Myth, the Universe, and Everything

Here it is, the post you've been waiting for! I "met" Alayna Williams (who is also the pseudonym for urban fantasy novelist Laura Bickle) over at Pocket After Dark in a discussion about book blogging. She mentioned her plans to do a blog tour this coming March for the release of Rogue Oracle, her second novel in the Delphic Oracle series...

At which point I came to a full stop, went and looked up her books to this point, and send her an e-mail. Delphic Oracle, you say? Magic using tarot cards, you say? (And, as Laura Bickle, you're writing UF in Detroit?) Already convinced that she must be awesome, I shot her an e-mail, and all our interactions have confirmed it. Alayna rocks, and she's got a really fun mythic sensibility.

So instead of waiting 'til March, I've brought her over to the blog now to talk about the Oracle at Delphi and Delphi's Daughters. She's also generously offered to give away a copy of her first novel, Dark Oracle (which came out in June), to a commenter on this post! No sophisticated rules, here, gang: one comment is one entry, and if you leave me a link to where you've posted about this elsewhere, we'll give you another entry. (As usual, if you just want to comment, but not be entered, please mention that. *g*) Contest runs through Wednesday the 29th -- we'll announce the winner on Thursday the 30th.

And without further ado: Alayna!



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Ancient and Modern Oracles
by Alayna Williams

The Delphic Oracle is probably the most famous oracle of the ancient world. The priestess of the Temple of Apollo, the Pythia, wielded a great deal of political influence over leaders who sought both her advice and the advice of the priestesses who served the temple. The Temple of Apollo was sited over a crevasse in the earth emitting noxious vapors, leading to modern-day speculation that the Pythia’s visions were not sendings from Apollo, but toxic hallucinations. The Delphic Oracle operated from roughly the eight century BC until 393 AD, when all pagan oracles were ordered to be dismantled by the Emperor. After that, no one knows what became of the priestesses.

I was intrigued by the idea of an order of women exerting subtle and powerful influence over the ancient world. I wondered what would happen if that order of priestesses went underground and survived to the modern day. What would their role in world events be? In Dark Oracle, the title of Pythia is handed down through generations of women, all oracles with their own unique talent for foreseeing the future. Delphi’s Daughters are a secret organization, nudging world events and gathering information through vast networks of helpers. Their behavior is sometimes sinister, sometimes pure, but always secretive. No one but the Pythia herself knows how the puzzle of world events fits together, and her priestesses are often left in the dark, guessing at her motives.

In the worlds of Dark Oracle and Rogue Oracle, the current Pythia is a pyromancer. She sees the future in dancing flames. The heroine of the story, Tara Sheridan, is a cartomancer who uses Tarot cards to create criminal profiles. Other characters have abilities with scrying, astronomy, and geomancy. Delphi’s Daughters come from all walks of life: they are physicists, soccer moms, artists, farmers, and dancers. They are women just like women you know and walk past on the street. But they are women with a secret.

Tara's talents were a challenge to create. Use of Tarot cards requires both an intellectual understanding of the ancient symbolism of the cards, as well as the ability to make intuitive leaps from the cards to one's current situation. Using the cards in her work as a profiler, Tara spends a great deal of time in her own head. She's not a brash woman who rushes into situations with guns blazing. She's a thinker, a planner, and it's simply not in her analytical nature to shoot off at the mouth -- or with her guns -- when she can get her mission accomplished using less attention-getting means. She is accustomed to having to hide her talents from the people with whom she works, which makes her very circumspect... and isolated. Especially since she's survived an attack by a serial killer that has left her scarred for life. She's withdrawn from her work as a profiler and as a member of Delphi's Daughters.



In thinking about how such an order might survive into the modern world, I imagined the limitations inherent in being an oracle in a secret organization. It would require secrecy, sacrificing a large part of one’s life, and committing to a larger ideal. I decided that, as time passed, fewer and fewer women would be interested in unquestioningly serving Delphi’s Daughters. In Dark Oracle, the order is dying out. Tara Sheridan has left the order after her mother died, refusing to return. After surviving an attack by a serial killer that left her scarred for life, she is unable to bear children. And there are no young women in Delphi’s Daughters any longer.

The Pythia must try to continue the line, whatever the cost. She is challenged to convince the rebellious Tara to return. Or she must find new blood to move into the future, a new order for a new age. And blood will be spilled in the process.

