RonVitale

Dorothea's Song Synopsis

Dorothea's Song

A fantasy novel by Ron Vitale

The novel begins with a 15 year-old boy named PETER who is writing in his journal.  He explains that he has been given an assignment for his high school French class by his teacher MRS. BERKS.  Each night he has to write a small journal passage in French.  Mrs. Berks has given no restrictions as to what he should or should not write so Peter decides to tell her the story of a young elf named DOROTHEA who lives in the magical world of the Realms. 

Deciding to show Mrs. Berks into his imagined world in style, Peter molds Dorothea off of his teacher.  His first journal entry ends here and the story of Dorothea begins.  Traveling alone in the magical woods of the Bois d'or, Dorothea is attempting to become a Protectorate of her village.  In order to succeed, she must travel to the Outerlands and survive on her own for several days, and then safely return.  But the Outerlands are rumored to be populated with humans.  Hoping she can pass the test, Dorothea chances upon an animal tied to a tree.  She helps the animal escape but falls prey to a human thief.  He tries to molest her, but she escapes having clawed at his face.  Never having encountered a human before, she runs and hopes to get away.  But he catches up to her and she is forced to fight him. 

She unsheathes her magical sword, the Argent de fille, and tells him, “Leave and I will let you go.”  The human pretends to walk away but turns back and throws a dagger at her.  Knocked to the ground from the force of the blow, Dorothea has only moments to lift her weapon up as the human throws himself onto her.  In moments, the battle is over.  Impaled on her sword, the human dies and Dorothea struggles to deal with the consequences.  Never having killed before, she sobs and tries to find shelter.  When she awakes, she finds her friend CELAS.  An elf from her same village, he tells her that the elven Council has been disbanded and that a large human army is preparing to invade their homeland.  Their only hope is to obtain the assistance of MOHAN (a wise human wizard).  Still battered and hurt over her battle with the human, Dorothea heads off with Celas.

Amelion's Song: First Draft Finished

I started writing the novel "Amelion's Song" back on August 9, 2004. I wrote for a bit, stopped, and then picked up in ernest on November 11, 2004. I did my best to write at least 3 pages a day.

Now it's January 24, 2005 and I completed over 100,000 words. The book is about 328 double-spaced pages and, yes, it's in such raw form that even I'm not happy with it, but the first draft is finished.

The goal is to finish the chapter outlines and then give myself a week or two off. At that point, I'll write out some descriptions of the characters, flesh them out a bit, and make some decisions about their characterizations.

In the meantime, I've taken the old drafting table that I bought when I used to live at home (I used this same table in the apartment my wife and I lived in years ago. It was on this table, back in 2000, that I rewrote "Dorothea's Song." Now I intend to use the same table, set up in my basement, to go through line by line, word for word, and rewrite the entire book.

I know the basic story now. I know how it begins, where it's headed, and the ending so I can rewrite the scenes that need it, taking some time to strengthen my writing.

I'm happy that I've come this far, but I have so much more yet to do. However, I wanted to share this good news and to really thank myself for working so hard to complete the book. Sure, it's only the first draft, but seeing the stack of paper printed out is really nice. I did smile on seeing the last of the pages print out and placing the manuscript on the table.

First draft down! I'm taking some time to celebrate and be happy.

Games

Growing up with a younger brother, he and I loved our toys (Legos, G.I. Joe, Star Wars action figures) and we played a lot of stick ball and the like, but it wasn't until I was introduced to Dungeons & Dragons that I found a game that was fairly inexpensive, but had a high replay value. My friends, brother, and I would play for hours, writing up characters, drawing maps, and just enjoying ourselves. I played Dungeons & Dragons until high school, dropped off for years, and then came back to the fold in my graduate school days, only to drop out again. I currently don't play (I have neither the time nor the gaming group that I once had), but I have many fond memories and lots and lots of papers left over from those days. Character sheets and dungeon maps are all over the place in my files.

