The World Under The Oak Tree.

click to enlarge

To my dearest friends and followers,

Do you see the little red-haired girl in the garden outside her father's castle? She is crying, crying as she desperately holds onto the black hound for comfort.

The boy notices her. He is nothing more than an apprentice blacksmith and the illegitimate son of a poor farmer. He notices her, only the little red-haired girl doesn't know it. He stands silently in the distance, watching. Someone like him would never be allowed to speak to someone like her, but still he stands, watching, wondering, "is she as lonely as I am?"

And in that moment, his heart felt what her heart felt. He felt connected to her. He had never felt connected to anyone or anything before.

He would come back to see her. He even rescued her one time from a vicious monster, held her small body in his arms. She patted against his chest, begging him to save her "puppy". Once she was no longer in danger, he went back to the brave black hound, who had died trying to protect his girl.

The boy left her wondering why her four-legged companion had not returned to her. How could he tell her he had buried her best friend?

Fate would take him away, to far away places, in search of a better life - a life to make something of himself. He would become a mercenary. He would become the greatest swordsmen in the continent and he would be knighted, granted land and a castle, and placed as the commander of the Remdragon Knights.

In his darkest times, he could remember the only happy memories he had. He would remember her, the little red-haired girl from his boyhood. He would remember her in the garden, surrounded by lush green grass and bright fragrant flowers. He would remember blue skies and white puffy clouds. He would remember her sitting amidst it all, picking up shiny pebbles he had left for her the day before. He would remember the smile on her face and the light in her eyes as she added them to her collection of trinkets she found in the garden.

He remembered her so often, that he wished for his visions of her to be real. One day, fate brought him to her father's castle again. And he saw her, recognized her by her long red locks tied neatly behind her back. She had grown into a beautiful young woman. And she did not remember him. After all, why would she? He was no one. A mere servant. A blacksmith.

His heart aching, he would leave once again. He would face many hardships, fight many battles, and raid countless monster lairs. He would spend the harsh winter outside with his comrades, in the name of his duty as a knight. Eventually he would have the chance to marry her. And marry her he reluctantly would, for though he loved her, he hated the way she looked at him, like she feared him, saw him as some sort of monster.

He had wanted her for so long, but not like this, not unless she wanted him too. He didn't want to be forced into it, manipulated, humiliated, his life endangered because of it. She was scared, feeling exposed and violated during their wedding night and he was to blame. While she slept, he left for three long years, fighting in a battle that had earned her as his wife.

During his absence, he sent many to escort her to his castle, but he heard she did not want to leave. Why would she? She was the daughter of a duke and could not possibly be expected to leave her life of luxury to live in his old castle.

If only he had known she was abused by her father during those three years. If only he had known she had been abused by her father since she was a small child. If only he had known she sought comfort in the black hound because no one loved her, no one cared for her. But the hound did. The hound comforted her in her darkest times and then died saving her.

If only he had known. If only he knew...

Yours Truly,

Me

(This is the story Under the Oak Tree and Riftan's POV by Korean author, Suji Kim.)

I kept seeing the comic version advertised on Facebook and Instagram. Finally I started reading and was immediately hooked. Once I finished comic version, I discovered it was adapted from a webnovel, so I had to read that too! It's so so so good. It's very well written and well translated if you read the English version, and it's possibly some of the best character-development in a story that I've ever seen. I might write a post entirely on that...

I highly recommend reading Under The Oak Tree. I proudly give this ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐!!

ADDITIONAL:

- Under the Oak Tree (webnovel - official English translation)

Pay by chapter. Costs somewhere around 70usd

- Riftan's POV (chapter 195 - webnovel - official English translation)

Pay by chapter.

- Under the Oak Tree (novel version, same as webnovel version)

Buy part 1-5 on Amazon. Costs about 20usd

- Under the Oak Tree (Manta comics - comic version)

Pay by monthly subscription. Costs 3.99usd

- Riftan's POV (ridibooks)

Not sure how to use this site haha, it's in Korean

I've Been Better.

To my dearest friends and followers,
and to my fellow creatives,

Whew. It's been a while since I've written anything. I feel a bit guilty and upset with myself for allowing that to happen, but I'm here now, so I hope we can all move forward together.

Basically, since about the middle/end of January, I've been dealing with a lot of stress. I got some sort of infection on my right leg - possibly a staff infection. It wasn't bad at first. In fact, I didn't really pay much attention to it at all, thinking it wasn't much of an issue. And this is where I messed up. Big time.

Delaying any sort of treatment allowed the infection to spread to both legs and get really bad, to the point I had to walk with crutches because my right leg had gotten so swollen. But I finally realized there was an issue - a serious one at that - and began treating it right away. It slowly got worse and worse as the days passed, and I grew more and more tired. The infection made me stressed which caused the healing to slow down. The pain and discomfort caused me to not be able to sleep. The exhaustion also slowed the healing process.

And because I was exhausted and stressed, I felt like I didn't want to do anything - including working on finishing my novel - a feat I still have not completed.

