For Fear of Little Men: Introduction

Note, this is a NaNoWriMo 2008 post -
Due to the resent rise (yet again) of the demon possession and witchcraft accusations and questions from non church members, asking me what the church members talking about, I have decided to write a book about Etiole, who he is, how I met him, why people started calling me a witch, and what these religion crazed nuts did to me as a result of their unfounded fears of Etiole. This blog will contain the first drafts of it. I’ll be posting them over the next month or so. I’m just plain tired of being called a witch, I’m thinking of renaming this blog to make the accusations, just to spite them. Seeing a UFO and meeting an alien-faerie-angel being DOES NOT MAKE ME A WITCH!!!! Well, anyways, here’s my latest addition into this year’s NaNoWriMo contest, I know I’m supposed to be writing a fiction novel, not a non-fiction autobiography, but whatever, I just need these people to stop accusing me of demon possession and witchcraft and the only way I can see to do that is to tell the world why it is they are saying these things about me, so continueing from where I left on in my last NaNoWriMo post, here is todays NaNoWriMo addition:

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Introduction

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In the summer of 1979 two small children, ages 3 and 4 were startled to see what they described to adults as a small white monkey, sitting in the tree. What was strange about this was that the sighting occurred in the far north of New England, in a pine forest in Maine. Odder still was the children’s insistence that the “monkey” could talk and had asked the children to follow him into the forest. Adults were quick to dismiss the sighting as nothing more than over active imaginations. Within weeks, after repeated scolding by his parents, the younger child had changed his story and said he had made the whole thing up. The older child however, stuck firm to her conviction that there was in fact a talking white monkey and she told the adults that no amount of scolding or punishments could force her to lie and say he did not talk to them, because she had been taught that lying was a sin.

In the spring of 1983, twenty feet away from that same spot, several locals heard a loud explosion, and looked up to see what was said to be a large football shaped ship. Among the witnesses to this event was one of the two children whom had earlier seen the so-called “white monkey”. In the weeks to pass, the sighting was quickly dismissed and forgotten, until by the end of that summer, only the one child, maintained that she had seen anything at all.

With no knowledge of aliens or UFOs, the now 9 year old girl set out to find out what exactly these two strange sightings had been. Her early interpretations was that the “white monkey” had been some sort of faerie. Her story would become even stranger, when one day she told adults that she had continually had conversations with the “white monkey” over the past several years, and had asked him what it was she had seen in the sky that day, to which he had responded to say it was something he called “The VISION-D8”, a type of star ship. Local adults, relatives, and teachers began to worry that the girl’s obsession with these two sightings was something more than an over active imagination.

At age 14 this same girl was the lone survivor of a mass murder, which had killed five of her friends. After months of court trials, she was left with no friends alive, thus no one to talk to about having been the witness to her best friends’ murder, and she closed down talking to no one, barely speaking a word at all, and spending increasingly more time in the forest visiting with “the white monkey”.

At the age of 16, an out of state uncle contacted her bishop and the two of them decided that the girl must be schizophrenic. They called on the help of the state mental institute. Doctors from the institute declared that there was nothing mentally wrong with the girl, saying that she was suffering from normal depression caused by being a witness to a murder, and that it would go away, once she was able to make some new friends to replace the five whom had been murdered. While the doctors would peruse the case no farther, the uncle and the bishop were convinced that the girl was insane and set out to warning members of her church to avoid contact with the girl. A few months later a series of deaths, fires, and unexplained illnesses happened to the bishop and those close to him, resulting in his accusation that the girl was a Witch and had put a curse on him. When no evidence of the girl’s involvement could be found, the bishop than turned to the only answer he could come up with: her “white monkey”, which she was now calling by the name of Etiole, must be a demon from Hell.

As the years progressed onward, the girl grew to a woman, and continued to maintain that Etiole was real. Twenty years after the original sighting, she claimed to now know that he was not a white monkey, but rather an alien from another solar system. Her continued refusal to deny his existence, combined with the bishop’s continued claims that the girl was in league with one of Satan’s demons, resulted in a local religious hysteria, as the church congregation took matters into their own hands and set about to multiple acts of violence and vandalism against the young women, resulting in the destruction of her home, and her and her pets being forced out onto the streets during one of Maine’s coldest winters. For eight months she and her pets lived sheltered from the snow by only a tarp, surviving on garbage can scraps, and yet through it all, she continued her visits into the forest, to talk with “the white monkey”.

Today, thirty-one years after the original sighting of the white monkey, the woman known to many simply as EelKat, has agreed to be interviewed to tell the story, of the ever illusive white monkey of Maine.

Up the airy mountain

Down the rushy glen

We daren’t go a-hunting

For fear of little men

~William Allingham

The Fairies 1850

Edit February 17, 2009: Parts of this book can now be seen on a Squidoo lens.

What’s your take on this? I’d love to hear what you have to say about this post. Leave a comment and share your views!

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If you liked reading this blog and want to read more stuff written by me, I have lots of websites, where you can read other things I write, here are a few of the ones I like the best:
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Minor magical ability?

Answering a question on NaNoWriMo:

http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/node/3060202

I am creating a world where magic is fairly prevalent but I have a couple of characters that I term having ‘minor’ magical ability. What would a minor magical ability be? Talking to animals seems pretty major to me. Reading mind would be major. I am just trying to get a few ideas of what you think would be considered minor magical ability?

Thanks!

I’ve actually never considered talking animals a magical ability at all!

I do not consider my *universe* to be high in magic, all minor only. I don’t have any wand waving spell casters or mystical healers or stuff like that cause I think of it as to magical for my setting.

I do however have the following in my books (30 year series, to which each NaNo adds a new volume too… started in 1978, so 30 years this year, YAY!)

talking cats
a race of people who can absorb and redirect eletrical currents (kind of like shooting lightening bolts through their finger tips)
a race of people who can absorb and redirect ice-crystal-like substance (kind of like shooting ice through their finger tips)
a race of people who can absorb and redirect fire (kind of like shooting fire through their finger tips)
a race of shape shifters who turn into animals

their abilities are more like super hero x-men type powers rather than actual magic

hope that helps you out some

———-
How I Reached 50k
Read This Before Getting Published!
Create a Fantasy Realm
Improving your writing: What do you look for in a book?

What’s your take on this? I’d love to hear what you have to say about this post. Leave a comment and share your views!

————-
If you liked reading this blog and want to read more stuff written by me, I have lots of websites, where you can read other things I write, here are a few of the ones I like the best:

When Next You See Me I’ll Look Like This:

Obsessed? I’m Not Obsessed… REALLY, I’m not!

Ice Realms, Ice Age, Frozen Planets, etc. Any Info?

