Willow Zane's Blog
May 31, 2024
The Forgotten Staircase will be free until June 4th.
It's my birthday this weekend (Sunday)🎂 so I'm doing a free promo on my psychological horror novel, The Forgotten Staircase, to celebrate! Feel free to download it any time from now through Tuesday. Reviews would obviously be so appreciated. My goal is to reach 100 reviews by the end of this year. 🩷 Thank you to everyone for your support 🩷
https://www.amazon.com/Forgotten-Stai...
https://www.amazon.com/Forgotten-Stai...
May 3, 2024
Secrets of The Forgotten Staircase, Part Two: Fragility/Smallness
Welcome to part two of a new series where we analyze some of the themes and secrets hidden inside the forgotten staircase.
For those who don't know, the forgotten staircase is a psychological horror novel inspired by my experience with and hospitalization from symptoms of complex PTSD. Fair warning: This book can be graphic, and scary at times. It deals with difficult topics which will be triggering to some readers. But it does so in an attempt to offer a glimpse into what it can feel like to suffer from this mostly hidden disorder.
Miriam loves butterflies. She uses the butterfly almost as her personal symbol. When she explains why she loves them, she says: “The most beautiful creatures are always the most fragile.” Jade's smallness and her fragility make her feel weak. It also makes her a target for people like Miriam who enjoy the power trip they get from stepping on something that can't fight back.
Jade feels her smallness most acutely in relation to her mother.
"The more life beats you down, the harder you are supposed to pull up on your bootstraps, Jade remembered. All those beatings had been wasted on Jade. In her case, pressure had never created the diamonds her mother flaunted so proudly. Some people are just made of softer stuff, and all that pressure just grinds them down. But she always thought her mother preferred it this way. If Jade was soft and small, her mother, by comparison, was a titan."
Her feeling of powerlessness to change the world around her is overwhelming and gives her anxiety about anything outside of her personal space. She views herself as a ghost, something too insubstantial to notice, and humanity as a callous machine ever marching forward. She felt that life passed through her and over her while her presence could hardly form a ripple.
"The momentum of the crowd, an unstoppable force moving towards a common goal, made Jade feel so small."
But it also releases her from guilt. She feels helpless, but that means that nothing is ever her fault.
"She was used to feeling helpless. To her, people had woven themselves into a web of consciousness stretching from birth to death. Everyone was tied to everyone else, and the will of the masses decided the movement of the web. She could no more change the course of humanity than a single stone could stop the path of a river. "
We see her returning again and again to the comfort of inaction, even though action is the very thing she needs to free herself. There is a theory in psychology called "learned helplessness." After someone repeatedly finds themselves in a situation they cannot change, they stop believing change is possible. In experiments, subjects were electrocuted over and over with no escape until they no longer struggled. Then, when they were given an easy path of escape, they chose not to leave. They just stayed with the electrical shocks, believing all future attempts to flee would be hopeless.
What do you find yourself admiring more? Things that are fragile or things that are strong?
https://www.tiktok.com/@theforgottens...
For those who don't know, the forgotten staircase is a psychological horror novel inspired by my experience with and hospitalization from symptoms of complex PTSD. Fair warning: This book can be graphic, and scary at times. It deals with difficult topics which will be triggering to some readers. But it does so in an attempt to offer a glimpse into what it can feel like to suffer from this mostly hidden disorder.
Miriam loves butterflies. She uses the butterfly almost as her personal symbol. When she explains why she loves them, she says: “The most beautiful creatures are always the most fragile.” Jade's smallness and her fragility make her feel weak. It also makes her a target for people like Miriam who enjoy the power trip they get from stepping on something that can't fight back.
Jade feels her smallness most acutely in relation to her mother.
"The more life beats you down, the harder you are supposed to pull up on your bootstraps, Jade remembered. All those beatings had been wasted on Jade. In her case, pressure had never created the diamonds her mother flaunted so proudly. Some people are just made of softer stuff, and all that pressure just grinds them down. But she always thought her mother preferred it this way. If Jade was soft and small, her mother, by comparison, was a titan."
Her feeling of powerlessness to change the world around her is overwhelming and gives her anxiety about anything outside of her personal space. She views herself as a ghost, something too insubstantial to notice, and humanity as a callous machine ever marching forward. She felt that life passed through her and over her while her presence could hardly form a ripple.
