Week 14: Storytelling: The Headless Horseman

Week 14: The Headless Horseman

Dear Diary,                                                                                                          December 12, 1892

Today I came to the town of Sleepy Hollow to investigate the mysterious murders happening in this dark little town. The townspeople say that every night, one family dies. No one knows which one it will be, but it is sure to happen. Apparently every family is found with their heads cut clean off.  Tonight is going to be interesting to say the least. I am staying with a family that is letting me sleep on their bed and eat from their table. They are very kind, but they are so very terrified.

Wish me luck,

Ichabod W. Crane

Sleepy Hollow

Dear Diary,                                                                                                           December 13, 1892

Last. Night. Was. Brutal.
Who knew that the family I was staying with would be the ones with damned souls that night. I woke up to screams of horror and terror. I was not expecting such excitement my first night in Sleepy Hollow. When I came out of my room, I saw three heads laying on the floor. Next to them were the bodies of the mother, father, and their son. Blood was everywhere. I almost got sick, but luckily I kept my composure. I cannot imagine what horrid creature is evil enough to commit these gruesome crimes. Hopefully I figure this mystery out soon.

Traumatize and terrified,

Ichabod W. Crane


Dear Diary,                                                                                                           December 14, 1892

Well tonight I had to move into another family's house. The mother and father of the family have three young, precious daughters. I must find the murderer soon so that the innocent children of this community do not die. I know tonight will bring more murders if I do not do something. I have decided to stay awake all night and look out the window. That is the only way to get a clue as to who this monster is. Well, I guess I shall get to it then. I am going to grab a big cup of coffee, my sword, and look out the window 'til sunrise.

Tired but determined,

Ichabod W. Crane

The Headless Horseman

Dear Diary,                                                                                                           December 17, 1892

Last night was seriously insane. I was looking out the window when all of a sudden I heard a horse galloping in the distance. It got closer and closer until I knew it was right outside the house where I am staying. Before I could blink, I saw the monster. I was immediately excited and terrified all at the same time. You will never believe who the murderer is. It is in fact a headless horseman. I know it sounds crazy, but it is the truth. He was searching for my host family, but I had my weapons ready. The moment he busted open the door, I was in the corner hiding. He did not see me so when he turned to go towards the bedrooms, I stabbed him straight through the heart. He died right then and there and was never again seen in the town of Sleepy Hollow. I am so happy to have solved this horrible case, and to have even became a hero to the townspeople. Now I will travel to a town called Horrorland where there seems be another case of headless bodies appearing all over the place. Talk to you again tomorrow, diary. Wish me luck.

Ready for the next adventure,

Ichabod W. Crane

Author's Note:
So for this story I kind of combined ideas from two stories. I used a character (sort of) from The Headless Princess and the storyline from The Witch Girl. The Headless Princess had a woman who would take her head off her body to clean it, and a boy was peeping and saw her so she tried to take revenge on him. In The Witch Girl, a man asks to stay with a family for the night. They let him in, but tell him that every night a family dies in the town. He stayed up all night to make sure no one died, and saw that a witch all dressed in white was trying to sprinkle something in through the window. He cuts her arm off when he sees this. Later it is revealed that it is a girl from the town who was the witch and killing families. I kind of combined these two ideas and made my own little story.

Portfolio Introduction

Portfolio Introduction

For my portfolio, I added all of the stories that not only were my favorite, but the ones I felt really proud of after I wrote them. There is no theme or specific style for these styles. They are all a little bit different, which is also why I put them into my portfolio. I hope everyone enjoys these stories as much as I did!

The Legend of Geller

Alice in Horrorland

The Broken Pot

The Cave of the Beasts

The Three Delicate Wives

Week 14: Reading Diary

Week 14: Russian Folktales

The Dead Mother:
This was a very creepy story! The dead mother comes and visits her son every night. At the end, everyone sees her because they camped out in the room to find who was sneaking in the baby's room every night. When everyone saw her, she left and they found the baby dead.

