A Scorpion and a Ladybug

I once read a blog post that warned against the dangerous lesson that can be drawn from The Scorpion and the Frog.

This tale is an ancient one; so ancient, its origins are unclear. Alongside a river, a frog meets a scorpion. The scorpion asks for a ride across. At first, the frog is hesitant to grant this request, but the scorpion promises he won’t sting the frog. The frog trusts the scorpion and gives him a ride. But halfway across, the scorpion stings the frog. As the venom takes hold, and the two are doomed to die together in the middle of the river, the scorpion explains that it’s in his nature to sting.

There are other versions of this story. One with a turtle instead of a frog, where the turtle’s shell shields him from the sting.

And the one that has captured my imagination: The Scorpion and the Ladybug.

Here, the scorpion and the ladybug are good friends, who love each other dearly. Yet the scorpion inevitably stings the ladybug, killing his friend because… it’s his nature.

As the blogger pointed out, this story could be used to warn against giving too much trust towards individuals who have shown themselves dangerous. That’s fine.

But the story can also be used to discourage trusting those who are the “wrong type” of people. Muslims. Blacks. Gays. Anybody we can point to as our “abhorrent other” (as some philosopher defined it).

Encouraging fear and distrust – and discouraging people from helping those in need if they’re “one of them” – is a dangerous ‘moral.’

As I see it, there’s a simple way of repairing the lesson of the story. We tend to imagine ourselves as the innocent ladybug – or frog or turtle – when maybe it’s more accurate to identify with the scorpion.

It’s in our nature to harm others: by our selfishness, our greed, our careless words… even our careless silences.

This doesn’t mean we should avoid people because we can’t be trusted with anyone.

It does mean we need to be prepared to give up part of our very nature in order to truly love another person.

The tale of the Scorpion and the Ladybug enamours me by its very premise: a scorpion and a ladybug, as loving friends? What an oddly charming concept!

Adventurous Artists

The creatures and races in Tales of the Diversity are otherworldly. But with a little imagination, some brave artists have tackled the task of bringing them to life in pictures and models!

In my blog post “Looking Back: Art,” I shared some old concepts I drew for the creatures and characters; art I created before writing the books.

And in “Concept: Awareness,” I shared a sketch I created of Jakodi Jair.

I’ve held two art contests for Tales of the Diversity, and shared the amazing entries I received in “2020 Art Contest Winners” and “Art Contest 2 Winners.”

Butterflies and Moths

Another summer, another chance to get out and find some cool bugs!

A few years back, I made a checklist of butterflies and moths in the Fort St John area (where I live). There are actually hundreds of species of butterflies and moths in our area - far too many to put on a brochure - but it covers some of the species I’ve come across.

I also created some colouring pages, and fact cards, just for fun.

Feel free to download, print, and use any of these materials!

What kinds of butterflies and moths live around you?

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The Locust

Time for another bug post!

Did you know that, once upon a time, we had locusts in Canada?

Every year, there comes a season in our region - Northeast British Columbia - where grasshoppers seem abundant. As you walk through town, every several steps, you disturb one and send it hopping across the sidewalk; crashing into storefront windows; or flying into the street.

I watched videos of a desert locust swarm. It became hauntingly apparent from those clips that our “abundance” of grasshoppers is… nothing. A desert locust swarm is, as the Bible so poignantly puts it, an army. Forceful. Purposeful. Crowded.

But… can you believe we once had swarms like that in parts of Canada and the United States? A species called the Rocky Mountain Locust plagued prairie farmers until it’s sudden disappearance in 1902.

Some scientists (perhaps the ones fascinated by grim history and horror stories) suggest our locust isn’t extinct: just dormant in a non-swarming form. That’s one funny trait locusts have: they switch between swarming and non-swarming forms, and the two are so biologically different they seem to be different species.

I’ve put together a little storyboard about locusts and the people affected by them! Click the far right image to move forward, and the far left to move backwards.

f you’d like to help people suffering from locust plagues and other food crises, organizations like World Vision have a special fund set aside for such problems.

Fsjcritters

For the last few years, I’ve been casually working on a series of designs for a project I called “fsjcritters.”

The goal of fsjcritters was to draw attention to often-overlooked animals and habitats in the Fort St John area, using visuals like brochures, cards, and infographics.

My hope was that I would learn to embrace the wildlife where I live, instead of always wishing I lived somewhere else.

I believe I’ve succeeded in that. Though I consider the designs less responsible for my change of attitude than my husband, who loves many local critters and has inspired me with his passion!

So, I’ve decided to officially end this project.

As a part of saying “farewell” to fsjcritters, I’ve decided to create a condensed, ‘sampler’ version of my designs over the years.

Does this mean I won’t be creating any more designs about local wildlife? I might yet. I’ve just found myself making other types of designs lately. Designs I’ll hopefully be sharing on my website before too long.

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Distractions 2020

The cards for the game I invented arrived!

I should explain…

When I first became a writer for the video game team Soltorch Games, I felt out of my league. Someone recommended to me “Slay the Dragon” (by Robert Denton Bryant), a book about writing for video games.

One of the exercises the book suggests is creating a (simple) board game, to learn about how game mechanics work.

I decided to go with a card game instead, and… well… I turned a simple exercise into a chance to stretch myself creatively.

It couldn’t take that long to invent a card game, right?

After several months of play-testing with family, adjusting the mechanics, designing and re-designing the cards in Canva, I ordered my deck through Make Playing Cards. And they look amazing! “The Bug Zoo Game” now feels like an official card game!

So… what did I learn about making video games through this exercise?

Well, honestly… I guess I learned that, if you want to write for a video game, you should probably spend more time writing, and less time turning a simple exercise into a months-long project.

But it was lots of fun!

I’m not sure I’ll be creating another card game anytime soon, though I’m glad I gave this one a try. Between this project and the designs I’ve been doing lately, maybe I haven’t been spending as much time on writing as I could. But I think I needed the break, to try something new.

Art Contest 2 Winners

Thank you to all who participated in the art contest! I enjoyed each of the entries! But of course, there can only be two winners: Author’s Pick and Best Representing the Book!

For Author’s Pick: Daysha showed the concept of Exploration with a photo of Katia out exploring the woods.

And for Best Representing the Book: Ethan made a picture with the concept of Conversation, recreating a conversation between Tyzak and Black Night (from The Loss).

Congratulations to the winners! Prizes will be handed out in a week or two.

Again, thank you to all who participated! This was a fun contest to host!