Wednesday, April 12, 2017

Portfolio Guide

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First Portfolio Story: Greek Invasion
  • Story with a twist on the usual battle between Greeks and Trojans. Achilles must fight the greatest warrior in the land, Hector. Who will prevail?








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Second Portfolio Story: Origin of Camilla
  • Odysseus is used to being the man in charge. Never anything to stop him. After he is trapped by Circe, an unlikely hero named Camilla must emerge to rescue her crew members.
(Romeo and Juliet  --  Snapshots of the Past)
Source: Flickr
Third Portfolio Story: Lil Romero
  • Romero has his eyes set on the most gorgeous girl in his class. He never has the courage to talk to her and doesn't know what he should do. You'll find out that he is willing to go to great lengths to win her over. Will she fall in love with him?







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Fourth Portfolio Story: The Old Man and an Aching Tooth
  • This is a story filled with Blackfoot Indian folklore characters that are set up in an accumulative telling style. An old man can fix his tooth ache, but an unlikely sequence of events may just be the thing to help him. (Probably my favorite style to write. I would highly recommend trying it out!)

Sunday, April 2, 2017

Reading Notes Week 11: King Arthur, Part B

It's interesting that some of the stories have chosen not to include King Arthur at all. I find that pretty good so I can focus on other characters which I could choose to use in my storytelling. It's nice to get a better feel of who the different Knights of the Round Table are since they are a big part of King Arthur's stories.

I'm confused as to why Sir Galahad was so afraid of having Sir Lancelot recognize him? Sir Lancelot is his father, so I must have missed the issue there.

The transition between the stories, "Sir Galahad and the White Knight" and "Sir Lancelot's Vision" is really unique. I like how the majority of the story is focused on Sir Galahad as promised by the title, but at the very end Sir Lancelot comes into the picture, and the story is handed off to him. It would interesting to try to write a story of similar style, but it may be difficult with only 1000 words. I could probably do it, but I don't want the writing to seem too brief between the stories.

The transition into the next character focused story is similar to the last with a new knight taking over the scene. I like getting the viewpoint from so many different characters, but maybe the title of "King Arthur" should be changed slightly to signify that so many story don't involve him.

Okay, so it wasn't until later on that Sir Lancelot found out that Sir Galahad was his son! I wonder if Sir Galahad new Sir Lancelot was his father earlier on when he avoided him at the end of the first story in part B (Finally both know and meet towards the end).

There quite a few familial connections involved in these King Arthur tales. Some of them are hard to keep track of. Sir Gawain as Arthur's nephew, Sir Ector (Arthur's foster brother) younger half-brother of Sir Lancelot.

The last story wrapping up the end of King Arthur's rule includes all of the Knights previously mentioned. I think that a unique way to end it with all of them mourning together.
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Bibliography:
 King Arthur, by Andrew Lang

Saturday, April 1, 2017

Reading Notes Week 11: King Arthur, Part A

(King Arthur  --  Balog Janos)
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I loved tales about King Arthur growing up, so hopefully these are either pretty similar to ones I've heard or they are new and exiting! Either way, it should be a win win to read.

Introducing the tale about King Arthur, the story "The Drawing of the Sword" reminds me a lot of the cartoon movie, The Sword in the Stone. Whoever pulls the sword out is the ruler and Merlin was even in that too. I have a feeling King Arthur may be just the person for the job. It is almost exactly like that movie. The only difference is that in the movie, the boy is a servant to the man he is bringing the sword unlike in this tale where he is the foster brother. I am glad that Sir Ector and Sir Kay were kind to Arthur when they realized what he had done with the sword. I was expecting them to be jealous and try to take the sword for themselves.

I am a little confused as to why King Arthur needed a new sword? I know he lost his other one, but I figured that sword was excalibur, since he pulled it from the stone. I guess he had two magical swords then.

Plot twist with Merlin being trapped under a rock by his own student, Vivian. She was very cunning, but I am also surprised that Merlin was not more weary to go under the rock. He told King Arthur about the prophecy, so I would have thought he could better guard against it. It must have been his destiny or something of the sorts.

I think the moral of the story about the quest for the Holy Graal (is this a typo? I'm not sure if it was supposed to be "Grail") is a good one. The knights of the round table are so focused on something that they can't reach, they end up losing sight of what responsibilities they need to take care of. The different lengths of each story makes them more interesting to read. I am used to most stories sticking with a consistent length, but this style sort of mixes things up.

Bibliography: King Arthur, by Andrew Lang