-Alayna Williams

A little while ago, dcopulsky, who was a student on the trips in both Ireland and Greece and Turkey, asked if I'd do an interview for his site Question Riot, where he posts new interviews on Thursdays. The interview is now up, and it gets into all of the different kinds of writing that I do, from my bread and butter freelance work to my fiction, RPG, and comics work. Dan asked questions covering the whole gamut, and I had fun answering.

Work has been pouring in lately, which is great in that it means pay checks, but does complicate those goals I submitted to Kaz's Summer Camp. I may have to revise my plans this Tuesday! I have gotten through all of the children's finalists for the Mythopoeic Fantasy Awards, and I turned in my votes this morning. I've got one more adult novel to finish before votes are due on Wednesday, and hopefully I'll finish it tomorrow so I can get back to my review books!

All right, one week to get myself back on my feet, and here I am, returning to ye olde blog. (I was delayed in turning in my short story to my editor, and one of the things I forbade myself from doing was blogging before it was finished and ready to turn in.) But a couple of cool things happened today, and I wanted to make sure to blog about them, and update you guys on my goals from the trip, before Saturday turned into Sunday. (Hopefully, the novel tourism post will go up tomorrow!)

So, first cool thing: my review of Caitlin Kittridge's (blackaire's) novel, Street Magic, went up on Flames Rising. Matt was kind enough to post it for me on a Saturday, because the book has just hit the shelves, and I didn't want to have gotten an advanced reader copy for nothing! It's a really, really excellent novel, which I expound upon in my review. Check out what I had to say, and look for the novel at your local bookstore!

Second cool thing: I finally got to meet Anton Strout (antonstrout) (who is, for the record, the most beloved low-to-midlist urban fantasy writer in America, or so I hear) live and in person. He did a book signing up in Pittsfield, his home stomping grounds and not distant from my college stomping grounds. So finally, I have my books signed. Hooray! I decided that bringing him a PEZ dispenser would border on creepy fangirl, so I decided to eschew it and just bring books and questions and a big smile. He did a reading from the first chapter of Deader Still, which was brilliantly creepy and got wonderful reactions from the audience (including me -- I'd forgotten how vivid, and, frankly, gross, that scene was!). The best part, however, was his commentary -- as he was reading, he'd interrupt himself and tell us little bits about the characters or his word choice or things that he liked about the scene, which was a huge enhancement to the story for me. Also (and I hope I'm not blowing his cover), he is super nice in person. Based on his blog and his books, I was expecting more snark, but he was totally gracious and sweet. (And I'm not just saying this because he might find this entry later. These are honest impressions here!)

The Barnes and Noble in Pittsfield is pretty darn great. They didn't have Pandora's Closet in stock, sadly, but I did pick up Red Headed Stepchild by Jaye Wells and Angel's Blood by Nalini Singh. The staff was really great, too, but my favorite part was walking in and seeing a young woman reading manga with this huge grin on her face, totally oblivious to anyone walking by. Seeing the power of reading in person like that gives me a little thrill.

So, those are my good things. ( Now to catch up on my goals... )

One of our regular library patrons always has interesting myth tidbits for me, since he knows I'm a myth geek. Today, he and I got talking about philosophy, and I started trying to track back a quote he was pretty sure belonged to Demosthenes. The gist was this: Man created the gods and myth to explain the world. So I had to do some looking, because I thought that was actually pretty early for a thought that more often gets attributed to Marx ("Man creates God, then gets on his knees and worships his invention.") or Rousseau ("God created man in his own image. And man, being a gentleman, returned the favor."*). Though Demosthenes was a contemporary of Aristotle, and was therefore post Socrates, I had assumed that the rationalist thought of that era tended to leave the gods where they were and get on with logical thought, rather than bothering about their existence.

The best quote I can find from Demosthenes online that goes along with the general idea is this: "Nothing is easier than self-deceit. For what each man wishes, that he also believes to be true." (This rather seems the principle around which quite a lot of urban fantasy novels, alongside the works of Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett, are based, as it allows the supernatural to exist alongside the mundane without the mundane world giving much notice.)

So I'm putting the call out to all of the intelligent and wonderful (and possibly better read in ancient philosophy than me) people who read this blog: is there a Demosthenes quote like the one my acquaintance recalled? Is the concept of inventing mythology as explanations as old as the Greek rationalists, or is it more of a modernist notion?

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*I had actually always attributed this quote to Mark Twain, though substituting "gentleman" for "likable sort." I've always liked it, because I felt it commented more on human consciousness than higher powers of any sort, but that could just be my reading of it, out of context.