Okay, so I’m still thinking I’ll go with my *Beauty and the Beast* plot, but now I’m wanting to do it in an ice age world/realm/planet, and I’m wondering though, on the hows and why of it being an ice realm, ice age type planet, and was hoping for some thoughts on this. This is kind of a two part question.

I originally asked this over in sci-fi forum, because I thought *on another planet = it must be sci-fi*, but the answers I got over there told me that sci-fi had to be based on real science and real planets that could really support life etc, and since the planet I was describing couldn’t possible be realistic, they told me I was not writing sci-fi, but was instead writing fantasy, and that I should be asking on the fantasy forum instead of the sci-fi forum. No one ever did give me any kind of an actual answer other than to send me here, so now I’m going to ask you guys here in fantasy instead, and see what you guys think.

I’m planning to retell 13 different fairy tales in a horror-type theme, but told on a distant ice realm planet setting instead of told on earth. Am I making sense so far?

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#1.) First off: What would you expect to find/see in an ice realm? Anything from landscape to plant life to what people wear to house people build to the type of daily weather. Basically, what do you think of when you think of an ice world? What would you expect to find if you was to visit or live there?

What types of animals, beasts, birds, fish, monsters, and/or mythical beast might you expect to find on an ice planet?

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#2.) Secondly: I’m going on the theory that the planet was originally like our earth, but somehow froze over. What would cause a planet to become completely covered in ice and snow, yet still be able to sustain life? I’m looking for either scientific facts or something that could convincingly *sound* like it was scientific fact even though it isn’t. Though if being all scientific isn’t possible, I’m open to listening to just plain old random guesses too.

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#3.) How believable is would it be for me to go with a back-story like this:

The way I’m plotting it out at the moment, I’m assuming that the planet was once a near duplicate of our earth more or less, but than a comet crashed into the planet’s atmosphere and altered the planet somehow, causing most of the planet’s surface to freeze over almost instantly, thus killing off 80 – 90% of the population. Those that survived have learned to adapt to the new ice world.

So my setting it with a primitive-lifestyle culture on a distant frozen planet, yet they have spaceships and laser weapons. I have a very clear image of these people in my head. I can see how they live and what they look like and I really, REALLY like them.

I’m liking the whole primitive folks on the ice planet, fighting off other aliens with space ships and laser weapons. (I did say Beauty and the Beast and other fairy tales in space right?) I’m plotting it all out in my head. Everything is moving along great, and I’m finally coming up with a story plan I think I can write for NaNo. So I ‘m here, building up the planet and the races and cultures and plant life and animal life, and designing the ships and weapons and than it hits me:

Primitive lifestyle with spaceships and laser weaponry? WTH?

By primitive I mean not quite cave people but not quite medieval either, somewhere in between. They still wear furs and skins, but they have woven cloth too (maybe left over from before?). They hunt with spears and swords (guns and cannons not yet invented or reinvented). They have no cars, or such, and still ride on horses (and dragons, this will have dragons in it too). One or two wealthy families have a wagon-like thing, but every body else walks or rides a beast of some sort. They do not have electricity, but use some weird crystals that acts like fire to bring warmth and light but doesn’t burn they hands so they can carry them around. (No way to build fires since the ice age started…uhm, not sure why yet.)

And yet, they have this huge intergalactic starship, and in it are several smaller space ships that can go from the planet’s surface to the starship. And here’s the oddest thing of all: they are carrying these laser weapons, kind of a 1950’s ray gun like thing. (I can actually see this story going all 1950’s B-movie cliche on me, if I’m not careful)

So here’s the thing that brings me here to you guys: How can they be such a primitive peoples, and yet have these ships and laser weapons? Does anyone have any thoughts or ideas on how I might be able to explain this phenomena?

I’m thinking that maybe they had the tech years ago, but that some sort of massive *Armageddon* type event wiped out most of the population… and the ones that survived had no idea how to build the tech again, but somehow figured out how to use it at least minimally… (maybe leaving only children?…. thinking of the Star Trek episode Mira right now). Possibly that is also why they are living in an Ice Age as well?

And now my current era would be a few generations later.

Maybe they still have these items and keep them out of remembrance of their ancestors.

or maybe view these items as *god-like* because they have not figured out yet how to recreate them and so they only use them when *calling on the gods*?

Oh, and when I say they are a *primitive-lifestyle culture* I mean they are still living without advances sciences and stuff, so are still living like Medieval times without such things things as electricity and plumbing and such. I see them as very intelligent beings, but they just have yet to discover the ways to advance scientifically yet. I’m not saying that they are stupid or anything, just that their current science has not allowed them to advance out of a primitive-living off the land type of lifestyle yet. Basically they are content with the lifestyle they have so there is not too much goal to improve things; for the moment at least.

I’m still working on the details though, so I’m not sure exactly what I’ll end up deciding.

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#4.) Anyways, sorry this post got so very, very, very long (much longer than the original one on the sci-fi forum was!) I’m kind of working out details as I type. But, yeah, anything else you could think of to say about ice worlds, ice realms, frozen planets, or ice ages would be great. Real history or off the wall fantasy, just anything about living in icy realms real or fictional, would really help.

oh… and I’m seeing this going in a whole 10th Kingdom road… the 13 fairy tales being all kind of interconnected and turned into one long novel.

What’s your take on this? I’d love to hear what you have to say about this post. Leave a comment and share your views!

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If you liked reading this blog and want to read more stuff written by me, I have lots of websites, where you can read other things I write, here are a few of the ones I like the best:

When Next You See Me I’ll Look Like This:

Obsessed? I’m Not Obsessed… REALLY, I’m not!

LDS info

I’m afraid I can’t help you with the FLDS. Only thing I know about them is what I’ve heard on news reports.

I do know the LDS church though, and I should note here that members are divided into 3 groupd:

Orthodox LDS: long standing families, usually 4th and 5th generation members whose families followed either J Smith or B Young since the 1800’s). These are the uber strict strictest of the strict LDS. Often refered to by gentiles (non LDS) as zealots and fanatics.

Grew Up In The Church LDS: These are members who are usually 2nd and 3rd generation members. Rarely have their families been in the church longer than the 1960’s; These members tend to be strict, but not nearly as strict as the Orthodox LDs members. For example, they may allow female members of the family to get jobs, wear makeup, or cut their hair. These are generally accepted by Orthodox members, though they are likely to be thought of as *weak in the teachings*.

The Converts: Members who joined the church, or whose parents joined the church within the last 20 or 30 years These are the most common, as well as the least strict. They often allow such activities as swimming, and are not offend by drinking soda or hot chocolate. They are very likely to own a tv, go to movies, and allow their children to go to public schools. Rarely are these members looked on with a good eye, by the Orthodox members, who are likely to call the new converts *gentiles*. (Calling an LDS member a gentile is as bad as calling a black man a niger… it’s about the worst thing you could call an LDS member).