The Treasure:
So at first I was unsure about this story because I felt bad for the old man. He finally got some money for his wife's funeral, and he was a good man. Then the Pope comes along and steals it. What kind of pope does that? The pope gets punished for what he had done by turning into a goat. I loved the way it ended with some karma.

The Bad Wife:
This story was kind of weird I am not sure if I liked it or not. The wife was terrible! If I was going to rewrite this one, I would probably focus on the wife and husband. I would forget about the demon, and have the husband get revenge on his wife the whole time in many ways.

 The Three Copecks:
This story was all over the place for me. It was weird because it was about some copecks, then a cat, then riches and a wife. It didn't feel very connected to me.

The Witch Girl:
I liked this story because it was short and simple. Everything happened pretty quickly. For some reason, the first sentence of this story made me think of the movie "Sleepy Hollow." I think it would be fun to do a play on this if I were to rewrite the story.

The Headless Princess:
This story was strange. I wish they would have told us why the girl was headless. I think it would be fun to change this story up a LOT. I wish they would have described the horrors that took place at night in the church. This would be fun to play with for sure.

The Warlock:
I thought this story was interesting. The father kills two of his daughter-in-laws, but the third one outsmarts him. She gets to take all of the money from his coffin for outsmarting him.

The Fox Physician:
This story was so sad! The old man tries to carry his wife up to the skies, but drops her because she asked him a question. She falls to the ground and is smashed into pieces so the man takes her to a fox. The fox says he can bring her back to life, but is joking and eats her up.

Two Friends:
I think this one would be really fun to change up. The title reminded me of the show "Friends" so I think it would be fun to put the characters from the show into this story. I could do something like: Ross is the one who disappears and leaves Rachel alone to eventually marry another man.

Week 13: Essay

Week 13: Essay

Sleeping Beauty/Briar Rose

I read the Grimm (Librivox) unit this week. I noticed a few things about the stories this week. Usually the prince is the one to save the girl in a lot of fairytales and stories about princesses as princes. In this unit there were some of those stories of course such as Briar Rose, but there were also a lot of stories in this unit where the princess saves the prince. Stories where the princess saves the prince were The Frog Prince and Rapunzel. In The Frog Prince, the princess must let the frog sleep in her house three nights in a row in order for him to break the spell of being a frog and become a prince. In Rapunzel, the prince falls into some thorns and blinds himself. Years later the princess finds him and her tears fall into his eyes and give him back his sight. In Briar Rose, the princess falls into a sleep for 100 years because of an evil fairy's spell. A prince comes along and kisses her, and she wakes up from her sleep and is alive and well.

I guess I found this interesting because I never noticed it before. In most stories like this, the prince in shining armor comes in on his horse and saves the damsel in distress. I think it is kind of cool that some of these stories were the other way around especially because today there is more equality in America. I think it is interesting and awesome that there is a few stories like this in this unit.

Week 13: Storytelling: The Frog Prince

Week 13: Storytelling

The Frog Prince

Once upon a time there was a beautiful princess named Alexandria Rose. One day Alexandria was walking along the pond day dreaming about finding the prince of her dreams when all of a sudden her  diamond tiara fell into the water.

Alexandria started sobbing because her father had just given her that tiara for her 22nd birthday and it was very, very expensive. When she finally contained herself, she opened her eyes and right in front of here was a green little frog sitting on a lily pad watching her cry.

Blushing from embarrassment, Alexandria asked the frog, "Who are you? Stop watching me cry. It is very rude you disgusting creature."

The Frog Prince

The frog replied, "Hello princess, I am Robert the frog. Why are you so sad? Is there anything I can do to help?"

Alexandria replied, "I am crying because I  dropped my tiara into the pond. It was very expensive and now it is gone forever. My father is going to kill me!"

"Oh princess," replied Robert the frog, "I can surely help you with that. But first, you must make me a promise."

"Oh could you?" asked Alexandria, "I will make you any promise! You name it, and it is yours."

Robert the frog asked the princess, "Could you take me into your home? I would like to sleep in a warm but for one night. That is all I ask of you, princess."

