H is for HERO JOURNEY

I regret that I never got to take a class from the amazing Joseph Campbell. 

His hero journey is my "go to" structure when I plot a story. 

If you're not familiar with this template - think Luke Skywalker. 

Ordinary chap finds he has a special gift - the force.

Wise mentor, Obi Wan, sends him on a quest - save the princess (really to embrace his Jedi-ness)

Ordeals are faced - Star Wars Episodes 4 through 6 - culminating in a supreme ordeal - Luke defeats Emperor Palpatine and redeems Vader.

Return home - or Ewok Village where the spirits of Luke's past rock out to the "Lub Nub" song. 

Graphics for my fellow chart folks:

photo credit

photo credit

I was delighted to discover the Power of Myths Programs. This is a series of discussions between Bill Moyers and Joseph Campbell on a myriad of topics including the hero journey, ritual, and mythology.  

“Mythology to him (Campbell) was the song of the universe, music so deeply embedded in our collective unconscious that we dance to it even when we can’t name the tune.” 

Bill Moyers

"Artists are the myth-makers of today." Joseph Campbell

TAKE AWAY:

Campbell’s mythic journey template continues to be an invaluable tool for creating story structure. 

Joseph Campbell will forever be my Obi Wan Kenobi. 

Who is your Obi Wan?

BONUS TRACK: More Campbell quotes

G is for GAME OF THRONES

Welcome to Yes, This Will Be On the Test.

Waving to visitors, new followers, and fellow A to Z participants. I’m sending virtual hugs to you all for taking a moment to stop by.

I’ll be sharing my “take-aways.” All those snigglets, golden nuggets, and lessons learned from other creative sources.

Scroll down this link to find other wonderful A to Z participants.

Winter is coming.

The books - the HBO Series - 

George R. R. Martin how do I love thee?

Let me count the ways.

Characters - 

Fully realized. Unpredictable. 

People I want in my life, either to befriend or battle.

World Building - 

Unique. Fantastic. 

Places I go in my dreams.

Story - 

Uber-conflict. Passion. Despair. Hope.

An emotional landscape I'm completely devoted to.

TAKE AWAY - 

Complexity is the foundation of storytelling upon which layers upon layers build until the story seeps into your soul.

Who is in their happy place since the new season of Game of Thrones is upon us?

F is for FLOYD COLLINS

Welcome to Yes, This Will Be On the Test.

Waving to visitors, new followers, and fellow A to Z participants. I’m sending virtual hugs to you all for taking a moment to stop by.

I’ll be sharing my “take-aways.” All those snigglets, golden nuggets, and lessons learned from various creative sources. Scroll down this link link to find other wonderful A to Z participants.

Floyd who?

Last Saturday night, at the La Mirada Performing Arts Center, just a touch south of Los Angeles, I had a wholly unique experience with the musical, Floyd Collins. 

Most musicals follow a somewhat predictable format - but in Floyd Collins EVERYTHING was unexpected. It was an original, engaging, absorbing, and heart-wrenching gem of storytelling. Real vs. surreal. Comedy vs. tragedy. A soul-stirring score with bluegrass flavor.

The musical is presented in an intimate setting "Onstage" of the La Mirada Theatre's playhouse. The nooks, passageways, and mysteries of Rich Rose's set make the show a visceral experience for the audience. The design traps you in the cave with Floyd as well as barricading you from him on the outside along with the other characters. 

The musical is based on a true event.

Here's the synopsis from the La Mirada Theatre's website:

In 1925, while chasing a dream of fame and fortune by turning a Kentucky cave into a tourist attraction, Floyd Collins himself became the attraction when he got trapped 200 feet underground. Alone but for sporadic contact with the outside world, Floyd fought for his sanity and ultimately his life as the rescue effort above exploded into the first genuine media circus. Reporters and gawkers from across the country descended on the property, fueling the hysteria and manipulating the nations into holding its collective breath.

 

A young reporter from the Louisville Courier-Journal William "Skeets" Burke Miller won the Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of Floyd's plight.

This production of Floyd Collins is an LA Times critics choice for its excellence. Here is the LA Times review. It is only one rave among many for this brilliant piece of theatre.

If you are anywhere within traveling distance to the La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts (near Disneyland), you owe it to yourself to experience this show. It truly is a master class on storytelling. Click the theatre link for tickets. It's playing through April 13th - dark on Monday.

TAKE AWAY - 

Juxtaposition of real vs. surreal elements, with a layering of the right music turns an historical event into captivating art. 