Here’s some info one the *no coffee* type stuff, as told by a 4th gen LDS (me) http://www.squidoo.com/FaithNotReligion#module9239775 , it takes a little bit of time to load if you are on dial up though. It’s not just no coffee, orthodox LDs abstain from coffee, soda, hot chocolate, tea, cigarettes, meat, sex, make up, jewelry, tv, rock music, movies rated PG13+, short sleeve shirts, pants on women, short hair on women, bathing suits, shorts, anything that shows the knee, the list of things orthodox LDS avoid as sinful goes on and on. I know this list because I grew up in an orthodox LDS family.

Orthodox LDS also believe in self sufficiency or else: in other words, you farm the land, grow you own food, home school you kids, and stock pile a 3 year supply of everything just in case of the third world war which will follow Jesus’ second coming. (100 years of war followed by 100 years of peace, than Judgment Day after that.)

I left the LDS church because of my choice to remain single… I’m a female.

It was promoted come hell or high water that I MUST be married before I reached 16, just like all the other females in my family…for generations. Of 64 cousins, I alone hit the age of 17 unmarried. Today I am 33, and still unmarried, and believe me, being single in the LDS church is a far greater sin than being gay (and being gay in the LDS church is just about the worst sin ever, according to them). I’ve seen gays accepted with little problem, because *well at least they got married*, then the commenter would point over to me *unlike her*.

It got to the point where everyone stopped using my name, and instead I was known as *the old maid* (I was 18 when they started calling me that, and they still call me that all these years later). It was hell. I mean there is only just so much bullying and name calling one person can take!

The thing that made me leave the church was when they started telling me that God would condemn me into outer darkness because I had never born children. I was lectured almost daily on how a woman’s only purpose in life was to get married and bear at least one child a year. I have cousins younger than me, who already have 12 kids, and everyone would point to one of them and say *why can’t you be a good Mormon wife like she’s doing?*. Before long a few members started referring to me as *the child of Satan* because I was nearing 30 and still had not found a man I was willing to marry.

I became depressed and was near suicide over this, because I felt that there was no one I could confide in, all of my friends and family were LDS and they were the ones doing the most vicious of the bullying. I finally said enough was enough, I’m not going to let you people abuse me like this anymore. I told them if they really were God’s chosen ones than they would not be treating people the way they were treating me, and I just never went back to church.

Now I don’t know if other wards treat people the way my ward was treating me or not, but after what they put me through, I’ve never dared go to any church ever again… not just LDs ones, but all of them: all religions. And it’s not just churches either, I really have a hard time being even a few feet close to people today. Too much fear of farther abuse I guess.

I mean, I would like to get married, but I can’t see getting married to the first guy who comes along. That didn’t make any sense to me. I wanted someone I could love and share ideas with, etc. Now however, it’s just so hard for me to even speak around other people that getting married is no longer something I hope for. I just can’t get close to other people after what I went through, so I don’t know how I’ll ever be able to meet anyone to marry now.

As for what you said about the no sex on all levels. Yeah, that’s true. You can’t even begin to imagine how much they preach this in Young Women’s classes either.

I’ve been celibate for all my life. I am 33 years old. Have had boyfriends. My interest in sex is limited at best. In other words, if I was to find a guy who I would be willing to marry, than yes, after marriage, I’d end the celibacy for him if that’s what he wanted, I have no problem with that. I’ve really had sex over preached to me that badly.

Before marriage though? No way, never. You can talk with me for hours, we can go places and do things together, hugs are limited, kissing is really pushing your limits, sex… sex will result in a swift kick in the pants and you never seeing me again.

I have a really hard time being close to people, even my closest friends and relatives have a 2 or 3 foot *invisible barrier* between me and them. No one walks close to me, I won’t let them. I really have to trust you an awful lot before you are going to get close enough to even hold hands with me.

That said, I was with the same boyfriend for 15 years, and we got along fine without sex. We broke up over differences in religion. He wanted me to join his church and well, let’s just say he belonged to a pretty freaked out cult with some bizarre rituals, and I was not about to join up with that type of thing.

I am more interested in a person’s mind, rather than in his sexual ability. I would much rather have a husband who I could talk with for hours about a shared interest, rather than a husband who wanted sex and than sits for hours glued to football on his big screen tv, leaving me ignored and feeling like all he cared about was the sex.

I’ve been celibate for my entire life and as sex really has never been an issue for me, I see no reason why I could not remain in a relationship where he was celibate as well. I do think sex is important in marriage, however I don’t feel that it is something that should be worried about if it’s not there either.

———-
How I Reached 50k
Creating Character Profiles
Writing About Religion?
Some Thoughts on Writing Fantasy

What’s your take on this? I’d love to hear what you have to say about this post. Leave a comment and share your views!

————-
If you liked reading this blog and want to read more stuff written by me, I have lots of websites, where you can read other things I write, here are a few of the ones I like the best:

When Next You See Me I’ll Look Like This:

Obsessed? I’m Not Obsessed… REALLY, I’m not!

Space Ship vs Star Ship

(reposting this old post)

What is the difference between a space ship and a star ship?

I don’t know if this is considered “cannon” to the general sci-fi genre or not; or how it compares to other writers and what they do, but I write sci-fi and this is what I do for my own stories:

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shuttle crafts:

can only be used for short distance travel, much like an airplane, they carry at most maybe 30 people; they can leave the atmosphere to reach an orbiting ship; they can leave an orbiting ship to land on a planet; they can travel like a plane from one continent to another on a planet;

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spaceships:

large ships, can have a large crew of hundreds, but if need be could be run with only a handful of crew members; they may or may not have shuttle crafts on board; their travel abilities varies depending on the type of ship; small ones act much like large compacaty shuttle crafts, while the large ones can orbit planets, and travel from one planet to the next; some can only go to the nearest planets, while others can go to the farthest planets in to solar system; they do not however leave the solar system

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starships:

these are the same as spaceships in size and structure, but they are driven useing different “fuel” methods than the spaceships, thus enabling them to travel to other solar systems… i.e. they can travel from one star to the next, thus the reason they are called “star” ships. Depending on the “fuel-method”, some star ships can only travel to near solar systems while other can go not only to other solar systems but also to other galaxies; some can travel via a “portal drive”, to arrive at far reaching galaxies in a matter of seconds

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inter-stela starships:

these are the biggest, most powerful of the ships in my books, they can carry tens of thousands on board these giant mega ships; these are the same as starships, just bigger in size; in my stories, these are rare and hard to build ships, of the 12 built only 2 survived the test runs and remain in use, but are considered dangerous and rarely used; in my books they were built by the race of a dieing planet, in order to move the entire population to a new planet

