Taken by the Cyclops - Monster Romance! by @meganslayer #monster #romance #pnr #hotread #newseries

 

Taken by the Cyclops (Taken 1)

Author: Megan Slayer

Cover Art: Bryan Keller

BIN: 010675-03470

Genres: Action Adventure, New Releases, Paranormal, Romance, Urban Fantasy

Themes: Elves, Dragons & Magical Creatures, Magic, Sorcery, and Witchcraft, New Adult

Series: Taken (#1)

Book Length: Novel

Page Count: 131

 

Piper wanted nothing more than to escape the life she’d come to know, full of abuse and danger -- certainly not love. When she drives to Eerie, she’s convinced she’ll get a fresh start. What she doesn’t expect is Diesel.

Diesel believes he’s not worthy of love, but when he looks at Piper, he wants more than to protect her. He wants to own her -- body and soul. There’s just one problem. He’s a cyclops -- dangerous, destructive and hated. He’s done things he knows are unforgivable.

Will the sweet runaway find the love she deserves in the monster she’s found? Or will the monster from her past catch up and ruin her chances at the future she craves?

https://www.changelingpress.com/taken-by-the-cyclops-taken-1-b-3470?genre_id=21

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BRL5L238

https://books.apple.com/us/book/id6445296580

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/taken-by-the-cyclops-megan-slayer/1142905732

https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/taken-by-the-cyclops

What is the Public Domain? by L. A. Kelley

What is the Public Domain?

January 1^st was Public Domain Day. Did you bake a cake and celebrate? Why not? Probably because you weren’t sure what public domain means and how it applies to writers.

What is the public domain? (Note this only applies to U.S. law)

Creative works that are in the public domain may be used freely, without obtaining permission from or compensating the copyright owner. This year, orchestras can perform Puttin’ on the Ritz by Irving Berlin for free. If you’ve been singing Ice Scream, You Scream we all Scream for Ice Scream all these years without compensating Howard Johnson, Billy Moll, and Robert A. King, shame on you. It only entered the public domain this year. Nor do you need permission from Arthur Conan Doyle’s descendants to quote swaths verbatim of The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes. It’s now in the public domain.

Public domain works can be used with abandon. Content that isn't protected by copyright law, may not be protected for a variety of reasons, including the following:

1. The duration of copyright in the work has expired. In the U.S., a book’s copyright expires 70 years after the death of the author.

2. Works produced by the federal government don't have copyright protection. However, a work produced by a government consultant may have protection or the original copyright may have been transferred to the government.

3. A work not fixed in a tangible form, such as a speech, lecture or improvisational comedy act that hasn't been previously written or recorded in any manner isn’t protected. Sorry, stand-up comedians. If you don’t have an HBO special or a recording on social media your jokes are up for grabs.

4. Prior to March 1, 1989, a copyright notice was necessary on published works or they went into the public domain. After that date, it wasn’t necessary. Note: if you are a self-published author, you don’t need the © with a date on a front piece. You’re already protected by copyright law.

Some things are always in the public domain.

1. Titles of books or movies, short phrases and slogans, lettering or coloring. (Yes, navy blue I’m looking at you.)

2. News, history, facts, or ideas, but a description of an idea in text or images may be protected by copyright. You don’t need to cite anyone if you describe December 7, 1942 as a date that will live in infamy.

3. Plots, characters and themes from works of fiction. (Well, thank God for that or the seven bajillion versions of Emma, Romeo and Juliet, or Cinderella would be illegal.)

Here’s sampling from the 2023 list of items now in the public domain.

