Snow Days
In education, we all love a good snow weekday or Sunday. In fact, especially us teachers, very often have the various “Snow Dances” going on whenever a cold front is heading our way. Unless, of course, you never get out for snow because you walk to school, your bus has automatic drop-down tire chains, or you live somewhere like Hawaii. BUT if you live anywhere below the Mason-Dixon line, the announcement of a snow day is accompanied with choirs of angels singing and divine rays of light filtering through the atmosphere. They are holy. It’s a surprise day off for the kids as well as the teachers—no faculty meetings, no professional development, no required being in your rooms staring out the windows at the beautiful white stuff adorning the world around you.
When the announcement that school was going to be closed today, my first reaction was “Hallelujah, I’m sleeping in!” And when I got up this morning and had my usual quiet time writing routine (I did miss sunrise, though. I mean, I said I was going to sleep in.), I started thinking about snow days and how they look elsewhere. Then those musings changed to how it might look in Exulias; and I have to say, they didn’t look good. You live in a kingdom inside a mountain. You don’t have to leave the mountain to go to school. It’s probably just down the corridor from your room, right? No walking six miles through ten feet of snow both ways. Just opening your door, turning down the hall, a short feet dragging walk, and you’re at school. Sad, really.
Probably the only way you’d get out of school in Exulias is death in the family, clan holiday, or being sick—faked or real. Faking illness wouldn’t work for Finn or Kwin, unfortunately. Their mother, Hil, is Exulias’ healer; so, no matter how good a show Finn would put on to get out of going to school, I thoroughly doubt he’d trick his mother. She was zeroed into his prankish nature from day. one of his life and is one of a very, very few who can see through him. These thoughts led me to write a short, and I found, highly amusing piece of Finn trying to get out of school to avoid a test. He was able to trick his father, Bearn, but not Hil; and the consequences for his actions were dire to his mind. I laughed at the piece.
I’m not sharing it, though. It’s just a silly, whimsical segment that I wrote merely because it came to mind. I might use pieces of it in future stories or adapt it in someway, but right now, it’s not ready to share. Or at least, that’s how I feel about it. Writing the story was fun. Imagining my Finn trying to pull one over on his parents brought me happily back into the realm of Exulias once again; and I have to admit, that kingdom and its dwarves are my most favorite characters and places to write about. They’re silly, heartwarming, amusing, frustrating—basically my family—and I adore being in their world. That’s important when you write, especially fantasy. If you can’t imagine yourself in that world interacting with those characters enjoying every moment, I don’t think your writing will ring true.
You always ahve to find a bit of yourself in your worlds and find what makes you you for the realms to be accessible for your audience. I do believe that Middle Earth was Tolkien’s love and he often walked its lands in his dreams and musings. That’s why it works and that’s why so many millions of people have walked those paths themselves usually beside their favorite character(s). I travel MithTerra in my mind and on paper every day. Sometimes the travels make it into a story and sometimes they simply stay on the pages of my journal, not quite ready for print. That’s where this will stay—for the time being, anyway.