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Monday, April 29, 2013

SPACEHIVE 99 CENTS MAY 3 - 10, 2013

SPACEHIVE will be ON SALE MAY 3-10 Inclusive

Get the eBook from Amazon for 99 cents!!

You heard it first here, party on Facebook, great prizes to be won...

An Excerpt 

Chapter Two



On planet Jive Hive, General Vard's vicious Black Watch wasp soldiers lived in papery wasp hives under the cliffs of the Hollow Hills. They guarded the spy devices that searched the sky every night and the huge ship—SpaceHive.

SPACEHIVE VIDEO TRAILER

Each soldier was over nine feet tall and wore a black patch so he could be identified as part of the evil general's special force. Fierce and cold-hearted, they would fight to the death.
"Attention," one of the wasp soldiers announced as the general made his way toward them.
General Vard's barbed arms scraped together. "We go to the valley tonight to tell my plan to the workers and drones. I will go to the queen to talk about matters of state."
"Matters of state?" A young sergeant snapped to attention. "Are the rumours true then, sir? Are we going to have a new queen?"
"None of your beeswax, soldier."
With one swift motion, the general stabbed the young wasp in the neck. His friends ate the fallen sergeant right away.
Fierce wasp

"That's better," the general said to a slim wasp standing beside him. "Now clean up this mess, Captain Pecula, and report to me first thing tomorrow morning. I want all the soldiers on full parade by noon tomorrow. We must make a show of force to impress those lazy, good-for-nothing workers and drones. And tell them to shape up so they can ship out when I say so, with no whining from even the smallest of them."
"I'm sure they'll be just fine, sir," the captain said. "The death rays and weapons are ready. We have the maps and graphs we need, and the pilots can hardly wait to take off."
"Remember now, we must not destroy the planet Earth. Just the people. We want to be able to live on the planet after the humans are dead." He scratched his chin. "If the humans give up and don't fight, kill them all for food. If they fight, they fight to the death anyway."
"What happens when Earth is crowded like our home, the Jive Hive?" Captain Pecula asked. "When there are too many new queens, new workers and drones, what then?"
"Then we move on. But that is light years away."
"We can't expand forever."
The general gave him a hard look and the captain closed his mouth. "We can and we will, Captain Pecula."
"I won't ask any more questions, sir."
"That's smart." The general grunted. "Now I must meet with Queen Selera. I must convince her she can't come with us to our new home. She must feed a younger queen, one who will lead us into victory in this new world."
"Yes, sir."
"A couple of centuries from now," the general mused, "another general will decide the fate of Earth when there will be too many of us again. He'll take his decision to a future queen, who will give orders to seek out a new home."
A lieutenant looked at the poisoned tip of the general's spike. "We'll have to limit our population another way after we've used up Earth. The Eternity Drive can't take us any farther…"
Anger gleamed in the general's eyes. "Who else knows how the War Games are going to end?" He held the lieutenant up with his stubby barbed hands.
"Only four of us know." The lieutenant gasped. "Besides me, all majors."
"I'll talk to them." The general let the soldier fall to the ground. "Perhaps they can be trusted. But they must be questioned. Captain Pecula?"
"Yes, sir, I'll bring them right away."
"I'll see the queen first."
The general flew into the night, down the valley, up the slopes to the royal palace. His grim figure was a fearful shadow against the second of the setting three moons.
"You don't have enough honey in your system, General Vard," the old bee queen said and heaved her body to a more comfortable position. "Do the War Games really say our migrations will end?"
Honey from a jar
"This move may be the last migration to another planet. After that…" The general flexed his spiky black hands, rattled his sword.
"Mercy killing of any bees who can't find food on the earth at that time," the queen finished. "We'll need more land in a century or two, and Earth is our last hope. We've moved to all the other known planets in the star systems we can get to. After Earth has been used up, perhaps we could kill our own bees with a virus and they won't know where it came from. We'd have to make room for the rest of us. Who else knows of this matter?" The queen's shoulders rippled.
"Four senior officers, along with Captain Pecula, you and I."
"Five too many soldiers. Kill them."
"Yes, Highness." The general grinned. "Orders have already been given."
"And the workers and drones you're shipping to Earth?"
"They'll be happy once again, under the vigilant eyes of my Black Watch. We'll be happy for a long time, after we've killed the humans."
"For a hundred years or more, I think," the queen said. "I've bought them that much time."
"Now," the general rasped. "Prepare the new queen. She must be warlike. And strong."
"I will see to it."
The general saluted. "Your majesty." General Vard flew off, after a stiff bow to Her Royal Highness.
The workers and drones in the valley below huddled closer as they saw the dread image cross over the third moon up to the paper caverns hidden in the Hollow Hills.
"A new young queen will be chosen by the old queen from the dozens of female eggs she lays every day," the general explained to his soldiers. "The new queen will be beautiful and grow to be wise. She'll be healthy, fit and full of life. She'll be spared, fed with royal jelly and grow to be a queen in her own right—smart and warlike enough to guide our bees to their new world."
Yes, a new queen would lead them into war, under the eye of the Black Watch. So it would be. A young and strong queen. The old queen would stay on the old Jive Hive and watch over a failing population.
The wasps were happy.