Alexandria scoffed, "You really expect me to let some slimy, green, wet, gross creature into my home, let alone my bed? You are seriously mistaken, frog. Maybe in your next lifetime, or better yet, when pigs fly."

The Frog Prince

With hurt feelings Robert replied, "Well I guess it was worth a try. I see you didn't want your tiara back that bad after all. Goodbye, Princess."

"Wait a minute!" Thinking that the frog could never ever leave the pond, Alexandria agreed to the promise. She told the frog, "Fine I will promise to let you sleep in a warm bed tonight, but please just give me back my tiara."

Robert went to the bottom of the pond and fetched her tiara, and Alexandria went home a happy girl. That evening as Alexandria was getting ready for bed, she heard a tap at her front door. She thought to herself,  "It couldn't be the frog, could it? No, no, no that's crazy. He could never make it all the way here from that disgusting pond."

When she opened the door, there was Robert the frog. He said, "Princess, you promised to let me sleep in a warm bed for tonight, so here I am! Let me tell you, I am so unbelievably excited!"

Alexandria rudely said, "Couldn't you tell I was lying? I am not about to let you into my home. Now go away! Don't you have some mosquitos to eat or something?"

Truly hurt, the frog started to tear up. He was hopping away when he saw an open window in Alexandria's house. The window being on the first floor, Robert easily made the large hop inside and found Stephanie Jewel, Alexandria's younger, more beautiful sister.

Stephanie exclaimed, "Oh my! Who are you, you cute little thing?"

Robert replied, "I am Robert the frog, and I am sorry to bother you, but may I please sleep in your bed tonight? I have been longing to sleep in a warm, cozy bed for sometime now."

Stephanie replied, "Well of course! How could I say no to such an adorable little frog! You can even cuddle up to me if you get too cold."

It finally came time to go to sleep and Stephanie said, "Goodnight little froggy. Sweet Dreams!" She even gave him a little kiss on the cheek.

A Kiss Goodnight 

When Stephanie woke up the next morning, she saw laying next to her the most handsome man she had ever seen. His hair was dark and wavy, he was tall,  his eyes were the most beautiful shade of chocolate brown, and wow those perfect lips. Even just laying there he had some sort of glow to him.

Stephanie was startled, but quietly questioned Robert. "Excuse me Robert," she said, "I am confused. Were you not a frog just yesterday? What is happening?"

Grabbing his face Robert shouted, "It worked? I am human again? This is wonderful! You see princess, five years ago an evil witch put a spell on me. She turned me into a frog and the only way to reverse the spell was to sleep in a bed inside a home for one night. Your sister promised to let me sleep in her room because I saved her beloved tiara, but she took back her word. What a mistake that was. Luckily for me I found you."

"A mistake?" asked Stephanie, "Why was it a mistake? I know she can be very hateful sometimes, but you found me! So in the end it is all okay right?"

Robert chuckled, "Actually, princess, the one funny part about the spell is that if someone makes me a promise, but then takes it back or lies, they get turned into a frog the second I turn back into a human."

"Oh my goodness," screamed Stephanie, "my sister is a frog. Well that's just great. My dad is going to kill her. He always tells us to never take back a promise. I guess she got what she deserved then. She should not have been so hateful."

The Frog Princess

When they went downstairs the found Alexandria sitting on the living room chair. She was green, slimy, and wet. Just like Robert only a few hours before. Robert and Stephanie told her everything. Alexandria was so upset and jealous of her sister, but she learned her lesson and never made a promise she could not keep again.

Stephanie Jewel and Robert went to live in Roberts palace as prince and princess and husband and wife. They lived happily ever after in a love greater than all other loves.

Author's Note: For this story, I kept most of the beginning the same and changed up the end. However, there was a difference or two in the beginning as well. I decided at the end of the original story that I hated the way it ended so I changed it. In the original, the frog turns into a prince and then him and the princess live happily ever after even though she was horrible to him and tricked him. I decided that I would not let someone who was so mean and hateful, win in the end. So I decided to add in a sweet little sister and let her have the happily ever after. Then I had the main character (who I named Alexandria) turn into a frog because she was so hateful to the frog throughout the story. I thought she deserved it. I also decided to have her tiara fall into the bond, not a ball. I thought a tiara would be more precious and meaningful to someone than a ball. That also made the trade for sleeping at her house more equal.

