EC Reading Notes: Wonder Tales from Tibet

This book in particular caught my eye because I have been reading and watching documentaries on Tibet recently. It is a beautiful region in China, but it is also mysterious. It is nearly impossible for humans to live in some parts of Tibet and the animals that live there are unlike any others in the world. I am excited to read historical myths from this specific region.

In the preface, Jewett discusses how she found these stories in different pamphlets and books over the years and decided to compile them into a book. She has changed some of them so that they are appropriate for children. I like how she included this information in her preface because it not only gives a background on the stories themselves, but also the authors. Jewett created this book to teach American children the stories of distant lands that haven't been told for many years.

The stories in the book are much longer than the others I have read in this class, so I am excited to get to know the characters, unlike in the other stories. One thing that I have said before is that I don't like how myths take away the personal aspect of a story. Most of the time the authors don't even bother to include names; they write to merely tell a story. In my opinion, however, a story is nothing without names, descriptions, and details.

Tibet.

"Wonder Tales from Tibet" by Eleanore Myers Jewett.

Project: Rockabye Baby

Ominous rocking chair.

The following diary entries were written by the late Viktor Petrova in 1989. The diary was recently discovered by Moscow Police after receiving an anonymous tip to re-open the cold case of “The Moscow Murderous Mother.” Officials doubted the unknown female source at first, but when the diary was found, the police immediately decided to re-open the unsolved murder, suicide case of 1989.

December 25, 1989

7:00 a.m.

It’s a Christmas miracle! My wife Anastasia and I are about to be parents to the most beautiful baby girl in the world. At first, we were unsure if we wanted to be told what sex she was before she was born, but I am so glad we know. The nursery has been decorated to perfection by Ana, along with almost every other room in the apartment; but who can blame her? She has been the happiest she has ever been in her life during these past nine months, apart from the countless hormonal mood swings. I can’t even imagine how she is going to feel when she holds our little girl Natasha in her arms for the first time.

6:00 p.m.

I can’t believe this is happening. The doctors said that they had to perform a last-minute C-Section and Ana lost a lot of blood in the process. Natasha is sound asleep in the nursery, but how am I supposed to love the child who killed the most important person in my life? I know that every time I look into her eyes I will see my Ana, lifeless on a hospital bed.

December 26, 1989

5:00 a.m.

I know Ana would have wanted me to care for our child so I am going to try my best to stay strong. I stayed up until almost 1:00 a.m. rocking Natasha in the chair, but the crying never ceased. The nurses had told me that she was refusing to eat at the hospital, but I didn’t think that would continue throughout the night. After a few hours of attempting to feed her, I gave up and returned Natasha to her crib, where she continued to cry for another 30 minutes. I think I dozed off somewhere between 3:00 and 3:30 a.m., but the crying woke me again at 4:00. I thought I heard a door shut right before Natasha began crying again, but I know that it must be my paranoia getting the best of me.

December 27, 1989

12:30 a.m.

Well, after one of the longest days of my life, Natasha is finally resting. Again, I thought I heard the nursery door shut precisely at 12:00 a.m., but when I went to check on the baby, she seemed to be sleeping peacefully.

1:30 a.m.

I keep hearing noises coming from the nursery, but every time I go to check on Natasha, she is fast asleep. I can’t tell if the noises are real or if they are merely a figment of my imagination, but I just want Natasha to be safe. I don’t think I could handle losing her too.

11:30 p.m.

When Natasha and I went to the doctor for her checkup this morning, he was surprised to hear that she was refusing to eat. I believe his exact words were, “Natasha is perfectly healthy and actually seems to be eating more than the average newborn.” I found this odd since she has refused me every single time I have tried to feed her. Tonight, I am going to keep watch on the nursery to make sure that everything is okay. I keep telling myself that I am being paranoid, but there is still a little voice inside my head saying I am doing the right thing. It is better to be safe than sorry and I know that once I am reassured of Natasha’s safety, I will finally be able to get some sleep.

December 28, 1989

3:00 a.m.

