My Techy Bone

Couple posts ago I talked about how I missed working with bones, hanging out in the anthropology labs, and really anthropology in general. I love geospatial science, I really do but I wanted to experience that anthropology world again. So what did I do? No I didn't drop out of Grad School or quit my job actually quite the opposite. Instead I decided that I was going to take my thesis from undergrad and turn it into my final project for the Spatial Database class that I'm taking now.

When I was at Penn State I created biological anthropology related exhibits for the anthropology museum. I thought it would be cool for my final to create a spatial model of the museum section where I had my exhibits. Then I will link it to a database that will hold the info for the artifacts in the exhibits (the artifact number, name, description, collection it came from, store room number it came from, etc).

Basically what this database becomes is a sort of spatial tracking guide for the museum exhibits (have different shapefile layers that layout the exhibit sections that once clicked on bring up the data of the artifacts in the exhibit). Essentially there will be about three tables that house the data from the three different exhibits I worked on. Since I worked closely in actually creating these exhibits I know that this is something that could very well be implemented at the Matson Museum of Anthropology at Penn State. It really peaked my interest when thinking of different project ideas for this class.

I'm excited to start working on it and finally getting back into the anthropology mindset. Obviously it's still the technical side of things but I can see it being extremely practical. This is a good way to take these technical skills I'm learning in the Master's Degree and apply it back to my Bachelor's Degree.

My Writing Bone

There must be something in the air, maybe it's the presence of spring finally lifting it's head back into this part of the world, because I have been on a writing roll. Funny how these spurts of inspiration and writing never seem to come when I have the time to do it. Nope, they come in the midst of me working extra hours at work to get projects done, working hard in my Spatial Database class, trying to finish up my taxes, and planning a wedding.

What it comes down to is every bit of free time these past few days has been dedicated to writing whether it is this blog, my short story that I'm working on, or my novel Summer's Hollow.  Yesterday I had a huge breakthrough in Summer's Hollow and am happy to say that I'm over a third of the way done with the final tweaks to it. For those of you who don't know, I've been working on this horror novel for about 7 years which in itself is an issue. See the fact is I started writing this novel when I was in high school after I was inspired by reading The Scarlet Letter. Spending 7 years on the same novel (even though it was put on hold during college for the most part) is a challenge as your literary style grows and changes.

Thankfully I had an awesome editor in Rosa Sophia who was great at really telling me where my problem areas were and unfortunately there were a lot. Once again I started writing it when I was a teenager so there were some issues in that itself. For example the main problem were my characters. I had spent so long trying to get the mythology and mechanics behind the plot correct that I had neglected my characters. The fact of the matter was I didn't particularly have any connection to my characters and if I didn't the reader most certainly wouldn't.

So after I received my edits from my editor back in October I took what she said to heart but decided it was best if I just set it aside for a little bit. For me I can't force my writing. If I force it than that's what parts are neglected. Over the past couple of months I've glances at it every now and then, wrote some supplemental pieces such as conversations with my main characters, etc. In that process I realized something else: my main character was the teenage version of me. As much as, when I started writing Rylie into the story seven years ago, I didn't want her to be, she was.

At the start I had her as this really strong female character that took charge and knew what to do in the situation of the town be ransacked by the spirit. Well that was neither believable or really all that interesting. Rylie just wasn't real enough and neither were the other characters who were just going along with this charade. So now I am going back through the book and writing her as if it were me facing this situation and the people around me were reacting to it as well. In the process I have realized that I painted Rylie to be this nerd turned cool kid but what she needed to stay was that nerd. That's what I have done. I wrote a new passage yesterday that I think pretty much summed up my character (of course with a Whedon reference thrown in):

Everyone had reached the porch, and they all began to turn on their flashlights. The foyer was suddenly illuminated by six yellow beams. The floor was thick with dust and littered with the bones of long-dead rats. They each held their breath and stepped inside after Brian. Rylie gripped Josh’s hand tighter and Andy scowled behind them.

