philosophy, psychology and other long words beginning with p. discussion

Here's the first chapter narrated by none other than Marigold herself. These 'interims,' which admittedly is a word I use in a weird way, bridge some of the gaps between the narrators. It also gives us a little more intimacy of the sisters, as they literally have a campfire conversation in this brief chapter.

I noticed recently that the chapter guide has a little note from Marigold saying that page numbers can vary in different translations. Nice touch!

Haha... thanks. Here's a behind the scenes fact: that's something my editor and I did because when you buy the e-book on PDF vs. Kindle vs. Nook vs. MobiPocket, etc., the formatting will be different and the chapters will start on different pages. Rather than make a different template for all of them, we just pretended like Marigold had to translate the book (from Canadian) into Svalbardian, Siberian, and other languages, which would cause the same effect.

Aleph, great to see you back! Could you remind me what the last thing you read (or remember) was? I'll take it from there. We've got all the behind the scenes done through chapter six (I owe chapter seven still). But those assume you've read the chapter, so you'll also want a plot summary, which I'll be happy to do.

I just finished this chapter. I see that the note from Marigold had some utility behind it.

Okay, no problem. I'm going to put the plot summary up here sometime, hopefully soon. Then I'll get the behind the scenes for chapters seven and eight on the appropriate threads. I'm also about to post something to the thread for chapter six (Lichen) that I forgot to mention.

Thanks for your patience- some of this will probably happen this weekend, some won't. Had/have some stuff going last week and next.

Okay, plot summary. Here we go. Let's do it.

Chapter 4 Grandmother
The grandmother narrates this chapter and brings us up ten years forward. She introduces the personalities of the girls. Lavender is more serious and quiet, very left-brained (math and science). Marigold is opposite in just about every way. She's flamboyant, light-hearted, and is pretty good with music. She has long blonde hair which has never been cut. Lavender's hair is short and dark. In the third chapter we learned about Lavender's gift. Lavender is still working with the grandfather going to farms and helping other farmers with their herds. Her gift is still a secret. They're making decent money and the finances are good. She's spending time with the grandfather, but Marigold isn't. She has no male presence in her life with her dad dead. She's getting a little 'boy crazy.' The grandmother is responsible for teaching the girls, and they decide to home-school Lavender and half-home school Marigold. The other half of the time Lavender is working with the grandfather while Marigold is in a public school. The chapter ends explaining that their education is complete, Lavender is 15, Marigold now 16, and they're moving away. They won't go too far; south to York, the main city. Marigold wants to move right in the loudest part of town, the marketplace. Lavender joins her of course, and they're not going to keep Lavender's gift a secret any more.

Chapter 5 Summoner
A summoner is sort of a detective/secret agent. Lavender and Marigold have started a business called 'The Mystic Garden.' They use Lavender's gift and open up what is basically a fortune-telling shop in the heart of the marketplace. If you want to know if you're pregnant, Lavender can tell you. If you want to know if you're dying, she can tell you that as well. This gets Polaris' attention. He's the leader of Canada, has been for about 500 years, and he's not too comfortable with this girl who can see life and death. The Mystic Garden does well as a business, which is how Polaris has heard of this. He asks the summoner to research to see if she's breaking any laws. The summoner doesn't think Polaris is telling him everything, and is a little nervous going on this mission researching a girl who, for all they know, may actually be able to control life and death. Well, it doesn't work like that. She can see it; that's it. And she's not doing anything wrong, but Polaris is pushing to find something he can get her on. The summoner goes under cover and pretends to be a customer. While there, Lavender gets another customer who is dying. An older man. She rushes with him to a hospital, where he dies. The crowd (other customers waiting) don't know what to do. Marigold, having good business sense, tells the crowd they can still get their fortune/predictions if they follow Lavender to the hospital. Some do, and Marigold offers the service for free. Because they failed to charge for the service, they broke the law. The summoner reluctantly reports this to Polaris (by now he's on the girls' side, although he's working for Polaris). Since they didn't charge for the service, they violated their 'parlor amusement' business permit. They stepped onto Polaris' turf as autonomous leader of the military and faith (and entire country, really). But it's still a minor crime. However, the punishment is death for Lavender. Not because of this crime, but because she already has an arrest record. When Heather went to see Simon for Lavender's birth, both she and newborn Lavender committed a crime (civilian in a war zone). They were freed at the time but told any future infractions would lead to the death penalty. It's all completely unfair; he's persecuting Lavender. The summoner keeps Marigold out of trouble by not mentioning her name (original job was only to research Lavender). So Polaris sets up an arrest and an execution right there in front of everybody in the marketplace. The summoner does the second part of his job, which is to get dressed up in gray gear (so nobody can recognize him), make the arrest, and wait for Polaris and the execution squad. As that starts, a voice in the market crowd suggests a 'split sentence.' It's an obscure Canadian law that dates back to a time of famine. Rather than being executed, you could be exiled if a volunteer would share your punishment. The idea was to protect families; when desperate men were caught stealing for their families, the family could be exiled rather than killing the sole bread-winner. Anyway, Polaris is caught off guard by the man making this suggestion. He's a green-eyed unkept man (remember him? From Heather's chapter, the man who helped get her to the Fort to see Simon). Marigold volunteers and they're exiled. The summoner takes them north, but Marigold doesn't seem to be taking any of this seriously. Lavender's drugged because at one point they thought they were going to kill her, yet Marigold just complains about how much she hates camping, and how she'll probably be doing a lot of camping from now on. One thing about Marigold we saw in the last chapter is that she feels comforted knowing Lavender can predict if she's safe or not. She knows she's not going to die (unless Lavender says 'you're glowing white') so to her there's nothing to worry about. Anyway, she makes the summoner laugh when it's just her, him, and Lavender on the carriage ride to get exiled. She made him laugh once when he was under cover, and she recognizes the laugh. So his cover is blown; he takes his mask off. As one last means of sticking it to Polaris, he decides to take them by their home to say their goodbyes. He waits in the carriage for about two hours until Lavender and Marigold come out with their bags packed, ready for their exile.