Bibliography:
Book: Brothers Grimm (Librivox)
Author: The Brothers Grimm
Year: N/A
Websource: Un-Textbook

Week 13: Reading Diary

Week 12: Reading Diary: Grimm (Librivox)

The Frog Prince:
I liked reading this story because I have never read this version. I like how the moral of the story is that you should always keep your word. The princess tried to trick the frog, but her father says she can never go against her word. It worked out good for her anyways. He turns into a handsome prince! The only thing I do not like about the story is that she was rude to him and lied to him, yet he still wanted to marry her in the end.

Rapunzel:
This is a sweet story because it is all about love. I hate how the enchantress steals away Rapunzel as a baby, but that is something that is crucial to the story to make it all work and make sense. I think it would be fun to have them defeat the enchantress rather than find each other later.

The Straw, the Coal, and the Bean:
This was a really strange story. I probably wont rewrite this one because there wasn't much story there in my opinion. It was, however, nice to read a story from Grimm that I was not familiar with.

The Mouse, The Bird, and The Sausage:
This story reminds me of the saying "If its not broke, don't fix it." This was kind of a sad story because they were all happy, but someone criticized the way they did things. When they tried to rearrange their duties, they all died doing someone else job.

Briar Rose:
I liked reading this because it was a lot different than the Sleeping Beauty story I remember watching as a child. I think this is a really pretty and detailed story. Of course it ends with a prince saving a princess because that is how many of these stories end.


The Queen Bee:
This is another good story with a moral about karma. I really liked it because the dwarf brother was always trying to be nice to everyone and wouldn't let his brothers hurt innocent animals and creatures. In the end, those creatures came to help him and he ended up with the best princess, and later became king.

The Fox and the Horse:
This story was really enjoyable. It was nice to read another "trickster" story because sometimes what happens is so obvious, but other times you have no idea what is going to happen. I am not sure if I have a story like this in my storytellings or portfolios, but this would be a good one.

Week 12: Famous Last Words

Week 12: Famous Last Words


This week was another stressful one! I had two tests at the end of the week. I don't understand how every single month, all of my tests end up being on the same day! How stressful! But luckily, the only big things I have left to do are finals and a paper and then it is Christmas!!! One more month and school is out for winter break. I am so excited! I dont know about anyone else, but this semester has flown by so fast. I just took my third tests in all of my classes, but it feels like just yesterday we were going over the syllabus. I guess I was just so busy that I blinked and it was almost over. I am really terrified for next semester because I have enrolled in capstone. (!!!!)  That is just the scariest thing in the world to me. I am almost a college graduate. What is even scarier is that now I have to figure out what I want to do with my life. I still do not know what I want to be "when I grow up." Hopefully I am not the only one who feels this way. I have always been so sick of school and just wanted to graduate, but now I am scared of what is ahead of me when I am actually out.

Bedlam

Well, it was another rough week for OU football. Hopefully we get it together soon and start winning every game again like we always did while I was growing up!!! I actually get to go to the bedlam game which I am super excited about, but I am kind of nervous now!! I just found out my dad had some tickets and he is giving them to me. I really just want to go to have fun regardless of if we win or not. Either way I know it is going to be a lot of fun!

Week 12: Essay

Week 12: Essay

This week I read the Celtic Fairytale unit and I really enjoyed it. I think I liked it a lot because a lot of these stories were really different from a lot of the other stories I have read for this class. There was one about a leprechaun, one very similar to Snow White, and there was even one about a ghost. One of my favorites was Gold-Tree and Silver-Tree. This is the story that is closely related to what we know as Snow White. It was different though because her mother was the one trying to kill her, not her step mother. The mother also tried three times to kill her until the mother eventually died. This actually reminded me of something that someone from class would rewrite. Like if they were to take the Snow White story we all know, and change it up in the way that this story was written.