Also during my graduate school years, I was introduced to a fun, little card game called Magic: The Gathering. These days Wizards of the Coast owns the Magic card game and Dungeons & Dragons. When I played D&D, I did so for its creativity yet I played Magic (and still do) for its chess-like feel and play. There's something to be said of studying the playing field, looking for that way to win the game. In a way, Magic can be like a puzzle. You might have the means to beat your opponent and win the game (if you could only see the victory). The differences between Magic and D&D are fairly easy to see. D&D could be more "seat of your pants" fun and Magic is played with strict timing and card rules. A Magic game can take as long as an hour or as short as five minutes. D&D on the other hand--well, between the planning and playing, you could easily spend five hours in one night's session.

Outside of D&D and Magic, I also enjoy playing Cranium and a card game called "Goop!" I don't have as much time as I would like to play games, but I enjoy letting my hair down and having fun. And who would have known that I'm actually good at sculpting things out of clay with my eyes closed? I never would have known this if it weren't for my playing Cranium.

All work and no play isn't for me. I find that playing some games help to loosen tension and to free my mind of any writing issues I'm trying to work out. Instead of dwelling on "how am I going to finish this story?," I do better to just put it aside, have some fun, and then come back to the work later. In the end, having some fun and enjoying a game could help me get over the block I'm having.

And in another way, I've written a fair amount of articles on the card game Magic for the last two years. Writing about a hobby is a good way to exercise the mind and to practice one's writing skills. A few times I was in the middle of a story and couldn't work the details out so I put it aside, wrote a Magic article, and then came back later to finish the story. The important point to remember is to keep writing and not to give up. Persistence is one of the keys to success.

My Take: Obscene material on our airvaves

I received a letter from Senator Rick Santorum in the mail the other day concerning "obscene" material on our airwaves. Several months ago I had contacted Senator Santorum about another matter and his staff has sent me an update on what the Senator has been doing to keep our airwaves clean.

When I read the first sentence "...eliminate obscene material from our airwaves," I laughed. I have much to argue with the Senator's stance. My first thought was:

Why was everyone so up in arms about seeing Janet Jackson's breast? How is this indecent? I'll say this clearly: I do not believe that our government has the right to tell its citizens what is decent and what is not. The people who freaked out because they saw Ms. Jackson's breast for 1 second on television might want to take a step back and realize that they overreacted. Even if Ms. Jackson did the stunt on purpose, have her apologize, don't have her back on the half-time show for the future, and that's that. Case closed.

I'm reminded of an interesting experience I had recently: I was at the doctor's recently and the woman next to me was breastfeeding her baby girl in public. I thought nothing of it. My wife breastfed our son in public. No big deal.

However, when I went in the back to see the doctor, two of the doctor's female staff were commenting about how "horrible" it was that a woman was breastfeeding in the waiting room.

I couldn't believe it. Breastfeeding is a natural function: Our children need to eat. A woman nourishing her child in public is not obscene or disgusting.

Yet I draw the parallel between people overreacting to Ms. Jackson's breast, what's on the airwaves, and other puritancial notions. People will write to their Senator about seeing a boob on TV, but they won't complain about the horrible programming that's on TV these days (need I mention reality shows such as "The Swan" or the excessive violence on TV, or the fact that US troops have killed tens of thousands of innocent people in the war in Iraq). Oh I'm sorry, that's collateral damage and not innocent people. I forgot to use the correct lingo.

What I do not like is our government telling us what is obscene. Seeing a boob on TV for a second is not obscene, but allowing trash like "The Swan" to be on TV is. Do I believe that shows like "The Swan" be taken off the air? No.

Let me say this: I am an adult who has a child. If I do not want to watch something on TV, I turn the channel or turn the TV off. It's that simple.

Senator Sentorum's staff took the time and spent money to send me a letter that basically tells me that one bill wasn't passed before Congress went on vacation and another didn't contain the Brownback ammendment (through which I'm happy that both weren't voted into law).

People, wake up! We don't need the government to tell us what is obscene.

