https://www.sophiamariesears.com/blog daily 0.75 2022-07-11 https://www.sophiamariesears.com/blog/blog-post-two-y2j53 monthly 0.5 2021-03-08 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fdd70b133a5e91dcabe1a58/1609389231217-JBRQLAKUPEHI2SVAF4XF/image-asset.jpeg Blog - Inspiration Drawn Between Two Siblings https://www.sophiamariesears.com/blog/give-me-characters-a-setting-and-problem monthly 0.5 2021-03-08 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fdd70b133a5e91dcabe1a58/1614920766162-XFAJQY3174N1Y8A9TASX/image.jpg Blog - Give me characters, a setting, and problem! - In a student’s session, I asked her to give me a random setting, two characters, and a problem, to teach elementary introductory paragraph writing for narratives. In six minutes, I wrote a draft as an example… https://www.sophiamariesears.com/blog/how-not-to-repeat-fear-in-character-behavior-traits monthly 0.5 2021-03-08 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fdd70b133a5e91dcabe1a58/1615092994365-7GDU7WHG3NIE5N0IJC0H/unsplash-image-8sM2SsANvKk.jpg Blog - Struggling with “fear” behavior in my characters https://www.sophiamariesears.com/blog/two-dreams-of-travel monthly 0.5 2021-03-12 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fdd70b133a5e91dcabe1a58/1615184101542-C1WVB9BS0I54HGUMTQL4/unsplash-image-bnMPFPuSCI0.jpg Blog - Two Dreams of Travel… Dreams have always provided me with inspiration and foresight into my writing and personal life. Sometimes they are based on my day, sometimes they seem like miraculous stories that only my sleeping imagination can conjure up… https://www.sophiamariesears.com/blog/mary-poppins-amp-the-1960s-boiled-cabbage-amp-odoratus monthly 0.5 2021-03-12 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fdd70b133a5e91dcabe1a58/1615530447312-BB65EBI8C9Q0C2FPA9FK/unsplash-image-Yz9rpx3kiE8.jpg Blog - Mary Poppins & the 1960’s, Boiled Cabbage & Odoratus - Two sessions, High School and Middle School… When we try to control creativity, the sad truth is that it never works. I am constantly reminding myself of this vital lesson with my students when I want to ‘steer’ the session. This past week, by letting go, I had two amazing and spontaneous discussions in my sessions with a sophomore and seventh grader… https://www.sophiamariesears.com/blog/greek-myths-plot-diagrams-amp-homosexuality monthly 0.5 2022-07-11 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fdd70b133a5e91dcabe1a58/1616557924233-8ZK6H829XC8RC08CZ2OS/unsplash-image-ZIQb1OkI7Ss.jpg Blog - Greek Myths, Plot Diagrams, & Homosexuality - 3 Students, 3 Greek Legends… During the past four weeks, I have had three of my elementary Language Arts students complete their reading of The Twelve Labors of Hercules in our own unit, where they analyzed exposition and rising plot charts before they wrote their own creative “6 Labors” legend using genre modeling! In every session, I am continuously blown away and inspired by the imagination my students possess. As one of my high school students reads The Odyssey, we are able to enter into deeper discussions of myths and their ties to history. Many times, my students inspire me to conduct my own research into deeper topics of history, art, and social issues that are never brought up in session. This time around, my “myth” students reminded me of the research I had begun in college, but never completed on homosexuality within Ancient Greece in contrast to our own society… Namely, how homosexuality somehow became “homophobia.” https://www.sophiamariesears.com/blog/a-chefs-dream monthly 0.5 2021-12-31 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fdd70b133a5e91dcabe1a58/1628040310274-NFKZX3I819FHFJ6S77XN/unsplash-image-1wt4yTOLy6Q.jpg Blog - A Chef’s Dream - “Would you look at the audacity of that man down there?” https://www.sophiamariesears.com/blog/the-crone-the-butterfly-and-the-child monthly 0.5 2021-11-14 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fdd70b133a5e91dcabe1a58/1636847657896-7GQ1FYW370H7190WE9TE/unsplash-image-tSePVHkxUCk.jpg