After they stepped inside, Rylie expected the door to blow shut like in any typical horror flick but it just rocked slightly on its hinges. This unnerved Rylie even more as she shivered in fright and quickly closed it behind them. Josh whispered her name and she caught back up to the others. They made their way out of the foyer and into a hallway, which seemed to lead to the kitchen.

“We made it in,” Josh whispered. “That’s got to count for something, right?"

“Yeah, but now what?” Andy asked. “What are we looking for? Because I want to find it and get out.”

“I second that,” Alec whispered, “Honestly don’t know why you all dragged me here just because Buffy here seems to think she let out some spirit on the town.”
Josh shot Alec a look as if he had coached them before they came here not to say anything to Rylie. It was obvious that none of them besides maybe Brian and Josh actually wanted to be here. She just pushed passed them annoyed and walked in front of them down the hallway.

Much better right? Well I guess no one but my editor has seen the original scene but let's just say it wasn't believable. The way it was originally set up  they just blindly followed Rylie in as she made her way to figure out why she was drawn to this house.

Not only are my characters more believable and relatable but I actually am in love with them for the first time since starting to write the book. Now of course I always liked them but never felt a strong connection to them. As of today I can't wait to jump back in and explore more along with Rylie, Josh, Andy, and the others. They are now my friends and I can't wait until they get to be yours at the end of May when Summer's Hollow is published!

Bones, Buried Bodies, and Brutal Honesty

Taken by Dr. Snow during another Forensic Anth Class

So I couldn't resist the alliteration for this next post in the Witches in Fiction 2013... to the Bone entry. My love of alliterations is only out-weighed by my love of bones. If you remember back to my first post for this bone party, I talked about my Forensic Archaeology Class. Our final for that class was of course digging up the buried body and figuring out how/why it was there. There was much more to that class than just digging up bones (though we did do a lot of it).

The way the class was set up, we had a 3 hour session every Wednesday for an entire semester. We'd have one week of lecture, one week of outside fieldwork, and so on and so forth. To say this class was awesome is an understatement. First off it was taught by Dr. Dean Snow who is known for being an expert in Iroquois Indians, President of the Society for American Archaeology, and all around powerhouse of archaeology knowledge. I had him not only for the forensic class but for a couple of my Native American Archaeology classes as well. Dr. Snow actually retired this year so I am happy that I was able to benefit from his wisdom when I could.

Needless to day the forensic class was chalked full of awesome knowledge that he had from the field as well as pulling some experiences from his daughter's work. His daughter happen to be Kate Snow from Dateline. It was really interesting to hear all about her take on forensics from the reporter side of things as well as the forensic sides of things. We started off talking about missing persons. We learned what the most likely place is to find a body of a missing persons, what state they would be in after days/weeks missing, and how to go about finding just what lead them there.

Those were the lecture days. On the outside fieldwork days we spent doing various exercises in figuring out those forensic questions. We used GPS to track our movement around campus to simulate a scenario where a student had gone missing and ended up dead (based on a real case that happened at Penn State in 2009). Another class session Dr. Snow placed the remains of pigs in a field for a couple weeks and we had to go find the remains and figure out what environmental factors affected them.  Then there was a couple sessions where we mapped out a crime scene and had to create grids to show where different artifacts were found related to a crime. To wrap it all up we spent a good chunk of the class digging up the bones from the burial and closely examining them.

This was by far one of my favorite classes that I took at Penn State. There are times when I really questions whether or not I should've gone into archaeology/forensics for a career. Then I remember how many months I spent after graduation TRYING to break into the field and finding that there were no open jobs in it. So instead went into Geospatial Science for my Masters and I get to deal with the more techy side of mapping and database designing. Still love it to death and I am seeing how it can be applied to the archaeology and forensics work that we did in that class.

Tickled to the Bone and Sharing the Love

Today I was nominated for this awesome award by my equally awesome mother from another life (MFAL), Kallan Kennedy of The Secret Life of the American Working Witch fame. Usually when I'm nominated for these types of things I don't really pass it along as the people I would nominate have already been nominated. But I couldn't resist passing this along especially with all the bone love going around this week! Now yes I know some of these people have already been nominated but heck I think they deserve the awesomeness of being nominated twice and their blogs shared with as many people as possible. There are also some people on here that don't blog but have awesome shops and/or websites that the world should know about.