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I have not personally used the term star cruiser in my stories or books. However, if I did use it, this is how it would be used by me:

star cruiser:

star cruisers would come in many types and forms, but most often, a small ship used during war times; manned by a pilot and a crew of maybe 3 or 4 others; this small ship can’t go very far, but it can go very fast, it is small and can move in and out of tight places;

if a transport type it would be used to get spies to where they need to go without being caught;

if a fighter type, it would be able to fire on delicate areas of large ships with pinpoint accuracy;

very very small single passenger ones would be able to be used on land, like a cross between a motorcycle and a hovercraft; these would be called land cruisers not star cruisers

big star cruisers would be passenger transports from planet to planet, and refered to as transport barges

a cruise-ship or cruise-liner, would be the same as a cruise-ship or cruise-liner on earth, only it would be a star-ship not a water boat; in that it carries tourists on pleasure cruises from one planet/galaxy to another; these would be big slow moving luxury liners

at least, that’s what comes to my mind when I think of star cruiser

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Well, that’s me and my stories, and how I define space-ships veres star-ships

I hope this helps

~~EK

What’s your take on this? I’d love to hear what you have to say about this post. Leave a comment and share your views!

————-
If you liked reading this blog and want to read more stuff written by me, I have lots of websites, where you can read other things I write, here are a few of the ones I like the best:

When Next You See Me I’ll Look Like This:

Obsessed? I’m Not Obsessed… REALLY, I’m not!

Sheilds or no?

(Reposting this old post)

Have you ever watched Star Trek and heard Kirk tell Sulu to raise the deflector shields? I was reading a sci-fi writers forum today, and found a debate on wither or not a writer should use shields on their ships, and if so what are those shields like, how to they work, etc.? Of course I had to join in the debate. You know me. Well anyways, what follows here, is the answer I had to the debate:

In my stories the ships (most notably the VISION~D8) are built out of a “space age material” as us humans would call it. It is a silver colored metal-like substance. The ships are very smooth, with such a high polish that they have a slippery, almost wet feel to them.

The material is very strong, and very sturdy, and withstands the tiny particals that would rip other hulls apart.

Additionally, there is the shape of the ship, which is somewhat “football” shaped; the shape itself deflects things away from it; should anything actually hit the ship, the material is so slippery, that the object has no impact

the silver colored martial is so smooth, that is reflects it surroundings, rendering the ship itself “invisible”, camouflaging with its surroundings, making it able to slip past enemies unseen

I have never written any shields into the stories, it never occurred to me that the ships may even need them.

What’s your take on this? I’d love to hear what you have to say about this post. Leave a comment and share your views!

————-
If you liked reading this blog and want to read more stuff written by me, I have lots of websites, where you can read other things I write, here are a few of the ones I like the best:

When Next You See Me I’ll Look Like This:

Obsessed? I’m Not Obsessed… REALLY, I’m not!

Primitive lifestyle with spaceships & laser weaponry?

My plot has changed a lot in 2 weeks.

I started out with InuYasha fan-fic.

It evolved into a Japanese folk lore based on Beauty & the Beast.

Next it left Japan and went to 13 short stories retelling Beasty & the Beast.

Than is became, Beauty and the Beast and . . . the Ice Dragon. ???

From there is became pure fantasy with ice wizards and ice dragons in an ice realm.

Now it’s left fantasy behind and is moving into sci-fi, with a primitive-lifestyle culture on a distant frozen planet, yet they have spaceships and laser weapons. I have a very clear image of these people in my head. I can see how they live and what they look like and I really, REALLY like them.

I’m liking the whole primitive folks on the ice planet, fighting off other aliens with space ships and laser weapons. I’m plotting it all out in my head. Everything is moving along great, and I’m finially coming up with a story plan I think I can write for NaNo. So I ‘m here, building up the planet and the races and cultures and plant life and animal life, and designing the ships and weapons and than it hits me:

Primitive lifestyle with spaceships and laser weaponry? WTH?

By primitive I mean not quite cave people but not quite medieval either, somewhere in between. They still were furs and skins, but they have woven cloth too. They hunt with spears and swords (guns and cannons not yet invented). They have no cars, or such, and still ride on horses (and dragons). One or two wealthy familiys have a wagon-like thing, but every body else walks or rides a beast of some sort. They do not have electricity, but use some weird crystals that acts like fire to bring warmth and light but doesn’t burn they hands so they can carry them around.

And yet, they have this huge intergalactic starship, and in it are several smaller space ships that can go from the planet’s surface to the starship. And here’s the oddest thing of all: they are carrying these laser weapons, kind of a 1950’s ray gun like thing.

So here’s the thing that brings me here to you guys: How can they be such a primitive peoples, and yet have these ships and laser weapons? Does anyone have any thoughts or ideas on how I might be able to explain this phenomena?

Still got 2 weeks to go before NaNoWriMo starts. I wonder how many more plot changes I’ll have between now and than?

What’s your take on this? I’d love to hear what you have to say about this post. Leave a comment and share your views!

————-
If you liked reading this blog and want to read more stuff written by me, I have lots of websites, where you can read other things I write, here are a few of the ones I like the best:

When Next You See Me I’ll Look Like This:

Obsessed? I’m Not Obsessed… REALLY, I’m not!

Beauty & the Beast: Care to give some advice?

I found another question on NaNoWriMo which begged me to answer it: Beauty & the Beast: Care to give some advice?

So, I was wondering if there was anyone out there who thought this was a worthwhile plot idea for November…

I was thinking that maybe I could go along the idea of ‘wicked’ and do that to another fairytale: beauty and the beast. The thing is, it’d have to be off of the disney version, because I don’t recall ever reading about another guy in the original fairytales…I have some ideas as to why the ‘Gaston’ character might not be so bad, but I’m still planning it all out.

Anyway, I was thinking, that if I did go along with that idea, I might have to use the same names…I and I don’t know if I want to do that. What do you all think? Should I used, “Gaston”, “Belle”, and “Adam” or make up new names? I still might use “Belle”, but the thing is, In ‘wicked’ the names stayed the same, and the wicked witches (west and east) along with the tin man and scarecrow, were named, but only because they didn’t officially have one.

I’m at a loss here, so I’d love some feedback on both the idea, and the naming issue.

If you plan to publish it, you would have to change the names, because Disney does sue anyone who attempts to publish fanfiction. While BatB is a public domain story, using the names Disney used would get your story classified as fanfiction, because the Disney-versions of the characters are copyrighted.