Books

Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse

Arthur Conan Doyle, The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes

Willa Cather, Death Comes for the Archbishop

A. A. Milne, Now We Are Six

Thornton Wilder, The Bridge of San Luis Rey

Ernest Hemingway, Men Without Women

William Faulkner, Mosquitoes

Agatha Christie, The Big Four

Edith Wharton, Twilight Sleep

Franklin W. Dixon (pseudonym), The Tower Treasure (the first Hardy Boys book)

Hermann Hesse, Der Steppenwolf (in the original German)

Movies

Metropolis (directed by Fritz Lang)

The Jazz Singer (the first feature-length film)

Wings (winner of the first Academy Award for outstanding picture)

The Kid Brother (starring Harold Lloyd; directed by Ted Wilde)

The Battle of the Century (starring Laurel and Hardy)

Oswald the Lucky Rabbit (animated shorts; Ub Iwerks, Walt Disney)

Music

The Best Things in Life Are Free (George Gard De Sylva, Lew Brown, Ray Henderson)

I Scream You Scream, We All Scream for Ice Cream (H. Johnson, B. Moll, R. A. King)

Puttin’ on the Ritz (Irving Berlin)

Funny Face and ’S Wonderful (Ira and George Gershwin)

Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man and Ol’ Man River (Oscar Hammerstein II, Jerome Kern)

Back Water Blues, Preaching the Blues, Foolish Man Blues (Bessie Smith)

Black and Tan Fantasy and East St. Louis Toodle-O (Bub Miley, Duke Ellington)

My Blue Heaven (George Whiting, Walter Donaldson)

L. A. Kelley writes sci-fy and fantasy with humor, romance, and a touch of sass. Her life is a public domain.

Just . . . BREATHE and Get Over It! by Nancy Gideon

My favorite escape to find peace and focus is surprisingly when surrounded by others . . . and yet alone with my thoughts.

For decades, each spring I’ve anticipated that opportunity – packing a suitcase and all my electronic paraphernalia, traveling into a wooded wilderness to where lake waters glisten and air is crisp and cool, to lose myself amongst like-driven friends and just r-e-l-a-x by working. I know, the two things sound counter-productive while in truth, they’re like thumb nail to match head – nothing ignites until they strike together. But this time I was there to find something different, something I didn’t know I’d lost.

It’s been years since I put out a new book . . . but I HAVE been writing—two completed romantic suspenses that my former editor has asked to see. So why aren’t you seeing them on real/virtual shelves? My fault. I let an unexpectedly brutal critique crush my confidence.

After 70 titles, a half-dozen fantastic editors from as many different houses, reviews that aren’t always gentle, and a scrupulously honest critique group, I’m tough as nails when it comes to the opinions of others. I welcome input that will improve my work by pointing out missed opportunities and overlooked faux pas. But there’s a difference between helpful criticisms and intentional fault-finding, and that difference broke this author’s self-confidence. It was a sucker punch I didn’t see coming and it put my productivity down for the count.

After a year of sulking and brooding and licking my wounds, I’ve busied myself by getting some of my backlist ready for reissue. And in going over those books, I discovered a surprising fact. Damn! I’m a good writer! And you know what, while I wait for my VA to get those books formatted for self-pubbing, I’m going to get those manuscripts out and do a final edit without a glance at those destructive comments (I’ve since obtained a separate critique that is no less truthful but without the tinge of arsenic).

Reminder to self: Be helpful with opinions instead of toxic.

♚♚♚♚♚

Nancy Gideon on the Web

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What is Earth Day?

Today, April 22, 2023, is Earth Day. Widely recognized as the largest secular observance in the world. Marked by more than a billion people every year as a day of action to change human behavior and create global, national, and local policy changes.

In the decades leading up to the first #EarthDay in 1970, Americans consumed vast amounts of leaded gasoline through large, inefficient automobiles. Industry belched out smoke and sludge with little fear of the consequences from either the law or bad press. Air pollution was commonly accepted as the smell of prosperity.  Until this point, mainstream America remained largely oblivious to environmental concerns and how a polluted environment threatens human health.

However, the winds of change blew in with the publication of Rachel Caron’s New York Times bestseller Silent Spring in 1962. The book represented a watershed moment, selling more than 500,00 copies in 24 countries raising public awareness and concern for living organisms, the environment, and the inextricable links between pollution and public health.