Sunday, April 28, 2013

When Your Old Neighborhood Changes



Tongue in Cheek, a review of a neighborhood battling change



I wrote this for a contest called Hyperlocal, which deals with change in our environment, and how it affects the individual. 

  • They post every entry so it's no success to be posted, and I have 2 likes including my own. 
  •  I am not an editor's pick nor am I a popular post.

But here it is:

Shifting View of the Glenora Skyline by Kenna Mary McKinnon     

The Glenora Skyline condominium project, standing tall on Stony Plain Road and 142nd Street in the City of Edmonton, as viewed by a Glenora matron, was so undesirable. Residents of the popular and prestigious neighborhood objected in vain to the development. 

The west arm of the Light Rail Transit (LRT) is scheduled to take in the Glenora Skyline project and incorporate it into a nice little commuter ghetto in Glenora. It's touted as a "neighborhood within itself," complete with three residential towers, offices and commercial spaces, scenic walkways and access to buses and LRT, and within walking distance of the lovely river valley. 

Great for the apartment dwellers. With an "acre of exclusive green space" to themselves, the condo residents will bask in their proximity to the LRT planned for the area, only minutes from downtown, and their own community in the midst of an opulent neighborhood.  

How did the society matrons and gentlemen lose their clout?  Surely they won't put up with these developments without an expensive opposition, they in their stately houses and perhaps with disdain for us denizens of the high rise? The ever shifting skyline as viewed from the top of the economic ladder, beautiful Edmonton viewed from a luxury one bedroom suite or through glass walls from a penthouse, oh, the uproar were it rental property!
Riff-Raff


They have a lovely view of a lovely neighborhood. At a premium price for the privilege of changing the ambience of Glenora, there won't be any riff-raff in this community. To me this means progress and a secret snigger at the discomfiture of an exclusive area of Edmonton. 

Neon colored silouhette of a young anarchist
My inner child is about
twelve years old and still a rebel, still hostile toward authority and the presence of history and refinement of manners, still aching to throw a china teacup across a perfectly pristine room and spatter a snowy wall with stains. 

Is that all this means, the contemporary room with the grand piano and the orchids, threatened by 21st century advancements and a subculture of hipsters? Surely there's more to the story than this. 

 "Experience a new level of living" the Glenora Skyline condominium's  on-line ads promote. The convenience of an apartment community within a neighborhood known for its quaint cul-de-sacs, understated and opulent living style, and quiet Saturday afternoons; refinement cluttered only by the low rise, renovated apartments on the northwest corner of the neighborhood, close to Coronation Park and Westmount Shopping Centre, not really in Glenora at all. 