Is there a moment in history that is nudging you to tell its story?

E is for E-QUIZZES

Welcome to Yes, This Will Be On the Test.

Waving to visitors, new followers, and fellow A to Z participants. I’m sending virtual hugs to you all for taking a moment to stop by.

I’ll be sharing my “take-aways.” All those snigglets, golden nuggets, and lessons learned from other creative sources. Scroll down this link to find other A to Z participants.

I am addicted to the online quizzes that ask you a series of questions to figure out who you'd be in different stories/movies/tv shows etc.

If you want to play - I'm linking you up!

Here are a few of my results:

What ONCE UPON A TIME 

character are you? 

Charming

                                               

What GAME OF THRONES house do you belong to?

What SHAKESPEARE character are you? 

Beatrice from Much Ado About Nothing

What BIG BANG THEORY character are you most like?

Sheldon

The sites BUZZFEED, ZIMBIO, and PLAYBUZZ are fun sources for quizzes.

So if you want to know which AVENGER or CHILDREN'S BOOK you are - join my obsession and dig into the quizzes.

TAKE AWAY: 

The results of the quizzes always come with a character blurb. I cut and paste these into files as a collection of mini character analyses to shop from when I write.

Have you done any of these? Who are you?

D is for DEAD DOGS

Welcome to Yes, This Will Be On the Test.

Waving to visitors, new followers, and fellow A to Z participants. I’m sending virtual hugs to you all for taking a moment to stop by.

I’ll be sharing my “take-aways.” All those snigglets, golden nuggets, and lessons learned from other creative sources.

Yes, you read that right - 

Dead Dogs

Spoiler alert: if you haven't read the books below - this post constitutes a four legged mortality zone.

I've been teaching in the 5th and 6th grade trenches for over a decade and deceased canines are a reoccurring theme in our grade level kid lit.

You've all heard of -

Grab the tissue - right? I checked to see if my dog was foaming at the mouth for months after I read the book.

Just when I thought it was safe to get attached to my pooch, here comes -

Double dog death here. 

My first experience with "Red Fern" was reading it aloud to my class before I'd read it myself. I did some serious "booger crying" when I hit the sad part of that one.

Really - must we subject the kids to offing man's best friend even if the books are beautifully written? So says grade level core literature lists and excerpts appearing in reading texts. 

I guess such a theme falls under the "life lesson" category.

Just when I'd vowed to NEVER read a book involving dogs of any kind to my class again, along came redemption - 

Gordon Korman is my hero! Wallace Wallace the MC in this book challenges the rampant doggie disasters in the classics. It's a hilarious read and did wonders to bring my students back from the brink of serious DDD - dog death depression.

TAKE AWAY - 

Blast an accepted theme to smithereens. I'd love to see Pollyanna or Anne of Green Gables start spewing gloom and doom. Twist a trope and see where it takes you.

Was there a book you read in grammar school that bummed you out?

C is for COMIC CON

Welcome to Yes, This Will Be On the Test.

Waving to visitors, new followers, and fellow A to Z participants. I’m sending virtual hugs to you all for taking a moment to stop by.

I’ll be sharing my “take-aways.” All those snigglets, golden nuggets, and lessons learned from other creative sources.

Yep, I'm a pop culture fangirl.

Star Wars, The Avengers, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Agents of Shield, Once Upon a Time, Hunger Games, Game of Thrones, American Horror Story, Girls, Dr. Who, Firefly - Really anything involving Joss Whedon...

I could go on, but you might run screaming from your computer.

Mecca for we pop culture fans is Comic Con. Every July in San Diego, California we come together to revel in fandom bliss.

There are panels, presentations, costumes, and a exhibition cavern that makes you feel like you've died and gone to fandom heaven. I really love that YA lit. panels are a part of the celebration every year. It makes me dance a jig that kid lit. has a niche at Comic Con.

Yes, at my house we had multiple laptops up and running to score tickets for "The Con" - just like the episode of BIG BANG THEORY. 

TAKE AWAY:

Fans rock. Geeking out to favorite stories and characters across mediums is a way of showing the love we feel for the chance authors give us to escape into other worlds, times, places, people. 

Now fess up - what makes you go fanboy or fangirl?

B is for BROADWAY

Welcome to Yes, This Will Be On the Test.

Waving to visitors, new followers, and fellow A to Z participants. I’m sending virtual hugs to you all for taking a moment to stop by.

