Happy Birthday #FolkloreThursday

One of my Favourite Mythological Thingies
The Polish Fire Flower

No, its not a Thursday, but it is the one year anniversary of the birth of #FolkloreThursday. One of the greatest inventions ever.

To celebrate, I'd like to share an interview with founder DeeDee Chainey. The interview was originally posted on Pagan Writers Community blog (Facebook). It's reproduced here because, well, I own the site and I can.

So, without further ado, I unveil to you the sheer splendour, the absolute waking joy, that is Folklore Thursday.

Go lose yourselves.

If you're on Twitter, you can't help but notice the hashtag #FolkloreThursday (@FolkloreThurs). It's become something of a phenomenon, even attracting BBC attention. There's now an accompanying website, helping to bring together folklore from around the world. This week, Dee Dee Chainey (@DeeDeeChainey), one of the founding members of #FolkloreThursday, dropped by to answer some questions.

Hi Dee Dee, thanks for joining us. Thursdays are perhaps our favourite day of the week since #FolkloreThursday took off.

For those who don't know, please could you tell us what #FolkloreThursday is and how it came about?

#FolkloreThursday is a weekly hashtag day on Twitter where people can share all things folklore related! Willow and I had been chatting on Twitter for a while, and thought it would be really great if there was a place to go to find out all about folklore. We were already taking part in a lot of the hashtag days, and then the idea came to us that a hashtag day would be a great way to get people together talking about folklore! We planned it for a while, set a date for the launch, and it all went from there!

Why is folklore important in the modern age?

Great question – I really do think folklore is important! I think, in the past, it was a great way to convey social norms and expectations – as well as important lessons – from generation to generation. While many of our social rules today have changed to the ones we see in folklore, narrative folklore really does act as a system of archetypes that give a focus point for us all to reflect on the issues that do still affect us today, particularly through examining the symbols and memes many of us take for granted. Narrative, and other types of folklore, are a great way of connecting to a shared heritage, and an excellent way of learning about cultures: our own and other peoples, allowing us to negotiate ideas, not only about how we’re different, but about how we are all the same; the passing on of traditions and stories are intrinsically human, and something we can all come together to share.

What's been your favourite piece of folklore posted by a participant?

My absolute favourite? Well, that’s a difficult one! I do love ‘body parts’ folklore... so I suppose I have a particular penchant for the Hand of Glory: the ‘guilty’ hand of a hanged murderer that can be lit like a candle, and then be used for all kinds of mischief. Some sources say it will paralyse anyone who sees it, others that it will open a locked door.

Why did you decide to start a website?

We thought it would be great to have a place to gather a lot of the stuff shared on #FolkloreThursday, and have a ‘hub’ for the hashtag that everyone could come to throughout the week. A lot of people said they wished everyday was #FolkloreThursday. I suppose, with the website, it can be!

Does #FolkloreThursday predominantly focus on British folklore, or is it global?

It’s definitely a global thing. We have people from all over the world joining in each Thursday, and they share folklore from all over the place. We’d love to see more diverse folklore each week. We love seeing folklore from people and places we’ve never heard of before!

Have you noticed any similarities in folklore around the world?

Definitely! A lot of the stories shared have very similar themes and plots, particularly those from across Europe and Scandinavia. Some folklore that does stand out to me personally is some of the Japanese stuff, the Yōkai for example. It’s so unique... reading a Japanese folktale is like an adventure – you never know where it’s going to take you!

What's the scariest folklore monster so far?

Ooh, great question! I think I’d have to choose the Encantado from the South American folklore. Legend tells that they are spirits that take the form of dolphins from the Amazon River, then take on human form at night, leaving the waters to seduce unsuspecting human women. They sometimes kidnap humans, and can cause illness, or even death... creepy!

Do you have any theories on why #FolkloreThursday has become so incredibly popular? What is it about folklore that attracts people?

I think maybe it’s different for everyone. We see people using folklore in so many ways: academics, writers using it for inspiration, artists, people relating to it as part of their belief system, others engaging just for fun or escapism. I do wonder how much the interest might be in response to the increase in technology in our daily lives, and things like that. Historically, you do see people turn to the past, as well as to myth and story, for a sense of grounding and reassurance at times of political and social instability.