What changed the society matron's point of view? Little but a whimper is now heard. 
Society child kissing a frog prince
The upward thrusting face of change has made its way into historic Glenora, and I'm saddened but elated, too, that one of cultured society's last bulwarks is finally threatened.    






         I never promised you a rose garden youtube




Saturday, April 27, 2013

Spring Diets


This is a fast Spring Diets post without the fast, heh heh.

First we have the cheeseburger with lettuce and tomato.

Omit the burger, bun, and cheese and you have a lovely Spring Diet.

Greasy cheeseburger mmm
Then there is fish. Very good for the brain and the rest of you. Really, but you have to cook it first, and many fish are endangered. Well, no, if it's sushi you don't have to cook it first. But California rolls are nice.

Please don't eat dolphin or whale, and cod is scarce. Dolphin are our cousins, and whales are endangered. Shrimp is nice but be careful how it's processed.
Asian shrimp/sprouts meal mmm

Wine is good for the heart, but it's not good for the liver if you drink too much of it, and not good for your social life if you imbibe too much at a wild party. Really, I know.

Cheese is a good dairy choice and goes very well with the grapes and wine. Have fun at the party.

Wine and cheese and grapes mmm





And, of course, the green salad.

Happy spring, everyone. Please send me your favorite green recipes and I'll reproduce them here. Brouhahahaha pizza, anyone? This is serious stuff, and note he's from Toronto, CANADA. Go blue Jays!


Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Writing an Essay About a Memorable Character

Memorable Characters

Writer's Workshop

I went to my first writer's workshop last Saturday, put on by the Canadian Authors' Association and presented by author Karen Bass.

I bought her YA book Run Like Jager, who hopes to learn what his grandfather did during the war in Germany.

Karen spoke on Friday night to the group then presented the workshop on Saturday. She is from Hythe, Alberta.
Map of Canada



Developing a Memorable Character in a Story


I jotted down some notes. If they don't make sense in this context, it's my fault, not the workshop. The workshop was on developing a unique character in a story.


Author hard at work old style



  • Use a static character as foil to show off protagonist's characteristics
  • Teens - show them there are ways out of bad situations
  • Character reveals who they are, revelation in life, not necessarily a change, e.g. find out you're obsessing, or learn something about yourself in a situation. Discover new depths.
  • Make character distinct, someone you can identify with. Talent or character trait such as autism
  • Character - what do they want? Driving the story. Make choices. Driven by choice.
  • Develop back story. Character makes choices depending on his/her own characteristics. 
  • What is your character's greatest fear? e.g. for someone brought up in the 1930s it may be fear of banks.
  • Perfect characters are annoying.
  • They should behave differently in different situations, e.g. introvert author doesn't like parties but gets high on writers' conferences.
  • Not too many characters, can have composite characters.
  • Actions - character revealed through actions, such as anger shown by chopping onions savagely.
  • In first scene main character does something sympathetic.."save the cat."

My son's Fuzzy Kitty with his favorite meal

  • Always need to know your character's motives. Motive was good e.g. take someone to park and have fun together. Motives drive decisions.
  • Self-awareness in character at some time.
  • An example of motive would be Gladiator - his motive was to get home. Motive is deepest desire, what is driving you to act, e.g. need to help poor. Self-aware teen or maybe adult, what they really want. Driving need, motive, back story, e.g. desire for more money might spring from a poor background.
  • Reputation - what other characters think of your character. Give clues to reader.
  • Habits can drive stories, e.g. addicted, revelation needs to change. Or shyness.
  • Names of characters shouldn't be too similar.
  • Are characters stereotypes? e.g. look like thug but acts opposite. Way to catch reader's attention.
  • Face their fears to get where they're going, e.g. Indiana Jones fear of snakes, has to go into pit of snakes at the end.
  • If there is no problem there is no story.
    Small boy reading to friends


Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Time for Questions about Myths and Nero and Rome and blogs

I'm taking a brief hiatus (rest) from my blog posts this week. Will be back in force later in the week.