Spurred by witnessing the ravages of a massive oil spill in Santa Barbara, California, American politician and conservationist Gaylord Anton Nelson—helped spark the environmental movement that quickly grew into an international event. Earth Day 1970 would provide a voice to this emerging environmental consciousness, putting environmental concerns front and center.

Now, the fight for a clean environment continues with increasing urgency, as the ravages of climate change become more and more apparent every day.

One has to wonder if the wild, never before experienced, weather patterns we have experienced this winter are a result of climate change or just Mother Nature’s temper tantrum. What do you think?

Now how about a little Security Force of Two.

Now let’s see what my new release,  Security Force of Two is all about.

Miacoh Zane, a Special Forces veteran, returns to Aspen Ridge.  A small town nestled in the Colorado Rocky Mountains, to settle his beloved grandmother’s estate. But the town holds painful memories and family secrets he wants to leave behind for good.

 Candle Bearclaw, a gifted computer analyst/programmer with talents she’s buried when recruited out of college by the CIA. After fifteen years, she abruptly resigns her position with the agency. She returns to her sleepy hometown only to discover her childhood crush has also returned and a violent crime has been committed.

 Due to their covert operations experience, Candle and Miacoh are thrown together to assist Homeland Security, FBI, and her father, former chief of police, with a murder investigation. As they search for the perpetrators, will their secrets be revealed as the investigation takes an unusual twist that could blow the case wide open.

How about a sneak peek between the pages of SECURITY FORCE OF TWO?

Candle Bearclaw stood in front of Carl's large mahogany desk, laid the unsealed white envelope face up on the polished desktop, and slid it toward her boss.

“What's this?” Carl eyed the offending envelope.

“It's what we talked about last week, my resignation.” Candle swung her briefcase onto the leather chair beside her. Pulling out a laptop computer, a manila file folder, and a memory stick, she sat them on the corner of her boss's desk. “It's all here, including the passwords necessary to access the sensitive files, my work thus far on the assignment, including my contacts, and it's a good stopping point for me. Someone else should be able to pick up exactly where I left off, seamlessly. I am requesting a no contact status by you and the agency.” She pulled out a .380 semi-automatic tucked into the waistband of her slacks, ejected the magazine, and racked the slide open. Gingerly setting the gun on the desk beside the other items, she sighed.

He looked across the desk at her, observing her actions. “I understand your position, but that may not be possible. How deep were you?”

Hands flat on the desktop, she leaned over and glared at him. “Deep enough to understand the assignment went against every fiber of my being. You knew that when you assigned it to me, and yet, you did it anyway, knowing it would be my final act as a CIA operative.”

She stood and raised her arms in a surrender motion. “For God's sakes, Carl, I'm a computer analyst turned hacker under your fine tutelage. I can't do it anymore.”

Carl leaned back in his chair. “A replacement will be difficult to find, if not impossible,” he said flatly. “You're the best.”

“You should have thought about that before you forced me to take this assignment,” she insisted, pacing around the room.

                                                        ****

See you next month. Did you know that May is Get Caught Reading Month?  That’s about every day in my house.  <grin> Do you know why May’s full moon, occurring on May 5th, is called the Flower Moon?

How AI Can Help Strengthen Your Writing by Keri Kruspe

 

There is a lot of controversy out there about Artificial Intelligence (AI) – especially for those of us in the creative arts. Some view it as the end of civilization, some view it as a much-needed boost to productivity.

I first heard about the two AI’s I’ll outline in the article from Joanna Penn’s podcast. She’s big into AI and even has a course in it. I haven’t decided if I’ll take the course yet, but I like knowing it’s there if I need it.

Whatever you view about AI, I’m not here to persuade you either way. What I am going to do is confess the three new AI programs I’ve started using this year:

Midjourney, ChatGPT, and Sudowrite.

Midjourney

What is Midjourney you may ask? According to designboom, “Midjourney is a chat-powered, artificial intelligence (AI) image-generating tool that can produce realistic images and artworks based on given text prompts”.