The original story consisted of the following characters:

The wealthy merchant
The merchant’s 3 daughters (Beauty was the youngest of the three)
A suitor (who courted Beauty, but she couldn’t stand him; her older sisters hated her because he never noticed them)
The beast/prince
The fairy queen

there were no other characters in the original version

The original story goes like this:

Wealthy merchant leaves home and is gone at sea for 2 years leaving his 3 daughters alone. The two eldest daughters were very plain, but made up for it by wearing fancy outfits. The youngest daughter was named Beauty because she was the most beautiful child ever born. Her two older sisters treated her cruelly and made her a servant in her house while their father was away. Beauty wore rags and slept in the garden shed.

(Beauty and the Beast is a lot like Cinderella, btw, both stories being written by Charles Perault)

A young man from the village visited Beauty daily, hoping to one day make her his wife, but she always refused him. Her sisters treated her poorly because the young man never came to call on them.

Meanwhile the merchant has returned from sea, but is now penniless, having lost his entire fleet and all it’s cargo to a storm at sea.

The storm continues on land and he loses his way while traveling home, and takes a wrong road leading into a dark forest, where is seeks shelter in an ancient castle that has fallen into ruins.

In the morning the storm is gone and the merchant leaves, but picks a rose from the garden on his way out, and is attacked by the beast for stealing the thing he loved the most: his roses. The terrified merchant retells his tale of woe, explaining that he had offered to bring his daughters pearls, gowns, and other riches, but now he has nothing and will have to sell his home just to provide for his family. He than explains that his youngest daughter refused to accept all riches, that she asked only for a rose because she had heard of them, but had never seen one before.

The beast tosses the merchant on a magic horse and says tat the horse will take him home and will return with the daughter who asked for the rose, that he will kill her instead of the merchant.

The merchant is taken home by the horse, retells the tale to his daughters, that night Beauty sneaks out and searches for the horse, it arrives and takes her to the castle, where she expects to be killed but is instead treated like a princess.

Years pass and Beauty rarely ever sees the beast, but she finds and enchanted mirror that shows her images (like watching tv) of a king and queen being punished by the fairies because they had taught their infant prince that fairies were not real. Each night Beauty watches this same event in the mirror, but each night the mirror shows her a little bit more.

She becomes convinced that the beast is working for the fairies and is holding the infant prince captive in the castle, so she sets out in search of him.

As time passes she starts seeing more and more of the beast, and eventually he begins to join her for dinner each night and only speaks to ask her to marry him.

One day the mirror shows her, her father who is dieing. She seeks out the beast and begs him to allow her to visit her father one last time before he dies. Beast gives Beauty a magic ring telling her that she may go home but only if she returns to the castle before 7 days pass. The ring takes her home, where she finds that though only month have passed for her in the castle, many, many years have passed back in the real world. While she is still young and beautiful her father is now ancient and her sisters are both very old.

Beauty takes care of her father, but tells him she can only stay 7 days. The young suitor, now older, still calls on Beauty. The sisters, still jealous, steal the ring and sell it. The suitor, her father, and the sisters, keep Beauty busy, by taking her all over the village to see all the things she’s missed over the years. Soon she has forgotten all about the ring and the beast, and days turn into weeks, and weeks turn into months. Memory of the Beast fades away until it seems like a childhood dream.

One night Beauty hers her name across the wind and wakes up to see the fairy queen standing over her and pointing to the mirror in her bedroom. She looks and sees that her mirror is now showing her images the same way the one in the castle had, and it is showing her the Beast, lying on the ground in the rose garden, saying “Remember your promise”.

Beauty remembers her promise, looks for the ring, finds is missing. Her suitor comes to the rescue saying he bought the ring knowing how much it meant to her, she takes the ring, returns to the Beast, but finds she is too late, for the Beast died of a broken heart.

In tears Beauty says she loves the Beast and would do anything to bring him back. The Fairy Queen appears again, this time with the ghosts of the King and Queen. Fairy Queen lifts the spell, revealing that the Beast was the child in the mirror. Lifting the curse restores his life. He and Beauty marry and than go to the land of the fairies to rule their kingdom.

And there you have it. The original version of Beauty and the Beast, one that you actually, will have a pretty hard time finding a copy of as every body rewrites it and changes it.

you should check out this thread about rewriting Beauty & the Beast for NaNo08: http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/node/3010939

there’s lots of great comments over there that should help you out… they are helping me out, because I too am planning to do BatB for NaNo this year.

Did I mention that Beauty and the Beast was my favorite story as a child and I spent much of my childhood collecting various copies of the book, and now today, I love it still as much as I did than?

Added you to my Buddy list, btw… I’m *collecting* BatB Buddies this year here on NaNo

———-
How I Reached 50k
Create a Fantasy Realm
Help Me Rewrite Beauty & the Beast for NaNo08!
Improving your writing: What do you look for in a book?

What’s your take on this? I’d love to hear what you have to say about this post. Leave a comment and share your views!

————-
If you liked reading this blog and want to read more stuff written by me, I have lots of websites, where you can read other things I write, here are a few of the ones I like the best:

When Next You See Me I’ll Look Like This:

Obsessed? I’m Not Obsessed… REALLY, I’m not!

Things that may or may not be in a story.

I found another NaNoWriMo question to answer: Things that may or may not be in a story.

That may have sounded confusing. I need a list of things that people put in stories that other people really enjoy. Things I have so far are:

- Pirates
- Ninjas
- Secret Societies
- Love/Romance
- Adventure
- Mystery
- Magic
- Futuristic Cities
- Medieval Cities
- Dragons
- Aliens
- People who have disappeared and would be dead by now

The reason I need this is because once my story gets to a certain point ANYTHING goes. So I’m making a list of things that I can do when I’m stuck.

So what are somethings I should put in my story?

you REALLY need to go the The Seventh Sanctum that’s where I go whenever I get stuck. It’s amazing. You’ll find tons of things people add to stories there, that’s kind of what the whole site is about.

Some things I thought of to add to your list are:

- Wizards
- Samurai
- A Dead Body
- Vampires
- Zombies
- Ghosts/Haunted Houses
- Demons
- An Enchanted Object (Talking Mirror, Magic Ring, Cursed Rose, etc)
- Talking Animals
- Being Lost in a Spooky/Haunted/Enchanted Forest
- Abandoned Houses no one dares enter

———-
How I Reached 50k
Read This Before Getting Published!
Create a Fantasy Realm
Improving your writing: What do you look for in a book?

What’s your take on this? I’d love to hear what you have to say about this post. Leave a comment and share your views!

————-
If you liked reading this blog and want to read more stuff written by me, I have lots of websites, where you can read other things I write, here are a few of the ones I like the best:

When Next You See Me I’ll Look Like This:

Obsessed? I’m Not Obsessed… REALLY, I’m not!

