GreenBat Workshop: Introduction

Introduction
My name is Ashelia Lilith Crosse, and I call myself a writer. Albeit I don’t call myself a good one. Ever since I was young, I was obsessed with the worlds that authors created. This sparked my desire to be a writer when I grew up. I still remember being 7 or 8 years old, staying over at my great-grandmother’s and playing with her old typewriter. The dream never went away. My grandfather became a self-published author (*hint* insert pride and shameless promotion here *cough*) and I hoped to follow in his footsteps. Throughout high school, when the angst and imagination fully set in (among some other troubles), the amount of writing I did grew. Unfortunately, at 24 now, my ideas never stop but the pen has slowed. People see less and less of my works, and my husband tries to push for me to put my thoughts to paper. A bit of reality set in at some point, I think, as I realized writing was not a career in the same means as a desk job, and I never imagined Amazon being overflowing with self-published authors trying to make their mark on the world. I still want to sit at a typewriter and go through the journey of traditional publishing. (I’m the type of person that prefers a real book in my hand over ebooks.) So, that all kind of sounds depressing…

Hi, my name is Ashelia Lilith Crosse. I’m 24 and I love creating new worlds and scenarios. One day, I want to share those worlds with reality


Novel Information
The piece I’ll be working on during this workshop falls under the genre of fantasy, with the sub-genre of mythic fiction. For a long time now, I’ve been working on a world where the gods of several different pantheons were real, and this piece in particular is based heavily in Norse mythology. (I suppose mythic fiction would be considered the intensity of my novel?) There are two main conflicts present in this piece. The first is the gods fighting against the impeding war that is Ragnarok. (Keep in mind that they are fighting against Ragnarok coming, not in the war itself. At least, not in the current timeline.) The second is the gods fighting against the phenomena that is human nature, more specifically, greed. Both of these conflicts drive the story - the gods do not want Ragnarok to come, but when it does, they do not desire to lose as prophesied, and the humans do not desire to be drawn into a fight that they believe is not their own. With this piece, I hope to spin the old Norse tales (not unlike Neil Gaiman, though the recent release of his novel is more coincidental to my desire to use the Norse gods) into something more tangible for the reader (because, let’s be honest, Loki becoming a mare to get screwed by a mighty horse and then give birth to Slephnir is just….what the hell, Loki?) and to immerse the readers into a world where even gods can end up with human nature. Although I’m sure it doesn’t really need to be said, this is a tragedy. As the Norse gods are tragic heroes, I do not plan to change that.


Chapter Excerpt
   “Oh, my future queen, you’re late!” Harris hopped from one foot to the other, his plump face soaked with a cold sweat. He pulled off his thick-rimmed glasses and wiped them on his white checked ascot. “Dinah! Walk faster, Your Highness! We are late, late, late!” He looked down at his pocket watch with an exaggerated sigh.
   Dinah, Princess of Wonderland and future Queen of Hearts, rolled her eyes.
   “Harris, I’m walking as swiftly as I can.”
   “With all due respect, my dear, we have a very important summons from the King of Hearts. Your father wishes to see you. You know he is not a patient man.”
   Dinah continued to shuffle down the Hallway of the Golden Birds feeling quite like one of the ridiculous bronze fowl perched on the golden pedestals that surrounded her.
   A little bird ran across her path, and Dinah stomped near its feet, sending it shrieking into the air.
   “My child!” thundered Harris. “Control your emotions! I beg of you - do not let your father see that behavior or you will be sleeping in the Black Towers.”
   “I doubt it,” snapped Dinah glumly. “I wish that would happen, because then I would get to see inside them.”
   Harris gave Dinah a disappointed look. “Never wish yourself inside the Black Towers,” he said gravely. “You have no idea the evil that lurks there.”
   Dinah considered slowing her pace just to annoy him but took pity on her guardian and tutor, the man who had raised her from childhood. Harris had once been a dashing Card, or so Dinah had heard, but now he was somewhat walrus-like, a portly man with white hair and a dozen varieties of checkered outfits. Without a doubt, he loved Dinah deeply - something she lacked in other areas of her life.
(Queen of Hearts, Colleen Oakes, HarperCollins Publishers, Chapter One, pg.1-3)


Chapter Rewrite
   “Oh, my future queen, you’re late!” Harris hopped from one foot to the other, his plump face soaked with a cold sweat. "Dinah! Walk faster, Your Highness! We are late, late, late!” With an exaggerated sigh, he pulled out his pocket watch and gave it a long look, not replacing it until after a few drawn-out adjustments to his thick-rimmed glasses.
   Dinah, the Princess, and future Queen, of Wonderland, rolled her eyes.
   “Harris, I’m walking as swiftly as I can,” she remarked, continuing to shuffle slowly down the Hallway of Golden Birds.
   “With all due respect, my dear, we have a very important summons from the King. You know that your father is not a patient man.”
   Dinah felt quite like one of the ridiculous bronze fowl perched on the golden pedestals that surrounded her, and would have preferred to stay in the hall with such kinfolk and ignore the summons.
   A little bird ran across her path, and Dinah quickened her pace, only to stomp forcefully near the creature, sending it shrieking into the air.
   “My child!” thundered Harris. “Control yourself! I beg of you - do not let your father see that behavior or you may be sleeping in the Black Towers.”
   “I doubt it,” snapped Dinah. She knew well enough that if such behavior would send her to such punishment, she would have met that fate years before. “I wish that would happen, because then I would get to see inside them.” A fruitless wish, but Dinah couldn’t deny that the mystery surrounding the Black Towers often caused her to act out more around her father than others.
   Harris gave Dinah a disappointed look. “Never wish yourself inside the Black Towers,” he said gravely. “You have no idea the evil that lurks there.”
   Dinah considered slowing her pace just to annoy him, but this was the man who had raised her from childhood, and without a doubt, he loved Dinah deeply - something she lacked from others. She took pity on him. As Dinah had heard, Harris had once been a dashing Card, but now he was somewhat walrus-like, a portly man with white hair and a dozen varieties of checkered outfits. He deserved some respect.