For someone like me who can’t draw a straight line, it’s like playing in a candy store. I’m a very visual person who loves to look at pictures when I write. When I write in Scrivener (which can also be considered having AI tendencies), I like having a picture on the page about whatever or whomever I’m writing about.

 

By the time I’m done with my complete novel, I have several pictures I’ve created that I can include into the finished book. I did that in my latest release, Alien Legacy: The Mage. With each chapter I included two pictures that I made with Midjourney.

That’s not to say it all goes off without a hitch. I’m finding that the AI has a hard time with different color tints (one of my aliens has bright yellow skin and neon eyes with no pupils). It has a hard time with that. So, I fall down the rabbit-hole trying to get as close as possible to what I’m looking for. Sometimes the prompt is so bad, I get nothing like I’ve asked for.

When that happens, I’ve got to be careful. It’s so easy for me to tumble down the rabbit hole. Hours can go by without me realizing it.

Here is an example of what I’m talking about. Bird beak? Where did that come from? I asked for a cyclops. Poor thing just can't give me four arms either. 

How do you know what to put in? Never fear, my friend. Like everything else, just put in the question on your favorite search engine and a ton of video tutorial pop up. Because I’m not very computer savvy, I have to find the ones that go step by step. I’ve been doing this for a couple of months now and am getting better. Lately I've been watching tutorials by Christian Heidorn to help out. 

Chat GPT

Now here’s an AI I can wrap my writer’s brain around. My first attempt with using something like this was ChatGPT. This AI is another chatbot launched in November of 2022. It was built on top of a program called OpenAI’s GPT-3, which has now morphed into version 4. In a nutshell, its a large language model that interacts in a conversational way. The dialogue format made it easy for the program to answer follow up questions and admit its mistakes. It also rejects inappropriate requests. It’s great in creating summaries for new novels as well as a way to have an interactive “friend” read what you wrote and give suggestions on how to make it “better” – depending on what your definition of “better” is. 

I was happy using ChatGPT for free… but the biggest downside became all too clear. More often than not I’d get an error message saying it was at capacity (the room was too full) and to try again later.

At that time, I looked into subscribing, but it was over $40 a month! Ack! From what I understand now, you can subscribe as low as $20 a month. They state they are inviting folks to go on the ChatGPT API waitlist while they develop lower-cost plans.

Because I’m an impatient soul, I looked into another such chatroom and found Sudowrite (again, courtesy of Joanna Penn). 

Sudowrite

One of the best things I like about Sudowrite is how it came about. It was developed by writers for writers. Apparently, the founders were sci-fi writers and fine-tuned the GPT-3 program by using high-quality narrative training data. Writers can use Sudowrite to create new stories or tweak any existing work. 

Pros

Brainstorm characters, plots, worlds, and more.

Expand plot points.

Rewrite to 'Show not Tell'

Describe things for the 5 senses.

Generate Twists.

AI gives feedback mimicking "human" readers.

4000 word free trial with all features included.

Cons

    'Twist' feature is limited to the Sci-fi genre.

I like that it helps you brainstorm. From a single sentence to developing your characters.

 You can also expand your plot to having it describe story elements (i.e. sight, sound, smell, touch, taste and well as an esoteric metaphor).

I admit I haven’t tried half of what Sudowrite offers. I’m still playing around with it!

Conclusion

I’m not looking for any AI program to take my place as a “creative” (which is what Joanna Penn calls us). What I use them for is to give me a helping hand to bring out my own ideas. It’s like having a critique partner at your beck and call 24/7!

I’d like to hear if you’ve had a chance to “play around” with any of these formats. Let us know what experience you’ve had with them. Good? Bad? Either/Or?

Join the conversation and leave a comment below!

Learn more about the USRA (& fun with infographics) with author Jessica E. Subject

 

Happy April everyone!

