Reflection about the 2020 A2Z Blog Challenge.

Completion of DAMSELS In DISTRESS, 46,000 words edited during April 2020.

Finished frame during a timed challenge, April 2020.

I won my goal for the NaNoWriCAMP - EDITING.

WHY DID I BOTHER? I need to finish TELLING TOLD TALES before my life ends.

Thirty days of writing, gathering, editing, and posting with formating. WOW!

Now, stories are in order. YES! I did accomplish one-fourth of what I thought possible. Edited stories in Scrivener, yes, wrote the frame for each story 'yes', posted here on TheStoryRealm 'yes'; and corrected half of the stories 'yes' in Grammarly.com., still half to do. 

Then reloading into Scrivener to combine the frame with each elaborated, enhanced, re-imaged in a female narrative.  Another month of editing, What is my drive? 

I have beta readers for 'Damsels in Distress'. 

Please, read my composite and give me suggestions or edits. Sign-up. I will contract you.

Or buy to read at the pre-sale offerings on Amazon and Smashword.

My forever goal is to have edited copies from Scrivener downloaded a PDF format for Amazon for a print-on-demand and kindle. An epub format to publish on Smashwords with @s, ISBBs, LCCNs, and maybe audio and a video trailer.  

POWER to Bobbie, she, her, woman, lady, female. GO, GIRL GO!!

~~~~~

Now, editing the frame to make sure it says what I want, 'how I over-came my view that men owned writing', and the impact these folktales left with me as a child I ingested as reality, women adapt to survive.

The folktale's PDFs will be posted on this blog for letters in A2Z blog challenge

Completion A2Z and NaNoWriCAMP

READ the A2Z Blogs on the 2020 Challenge.

 TO and FOR OTHERS:

    I show empathy;

    I show encouragement;

    I show comfort;

    I stay level and aware;

    I am sensitive

    and I LISTEN.

My concerns are

    feeling relax,

    feeling free.

    feeling aware,

    having the highest ESTEEM for the other and myself.

I am concerned with:

    relating being to being.

    adult to adult
I own my feelings. I own my being  —> 

(parent, adult, youth, child) (anima and animus)

   

I believe:
    The other has enough wisdom and knowledge.
    I expect the other to own reactions.

I trust and LET GO!

The finish, V, W, X,Y, AND Z - Emotional Feelings

 V FOR THE EMOTIONAL FEELING, VALUE

We Carry Negatives.

These stories listed in TheStoryRealm because of an astonishing book that entered my life when I was very sick and had to change my expectation for myself, The Dark Side of the Light Chasers, by Debbie Ford, published in 1998. The book handed to me by my best friend, Janet, we did professional gardening for eight years. I have known Janet since the late ’70s. I was an in-house child-care provider (pre-school for ages 2 to 5) with my children and about 30 others, and Janet ran an after school daycare.

 As far as I can tell, most knowledge about who we are and who we become is not the same for all. The experiences we have and the attitude given to us and what we carry are the successful or impaired thought our lives. How one handles burdens offered given to us by parents, schools, and especially society norms affects what we think we can accomplish.

Knowing and understanding emotional attitudes in our vast world passed to us as girls, maiden, matron, or crones —> these feelings, beliefs, emotions can be gifts with positive results.

HOPE is the emotion offer through these folktales about women as servers, who enlighten our progress as a healthy, rational, and successfully individual. I’m talking about personal attitudes that extend an abundance of peace and prosperity of the mind.

The woman featured in these folktales used skills to succeed in life. As a woman, I may and can use all of these skills in my goals and journeys into male-dominated literature, news, government, justice system, I have value.

~~~~~~~

 W FOR THE EMOTIONAL FEELING, WHOLE

 Negatives Have the Positives Hidden.

-->First, is to admit negative feeling has a positive emotion wrapped. What I mean is, with great fear is enduring courage, with laziness is ambition. So when I looked at my feelings that I had charted, there were 104 negatives, which mean I held 104 positives, the opposite effect, actually to ensure balancing.