I'm constantly learning from my readers. I was wondering if my readers could answer a question or two - your choice:

1. What don't you like about my blog?
2. What do you like about my blog?
3. What subjects would you like to see covered?
4. What is your greatest fear?
5. Who do you love most in all the world?

Thanks, that will help me put together some meaningful posts...I hope...as I said to my publisher today Rome wasn't burned in a day. She corrected me, ha, but I don't like cliches.

Or was it? Seems to me I heard Nero playing his lyre amongst the leaping flames.

Another question:

1. What was your favorite subject in school?
2. Why?
3. What did your teacher/parents do to encourage you?
4. Do you like myths?
5. What's your favorite myth and why?

We might explore myths if they're of interest.


Or dragons.

Are dragons myths?

Have you seen one?

Can you draw one?

My son drew an amazing dragon when he was in grade 7. It may be in storage here in my spare room...he was an amazingly talented young man.




Saturday, April 20, 2013

Health Effects and Side Effects of Cinnamon



Cinnamon

CINNAMON STICKS

Courtesy Michelle Meiklejohn freedigitalphotos.net

WebMD's site and what it says about cinnamon


I looked up WebMD's site on the health benefits of cinnamon and its side effects. Here's what I gleaned from a site I consider more authoritative than others:

Two kinds of cinnamon


Sure enough, there are two kinds of cinnamon:

  • Ceylon cinnamon or "true" cinnamon, which is lighter colored than the more usual cassia cinnamon.
  • Cassia cinnamon may lower blood sugar in people with diabetes, but studies are inconclusive and not all studies have found a benefit.

Cinnamon used as medicine throughout the world?

  • Cinnamon is an extract from the bark of the cinnamon tree and traditionally has been used as medicine "throughout the world."


  • WebMD says that cinnamon may reduce inflammation, have antioxidant and antibacterial properties, but again, other studies have not found a benefit, so it's "unclear what role cinnamon may play in improving health." 

Cinnamon delicious as a spice

  • As a spice, sprinkled on toast and lattes, it's delicious and mixed with honey especially. 
Here we have a cute little grandma making cinnamon rolls, complete with recipe. What would be a post about cinnamon without cinnamon rolls, America's favorite sweet bun?



Side Effects and Risks of Cinnamon

  • Very high doses may be toxic.
  • There is no established dose.
  • Some studies have used between 1 - 6 grams of cinnamon or 1/2 - 1 tsp.
  • It may lower blood sugar so should be used with caution if you are diabetic.
  • It usually causes no side effects, but heavy use may cause sores in your mouth and lips due to irritation, and applied to the skin may cause redness and irritation.
  • People who have cancer like breast cancer, affected by hormone levels, should not take cinnamon.
  • Coumarin, an ingredient in some cinnamon products, may cause liver problems.
  • There is lack of information about its safety, thus is not recommended for children or pregnant or breastfeeding women.
  • Talk to your doctor before taking cinnamon supplements if you take medications regularly. Cinnamon supplements could "interact with antibiotics, diabetes drugs, blood thinners, heart medicines, and others."
There you have it, our wonderful and delicious cinnamon toast with honey, or sweet rolls, get a rigorous going over from the medical community.

As with any supplement, caution is advised, I think mostly with high doses of any supplement or alternative medicine.

  • I continue to enjoy a bit of cinnamon sprinkled on toast and honey, or on a latte.

  • Any more cinnamon recipes out there?

  • Any comments about the use or abuse of cinnamon or any other food product?
GRANDMA'S FAMILY, WHAT DO YOU SAY ABOUT THIS?

Girl eating cinnamon roll



Friday, April 19, 2013

Sesame Yogut Cheesecake from Lesley


This sesame yogurt cheesecake recipe is from a friend named Lesley, who emailed it to me. I've taken the liberty of reporting it here. It's a jpeg taken from the UK Guardian newspaper so although I tried to enlarge it, it's difficult to read.

