Follow Simon as he sets out to encounter life in the real world, which he soon finds is full of all kinds of magic and adventure. Although he has hitherto led a rather sheltered life, he is now busy meeting new friends as well as enemies, learning about different types of magic and how to use it.
Basically, a serial story is an ongoing tale much like the format of a soap opera. Just as "Days of Our Lives" gives the viewer daily, manageable bites, serial stories break a story down into segments. The idea is to keep the reader coming back for more.
The chapters of this particular serial story are formulated and then told by the author using her own imagination combined with the cards she draws from the beautiful Hanson Roberts Tarot deck.
People have an insatiable appetite for stories. From the time we were children when we used to ask our parents, " Tell me a story." and our first Library Card to today's technology allowing us the excitment of shopping on sites like Amazon, nothing much has changed. Everyone loves a good story.
Think about it: People go to seminars, not just to learn something, but to hear a good speaker 'speak' and tell them a story. Old friends want to catch up and end up telling each other the 'story' of what has happened in their lives since the last time they met. At a party, everyone pays attention if someone says, "Did you hear what happened to --?" A good preacher will find his church full every Sunday if his sermon is told as a story, or stories. Even Jesus used parables, or stories, to teach the people the morals of the Golden Rule. Who remember's Aesop's fables? They are just stories which illustrate morals and use animals and objects as characters.
Whether it is through the media of books and literature, audio books, movies or TV, people love stories. Since the time of pre-historic man, when everyone gathered around the fire to listen to a storyteller relate the legends of the tribe, this has never changed. People love stories!
Jean M. Auel's extensive research into the Ice Age shines in her writing, especially in the detailed knowledge of plants and natural remedies used by the medicine woman and then passed down to Ayla. This series is a wonderful story of survival and Ayla's personal evolution as she experiences many adventures and prehistoric cultures.
When her parents are killed by an earthquake, the child Ayla wanders through the forest completely alone, cold and hungry. When she is badly injured by a cave lion, the little girl is as good as gone until she is discovered by a group who call themselves the Clan of the Cave Bear. Their medicine woman painstakingly nurses Ayla back to health and adopts her.
Although this story takes place roughly 35,000 years ago, its cast of characters could easily slide into any modern tale. The members of the Neanderthal clan, ruled by traditions and taboos, find themselves challenged by this outsider, who represents the physically modern Cro-Magnons. As Ayla begins to mature, her natural tendencies emerge and her in the middle of a brutal and dangerous power struggle.
The Earth's Children series is of the type that you can put it away for a few years and then read it all over again, enjoying every minute. Highly recommended to anyone who enjoys historical fiction!
Simon Simon installments come out twice weekly and are posted on Rachel's Blog HERE at 6:00 pm sharp on Wednesdays and Saturdays.
Since our poor author has to work a Real Job at the moment, she can only manage two chapters per week although she is eventually hoping to write serial stories full time.
On Wednesday and Saturday night's, that day's installment will be posted here on Simon's site, along with any Character and/or Plot updates which may be pertinent.
The Installments which have been posted on the Blog are then placed here on the Simon website as Episodes. So many Episodes will go to make up one Chapter of Simon's life and adventures. The First Chapter, of course tells how Simon got started on these adventures and documents his very eventful journey to Ras Kinl. Eventually, all these Chapters will become Books. When Book I is completed, we will start on Book II and so forth.
And don't worry! There's a whole great big world (more than one, actually) inside our author's head and she's not about to run out of ideas anytime soon. Who knows where Simon will go and what he will do next, or the things he will experience? Will he fall in love? Or be eaten by a dragon.
Go Straight To The Story!
