Merry Christmas!

Or rather, Merry-Day-After-Christmas! I hope everyone had a joyful and relaxing holiday (after the bustling of Christmas shopping, of course)! I hope you got to spend lots of time with family and truly feel loved this season. 2020 hasn’t been the nicest to us, but I’m glad a season like Christmas ends the year. It reminds us all how important it is to be kind and be together and it certainly brings hope that next year will be better.

I had to work this holiday, but I didn’t mind. I work at an animal shelter and the dogs that don’t get adopted need someone to love them on Christmas too. I did something special for our pups and wrapped over eighty presents filled with treats to give to them on Christmas Day. It’s safe to say: they loved it! They may not have gotten adopted, but they weren’t forgotten.

So, from myself and all the furry, wiggle-butts at my work, Merry Christmas! May the end of 2020 ease up on you and may 2021 bring you joy and dreams come true.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Winter Magic

Step outside and the frosty air grips your skin like a coat. You take a deep breath in surprise and the cold infiltrates your lungs and causes you to shiver. You decide to run back inside to grab another coat and hat before heading out the door.

The morning is quiet, the world still asleep. Frost covers the grass like icing on a cake. It glows gently in the yellow light of streetlamps and the wind brings a deeper chill to the air. Frost also layers your vehicle, so you stand tensed and shivering in the brisk morning as you scrape it from your windows. By the time you get going, it’s still dark out. A couple stars peer through the city lights from the sky overhead, but are quickly blotted out by a blanket of clouds. Traffic is light. Only a few venture out this early to get where they need to go. Every car glistens with silvery frost, a beauty easily missed in the dull cold of the morning.

You’re focused on your radio, the road, and your destination instead of the sights blurry past your windows. So, it surprises you when you finally notice the white specks falling on your windshield. At first, they were small like wisps playing outside your vehicle, but steadily, they grew larger; fluffy cotton balls falling from the sky. The way you zoom past them makes you feel like you’re zooming past shooting stars, but that feeling quickly disappears in your worry for how the roads might respond to the gentle kiss of snow.

You pull off the highway to head further to work. The lights of busy streets steadily shift to trees as you head further into stretches of forest trails and parks. You’ve only the light of your headlights to guide you through the dark, snowy morning, and your lead foot grows lighter with weariness of the ice. Be careful, and go slow, but don’t you miss the magic around you. Don’t forget the wisps that dance in the falling snow. Don’t turn your eyes from the leaves dressing up in powdered wigs, or the trees putting on elegant diamonds of frost. Your brisk morning gains the gentle hand of snow and its white glow silences the world, but you’re more focused on the radio. Each second, the snow covers the ground in a blanket that shines like gemstones in the light of your headlights. Did you see it?

You finally pull into work, hoping your wheels don’t spin on the slight hill that leads to the building. A small sigh of relief escapes you when you pull into your typical parking spot and you let yourself idle so you might enjoy its warmth just a little bit longer. When you look outside, you see the cold of the season. You wonder how much snow will fall and what inconveniences it’ll bring you. Will it pile so high that you won’t be able to make it home? How many would call you foolish if you risked the roads at the end of the day? You shiver in your multiple coats and a pout sinks your face. You look at the snow and see your complaints, but do you see how it layers on the roots beneath the tree? A few blades of grass poke out in front of it, giving the root eyes like its a lengthy, white gator wanting you to smile. Then, there’s the branches of the tree itself. The leaves bundle together under the snow and use its weight to shape a heart so you can see that you’re loved. Icicles are strung along the building, reflecting the lights around you like glitter wishing to spark joy.

You step out of your vehicle to brave the cold sprint to the building and the snow crunches beneath your feet. With your vehicle off, the radio is silenced, and the wintery world sings sweet music to you. Will you close your eyes and listen? Twinkling bits of ice chime along the ground, the leaves, and the grass. A breeze shivers through the air, the start of a soft whistle that dares not be too loud. Your every step guides the rhythm. The crunch of the snow like the beat of a cool drum. Do you slow down to let it linger? Or do you pick up the tempo so you can get inside?

Morning light turns the sky silver once you head inside. You can pause by a window to greet the sun or rush straight into your morning routine. The snow may fall all day so you get a chance to enjoy its beauty or it may simply stop falling, discouraged by your ignorance. I just hope you take the time to see its magic.