Personally, I think the current political climate and the trend towards globalisation might have something to do with the resurgence in story, but also with reconstituting a sense of identity and heritage for people. From a #FolkloreThursday perspective though, I would say we’re just pleased that people love it as much as we do, and we’re happy they’re engaging, whatever their motivations! We keep saying it, but we firmly believe that folklore belongs to everyone – it’s a treasure trove of information, and really quite magical at the same time – it’s a way of bringing wonder and awe back into everyday life, and it’s important to have that.

Is folklore in danger of dying out?

From what we’ve seen on the hashtag day, I’d definitely say no! It’s amazing how many things are going on around the world using folklore – from books, to films, theatre productions, as well as a host of local community projects working to get people excited about folklore! I think the popularity of folklore and legends must have risen over the last few years. I’m not sure whether books, films and TV shows like Harry Potter, Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, Song of the Sea, and the like, have led to the increased interest or have been made because producers realised it’s popular, but you can certainly see a definite trend. And people have responded to that. Folklore has become something that most people are aware of now, in varying degrees.

What are your hopes for the future of #FolkloreThursday?

At the moment we’re still working on getting the website filled with top-notch folklore articles. After that? Well, you’ll just have to stay tuned and wait and see...

How can people participate?

#FolkloreThursday runs every Thursday on Twitter, from 9am to 8pm British time (with a few short breaks in the middle!). To participate, people just need to post their tweet with the hashtag on the end: that means just type the hashtag symbol followed by the words ‘Folklore’ and ‘Thursday’ with no spaces. The tweet will appear in the hashtag feed publicly and everyone will be able to see your post if they’re following the hashtag!

We do have a detailed guide explaining how to get involved and what to post for #FolkloreThursday. 

Red Bananas

For those of you following the finger fiasco, half my bandages came off yesterday. Almost all better, just a bit red and extremely stiff. Too sensitive to type yet, and it's going to take a while to be able to stretch and clench, but considering what happened, I feel like Wolverine. The healing ability of the human body is truly incredible. Huge thanks go out to Nurse Moses at Polyclinique du Plateau in Kigali, and my GP, Dr. Lovatt, back in the UK who gave me some tips on exercises. Novel writing is still on hold for a while. It's bloody impossible one-handed, I have tried, but I reckon it won't be long now.

In case you're wondering, those aren't off bananas, they're ripening red bananas. Apparently, all bananas were once thus. Extremely yummy, and helping to sustaining my energy through this recovery. 

Future Tense

I've spoken in the past about coincidence in writing; about writing a novel only to discover that it shared startling similarities with a deceased author's short story.

I've even had my share of ghost tales.

What I've never experienced until now, is writing the future. Possibly because I focus on Historical Fiction most of the time.

I know this isn't an uncommon thing. Existence is a story - many stories - so anything we can conceive of could potentially happen someday. I was once on a writing forum where an author swore he'd written his future girlfriend into being, right down to the colour of her hair and the way she walked. So much so, that he could hardly believe his eyes when he turned up to a blind date to find her sitting in front of him. Charlie Brooker expressed a similar level of surprise when #SwineEleven happened, having written a television show called Black Mirror in which the Prime Minister of the UK had sex with a pig.

Accidentally guessing the future is a common hazard for writers, it would seem. I remember listening to an author at Cheltenham Literature Festival speak of a conversation with his publisher. Like Brooker, he'd written something about a popular figure, only that something came true before the book was released, necessitating a rewrite.

In my writing folder, I have a subfolder called Closed Projects. This is where I store the scraps of stories I know will never make it to fruition. Most ideas are worth playing with for a day or two, but part of professional writing is to work out which of those ideas has longevity - about 100,000 words of longevity. Few of them do. Yet, most writers are loath to throw away something they've spent twenty minutes on, yet alone two days. At the back of your mind there is always a sneaking suspicion that those scraps might come in useful one day.

On 1 April 2014, I started a short story with the working title Clowns at the Party.

Two years earlier, I had released a collection of short stories called Splintered Door (now free online). The cover had been designed by Jessica Clark at Raven Feather Photography. I was really smitten with her artwork. I'm a big fan of portraiture, and often draw inspiration for characters from it.