So, I got to play one of my favorite D&D characters today--a character who made a debut in 3.5 but never got to go much of anywhere. His name is Urtog Fight-Good, and he's seen more life outside of D&D than any of my other characters, simply because his shtick is so fun. I've probably introduced more students to D&D during the Ireland trip and the Greece and Turkey trip via Urtog than any mention of rules and dice.

Urtog used to be a half orc, but those don't exist any more, so he's a full orc now. He's not too bright (intentional understatement), which was the point in developing the character--playing someone not as smart as I am. To play Urtog, I use a very large, scratchy voice, because that voice coming out of me (I stand 5' nothing, for those of you who haven't met me in person) is part of the fun factor (for me, and I hope for others).

This leaves me, however, in the unenviable position of drinking hot tea on a warm night, because I have completely abused my vocal chords. But man, was it worth it.

Now off to bed, so I can get up early and accomplish more writing on the module before my library shift and DMing Xen'drik tomorrow.

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Highlights roughly in order:

• Spent quality time with my parents


• Helped set marks for a sail boat race


• Took a cruise of the Thimble Islands


• Helped pick monster zucchini on one of the Thimbles


• Ate blueberry coffee cake and Dad's Blueberry Pie (TM) with real Michigan blueberries


• Went sailing on a gusty day without capsizing


• Went to a restaurant with the same name as my father.


• Judged the SpaceWesterns.com senryu contest entries--winners are now available online! (Some of my favorites did not make the cut.)


• Celebrated a wedding anniversary


• Visited with old friends


• Had dinner and watched movies with new(ish) friends


• Stayed out 'til almost 1 a.m. with said friends, which is remarkable for its infrequency


• Went to see the superhero exhibit at the Met in New York


• Debated the virtues of Stark Tech vs. Wayne Tech.


• Had hot chocolate with dragonladyflame


• Wrote several "e-mails" and "interludes" from the perspective of my vampire alter-ego for the Dogs in the Vineyard game I mentioned awhile ago


• Started learning about grant writing


• Ordered and received skzbrust's new Vlad Taltos novel (which my husband promptly devoured), nalini_singh's most recent Psy-Changeling novel (because waiting for it to become available through the library was driving me nuts), and blue_succubus's Storm Born, the first in her new series.


• Typed portions of a new short story I wrote mostly on scrap paper.


• Neglected to turn anything in to Arielle for my first "hold me accountable for fiction" deadline.


• Got paid for freelance work.


• Went to the dentist.


• Spent all day at the beach with a large group of fifth to eighth graders and had an absolute ball.


• Went to B&N to replace Storm Born, as my copy arrived with water damage from the copious amount of rain we've been having.


• Went back to the beach to have a grill out with my Dogs in the Vineyard group.


• Discovered that spending time from 10 a.m. through, effectively, 7 p.m. at the beach leads to sunburn on the face.


• Had my poor vampire almost die. Again. She made it. Also again.


• Found the aloe in the med kit still packed from Greece and Turkey.

I think there's actually more (not that this isn't enough), but I'm a bit exhausted right now (probably due to the sun as much as the time), so I'm going to turn in. Tomorrow is another day with family (I hope!), Friday is a D&D game after work, and Saturday and Sunday I'll be at Mythcon in New Britain, CT (just up the road). If you're also going to be there, send a holler!

I'll try to be back on a somewhat regular blogging schedule next week.

One of the things I've noticed since I got back from Greece and Turkey is that I'm feeling a detachment from my former favorite Greek deity. The first time I went, I fell in love with Ephesus (I still am a bit), and so it was natural to take Artemis at Ephesus as a patron, in some ways. I've adopted variations on her name, and on the name Kybele (the Anatolian goddess with whom Artemis merged in Ephesus), in screen names since 2001, trying to recapture the feeling of being in a city that was, once, clearly hers. Ephesus is also, notably, a city that belongs to St. John the Apostle, and though Paul preached there, it was John who lived in Ephesus, with the exception of the years he was in exile, and was eventually buried there. Many of my warm feelings about John the Apostle began at that time as well, though I had always felt some kinship with the disciple Jesus loved.

But this time, I feel as though something has shifted, and I think this is in part due to Mycenae, and in part due to Naxos. ( Read more... )

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In other news, Flames Rising has been nominated as best fan product for this year's Ennies! Since I write for them, I'm incredibly tickled, and am wishing Matt and the staff the best of luck!

