland: The Well of Slaine is used by the Tuatha de Danaan to re-animate warriors who’ve died in the fight against the Fir Bolg. Though they can fight, these re-animated soldiers are unable to speak because they’ve seen what exists after death.

Iceland, Norway, etc.: Draugr (plural Draugar, pronounced: droo-GORE) are dead Vikings who not only drive mad anyone who comes near their grave, but crawl from their burial sites and visit the living. They are very strong, smell like decay, and sometimes have magical abilities like shape-shifting. (This is the zombie of my love story, “The Return of Gunnar Kettilson”).

Tibet: (Just stumbled on this info, so more research needs to be done). Ro-langs are ro (corpse) + langs (rise-up). They cannot speak, so they communicate by wagging their tongues. Lore says that they can’t bend either, which is why it’s best to have a low entranceway into your home — to keep out the ro-langs.

Where in the world do I find interesting tidbits like these? Many places, but some of my favorite research books: The Element Encyclopedia of Magical Creaturesby John & Caitlin Matthews, Encyclopedia of Things That Never Were: Creatures, Places, And People by Michael Page & Robert Ingpen, The Enchanted World series of books from Time-Life Books, and An Encyclopedia of Fairies: Hobgoblins, Brownies, Bogies, and other Supernatural Creatures by Katherine Briggs.

So have a great day, and remember to carry a bag of pretzels to feed to the re-animated dead in the case of a zombie attack (see Africa above).