So the rules to being nominated? First I am supposed to display this award on my page which is now in the upper left hand side underneath the Witches in Fiction 2013... to the Bone button. Second, line back the person who nominated you. Well you can find my awesome MFAL in the link above as well as in the left side bar under her awesome button. Third, write ten things about yourself. Well okay then, I'll keep this short and sweet:

1. I am a nerd, as it says in my blog title, and I am proud of it.

2. Writing is my passion but I never had any inclinations of it being a career. It is my hobby and ultimately I do it for myself.

3. I am getting married next May to the most amazing man I have ever met in my entire life. You guys will have a chance to meet him later on this month when he makes a guest appearance on my blog (details to come).

4. I recently lost over 45 lbs and honestly have never been happier with my body.

5. In celebration of my weight loss I got my first tattoo yesterday!




6. I find that in the process of planning my wedding that I can add the title "wedding snob" to the list with bone snob, horror snob, and anthropology snob.

7. I don't tan. I'm Irish and Norwegian and pretty much the whitest you can get (as seen in the picture to the right). I get freckles but that's about it.

8. There's not a lot that I'm afraid of but tunnels happen to be one of them. I've been working on getting over my fear of them but forcing myself to drive through various tunnels in the area.

9. I have a pet snake. Actually it used to belong to both of my sisters from another life at one point and I adopted her since then.

10. I am confrontational. If someone wrongs me (like the lady who cut in front of us at the grocery store) I WILL say something. I never let things like that go (both a good and bad thing at times).

So the fourth part of these rules? I am supposed to nominate 10 other blogs (or shops/sites). Well here it goes:

Magaly serves up some wonderfully dark fiction with a pagan twist over at Pagan Culture and is the one who started the blog party I'm currently involved with: Witches in Fiction 2013... to the Bone.

During this blog party I have been introduced to many other bloggers that I have never heard of and one of them is Anna over at Witchcraft and More. I just LOVE her post about Baba-Yaga.

Another awesome lady that I was introduced to through ...to the Bone was Ms. Misantropia. Her post on Witches, Easter, and Blakulla was awesome! You all know I love anything Scandinavian :)

My amazing friend Steph over at The Coexist Cafe has been nominated by Kallan as well but of course I have to nominate her again! You have to check out her blog as her and her awesome husband are expecting a little bundle of joy! (plus she's as addicted to coffee as me)

The wonderful Sarah over at Love, Light, & Wine: A Painting, Sipping, Beachy Pagan is a loyal follower to my blog and always has amazing comments to my discussions. Her blog is whimisical, fun, and comes from the Bahamas!

Now this next woman is another one of my Witchy cohorts and is an AMAZING writer. Her books keep you on the edge of your seat and wanting more. You have to check out her site and learn all about Sally Dubats.

Another one who doesn't necessarily blog but deserves to have this title of Epic awesome award of epic awesomeness is my sexy blonde witch Loren! She is such an incredibly talented artist and her work deserves to be hanging in a art gallery someday! Check her out on Saga's Cottage Storybook Art's Etsy Site.

More crafty awesomeness comes from the awesome mind of Eloria. Her handcrafted charms, pendants, witch boxes and more grace our lovely home and they should yours as well!

Then there's Renee over at Confessions of a Modern Witch who not only blogs but has an awesome shop as well! I have many of her items decorating our home as well. (what can I say I have talented friends!)

Last but certainly not least is the wonderful Snowy of Eye of Nuit and Pagan Stuff Cheap fame! Her candles are awesome and I have tons of them as well as amazing lavender bath salts that de-stress me.