Why would a modern city be put into lock-down?

Here is a question I found on NaNoWrimo: Why would a modern city be put into lock-down?

The city in question isn’t any particular city. I’ve got the basic plot of the story, I just need a potential ‘how’ – the backstory of the lockdown/siege/quarantine. Those who have the means have fled the city already – bribed the guards, or maybe left before the lockdown?

I’d be going for more corrupt government/dictatorship instead of zombies/mystery disease, but I’ll give everything some thought.

Thanks for giving this a look-in.

And my answer:

My first thought was a wide spread air born disease. Avian/Bird Flue was my first thought. That one is bad enough so that the government (USA gov) comes in and not only slaughters every animal on your farm (chickens, horses, goats, cats, dogs, etc,) but they also burn the buildings to the ground and than send the humans off to quarantine. We farmers keep careful watch over our birds because it’s really the only disease that the gov has the ability to come in a take everything you own because it’s so deadly. So far I only know of this happening once in the US (a turkey farm in 2007) , but for your book you could really go wild with something like that.

Say some wild animal got sick and spread it to domestic animals, who in turn spread it to humans. An air born contagion could spread in a matter of hours, in other words from the time the wild animal gets sick to the time two thirds of the humans are sick could be as little as 4 or 5 hours. To contain something gone wild like that the government would lock down the city, slaughter all the animals, burn down all the buildings except for one big one (a hospital, super market, or mall) where they would quarantine (lock up) all of the humans.

Well, that’s what I would write if it was me.

And if you want some info on real life corruption in government, than you might want to check out this site: On Being Homeless in Old Orchard Beach, Maine: What happens when government corruption goes to the extreme.

———-
How I Reached 50k
Narration for Writers
Writing Tips
Improving your writing: What do you look for in a book?

What’s your take on this? I’d love to hear what you have to say about this post. Leave a comment and share your views!

————-
If you liked reading this blog and want to read more stuff written by me, I have lots of websites, where you can read other things I write, here are a few of the ones I like the best:

When Next You See Me I’ll Look Like This:

Obsessed? I’m Not Obsessed… REALLY, I’m not!

Help with Hell

On NaNoWriMo today I found this question: HELP with Hell!

Here is my answer:

1. There is a list of things to get you into hell. What’s on it? (SOOOO important-one needs to qualify my MC’s mom)

I am a Christian. I grew up in a very strict Christian home. Almost anything could get you sent to Hell.

When I say strict, I mean VERY:the following were grave sins :

women were forbidden to:

* cut their hair
* wear pants
* wear skirts above the knee
* wear short sleeves
* wear makeup
* wear jewelry
* be over 16 years of age and not be married
* be over 18 years of age and not have at least 4 children
* work or get jobs

things forbidden to all, both men and women included:

* drinking
* smoking
* coffee
* tea
* soda
* swearing (and you’s be surprised the things that are considered a swear!)
* public school
* meat
* sex outside of marriage

Those sins could get you into a level of Hell that was not as bad as the rest of Hell, but if you repented of them you could be forgiven and avoid Hell altogether.

Those are just the major biggie sins, there are lots of little ones as well, stupid ritual like things… hand washings, wearing special underwear you have to wear, and stuff like that

giant sins like adultery/cheating on partner, rape, murder, divorce, being gay, etc… those things you can’t be forgiven for EVER and were one way tickets to Hell.

at least according to my family’s religion….

me, today, as an adult… I look at them and think… they are nuts!

2. Heaven is going to war with Hell. God didn’t have a say in it. (God isn’t in my novel at the moment… just referenced a few times) Why would the angels want to take over Hell?

Maybe they thought Hell was not punishing sinners harshly enough?

or

Maybe they thought the sinners were being punished too harshly?

Either way they feel they should take over to make changes to the system.

3. Can someone explain Hell to me? How (in any point of view, many and/or the most common) did it come to be, can you get out of it and why does there need to be one?

Some Thoughts on Hell
While on Proboards Support, I came across an interesting thread. Here is the original thread, the question asked, and the multiple choices given. At the time of my adding this here, the poll has 4 pages of comments and debates. In order to vote on this forum poll (or join the discussion and add a comment) you have to be a registered member, but here is the link anyways.

ProBoards Support: What is the worst part of Hell do you believe?

The Question:

What is the worst part of Hell do you believe?

Multiple Choice Answers:

I dunno (5 votes, 20%)
God hates you in Hell (1 vote, 4%)
God doesn’t care for those in Hell (3 votes, 12%)
No water (0 votes, 0%)
Never being able to be on Support Proboards again (8 votes, 32%)
Demons (1 vote, 4%)
Satan (4 votes, 16%)
Fire/Other/Others/Mix/Mixes (3 votes, 12%)

(These vote results were taken on May 16, 2008)

I put dunno, cause I have no idea what it would be like or even if there is such a place…. I’ve heard of a dozen or more different interpretations on what hell is or isn’t, and no one really knows anything for certain anyways, I mean, how many people went to hell and came back to tell the tale?

If real demons were anything like fantasy demons (namely Lord Sesshomaru :-* ;D ) though, I’d love Hell! LOL! ;D

As I said earlier, wither or not there are heaven and hell is debatable, however, I do believe there is an afterlife of some sort.

I do not unnecessarily believe in either heaven or hell. I do not think life after death is all very much different from life here and I believe we well be reunited or even reborn again into the same family circles in the next life as this one and that we have already done so in past lives as well.

Heaven, the way I see it, would be spending eternity with those you love in a peaceful place free of heartache, sickness, and war. If there was a hell, I think it would be a place where we are separated from those we love: our friends, our families, and our pets.

Interesting question, but does the Bible ever use either the actual words “Hell” or “Satan”? Looking in 16 different translations, I only see these words used in the modern day versions (AMP and NKJ) but not in any of the older versions; also there is no historical record of there being a reference to Satan prior to 300 A.D.

4. Who are main demons/angels? Who sided with Lucifer in the first war?

Are you LDS? The reason I ask, is because as far as I know they are the only religion that teaches there was a *first war*. It comes from the D&C not the Bible (or the BofM either). There is no actual scripture reference to a war in heaven, because there there is no scriptural reference to a place called Hell at all. Most referance to Hell are based on the Greek/Roman mythology stories about Hades.

Outside of the Catholic church there are pretty much zero demon or angles, because most of them are from the Apocrypha and no other religion uses that set of scripture.

If it was my story, I’d go with making up my own angels and demons.

5. If the keys to Hell were stolen, what would happen to all the bad souls? Why would Heaven want the keys? What could they do with them? How would that help with #2?