Favorite Christmas Tale

There are many, MANY stories that revolve around Christmas. There’s the one the started it all: the Birth of Christ, then there are the ones that are created from the season itself: Hallmark movies, children’s stories, and even tales of your own family Christmases. So, other than the Birth of Christ (because I know a lot of Christians will automatically say that one), what’s your favorite Christmas story?

Honestly, I can’t tell you mine, because I don’t know. I love Jim Carey’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas. It will forever be my favorite version of the How the Grinch Who Stole Christmas, but I also love The Nativity Story, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer (I grew up with the 1998 version, not the 1964 version). I also love all of Tim Allen’s The Santa Clause movies, The Year Without a Santa Claus, Nestor the Long-Eared Donkey–you gotta admit, it’s hard to pick just one!

I can tell you that the one most quoted movie in my house at Christmas time is Jim Carey’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Whether it’s: “You’re the-the-the-the GRINCH!” or the scheduling of wallowing in self-pity. If you came over, you’d likely hear one quote or another. And always, one of my brothers gets You’re a Mean One Mr. Grinch as their theme song for the season whether they know it or not.

There is one film I haven’t mentioned that is played over and over and over again at my house during Christmas time and that’s The Trans-Siberian Orchestra’s Ghost of Christmas Eve. We’re big fans of the Trans-Siberian Orchestra here at my house and you can blame my mother for that. When it comes to The Ghost of Christmas Eve, sometimes we sit down and actually watch it, but most of the time its playing on the TV while we’re doing other things and each one of us knows every word in every song. We even hit replay when the disc ends. For as long as I can remember, we’ve had that film, so I’m actually surprised its still holding out this long. It just never gets old.

So, those are my favorite Christmas movies. Now, what are yours? You could even say a family video of old Christmases is your favorite, whatever you want! I’d love to know!

Building a Castle

Ever wonder how J.K. Rowling came up with the layout for Hogwarts? Or how did George R.R. Martin design King’s Landing in A Game of Thrones? I have been wondering that A LOT recently. How did the beautiful castle of Hogwarts that we see in the movies come about? Was it all J.K. Rowling or did she have actual architects help her design the layout that we see in the movies? Same with King’s Landing: did George R.R. Martin decide which room goes where or did he have help as well?

The answers are probably out there and able to be found. If you happen to know them, by all means, comment them below! The reason I’ve been wondering these questions is because I’ve been trying to draw the castle in my novel on paper. I know where every mentioned place in the castle is supposed to be; however, my hand struggles to draw what’s in my mind. I’m also not an architect and have never built a castle before. I’ve done a lot of research, but that still doesn’t help my hand figure out what its supposed to do while drawing.

I’d love to someday see the castle in my novel become as real and as magical as the castle of Hogwarts or the city of King’s Landing. Yet, it makes me wonder if J.K. Rowling or George R.R. Martin ever thought their books would become as grand as they have? Did Ms. Rowling ever think that Harry Potter would become world famous? That her castle of Hogwarts would be the vacation dream of a lifetime for many people of all ages? And what are the odds of all that happening to someone like me?

I googled maps of Hogwarts just to see if I could find how many variations the castle went through before the final layout was finally decided. I couldn’t find my answer, but I did find a few maps of Hogwarts’ grounds that were labeled to be drawn by J.K. Rowling herself. And the castle looked nothing like the one you see in the movies–at least, to me it didn’t.

It’s hard for me to believe that I’m the only writer out there wondering the best way to draw out their creations so others can see what you see. I mean, if you’re not an artist or an architect, it’s pretty difficult. It’s also amazing how things change over time. The castle in the very first draft of my novel does NOT look like the same castle from my current draft. Maybe Ms. Rowling can say the same? I feel like it’s common knowledge that the more you write, experience, and research, the more you grow, and your novel grows with you.

I probably won’t get as big as J.K. Rowling or George R.R. Martin–if I even get published at all–but it’s fun to dream and wonder and it gives hope and motivation for the future. I mean, shoot for the moon, right? And at least, you land among the stars. In the meantime, who knows how many drawings I’ll go through before my head and my hand agree. If you can relate to this, share your story. Or if you have your own questions about how famous authors did things, comment them below. Maybe we can puzzle it out together?

