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M A G A Z I N E

Tale Magazine

EditorMJ

Contributors MJC.M. DavidsonJosephine Paige

Art & Graphic DesignMJJosephine Paige

ProofreaderMJ

All articles, graphics, photos, and artworks belong to their respective owners and cannot be reused in any fashion without the author, artist, or

photographer’s permission.

Letter from the EditorHey, everyone! This is Tale Magazine's very first issue, and I'm pleased to present it to you.

A lot of work has gone into this magazine, from the planning stages all the way up to this issue. I'd really like to thank the amazing people who helped me to do this, because it wouldn't be here without you guys.From here on, we plan to keep getting better at this and aim to bring you entertaining (and hopefully helpful) content for a long time!

Thank you all so much for reading. It means the world to us!

Cover: Josephine Paige

Visit us online.Find back issues, news, profiles, and more at www.talemagazine.wordpress.com!

Contents4 Paperclips

6 Poetry Corner

8 Movie Review: The Sea of Monsters

9 Book Review: Navigating Early

10 The Tanglewood Times

12 Creating a Mood

13 The Write Life

Thoughts of a Teenage Girl

By Josephine Paige

Since I know you’re all simply dying to hear what I have to say, I’ll cut straight to the point. Today we’re going to talk about the most irritating cliché of all. Grab a cup of tea or something, because once I get started there’s no telling when I’ll stop talking.

To me, the most irritating cliché of all time is the “Tough fighting chick.” You know the one. The really cool (and stunningly beautiful, but probably with a scar or two) woman with a tragic backstory who doesn’t need any help from anyone and can take down a pro-wrestler in 2 seconds flat. While this character may sound appealing and fun to write, she is incredibly, impossibly annoying.

I’m not trying to be a stick in the mud. There is nothing wrong with tough female characters--In fact, they’re great! I’m a girl myself, and it bugs me really badly to see pathetic damsels in distress. But in trying to avoid weak little princesses, writers have completely flipped the scales and ended up with this warrior chick stereotype that is incredibly unrealistic.

Think about it. Girls are, generally speaking, shorter than men. We have smaller bone structures. We are not as strong, physically. This is a fact and it cannot be altered unless you are writing a sci-fi novel with superhuman serums. But being weaker physically is not bad. It can even, from an author’s point of view, be helpful. As writers, we’re always trying to throw obstacles at our characters. We find a goal and a way for them to accomplish it. And then we make it as hard as possible. Lacking an incredible amount

of physical strength can be one of these obstacles.

I’m not saying that your girl can’t be good at fighting. There are all kinds of martial arts out there designed to show you how to use your enemies’ strength to your advantage.

So. In designing your character, think of it this way. She’s a girl. She may not have the same physical attributes as man, but she has some that he doesn’t. I mean, girls are freaking awesome. We raise families. I mean, childbirth is the second most painful thing one can endure, second to being burned alive. We are amazing! We don’t NEED brute strength. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that your female character needs to be better than the guys at everything. She won’t be able to outdo them physically. It’s just unrealistic.

Then the tragic backstory usually affixed to these characters. You know, there’s nothing wrong with having a tragic backstory. It’s usually a good idea to throw in some undeserved misfortune here and there. But don’t go overboard, and don’t turn your woman into a no-emotion robot because of it. It’s just too incredibly overdone. Strong female characters are good. But when people say that, they mean strong in a different sense. They don’t mean super tough, attractive, and always right. (Or maybe they do, but if that’s what they’re going for, they’re going about it wrong.)

Your girls don’t need to be better at everything. They just need to be themselves.

”“

Paperclips: Thoughts of a Teenage Girl | By Josephine PaigeI'm Josie.I am a Catholic homeschooling teenager with a love of reading, writing, and art. I am a pint-sized fangirl with a mop of flyaway curls. A mop of them. They take forever to grow out, as is my daily lament.My personality type is ENFP, which means that I'm a people person. I get excited about things, especially British television, and excited usually means obsessed.I'm a bit of a nerd, complete with glasses which I actually do need. No, I'm not one of those people who wear glasses because they are "cool." I have pretty awful vision and absolutely loathe wearing them. We clear?That being said, I like Doctor Who, Sherlock, and Merlin, (No spoilers, I haven't finished it.) I'm a huge bookworm--That includes the classics. I believe Pride and Prejudice is right next to the Hunger Games on my bookshelf.I'm a hopeless romantic, and while I can simulate maturity, I still haven't grown out of wanting to be a princess.

