The Tag of Happiness

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Most of my Friday college classes got cancelled thanks to snow, so I’ve been holed up in my bedroom doing homework, drinking hot cocoa, and pretending I’m in Narnia.

Mega thanks to Adelyn for the tag!

Books: The Magician’s Land by Lev Grossman, The Sisters Grimm by Michael Buckley, Entwined by Heather Dixon, Li’l Gotham by Dustin Nguyen, Her Own Song by Ellen Howard

Words: Sea, cream, fathoms, ephemera, green, shore, voyager

Movies: The Lord of the Rings, Treasure Planet, The Emperor’s New Groove, Rain Man, The Force Awakens

Scents: snow, marker ink, old books, fresh sheets, french fries (plus anything that’s frying), salt air

Songs: "New Life" (Thomas Bergersen), "Thunderstruck" (AC/DC), the main theme from Call the Midwife, the main themes from all my favorite TV shows, "Beyond the Sea" (Bobby Darin), "Joy to the World" (Three Dog Night), "I Melt With You" (Nouvelle Vague cover)

Miscellany: Journaling, tea cups, pink nail polish, seashells, Harley Quinn (her incarnation in Batman: The Animated Series, specifically), talking with friends, snow days

Tagging: Olivia, Kelsey, Joni, &  whoever wants to join in!

Inspirations: The Secret Of Roan Inish

A little bit of background: The Secret of Roan Inish is a 1994 film set in Ireland and based on a long out-of-print book called The Secret of Ron Mor Skerry by Rosalie K. Frye. Both the book and the movie revolve around Celtic folklore, specifically the story of the selkie.

I think I was around five years old when I first watched The Secret of Roan Inish, and it’s stuck with me ever since. Maybe it’s the story, maybe it’s the gorgeous scenery (the movie was filmed on location in County Donegal), maybe it’s the eerie folklore, but this is a film that’s influenced me before and probably will again.

The Story

The story centers around Fiona, a 10-year-old girl sent to live with her grandparents in rural Ireland. Fiona badly wants to find her younger brother, Jamie, who was lost at sea when their family evacuated the island of Roan Inish. Jamie is a “dark one”, supposedly taking after their selkie ancestors, and has been raised by seals.

One thing that struck me on rewatching was how mystical and eerie it all is, while still being absolutely grounded in real life. Fiona believes in selkies, but also worries about her grandparents, who are about to lose their house. She wants to reunite with her brother and barely remembers life on Roan Inish. Wistfulness and homesickness permeate the first half of the movie, which makes the ending all the more satisfying.

The Selkies

The selkie in this story has a name (Nuala), but otherwise follows the original mythology to the letter: she marries a fisherman after he steals her skin, only to return to the sea years later, leaving him and their children behind. But she also has her husband build a floating cradle for their first child (floating cradles actually play a big part in The Secret of Roan Inish) and speaks incredibly antiquated Irish (since she’s MUCH older than she appears). Rewatching the movie, I can appreciate how small details like that make her story unique. Plus there’s the ways she influences her family over the generations…

 
Oh, and the selkie transformation scene is beyond beautiful. I wish I could write a transformation scene half as good.

How It Inspires Me

I love selkies, mythology, and the ocean. There’s a special kind of sea-swept atmosphere that I’d love to see in my own writing, mostly thanks to this movie. But more than that, I think it’s inspired my love for a certain kind of character: the outsider who’s mysterious and not quite human, and who has some sort of deep connection to nature. Characters like this have cropped up in a few of my stories--I even wrote a story specifically about selkies once. It was awful. Mostly because I was recycling the same old story without adding anything original, but also because I was scared of getting it wrong.

I haven’t found my own unique spin on the selkie story yet, but I hope that one day I will--and I really, really hope it’ll be even a quarter as good as The Secret of Roan Inish.

2016 Writing Goals

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This year already promises to be really hectic, so I’m keeping things simple:

Write more short stories

Pretty self-explanatory. For now my ideas are mostly fantasy, but I’d love to branch out and try some other genres--sci-fi, contemporary, or maybe even historical fiction. I also want to quit stressing over publication and enjoy the actual writing process more.

Start a longer project

At first my goal was to finish a longer project this year, but then I realized I’d have a hard enough time starting one. So my resolution is to begin working on an idea that I actually like (no matter how much it scares me) and stick with it.

I’ve never officially made New Year’s resolutions before, especially writing-related ones. I’m a huge procrastinator, even when it comes to goals I want to meet. But I’m excited to begin working on new stories, and I hope that 2016 will be as good (if not better) than 2015!