I was sitting in the living room only a few feet from the nursery when I heard the door slam shut. I hadn’t seen anyone come in the house, but I knew I wasn’t being paranoid this time. I was quieter than normal so I could catch the intruder; but when I opened the door, Natasha was, again, sound asleep in the crib. However, the chair in the corner was rocking back and forth, hitting the wall each time. I shut the door and immediately swung it open again. There in the corner was my wife Anastasia, holding our daughter. Natasha suckled on Ana’s breast, but when Ana looked up and saw me in the doorway, she froze; and so did Natasha. Ana’s eyes peered into my soul, but they were lifeless. Her skin was almost translucent and her bones seemed to poke through. I ran over to Natasha, but right when I grabbed her I knew that something wasn’t right. Anastasia immediately vanished into thin air and I fell into the rocking chair, holding the now lifeless Natasha in my arms. I bawled for what seemed like hours and finally placed my dead child back in her crib.

This bring us to now. I’m sitting here at the kitchen table with a gun in my hand, deciding whether it’s worth it to stay on this Earth without them…I don’t think I will ever be able to comprehend what I saw back there...Everything I thought I knew is now irrelevant…

God, help me.

Viktor Petrova committed suicide on December 28, 1989. Moscow Police are determined to find the woman who is responsible for the death of Natasha Petrova; but, with no more evidence presenting itself, these diary entries could be the closest the officials get to finding out what happened that night.

Author's Note: My story is based on the Russian myth "The Dead Mother." In the original story, a mother dies in child birth and the child's father is left to raise her alone. The baby refuses to eat and it cries incessantly. When the nanny goes to check on the sleeping child during the night, she sees the child's mother breastfeeding the baby; but when the nanny goes to retrieve the child, it is dead. This story is extremely dark, but I wanted to make it more personal for the reader. I did this by putting it in diary entry style writing because it lets the reader hear the father's thoughts. Like in many myths, the characters are never given names, but this can also take away from the personal element that I think every story needs. I also decided to include an introduction and conclusion paragraph, discussing the case of "The Moscow Murderous Mother." Although this is a fictional case, it makes the story more intriguing and mysterious because it introduces what happens before and also discusses what happened after the last diary entry. The story of 'The Dead Mother" is a part of the book called "Russian Fairy Tales" by W. R. S. Ralston. I included the original location for the setting of my story to commemorate where the idea came from.

"The Dead Mother" by W. R. S. Ralston

Story Planning: Rockabye Baby

I have already planned a lot of my story in the previous reading notes post, but I am going to be more specific in this one. As I said before, I am writing a modern rendition of the story "The Dead Mother" from the book "Russian Fairy Tales" by W. R. S. Ralston. This story caught my eye, however Ralston does not go into detail about the characters or the background of the story. These things are very important when trying to reel in the reader.
The first paragraph will be set in Moscow, Russia in December 1889. I want to write in the form of diary entries so that the reader can get a behind the scenes view on the action. The first diary entry will be written by the mother's husband. It will describe the entire day of the birth, from beginning to end, and how both characters were feeling during the time. Feelings are so incredibly important when connecting with a character and when trying to put yourself into the story.
The second paragraph will be a diary entry set in America in December 1890. It will be written by the child's adopted mother and will discuss her and her husband's feelings throughout the adoption process and after the child comes home. I want to make this story scary and descriptive and I think it could be my best story yet. I decided to hold off on writing it because I didn't want to rush myself. This story has potential and I want it to be as best as possible.


cute child

Russian Fairy Tales by W.R.S. Ralston

Reading Notes: Russian Fairy Tales, Part B

Although I am sure that my previous storytelling assignment idea would be a good option, I also want to explore other chapters of the book. This week has been one of my favorites because the story I chose is exactly about something I would read in my spare time. The supernatural characters don't have names, nor does Ralston focus on the details. However, in my story this week, no matter what it is about, I want to include those details and the personal element.
The story that caught my eye was "The Headless Princess." It is about a boy who peers through a princess's window and just as he does, the princess removes her head, dresses it up, and returns it to its rightful place. The princess then fell ill and demanded that that boy be the one who reads the psalter next to her coffin. The boy consulted his grandmother, who gave him advice on how to keep evil spirits from harming him. However, when the boy showed up to read, the princess escaped the coffin and tried to cast spells and conjure up horrors. The boy continued reading the psalms aloud, which meant the magic would not affect him. When the king was told of his daughter's mental and physical state, he demanded she be executed.
I am thinking that I could use this story, but in a more modern sense. I have the idea to incorporate the current Royal Family and making Princess Margaret share this wretched secret. No one in the Royal Family is aware of this, until a member of the palace staff witness her switched her heads in the night. I plan to make the story set in the 1970s, since Princess Margaret is no longer alive. I want to include other Royal Family characters in the story as well, while still keeping the themes and ideas of Ralston.