Feature Photo drawn by myself in 2016

Writing Prompt: Unsolved Mystery

Include the following in your story: murder, green, agreement, traditional, carpenter, snake, sugar, kidney, congress, jam.

It was supposed to be a traditional murder case. Open and shut. Textbook worthy. Yet, the carpenter’s home was a total mess when I walked in. Flies buzzed everywhere, constantly zipping past your head, and even running right into you. The horrid stench of rotting flesh tainted the air. I had to cover my hand over my mouth just to keep from gagging. The body was found in the kitchen and it was the worst room in the whole house. A carved wooden table was snapped in two, a blender had been running wild when the police first arrived, but now was shut off. Sugar and jam spilled all over the floor like clotted blood. Even a blind man could tell there had been a struggle.

The witnesses outside all came to an agreement on who did the crime and the evidence we have so far pointed at that very person. No one could say enough how much they loved the carpenter, the now deceased. The only person who didn’t have anything good to say was the carpenter’s next door neighbor: Congressman Bogard–a wicked man, in my opinion. The neighborhood claimed the two of them never saw eye to eye and the carpenter was even against the congressman’s campaign. I’d like to believe it was a corrupt member of congress, but until we went over all the evidence, we couldn’t make any claims.

I looked up from my notebook when I entered the kitchen and I stopped in my tracks when I saw the scene for the first time. It was just as the police described it; however, there was one thing missing. Where was the body?

The coroner hadn’t arrived yet and the police outside said that the body was splayed out on the floor and missing a kidney. I headed for the front lawn to shout questions at the officers; however, I didn’t make it that far. I reached the living room at the same moment one of my CSI’s opened a closet. She screamed in brief jolt a fright and I was left dumbfounded. A green, gutted snake was hanging in the closet like a coat on a hanger.

This was far from an open and shut case. The victim’s body was missing, a congressman might be involved, and now there was a flayed snake in the closet? What in God’s name happened in this house?!

Dragon in the Fog

It was the morning of Thanksgiving and fog covered the streets. I suspected the sun had yet to rise since the world was so dark and glum. Having to work, I headed into the chilly morning to find a layer of frost on my truck’s windows. My truck takes as long as I do to wake up in the morning. Meaning, the heater doesn’t kick in until I reach 60 mph. Until I hit the highway, the fog kept freezing on my windshield like a child trying to cover my eyes to keep me from seeing. Thankfully, traffic was light on this holiday. The radio was playing my favorite Christian songs. My truck heated up to fight back the fog and all became well.

Not long later, the world just brightens up. I had driven out of the fog, something I had never done before. Usually, I make it to my destination and the fog passes by while I’m inside a building, but that morning, I actually found the end of the fog myself. I thought it was so cool. Before, you couldn’t see the sunrise, but then yellow light was hovering over the clouds on the horizon. It made me smile and truly appreciate the “coming out of the fog” analogy I use in my writings. That’s when I realized the clouds on the horizon were a lot closer than they appeared. It was another blanket of fog and I drove right into it. Again, I was amazed at how quickly the bright of the morning turned into a dark, hazy gloom. I could barely see the lights of the car I followed a hundred feet ahead. Eventually, I got off the highway the fog is still so thick that the morning sun can’t shine through. The time could easily be mistaken as the middle of the night.

Something about that foggy morning lit a fire in me. I was excited and rearing to go like someone shot me up with expresso. Looking through the fog, I could just envision the different scenes of my writings that occur in such a setting. I almost expected my characters to be walking down the sidewalk or flying out of the fog just to fade away back into as they rushed to complete their tasks. It was invigorating!

Then, I get to a tall hill on my route that has a stoplight at its peak. All I could see of the stoplight were its two lights and they were red as I started the climb up the hill. I knew they were stoplights. I knew what they meant, but my imagination envisioned so much more! I saw the red eyes of a dragon peering down at me and the fog that filled the world was the smoke that steamed from its nostrils. The closer I got to it, the more I felt like a knight riding a noble steed toward the danger ahead and I needed to pull the sword at my side in preparation to slay the beast. Well, I didn’t actually have a sword and I certainly wasn’t a knight. Just a girl in canine care driving an old truck towards a stoplight. The light turned green and the poles of the stoplight came into view, killing my fantasy, but it was fun while it lasted.