There was one picture in particular that appealed (on the right). I suppose she reminded me a bit of Frankie from Lip Service. One thing you're always looking for in a character is attitude.

I always knew I wanted to write a story around that picture, and Jessica was happy for me to do so. I just needed the right story to come along. Clowns at the Party occurred to me quite suddenly. At first I thought the picture looked like a corpse, a murder mystery perhaps. However, the more I stared, the more I felt she was a living person. Someone who had lost everything and now had nothing more to lose. That sort of mentality makes a person unpredictable, which makes for an interesting character. The type you learn about as you write.

The question was: what had happened to cause such destruction of self?

I based the story in a nightclub in London.

In my story, an anti-gay extremist had walked into a nightclub, started shooting, then blown himself up. My main character, Kay, had just left her best friend, Jodie (the picture), and started walking home. Hearing it begin, she fights her way back looking for Jodie, but ends up in a form of hell, surrounded by casualties.

The story was 3,300 words long when I abandoned it. The idea was that it would be the story of Jodie's recovery and Kay's refusal to leave despite her increasingly irrational behaviour. An examination of trauma, love versus loyalty, the limits of friendship, how one comes to accept an act of unspeakable violence committed against them, and what the alternative is if they can't. 

I'm really glad I didn't take it any further. Some stories are not ours to tell, and that one wasn't mine.

It was cold outside, the city streets damp with old rain. Everything smells different when it’s wet. Dogs have that wet dog smell, grass has that cut grass smell, quim has that salty, satisfied smell, and streets smell like garbage. Hot tarmac and leftover lunches, burnt rubber and plaster dust.

Kay turns for home, not fast enough to avoid a guy shoulder-barging his way past with a sense of pedestrian entitlement. People walk as they drive: pulling out without indicating, slowing for no reason, racing past, overtaking, parking on the pavement and practising emergency stops.

Life is a continuous progression from one state of being to another. It happens over days, weeks and years. We change so slowly that we do not notice we have changed. Like the short hand on a clock, creeping forward imperceptibly until you look up and realise another year has gone. Milestones are things we see retrospectively, looking back. You can pinpoint very few to an exact second in time. A second so precise that it lives in the moment between one foot leaving the pavement and meeting it again. Between a breath in and a breath out. Between the blink of an eye.

When the screams start, they go unheard, absorbed by the towering grey office blocks and hydraulic hush of a passing bus. They rise and refuse to be silenced, as though someone has turned up the volume in a bar so that all smalltalk must end.

Eyes meet eyes, heads turn, feet begin pounding the pavement.

As the short hand continues forward, Kay has no idea how she moves from walking the street to pushing against the river of people flowing from the club’s entrance.

It's futile. They move as one, stampeding onto the road, causing brakes to screech and horns to blare. A girl falls. As Kay reaches out her hand to help, three men push across the top of her, smashing her nose against the pavement. Blood pools. She cries out, then lies still. Kay tries again to reach her, but a boot meets her wrist causing her to draw back in pain.

Sirens can be heard in the distance.

She watches as the girl is lifted over the shoulder of a panic-stricken bouncer, carried above the swarming crowd. Squeezing between bins, she begins running along the side alley. There are fewer people streaming out of the delivery door, making it possible to push between them and enter the club.

It takes a moment to work out where she is. The thunder of feet from above sound as though a freight train is passing overhead. A fire door leads to a stairwell. As it opens, she recognises the girl who steps out.

“Zoe—”

The girl's hand slips on the handle as she stumbles forward.

Shame hangs over those instances where we should help, but don’t. Where the desire to run to a friend’s assistance meets revulsion at the reason why.

Her white shirt isn't bloodstained, it's saturated.

Kay’s words freeze in her throat. She glances behind to the door, reassuring herself that it's still there. Zoe continues towards it, oblivious of her presence. If she could be two people at once, she would split herself down the middle: go with Zoe, and continue down to the club.

But she isn't two people, and she has to choose.

Print Sales Jump

Ooh, I was about to get all excited: Readers rejoice: Printed book sales rise for first time in four years as ebooks undergo decline.

Until I discovered that this is considered a print book... ~sigh~

Word Up: Speech-to-Text

In light of recently maiming myself, I decided to try out Word's speech-to-text function. 