One of the bookstores I visited while on the Isle of Naxos had delightful book called Naxos: Old Travel Descriptions edited by C. Ucke. It is an excellent collection of excerpts describing Naxos from texts published between 1687 and 1885, showing (or shewing, as it is most often spelled) a history of observations of the island. A few quick notes for those who (like I was) are unfamiliar with the geography of Greek myth:

Naxos is an island, in the Cyclades, off the coast of Greece to the south east--roughly between continental Greece and Crete. It is said to be the birthplace of the god Dionysus (the only demi-god who became a full Olympian). Leto, the mother of Apollo and Artemis, is said to have stopped on Naxos while she searched for an island that would allow her to bear her children to term (having been cursed by Hera to be unable to give birth on land). Leto eventually stopped on Delos, at the time a floating island, which now can be seen from Naxos's shore. Ariadne, the mortal who was able to guide Theseus through the labyrinth on Crete where he could defeat the minotaur, was alternately abandoned by Theseus or lost at sea and presumed dead: the place where she came to rest in either case was the island of Naxos. It was also on Naxos that Dionysus met Ariadne and became so taken with her that they were married. You can look up the details of any of these stories at the very excellent web resource, Theoi.com.

The following excerpt is taken from The Cyclades: Or Life Among the Insular Greeks by J. Theodore Bent, as translated in the anthology. It is also, I think, a fine example of the mixture (or palimpsest) of Christianity and Christian legends over an older mythology.

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As we sat on this island rock we could not help wondering if this really was the scene of the old worship of Dionysos [sic] at Naxos; even now there are many traces left in Naxos which point to this worship. St. Dionysius, the Christian successor of the ancient wine god, is greatly worshipped here, and about him a curious legend (Von Hahn's Greek Legends) is still told, clearly pointing to ancient cult; it runs as folows. St. Dionysius was on a journey from the monastery on Mount Olympos to Naxos; as he sat down to rest he saw a pretty plant, which he desired to take, and to protect it from being withered by the sun he put it into the bone of a bird. He went on and was surprised to find that it had sprouted before his next halt, so he put it, bone and all, into the bone of a lion; again the same phenomenon occurred, so he put his treasure into the leg bone of an ass. On reaching Naxos he found the plant so rooted in the bones that he planted them all; and from this up came a vine, with the fruit of which St. Dionysius made the first wine. When he had drunk a little of it he sang like a lion, and when he had drunk too much he became as foolish as an ass. The gods of old have been turned into modern saints, sometimes even regardless of sex, as we shall see at Keos, where the male, St. Artemidos, represents the female, Artemis. Demeter, in the present order of things, is also represented by a man, St. Demetrius, who in certain places is the special protector of flocks, herds, and husbandmen,nd in this capacity is called "of the dry land," as opposed to St. Nicholas, the saint of t he sea.

Place names in Naxos still recall the old Bacchic [Alana's note: Dionysian] worship. One of the loftiest mountains of the island is called Mount Koronon, reminding us of the nymph Koronis and the infancy of Dionysos. Just over the town is a fountain called by the natives the tomb or baths of Ariadne: here in 1821 an old man told me that the Turkish dragoman had made extensive excavations and took with him quantities of inscriptions to Constantinople, leaving only one behind him, which forms now the step of a house, and which tells us that it was once a tablet in the Pytaneum of Naxos.


-sunset over the island described above, though the temple is now thought to have been dedicated, unfinished, to Apollo rather than Dionysus

At every bookstore I visited (yes, I do flock to bookstores like bees to pollen), I looked on the shelves to see if I could find any of my blog buddies on the shelves. Unfortunately, the Greek alphabet requires names to be translated and transliterated, and while the results were amusing, it did mean I didn't find the people I was looking for. For grins and giggles, I took some photographs of books that I was familiar with in English or titles with authors I've seen here on livejournal.
( Read more... )

So, while I didn't see terribly many of my blog buddies (making me extra glad I'd brought their books with me), I did have fun looking at the books and surreptitiously taking photographs.

Some people in the last comments expressed hope that I'd post more pictures here. I can certainly do that if people are interested (though the novel tours were meant to capture the basics of the sites we visited). If I do post more pictures, what would you like to see?

Essays are done. Everything is packed except a few last minute details (like the laptop I'm typing on right now...) There are always a few errands left to run on the way out the door, but as soon as I pack this up, I'll be gone from the blogosphere for the next while. Wish me pleasant travels! And here's wishing you all well while I'm gone and can't comment on your posts. :)