I guess the point I’m trying to get across is how a little change of scenery can really fire the imagination and brighten your day. For me, it was a foggy ride to work that gave me the momentary thrill of charging a dragon head on. Even if you’re stuck in the daily routine of seeing the same old, same old, try to change it up a bit and let your imagination loose. Let yourself see the dragon in the distance or maybe you see a spaceship dropping off aliens instead? If you pass an old tree on the way to work, give that tree your own story. Maybe witches once hanged from its limbs or the trunk holds the doorway to a magical world. It’s a good way to free yourself from the mundane of the day to day and you get that self-earned pride of slaying a dragon, stopping an invasion, or hanging evil witches from trees. Maybe you’ll even come up with a novel idea?

It can’t hurt to try.

Writing Prompt: Snakes

Interesting or creepy? Why?

I love snakes! I think they’re pretty fascinating. Their scales are smooth and cool to the touch. They have a variety of different colors and patterns. Their movement is elegant and when provoked, they can be quite vicious. I especially love snakes with fangs because of how intimidating and fierce they can be.

I know, not everyone shares my view of snakes. I mean, you could just have that phobia, but when you really think about it, they get A LOT of bad rap. In books and movies and other stories, snakes are typically the bad guys. Just look at Nag and Nagaina from Rikki Tikki Tavi, the basilisk from Harry Potter, or even Medusa with her hair full of snakes. I think most of us can testify that growing up, we saw a lot of snakes or other reptiles being marked as the villains. For some of us, it could be because a serpent tempted Eve in the garden of Eden or maybe we grew up with Kaa from The Jungle Book, the Mara from Doctor Who, or video games where your fight a lot of reptiles: dragons, lizards, and snakes.

Long ago, when I was in middle school, I remember playing Baulder’s Gate, a video game, with my brother and we encountered this snake/lizard man who was requesting our help. Well, we help him and it ends up resulting in this snake-guy betraying us because he was in the service of the main villain the entire time. I was upset, because I thought I finally found a story were the reptile wasn’t a villain, but I was wrong. I was starting to think no one wanted snakes or reptiles of any kind to be the good guys.

Fast forward a couple years and I start writing my novel. If you’ve read my past posts, you know I’ve got elves, and centaurs, and fairies, and dwarves within it. Well, to not be a total Narnia knockoff, I included a few more species that have my own little twist to them, and, you betcha! I put reptilians, snake/lizard people, in my novel.

Now, you’re probably thinking: “oh, so you’re rewriting the twist on reptiles? You’re gonna make one of your snake people the good guy?” Let me put it this way: who’s good and who’s bad in my novel is entirely a matter of opinion. Yes. There is a protagonist and an antagonist like any good story. However, when it comes to every other character–snake people, centaurs, elves, and other–you have to decide for yourself where everyone falls on the spectrum of Light and Darkness. I mean, you could even decide that someone is right smack in the middle of the gray area. I could tell you how I view my characters, but I don’t want to sway your opinion.

I can’t tell you how often I wish for feedback on my novel and its mostly feedback I want on my characters. I love them to death and I hope everyone else loves them too. God willing, someday you’ll be able to go to the bookstore or go to the library and pull a book off the shelf with the author of Nikki Diekemper. I hope you read it, I hope you enjoy it, and I hope you let me know what you think. Oh, and one last thing:

I hope you’re not afraid of snakes.

Swamped

Swamped. A marsh thick with swirling fog overhead, weighing down rest and trailing weary.
Wet. The water, the muck, and the bog that tears and pulls at your feet.
Tall rooted trees extend above, green and luscious casting shadows upon you.
Where is the light that needs to shine through?

Duty. A job to be done, muscles to be beaten, broken.
Continue day in and out.
Work hard, smile, sturdy, get up early, take no rest.
A disciplined warrior, always vigilant, always watching.
Never break. Never late. Who gains from being lazy?

Silent. A shadow in the day, unnoticeable, unwanted.
Blending with the black mist, hidden from all the world.
A dream only protrayed within the head.
No matter the rock, the leaves, the twigs.
Silence. Quiet as a predator pouncing on prey.
Who can become a shade among light?