After several weeks, my legs finally started to show progress. And, by the end of February, I could finally walk again without the aid of the crutches. I could finally leave the house and go do something. I was excited!! My husband and I celebrated by getting food, and doing some shopping and just having fun.

I guess we celebrated a little too soon though. As outside drama kept rising up and causing more stress for me, the infection flared up in both my legs again!!
Needless to say, this year has been extremely difficult and stressful for me so far and not AT ALL what I intended. All positive thoughts and prayers are appreciated for healing!!

Here we are in the later half of March, and the knowledge that I still haven't finished my novel is still weighing down pretty heavy on me. In an attempt to turn things around, I did make the decision, after participating in NaNoWriMo for 3 non-consecutive years, to participate for the first time in Camp NaNo, a month long writing challenge beginning on April 1st!!

Here's to hoping next month is a better month.

Thank you so much for reading!!

Yours Truly,

Me

Additional:

check out my first novel, The Story of Hollyhocks: Tales from Beyond the Veil book 1
Vinyl stickers available in my ko-fi shop!!
Jack Frost handmade journal.

The Nutcracker.

To my dearest friends and followers,

Have you ever read a book by the name of The Story of a Nutcracker or The Nutcracker of Nuremberg or simply, The Nutcracker? I am talking about the book written not by the original author, E.T.A. Hoffman, but by Alexandre Dumas, the French writer known for his other works, The Count Of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers.

I became infatuated with the story as a small child when I watched, for the first time, Barbie in the Nutcracker. I then began to collect my own Nutcracker dolls, as I wanted to have one just like the character in the story. And then one turned into twenty-one. As a teenager, I saw the Nutcracker ballet performed, and only one year after that, I saw it performed by the Moscow Ballet. To date, I have seen it twice by the Moscow Ballet and I still love the story every bit as much as I did when I was a kid.

Alexandre Dumas wrote a retelling of Hoffman's story in 1844. Why? I have no idea. Supposedly, it was Dumas' version that inspired Tchaikovsky to compose the now world-famous Nutcracker suite.

So, before I get started talking about Alexandre Dumas' The Nutcracker, I should point out that I've actually never read the original by Hoffman. I know, how can I even consider myself a fan, but hey, I have every intention to read it  - one day...

I don't know how much Dumas' version differs from the original, but I must say, it's quite a bit different from the version I'm sure most of us are familiar with, thanks to the ballet. In a word, it's dark. Much darker than I ever knew the story to be.

And it often makes the reader question, what is real and what is not? I was very confused throughout most of the story. 

The author spends the preface explaining his whereabouts and why he is to retell the story - basically, he's being held captive by the children of the party he has attended and they demand he tell them a story. So he does of course. 

He tells them of young Mary and her brother, Fritz. Now, mind you, it never really says the age of the children, but I imagine Mary is about 6 years old. I'm not sure about Fritz, sometimes I think he's older than Mary, and sometimes I think he's younger (the story might have said whether he was older or not, but I can't remember).

It's Christmas day and Godfather Drosselmayer brings the children gifts, including a Nutcracker doll for Mary.

At night, when the children are supposed to go to bed, Mary asks her mama if she can stay up just a little bit longer to finish putting her toys away, to which her mama agrees. Suddenly, the clock doesn't chime the hour and Mary thinks she sees Godfather Drosselmayer sitting on top of it, preventing it from striking. The absence of the chime doesn't scare away the mice as it seems it usually does, and the mice enter the room and a great battle breaks out between the mice and the toys. The Mouse King has seven heads and is quite terrifying. Just when he is about to kill the Nutcracker, Mary throws her shoe at him and he leaves, but threatens that he will be back to finish the Nutcracker.

Mary then wakes up the next day in bed and everyone thinks her delirious from an injury she had gotten the day before. However, while she is in bed, Drosselmayer tells her a story.

It is about a pretty princess who is only a baby, and one day, Dame Mousey (the not-so-friendly castle mouse) crawls into the crib of the baby and bites her nose. However, this leaves the princess with an ugly head, much too large for her body, a thick beard, and a smile that stretches from ear to ear. I suppose Dame Mousey is an enchantress of sorts? But the narrator never tells us.

Dame Mousey distorts the princess's beauty out of revenge when the king had her seven sons killed.

Drosselmayer, the mechanician in this story, gets together with the astrologist to come up with what to do about the princess.

At one point, the mechanician takes apart the infant princess, removing her head, her arms and her legs, in an attempt to see if he can repair her. When he finds that he cannot, he puts her back together - like she's a doll...

Mechanician Drosselmayer and the astrologist discover that they need a crackatook nut and it can only be cracked by the Nutcracker, a boy who has never shaven and who has always worn boots. This will cure the princess of her current state when she then eats said nut. Basically, the king gives them until the princess is of age to be married. Years later, the two men return empty handed with only a few months to spare. The king is angry, but allows them to return to Nuremberg, their hometown, until their execution day. When they return home, they go to Drosselmayer's brother's house, where he had the crackatook nut the entire time, AND his son, Nathaniel Drosselmayer, who is sometimes called the Nutcracker, has never shaved, and has always worn boots. They attach a wooden plank to the young man, as if he is a nutcracker doll, and return to the kingdom.

