Of High Stakes and Daring Deeds Epic Story Month // Kick-Off Post (1st tag & give-away + link-up spot)

Our Grand, Weeks Long Story Event has arrived!!! *virtually dancing on the tabletop while setting off fireworks* 

I'm so excited!

For more content specifics (including my current definition of 'epic' for this party + more buttons and banners), be sure to see the first announcement post HERE. But in short, there'll be some good story inspired activities here at Along the Brandywine (to be announced as we go along, so stay tuned) and on your own blog you'll be able to contribute story or theme explorations, movie and book reviews, character studies, general monumental deep story related rhapsodies... whatever you'd love to share. (Again, be sure to check out that announcement post linked above for more guidelines and ideas.)

I'm dividing the party into two three-week long periods and for this first half of the party, I've put together a Would You Rather Tag. Below are the questions for your copying pleasure:

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Would you rather...

1) …fight a dragon or a giant?

2) …time travel back to ancient Egypt or go to Mars?

3) …explore a deep dark cave or a long lost, underwater city?

4) …be a court jester or lead a wagon train?

5) …eat a meal with hobbits or Master Tumnus?

6) …walk through an enchanted mirror or jump into a pool leading into another world?

7) …live in a castle or a house in the treetops?

8) …go over a waterfall in a barrel or climb Mt. Everest?

9) …ride a buffalo or be a cannoneer in a sea battle? 

10) Bonus question: you’re caught by the Bad Guys and tied up to a chair when a fire erupts at your feet (long story ;)). Do you break the ropes and tumble out the window, yell for help, or hop your chair across the room to take refuge in the cold fireplace/chimney corner?

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Important: Whenever you do a post (tag answers, reviews, enthusiastic story raptures, etc), be sure to come back and leave a link to your post in the comments section below this post so everyone else can see it.

Annnnnnd.... *drum roll* we have our first giveaway of the party! It includes two prizes: 

A paperback copy of Hodges and Hyman's St. George and the Dragon 

And this lovely LOTR wall hanging. 

Be sure to leave a comment below with your order of preference! There's one prize per winner. And both items are fairly light/I think I can manage shipping, so this is open for worldwide entries.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I'm looking forward to delving into this with y'all! Have fun and can't wait to see what you come up with!! ;)

Let the festivities commence!

Announcing A Grand, Weeks Long Epic Story Event!

First and foremost as a self-discipline tactic, I've been pondering a good way to emphasize and mark the period between Easter and Ascension Sunday, and choosing to focus on deep, epic story seemed the immediate and obvious conclusion. 

Which.... *pausing to fire off all the cannons*.... brings us to our deep, epic story blog party! (To which ye all are invited. ;))

Properly defined from Merriam-Webster, an epic is:

1) "A long narrative poem in elevated style recounting the deeds of a legendary or historical hero (the Iliad and the Odyssey are epics)"

2) "A work of art (such as a novel or drama) that resembles or suggests an epic"

3) "Extending beyond the usual or ordinary especially in size or scope"

And I know this is tricky to pin down, but for the purposes of this blog event, I'm defining deep story as involving real blood and sweat and tears, real risk and temptations, hard and shining loyalties, and often deep, earth-shaking hilarity; story of the kind that pierces to the heart, that sticks in your teeth, that changes the way you think, and that shapes what you love.

These are stories of lofty magnitude and sweeping proportions, which have themselves often engendered more stories and/or countless retellings. 

Larger-than-life stuff of the likes of Ben-Hur and Zorro and Robin Hood. Classic fairy-tales, of course, can fit in as well -- Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Beauty & the Beast, etc.

Think Shakespeare and Chesterton and Lewis and Spenser and Star Trek and besieged castles and WWII. The category is huge and broad, with potential ideas springing left and right. (The two ginormous exceptions I'm making to this are LOTR and classic Westerns. Both form the definition of an epic, but I know of two separate blog parties happening round our corner of the blogosphere later this year and devoted to each one respectively, so I'm hoping to steer in a little different direction with this party. That said, if you have your heart set on posting something LOTR related, etc., I'm sure we can negotiate. ;)) 

Specifics: here at Along the Brandywine, we'll have -- not one -- but two giveaways over the course of the party and there'll be some sort of tag/questions to fill out + numerous other good little surprises popping up as we go along. You'll be able to contribute film reviews, book reviews, character studies, theme discussions, whatever celebratory things you'd love to share.

Last but not least, be sure to grab a button or two right now and share them round as widely as you can so other folks get the chance to join in the festivities.

So there ye have it! *rubbing hands with excited anticipation* I can't wait to hear what y'all think!