Gold-Tree and Silver-Tree

  I also really enjoyed Beth Gellert because it really got to me emotionally. I think it is a story that a lot of people know. They at least have heard a story with a similar storyline and message. This is the story I chose to write this week for the storytelling assignment because I thought that it was a really good one and people should read it. This was the best unit I have read in a while. I really enjoyed doing the readings this week. Last week was pretty good too. I am looking forward to next week, though, because it looks like there are going to be a few more familiar stories that we get to read. I am looking forward to that, and also to reading other peoples stories.

Week 12: Storytelling: The Legend of Geller

Week 12: Storytelling: Beth Geller

The Legend of Geller

There once was a Prince named Llewelyn who loved to hunt. He also loved to take his many dogs with him to help him succeed. One day Prince Llewelyn was wanting to go hunting because it was such a beautiful day. When he blew his horn to let the dogs know it was time to go, his very favorite dog Geller did not answer.

Geller was a dog that his father, the king, gave to him. For this reason, he was very special to Prince Llewelyn. Geller was a very sweet and gentle dog in the home, but in the chase he was as mighty as a lion. In fact, he was the best dog the prince had ever had. The prince finally called him by name to hurry up, but he still did not come. He left without him and for that reason he had no luck hunting that day.

Geller

Prince Llewelyn was very angry at Geller when he got back to his castle. When he opened the gate, Geller was running towards him to meet him. As he got closer, Prince Llewelyn noticed that he had blood dripping from his lips and fangs. Llewelyn was still very upset with Geller for not coming when he was called and so he gave him a very angry and disappointed look. Geller was very confused and sad about the way he was greeted by his master.

Prince Llewelyn instantly had a horrible and tragic thought. He had a one-year-old son whom Geller played with on a daily basis. He wondered if maybe something happened to his son while he was away. He ran inside as fast as he could.

When he got to his son's nursery, the was a room covered in blood. The walls, the floor, and the crib were all painted red. In a panic, he tore apart the room. He saw that the cradle was overturned and drenched in blood. He could not find his son anywhere in the nursery. Horrible and terrifying thoughts filled his head. He could only make sense of it by putting two and two together. He knew that what must have happened was that Geller was killing his precious son while he was away in the woods. He realized that was why Geller did not come when he was called.

He turned around and saw Geller was standing behind him with a bloody face. He screamed to Geller, "You monster! How could you destroy my son in this way?" He took his sword and plunged it into Geller's side. Geller, looking into Prince Llewelyn's eyes, let out a dying and saddened yell as he slowly lay down and died.

Baby and Wolf

This yell led to a baby's cry. The noise came from underneath the overturned cradle. His son had woken up because of Geller's dying scream. Prince Llewelyn found him, and there was not a scratch on the baby anywhere. Right next to him was a beast of a wolf shredded to pieces covered with blood.

Llewelyn had assumed the total opposite of what happened, and acted too quickly upon it. Geller did not answer to his name hours before because he was protecting the child from a wild beast who was trying to destroy him. Llewelyn was heartbroken, but he could not take back the evil thing that he had done. He buried Geller right outside of the castle where all who passed by would see the grave.

Author's Note:
The only little thing I changed about this story was change the name from "Gellert" to "Geller." I just thought that sounded better and was easier to say. I chose to rewrite this story because it is truly heartbreaking. I cannot read a story about a dog who gets killed and not get emotional. For some reason dog stories always get to me. For this reason I could not change the ending. I just reworded the story and left it alone and did not change anything at all about the storyline because I loved, but also greatly hated the story just how it was. As much as I wanted to, I could not touch or change the ending because it would take away the meaning from the rest of the story. I felt that the reason this story was so good was because it was so tragic. If I just had the prince realize what the dog had done then said "Good boy, Geller" it would have been boring. I hope I get the message across as well as the original did.