Sometimes coming up with an idea for my post each month is challenging, especially since I'm still busy writing with nothing new to share. I was looking through so many lists of what authors can blog about. There were many ideas, but nothing I wanted to tackle. Some of the ideas talked about fun things. So, I decided to do something that was fun for me.

I decided to post about something that ties my Kaddim Brothers series to my upcoming series, Romance Tales from the Quadrants. Space Racing. And that leads to the USRA, the Universal Space Racer Association. The fun part for me was making an infographic about the organization. 

Here's how I did it...

1. Brainstorm the key points you want to share. Depending on how much information you're going to include with each point, you should have four to eight points.
2. Decide on colors for your infographic. You don't want them to include more than two colors for your fonts. And be cautious of the graphics you include. Too many can be distracting and not convey the information you want to share.
3. Decide on graphics. You can do some of this in the next step, or find them now, depending on how you're putting the infographic together. For mine, I had to create a logo for the organization, and that meant some research on logos, especially organizations and companies related to racing and space.
4. Once I had the basics decided, I went to Canva. There, I scrolled through the infographic templates they had to find one that worked best or the items I wanted to include. Templates are not set in stone, so you can replace, delete, add, and change many things.
5. My next step was sending it to others to ensure it was readable, had no mistakes, and looked okay.
6. Then I saved it.
7. Now, I'm sharing it. Below is the infographic I made for the USRA, the organization that the main character from my work-in-progress works for.

Do you have anything you could make an infographic for? Maybe books written or books read? Something from a book? Or some other interest?

Until next time, happy reading!

Jessica

High school Memories: Love them or Leave them?

 By Maureen Bonatch 

In my opinion, it often seems like there are two kinds of people when it comes to high school. Those who speak fondly of those days past and refer to them as some of the best days of their life, and those who are happy to leave their high school days in the past. 

Me? I was happy to leave them behind to learn and grow from my experiences. Not that I don’t have some wonderful high school memories, but as a quiet, introverted girl, it presented me with some challenges. 

My short, sweet, paranormal romance, Witchy Memento, has my hero and heroine revisiting those high school memories with two different memories of their high school days. 

Will a past mistake determine their future?

Lucy is a witch with a successful business righting magical mischief. A call for help from her high-school heartache, Shane, prompts Lucy to manage his magical mayhem herself. No longer a nervous, hormonal teenager, Lucy takes the case to force an apology and bury her past humiliation. To her surprise, Shane insists he couldn’t forget Lucy—because she hexed him ten years ago. 

Witchy Memento is available for pre-order right here and will be released on April 6th as a Magic Crush Mini. Previously published as Witch You Were Here.

Did You Love —or —Were You Happy to Leave Your High School Days?

Looking to Get Cozy?

Check out these first-in-series Cozy Mysteries Right Here.

 

Fill Up Your TBR With Some Free Short Stories

Check out these free short stories Right Here

Just a small-town girl, Maureen Bonatch leads a double life. She lives in a magical world as a novelist, and as a nurse leader in reality. Maureen’s first novella was a paranormal romance published when blogs were a new-fangled thing. She’s since changed her focus to writing paranormal cozy mysteries and paranormal romance as M.L. Bonatch and urban fantasy as Maureen Bonatch. 

While she’s not busy writing or doing nurse-things, she’s a mom to her twin daughters, bicycling in the beautiful woods of PA with her hubby, doing the bidding of a feisty Shih Tzu, and dancing as much as possible. She believes music can be paired with every mood, laughter is contagious, and caffeine and wine are essential for survival.

 Sign up for M.L. Bonatch's Newsletter for free stories: https://www.maureenbonatch.com/free-book/

Keep the conversation going by joining my Facebook Group right HERE! https://www.facebook.com/groups/630494098126926

Guest: Jennifer Ivy Walker and THE LADY OF THE MIRRORED LAKE

Today we have a guest here on Paranormal Romantics, Jennifer Ivy Walker. She's here to share some tidbits about her new book THE LADY OF THE MIRRORED LAKE.

