Friday, July 13th, 2012

Writing Prompt – Talismans and Lucky Charms

Picture of an airplane breaking up in the sky.It’s possible I’m dead right now. Check the news. I’ll wait.

Did you see anything about a plane crash? One heading to Oregon from the Eastern Seaboard? If so, I might be on that plane, and therefore dead.

It would also mean that all the lucky charms and talismans I stuffed in my pockets before I left, did not work.

(You might have figured out that I have a fear of flying. I don’t know where it came from. I’ve flown to Europe on more than one occasion, have been up and down the East Coast and as far west as Colorado…and I enjoyed each of those trips. But somewhere along the line, my brain wrinkled.)

I’ve been advised to take a pill and have a drink.

Instead, although I’m not normally a superstitious person, I’m carrying with me:

  1. Several rosaries.
     
  2. A scapular.
     
  3. A lucky sea bean.
     
  4. An acorn.
     
  5. A wad of Patron Saint, Miraculous and Bleeding Heart medals that I inherited from my grandmother.
     
  6. Some medals of my own, purchased at the Vatican on Easter Sunday – which makes them holier, right?
     
  7. A tiny, tiny statue of statue of Saint Christopher, inherited from another grandmother. It’s encased in brass, no larger than a bullet (and very easy to carry in my pocket).
     
  8. I have also made a promise to donate money to a charity upon my return. Because according to Jewish wisdom, there is extra protection given to someone who is en route to perform such a mitzvah.

If it offers protection. I’m game. I just hope they can all work in harmony. I’d hate for one lucky charm to cancel out another.

Here’s Your Prompt:

  • Write about your good luck charm.
     
  • Take a character in one of your stories and give him a good luck charm. Think of something unusual for the charm or talisman. Write the back story for it: why does he carry this particular item?
     
  • Write about:
     
    • a lucky shirt
    • a four-leafed clover or bamboo
    • lucky sigils, crosses, runes or rings
    • a lucky ‘piece’ (a penny)
    • a horseshoe – with the luck run out!
    • lucky runes
    • crickets, lady bugs, dragons, or scarabs
    • acorns
    • a rainbow

  • Find a penny, pick it up
    and all day long, you’ll have good luck!
     
  • Write about someone who throws a coin down a well, and gets his wish: but not exactly the way he wanted it to happen.
     
  • “Luck of the Draw,” his tag read. She stared at him, and he stared back. Now how was she going to get him home?
     
  • …Star had sent to them as its messenger. The bird was stuffed and preserved as a powerful talisman. They thought that an omission of this sacrifice would be followed… ~ From The Golden Bough, 1922. Chapter 3. Human Sacrifices for the Crops by Sir James George Frazer.
     
  • Write a scene (or more) from the point of view of person who is very superstitious.
     
  • Luck can change in an instant. Write a scene where a person’s luck changes by the end of it.
     
  • His mother pleaded for him too, but it was not needed. He had enclosed in his letter the strongest talisman of all, a letter written by Elizabeth in the long ago when we were children together. ~ From The Making of an American, 1901. Chapter V. I go into Business, headlong by Jacob A. Riis.
     

Good luck!

Monday, March 21st, 2011

Dragon or Wyvern?

WyvernCan I assume everyone knows what a dragon is?

A wyvern is a similar creature to — some say a sub-species of — the dragon. It stands on two legs instead of four, and its tail is often seen as arching over its head, scorpion-like, so that it can use the spade-shaped tip to poison it’s enemies.

They’re often depicted in English heraldry on flags and shields and coats-of-arms (such as this flag of the Ancient Kingdom of Wessex, located today in England).

Some people feel they’re interchangeable creatures – but wyverns lack the intelligence of dragons – so you won’t find them starring in any thoughtful stories. In fact, it’s pretty rare to see them “starring” at all.

I’ve written both dragon stories and wyvern stories. I tend to use dragons for “intelligent” tales and wyverns when I need a fierce creature who acts on base instinct…but it seems a shame to me that such a fine (if evil and nasty) creature gets pushed out of the limelight by its more intelligent cousin.

I’m sticking with the intelligence theory: that it’s this lack of smarts that makes the wyvern so unattractive in stories, though it could easily be that it’s not popular because a wyvern has less versatile “artillery” than that of various dragons (and is therefore less useful, in a story).

Or, maybe the wyvern is not used as much because fewer people are aware of the myth.

What’s your take? And which do you like better: dragons or wyverns?