— > Second is to notice when you look at the charts of emotions, they appeared like an onion, which grows in rounds, For each emotion charted, there are about 10 or 15 that group together. These peeked into a triangle, and inside the layer of the circle leaves wait push from the top, just like an onion set in the earth, leaves force from the top with new growth. These leaves can be positive or negative. As feminists, we can change the negative that might grow in how we think as she.

—> Third, when a set of negatives are cleared, the next one comes, and again with the negative and positives, we grew another onion into another triangle with leaves pushing the growth. Each triangle set afire by a task:  writing, artist, health, money, success, parents, friends, family, mothering, victim, oppressed or growing positive for balancing a whole being.

~~~~~~

 X FOR THE EMOTIONAL FEELING, EXCELLENT!

The Stink Onion Grew in my Yard.

When Janet I did the gardening, one of our observations was that each client grew their own weeds and that weed prospered in the gardens. Each client had different weeds even though they lived next door to each other. A negative emotion attaches and becomes real in our physical world. Maybe the client was throwing the plants off. We also noticed that flowers can be planted by clients.

My concern was that I was throw off a weed in my garden. 

Yes, I did; I discovered the stink onions.

The stink onion spreads by small bulbs in the ground and seeds on top, dropping to the ground, an obsessive dominate weed. The leaves stink. The onions grew among the roses and along my path coming into my house. I was horrified.
Although the onion’s flowers smell sweet and form seeds resembling pearls, the seeds are associated with tears, regrets by the decisions made, to irrigate in the eye, which demanded to clear for better vision.

"If only, I thought … clearly"
"Were it not that … impossible"
"But … I should have … known"
"The male so dominate."
"Redoing this will be … painful"

I hated myself, I let this happen, I planted the onions, I criticize my writing and art because I was not a male, man, or lad guarantee a spotlight. I spread these onions around in other gardens. I am a tool of abuse spreading the burdensome, laborious, troublesome, tedious onions, which showed no remorse, guilt, blame, doubts, and required pulling and digging, again and again, year after year. Hard work with constant watching, enormous demands on me. I had planted the onions for a long time, which caused severe hardship for the rest of my garden.

With patience, carefulness, and persistence, I dug up the roots and stopped the spread of seeds into mine and other gardens.

~~~~~~~~

 Y FOR THE EMOTIONAL FEELING, YEA!

I Glared at FEAR.

I read Debbie Ford’s book again and again and found I could make a chart about the attitudes that came up for me. I have chartered 04, sounds like a lot, and it is.  I used my opinions and the ones I saw projected between my friends or at group meetings.

I came from the working class with a negative attitude that life is a struggle with work and more work constant struggling with no hope. My working negative passed from generation to generation.

Fear was the worst of the negatives. I asked that the negative to appear as Debbie suggested,  a personification of the negative attitude to face, observe, and question. Fear was an ugly aged bum that slobbered, dirty, and glared into my eyes. At a cattle auction when I was five, his friend offered candy, and this man grabbed me in front of all the people passing bye. My mom saved me. I sat in the car, the old man smile, he had won. My voice was stopped, I could not be seen on stage. Now, I sat across from the bum at an outside cafe. I stared and asked this analogizing memory, “What do you have to offer?” He glared. I asked, “What is your positive gift that I needed.” I was amazed not a word spoken, only I heard COURAGE and STRENGTH to MOVE, NOT TO FREEZE, an answer. I glared at filthy fear while he struggles to lift up to leave with his friend, who waited, both bent, dirty old negatives.

I  made charts about my conversations with other attitudes: Daring Dog, Ole Crone, Angry Adie, Roomer Roma, Craze Jane, Victim Vic, Ugly Herb, Frozen Fred, Numb Nellie, Ailing Allen, Sad Sue, Sloppy Sofie, Dull Doug, Leech Lee, to name a few.  Negatives are predators of prejudices, attitudes, opinions, horrors, who cover the positives.