Blog - The Crone, the Butterfly, and the child - Dreams can reflect the shadows we do not want to see… A shaft of moonlight fell through the open window upon the bare wooden floor before my feet. The room was bare of any furniture. The window, shutterless. A square, open section of floor surrounded by a rickety railing showed the second floor below the loft where I stood. No rugs or ornaments decorated the room. Nothing rich, of that sort. Only a single illuminating beam of silver. Even my own arms— thin and untried; and my hands— small and untested: Both were out of place and seemed uncertain. Where was I? A longtang in Shanghai. The sense of towering apartments, flowering vines and winding streets, and pigeons, surrounded me, with lines of string decorated with linens, cottons, and silks to dry draping across the narrow alleys even at night during the hot summers. But it was past midnight, now. Why was I awake? From the left corner of my eye, I suddenly saw the old man. Warm crinkles lined the corners of his eyes and his mouth. He stood in the room with me, unmoving. When he took a step closer and I looked towards him fully, the old man became a woman— and although the child that I was found reason for suspicion, innate curiosity held me in place. The woman standing before me was a crone. She seemed remote, yet kind, as she beckoned to me with one withered hand. Her eyes contained a glint of mischief. As I stepped closer, she smiled widely at me, and I heard the sweet whistle as her lips pursed to call. Through the column of silver, an orange jewel fluttered through the window. Delicately, exquisitely, flapping its gossamer wings— carefully, and softly, it flew. Small dots of obsidian against a blaze of vibrancy. Of life. The small butterfly flew towards the crone and I and I laughed with delight as my hand reached out towards the creature, enchanted. A whisper. A kiss. I barely felt the butterfly’s touch before it took off to fly around the dusty ceiling. In wonder, I watched. Then the crone whistled again, and a larger moth flew through the window, too. The moon’s light caught the moth just as brilliantly; its feathered antennae and thicker wings, stalwart and strong, were luminous. I giggled even louder as the moth seemed drawn to both the woman and I. It flew around my hair in soft, slow beats of its wings, its casual brushes tickling my cheek as it circled me several times, to land on the crone’s fingers. The crone smiled even more invitingly. “That one,” she whispered to the moth, “is a monster.” My eyes shot to the delicate butterfly, the monster the crone meant. “Kill it.” The moth shuddered, convulsing once. My stomach dropped to the floor. The moth drew down its wings— determinedly, righteously— and fluttered towards the small butterfly who was still flying ignorantly around the ceiling. NO! I screamed the word aloud, or in my head. I do not know. I know my feet started frantically towards the moth, ready to leap and defend the butterfly— such an innocent creature was about to be destroyed— when I stopped. I stopped moving. The moth did not know it had been bewitched. The moth did not know it had been manipulated. The moth did not know the crone had her own will, influencing its own. The moth did not know the butterfly was not its enemy. And I could hear the crone’s laughter starting to ring loudly in my ears… My hands trembled, shaking with the urge to do something as the crone laughed. To know that to save the butterfly— an innocent— was to harm the moth, another unwitting party… My hands felt sticky, human. To know that I’d harm the moth’s wings, or kill it, if I caught it… What choice was that to make? This was the desire of the crone. To exploit my own pain, my own suffering. To force me to choose. Helpless, I sobbed and dropped to the floor. I sobbed as the moth drew closer to the butterfly— so whimsical in its fluttering, no one would suspect its manipulated instinct. I urged the butterfly to fly faster and equally urged the moth to wake up. Neither