Sunday, October 18, 2009

Fall Foliage and my Winter Solstice story


October is the peak foliage month here in New Hampshire. This year is especially pretty! There hasn't been much rain, and so we've had some nice sunny and clear days to take pictures.

Speaking of Autumn, I'm currently working on a Winter Solstice story for Emerald Tales.

The theme is "Winter Solstice" and with some googling and research I found that the first people to supposedly celebrate the winter solstice were the Mesopotamians. They had a 12 day Festival of Renewal with offerings designed to help the God Marduk tame the masters of chaos for one year. How cool is that? It's due to the ancient fear that the failing light will never return again.

My story is based on this premise: It's titled, "Darken," and it's about a young girl in Mesopotamia who catches a scribe stealing the offerings for Marduk on the 12th day of the festival of Renewal. It's due Nov. 1st, so I'm feverishly writing to get it done.

My question today is: When you think of Winter Solstice, what comes to mind? Shortening days? Christmas? What would your Winter Solstice story be about?

3 comments:

Cherie Reich said...

That tree is so pretty. We are starting to see some trees changing already, but they aren't supposed to peak for another week or two.

As for you story, Mesopotamia has some cool stories there. Sorry. We learned about them in my Comparative Mythology class, so I'm looking forward to reading your story.

I'm planning to write an ancient Roman horror story based on the festival of Saturnalia. It's often what I think about when I think of the Winter Solstice and such. Then again, I've had all that Latin/Roman training in my Classics program. *laughs*

Aubrie said...

Boy, I hope I get it right! You can definitely help me with the details. I'll look up Saturnalia and see what it is!

Cherie Reich said...

I'll be glad to help you with the details. *begins thinking about what she learned about them in classes*