Here is my chart — Face your negative.

~~~~~~~~~

Z FOR THE EMOTIONAL FEELING, ZEAL!


GET OUT OF THE BOX!

First --> to see and feel an emotion filling the room:  fear, joy, revenge, hate, anger, love (I hate you!). Next, the projection of attitudes from people: struggle, negativism, fearfulness, unloved, fulfillment, peacefulness, blindness, humorous, selfish, etc., which float around in a room mixing.

Second --> these beliefs (good or bad) are learned before we are three. At that age, one has very little to remember and lots to learn, especially attitudes and opinions, and this learning is enormous because of the lack of experience in the three-year-old mind. Then at all ages, this learned attitude or position of the three-year-old becomes dominant. Then child, youth, adult, prove these attitudes or opinions are correct through all the experiences lived. As people, we use and think these attitudes are real, proper, right, made the truth, as told by storytellers in traditional folktales. When I was a child, men wrote these stories and offer the attitude of that time.

The destruction of clear thinking, negative attitudes, or opinions is a wall in the road of seeing what is really here and correct for us.

Third --> with many, many experiences the three-year-old’s magnified grip on a negative emotional will relax. My worst attitude was 'I WAS SECOND TO A HE, THE OWNER.' NOT FROM MY DAD AS FAIR AS HE WAS TO ME; THIS ATTITUDE CAME FROM MY MOTHER. Her brothers went to high school; like her, she went off to work at age 14. Positive emotional feelings and attitudes helped me change this limited vision of the world into possibilities and better opportunities.

NOW, I ventured into my life;  seeing, smelling, observing, tasting, and touching, reacting to the positives going around. 

I am me.
He is him.
Mine is not his.
We live in balance.

~~~~~~~~~

I say to all he, she, his, her, this is us, ours.

—> Get out of the BOX:  observe, wonder, marvel at the balance we have with the feminine.

—> Get out of the three-year-old’s picture and attitudes, start accepting good, strong 
emotional feelings of gender to decide what you want that is best for your child, youth, and adult, a must for others, also!

--> I work every day to be a feminist to encourage girls, maiden, matrons, and crones; we have, we own, and so happen. WE, the genders together, must change the language and rib ourselves of dominating he, inside words for hers.  We are balanced we, us, ours, individuals, each a being,

#16 Durga helps of the Gods. POWER

provoke vs protect --> prepare. 
P is the emotional feeling, POWER. 

Durga Helps the Gods.

     

  I LIKE THIS STORY. I learned that woman has a lot of control over the men, (Gods, kings, and demons) while the men think they are in control. Durga is one, powerful Goddess called to help Gods. Her duty to drive a demon for the Hindi lands of India. She has all the emotional characteristics of a warrior: fearless, disciplined, determined, and physical powers.

I met Durga when I was a child running across a field playing "Ya, ya, Ya, you can't get me," teasing a monster.

Years later, in a creative writing class, I wrote a short story of my childhood running through the fields enticing a monster. “Ya, ya, ya, you can’t catch us.” I fell; I knew the beast would suffocate me. When I stopped yelling and screaming, I saw this wonderful magical woman, not my mom, not an angel, not a faery, and not a saint. From then on, I knew I was protected. I actually forgot about the story knowing always knowing was safe. I even told this story for the primary challenge for America Has Talent. My telling was not convincing.

Read on wattpad.com

Finally, Durga, herself, spoke to me. "I am the field goddess. I am of the Shakti energies of the earth, the Devi, the goddess of protection created by all the Gods. Durga comes as a mere woman to help the innocent. You were a child, who thought a monster lived in the field. Durga helps conquer dangers, helps overcome foes, offers courage to stand and fight if slicing off the head of the evil demon."

I had her voice. Come read her story on wattpad.com, DURGA HELPS THE GODS.  

 Why is this story unique? The major male Gods and the minor gods create a superwoman to conquer a demon because of his request, death only by a woman. I think the buffalo-demon came from the Mesopotamia trade cultures many, many centuries ago to conquer India?  The demon is part of the good/bad fights between the GODS as KINGS. Masiha thinks he knows the Hindi view of women, 'curves to serve'.

What is cultural awareness?  The gifts the Gods give to the woman tell how much the Gods battled with other outsiders to create immortality and realms for themselves. All the Hindi Gods are one huge verbal ‘soap opera’ then to written mythologies. The bonus being Gods reborn again and again is to play out dramas. I thought the Greek mythology was confusing.