Let me know what you think...

Hi Kenna,
I made this recently, it is yummy if you like tahini. I think it would also be good if omit the lemon and add pure vanilla extract. It is from the UK Guardian newspaper.
Lesley
 

COOKING WITH HONEY RECIPES

Homemade Cooking with Honey Recipes

Prequel to my 99 cent book sale 3 - 10 May, 2013.

My good friend and supporter, Sue Graver, suggested I preface a launch party for SpaceHive on Facebook with some honey recipes.

I'll post a couple simple honey recipes here and then ask my readers for their favorites.
Delicious liquid honey from a jar


  • I often cook with liquid honey or use liquid honey to sweeten cereals or tea, to avoid using white sugar or artificial sweeteners.

  • Creamed honey is available as well, which is delicious on toast or biscuits, or with PB, and spreads well.

  • I like raw, unpasteurized honey but note it can compromise an immune system and should not be fed to children below the age of three years due to microbes and bacteria present in unpasteurized honey.

  • Doctors used to carry honey in their bags to treat wounds. It is said to heal wounds as well as antibiotics or better.

  • Honey also is said to reach a satiety point where we will stop eating something sweet that's made with honey, whereas sugar will actually increase our appetite for sweeteners.

  • Honeycomb is a treat.

A little story about honeycomb. I lived on a farm as a child and my father one day in the autumn brought home a tub of honeycomb. It was very cold that day and the bees were inactive. However, he placed the tub of honeycomb in the kitchen near the stove and the bees all became active and started to crawl and fly about the house.

My father? He was the man who fired his rifle in the living room at a weasel who had entered the house.     

He kept knives in a knife block near the front door and rifles hanging on the wall.

Explains a lot about me and my upbringing, and why it took me 60 years to become less of a wild woman and more civilized.

Now a couple honey recipes

Enjoy!

Honey Chicken youtube.

 

 

Pumpkin Honey Bread

  • 1 cup - honey
  • 1/2 cup - butter or margarine, softened
  • 1 can (16 oz.) - solid-pack pumpkin
  • 4 - eggs
  • 4 cups - flour
  • 4 teaspoons - baking powder
  • 2 teaspoons - ground cinnamon
  • 2 teaspoons - ground ginger
  • 1 teaspoon - baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon - salt
  • 1 teaspoon - ground nutmeg

Directions

In large bowl, cream honey with butter until light and fluffy. Stir in pumpkin. Beat in eggs, one at a time, until thoroughly incorporated. Sift together remaining ingredients. Stir into pumpkin mixture. Divide batter equally between two well-greased 9 x5 x 3-inch loaf pans. Bake at 350°F for 1 hour or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Let loaves cool in pans for 10 minutes; invert pans to remove loaves and allow to finish cooling on racks.

 

Nutritional Information

  • per serving (based on 1/8 loaf, about 1-inch slice)
  • Calories: 261
  • Fat Total: 7.51 g
  • Protein: 5.43 g
  • Cholesterol: 68.8 mg
  • Carbohydrates: 44.5 g
  • Sodium: 411 mg
  • Dietary Fiber: 2.53 g
  • Calories from Fat: 25%

     

Peanut butter, honey and banana sandwich

Ingredients

  • 2 slices - whole wheat bread
  • 2 Tablespoons - honey
  • 1/2 - banana
  • 1 Tablespoon - peanut butter

Directions

Spread honey and peanut butter onto bread. Slice 1/2 banana onto bread. Eat and enjoy!
     

BANANA - HONEY DRINK

1 banana
1/2 c. milk (skim or whole)
3 tbsp. wheat germ
1 tsp. honey
1 tsp. vanilla or strawberry flavoring
Blend in blender until banana has dissolved. Yields 2 servings. Note: This is a quick energy-builder and very nourishing.