Background

When I earned my MA in French literature, I fell in love with the medieval legend of Tristan et Yseult. As a high school French teacher, I had my advanced classes read that  roman courtois as part of our study of France in the Middle Ages. I enhanced my students’ learning by illustrating the story with puppets, playing the French musical, “Tristan et Yseult”, teaching a medieval Breton dance, and watching the French version of the film “Tristan and Isolde” (with James Franco and Sophia Myles), culminating in “Le Théâtre en Classe”-- where my students reenacted the story in costumes, even performing a play I had written for them at the annual state French competition.  I decided to write my trilogy based on my love for the medieval legend, the different musical, theatrical, and cinematographic interpretations of that French tale, and the play I had written for my students.

Retelling the legend of “Tristan et Yseult”

I never liked the tragic ending of the original medieval legend. Tristan and Yseult pined for each other throughout the story and ended up dying of broken hearts, much like Romeo and Juliette. Although I did retain a lot of the original storyline in developing my trilogy, I created new characters and rewove the plot with much more inclusion of the Arthurian myth related to the French legend. I also incorporated paranormal fantasy elements, such as Druids, forest fairies, Elves, dwarves, and dark lore from the mystical Forest of Brocéliande. I even created my own version of Avalon --based on French research--with an entirely different ending than the original medieval French legend of Tristan et Yseult.

 World Building

I read and researched French legends from the enchanted Forest of Brocéliande for many aspects of the fantasy world, including tales of Lancelot, Merlin, the Lady of the Lake, and Avalon. I also drew upon my childhood experiences growing up on a tidal bay in Maine and my keen interest in plants, herbs, and healing crystals. I’ve always loved Victor Hugo’s works, having studied French Romanticism with a passion, and I incorporated that love and creative inspiration into my novels as well.  As a French teacher, I frequently traveled to France, visiting châteaux, sites of medieval pilgrimage, and troglodyte caves of the Loire Valley. I blended all of this together, weaving in certain aspects of fairy tales, such as Snow White and Sleeping Beauty, to embroider the medieval legend of Tristan et Yseult with creative, vivid imagery and fiery, romantic passion.

 Conclusion of the trilogy 

 “The Emerald Fairy and the Dragon Knight”—book 3 and the conclusion of The Wild Rose and the Sea Raven trilogy—will be published June 21^st—the summer solstice. And I am delighted that my novel, “Winter Solstice in the Crystal Castle”, will be published later this year as well. It’s a medieval romance between a feisty French Viking princess forced to marry a man she loathes and the sullen, chivalrous knight who suffers an impossible love for his vibrant, valiant Valkyrie.

 Excerpt

“I love you, Issylte. With every breadth of my soul. With every beat of my heart. I am yours. Now, and forever.” His sea raven heart soared in the love light shining in her forest fairy eyes.

“And I love you, Tristan. You are my warrior. My friend. My teacher.  The only one who ever believed in me. Who promised to fight for me. Beside me.”

 Rising onto her knees, she took both of his hands in hers and kissed them. Her eyes glistening, she whispered, “You gave me weapons. Trained me to fight. To defend myself. And that…” she choked, gazing up at him, “is not only the greatest gift I have ever received. It also saved my life.”

She kissed his hands again. “You are helping me to grow, Tristan. To believe in myself. To face the wicked queen who denies me my birthright. Who killed so many of those I loved.  Whose evil threatens us all.” Lying down at his side, she laid her head over his pounding heart. He softly stroked her long blond hair. “You have made me strong, whole, and complete, Tristan. I am totally, utterly, undeniably yours. “

He held her for a few moments. His wild rose. Then, rising to his feet, Tristan took her hands, and pulled her close. He wrapped his arms around her waist, gazing intently into the deep green eyes of his Muse.

 “Toi et moi. So it shall be.  You and I are entwined. Eternally.”