#15 Li Chi the Worm Slayer, OWN

opperssion vs obstacle  --> oppose.
O for the emotional feelings --> OWN!

 Li Chi, The Worm Slayer

I LIKE THE STORY. When I found Li Chi in the Asian Art Museum Storyteller's notebook, I was elated!  Dancing!  Shouting, finally, a real heroine from China in 200 BC! Li Chi slew the worm, the monster, that devoured girls in her village, she stopped the sacrifices. I told this story in the Chinese Gallery in the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco. Boys and girls liked the story.

I realized that as a girl, I had to survive the male-dominant structure and his dictates on my feminine life. As a pre-teen youth reading fairytales, folktale, cautionary tales, and legends, I did absorb successes as other ways we could oppose traditions. 


What helped me, as a girl child, was my dad, bless him. He pushed his daughter to believe in herself. He made me forced me to think of myself as a girl who could do anything she wanted. Only the male lines were there; I don't know if he could see them. I was not asked to go hunting, I could go fishing. For a profession, I could be a librarian, teacher, maid, bookkeeper, secretary, or prostitute. By the 1960's I could go to college. A woman with the future, not yet recognized as an author, artist, storyteller, lawyer, doctor, film producer, judge, president, and on and on. My life was confined by the fairytale and folktale restrictions still present in societies at this time.

As stated before, words for feminine always have a male word hovering inside, man, lad, or he. At least in Latin had an 'a' for the female, the anima, and 'us' for the male the animus. The yin and yang of the Chinese for equality are not true.

--> fe'male,' second to a male;
--> 'lad'y, second to a lad;
--> wo'man', second to the man;
--> s'he' or 'he'r, second to he;
--> 'hero'ine, second the hero;
--> t'he'y has he included;
--- t'he'ir has her included.
--> this has his included
--> the has he and can sound like he.
--> they include the word 'he'.
--> these include the word 'he'.

Unfortunately, 'he' still leads and solves the problems and dilemmas of our world. As a girl, a young feminine, I was pushed from the successes because of my sex, a 'damsel in distress' a maiden to be either an old Maid, unmarried or matron, married.

And what is funny for me, in high school when the school pictures were taken for the yearbook in all the clubs I was a member, and that was many, I wore a small crown in my hair. I did not care if my critical classmates saw or if they did, they were into what they wanted. I was traveling to places. All these years, I wondered what my teenager thought when wearing a crown.

After analyzing thousands of stories, written, told, or filmed, after wanting to be an artist of children's book and a storyteller and then write; after years of pushing for that girl, my youth to succeed; I knew. The maiden, damsel, the servant, the princess, the matron, the mom, the aunt, the grandma, the hag, the crone, the witch, even the sorceress 'had come of age'. I entered the University with a scholarship and loan from the government for a poor female with high grades. I had struggled with all the emotional empowerment from all the damsels in many stories; I won, not as a warrior, as an educated girl with places to go, people to meet, and successes to have.

#14 Sylvia Saves the DAY, NECESSARY

need vs nourish --> natural.
N is for the emotional feeling, NECESSARY!

Sylvia Saves the DAY. 

I wrote this story in 1992 after my volunteer position as Regional Advisor for SCBWI from 1886 to1989. And after researching and publishing my father's family tree, 'His, Her, and Ours.

I saw Sylvia Saves the DAY as a picture book with a drawn quilted spare for the 27 scenes. The picture book never happened, I stopped illustrating and sending my stories to editors. The market had dropped, and I would wait for a return opening. While waiting, I pondered why my stories did not please editors.

While lying on my couch, resting, and rereading my stories, a voice floated through my mind, "you write analogies. You need sunshine in my sky, to dig in the rich soil, so you can move on". The gardening healed my hurts about rejection." So Sylvia, the happy gardener, misses the sun who falls in Sylvia's woodpile. Curran, the wind, helps Sylvia, who saves the day, a strong matron.

Well, as all good stories go, a climax. While gardening during the cold rains in 1998, I got pneumonia and had to stop weeding. 