happened. The butterfly— ignorant of its own danger— settled gently beside the single lightbulb in the room which illuminated the stairs leading down. The moth drew ever closer. Fluttering closer. It landed in the sconce where the lightbulb was fixated. A shrill squeaking instantly filled the room. I slammed my hands over my ears, my sobs and scalding tears blinding me but not deafening the cries of the butterfly as the moth attacked it again. And again. And again. Shredding it, tearing its wings to pieces… In the name of righteousness, manipulated, the moth felt no remorse. It felt pride. Victory. The sickness turned my stomach and I sobbed even harder. My crumpled legs pressed into the floor, my hands covering my face as I cried over my inaction. The injustice. The pointless violence. And all the while, I could hear the crone’s laughter echoing throughout the room… https://www.sophiamariesears.com/blog/time-to-decorate-the-christmas-tree monthly 0.5 2021-12-31 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fdd70b133a5e91dcabe1a58/1640991977994-CLGLUTJ4ZWJ7G4IV5OXI/unsplash-image-lTWmKD0gKn0.jpg Blog - Time to Decorate the Christmas Tree! - After 25 minutes of searching for a Christmas story online that one of my kindergartner students could read on their own…. I wrote my own! Click HERE for the full story! https://www.sophiamariesears.com/bio daily 0.75 2022-07-11 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fdd70b133a5e91dcabe1a58/1609552038052-3GBPYDS0RAZR2GOLVC5B/Screen%2BShot%2B2021-01-01%2Bat%2B5.45.34%2BPM.jpg Bio https://www.sophiamariesears.com/home daily 1.0 2021-11-13 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fdd70b133a5e91dcabe1a58/1609377923135-YA4FCJY3JPKGE61QPU9Z/image-asset.jpeg Home - Pieces of My Writing Someone once told me that “the best writers read poetry” and I could not agree more. In my writing, I love to experiment and explore with different techniques, voice, and style, mirroring other genres or other authors I am intrigued by. I hope you enjoy my collection of genre writing and exploration of imagery! As an eternal pupil to the written word, I freely welcome feedback through the contact form at the bottom of this page. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fdd70b133a5e91dcabe1a58/1608701144717-G04F9FORPSPEAQ65YUVN/pexels-photo-4486003.jpg Home - Advice for your own writing craft Besides being a writer, I am also a Kinder-8th grade and a High School AP/Honors English tutor at a local tutoring company in the Bay Area of California. By teaching the pedagogy behind writing— its grammatical structure, literary and rhetorical devices, voice & style, rhythm, and more— I continue to grow as a my own artist of words. I hope some of my worksheets and material will help you in your own word-smithing! https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fdd70b133a5e91dcabe1a58/1608710150542-KCP352PQTKO1RMBWM4O8/image-asset.jpeg Home - My Newest Novel I am currently trying to publish a historical fantasy novel that empowers a feminist, political mystery adaptation of Cinderella. My pitch in February 2020 was: “After being helpless to prevent the assassination of her father, Ellia finds herself entrapped into domestic servitude. After meeting a prince in disguise— who is also on the run from marriage— the two of them decide to seek out and investigate the High Lord responsible for her father’s death.” I hope you enjoy some of my background research, hand-drawn maps, and more! https://www.sophiamariesears.com/what-historical-fantasy-character-are-you daily 0.75 2021-03-12 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fdd70b133a5e91dcabe1a58/1610948073574-AVF2MDJM4SUDN8MYNINV/image-asset.jpeg What Historical Fantasy Character Are You? - Victorian London https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fdd70b133a5e91dcabe1a58/1610948205347-ONQCYPCSL0LOJUV7OI8R/image-asset.jpeg What Historical Fantasy Character Are You? - Medieval Scotland