House of Gold and Bones

Album Cover for Part I

Music and nature are the two things that inspire me the most to write. The two of them together are the perfect cocktail for a delightfully dark story from my mind. My music selection is all over the place though mostly in the rock genre. Lately I've been listening to a lot of Stone Sour which is one of my all time favorite bands. Their music paints these pictures of scenes and I can drop my characters into. These scenes then blossom into great stories.

So what does this have to do with bones you ask? Well the newest Stone Sour album is titled "House of Gold and Bones." This is more than perfect for my writing and for this blog party. This album is hauntingly beautiful while being majorly kick ass. The second part of the album hasn't been released yet but they are streaming it on their site now if you want to check it out: http://stonesour.com/albumstream.

Album Art for Part II

They have a wonderful blend of hard rock, beautiful vocals, and dark subject matters. Some of you might know the lead singer Corey Taylor who was previously singing vocals for Slipknot. Just think of Stone Sour as Slipknot minus the maggots and masks. Some of their songs have you wanting to head bang  (which I wouldn't suggest doing in your car while driving down the highway, and yes I know this from experience) where some have to holding up your lighter and swaying back and forth. This range is what made me fall in love with them.

I have the distinct pleasure of seeing them in concert one week from today which is the perfect reason to post this blog entry. The venue is a couple blocks from work so I just COULDN'T pass up the opportunity to see them live for the first time. They're one of the few bands that I am willing to pay any amount of money (well within reason) to see live. Their concerts are known for being a whole show and experience rather than just the singers/musicians rocking away on stage. I know that I will come away from the concert next week being inspired to write a new short story to my "Chronicles of a Freak" series.

A Bone Snob

It has been brought to my attention that I am sort of an anthropology snob and you know what I guess I kind of am. I find myself not being able to watch any TV shows or movies that showcase anthropological topics. The first and foremost of these happens to be the show Bones. Now one would think since I ADORE Kathy Reichs (maybe a little too much at times) that I would love the show. I mean David Boreanaz is on it and I LOVE the show Angel (once again, I know I love that show too much) but there is the unrealistic factor about it that I can't get around.

My motto has always been "don't knock it until you've tried it." If there is something that other people claim is so amazing I will try it out to see what all the hype is about. Hell, I even tried to read Fifty Shades of Grey for that very purpose. But I digress... I could talk about that monstrocity for ever. Point is I really tried to watch Bones. It has such potential and then they brought out the freaking hologram machine that could magically determine anything about a person from their remains.

Now I've talked before in my posts about how there are tools that anthropologists use to determine things about remains. One can determine race, gender, age, and many other things just from the bones of a person. What anthropologists can't do is then display that in this 3D image that awes all in the lab with it's magical powers. So yeah... the Bones ship sailed for me pretty quickly.

Call me a bone snob, but I just can't get into it. CSI is the same way for me, or any of those shows where they can "enhance" pretty much anything or find DNA matches in 5 minutes or less. In fact one of the first videos we ever watched in my Forensic Archeaology class was this montage of "enhance it" moments from TV and movies:

Severed Connection

Many of you know I have a very dark sense of humor. When I was thinking about bones and what stories I could post during this Blog Party one jumped to mind. This is from an anthology of short stories I wrote for a project I did back in 9th grade titled "The First of the Last at the Start of the End." This was the story that landed me a meeting with my teacher over whether I was in my right mind or not when writing:

Severed Connection

          The hand lay on the ground, rotting in its state. Maggots feasted on its flesh tearing in little by little. There was nobody attached to it; it was just a hand. It rested under the bush shielded from view but not from scent.

The hand gave off a stench worse than anything anyone could possibly imagine. It was the complete and total stench of death; a stench of damned odor, seemingly coming strait from hell itself.

            A man ambled passed the bush and stopped at the stench. He breathed in deeply, the odor caressing his nostrils. He exhaled, smiled, and bent down to examine the rotting specimen.

            He reached down with his red stained hands, and squatted over the hand. He pulled back the bush wiping the red substance on the lower hanging vegetation. The substance was not his. He smiled again and picked up the hand trying to shake off the maggots that held on tightly.

            “Ahh… I knew I forgot something.”