Again lying on my couch, the voice floated through my mind, "Time for you to stand on stage and tell stories." All my life, I never volunteered to read out loud, and as RA in SCBWI always had someone else stand-up and run the meetings. I worked behind the scenes, safe, not being a man, male, he; I had no voice.

To evolving my style, I needed more education, a broader range of stories from many countries like the story I read as a 5th and 6th grader. My opportunity arrived, storytelling in 2000, then the invite 2002 to tell at the Asian Art Museum, I entered a temple of stories. I would realize why the male voice dominated in writing and stories.

#13 - Sparrow's Gift, MORALITY

mean vs modest ---> merit.
M for the emotional feeling of MORALITY!

Sparrow's Gift

I like this story. The Komi force, a wood statue of the 8th century, denotes feminine energies.YES!

The Tongue-cut Sparrow, or as I call the story, ‘Sparrow’s Gift,' is a Japanese folktale that tells explains the Shinto beliefs, which are ancient, so ancient, first told not written.

The oldest records are from pieces of pottery showing birds, who were the Tarii spirits. The vital force is Komi, which is in all nature, everything is alive, even rocks. One must walk through the gate to Shinto - the medicine way, one must wash - then calling the spirits, sparrows are of this ancient spirit, Tarii. The ancients before 2,000 AD and earlier called this the Honey Way. 

In this story, Sparrow's Gift, the old grandmothers, one is kind and one is greedy, shows the way to Shinto, the Honey Way, or as gifts given by the sparrows. I have used the voices of the grandmothers to show different means of receiving and what the rewards will be.

# 12 - Elisa and the Eleven Swans, LOYALTY

lost vs labor --> librate.
L is for the emotional feeling of - LOYALTY!

Elisa and the Eleven Swans  

Do I like this story!  Maybe!

A folktale supposedly Hans Christian Anderson wrote, and after reading his real effort to write, this follows the traditional folktales of the time. He told it in the royal courts, so given him credit because males wrote about male's worth.  Elisa knows how to weave, so first told by servants and laborers who created clothes, most likely together, spinning tales of hope.

This tale is like the Grimm Brothers. A wicked stepmother full of jealousy ruins the life of the father, (the word 'her' included in the spelling), and the children, especially the daughter. I always wondered, "where is the father"? Again, a wicked woman (wo'man' the word man included in the spelling) ruins with 'his' family. I think these (t'he'se) are tales to have women (wo'men') stay with her family because another wicked woman will destroy everything without the man knowing, "never trust the other woman."

The saving feature of this tale is a sister, learns weaving from the peasant family. After Elisa travels through a horrid nightmare adventure, frees her brothers from a curse spun by a wicked woman, the stepmother. Who is really the nemesis? Patrilocal society!

Also, this hints at the acceptance of what is offered with no fighting, screaming, or anger just blatant acceptance. Were women this dull-witted or is this folktale to tell young girls, if you accept and are patient and loyal, you will be liberated as a QUEEN, destine to run the castle for your husband, the KING, or always just a working Princess.

AtoZ Challenge, CAMPNaNoWri DARE!

During the month of April 2020, with motivation from CAMPNaNoWri to compile and edit a story each day, THAT IS 27 STORIES, Humble Heros and Worthy Women, NOW CALLED DAMSELS IN DISTRESS. 

On this blog, TheStoryRealm, to post daily the character's motivation and 'why I like or dislike the tale' for the AtoZ Blog Challenge. 

When each story is ready for my satisfaction with the frame,  I will share as a PDF from google drive, view only.

This challenge is a dreadful venture or DARE for finishing my book series for Timeless Tales Retold. UPDATED!

Because of the stories I tell are in bit and pieces over the vast net in different phases of writing and editing, my challenge is to collect the various versions of one story and each day during April 2020. Then to combine the various bits and pieces into my best-writing with the driving emotion for the character for her survival; and if why I like this tale.

My forever goal is to download back to Scrivener on my computer for a PDF for Amazon.com’s print-on-demand and kindle. An epub format to published on Smashword.com and with @s, ISBBs, LCCNs, and maybe audio with a video trailer.  

Power to Bobbie, go girl go!