How My NaNoWrimo Was (+ P.2 of the Q&A)

                                                                          Click here to read part one 

                                             Greetings Adventurers!

I thought I should let you, the readers, know I recently did an interview with Elena Denver over at her new blog, Life is a Beautiful Ride. If you would like to check out my interview with her, you can do so here. 

But back to this post. Once again, thank you to everyone for sending in questions for the second part of the Q&A. And for those who participated in NaNoWrimo this year, I hope you had a good NaNoWrimo!  

Even though I will post a synopsis for those who don't know what my novel is about, I do suggest checking out this post about it. It will give you more info about my novel, The Mystery of the Body Thief, as it is the most up to date post about it. 

                                            Synopsis- 

 Genre: Fantasy | Murder Mystery  Series: The 1st book in the Lady Annabelle Mystery Series. 

Horatio wakes up from being in a coma, but he doesn't remember anything that happened before he fell into unconsciousness. All that he remembers is a name, "Annabelle!" 

Also... Detective Inspector Time finds himself having to solve a case without Lady Annabelle. Murders have been happening throughout many different kingdoms, and no one knows who exactly is behind it all. 

             How My Writing Went this NaNoWrimo-  

So, my rewriting and editing went pretty well during this NaNoWrimo. I felt as if I made some progress on the story, and though I am far from being done with the second draft, it feels very good to have a part of it done. During this month, I worked partly on my novel in order to get more of it written, and in the second part of the month, I worked on writing a play for a contest. I usually focus on one project per month, but this month I decided to divide my focus. Since I'm not done with the play, I plan to continue working on it into December. 

In terms of world-building, I began working on the clothes of the officers in the police department...

Made using Hero Forge 

Ever since I figured out what the healers'/priests' clothes look like, I have been thinking about designing the clothes for the officers in the Dragon's Province Police Department. I have been thinking about what different officers in different positions wear. Currently, I am using Hero Forge to get the general idea of what they look like. In the future, I do intend to draw them, but I find things like these help. I had also been thinking about modifying the design of the uniform on the left, because I realize how impractical that skirt would be in situations like running after a criminal. Also, I was thinking about making it look a bit more like Tauriel's outfit from The Hobbit, design-wise. 

So, I decided to brainstorm some more and came up with a new design. Here is the modified version of the outfit from the left. It's still not the end product, but it is getting closer:

Made using Hero Forge 

I have also decided that different color schemes in the uniform designate status of the officers. Officers have different positions, which are shown by the color of clothes that they wear (among other things). 

At one point during this NaNoWrimo, my computer crashed, so, it made it very difficult to write. During that period, I spent a lot of time writing on paper and repeatedly using a prompt a writing teacher of mine had given me. At the time, I was struggling to rewrite a scene that I wanted to add more depth to. 

I've also found that writing on paper allows you to be a bit more social with people while you're writing. While I like sitting behind a computer to write (because it doesn't make my hand tired), I feel writing on paper while sitting around a table and talking can also be nice. You can talk about your story sometimes while writing your story or just intermittently engage in conversation. 

It also allows you to be a bit more thoughtful with what you're writing. Often when I am typing, I feel like I am not thinking about every single word as I am writing it. 

(My writing and The Six of Cups). 

The prompt I used, that my teacher gave me, was using Tarot cards to get inspiration. At the beginning of NaNoWrimo, I had used them to figure out which scene to write. But during the time without my computer I decided to use it to add more depth to a scene: in particular, what a character should be thinking of. I ended up getting Six of Cups, which means nostalgia and happy memories. The card really helped me add depth to the scene (which, without spoiling my novel, I can say was about losing someone you loved).  

                                  Q&A

                          Now here is the second part of the Q&A!

If you see any of these [] on a question, that is because I edited it, in order to make it make sense in the post.  (Except for Maya's question. That one I didn't edit). 

                                 Question from Roberta at Offbeat YA  

Like Greg [in the previous post], the "murders happening in multiple kingdoms" premise intrigues me. I assume that you meant different worlds (like human world, elf world, fairy world, etc.)...or did you literally mean "kingdoms"? I know the right word for "worlds" would be "realms", but it still got me wondering.