"The momentum of the crowd, an unstoppable force moving towards a common goal, made Jade feel so small."
But it also releases her from guilt. She feels helpless, but that means that nothing is ever her fault.
"She was used to feeling helpless. To her, people had woven themselves into a web of consciousness stretching from birth to death. Everyone was tied to everyone else, and the will of the masses decided the movement of the web. She could no more change the course of humanity than a single stone could stop the path of a river. "
We see her returning again and again to the comfort of inaction, even though action is the very thing she needs to free herself. There is a theory in psychology called "learned helplessness." After someone repeatedly finds themselves in a situation they cannot change, they stop believing change is possible. In experiments, subjects were electrocuted over and over with no escape until they no longer struggled. Then, when they were given an easy path of escape, they chose not to leave. They just stayed with the electrical shocks, believing all future attempts to flee would be hopeless.
What do you find yourself admiring more? Things that are fragile or things that are strong?
https://www.tiktok.com/@theforgottens...
May 2, 2024
Secrets of The Forgotten Staircase, Part One: Twins/Doppelgangers
Welcome to part one of a new series where we analyze some of the themes and secrets hidden inside The Forgotten Staircase.
For those who don't know, The Forgotten Staircase is a psychological horror novel inspired by my experience with and hospitalization from symptoms of complex PTSD. Fair warning: This book can be graphic, and scary at times. It deals with difficult topics which will be triggering to some readers. But it does so in an attempt to offer a glimpse into what it can feel like to suffer from this mostly hidden disorder.
Every character in the story has a twin or doppelganger. This was devised to not only show contrast, but also a sense of deja vu. This sensation is a reference to the novel's central theme, which is how childhood trauma and secrets can materialize in other ways throughout a person's life, like an echo.
As an example of this: the main character Jade's relationship with her psychiatrist mirrors in many ways her relationship with her mother. Both are financially successful, confident women, with dominant... almost masculine personalities and Jades experience with her mother informs her future relationships with women in positions of authority.
The contrast or difference is that Jade feels some compassion and even love from the doctor, something she longs to feel coming from her mother. This absence of maternal love leaves her vulnerable to manipulation by anyone who gives her attention and validation, especially if that person is the one in control.
The looping or deja vu effect comes in to play when Jade finds herself repeating the same patterns of abuse with the doctor that she experienced with her mother. It explores the vulnerability of adults who have had love withheld from them as children to abuse from other adults with bad intentions. This is one of the reasons that you see victims of child abuse sometimes be repeatedly revictimized by different people throughout their lives.
When you read the book, I'd love to hear your theories on which other characters are linked together in this way.
https://www.tiktok.com/@theforgottens...
For those who don't know, The Forgotten Staircase is a psychological horror novel inspired by my experience with and hospitalization from symptoms of complex PTSD. Fair warning: This book can be graphic, and scary at times. It deals with difficult topics which will be triggering to some readers. But it does so in an attempt to offer a glimpse into what it can feel like to suffer from this mostly hidden disorder.
Every character in the story has a twin or doppelganger. This was devised to not only show contrast, but also a sense of deja vu. This sensation is a reference to the novel's central theme, which is how childhood trauma and secrets can materialize in other ways throughout a person's life, like an echo.
As an example of this: the main character Jade's relationship with her psychiatrist mirrors in many ways her relationship with her mother. Both are financially successful, confident women, with dominant... almost masculine personalities and Jades experience with her mother informs her future relationships with women in positions of authority.
The contrast or difference is that Jade feels some compassion and even love from the doctor, something she longs to feel coming from her mother. This absence of maternal love leaves her vulnerable to manipulation by anyone who gives her attention and validation, especially if that person is the one in control.
The looping or deja vu effect comes in to play when Jade finds herself repeating the same patterns of abuse with the doctor that she experienced with her mother. It explores the vulnerability of adults who have had love withheld from them as children to abuse from other adults with bad intentions. This is one of the reasons that you see victims of child abuse sometimes be repeatedly revictimized by different people throughout their lives.
When you read the book, I'd love to hear your theories on which other characters are linked together in this way.
https://www.tiktok.com/@theforgottens...
