Week 1, Introduction

Hi, everyone! My name is Alissa, and I'm a professional writing junior. I'm hoping to create a career combination of non-profit journalist and young adult fiction novelist with an emphasis on international travel. I really love to read and write fantasies and mysteries, and some of my favorite authors are J.K. Rowling, Lois Lowry, Shannon Hale, Maggie Stiefvater, James Dashner, John Green, and Kiera Cass.

I'm minoring in women's and gender studies and information studies. I became a WGS minor after I took an intro to WGS course as a general education requirement. I fell in love with the way that this discipline talks about all kinds of people with ultimate respect and encourages breaking social norms to follow your own path. I became an information studies minor because of my love of books, knowledge, and information. I shelved books at a public library in high school, and I would love to explore the library sciences field more in the future.

I've lived in Shawnee, OK, for the past 7 years, and before that I lived in Seminole, OK; Middletown, MD; Frederick, MD; and St. Petersburg, FL. Through these many moves, I've come to learn that there are extraordinary people everywhere who are just waiting to share their stories with you. This realization created a love for international travel. I've visited Hamburg, Germany; Venice, Turin, Naples, Rome, and Florence, Italy; Paris, Vichy, Charroux, Marseilles, and, Lyon, France; and Juarez, Mexico.

The next places on my list to visit are Ireland, England, Japan, and Hawaii.

My sister, Angelica, and my nephew, Ryan, are some of the most important people in my life. Ryan is two and a half, and I love getting to play and be silly with him.

(Image information: personal photo of Ryan taken at Andrews Park in Norman, OK; photo from July 2013).

I'm taking this class because as a writer, I love stories. I love how our society knows what makes a good story or storyteller without having to learn it traditionally. We know that timing, tone of voice, expression, and gestures make someone a good story teller just like we know that plot, characters, conflict, background, and setting make a good story. 

If there's anything else you want to know about me, just ask! 

Week 1: Storybook Favorites

In order to get some ideas for my semester-long storybook project, I browsed through past student's projects. Here are some of my favorites:

1. Arthurian Women: Queens, Damsels, and Villainess highly interests me for several reasons. First, I always enjoy learning more about the women of history because so often history books are written by bigoted men who exclude the women's stories on purpose. Second, I am a huge fan of the movie Monty Python and The Holy Grail, and as such, I am familiar with the characters that are represented in this storybook. Third, I love the writing style this student used. The way the introduction opens as if the speaker has suddenly bumped into me in the hallway instantly drew me in, and her secretive and teasing nature made me want to know more about her stories.

2. Flipped Secrets: History, Written by the Vanquished
I clicked on this storybook because as I mentioned above, history is typically written by men, and always written by the winners. This tends to distort what actually happened. I love the narrators, Puff the Magic Dragon and The Dude, that this student introduced to shed a comical eye on the dark stories of these villains.

3. The Unanswered Questions of Pooh and Friends
My roommate and I were just talking about Winnie the Pooh last night, and she told me that when her little brother learned that the characters symbolized the array of children's emotions, it ruined the show for him. On the contrary, I find Eeyore's portrayal of depression and Rabbit's grumpiness to be quite helpful to children and myself. This storybook plays on these ideas by talking about the character's differences.

All of this reading has reminded me of one of my favorite blogs, Hyperbole and a Half. Allie Brosh has had me crying from laughter many times while reading her stories, and I would like to draw inspiration from her humor for my storybook project. Her child-like illustrations that accompany her posts really round out the experience. So I think it would be fun to experiment with something like that, even though my artistic abilities in that area leave something to be desired.

Week 1: Un-Textbook Overview

I am interested in the unit on Bible women because I've always been part of the Methodist Church, and I would like to advance my study of Biblical women.

I would also like to read the unit on Alice in Wonderland. When I was a little girl, my Great-Grandmother gave me a hardback copy of the story, and I read it with my mother. It was special to all of us.

The units on Celtic Fairy Tales also sound intriguing. The idea of little people with wings flitting around has always fascinated me, and I enjoy fairy stories in general.

Finally, the unit on Japan interests me because I enjoy Japanese anime and food. I love the way Japanese artists express emotion through the drawings of their characters.

Week 1 Storytelling: The Raven Who Wanted White Feathers

On a sunny summer day, a Raven flew high over Briar's Pond and glimpsed a Swan relaxing in the water. The sunlight reflected off the Swan's brilliant white feathers, and the Raven became envious of the Swan's beauty.

He circled the pond, and came to rest in a pine tree. He peered over his shoulder to examine his own black feathers and was suddenly disgusted by the drab color.

From afar, he watched the Swan in order to figure out how the Raven could develop such a wonderful white coat. He observed as the Swan neatly snipped off pieces of water reeds with his beak and cocked his head back to swallow them down. The Swan splashed playfully in the crystal clear water and swallowed some of it.

After making several mental notes, the Raven decided he was ready to make his transformation. The Raven flew to the water and landed in it with a satisfactory splash. He tried paddling with his feet to stay afloat, but without the webbed feet of the Swan, the Raven quickly began to sink. Panicking, he swallowed some of the clear water like he had seen the Swan do. But this only made him sink faster and made the sputtering worse.

(Milo Winter's illustration of "A Raven and A Swan" (1919)

The Raven dragged himself to shore, assuring himself that once he had completed the routine, he would feel better and his feathers would change to match the Swan's lovely snow white. The Raven bit off pieces of the water reeds and struggled to swallow the coarse food.

Stomach rumbling and exhausted from his near drowning, the Raven waited for his feather's to transform. He tried squeezing his eyes shut. He attempted waddling as he had seen the Swan do. He even tried filling his beak with water a few more times.

But he did not prevail.

With a heavy heart, the Raven left Briar's Pond to the Swan and returned to the skies.

Author's Note: This story was inspired by Aesop's Fable "A Raven and A Swan," as seen in Aesop for Children, illustrated by Milo Winter (1919). In the original, a Raven was jealous of a Swan's gorgeous white feathers, and so the Raven tried imitating the Swan's routine in hopes of changing the color of his feathers. Obviously, he was unsuccessful and perished from a poor diet. I kept the Raven in my story alive to learn more lessons in the future. The moral of both stories is that one cannot change his nature simply by altering his habits.

Blogger Templates Tech Tip

For extra credit in this class, we can complete a weekly tech tip. This week, I chose to add a template to my blog to make it look more polished. The watermark template with the brown map background really stuck out to me because I love to travel. It also reminds me of old books or an atlas.

I've used several different templates on blogs in the past, and I think Blogger has a lot of great options for bloggers to choose from.

Week 1 Favorite Place: Vichy, France

I got the opportunity to study abroad in Vichy, France, in the summer of 2013, and that experience was so eye opening for me! This is a picture of the Allier River I took. The river was only a few minutes walk from my school, CAVILAM. I can't wait to go back to visit Vichy sometime in my future.

(Image information: personal photo of the Allier River in Vichy, France; photo from June 2013.)