This is fairly complicated to explain, so I will do my best in describing it. 

There are realms outside the world of the story, and elves and fairies come from these. Elves are somewhat related to fairies, but they are less ethereal, because they are trapped in the physical realm whereas fairies can shift back and forth between the physical and nonphysical. (To outsiders they appear to turn invisible, but in truth they are actually in another dimension.) 

In contrast to elves and fairies, humans, dwarves, and dragons (among other beings too) are believed to have originated in the world where the story takes place. Over the centuries some elves began mixing and living amongst humans (which is the reason why the elves and humans believe in the same gods and goddesses), whereas the fairies tended to distance themselves from humans and other "earthly" beings. 

So, there are still elves, fairies, and otherworldly beings that live in different realms in the world of the story, but most of the murders take place in the "earthly" realm. 

                                                Question from Anonymous: 

What is the weather like in these kingdoms? Is there a connection between our world and theirs? Is it distant in time or place or planet or dimension?

Dragon's Province (the kingdom the characters are in most of the time) goes through all the four seasons. However, there are kingdoms that don't have four seasons and tend to stay either warm or cold most of the time. 

As to whether there is a connection to our world, it isn't an older version of our world (unlike Tolkien's Lord of the Rings), though in the first draft of the story it was...kind of that. (I wanted an excuse to quote Shakespeare.)  But in its current state, I would describe it as being another realm or planet. Because it is a whole different world from where we are, the politics, the religion, literature, and everything that comes out of it is very different. 

                           Question from Grace Thomas at American Girl Dolls Chat Club 

How does Lady Annabelle look like? Are you going to draw a picture of her?

My drawings of Annabelle from 2017 to 2021.

I have actually been drawing Annabelle since 2016, because that was when my first attempt at writing the series started. (But the drawings of her start appearing on my blog in 2017.) If you look in the archives of my blog, there are a lot of drawings of her. 

I've also dressed up as her... 

Me posing as Annabelle (for the profile photo you see on the sidebar). 

I've also made some avatars of her using this Lord of the Rings doll maker, which unfortunately doesn't work anymore because Flash got removed from browsers:

Because I've shown you what she looks like, her appearance is pretty self explanatory, but I'll describe it anyway. Annabelle has red hair that is a little bit past shoulder length, brown eyes, pale skin, and a beauty mark on her left cheek. 

                                             Question from Maya at Pretty Little Scribbles :

    What are some difficulties you've faced (character-wise or plot-wise) while writing your book?

 

I think writing in the third person has been difficult for me. I don't intend to change to first person because I feel it wouldn't work for this particular story, and I feel I need to get better at writing in third person. 

I have been facing two other difficulties in writing. The first is giving each of the characters in the story a unique voice. So far I am succeeding in that, but I worry about the reader blending the characters together if they sound too similar. 

And the second difficulty is the fact that I don't have names for the types of spells in the world and for the gods and goddesses in the pantheon. This will be changed in later drafting partly because this isn't the last draft. But still it is a bit frustrating to have to put stuff down like "fire spell" or "earth goddess" if I do not know what the names of the spells or goddesses are. 

   Approximately how long have you taken to write your book (and where are you now as of NaNo 21?) [ps. it's been really fun reading about your book so far!] 

I'm going to guess that I came up with the idea in 2017 and began writing in 2018.  

(This is because I tend to come up book ideas a year before and take the time to plot before I write). 

I finished writing the first draft on November 5th 2020 and have been working on the second draft since sometime in 2021. (I believe I began rewriting before Camp NaNoWrimo.) 

As for NaNoWrimo 2021, as of right now I have gotten to my word count goal. 😃

 

                                                           Question from Anonymous: 

                              How many kingdoms are there? What lies beyond their borders I wonder??

At the moment, I am still working on the geography of the kingdoms in The Lady Annabelle Mystery Series. I plan to make a map for it eventually; I can't give an exact answer right now but I will have one in the future. 