Art by Josie

Nerd life is so much better than regular life!

Wild and lonelyBright and brief

The bugles echo, The echoes cease.

 Warm and goldenChill and brightDays of plenty,

Starlit night. 

Swan and swallowHawk and dove

Lament in their leaving,Lament far above.

 A shiver, a shadow,

A sliver of frostThrough gold days the wind’s keen

Still mourns what we’ve lost.  

And deeper and greater,A spirit abides

A whisper of winterBeneath the gold glides.

 And all glory passesAll splendor and light

So dust turns to ashes,So dawn turns to night.

P O E T R Y C O R N E R

Every spring’s a sunrise,For every sparrow a songEvery flower’s an orphan,For every right a wrong.

 Every day’s a dawning,For every song a sigh

Every shell’s an ocean,For every truth a lie.

 Every star’s a lantern,For every tear a fall

Every winter’s a snowflakeFor every heart a call.

 Every child’s a world,

Where every child belongsEvery day’s a dawning,

For every sparrow a song.

P O E T R Y C O R N E R

M O V I E R E V I E W

by Josephine Paige

PERCY JACKSON: THE SEA OF MONSTERS

Movie Released: August 2013

It’s kind of an unwritten rule for book fandoms: The movie is probably going to be bad, but we’re going to see it anyway because that’s what good little fangirls do.

And then we squee over the good parts and rant over the bad parts, and talk about it with our friends. Or, you know, don’t talk about it with your friends, because it was just that bad.

This summer saw the return of the Percy Jackson movie franchise, in the second installment of a series of movies so bad, that its own fandom doesn’t want it. My name is Josie, and I’m going to talk about Percy Jackson: The Sea of Monsters. (The Movie.)

We’ll start from ground zero. The first movie. While it had some redeeming points, it was, after all, a major flop. Kronos wasn’t mentioned. Clarisse didn’t even come in. Annabeth was a brunette, and none of them were very good actors. Everything was wrong.

The Percy Jackson fandom survived, however, enduring the blow. We were happy. We were strong.Until this summer.

Hollywood wanted another Percy Jackson movie. So they made another one. The only problem was, to continue with this series, they’d have to fix a lot of things that they left out last time. Like, you know, Kronos, and Luke, and Clarisse.

This movie was incredibly incoherent. Allow me to explain.

I went to see it in theaters, because, as I stated before, that is what good little fangirls do. And Heavens above. What a waste of money.

First, characters: Clarisse. I was under the impression that you weren’t supposed to like Clarisse, but she was actually one of the only people worth watching. In the books, she’s the bully. In the movies, she’s a competitive cute teenager who isn’t afraid of getting her hands dirty. What gives? I felt she and Percy had more chemistry than Annabeth and Percy. You aren’t SUPPOSED to like Clarisse.

Annabeth and Percy were incredibly flat. I didn’t feel like they had personalities. What happened to strong, independant Annabeth? Luke was overplayed. Grover was okay, but not as Grover. That is not my Grover. Hermes was fantastic, but he only came in for a scene, which was sad. I have to say, he is the only character I missed once he left.

The character development--Oh wait, who am I kidding? There was none.Plot: Because of the age of the actors, they turned the Prophecy of Sixteen to the prophecy of Twenty. Yeah, it

was at that point that my soul went to its sickbed.Also, Sea of Monsters? How many monsters were there? I counted two. I don’t even want to talk about Kronos.

This may seem like quite the bashing, but I honestly feel that if Hollywood wants to make good movies, they should put a little more effort into it. I felt like this movie was cheap and disappointing, especially since I loved the books so much. So, one star. Maybe one and a half, for the sake of Hermes. The books are a must-read, but the movies are possibly more aggravating than the Eragon movie.

And thus concludes my review rant on the Sea of Monsters. Thanks for reading!

Author’s Note: My reviews are pretty much famed for their rambling quality. I apologize to anyone who can’t stand that. Also, I’m going off the fact that you have read the books or watched the movie. If you have done neither, skip this. It’ll make no sense.