Chapter 6 Lichen
The girls have just been exiled, Lavender nearly executed. None of it was fair, and Lavender is particularly bitter. They're wandering the forest looking for food when they come across a big stone creature called 'The Lichen.' The Lichen is made up of a series of stones connected by a moldy moss that allows him to move and talk. He has no legs, but otherwise looks like a human. However, he's about 25 feet tall. He's about 2500 years old, and describes his existence learning from humans. His clearing, where he's always lived, has a lake and a lot of poisonous mushrooms and berries. For centuries people have wandered into his clearing, eaten the berries or mushrooms, and have died. He's taken the blame for the deaths and anybody who knows about him thinks he's a monster. He can't move around very easily, so rather than let people die in his clearing, he plays the monster role to scare them off. This way, at least they won't die. But often he catches them too late, and hears their dying words of wisdom. Centuries of this has taught him the language and given him a collection of wisdom. The character is based on St. Francis of Assisi, patron of the environment, and known for being peaceful. He helps Lavender with her bitterness, explaining that Polaris didn't persecute Lavender because he wanted to see her suffer. He did it because he gained in some way. What way, we can only guess. But nobody ever does anything just to hurt you; they hurt you as a by-product of doing what they feel they need to. Lavender struggles with this, but after being exiled by Polaris, they need a new belief system to follow. Because so many people have died in his clearing, the Lichen has a lot of artifacts. The girls are really the first ones to meet the Lichen without being in the middle of dying or running off thinking he's a monster. This meeting was enabled by Lavender's gift. She knew not to eat the berries and also knew the Lichen wasn't going to kill her. The girls decide to help the Lichen set up signs (he can't read) and things to warn future passers-by about the poisonous berries/mushrooms. They set him up so that he doesn't have to play the role of monster any more, and nobody should be poisoned in his clearing, either. In exchange, he lets them go through is artifacts. They take some basic stuff, as well as one particular item which Marigold snags. It's a small tool with a swiveling needle that points. She calls it a 'man-finder.' They don't realize it's a magnetic compass. A large feathered creature, wearing armor and carrying a sword, fell from the sky years ago. He was carrying the compass, which Marigold takes. The Lichen invites them to stay in his clearing and settle there (which would be legal; they're only exiled from the civilized sections of York. They don't have to get in the water and swim to Svalbard, but they do have to live in the wilderness). The girls don't want to settle there. The poisonous berries and mushrooms give them an idea. Lavender can predict if food is going to kill someone trying to eat it. With her gift and Marigold's artistic ability, they plan to develop of a field guide of edible and poisonous wild-growing food. They say goodbye to their new friend with a new purpose.