There are multiple continents in the world, which are each divided up into kingdoms. But the kingdoms  in this story are in a single, large continent (which can be traveled across by horseback, carriage, etc.). 

(Image from Wiki Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Robert_Henri_-_The_Reader_in_the_Forest_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg) 

As for what are beyond some kingdoms' borders. Often (but not always) forests form the border of a kingdom. These forests are usually full of untamed mystical creatures: some are gentle, but others are dangerous.  

Once I create a map for the different kingdoms in The Lady Annabelle Mystery Series, I will do a follow-up post about it. 

                                                    

                                                           Questions from Don:

           Does Annabelle as a detective use Sherlock Holmes techniques to solve crimes?   

While Sherlock Holmes is an awesome detective (and I'm sure she shares some (unintentional) similarities with him), Annabelle has her own ways of solving crimes. 

However, there are two similarities in their practice of solving crimes. They both use deduction and disguises. 

                                    Will [Annabelle] and Horatio be more than friends?

It is possible that they were more than friends. I cannot answer (for spoiler-related reasons) whether in the future they will be more than friends. Horatio believes they were just friends (but given that he has amnesia, he cannot be completely certain). However, other characters in the story have thought at different times that Horatio and Annabelle could have been secretly in love...

                    What if Horatio and Annabelle are brother and sister separated at birth?

That is a possibility too. However, Horatio would have to be an illegitimate half brother of Annabelle if that was true (because Horatio is an elf, and Annabelle is half elf half human). This is a possibility, but I can't really give you a direct answer, because that would remove mystery from the story. 

...And that's the end of the second part of the Q&A. Thank you to everyone again for sending in questions. They were really fun to answer. 

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             How was your NaNoWrimo? And do you like to draw pictures of your characters? 

-Quinley 

My Art from Inktober 2021 (Part Two)

You can read part one here 

                                     Greetings Travelers! 

Here is the second part of "My Art from Inktober 2021" series. This is my first year doing Inktober, and I had a lot fun drawing these. 

Also, as a reminder, if you would like to get a question or questions in for part two of the Q&A for my novel, you can ask them here. 

Other than that, let's get on to the post! As I said before in the previous post, this series will be divided up into segments of ten drawings per post, with eleven being the final one. 

                                          Here's the prompt list for this year's Inktober: 

And here are more of my drawings from Inktober:

Day #11 Sour, I decided to draw a Sour Patch Kid candy along with several other candies (some you would probably get from Trick or Treating and others probably not).  

               

             Unlike the other drawings this one did not have a pencil sketch drawn under it, this was entirely done in makers. 

Day #12 Stuck, I decided to draw Rapunzel stuck in her tower. I had several other ideas of what to draw for this prompt, but in the end I decided to draw Rapunzel. 

Day #13 Roof, I drew a house in a silhouette, I decided to make the house look eerie. 

Day #14 Tick, I decided to draw a list with tick marks, and I went the fantastical route making it a Fairy Tale knight's to-do list.

Day #15 Helmet, Here I drew the Greek god, Hermes. He has a very cool looking helmet and I thought that would be perfect for the prompt. 

Day #16 Compass, I decided to draw something "piratey."

Day #17 Collide, I had an idea for a crossover of sorts between the characters Elm (left) and Oceana (right). (these characters are in the same world, just different stories unlike the crossover I drew in Using Polls to Create Art.) Oceana used to be a Naiad and knew Elm, they would practice singing together. Elm and Oceana would try and figure out where the magic of Elm's singing voice came from (since Elm doesn't know...yet), so they were friends, and then Oceana got cursed by the goddess Demeter and got turned into a siren. 

Though it is very hard for them to meet each other again, with Oceana sinking ships and all, I thought it would be cool if their worlds collided reuniting the two of them. 

Day #18 Moon, Here's a drawing of the Greek goddess Artemis, the goddess of the hunt and moon. I thought the prompt "Moon" was fitting for her. Also the character designs for Artemis and Hermes, are from my animation project Pandora's Box. 

Day #19 Loop, I decided to do a yoga pose that reminded me of a "loop." Also the whole setting is based on a memory I had of doing yoga during winter in a warm yoga studio, where it was warm and cozy inside, and really cold outside. This felt really nice to me, so the drawing was based on that. 

