Are you an extra in someone else’s play, or are you the author of your own drama? …you must become both the author and star of your own story…However, too many of us succumb to a weak internal story informed by flawed but popular beliefs. We are reactionary to objective events, easily buffeted by the winds of change…we end up being extras in someone else’s story, reacting our way through life…[we all] have a unique reason for existing and a unique offering to the world…we must look deep within to find it. – Mark Divine, The Way of the Seal
Whose Story are You In?
Healthy Reading
If you haven’t checked out the Hero’s Journey interval training program yet, why not? Training or working out doesn’t have to be boring or something you have to do, it should be something you want to do. Add these two to the mix: the Legolas Workout or the Shieldmaiden Workout or any of the other dozens of themed workouts at Darbee.com. Training, however, is only half of the equation.
The other half is nutrition. Sure, working out out will reduce the weight, just as only “dieting” will, but focusing on only one makes long-term maintenance difficult and gains often temporary. If you have decided on a commitment to better health, you also have to commit to some studying. Knowledge has many benefits for your lifestyle change, such as: Continue reading
Categories: What You Can Do
Tags: diets, Excerise, food, health, Neila Rey, nutrition, training, workouts
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Last Man
When humans first entered the final frontier the very edge of technology was pushed to its limits. The race into space may have been driven by the Cold War, but ultimately there was something even greater behind it.
The human spirit.
That spirit has driven mankind to explore for millennia and space is no different. Every bit as dangerous as the New World, the Amazon and the Wild West, but this frontier has no bounds and is unforgiving. Unfortunately, the powers that be, quickly lost vision and returned to their myopia. In an age where technology is taken for granted, it is hard to believe this happened decades ago. It is also a reminder that we could do so much more than iPhones and smart cars.
There are some who still remain from that first wave; those who were there on the new frontier. This is the story of the last man to walk on another world:
Categories: History
Tags: Apollo, Apollo 17, Moon, NASA, space, space exploration, The Last Man on the Moon
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Not Reading is Not an Option
Shannon A. Thompson writes:
As an author and full-time editor, I’m coming across more and more writers who don’t read their own genre, or — even worse — don’t read at all. There are generally two types of these writers.
1. Writers who claim to read but obviously don’t (and I’ll get to how it is obvious later).
2. Writers who haven’t read anything since they left high school twenty years ago.
Spoiler Alert: Neither of these options is okay.
Writers, please, oh please, you must read—and you must read often, especially in your own genre. As the infamous Stephen King once said, “If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write.” I adamantly agree with him.
Read the rest here.
Every Generation’s Legacy
Think not forever of yourselves, O chiefs, nor of your own generation. Think of continuing generations of our families, think of our grandchildren and of those yet unborn, whose faces are coming from beneath the ground. – Peacemaker, Founder of the Iroquois Confederacy
In all of your deliberations in the Confederate Council, in your efforts at law making, in all your official acts, self-interest shall be cast into oblivion…Look and listen for the welfare of the whole people and have always in view not only the present but also the coming generations, even those whose faces are yet beneath the surface of the ground – the unborn of the future Nation. – The Constitution of the Iroquois Nations: The Great Binding Law
There are a variety of quotes like these, often rewritten as some variation of, “In every deliberation, we must consider the impact on the seventh generation…” These quotes are often used in discussion of environmental issues, but they are a fundamental concept of foresight that should be applied to much of our thinking. This is something our politicians rarely do — they’re only concerned in what they can say or do (or appear to do) to get them through the next election cycle.
Categories: Critical Thinking, History, Nature, What You Can Do
Tags: future, human life, naturalism, purpose, seven generations, war on humans
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No Ordinary People
“There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal,” wrote C.S. Lewis. Consider that as you consider these:
What if the veil between this world and the next began to break?
What if terrors long thought to be nothing more than myth and legend were not the fiction we thought they were?
What if the worst you saw on the nightly news was not the worst by any measure?
There are those who serve the Darkness, conspiring in the shadows, and those who serve the Light.
None are mere mortals. They are us.
Among the Shadows, Watchers of the Light Book 1, the first in a new fantasy series, coming soon.
3 Whys
Why Does Every Story Have a Villain?
In Waking the Dead, John Eldredge writes:
Little Red Riding Hood is attacked by a wolf. Dorothy must face and bring down the Wicked Witch of the east…Frodo is hunted by the Black Riders…Beowulf kills the monster Grendel…Saint George kills the Dragon. The children who stumbled into Narnia are called upon by Aslan to battle the White Witch and her armies…
So why does every story have a villain?
“…Because yours does.”