I can’t think of an answer for this one.

6. Based on your answers for the above, why would the girl side with Hell in the war?

Maybe she’s just plain feed up with all the *goody-two-shoe* stuff she’s had to put up with living with all her *holier than though* friends and family? She wants to rebel against it, and the best way she can think of to rebel is by joining Hell?

———-
How I Reached 50k
Writing About Religion?
Create a Fantasy Realm
Improving your writing: What do you look for in a book?

What’s your take on this? I’d love to hear what you have to say about this post. Leave a comment and share your views!

. . .

————-
If you liked reading this blog and want to read more stuff written by me, I have lots of websites, where you can read other things I write, here are a few of the ones I like the best:
.
.

.

Plot Help: Beauty & Beast Only Not Beauty & Beast

I’ve been throwing around the idea of doing a set of short stories based on a single theme, when it occurred to me that all the stories/books/movies I like seem to be based on a sort of Beauty and the Beast theme, in fact I own more than a dozen different versions of the fairy tale Beauty & the Beast itself, plus got all the different versions of the movies too. It’s a safe bet to say that Beauty & the Beast is my favorite fairy tale!

Well, on a different thread here, I was commenting about Stolkholm Syndrome and I wrote this:

[quote=EelKat]
I was going to say Stolkholm Syndrome, but I see someone already beat me. So yea, I’ll say it anyways. This is actually pretty common actually.

Think of it like Beauty and the Beast. (not the Disneyfid version, thank you) Not only did the Beast want to kill/eat her and he family, he kept her locked up as his prisoner. Eventually he started treating her nice and eventually she stopped fearing him, but she still didn’t love him and when she got the chance she escaped and ran back home. But than after she got home, she was plauged with nightmares for weeks and finialy it occurred to her that she loved the Beast so she went back to his castle only to find that he had pined away without her. They started out hating each other than love each other later on.

I could easily see your girl falling for her captor.
[/quote]

After I posted that comment it occurred to me that, that there was the perfect plot for me! Here’s the thing though, I don’t want to just write yet another fairy tale version of Beauty and the Beast. I want to do something different.

I’m thinking I want to write 13 different versions of the Beauty & the Beast plot, each about 5,000 – 10,000 words, so that I end up with one book of short stories totaling 100,000 to 130,000 words.

What that means is that I need 13 different plots each one based on the story of Beauty and the Beast, but each one totally different! I’d kind of like to take the story of Beauty and the Beast and retell it from various cultures and times in history, plus in different genres (one fantasy, one science fiction, one horror, one chick-lit, etc,). Does that make sense?

I already thought of one: a girl and a Japanese demon, in Medieval Japan.

Than I thought maybe a flapper and a gangster from the 1920’s.

Not sure yet how to get either of them to come out right yet.

Anyways I was wondering if anyone here had any ideas about how I could come up with all these plots based on one plot without them all sounding like the same story again and again. Any ideas? Thoughts? Suggestions?

Thanks!

~EK

What’s your take on this? I’d love to hear what you have to say about this post. Leave a comment and share your views!

————-
If you liked reading this blog and want to read more stuff written by me, I have lots of websites, where you can read other things I write, here are a few of the ones I like the best:

When Next You See Me I’ll Look Like This:

Obsessed? I’m Not Obsessed… REALLY, I’m not!

Help with Hell

On NaNoWriMo today I found this question: HELP with Hell!

Here is my answer:

1. There is a list of things to get you into hell. What’s on it? (SOOOO important-one needs to qualify my MC’s mom)

I am a Christian. I grew up in a very strict Christian home. Almost anything could get you sent to Hell.

When I say strict, I mean VERY:the following were grave sins :

women were forbidden to:

* cut their hair
* wear pants
* wear skirts above the knee
* wear short sleeves
* wear makeup
* wear jewelry
* be over 16 years of age and not be married
* be over 18 years of age and not have at least 4 children
* work or get jobs

things forbidden to all, both men and women included:

* drinking
* smoking
* coffee
* tea
* soda
* swearing (and you’s be surprised the things that are considered a swear!)
* public school
* meat
* sex outside of marriage

Those sins could get you into a level of Hell that was not as bad as the rest of Hell, but if you repented of them you could be forgiven and avoid Hell altogether.

Those are just the major biggie sins, there are lots of little ones as well, stupid ritual like things… hand washings, wearing special underwear you have to wear, and stuff like that

giant sins like adultery/cheating on partner, rape, murder, divorce, being gay, etc… those things you can’t be forgiven for EVER and were one way tickets to Hell.

at least according to my family’s religion….

me, today, as an adult… I look at them and think… they are nuts!

2. Heaven is going to war with Hell. God didn’t have a say in it. (God isn’t in my novel at the moment… just referenced a few times) Why would the angels want to take over Hell?

Maybe they thought Hell was not punishing sinners harshly enough?

or

Maybe they thought the sinners were being punished too harshly?

Either way they feel they should take over to make changes to the system.

3. Can someone explain Hell to me? How (in any point of view, many and/or the most common) did it come to be, can you get out of it and why does there need to be one?

Some Thoughts on Hell
While on Proboards Support, I came across an interesting thread. Here is the original thread, the question asked, and the multiple choices given. At the time of my adding this here, the poll has 4 pages of comments and debates. In order to vote on this forum poll (or join the discussion and add a comment) you have to be a registered member, but here is the link anyways.

ProBoards Support: What is the worst part of Hell do you believe?

The Question:

What is the worst part of Hell do you believe?

Multiple Choice Answers:

I dunno (5 votes, 20%)
God hates you in Hell (1 vote, 4%)
God doesn’t care for those in Hell (3 votes, 12%)
No water (0 votes, 0%)
Never being able to be on Support Proboards again (8 votes, 32%)
Demons (1 vote, 4%)
Satan (4 votes, 16%)
Fire/Other/Others/Mix/Mixes (3 votes, 12%)

(These vote results were taken on May 16, 2008)

I put dunno, cause I have no idea what it would be like or even if there is such a place…. I’ve heard of a dozen or more different interpretations on what hell is or isn’t, and no one really knows anything for certain anyways, I mean, how many people went to hell and came back to tell the tale?

If real demons were anything like fantasy demons (namely Lord Sesshomaru :-* ;D ) though, I’d love Hell! LOL! ;D

As I said earlier, wither or not there are heaven and hell is debatable, however, I do believe there is an afterlife of some sort.

I do not unnecessarily believe in either heaven or hell. I do not think life after death is all very much different from life here and I believe we well be reunited or even reborn again into the same family circles in the next life as this one and that we have already done so in past lives as well.