What are your goals for the new year?

Taking Stock: December

Savoring: The last few weeks of Christmas break; my new lemon-tea-scented candle.

Waiting: For snow.

Thinking: About fixing myself a cup of hot cocoa.

Reading: Li’l Gotham, volumes 1 & 2 (these stories are hilarious and adorable and BEAUTIFULLY illustrated—I can’t get enough of them); The Magician King (even better than The Magicians); Every Word (perfection).

Worrying: About 2016. Lots of things will be changing for me, and I’m both super excited and super stressed.

Binge-watching: The X-Files on Christmas Eve. It doesn’t get much better than that.

Writing: Very little this month. I’m not sure if it’s writer’s block or good old-fashioned laziness, but lately putting words on paper has felt like filtering Jell-O through a sieve (or some other equally bad metaphor).

Deciding: To make some New Year’s resolutions this time around. They might not stick, but it’s worth a shot.

Eating: Christmas leftovers.

Wishing: You all a happy New Year and a (belated) merry Christmas! Blogging has been such a wonderful experience, and I’m so grateful to everyone who took the time to read my posts. You guys are beyond lovely. 

All pictures via Pinterest.

Unofficial Best Book Award

   Thanks to Olivia from the cwtch for tagging me!

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Rules:

Steal the tag.

Fill in the tag.

Tag people to steal the tag.

Be happy and have fun!

Best Male Character

   Today I’m rounding up three of my favorites: Ged from the Earthsea Cycle, Commander Vimes from the Discworld series, and Dr. Pellinore Warthrop from The Monstrumlogist. Ged is kind and wise, Commander Vimes is funny and wise, and Dr. Warthrop is also kind and wise (in his own eccentric, Sherlock-esque way).

Best Female Character

   This is even harder. I love Sissy from A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Rachel Watts from Every Breath, Sorcha from Daughter of the Forest, Wendy from Peter Pan…At the moment, though, I guess my favorite might be Harley Quinn from the Batman comics. She somehow manages to be (almost) completely unhinged, yet still a joy to be around (assuming she’s not trying to kill you).

Best Protagonist (good guy/main character)

   Gen from The Queen’s Thief series. One of the things I find really interesting is that he’s always the main character, but not necessarily the viewpoint character, of every book he’s in. The guy doesn’t even have to be telling the story for it to end up revolving around him. If that’s not charisma, I don’t know what is.

Best Antagonist (bad guy/opposing party to main character)

   Long Lankin from Long Lankin. I can’t remember him without shivering.

Best Plot Development or Twist

   A Pack of Lies has a pretty fantastic twist at the end.

Book You Threw Across the Room the Hardest (in either a bad or good way)

   That Was Then, This is Now by S.E. Hinton. It’s a good book, but majorly depressing.

Best Romance

   I actually prefer friendship- and family-centered books to romance, but the three romantic subplots in Entwined are all wonderful. (And funny. I don’t think they’re nearly enough funny romances.)

Best Action:

   The Sisters Grimm books are packed with the wackiest action imaginable.

Best Other Book

   ???

   In the Heart of the Sea in a genre I don’t usually read (nonfiction), but I loved it.

Best Book That Made You Change the Way You Think

   The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton. I hadn’t thought much about poverty and class issues before reading it.

Best Inspiring Book

   Big Magic inspires me to create more.

Best Book That Made You Learn Something New

   Wallace: The Biography. Braveheart is a wonderful movie, but it'll never win four stars in the historical accuracy department.

Best Sad Book

   I cried every day while I was reading Betwixt and Between.

Best Funny Book

   I’ve been reading a lot of Batman comics recently, and Li’l Gotham is both adorable and funny.

Tagging:

Alyssa

Kelsey

Joni

+ Whoever wants to join in

Bookish Collages: The Tales of Beatrix Potter

   Since I apparently have nothing better to do, I spent the better part of this week making book-themed collages. These three are Beatrix Potter-themed, mostly because Christmas is coming and nothing puts me in a Christmassy mood like The Tailor of Gloucester.

The Tale of Peter Rabbit

Once upon a time there were four little Rabbits, and their names were—

Flopsy,

Mopsy,

Cotton-tail,

and Peter.

The Tale of Mr. Tod

I have made many books about well-behaved people. Now, for a change, I am going to make a story about two disagreeable people, called Tommy Brock and Mr. Tod.

The Tailor of Gloucester

But it is in the old story that all the beasts can talk, in the night between Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in the morning (though there are very few folk that can hear them, or know what it is that they say).