Book Copyright: 2013Author: Clare Vanderpool

B O O K R E V I E W

by C.M. Davidson

Navigating Early

 Navigating Early is an inventive odyssey of a novel, by the Newberry Medal winning author, Clare Vanderpool

(2011, Moon Over Manifest. Note: If you haven’t read this book yet you need to read it!). I absolutely loved this book—think of it as the literary equivalent of drinking a cup of hot cocoa: warm and sweet, comforting and satisfying. Vanderpool has developed a uniquely beautiful writing style— smooth and subtly lyrical, flowing without being contrived. Her characters are well drawn and lively; real, complex people with the softened edges and familiar elements of a fable or fairy tale. Early is endearingly odd but not disconcerting; the main character, Jack, is grieving, flawed and human and yet displays a degree of patience and loyalty that makes us want to relate to him. The villain of the piece, MacScott, is deliciously wicked and yet catches our attention as being very real, a creature of light and dark, with a story of his own to tell.

The story line of the book is essentially simple, but what make it unique are patterns and elements that Vanderpool weaves into it: the rich details of the lives around them, the stories within stories within stories. Early (who Vanderpool reveals in the Afterward to be what we would call savant autistic), sees the number Pi as a never-ending story, which, as it plays out, most people will recognize as the familiar “hero’s journey”, complete with all of its essential elements (the hero, the mentor, the ordeal, the tricksters, the villain, etc.) but with an added element that is purely Early. Early believes that this is the story of his older brother, who, just like Pi, sailed away and never came back. But he also seems to believe that it is his story as well, and Jackie’s. Jackie is skeptical, but as the story goes on, more and more elements of Pi’s journey coincide with real life, he is forced to admit that there must be something to Early’s theory. What Jackie fails to understand (but Early, with all his oddities, does), is that Pi’s story, the hero’s journey, is everyone’s story. Vanderpool has taken the epic journey saga, and made it real. This is really what gives her characters such a lovely duality— they exist as archetypes in Early’s story, but as real people in the world. And Pi’s inward journey, as he learns to overcome his pride and fear and face the terrible things which happen to him on his journey, is as much about Jackie’s own struggles to overcome the death of his mother and his rocky relationship with his father as it is about Early coping with losing his brother. It is a universal story with surprising plot twists and a unique voice; an epic set in the confusion of the post-war world, where everyone they meet is essentially searching for the same thing that Pi is—a way to go home.

With rich detail, fresh ideas, and true gift for storytelling, Vanderpool has created a gripping, satisfying story—this was honestly the best thing I’ve read in a long while. I loved this book so much… read it read it read it read it!

Summary: After his mother’s death at the end of WW2, Jack Baker is suddenly uprooted from his home in Kansas and placed in a boy’s boarding school in Maine. There he meets Early Auden, strangest of boys, who sees the number pi as an unending story and collects newspaper clipping about the sightings of a black bear in the nearby mountains.  

Feeling lost and adrift, Jack can’t help being drawn to Early, who refuses to believe what everyone else has accepted to be truth about the great Appalachian bear, timber rattlers, and the legendary school hero known as the Fish, who was lost in the war. 

When Jack and Early find themselves alone at school, they set out for the Appalachian Trail on a quest for the great black bear. Along the way, they meet some truly strange characters, several of them dangerous, all lost in some way, and each a part of the pi story Early continues to reveal. Jack’s ability to be a steadfast friend to Early will be tested as the boys discover things they never knew about themselves and others (Summary taken from the front cover of the 2013 edition of the book, Copyright 2013 Delacorte Press, Random House Publishers Inc, New York.)

For this first issue, in honor of Hunger Games: Catching Fire being released into theaters soon, we are going to talk sort of generally about the genre dystopian fiction. There’s no arguing that it’s grown into something of a cultural obsession in the past few years. Opinions on the why of this tend to vary greatly— do we read dystopian fiction as a form of escapism, to rationalize our society by thinking “well-just-look-how-bad-it-could-be?” Or is it just a sort of cultural pessimism that leads us to fixate on the darkest and worst sides of human nature?

I suspect that there is no universal answer. The reasons you read dystopian fiction might be different than the reasons I read it—and let’s be honest, how many people read the Hunger Games because it’s a fascinating study of a dystopian society, and how many read it because they thought Gale was really cute in the movie? Everyone is going to interpret it a bit differently, however, there is a line between good and bad dystopian fiction, and its not that hard to tell the difference.