Buy Links:

Amazon link:  https://www.amazon.com/Lady-Mirrored-Lake-Wild-Raven-ebook/dp/B0BKYHZGFJ/ref=sr_1_1?crid=13647SWRD1MQV&keywords=lady+of+the+mirrored+lake&qid=1673574202&sprefix=lady+of+the+mirrored%2Caps%2C135&sr=8-1

Barnes and Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-lady-of-the-mirrored-lake-jennifer-ivy-walker/1142600233?ean=2940186700920

 

Author Bio for Jennifer Ivy Walker

 Enthralled with legends of medieval knights and ladies, dark fairy tales and fantasies about Druids, wizards and magic, Jennifer Ivy Walker always dreamed of becoming a writer. She fell in love with French in junior high school, continuing her study of the language throughout college, eventually becoming a high school teacher and college professor of French.

As a high school teacher, she took her students every year to the annual French competition, where they performed a play she had written, "Yseult la Belle et Tristan la Bête"--an imaginative blend of the medieval French legend of "Tristan et Yseult" and the fairy tale "Beauty and the Beast", enhanced with fantasy elements of a Celtic fairy and a wicked witch.

“The Lady of the Mirrored Lake”—book 2 of “The Wild Rose and the Sea Raven” trilogy--is a blend of her love for medieval legends, the romantic French language, and paranormal fantasy. It is a paranormal fantasy adaptation of the medieval legend of "Tristan et Yseult" (Tristan and Isolde), interwoven with Arthurian myth, dark fairy tales from the enchanted Forest of Brocéliande, and otherworldly elements such as Avalonian Elves, Druids, forest fairies and magic.

Explore her realm of Medieval French Fantasy. She hopes her novels will enchant you.

Website:  https://jenniferivywalker.com/

Goodreads Author page: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/22671046.Jennifer_Ivy_Walker

Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/books/the-lady-of-the-mirrored-lake-the-wild-rose-and-the-sea-raven-book-2-by-jennifer-ivy-walker

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JenniferIvyWalker

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/bohemienneivy

Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/jenniferivywalkerauthor/

Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@jenniferivywalker

 

Mother Earth by Diane Burton

 

credit: Wayfair

Mother Earth can't make up her mind here in Michigan. She teases us with warm sunny days then--wham!--a snow storm.

How easy it was to refer to weather as Mother Earth. Did you ever wonder where the name came from? Maybe it's the plight of a long-time learner 😀 to be curious about the origin of words and phrases . . . or epithets. 

In modern day, we associate Mother Earth with environmentalism, sometimes New Age spirituality. Many cultures have created a personification of the earth. A goddess, perhaps. 

In Greek mythology, she is Gaia, the mother of all creation. The Romans called her Terra. A Terran is the name sometimes often used in science fiction for the people from Earth. I used that term in my first published novel, a science fiction romance, Switched.

Many Native American cultures call her Spider Grandmother or Spider Woman. Despite the fact that I'm squeamish (okay, fearful) about spiders, referring to her as Spider Grandmother makes me think of a giant spider hovering over the planet, protecting it. 

The old Norse religion refers to Mother Earth as Joro (Jord), the mother of Thor.

Early Chinese mythology refers to her as Houtu, Queen of the Earth, also Deep Earth Lady. 

credit: Wikipedia - Temple of the Queen of the Earth

The indigenous peoples of the Andes worshipped the goddess Pachamama, who protects earth by her powers. 

credit: Wikipedia - Pachamama Museum in Argentina

Whatever she is called, different cultures embrace her as the embodiment of protector, motherhood, fertility, and creation, who nourishes Earth. Some see her as responsible for its destruction, like earthquakes. 

I remember a commercial in the 1970's for Chiffon margarine, that "tastes like butter but it's not": It's not nice to fool Mother Nature.

Side note: last month I wrote about my anticipation for the third season of "The Mandalorian", a Star Wars spinoff on Disney Plus. If the first five episodes are an indication, it's better than I anticipated. The over-arching theme seems to be that the evil Empire is still around, just underground and getting stronger.