Biblioraphy
Book: Celtic Fairytales
Author:Joseph Jacobs
Year: 1892
Web Source: Un-Textbook

Week 12: Reading Diary

Week 12: Reading Diary

Celtic Fairytales
Connla and the Fairy Maiden:
I didn't really get this story. The maiden kept trying to get Connla to go with her to the land where she is from, but nothing ever really happened. He eventually went, but that was it. I was thinking maybe she was tricking him or something. That would be a fun way to rewrite the story.

The Field of Boliauns:
This was a fun story I thought. I have not read a story until now about leprechauns so that was a nice change! I thought it was strange how Tom simply seemed to be a normal, nice enough guy, but then he turned into a jerk immediately.

The Horned Women: If I were going to redo this story, I would change almost everything about it. It definitely was not my favorite. I guess I was just expecting something totally different.

The Shepherd of Myddvai:
This story reminded me of the story I read at the beginning of the semester about the delicate wives. She told him if he strikes her three times she will leave him, but she counts little taps and barely any touching at all as strikes. I kind of liked this story because it was a little different than a lot of the other ones I have read.

The Sprightly Tailor:
This would have been a great story for me to redo for my Halloween story! Anyways, I really liked this story. I liked that it was supposed to be like a haunted church/graveyard type of thing. I really wanted more ghosts and scary things to happen, but I loved that it had that type of feel to it.

Munachar and Manachar:
This story was kind of annoying because it repeated itself like 50 times, but the ending was kind of funny. He went through all that trouble, and then Manachar burst. I am assuming because he ate all of Munachar's raspberries. Every one.

Gold-Tree and Silver-Tree:
This is supposed to be a type of Snow White story. I definitely saw the connection. Man, the mother tried to kill her daughter 3 times! At least in most of the Snow White stories, it is her step  mother, not her real mother. I really liked this story. I am glad that the evil mother finally died in the end. What I did not like is that the prince ended up having 2 wives at the end. I would definitely change that.

King O'Toole and His Goose:
This story was kind of strange in my opinion. I thought it was so sad that after ALL that, the goose ended up dying. I wasn't in love with this story so I probably will not rewrite it.

Beth Gellert:
This story literally broke my heart. I have stories about dogs because they ALWAYS die. This was such a sad, sad story. Gellert, the dog, saved the Kings son from a wolf, but the king did not waste any time assuming he actually killed the son when he saw blood everywhere. He killed the dog only to find out seconds later that he was still alive. I would love to redo this and make everything different.

Week 11: Essay

Week 11: Essay

Cartoon

This week I chose to do the cartoon essay because I have fun reading all of them. This week the cartoon I chose was one that I actually connect with. The reason I connect with this cartoon is because it is about two coyotes and one asks the other "Wait...Did you just say 'LOL'?" LOL of course means "laugh out loud." I connect with this because I have found myself wanting to say "LOL" out loud in a conversation on a few occasions over the last few years. However, I hope I never do that because that would be so embarrassing and incorrect. I also have lately caught myself saying "JK" out loud a few times in conversations. JK means "just kidding." I have not only done this once, but several times. I think the world is becoming so technology based and we spend so much time on social media sites and writing short hand that we are all going to start saying things such as "LOL" and "JK" in every day conversations. I also have accidentally written things such as "probly" and "gonna" in important papers for class and in homework. It is so bad and I really hate that things such as texting, emails, and Facebook are contributing to these types of writing. I have tried to really work on my shorthand in texting because I feel as I get older it makes me look bad. I feel like things such as "ur" instead of "your" and "r" instead of "are" or "u" instead of "you" are just making me look uneducated and like a child. Also, I do not want to develop such a habit that I do start really adding these things into my writing for school or work. So I have really been working on that and that is why I chose this cartoon for my essay this week!

Week 11: Storytelling: Alice in Horrorland

Week 11: Storytelling

Alice in Horrorland

Haunted Forest of Horrorland

Once Alice had finally landed at the bottom of the rabbit hole, she fell to the coldest and hardest ground she had ever felt. She quickly stood up and looked all around her. 