The young man is able to crack the nut when they pull on the wooden plank, and he gives it to the princess. When she eats it, she returns to her former beauty. Being now 15 years of age, and Nathaniel Drosselmayer 17 years of age, they were promised to marry, but when Nathaniel steps backward, he steps on Dame Mousey, who curses him. He then becomes exactly like a Nutcracker doll,  and the princess finds him repulsive.

In Dame Mousey's dying words, she says to the Nutcracker, that he will have to win a great battle and defeat the seven-headed mouse - descended from her seven sons, and that a girl will have to fall in love with him, despite his uglyness.

Mary recovers and firmly believes that her Nutcracker is the one from the story. She is determined to help him and does everything she can to protect him from the mouse king who keeps returning. Eventually, the Nutcracker defeats his opponent and takes Mary to the Kingdom of toys. I still couldn't tell if she was dreaming or if this is her imagination or if it's real or if something else is going on? Basically, the next day, Nathaniel Drosselmayer shows up at the house, only he isn't a teenager, he is a child. He and Mary get married one year later (so I'm guessing she's like, 7 now?) and rule the Kingdom of toys together.

The book was very creative and full of interesting characters and silly occurrences, but what the heck did I just read?! I finished the book feeling very confused. Maybe it's just about a child's imagination? I think that's the only thing that makes sense, because otherwise it doesn't make sense and I don't know what actually happened and what Mary dreamt happened and my head started to hurt.

In the book, there is a doll named Clair who belongs to Mary. This doll seems to have some (possibly romantic?) interest in the Nutcracker, though it is never really explored or even mentioned again. I wonder if this was the inspiration for the ballet, where we see the main character shrink down to the size of the nutcracker? Or possibly I'm missing something having not read the original.

Really interesting story though. At the very least, it's cool to see the roots of the Nutcracker ballet that I love so much and I'd say it's definitely worth a read just for that sake.

I would like to note that the version I read was published in 2018 by Fall River Press. While the book is beautiful on the outside, it was very poorly put together with several typos and errors. Also, the illustrations do not match the story, but instead, the part that is illustrated happens several pages later. If you want a copy, maybe try the Penguin classic or something else..?

Thank you for reading!!

Yours truly,

Me

Additional:

Check out my book, The Story of Hollyhocks: Tales from Beyond the Veil (book 1)

The Nutcracker and the Mouse King and The Tale of the Nutcracker by E.T.A. Hoffman and Alexandre Dumas (2-in-1 Penguin Classic)

Looking at 2021.

To my dearest friends and followers,
and to my fellow creatives,

It's now 2022 and we can wave goodbye to yet another crazy year. 

I feel like a lot happened in my life. I let go of some things and I have found myself a little bit and begun to explore what it means to be human - to be an adult in a new world (for me), to experience things I've never experienced before. I feel like I'm taking more time for myself to just exist and to be happy.

I've also allowed some people in my life whom I thought would never be a part of it. I've grown closer to some and distanced myself from others, I believe for the best.

I went to the library several times and I checked out books for the first time ever!! That was pretty exciting. Somehow, I still managed to finish the year having read less books than I wanted to, but at least I hit my Goodreads goal of 10 books. XD

In July, I brought a new member into the family, the Samantha doll 35th anniversary edition, from American Girl. :D

In August, I bought a book from ScribeForge titled, The Essential Worldbuilding Blueprint and Workbook. I worked through it in about 2 months with my sister and WOWZA. It is such a good book and has really helped me not only appreciate good storytelling/worldbuilding in other people's stories, but also how to better create a world for my own book. So any writers out there, you might just wanna take a look at that.

In October I got to spend my birthday with my sister, which hasn't happened in several years, so that was a really great time. My husband and I also started going to an artist meetup and have made a few new acquaintances, which is cool. I love having the opportunity to make more creative friends. 

In November, I participated in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). I was working on my second novel, The Death of Jack: Tales from Beyond the Veil (book 2). I did not finish the book by any means, but I hit 50k, making me a NaNo winner, and doubling my word count in the process.

I ended up taking December off, playing an mmorpg (massively multiplayer online role-playing game) and building a great community there with my sister, but now that it's January, I am writing again with a goal of a minimum of 500 words a day. The goal is to have the book finished by the end of February. Fingers crossed that I can pull that off. XD

I would also like to add that I have some handmade journals and some stickers of my main character, Jack, available in my Ko-fi shop, so I would love it if you checked those out, maybe got one for yourself or a friend.

I'm looking forward to a new year and the possibilities that come with it!!

Thank you so much for reading,

Yours Truly,

Me

ADDITIONAL:

Jack Frost handmade journal

Jack Frost vinyl sticker

The Story of Hollyhocks: Tales from Beyond the Veil (book 1)