Whilst partially incapacitated, I use my good hand to brows websites. On a news channel I stumbled across something that completely grabbed my attention. So much so that eight hours later I was still reading about it, going from Wiki to Wiki, jotting down notes. I think I've found my next major story subject, but it's driving me up the wall because I can't actually start writing about it. My right hand is currently doing the work of both hands, and it's exhausting. There is a saying: 

On balance, as annoying as it is not being able to tell my story, falling into a fire was a thousand times more agonising.

Anyway, Word.

I've been a huge fan of text-to-speech for a long time. I regularly get Word to read e-mails and news articles to me whilst I contemplate my belly fluff.

Unfortunately, speech-to-text ain't quite all there yet.

Here's a brief Windows explanation on turning on speech recognition for Windows 10 and some further information for Windows 8. Basically, in 10: File Explorer/This PC/Open Settings/type Speech into the Search Box/Speech Recognition.

It's worth taking the time to Train Your Computer, which basically involves training yourself at the same time by reading aloud the user manual. This allows your computer more time to get to know your voice and the way you pronounce things.

I find the whole concept fascinating. Usually, my thoughts appear on the page as I'm thinking them, but with speech-to-text I find myself pausing a lot to consider how my words sound before saying them. I think the type of book I would wright using speech-to-text might be very different.

If that were the only delay, perhaps I'd persist, but there are other issues.

I tried an opener:

The night was cold. Snowflakes fell like falling hope between the cobblestones. White winter swept the town, holding the lives of young and old between its skeletal fingers.  

and got:

Of the the the night was cold.  Snowflakes fell like falling home between the cobblestones.  White winter swept the town holding the lives of young and old between their skeletal fingers.

Perhaps it's an old microphone, but when I was silent for too long, thinking how to begin, the programme filled the silence for me with a couple of extra thes.

I threw it the old tongue twister Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers and received Peter Piper picked up at him for a month for.

Perhaps this would improve with time, but the process of correction is tiring. Each time there is a mistake you have to tell the program correct [word] and either choose a number from the list:

 

Or spell it out letter by letter, correcting each letter it mishears.

 

That's really the problem. In the time it takes to correct the mistakes in one sentence, you could have written twenty more. Speech-to-text has still got a long way to go. Which might be why it's tucked away right at the very back of the Windows tool box. I've heard Dragon is pretty impressive, but it's pricey and you'd want to test it out before purchasing.

Life's Lottery

 

Absolutely buy this book - buy it now. It's brilliant.

Originally published in 1999, it was re-released in 2014:

A role-playing novel that reveals how small decisions can have monumental consequences. If you choose the right possibilities you may live a long happy life, or be immensely rich, or powerful, or win the lottery. If you make other choices you may become a murderer, die young, make every mistake possible, or make no impression on life at all. The choice is yours.

As you know, I was a huge Fighting Fantasy fan in my youth, so I have a soft spot for choose your own adventure books. I didn't realise that's what this was at first, but the moment I did I was grinning with expectation.

I couldn't review it better than  Aliya Whiteley, so go read her review for an in-depth opinion. As she puts it:

There’s no surviving Life’s Lottery because the adventure is life. And life only has one outcome. But what you do before you reach that inevitable outcome is a matter of nature and nurture, of choice and luck. Life’s Lottery is an adventure game book for adults that puts you in the shoes of one Keith Oliver Marion from the moment of his birth in Reading hospital in 1959. There are many paths to choose on the journey of Keith’s life, ranging from becoming either a victim or a perpetrator, winning the lottery or living with nothing, having successful relationships or being drawn to people who will ultimately let you down, or even destroy you.

The thing that really surprised me about Life’s Lottery is that choosing what might seem to be the obvious path to a great life never works out that way.

It's devilishly clever and highly addictive. 

The only down side is that it's absolutely impossible to read on a Kindle Paperwhite. If you're going for it, opt for the paperback version.

A Hand in Classical Literature

I was hoping the bandages might come off today. Sadly, another week without fingers. On the other hand (ho ho), it does look a bit like Moby Dick. Has anyone else managed to injure themselves in the style of a great literary classic?