https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fdd70b133a5e91dcabe1a58/1610948324074-2NMQEORW6DT3ZBHKODVV/image-asset.jpeg What Historical Fantasy Character Are You? - Ancient Egypt https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fdd70b133a5e91dcabe1a58/1610948170132-DE9LTD8H6C4HRSTYKB1V/image-asset.jpeg What Historical Fantasy Character Are You? - Revolutionary War https://www.sophiamariesears.com/dreams daily 0.75 2021-01-15 https://www.sophiamariesears.com/contact daily 0.75 2021-01-01 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fdd70b133a5e91dcabe1a58/1608707957229-2DVIF2CTL9AVL8B7NZTU/Screen+Shot+2020-12-22+at+11.07.47+PM.png Contact - Contact sophiamariesears@gmail.com Facebook https://www.sophiamariesears.com/beta-reviews daily 0.75 2021-01-10 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fdd70b133a5e91dcabe1a58/1608704005978-CD4L3UET64BPOG5NWOIY/Screen+Shot+2020-12-22+at+10.04.47+PM.png BETA Reviews - - Julia T. 8th Grade, Chapters 22-23 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fdd70b133a5e91dcabe1a58/1608703671433-HA1ZOHEX9N41KRJHPC84/Screen+Shot+2020-12-22+at+9.53.47+PM.png BETA Reviews - - Olivia T. 11th Grade, Chapter 10 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fdd70b133a5e91dcabe1a58/1609399252702-MN184AFGXH1LVY61ATEQ/Screen+Shot+2020-12-30+at+9.40.12+PM.png BETA Reviews - Aanya P. 6th Grade https://www.sophiamariesears.com/table-of-contents daily 0.75 2020-12-25 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fdd70b133a5e91dcabe1a58/1608786430032-ZLDYERVONKTBS30BGS69/image.jpg Pieces of Writing: Table of Contents - Like the key turning the lock free… https://www.sophiamariesears.com/cinderella-excerpts daily 0.75 2021-01-18 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fdd70b133a5e91dcabe1a58/1608706880803-1STFUF6ZQRYY8KA3IZ0Y/Map+of+Seere.jpg Cinderella Excerpts - A Map of Seere Seere is an island kingdom that is roughly the size of Wales with a climate and geography similar to Southern Europe. All of the roads, freshwater rivers, villages, gentry estates, Port Capital, and County borders were all carefully considered for their relationships with one another and the believability of creating a land with natural resources and political infrastructure. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fdd70b133a5e91dcabe1a58/1609391124322-LSCRWE9XS4QA01XEY425/image-asset.jpeg Cinderella Excerpts - Character Profiles Like Charles Dickens in the 19th Century and every modern gamer who designs their own race and class to play out their adventures, I have found great enjoyment in creating “character profiles” for my newest novel. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fdd70b133a5e91dcabe1a58/1610737594983-MCYTBBIWO13GTXC4CQYM/image.jpg Cinderella Excerpts - What is Faith? Instead of following a patriarchal system, I had tremendous fun gender-bending my kingdom’s deity to a “Goddess” by the people of Seere. She has Knights, similar to angels or guardians, who guard her in Paradise where all souls fly upon their death to seek rest and in time a new life. Those questioned at Her gates leave behind all petty worldly concerns and anger to reenter harmony in Her presence, and will forsake all Evil. https://www.sophiamariesears.com/character-profiles-table-of-contents daily 0.75 2021-01-18 https://www.sophiamariesears.com/writers-advice daily 0.75 2021-01-18 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fdd70b133a5e91dcabe1a58/1609456624567-6BIKCP7OAHOI7C7NX2FW/image.jpg Writer's Advice https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fdd70b133a5e91dcabe1a58/1609457757793-K0RX9U3VL898MG4DRDS6/image.jpg Writer's Advice https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fdd70b133a5e91dcabe1a58/1609456088274-4Y9UOR855UZUWWHEI37O/2.jpg Writer's Advice https://www.sophiamariesears.com/gabrieles-review daily 0.75 2021-01-15 https://www.sophiamariesears.com/egyptian daily 0.75 2021-02-07 https://www.sophiamariesears.com/medieval-scotland daily 0.75 2021-02-07 https://www.sophiamariesears.com/victorian-london daily 0.75 2021-03-12