All around Alice were dark trees and fog as far as she could see. She had no idea where she was or why she was there. Alice decided to walk until she found someone or something that could help her get back home. 

An hour later, she could finally see a house in the distance. She walked and walked until she eventually came up to the dark and rundown old house. She made the questionable decision to knock on the door.

Haunted House 

When she knocked, the door automatically opened. Alice quickly walked in and immediately the door slammed shut. She hurried into the next room and found a black cat with such large teeth showing a grin beyond evil. Alice thought to herself, "I did not know that cats could grin so evilly."

The cat screeched and ran off leaving Alice alone. Immediately, Alice heard the cackle of what sounded like a witch. When she turned around, Alice saw the most horrible-looking woman she had ever seen watching her. She was quite a tall, chubby woman and she was wearing a long white dress. The dress looked like it had hearts painted on with blood.

Alice closed her eyes and shook her head. "Surely I am dreaming. This cannot be real life," she thought to herself, terrified. When she carefully opened her eyes, the evil woman was still standing there in her blood-painted dress. "Welcome to my house, little girl! If you didn't already figure it out, it is haunted!" exclaimed the woman. "I am the Queen of Hearts, and I am ready to take yours," the queen screamed. 

Horrorland

Alice had never felt her stomach drop like that before. She started running towards the front door to escape the murderous queen. She slammed the door behind her but that did not stop the queen. The queen started chasing after Alice through the haunted woods of Horrorland. Alice finally found a large tree to hide behind. 

Everything got real quiet for a few minutes. Alice had a slight feeling of hope when all of a sudden she heard what sounded like a branch crack. She held her breath and tried not to make a sound, but the queen was getting closer and closer. 

Alice started to cry and could not contain herself. The queen heard a noise and followed the sound. She found the tree which Alice was hiding behind. The queen of hearts screamed "OFF WITH YOUR HEAD!!!" and took an axe to Alice, cutting her head clean off. She started laughing and used the blood to draw another heart on her white dress. She went home and waited for another victim to come knocking on her door.

Author's Note: I changed this story a lot. I decided since it is the week of Halloween, I would do a horror themed story. My goal was to make the queen like someone we usually see in horror films. I was thinking someone similar to Michael Myers or Jason Voorhees. I was initially going to just add Michael Myers into the story as the killer, but after I chose my reading unit I thought the queen would be perfect. I did not describe Alice falling down the rabbit hole because I felt it did not need to be explained, and it was not that important to my story. I really wanted to focus on the actual haunted woods and the chase. I added little things such as the cat who I changed to have an evil grin instead of a happy one. I also wanted to add in the haunted house because there are a lot of times where Alice goes into a house or is trying to open doors. I turned the meaning of queen of hearts into a very gory one. I thought it would make for an interesting twist while still having her keep her name. I changed the name of the story to "Alice of Horrorland" instead of "Alice in Wonderland" because it fits the story better, and also because of my Halloween theme. I felt that since this story is very well known, I could really change it a lot, even just simple details, and people would know the differences I made to my version. 

Bibliography:

Book: Alice in Wonderland

Author: Lewis Carroll

Year: 1865

Web Source: Un-Textbook

Week 11: Reading Diary: Alice in Wonderland

Alice in Wonderland

Down the Rabbit Hole:
This is about when Alice follows a talking rabbit down a rabbit hole which happens to have her falling for a long, long time. She ends up in a hallway with a lot of doors, but only one key. The key only opens a tiny door too little for her to get through. This door leads to a garden so Alice wants to go through that door. She drinks a potion that makes her smaller, but realizes she left the key on the tall table and cannot reach it. So then she eats cake to hope that it will make her bigger so she can reach the key.


The Pool of Tears:
After she eats the cake, she becomes very large. She is more than 9 feet tall and cannot see her feet anymore.


The Rabbit Sends in a Little Bill:
She sees a mushroom and finds a caterpillar smoking a hookah on top of it.