The headless princess choosing her hairstyle and head for the evening.

Russian Fairy Tales by W. R. S. Ralston.

Reading Notes: Russian Fairy Tales, Part A

I have never read a Russian fairy tale before, but this book immediately caught my attention when the description said it included vampires and other supernatural creatures. I had been wondering if we would have the opportunity to read myths about vampires, but it makes sense that they come from Russia.
My first impression is that the book is going to be gruesome and dark. The titles of each of the chapters are simple, yet ominous, such as "Friday" and "The Two Corpses." Each of the chapters are there own stories, none of them being related to each other. I plan to continue this theme in my story this week by including a short and mysterious title.
The first chapter, "The Dead Mother", is about a child whose mother passed away in childbirth and whose father has to take care of her alone. The child was uncooperative and refused to eat every time it was fed, which was strange for a newborn. In the middle of the night, the people keeping watch on the child realized that someone had been breaking into the house and breastfeeding the child while everyone else was asleep.
In my story this week, I have the idea to incorporate this idea, but put a more modern twist on it. I also want to write it as a horror story or a thriller, which will be a challenge because I have never written a story like this before. I have always enjoyed reading stories with incredibly detailed descriptions of the settings and characters, while still including the fear factor for the audience. An author that I would like to channel in this weeks writing assignment is Edgar Allan Poe because in his stories, such as "The Raven" and "The Tell Tale Heart." He is notorious for his gloomy and dark writing and also including shocking twists. He is very talented in incorporating symbols to foreshadow future misfortunes. My idea is to have a child who has been adopted by a couple after its mother died in childbirth. The baby doesn't stop crying until about midnight every night and refuses to eat when its adopted mother tries to feed it. When the baby isn't crying, it is sleeping, which is odd for a newborn. They are woken up multiple times throughout the night by noises coming from the baby monitor, but the noises don't sound like crying. When the father goes to check on the child, he sees the child's dead mother standing over the crib with the child suckling on her breast.


The dead mother and her child

Russian Fairy Tales by W.R.S. Ralston

Reading Notes: King Arthur: Tales of the Round Table, Part B

I really want to emphasize writing through the thoughts of King Arthur. Imagine being a young orphan boy who is the destined king. Then, he meets Merlin, the greatest wizard of all time. The original stories that we are reading don't capture the characters' emotions at all. The writing is very detached and impersonal. I enjoy reading stories that develop characters and have back stories. Thoughts, in my opinion, are the most interesting thing to read in a story. The audience gets a sense of a certain character's personality and they literally get to be inside their head. It is amazing that people have written up these characters, but haven't elaborated on their lives at all. I have noticed that many myths have been made into some sort of book or movie, but it still might not give the readers a perspective into the heads of the characters.
I also have the option of putting my story in Merlin's point of view. There must be a lot going on in a wizard's head, especially such a famous one. The powers that he performs and the situations that he easily gets them out of are so fantastic and I think it would be very cool to capture this and write it in an assignment.
This story was actually one of my favorites because I love magic and wizards. Although I had never read these stories before, right when I read the description I knew I would enjoy it.


An encounter with Merlin.

King Arthur: Tales of the Round Table by Andrew Lang

Reading Notes- King Arthur: Tales of the Round Table, Part A

I have never read these stories before, but I have heard of King Arthur and his journeys. I think that it could be interesting to write the stories in the first person point of view. Stories in first person come with a more personal element as opposed to stories that are written without the inside thoughts of characters. King Arthur was a powerful king, but he obviously wasn't pleased all the time and it could be funny to write about what he is thinking during his journeys.
The first story is about the sword in the stone. Knights throughout the land came to attempt to extract the sword, but it wouldn't budge. They had to find the fit king, the only man who could withdraw the sword. I love the fact that Arthur was just a knight's foster son, and when looking for a sword, he stumbled upon the sword in the stone and took it out easily. It is so innocent because he is merely a boy when he is proclaimed king. I think that this part of the story would make a great storytelling assignment. The thoughts that were going through Arthur's head were probably so innocent and naive; and that could give a completely different view into this story. As a reader, I didn't know much about his journey except for what someone could see on the outside. I want to give my audience a look on the inside and how the characters actually think.


This is exactly how I picture the sword in the stone.

King Arthur: Tales of the Round Table retold by Andrew Lang