Good dystopian fiction scares me. It really, really scares me. Why? Because the one thing all good dystopian books have in common is that it could happen. That, above all, is what separates good dystopian fiction from bad. “Good” dystopian fiction takes what it sees as wrong in its own society, and it wonders, “what if?” It imagines what would happen if this wrong was allowed to grow, and grow, and grow. What if no one tries to stop it? What if no one realizes what is going on until it’s too late? What happens if this evil isn’t stopped, and eventually, most people stop even thinking of it as evil? THAT, my friends, is when a society becomes dystopian. And the scariest part of a good dystopian novel is that the author has taken the time to study what the real effects of this crime are, and is very logical in predicting exactly what the future effects will be, and how people will react to them.

Take the book The Hunger Games, for instance. The author, Suzanne Collins has her sadistic, totalitarian government use the media as one of its most powerful tools to control and influence the country. The story is set in futuristic America, and the media is everywhere. The government forces the people to watch their broadcasted programs, and uses these programs to feed the people only the ideas that the government wishes them to have. No one knows anything about the world beyond their District, except what they see on the television, and so the government can keep them isolated and keep them believing only what the government wants them to believe. Add to that the gory spectacle of the annual “hunger games”, which all of the districts are forced to watch, in a disquieting form of reality TV, and the government has the power to keep the districts in complete and utter control. Now, does any of that sound familiar to you? Our culture is absolutely saturated by the media, and how far and we really trust what they tell us? We have no way of finding out about events beyond our lives except for social media and news broadcasting, but more and more questions are arising bout how much the government controls what we see and hear from them. And reality TV? People practically worship it! Is it really that hard to imagine someone with enough power turning that situation to his advantage? It’s psychology. It could happen. I have to admit, it scares me. Even The Lorax scared me a little (once I finished laughing), because it’s not hard to imagine a world where there are no trees.

Bad dystopian fiction, on the other hand…well, bad dystopian fiction makes me want to hunt the author down and force him to read several volumes of Shakespeare (because a good dose of Shakespeare is enough to restore any authors head to its proper size, much less a lousy one). Basically, bad dystopian fiction is just cheap sci-fi action that doesn’t follow logically from human nature or from the world today. It tends to be visceral and graphic, and relies mainly on emotion and adrenaline to fuel our interest (like ZOMBIES, for instance. Seriously, people?). If you’re having trouble telling the difference, you can always use my favorite old rule of thumb. It was developed for movies originally, but it works pretty well for novels, too: count the number of explosions in the trailer (or first chapter, or whatever), and subtract that from zero. That’s what the author thinks your IQ level is.

Now that we’ve talked a bit about good and bad dystopian fiction, let’s get down to the basics of dystopian fiction. Here a few steps to get you started:

1). Think of something that you think is wrong in our society today. It could be a small thing or a large thing. It could be the fact that we don’t appreciate beauty enough, or the fact that our constitutional rights are being compromised. Anything, as long as it gets you thinking.

BY C.M. DAVIDSON

2). Imagine what would happen if this problem were to keep growing. What if no stops this? How does it get bigger, and how does it affect our society as a whole? What are the possible ramifications? This is the hardest step, because in order for the story to ring true, this has to make sense. You have to really evaluate what the effects would be, realistically, based on what effects you already see. For instance, if you think that we don’t appreciate beauty enough, maybe you imagine a world where there is no beauty, where we’ve gotten rid of all our arts, destroyed all of nature (remember, not all dystopian fantasy has to be science fiction or even futuristic. You can set it in whatever world you want). There is no music, no color, no laughing. Everything is grey and purely functional, nothing exists unless it is useful or practical. What happens to the people who live there? Do they forget happiness, because they’ve forgotten beauty? And without happiness, do they forget kindness and love, too? Give it some thought. And no matter what you write, remember; make it so that it could happen. 

3). Imagine what your protagonist’s place is in this world. Is he or she happy in it? Do they know what it was like before? Are they going to try and change things, or are they simply looking for their own redemption? This will decide what kind of story you’re going to write: plot-oriented or character-oriented. Plot-oriented stories tend to have more action and adventure, as your character actively takes on the problems of his world and tries to change them. Character-oriented stories should be much subtler and less action-packed. Dystopian stories written like that should focus on the effect of the dystopian society on your character, and might follow his spiritual journey as he tries to answer his own questions and doubts about good and evil in the world in which he lives.