Advice from a Caterpillar:
Alice meets the caterpillar and they have a rough conversation. He doesn't understand anything she tries to tell him about her size issues from that day. Alice then tells the caterpillar a rhyme and he criticizes it. She pleads to the caterpillar to be taller and he tells her the mushroom would do the trick. However, one side would make her taller and the other would make her smaller. She first at the side that made her smaller. Quickly she ate the other side, but it made her neck super long and she went into the clouds. A pigeon thinks she is a serpent and is scared of Alice. She finally ate both sides of the mushroom back and forth until she was normal sized.


Pig and Pepper:
Alice goes to a house where a fish footman is handing a letter to a frog footman. The letter is an invitation for the duchess from the Queen for the duchess to play croquet. Once Alice gets into the house, we meet the Cheshire Cat. The duchess was kind of rude to Alice. The duchess left to go play croquet and left her baby with Alice (which was really a pig). She runs into the cat again and asks it for directions and has a conversation about being "mad." She finally came to the house of the March Hare and saw that the house had chimney ears and a fur roof.


A Mad Tea Party:
Alice goes into a house where the Mad Hatter and the March Hare are having a tea party. They are rude to her at first because she sits down uninvited. They talk about time and how the Hatter keeps it at 6 o'clock always.


The Queen's Croquet-Ground:
Alice stumbles on a deck of cards painting white roses red. They had to paint them because the queen wanted red. Then the queen appears and asks Alice who she was. She tried to have her beheaded, but Alice would not have it. They played a very strange game of croquet with hedgehogs and flamingos.

Week 10: Famous Last Words

Week 10: Famous Last Words

    This week was so great because since I had midterms and papers due last week, I did not have any major projects due this week and could really focus on this class. I don't like when I do not get to spend a lot of time doing work for this class because I know that my work ends up not being my best, especially my stories. I really like to put thought into my stories and really make them great.

This week I really got to focus on studying in advance and getting a lot of homework done which was nice. 

    In my Methods of Social Research class, my group got our proposal back today! It was 15 pages long and took forever to write, but the work paid off. We ended up getting an A, and it was the highest grade in the class. That was such a great feeling. That was the second paper (the first big paper) we wrote for this class, and we got the best grade in the class on both of them. I am not much for group work in classes, but I really got blessed with a great group for this class and  I could not be more thankful for that. 

Disney's Snow White

    I am really excited for the next two weeks in this class because we are getting into some really good stories! A lot of them look familiar, but some others do not so I am excited to get into that. I am also looking forward to reading other people's stories because I think people will be extra creative this week since we know so many of the stories that we can choose from. Since I know that there is a Celtic version of Snow White in the upcoming unit, I decided to post a picture of Snow White since she is from one of my favorite Disney movies. 

Week 10: Essay

Week 10: Essay

Master of His Land by James Ayers

    This week I read the British North American Unit and to be honest it was a little bit of a let down. As much as I like reading stories that are short, some of these stories were simply just too short to have a lot of depth and detail to keep the reader interested. I enjoyed that they were quick and to the point, but I would have liked to have had some that were a little more interesting. I think that I read this unit because it said that there were tricksters and heroes which there were, but I guess I was expecting something a little different. I just went back and looked at the list of units for week 9 & 10 and I just noticed the Eskimo Unit and after reading that there were ghosts and supernatural beings, I wish that I had read that unit instead. I guess I somehow overlooked it before. Overall, the Native American unit disappointed me quite a bit. I felt like either the stories spent too much time explaining unnecessary details (Native American Stories) or not enough time explaining details (British North American Stories). 

     I am really looking forward to the next two weeks because we are getting into British Isles which includes stories such as Nursery Rhymes, Alice in Wonderland, and Beowolf. I think that I am really going to spend some time on the stories for the next two weeks and try to make them my best ever. I will also look forward to reading other peoples stories because there will be a lot of familiarity there, but also a lot of rewriting so that will be really fun. This week, in honor of the Native American Unit, I am including a piece of Native American art since it is so beautiful and living in Oklahoma there is a lot of it around. My grandparents have a ton of it in their house so I have always enjoyed it.