I also kept the color palette limited, and used mostly blues, grays, and browns. With a little bit of purple and gold, but not as much. 

Day #20 Sprout, For this I was inspired by "Jack and the Beanstalk". 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Which drawing is your favorite? And what is your favorite yoga pose and/or Greek god/goddess?

-Quinley 

My NaNoWrimo Novel 2021: The Mystery of the Body Thief (+ P.1 of the Q&A)

                                                   

                                                  Greetings Adventurers! 

I am participating in NaNoWrimo this November, in order to work on the second draft of my novel, The Mystery of the Body Thief.  And if you want, you can check out my most recent post about my novel here, given that this post will be answering questions about it. 

Also, thank you everyone for sending in and posting questions for the Q&A about my novel. I won't be able to answer all the questions in this post, but there will be a second part of the Q&A, so if you didn't post a question and want to, you still can. Or, if not all your questions got answered or none of your questions got answered they will be answered in the next part. Also, thank you for Fifty-six followers! 

                                    Synopsis- 

Genre: Fantasy | Murder Mystery  Series: The 1st book in the Lady Annabelle Mystery Series. 

Horatio wakes up from being in a coma, but he doesn't remember anything that happened before he fell into unconsciousness. All that he remembers is a name, "Annabelle!" 

Also... Detective Inspector Time finds himself having to solve a case without Lady Annabelle. Murders have been happening throughout many different kingdoms, and no one knows who exactly is behind it all. 

               My Plans for NaNoWrimo This Year 

I plan to continue world-building, editing, and rewriting my novel from where I left off. Originally when I was editing, I edited the story in its chronological order. But then I decided to rewrite it out of order, so I could spend some time on the scenes (and sections) I had skipped during the first draft. 

I might add that when I was first drafting the story, I skipped some sections. Most of them were scenes I had trouble writing and/or didn't feel like writing at the moment. But in the second draft, I get to focus on those scenes and flesh them out. 

I've also found that the scenes I skipped writing required me to have experiences that I didn't have at the time but have now. It wasn't until the second draft that I realized I was unconsciously writing about experiences from my own life, and why I had to process those experiences before getting them right....It's interesting how writing does that sometimes. 

Also, in the second draft, I finally realized what message I wanted to communicate through my story. Neil Gaiman actually said something similar about this in his writing of The Graveyard Book: "It was then, only then, that I saw clearly what I was writing...."  He "had set out to write a book about a childhood-- it was Bod's childhood, and it was in a graveyard, but still, it was a childhood like any other; I was now writing about being a parent..." (The Newberry acceptance speech, part five, the Graveyard book) I realize that I am doing a similar thing now, in my story, and that there are some elements I need to tweak in order to get the message through. 

In terms of world-building, I have made some progress, and I understand the world better. And it has also helped me understand the characters. When I first started writing, I didn't know Ophelia was going to be a healer and a priestess. I first knew she was a healer, but over time I soon figured out what it meant to be a healer and priestess in her world and that some priestesses are healers. (Not all priestesses are healers, but a certain type of them are.) 

So, during this NaNoWrimo, I plan to expand more on world-building and look back on the document where I wrote random ideas I had about the world during Camp NaNoWrimo. I want to see if I can expand on them and flesh them out.  

                             Q & A

And now for the questions from you, the readers, about my novel, The Mystery of the Body Thief. 

                                       Question from Elizabeth Knight: 

I'm intrigued about what the "body thief" could possibly be, but I have a different question in mind so as not to spoil the book for me: what, if any, kinds of magic are there in the book, and what form does it take?

Ophelia (left) and Vonivera (right), using their powers

There are three different types of magic in the world of The Lady Annabelle Mysteries Series: there is magic given at birth which is usually seen in fairies (though it is seen in other creatures too, like dragons), magic that can be learned (in this particular world you have to become a devotee to a god/goddess in order to learn it), and magical objects (which can be in mirrors, wands, etc.) 

