Letter D and Guest Author

For those of you who are new to my blog each Wednesday I spotlight an author. Today's author is a close friend of mine who has been a great source of support. Because he is my guest he gets to go first and my letter D entry will follow. Also, if you would like to be spotlighted on my blog please let me know. It is simple all I need is a short bio and flash fiction piece to show off your talent. He is an amazing writer and deserves a huge virtual round of applause. Please show your support for him by leaving a comment below.

My friend didn't give me a bio but a few things about him. He is the director of a non profit organization called the whittier center.  http://whittiercenter.org/ . He loves Fiction and Fantasy and is a huge history buff. I know that if I ever need to know about history he will have the answer. He is a wealth of information. We are geeks together and have gotten our families together to play D&D. If you have any other questions for him ask him in the comments.

Marko twisted under the blade swinging for his head and could feel the breeze from its passing as he tumbled forward. Quickly twisting around he got his buckler up in time to stop the dagger thrust from his opponent.

“Who is this guy?” muttered Marko as he jumped up into a proper fighting stance. His enemy said nothing, like he had since jumping Brent in the alleyway.

Luckily Marko was armed like all well to do twenty-third century Thanalians with a rapier and an offhand weapon. Since the Neo-Renaissance revival had become popular early in the century no well-off Thanalian or any Terran went around without looking like they stepped out of sixteenth century Italy. The only difference was the high tech alloys and advanced polymers that went into the construction of swords, knives, buckers and doublets.

Measuring up his opponent Marko saw that he was outfitted similarly to himself but instead of expensive velvets and colorful silks, he was robed in blacks and greys. A cloak shrouded his enemy’s face in shadow. He also used a Smallsword and a dagger in the Florentine style while Marko also used the Florentine style but with a small buckler 30cm across strapped to his left wrist.

Starting with a passata-soto Marko launched into a series of attacks, hoping to test the Shadowman’s reflexes. The shadow seemed to know every move before Marko started; twisting right and left, a parry there, a riposte after a quick attack, and an insistence at the end of an attack sequence. Panting from the exertion of the attacks Marko realized that he could not get past the Shadow’s defenses.

Stepping back into an en garde, Marko beckoned the Shadow forward. “Come on then,” he growled, “show me what you got!” The Shadow lunged forward but Marko parried and riposted with a doublé thrusting into the shoulder of the Shadow. Twisting the blade as he withdrew, Marko whipped his blade into a quarte. Growling with pain the Shadow seemed to withdraw into itself and dropped its blades. Lunging at the opportunity, Marko buried his blade in the Shadow’s throat.

Panting Marko stepped away from the corpse. Taking his blade he flicked back the hood to reveal the face of his enemy. Looking down Marko saw his own face on the corpse. Stumbling back with a look of horror, “Who are you? Who am I?” 

LETTER D

I was going to talk about depression just because of its prevalence. A few quick facts about youth in grades 6th-12th. 34.6%reported depressive symptoms within the last 30 days and 10% reported considering suicide. This is out of a huge sample in Utah (49,707 students). That means nearly 5,000 students of the sample reported that they had considered suicide. Depression is a huge problem, do not ignore it. That is all I'm going to say about depression there is a lot of support and information on the web. 

The D disorder is dissociative identity disorder. I picked this one because it is not as well known. This is best known by the multiple personality disorder. Many psychologists argue that it doesn't occur, but it is in the DSM and Psycho (the movie) is a great example of this disorder. Dissociative identity disorder is characterized by the presence of two or more distinct identities or personalities. These personalities recurrently take control of behavior and there must exists an inability to recall personal information beyond mere forgetfulness. 

This disorder is marked by the inability to integrate various aspects of identity, memory, and consciousness. Each personality has a distinct personal history, self-image, and identity including name. Generally there is a primary identity that has the individuals name which is passive, dependent, guilty, and depressed. The other identity is generally aggressive, hostile, controlling, and self destructive.The primary personality has gaps in memory whereas the alternate personality has a more complete memory.

The number of identities that have been reported range from 2-more than a hundred. Half of the case reported have 10 or fewer identities.

Individuals with dissociative identity disorder frequently report having experienced sever physical and sexuak abuse, especially during child hood.