Dreamer. Swirling in the mind like leaves in the wind.
To be what isn’t. To gain what can’t be achieved.
Danger, adventure, glory, and honor. Fantasy leading the charge.
What can be? What could’ve been? What wished could happen?
Alive in the mind. Fly free. Swim the seas. Race through the empty space.
See beyond the reality.
Where is the dream that can be attained?

Theme Songs

I think everyone out there has a favorite theme song or favorite couple of theme songs. Just hearing those first few notes, you recognize it and automatically think of the show it’s connected too. Many of you might know the Friends theme song by heart or the theme song to your kid’s favorite show. Maybe you just hear a song on the radio that you correlated to something, so you unintentionally gave that something a theme song? Maybe you have a theme song for your life?

The reason I’m bringing up theme songs is because I kept hearing one of mine over the past few weeks. Ok, so technically it’s not mine. I never assigned a theme song to my life, but I have assigned songs to some of my characters from my novel. I know you guys don’t know much about my novel except that it’s a medieval fantasy, so I’m hoping that by sharing some of these songs I have assigned to my characters, you get a little more insight into what’s going on with some of my beloved characters throughout my novel.

Now, I’ve got a lot of songs that I assign to characters and some characters have multiple songs for different points in their life. Last time I counted, I had 18 songs that reminded me of my characters. I’ll admit, I will sit somewhere and listen to those songs over and over again, because they play scenes from my novel like a music video in my mind. Some of them are heartbreaking and others are incredibly inspiring. I’m not going to list every song. I’ll only highlight my top favorites.

I mentioned earlier that one of my characters’ theme songs kept playing throughout the past week. Well, that song is Separate Ways by Journey, and it has easily become my favorite song by Journey just because it reminds me of two characters in my novel. I’m not going to give those characters’ names because I don’t want spoilers, but I encourage you to listen to the song if you don’t know it. It paints a good picture of some character dynamic in my novel.

Another one of my favorite songs for my characters is Fooling Yourself or The Angry Young Man by Styx. Again, because this song reminds me of one of my dear characters, it has jumped into the slot of my top favorite Styx song. For those of you who’ve read my novel, you can probably pick out which character this song goes too. For those of you still waiting to read it, I hope you give this song a listen too and think about what kind of character has a song like Fooling Yourself as the one that defines them.

A third song I designate to one of my characters is Monster by Skillet. I used to not like the style of Skillet, but I connect this song and a couple of their other songs to my characters and, well, I like them now. I feel like Monster is a very relatable song for most people, but it definitely fits well with one of my characters and each lyric paints a vivid scene in my mind. It’s enough to get my blood pumping. However, the main question is whether or not my character is going to let that monster inside control them.

The last song I want to share is Little Miss by Sugarland. This song makes me think of three of my characters and they’re all pretty inspiring female characters (if I do say so myself). The lyrics of this song are very inspiration to girls everywhere and I’m sure anyone could find one lyric they relate too. I correlate this song to three of my girls because each line in a verse just fits perfectly with them. I encourage everyone to give it a listen and see if you find a lyric that you relate too and if not, maybe you can guess which lyrics combine to form one of my three characters whether you know any of my characters or not.

Thanks for taking the time to listen to my theme songs for some of my characters. I hope you give each of them some thought on what kind of characters these songs are attached too and how these different characters could fit into a story. Yes, you caught me, I’m trying to get you more interested in my novel and eager to read it someday. Let me know if its working!

To finish off, why don’t you comment below some of your favorite theme songs? Or any songs that you correlate to something? I’d love to hear all your different stories!

Writer’s Dominion

To command a pen, to glide on a page.
What freedom there is that you can control.
The will of the wind where it would,
The current of a stream, refreshing, refined.
A power to command kingdoms,
Your will is the law.

A written page forever spoken,
Lies rebel fire or flooding rain.
The ash of death or washing away of the voice.
Endless wonders invite the pen.
Tell the serpent’s tongue,
Or light of a song sung true.

Speak in fact. Speak the textbook.
Or speak in clouds of swirling wonder.
The power to revered,
be sure to show respect.
Lest a fear of condemning eyes only stare back.

To stare at the blankness, the power is yours.
Choose a median, forever to stay,
Or choose a choice that could be wiped away.
Sweet song, simple poem, words of a story.
There is much there that shouts out to be heard.
You must be the one to form the words.

Written 9/23/2015