{"id":243,"date":"2014-03-05T09:54:53","date_gmt":"2014-03-05T14:54:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/suzannechurch.com\/wordpress\/?p=243"},"modified":"2014-06-12T08:48:35","modified_gmt":"2014-06-12T12:48:35","slug":"storm-child-putting-a-fresh-face-on-a-timeless-myth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/suzannechurch.com\/wordpress\/storm-child-putting-a-fresh-face-on-a-timeless-myth\/","title":{"rendered":"Storm Child – Putting a Fresh Face on a Timeless Myth"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ElementsBelow, dear reader, please find bonus content<\/b><\/u> for Suzanne’s book: ELEMENTS: A Collection of Speculative Fiction<\/i><\/a>.<\/p>\n

This series of posts provides stories-behind-the-stories for each tale in ELEMENTS<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Sitting in the 4th slot in the Table of Contents is: “Storm Child”<\/b><\/p>\n

\n

\"cicada<\/a>In the summer of 2000, AKA “2K”, I attended my first writers’ workshop, taught by Ann C. Crispin<\/a> and held at DragonCon<\/a>.<\/p>\n

At the end of the workshop, we students formed a writers group, which we named the “DC2K” writers. Since then, we still critique, share market listings, and provide support for one another’s work.<\/p>\n

One of our group challenges<\/b> was to write a short story based on a myth or folk story.<\/p>\n

I decided to research myths outside of the ones I was already familiar with, and found The Hero with an African Face, Mythic Wisdom of Traditional Africa<\/i>  by Clyde W. Ford (Bantam, 2000)<\/a> at the Kitchener Public Library<\/a>.<\/p>\n

One of the myths was a Rwandan folk tale, and I loved the way it flowed and the atmosphere of the setting. <\/p>\n

But the challenge from DC2K was to re-tell<\/b> the myth, so I decided to set the story in the United States, a few years after the emancipation of the slaves.<\/p>\n

Storm Child<\/i>  was originally published in Cicada<\/a>. The magazine is gorgeous. They included 7 illustrations by Walter Mendoza<\/a> for the story. I must admit, the first time I saw them, they took my breath away!<\/p>\n

Fun Fact<\/b><\/u><\/p>\n

The main character in Storm Child<\/i>  is named Wanda<\/b>. <\/p>\n

I took some flack from my writers group about the name, mostly that they felt it didn’t quite fit with the character.<\/p>\n

Hear me, writers-to-be: I stuck with my gut<\/b> on the name. Because I’d based the story on a Rwandan tale, and I thought using the name Wanda<\/b> was my way of tipping my hat to the origins of the story.<\/p>\n

\n

\"ElementsELEMENTS: A Collection of Speculative Fiction<\/i><\/a>  is available in Canada and the USA from EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Below, dear reader, please find bonus content for Suzanne’s book: ELEMENTS: A Collection of Speculative Fiction. This series of posts provides stories-behind-the-stories for each tale in ELEMENTS. Sitting in the 4th slot in the Table of Contents is: “Storm Child” In the summer of 2000, AKA “2K”, I attended my first writers’ workshop, taught by Ann C. Crispin and held at DragonCon. At the end of the workshop, we students formed a writers group, which we named the “DC2K” writers.\u2026<\/p>\n

Continue reading<\/i><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[19,1],"tags":[3,76,11,4],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/suzannechurch.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/suzannechurch.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/suzannechurch.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/suzannechurch.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/suzannechurch.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"http:\/\/suzannechurch.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":850,"href":"http:\/\/suzannechurch.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243\/revisions\/850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/suzannechurch.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/suzannechurch.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/suzannechurch.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}