Chapter 7 Orphan Boy
Sam is a good kid, about five years old living in York's orphanage. He has two older friends who he doesn't realize aren't really his friends. They're about 12-13 and named Guy and Al. Guy and Al want to spend some time between semesters looking for 'The Manbare.' It's a legendary creature with 'long teeth like yellow daggers,' all that stuff. It's a creature kids in the orphanage tell stories about when they hear noises at night. Guy and Al want to go into the forest to trap one, and they want to use Sam as bait. They never find a Manbare, but catch a herrison (special hedgehog). After a couple days in the forest, they decide to head home. They're very hungry, and plan on eating the herrison. Before they do, they cross paths with Lavender and Marigold who are exploring the forest trying to put together their field guide. Lavender has a moment with Sam, saying that she never knew her father either. Guy and Al flirt with Marigold, who tries to brush them off. They brag about catching a herrison, and Marigold recognizes it as a very rare, special animal. It has quills, and if you pluck the quills, it makes sound. You can play it like a musical instrument, which Marigold does to try to convince Guy and Al not to cook it for dinner. After she plays a song, five-year old Sam wants to try. He plucks the wrong way, spooks the herrison, and the herrison sprays ink. The ink gets all over Guy and Al, and won't come off. Marigold forgot about the ink feature, and stuffs the animal back in Guy/Al's pouch before it can spray any more. Guy and Al start throwing rocks at the girls; Lavender tells Marigold it's time to run. The three boys keep heading back home but have to make camp. They cook the herrison, which gets the attention of some Canadian soldiers in the area who start asking about Lavender and Marigold. Guy and Al, upset for what happened to their faces (the ink), tell the soldiers which direction to head to find the girls. The soldiers leave; the boys head home the next morning and safely return to the orphanage.

Chapter 8 Marigold's First Interim
Marigold narrates. Plotwise little happens. This is a short chapter which might be good to read, just because we get a little more intimate view of Lavender and Marigold, their sisterly relationship, and what they're feeling early on in their exile. Lavender hasn't given up hope that they'd be allowed back into York. She thinks the field guide will facilitate this (name of that book by the way is 'The Aliments of Life and Death,' which is an early work in progress at this stage). They talk around the campfire, wonder if little Sam has a chance, Marigold complains about how she wants to go to sleep, makes fun of Lavender's wooden shoes, Lavender throws one (playfully) at Marigold, and they finally go to sleep. In the middle of the night, Lavender mumbles to Marigold to put the fire out. The fire's already out. They spring up out of their sleep and realize Lavender's seeing a white glow. They're both going to die if they don't do something. They figure out if they run north, they stop glowing. They don't know why. Lavender leads the way, following the gift as it predicts a safe path by whether or not they glow. This path leads to a huge thing on the horizon. They can't really make out if it's a giant rock or what it is, but they're now in the sand getting closer to the shoreline, where this giant thing is. The only way they'll survive is if they run right towards it, which is how the chapter ends.

Thank you, thank you! Did you find all the chapter summaries you need? I'm pretty behind on behind the scenes, and will probably need another week before I can post again (sorry). I've done behind the scenes for Lichen (Chapter 6) and will start from Orphan Boy (Chapter 7) when I finally get back at it. Got some family in town.

My pleasure! Very glad you like it so far, and thanks for telling your friends. If they do read it, please tell them that reviews on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Goodreads are always helpful.

Behind the scenes. Here we go...

First, I had to figure out what to call this chapter. Interim is really an adjective, but I used it both as a noun and a verb. Oh well. I knew it wasn't a noun, but I originally thought it really was a verb as well as an adjective. Spell check and grammar check will teach you so much.

I used it as a verb by the way in the very first page, the prologue. Marigold says she will 'interim as necessary.' Anyway, it fit the language style, so whatever. I had though of just having the third-party narrators tell the entire story (the entire book that is), but you get so much more intimacy of the main characters with these interims. It's where you feel like you're getting the 'real story' and the 'real Lavender and Marigold.'

Marigold calls the boys urchins right away (see note on last chapter's behind the scenes, the one about naming the herisson).

As far as they know, this book they're putting together is their mission. The girls don't know they're on an epic yet.