Maybe if we open our eyes and see the corruption in governmental politics we'll realize that there's far greater problems in the world (the war in Iraq, for example) than the matter of obscene material on our airwaves.

I'm not happy that puritanical Mr. and Mrs. America are trying to speak for me. Well, they don't. Ask yourself how harmed your child is from seeing Ms. Jackson's boob for one second or by what we teach our children about war. Which will have the greater impact on him/her?

So the next time you see a boob on TV or a woman breastfeeding in public, remember that it's not the end of the world. If you don't like what you see on TV, turn it off. Go read your kid a book instead. And if you're disgusted by that woman breastfeeding, well, I feel sorry for you because you're missing out on understanding one of the essential bonding rituals a mother can have with her child.

Wake up America! Are we really that blinded? Or are the other problems so great, that we'd rather focus on the petty things?

---

Rick Santorum
Republican Conference Chairman
Washington, DC
511 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
(202) 224-6324

United States Senate http://santorum.senate.gov

December 14, 2004

Dear Mr. Vitale:

Knowing of your interest in decency in the media, I am writing to make you aware of my recent efforts in the United States Senate to eliminate obscene material from our airwaves.

As you may be aware, on February 1, 2004, Super Bowl XXXVIII and its halftime show were broadcast across the United States. The halftime show contained content that many viewers found to be offensive and indecent. In response to the halftime show, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman, Michael Powell, announced that the FCC would conduct a "thorough and swift" investigation. The FCC has received more than 200,000 complaints related to the halftime show. Additional information related to the rules and regulations for broadcasting may be found at the FCC's website, www.fcc.gov.

On February 11, 2004, the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation held hearings to discuss indecent broadcasting. During the hearing, Chairman Powell emphasized the need to increase fines associated with indecent broadcasting as a means of deterring offensive content.

I was a proud sponsor of S. 2056, the Broadcast Decency Enforcement Act of 2004, as a way of addressing indecent programming. This bill would increase tenfold the penalty for violations by television and radio broadcasters for the transmission of obscene, indecent, and profane language. On March 9, 2004, the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation passed S. 2056. Unfortunately, the full Senate did not act upon S. 2056 prior to adjournment of the 108th Congress on December 8, 2004. Any bill not signed into law prior to adjournment must be reintroduced during the 109th Congress, which will convene in January, in order to receive consideration. I look forward to working with my colleagues during the 109th Congress to pass this important legislation.

During Senate debate of S. 2400, the Department of Defense Authorization bill, Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas introduced an amendment that would increase the maximum fines the FCC could impose on broadcasters for indecent programming from $27,500 to $275,000 per violation. Senator Brownback's amendment (SA 3235) also establishes a cap of $3 million for the amount that may be assessed against a licensee for a continuing violation. With my strong support, on June 22, 2004, the Senate passed the Brownback amendment unanimously. Unfortunately, the Brownback amendment was not included in the final version of S. 2400, which was signed into law on October 28, 2004. However, I am encouraged that the Senate is now on record for supporting increased fines on broadcasters who air indecent programming.

On December 9, 2003, Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama introduced S. Res. 283, a resolution affirming the need to protect children from indecent programming. This resolution expresses the sense of the Senate that the FCC should: review the decision of the Enforcement Bureau; vigorously enforce the Supreme Court-approved standard for indecency in broadcast media; reassert its responsibility as defender of the public interest by undertaking new and serious efforts to sanction broadcast licensees that refuse to adhere to the standard established in that order; and make every resonable and lawful effort to protect children from the degrading influences of indecent programming. S. Res. 283 was passed, with my strong support, unanimously the same day it was introduced.

I believe it is in the best interest of our society to protect children from harmful material. Programming that airs indecent material is irresponsibile. Television in particular has a pervasive impact on values and attitudeds, especially among young people.

Thank you for allowing me to share my thoughts on this important issue with you. If I can be of assistance with this or any other matter, please do not hesitate to call on me.

Sincerely,

Rick Santorum
United States Senate