  • Do you have any favorite honey recipes?

    Honey and lemon juice in hot water or hot tea makes a very nice "hot toddy" for a sore throat or to relieve cold symptoms. I used to give this to my family when they were down with a cold or the flu.


Thursday, April 18, 2013

The Oxford Comma (Vampire Weekend)

To use or not to use the Oxford comma  (serial comma)? It depends. In Canada, don't use it. In the USA, use it. But it's not that simple.

  • The New York Times doesn't use it. 

  • Curiously, Oxford University no longer uses it.

What is it?

Wikipedia explains, a serial comma or series comma (also called Oxford comma and Harvard comma) is a comma placed immediately before the coordinating conjunction (usually and, or, or nor) in a series of three or more terms. For example, a list of three countries might be punctuated either as "Portugal, Spain, and France" (with the serial comma), or as "Portugal, Spain and France" (without the serial comma)

Well illustrated in her book Eats, Shoots and Leaves, Lynn Truss of the BBC takes issue with poor punctuation.


  • I think a comma should be used for clarification. Advice is that one must be consistent and that the use or misuse of it makes editors go to arms.

Two fencers


JOKE: A panda walks into a restaurant, sits down and orders a sandwich. After he finishes eating the sandwich, the panda pulls out a gun and shoots the waiter, and then stands up to go. "Hey!" shouts the manager. "Where are you going? You just shot my waiter and you didn't pay for your sandwich!"

The panda yells back at the manager, "Hey man, I am a PANDA! Look it up!"

The manager opens his dictionary and sees the following definition for panda: "A tree-dwelling marsupial of Asian origin, characterised by distinct black and white colouring. Eats shoots and leaves."

Oxford Comma Song by Vampire Weekend 


What do you think about using an Oxford (serial) comma? I'm confused as hell.
Wednesday, April 17, 2013

She Writes with Love - for Katie Jennings


I have a story for Katie Jenning's friend. I just wrote it for her now because she may be young and not knowing love is sometimes a faery tale and sometimes Persephone finds it in Hades and comes back.

I don’t expect it to be in the eBook as her good friends have already collaborated but I will send it to you now.

It’s about a Pirate Duke.....................................
.............and a Princess, whom I court for 39 years.

  • I published this same faery tale a few days ago. 

  • I want it to have a new twist and so I invite my readers to make their own ending. I will give you three alternative endings. You may choose one or write your own. Your choice. Or neither or none.


  • Do you think it was wise for the Duke to wait so long before rolling the gold dust into a ring?

  • Should the violent Princess accept it?

  • What do you think of the new ending(s)?

  • What's your favorite? Traditional, baroque, postmodern, or insane?

  • I wait for your own stories of love unrequited for 39 years and its conclusion, successful or otherwise.

A LOVE STORY FOR A FAERY PRINCESS AND A DUKE


Her eyes were black and deep like a subterranean pool, her skin olive, her nose aquiline; she said she was Irish. “The black Irish” my mother would have said, and with that came the kiss of the blarney stone, for she was double-tongued and manipulative. I thought she was probably First Nations, Indian dark skinned and salt and pepper hair, and I thought she was bipolar because of her insane mood swings and her long episodes of withdrawal.

She and I shared that secret.

I was forward, dark too, honest and blunt. Persephone loved me for I came from a secret place in the underground, cursed by Hades. I thought I was possessed by the Devil and indeed I was, the devil's spawn this Dark Duke I was, and courted by his demons in Hell. I had escaped only to find the faery Princess more knowledgeable than I. She saw through me to the dark pits of my soul and was frightened, but more shocked than frightened, and more sickened than shocked. So she loved me and tried to help.

In 1974 she broke the hell hound’s spell when she confronted the Beast within me. Since then she fled, fearing the goblins and fiends unleashed as I ran wild over the heather in northern Scotland and the shamrocks in County Cork, wild to the pubs of Canada, the Druid and Kelly’s Bar, unable to imbibe because the whiskey had got the best of me by then. That scared her too, no doubt, I have no means of knowing because I didn’t see her again until 1991.