Marigold is slightly out of character at times in this chapter. She's usually not the uptight one, but she gets that way about music. She doesn't approve of the boys using the herisson for food, considering its potential value towards high culture (York orchestra). But this gives us a chance to let Lavender take the opposite point of view, which is self-righteous in a different way, defending the poor boys for simply needing food. Marigold bites her tongue; what the Lichen said to Lavender is sinking in, but with any conversion, she's going to undulate back and forth a bit throughout the story. By that I mean she'll have moments where forgiveness and understanding (Lichen's teachings) come easy, and others where she is just consumed by bitterness and hatred of Polaris. The psychology of a new convert is something I will really get into if there's a sequel. I may have mentioned that I have over 200 pages of notes for a prospective sequel, and I'd love to write it. The problem is I don't have the sales to justify the time commitment, and that's fine. Maybe something for when I retire. But undulation is a common issue with new converts- they go back and forth between their old habits and new beliefs. It may have nothing to do with being a 'convert,' but is probably more about changing ones behavior and habits. I would imagine the same issue would face someone trying to become a vegetarian. The belief is constant; they're against eating meat. But most vegetarian 'converts' probably at first go back and forth between how much energy they really have to fight the fight, or how tired/passionate they feel throughout the battle. We'll see more of this undulation with another character, not yet met, and his conversion towards the Lichen's beliefs. As for the actual behind-the-scenes point here, a lot of this thinking comes from C. S. Lewis' Screwtape Letters. A very original book, and a quick read, that does (I think) an inspired job addressing the little devil on one of our shoulders.

This chapter is meant to feel like a sleep-over. You've got friends over, you go to bed at 1am, but you wind up talking until 3am. There's a trend where you're solving all the worlds problems (about 1:30), but after that everybody just starts making stupid jokes or farting noises with your mouth and nobody can stop laughing. It's a weird transition from profound to giddy that I remember happening a lot growing up. My parents were very laid back about letting us have sleep overs, and sometimes there would be six of us downstairs for four nights in a row. The late night conversations took on that profound-giddy pattern, which I tried to reflect here.

There's a line, "Lavender, is this denial, or bargaining?" Soon after, Marigold adds, "...the book fro loan of the York Library.... " Marigold is hinting at the five stages of coping with grief. They are denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. It's sort of a pop-psychology thing, but it's very true in my opinion. We go through those stages when someone dies, we lose our job, get dumped, whatever. Lavender is currently at 'bargaining.' She thinks their book, The Aliments of Life and Death, will allow them back into York. This is how she's coping with her exile. Marigold's right: denial was first, on the summoner's carriage. She was doped up on ether, but that was when she was in that stage. Anger was addressed in the Lichen's clearing, and now we're on bargaining. We'll see depression in a few chapters, but (if I remember right), acceptance will come silently. I tried to spread out those stages across several chapters to be able to address each one, although subtly. As for the 'on loan from York library,' you'll notice I don't exactly quote or reference this pop psychology theory. That's just me not wanting to commit plagiarism. Ancient Canada is fiction, which is nice because I don't have to quote my sources like I would in a scientific paper. But why flirt with it? I talk about the same 'book' later on (Feathermens' chapter) when referring to Maszlow's hierarchy of needs. As for the book, it would just be some general psychology book their grandmother borrowed from the library to teach the girls some psychology in their home lessons.

The chapter ends with the girls running for their lives towards a very large but unidentified object. This is one of the few chapters with a cliff-hanger. I really didn't want cliff-hangers between chapters. For one, it would be kind of hard to do considering each narrator has an individual story to tell, and that story has to come to completion, because we won't see many of them again. But since this is Marigold narrating, we can do a cliff-hanger. There's a good amount of action in the next chapter, so it fits. But I'm just not big on cliff-hangers I guess. Sometimes they're great, if they happen naturally. But rarely is that the case, I find. A friend who read this is very into comics, and he said he would have liked to see more cliff hangers. That's how comic books work, because they have to get you to want to buy the next one. I prefer resolution at the end of each chapter, not to feel like I just read all that and got more questions than answers by the end. And a lot of the writing takes that tone- any of my pet peeves as a reader were carefully avoided. So there's no 'evil twin with a mustache' and very rarely do we see a self-destructive character (I find it painful to watch a character make terrible decisions while I know it's destroying them... yes, it's realistic, there are people out there like that... but it's a pet peeve I guess, so I mostly steered clear of it). There are also words in that category, like 'longing,' as in, 'she longs to be with him.' Nails on a chalkboard. Didn't use it once, I don't believe. Anyway, that wasn't meant to sound like a rant or a laundry list of opinions, just some satisfaction I was able to enjoy when I decided to write my first book.

The next chapter (Commandant) starts about nine years ago. That goes for a few pages, then we're in present time. We'll go back to the cycle of poverty theme from the orphan's chapter, which will now be personified in Lyell.

I like your background on a chapter that is a lot of background on the Orphan chapter. :)

A true cliff hanger...!