What are the villains in your life, your Story? Addictions, vices, work, bad habits, crazy people… As Eldredge writes, we are “born into a world at war.” He is coming from the perspective of Evil that was long ago unleashed in the world and seeks to undermine all that is good.
Our stories have villains because our stories are inspired by life. Fiction is only fact in different clothes.
Why Fantasy Fiction?
Fantasy author R.A. Salvatore answers this in The Guide to Writing Fantasy and Science Fiction:
Perhaps more than any other genre, fantasy is about the hero’s journey. In a world of seven billion people, with wars I can’t stop and legislation I can’t even read, the idea of one person being able to make a difference, the idea of one man or woman grabbing a sword and defeating the dragon and saving the village is quite appealing.
And perhaps it will inspire a hero or two in our own world to rise up.
Why Stories?
Why do people love fictional stories and adventures so much? Because they mirror what is inside us. A desire to do to great things and go beyond the horizon. Do what we were meant to be. There is destiny written on our souls for us to choose or ignore. Jason Clark writes in his book Surrendered and Untamed on this discovery:
I no longer desire to be on the fringe, yet neither will I try to fit the mold. I’ve come to see there’s swimming against the stream just to swim against the stream. And then there’s swimming against the stream like the salmon do — to give others life so others might live — and to get back home. You face predators along the way and the trip is exhausting and you die a thousand deaths, but you do it for the glory and the story.
“No Desire to Give Up”
There has been consderable discussion on how the Internet and ebooks helped turned self-publishing from a bad word to an industry-changing movement. Authors have started there and moved to traditional publishing; others have done the opposite. Some have gone both routes even as fellow writers have stood firm in one camp or another. It is certain that self-publishing – now often referred to as indie publishing – is not going anywhere. Nor is traditional publishing. Nonetheless, here is author and editor Jaimie Engle‘s self-publishing success story, brought on when everything fell apart:
I self-published my children’s novel, Clifton Chase and the Arrow of Light, in September 2013, after the small press I had been working with breached our contract. Three weeks before my slated release, my publisher bailed and left me stranded. I had no publicist, no idea what to do, and no desire to give up.
Read the rest of her story here.
Categories: Books, Writing
Tags: indie publishing, Jaimie Engle, publishing, self-publishing
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A Story Cliché or the Story we all Want to Tell?
I was reading a discussion concerning a certain fantasy author and someone asked if the author was a cliché writer. This appeared to have been asked as a bit of a put-down. What was meant by cliché writer? Since the writer has authored almost exclusively fantasy, I suspect the critics meant the story line so popular to the genre: Reluctant hero convinced to undertake some sort of quest; Hero joins with others who support the quest; Quest includes finding some object or another and defeating a terrible evil.
Is it fair to call this a cliché? I don’t think so.
In the simplest definition of the word, something becomes a cliché through overuse, not necessarily through any fundamental flaw with item in question. This supposed fantasy trope is a common framework, but it is the details in execution that differ with each story that make it succeed. If the critics were being fair, they would recognize that this cliché isn’t unique to fantasy, but — in one form another — prevalent across much of storytelling.
The reluctant-hero-team-up-battle-evil-save-the-world plot is at the heart of nearly every superhero film or show so popular now. However, it isn’t unique to the fantastic. How many other thrillers, adventures, mysteries or whatever you can think of include one or more of what is supposedly unique to fantasy? Better yet, why is this story line the bedrock of so much human storytelling? John Eldridge explains in his book Epic
Notice that all the great stories pretty much follow the same story line. Things were once good, then something awful happened, and now a great battle must be fought or a journey taken…
It’s true of every fairy tale, every myth, every Western, every epic…Have you ever wondered why?
Every story, great and small, shares the same essential structure because every story we tell borrows its power from a Larger Story, a Story woven in the fabric of our being…
All of these stories borrow from the Story. From Reality. We hear echoes of it through our lives. Some secret written on our hearts. A great battle to fight, and someone to fight for us. An adventure, something that requires everything we have, something to be shared with those we love and need.
There is a Story that we just can’t seem to escape. There is a Story written on the human heart.
Prepare for Your Quest
Much has been said about fantasy books here, but can we somehow manage to combine this with fitness?
“How on Earth can we do that?” you wonder (or say to the computer screen if you’re apt to talking to yourself).
Neila Rey and friends at Darebee have created the fantasy themed Hero’s Journey workout. This is a real deal workout that will test your readiness for any quest in your life.
I may continue this as a series of posts, Fitness Fridays if you will, an idea borrowed from Amy’s Curiouser and Curiouser blog. And if you need some fantasy mood music, load up some Lindsey Stirling here and here.
Categories: What You Can Do
Tags: fantasy, fitness, health, Lindsey Stirling, Neila Rey, workouts
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Darrick Dean 