“A prologue sets the stage for a story’s main narrative by providing context and background information. Authors may use prologues to do any or all of the following: Introduce characters, setting, or story: Provide background details or backstory to help readers understand the story’s world and central conflict. For example, a sci-fi book might describe an alien…
Month: July 2024
Prologue to Lord of the Rings – Concerning Hobbits, Concerning Pipeweed, Ordering of the Shire, & Of the Finding of the Ringby J.R.R. Tolkien
PROLOGUE 1 Concerning Hobbits “This book is largely concerned with Hobbits, and from its pages a reader may discover much of their character and a little of their history. Further information will also be found in the selection from the Red Book of Westmarch that has already been published, under the title of The Hobbit….
Read to Write – Take Natalie Babbitt’s Advice: The Best Way to Learn to Write Is to Read
Read to Write When Natalie Babbitt was asked for her advice to writers, her answer was: “Read.” On August 1, join me for a FREE online study of Natalie Babbitt’s Tuck Everlasting. Within a few words, we’ll discover that Babbitt follwed her own advice. In many ways, Tuck Everlasting is a tribute to Ray Bradbury’s…
A Few Things to Know about Dionysus of Ancient Greek Mythology, The Feast of Bacchus, and The Last Supper: My Thoughts about the Opening Ceremony of the 2024 Summer Olympics
At the opening of the 2024 Summer Olympics, a depiction of a feast celebration sparked heated discussions–especially among many Americans, who assumed that the depiction was a disrespectul representation of the Biblical Last Supper. In my opinion, the feast depicted was the Feast of Ancient Greece’s Mythological Dionysus, whose Roman counterpart was Bacchus. Both Dionysus…
It’s All Relative — But Should It Be? Challenge: Really Look at a Female Cardinal Until You See Her
A couple of days ago, I was sitting in My Morning Chair and watching the array of birds that were dropping in and out of my birdfeeders. They shifted and re-shifted every few seconds, and it seemed that I was looking at my garden through a kaleidoscope. I am rather new to the hobby of…
How to Compost to Create Soil for Your Garden
During my lifetime, I have lived and gardened in several parts of the country, and in almost every place I have lived, I have been forced to amend my garden’s soil. Before I moved back to Mississippi, I lived and gardened in the Ozark Mountains, where most of the earth is covered by bedrock. In…
Tuck Everlasting August 1 – A Celebration of Time and Nature — A Celebration of Life
On August 1, I will begin what I plan to make an annual tradition. I’ll begin a deep dive into Natalie Babbitt’s Tuck Everlasting. Tuck Everlasting is a Celebration of Time–Time as it relates to the Seasons and the Seasons of Life–and TIme as it relates to the clock. Most people are deeply aware of…
Tuck Everlasting Chapter 8 – Winnie Experiences Freedom
Winnie did not believe in fairy tales. She had never longed for a magic wand, did not expect to marry a prince, and was scornful—most of the time—of her grandmother’s elves. So now she sat, mouth open, wide-eyed, not knowing what to make of this extraordinary story. It couldn’t—not a bit of it—be true. And…
Tuck Everlasting Chapter 7 – The Tucks Tell Their Story – Where They Came From & Why – Why They Stopped Aging
It was the strangest story Winnie had ever heard. She soon suspected they had never told it before, except to each other—that she was their first real audience; for they gathered around her like children at their mother’s knee, each trying to claim her attention, and sometimes they all talked at once, and interrupted each…
Tuck Everlasting Chapter 6 – Winnie Is Whisked Away but Calmed by the Music Box – Power of Music
At the end of Chapter 5, Winnie and Jesse were tangling. She wanted to drink from the pool in the Wood, and Jesse did not want her to do that. Suddenly. she was whisled away:: “Afterward, when she thought about it, it seemed to Winnie that the next tew minutes were only a blur. First…