I’ll be sharing my “take-aways.” All those snigglets, golden nuggets, and lessons learned from other creative sources.

I majored in Theatre Arts at UCLA. Even before that I had a dream...

...Broadway!

The ultimate Broadway dream is to perform on a Broadway stage. Still working on that one.

Last year, I fulfilled phase one of my Broadway dream - to see a show on Broadway.

In fact, I saw two - ONCE and EVITA. I was lucky enough to see Ricky Martin's last performance as Che in EVITA. There was a sweet farewell to him at the curtain call - what a treat to be present for that.

Every year as a kid, I watched the Lesley Anne Warren/Rodgers and Hammerstein version of CINDERELLA on TV. Guess what  -  the Rodgers and Hammerstein CINDERELLA is on Broadway! Updated - witty - wonderful.

I had front row center seats for it in January. Yes, I chatted up the conductor a wee bit. Such a rush.

I also saw Pippin and Kinky Boots this year.

My love affair with Broadway is stronger than ever.

TAKE AWAY: 
Never give up on your dreams even if it feels like they are taking FOREVER to come true. It took me forty years from the time I set the goal until I sat in a Broadway theatre waiting for the curtain to go up. I am still determined to stick to phase two - performing on a Broadway stage within the next 20 years.
  
Never give up - never surrender.

What's your big ticket creative dream?

A is for ADAPTATIONS

Welcome to Yes, This Will Be On the Test.

Waving to visitors, new followers, and fellow A to Z participants. I’m sending virtual hugs to you all for taking a moment to stop by.

I’ll be sharing my “take-aways.” All those snigglets, golden nuggets, and lessons learned from other creative sources.

Since I’m from southern stock on my mother’s side, and Irish on my father’s just like Scarlett O’Hara, it was a requirement to for me to read 

the summer after fifth grade.

I time traveled with Scarlett while my kin (yes, the southern ones) took me to Civil War battlefields and even treated me to a ride down the river on an authentic paddle wheeler.

The story seeped into every cell of my body.

And then I saw the movie.

 Oh, my God. They vaporized two of Scarlett’s children among other horrifying discrepancies affronting my eleven-year-old mind.

But I LOVED the movie every bit as much as the book.

Was I a Yankee traitor?

Thankfully no.

After getting over my pre-adolescent righteous indignation, I gave myself permission to love them both.

Hey, Red Riding Hood wears a different cloak each time her story is retold in print, song, tv, theatre, or the movies, but her adventure is still a great ride.

TAKE AWAY:

I have learned to appreciate and celebrate adaptations of stories I love. I’m a student of the choices made by each new storyteller when a tale jumps mediums. "Why" questions fill my brain and I analyze like crazy. Do I always agree? Heck no, but I wonder and learn from the new spin.

Is there an adaptation you’ve loved?

Is there one that has made your blood boil?

FUN FACT: I’m named after Leslie Howard 

who played Ashley Wilkes in

GONE WITH THE WIND.

Self Lovin' Blog Hop!

TL Watson is running a bloghop this week to 
celebrate our talents.

 In her words: "Please share with us what you're good at. There's something--I know there's something--no matter how small you think it is." 

Check out Tara's Blog post about it, and feel free to join in!

I'm not big on talking about myself, but I do have a smidge of talent in something I enjoy and don't do enough of anymore.

Watercoloring

I spent many years as a scenic and lighting designer. Here is an eclectic collection of renderings from my past. 

Road Trip - original

Desert Ruin - Inspired by existing work 

Renderings for a scenic projection backdrop - original 

Seascapes - Inspired by existing work

Backdrop Rendering - City Neighborhood - original

Pop over to some of the other blogs in this hop:

1.	Feel of Something New	2.	Meradeth's Write Stuff
3.	Leslie S. Rose Yes This Will Be On the Test	4.	SPBowers
5.	The Girdle of Melian	6.	In the Shade of the Cherry Tree
7.	Elizabeth Seckman, Author	8.	SC Write
9.	Liz Blocker's Blog	10.	All About Growing Up and Becoming a Famous Author

Please share in the comments what you are good at in writing or some other hidden talent.

Happy Spring!

I Challenge You!

This is making the rounds on Facebook.

You click on the classics you have read to get your score. 

It was a blast. My TBR list just expanded exponentially.

No fair counting books 

you've only seen as movies. 

Don't be intimidated by the term "classics." You'll see Charlotte's Web, Harry Potter, and lots of old favorites you read in school.

My score is 47.

Game on!

BOOK CHALLENGE