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A Stone Talker Speaks About Bullying By Lithos, the Stone Talker with Novelist, Stephen J. Forrest July 18, 2019        Life is both easier and harder when you’re a misfit.  Being bullied for looking different than everyone else is annoying, angering, tear-evoking, frightening, and all other horrible emotions mixed up together.  This makes enjoying life hard.  In the small town of Ploion, at the edge of the Lithon Mountains, in the nation of Pulonia, I learned to deal with being different (Yes, I was named after a mountain range, and my name means “stone”).  I am half the height of all other people.  I walk with a profound limp, due to a childhood accident that crushed my leg.  My ears are misshapen, and my skin in pale.  Add to that my mom died when I was young, and my dad and brother were traveling blacksmiths and left me alone for long periods of time in dirty, ill-fitting clothing.  That was the perfect recipe for being a target for all the other “nice” kids to pick on me.  When my dad returned from his blacksmith trips, I think he was always surprised to findme still alive.  That’s the easier part of being a misfit.  You learn to rely on yourself.      All forms of bullying are not the same.  There’s the big fat kid who likes to hurt frogs, baby birds, and small children.  That’s the guy to fear because he, literally, will beat you to a pulp.  Avoidance works best for violent bullies.  Steer clear.  Don’t be caught alone with them.  Avoid their cronies.  They always come with cronies.  If you get caught in their web, there are two strategies, both bad.  When they hurt you, exaggerate your injuries and hope they stop the abuse before you get seriously hurt.  The second is more controversial, and grownups don’t like it.  This plan also comes with the risk that the bully will actually kill you, so only use it when desperate.  After you’re sure he’s going to beat you and you can’t run away, stab him in the foot with a sharp stick or pencil, then, wiggle free and run!  There will be a price to pay later, but with him limping from his injury, he’s not likely to catch you right away.  When the constable comes to find you, and he will, just tell him you were protecting yourself.  Show him your bruises.  Tell him you practiced restraint.  After all, you really wanted to stab him in the eye.  You’ll get punished and the bully may decide to literally kill you next time, but I’ve seen bullies also back off when they know you’re willing to fight violently.      There are the bullies who attack you with words.  They hurt your feelings, but they aren’t a threat to your life.  There are a variety of strategies when dealing with these bullies, all using words.  You might try ignoring them.  When the bullies see they are being ineffective, they will often choose to pick on other misfits who cry a lot.  Sucks to be those other misfits, but at least they’ve stopped bothering you.  If you suspect the bullies won’t use violence, you can try taunting them back.  If the taunts are true, and hurtful to the bullies, they will likely retreat and not mess with you anymore.  This isn’t my favorite strategy, but it works when bullies try to hide their insecurities by teasing others.  A strategy I use when the bullies are mostly decent people is to own my misfit-ness.  I’ll say something like, “Yes, I’m a misfit whom Theos-god has cursed.  My mom died.  My dad ignores me.  I don’t have enough food to eat.  So, go ahead and taunt me because it’s all true.  I’m ugly and unlovable.”  Often, the bullies will pull back and actually show sympathy.  Every time you’re bullied, evaluate each bully’s technique and craft a strategy that works.      Then, there are the bullies who won’t attack you directly, but will spread gossip about you.  You know, “Lithos is short because he eats excrement from the latrine.”  Gossip like that.  These bullies are more devious because you can’t always figure out who started the ugly rumors.  Usually, these bullies are looking for a reaction.  Ignoring the rumors usually results in them growing bored and they look for other misfits who cry and whine a lot.  If asked about the rumors, I say something like, “Yum, I love excrement.  It keeps me short and stout.”  The person who asked usually reacts with disgust, then I follow that up with, “Use your common sense, knucklehead.  Someone is spreading vile gossip.  Of course, I don’t eat excrement.”      I learned self-sufficiency early in my life because of bullying.  I found solace in religion.  My prayers to Theos-god were comforting.  I learned that I had a special relationship with rocks.  I could talk to them, not in a traditional sense, but I could commune with them.  Humans leave emotional imprints when they touch a stone.  I have the ability to read those imprints and can even stone-track a particular person through rugged terrain.  I’ve spent many days with my friends, the stones.  If that makes me even more a misfit, I don’t care.  I have become a stone mosaic artist of some note in Pulonia, and I occasionally take a stone-tracking adventure.  I still get bullied, but I always have my stone-friends to enrich my life.  I’m sure you’ll find some hobby, activity, sport, or friendships that will help you through the hard times too.  Be a survivor.  The best revenge on bullies is to grow up and be successful in life.

The Protagonist “Lithos”

February 22, 2019

     The main protagonist in my Stone Talker novel series is Lithos.  He’s a dwarf from a secretive race of dwarves who live in a cave system in the mountains north of the Peras Icelands on the continent of Mazere.  But, Lithos doesn’t know he’s a dwarf!  At least he won’t figure that out until the second novel.  He’s 2 1/3 elbow lengths tall (About 3’6” in English measure), and that’s the rub.  Lithos was displaced to the nation of Pulonia as an infant and his adoptive mother died before she could tell him his history.  Basically, he grows up as an outcast in a society that doesn’t value short people, light-skinned people, people with a limp, or any other distinctive feature that is not “normal.”     His adoptive father was a traveling blacksmith, until he died when Lithos was 15.  That didn’t matter much since his dad was gone most of the time anyway and Lithos kind of raised himself.  As Lithos explained it, his dad and brother would leave home with their blacksmith cart for a lengthy sales trip, and they were always surprised to find him alive when they got back.  With his profound limp, Lithos would hobble up into the foothills of the Lithon Mountain range near the city of Ploion and play with the rocks.  Lithos was named after the mountain range, and his name means “stone” in the ancient tongue.  At an early age, Lithos discovered he could read imprints left when people touched stones.  By the end of the first book, Lithos can actually get in touch with the essence of the stone itself.  The stones became his friends.  A few others in Pulonia had this same gift of stone talking.  The best of them became stone trackers.  They could track outlaws in rugged places by following the path of the rocks they touched as they went.  Stone tracking was a dangerous occupation, and Lithos was always careful to avoid that designation.  In fact, he didn’t talk much about being a stone talker either since that was another characteristic where he was different in a society that valued “sameness.”     Lithos learned to deal with the bullying and abuse that other Pulonians heaped on him.  He was a religious young man, and he often wondered why Theos, god, had cursed him so badly that others treated him so poorly.  To court the deity’s favor, Lithos discovered that he could sell woodstone pieces to religious Pulonians who valued woodstone as a symbol of eternal life.  Because Lithos was a stone talker, he could easily shape and smooth stones to make them more attractive for sale.  So, selling woodstone became his occupation.

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February 18, 2019Welcome to my blog. I will be writing a series of Epic Fantasy novels set in the world of Hexaptalon. The first novel, The Stone Talker, is being edited. The second novel is in process (about 25% complete). Be patient as I figure website management out! Happy reading.