This is all very basic, but it should give you the foundation for a good dystopian story. From there, the plot will depend largely on you, but just keep in mind that even dystopian fiction has to have plausible characters with understandable stories. You can go as far out as you want, but only if you keep your characters ultimately human and relatable. And of course, just like with any genre, the very best way to learn how to write it is to read it, as much and as often as possible. And there really is a lot of quality dystopian literature out there Although dystopian fiction has had a big surge in popularity recently, it’s been around forever, and I find that some of the best are the ones written a long time ago that accurately predicted a lot of the things that are happening today.

Here are a few of my favorite:

Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury

The Hunger Games trilogy, by Suzanne Collins (Well, duh. Even if you didn’t know what dystopian fiction was, if you thought of it you probably pictured The Hunger games!)

The Giver, by Lois Lowry

Gathering Blue, by Lois Lowry

Messenger, by Lois Lowry

1984, by George Orwell (Like this one because phew! We’re already passed that!)

THE TANGLEWOOD TIMES | C.M. DAVIDSON

Writing is more than just putting words on a page. You’ve created a world, a person, a story. And you want people to be able to see it the way you do. Here are three ways to create a mood in your writing.

Move the CameraIn your writing, you can draw a reader’s “eye” to different things by how you phrase your words. I like to think of this as a camera. When you’re writing, you’re picturing the scene in your head. But when you put the words down on paper, the scene might not “look” as good as it did in your mind.1. To make your readers see an angle. Depending on how you phrase things, you can make your readers see a specific angle. For example, noting how something looks from “above” without specifically telling the reader you’re doing so will draw the mind’s eye to look “downwards” on the scene.2. To slow down or speed up time. I guess we could put this under camera, since it’s an effect used in film. You probably see this all the time in books. “Time seemed to slow down.” and “Everything happened in an instant.” are such examples. By “messing with time” you can place emphasis on a moment, or increase the confusion of it.

Paint the PictureLike a film, different stories may have a stylized look to them in your mind. Everything might be murky or brightly colored or bland. If so, you need to mention this more than once, and pour that “look” into all your words. Don’t just mention it quickly in a passing description. You want emphasis placed on the look so that your readers can picture it the whole time and not forget about it as you move on.

Generate the FeelingsTo generate feelings, you want your readers to be attached to your character and story and all that stuff. But you also just want to create relatable feelings that will move anyone at least a little even if they don’t know your character. The “Camera” and “Painting the Picture” is very important in this (especially that last one), but to really generate feelings in your reader – not just telling them what they should feel - you need to make use of actual signs so they can “figure it out” for themselves.Think back to a time when you were feeling the same emotion or think carefully on what you would feel if you were experiencing the same things. Make note of even the smallest details and be sure to include them in your story. Let objects carry feelings too, especially for dread, as if they have a secret that you can sort of sense when seeing, hearing, smelling, or touching them.

T H E W R I T ELifeHow do you cure your writer’s block?

Sometimes I’ll just sit it out. But if I really want to write, I’ll watch movies,

listen to music, or read books that inspire me. Using writing prompts is a good thing too, since

you’re told what to write.~ MJ

I get writer's block a lot, and I have a lot of different things I try. I listen to music a lot,

usually, but sometimes when it's really bad I'll just take a break altogether and draw or read. Other times I'll work on a different writing project.

It really all depends on how bad the block is. ~ Josephine Paige

What I do is just sit there and think randomly as

fast as I can about random things... that

doesn't help much though, does it? Not for normal people... oh well.

~ Mercy

I find that environment is

really key for me, especially when I'm having a tough time coming up with stuff. It's hard for me to be creative if my room is

messy or I need a shower or whatever. So, I try to relax.

Sometimes I take all my stuff outside to a special spot that I

have, pack provisions and don't come in

until I've got something. Other times I tidy up my

room, lay out all my notebooks and sketch pads and pencils and things neatly, make some tea and get

comfy. Somehow just the act of laying out all my equipment is

enough to get my brain excited to start writing again. If none of that works, I'll find

something inspiring to read, something that fires me up and gets me motivated to keep writing. If none

of THAT works, well, it may be time to find a

new project.~ C.M. Davidson

• Listen to Music

• Take a Break

• Go to a Different Project

• Think on Random Things

• Watch Movies

• Read Books

• Relax

Thanks so much for reading!

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