By that time I was tamed but splashing holy water on the walls of the psychiatric hospital to still the flames that roared from Hades in every crack of the old building. It worked, too, especially when the staff murdered me with a lethal injection.

They didn’t really kill me, of course, any more than they killed the love I had for her and she for me. I was a violent pirate Duke and she was a faery Princess who believed in violence to strip away the evil that lurked in every man's soul. The evil that lurked in my own in particular, although when I looked in a mirror the fierceness vomited back at my image and I was cured through homeopathy.

By 2009 I loved her enough to go to jail for her and say I was guilty of her own offense, her offense of lying and control and holding grudges.



The offense was really love and hope, though, and I pleaded love and hope.
Somewhere over the desire of the mountain to the east, rose a pink blush of moon. Not the sun yet, though that would come after the long silver night had shivered and worn its way down the horizon.

A thousand suns would rise on the morning we awakened, blasting the feeble goblins in Hell to sing anthems, and Hades himself to smile at the triumph of something he could not control, the triumph of her love over mine, and my love over the weakness of my body and mind.

She never liked the pirate or the Duke but bits of them remain to tease and torment her.

They may explain my triumph now, in the 39th year, and the desire of the mountain is gold dust in my hand.

 I won’t forge a chain with it, or a ring. I’ll blow the dust onto the stamens of her orchids and ask for forgiveness and compassion, which once she offered but I did not accept.

If there is a ring it speaks of hope, compassion, forgiveness, forbearance, patience, laughter, and love.

Don’t take yourself too seriously, Duke, the faery princess will not always love you. She will care for you intermittently as you’ll be a Pirate till the day you die, and the lady does not always love an outlaw.

 It’s not so easy to be a lady’s duke and love a lady who loves control, but that, too, can change.

As the dove came back to Noah and the thrush sang Aura Lee, the white bird entwined with roses came back to her and me.

I wrote it today for Katie's friend, thinking she would not get another love story like this one. 
 I may save it for a future novel, of a Black Duke and a violent Faery Princess who are brought together by roses and music after 40 years of wandering…

ALTERNATIVE ENDING I

  • It's not so easy to be a lady's duke and know that every lady loves your charms and interesting soul.

  • It's not easy to be a lovely Faery Princess and know that your handsome warrior will never be yours for more than a day in 40 years.
  • As the dove came back to Noah and the thrush sang Aura Lee, the white bird tangled in thorns sang its song for her and me.

ALTERNATIVE ENDING II


  •  It's not easy to be a Duke Pirate and love the adventure more than the lady herself.

  • It's not easy to be a violent Princess who controls the destiny of the obsessed man she loves.
  •  A murder of crows surrounded us in the graveyard where we met and the dove was wet with tears. I took my arrow and killed the dove, and the lady buried it in her garden and wept that a little bit of love should die so soon.

ALTERNATIVE ENDING III

  • I presented with army and shield, and a red sun behind me. 




  • The Princess romped on the hills of Rome in a toga and sandals. 

 

  • We were one for the history of all dangerous Dukes and careful Faeries. We loved one another like butter loves corn, like the cherry blossoms of spring, like magnolia trees and fountains in spring, like the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen classical Chinese gardens of Vancouver where history and culture intertwine, and we are not Roman nor First Nations nor Irish nor Scottish, we are Canadian lovers who have loved since the first sunrise.
Map of Canada

  •  She is a stranger in a strange land and I am a poor wayfaring stranger in my own skin, or was before she stitched up my many wounds with her careful hands.
  • Now the dove comes back to Noah and we celebrate, but gently, for the violence has forced us to take care.
Pastel bird on a branch

  • The white roses cascade from the sword, which cuts the Gordian knot and frees us.
  • We love.
White rose
Man running free


Plane flying into sunrise