Heaven, the way I see it, would be spending eternity with those you love in a peaceful place free of heartache, sickness, and war. If there was a hell, I think it would be a place where we are separated from those we love: our friends, our families, and our pets.

Interesting question, but does the Bible ever use either the actual words “Hell” or “Satan”? Looking in 16 different translations, I only see these words used in the modern day versions (AMP and NKJ) but not in any of the older versions; also there is no historical record of there being a reference to Satan prior to 300 A.D.

4. Who are main demons/angels? Who sided with Lucifer in the first war?

Are you LDS? The reason I ask, is because as far as I know they are the only religion that teaches there was a *first war*. It comes from the D&C not the Bible (or the BofM either). There is no actual scripture reference to a war in heaven, because there there is no scriptural reference to a place called Hell at all. Most referance to Hell are based on the Greek/Roman mythology stories about Hades.

Outside of the Catholic church there are pretty much zero demon or angles, because most of them are from the Apocrypha and no other religion uses that set of scripture.

If it was my story, I’d go with making up my own angels and demons.

5. If the keys to Hell were stolen, what would happen to all the bad souls? Why would Heaven want the keys? What could they do with them? How would that help with #2?

I can’t think of an answer for this one.

6. Based on your answers for the above, why would the girl side with Hell in the war?

Maybe she’s just plain feed up with all the *goody-two-shoe* stuff she’s had to put up with living with all her *holier than though* friends and family? She wants to rebel against it, and the best way she can think of to rebel is by joining Hell?

———-
How I Reached 50k
Writing About Religion?
Create a Fantasy Realm
Improving your writing: What do you look for in a book?

What’s your take on this? I’d love to hear what you have to say about this post. Leave a comment and share your views!

————-
If you liked reading this blog and want to read more stuff written by me, I have lots of websites, where you can read other things I write, here are a few of the ones I like the best:

When Next You See Me I’ll Look Like This:

Obsessed? I’m Not Obsessed… REALLY, I’m not!

Help with Hell

On NaNoWriMo today I found this question: HELP with Hell!

Here is my answer:

1. There is a list of things to get you into hell. What’s on it? (SOOOO important-one needs to qualify my MC’s mom)

I am a Christian. I grew up in a very strict Christian home. Almost anything could get you sent to Hell.

When I say strict, I mean VERY:the following were grave sins :

women were forbidden to:

* cut their hair
* wear pants
* wear skirts above the knee
* wear short sleeves
* wear makeup
* wear jewelry
* be over 16 years of age and not be married
* be over 18 years of age and not have at least 4 children
* work or get jobs

things forbidden to all, both men and women included:

* drinking
* smoking
* coffee
* tea
* soda
* swearing (and you’s be surprised the things that are considered a swear!)
* public school
* meat
* sex outside of marriage

Those sins could get you into a level of Hell that was not as bad as the rest of Hell, but if you repented of them you could be forgiven and avoid Hell altogether.

Those are just the major biggie sins, there are lots of little ones as well, stupid ritual like things… hand washings, wearing special underwear you have to wear, and stuff like that

giant sins like adultery/cheating on partner, rape, murder, divorce, being gay, etc… those things you can’t be forgiven for EVER and were one way tickets to Hell.

at least according to my family’s religion….

me, today, as an adult… I look at them and think… they are nuts!

2. Heaven is going to war with Hell. God didn’t have a say in it. (God isn’t in my novel at the moment… just referenced a few times) Why would the angels want to take over Hell?

Maybe they thought Hell was not punishing sinners harshly enough?

or

Maybe they thought the sinners were being punished too harshly?

Either way they feel they should take over to make changes to the system.

3. Can someone explain Hell to me? How (in any point of view, many and/or the most common) did it come to be, can you get out of it and why does there need to be one?

Some Thoughts on Hell
While on Proboards Support, I came across an interesting thread. Here is the original thread, the question asked, and the multiple choices given. At the time of my adding this here, the poll has 4 pages of comments and debates. In order to vote on this forum poll (or join the discussion and add a comment) you have to be a registered member, but here is the link anyways.

ProBoards Support: What is the worst part of Hell do you believe?

The Question:

What is the worst part of Hell do you believe?

Multiple Choice Answers:

I dunno (5 votes, 20%)
God hates you in Hell (1 vote, 4%)
God doesn’t care for those in Hell (3 votes, 12%)
No water (0 votes, 0%)
Never being able to be on Support Proboards again (8 votes, 32%)
Demons (1 vote, 4%)
Satan (4 votes, 16%)
Fire/Other/Others/Mix/Mixes (3 votes, 12%)

(These vote results were taken on May 16, 2008)

I put dunno, cause I have no idea what it would be like or even if there is such a place…. I’ve heard of a dozen or more different interpretations on what hell is or isn’t, and no one really knows anything for certain anyways, I mean, how many people went to hell and came back to tell the tale?

If real demons were anything like fantasy demons (namely Lord Sesshomaru :-* ;D ) though, I’d love Hell! LOL! ;D

As I said earlier, wither or not there are heaven and hell is debatable, however, I do believe there is an afterlife of some sort.

I do not unnecessarily believe in either heaven or hell. I do not think life after death is all very much different from life here and I believe we well be reunited or even reborn again into the same family circles in the next life as this one and that we have already done so in past lives as well.

Heaven, the way I see it, would be spending eternity with those you love in a peaceful place free of heartache, sickness, and war. If there was a hell, I think it would be a place where we are separated from those we love: our friends, our families, and our pets.

Interesting question, but does the Bible ever use either the actual words “Hell” or “Satan”? Looking in 16 different translations, I only see these words used in the modern day versions (AMP and NKJ) but not in any of the older versions; also there is no historical record of there being a reference to Satan prior to 300 A.D.

4. Who are main demons/angels? Who sided with Lucifer in the first war?

Are you LDS? The reason I ask, is because as far as I know they are the only religion that teaches there was a *first war*. It comes from the D&C not the Bible (or the BofM either). There is no actual scripture reference to a war in heaven, because there there is no scriptural reference to a place called Hell at all. Most referance to Hell are based on the Greek/Roman mythology stories about Hades.

Outside of the Catholic church there are pretty much zero demon or angles, because most of them are from the Apocrypha and no other religion uses that set of scripture.

If it was my story, I’d go with making up my own angels and demons.

5. If the keys to Hell were stolen, what would happen to all the bad souls? Why would Heaven want the keys? What could they do with them? How would that help with #2?

I can’t think of an answer for this one.

6. Based on your answers for the above, why would the girl side with Hell in the war?

Maybe she’s just plain feed up with all the *goody-two-shoe* stuff she’s had to put up with living with all her *holier than though* friends and family? She wants to rebel against it, and the best way she can think of to rebel is by joining Hell?

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