There are also very different uses for magic: some magic is used for healing in the world, other magic is used for harm (or to kill), and magic can also be used to solve cases by the detectives in the world. 

In the religious beliefs of the elves, magic was given to the world by the gods. (Other magic came to the world through pure trickery.) I am also working on a post in my Look Into a World series on this blog, which I plan to post sometime soon. It talks more in depth about how the magic in this world came to be. 

                         Questions from Elena Denver at A Handful of Stories: 

     Hi Quinley, I was wondering about Horatio’s personality. Is he quiet and shy? Humble and Gentle, a bit prideful or outgoing? Or just friendly and creative?

Horatio is a bit timid (partly because he doesn't have many friends, and many servants in the castle do not like him), curious, and friendly, as well as being outgoing. If there is something dangerous or mysterious happening, he is willing to get involved in it. (However, he doesn't always know why he is so quick to do that: it seems almost like he does it instinctively or impulsively.) 

Horatio also seems not to understand parts of himself, like how he behaves certain ways at certain times. This is partly due to the fact that he has amnesia and doesn't remember his past. So elements about himself seem strange to him that wouldn't otherwise be strange if he remembered his past. 

                                                  Where’s the setting of your story?

(Image from Wiki Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Paul_Sandby_-_Bothwell_Castle,_from_the_South_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg)

The story is set in a Fantasy world. But most of the action in the first half takes place in Dragon's Province, in the castle of Lord Oberon, where Horatio is a servant. 

But the setting also extends to the town in Dragon's Province, where events happen such as plays, festivals, and religious gatherings. At different points in the story, Horatio visits the town for different reasons. In particular, he visits the police department. 

(Image from Wiki Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tavern_Scene-1658-David_Teniers_II.jpg)

And though this isn't exactly a single place, the characters do visit several taverns (and sometimes taverns that are also inns). I have felt like taverns are also part of the setting of the story. Taverns can be a dramatic setting in the story, since characters often fear being watched by others. Other characters either meet in a tavern (in some cases) or go there to talk when their work is done.  (And I may have been also slightly influenced by D&D and Lord of the Rings with the taverns that show up in my story). 

You can also listen it to here

One thing I think I should add is that I've been listening to this particular complication of music whenever I write a tavern scene. Though it isn't exactly about the setting in my story, I thought by sharing it I could give you an idea of the atmosphere of the taverns in Annabelle's world.

                                  Questions from Greg at Book Haven 

Ooh my first question is- who is Annabelle? Kinda obvious I know lol, but she seems to be key.

Annabelle in her wedding dress. 

Lady Annabelle is a half elf princess who worked as a detective before she (like Horatio) was in a coma. But unlike him, she hasn't awakened yet. She is also the main character in the series. (Though Horatio is taking the spotlight for a short time in this one book, the next book will go back to Annabelle.) She started working as a detective after a murder took place in the castle, and though her father is very against it (because he worries about her safety), she continues to solve cases anyway. 

However, her connection to Horatio is unclear. Horatio isn't sure how she and him knew each other -- whether they were friends...or something else entirely -- but at the moment, he believes they were at least friends or acquaintances (given that he has memories of her). But I can't say anything else about that...because of spoilers. 

So, I hope that answers your question. Also, I have created a profile for Annabelle on this blog, so if you want you can check out her character sheet here. 

Inspector Time- I'm wondering if his name means anything (like time travel or something) or if that's just his name? 

Naming wise, When I first created the character, his name was going to be Detective Inspector Thyme, but since I was pretty young when I named the character and had taken the name from the cozy murder mystery TV show, Rosemary and Thyme, I thought the name "Thyme" was Time not Thyme, so I ended up naming him Detective Inspector Time. But since it worked, I decided not to change it. 

Character-wise, D.I. Time changed his last name, because he wanted to. His family had had a different last name, but since he wanted his name to be memorable he decided to change it to Time. (This may or may not have been after he got his magic). His extended family though is not very happy with the name change. (Especially because the name change was not done through marriage, and just was done..."on a whim" as they describe it). 

 When it comes to your question about whether he has powers (time travel related ones that is), the answer is not exactly. Since most detectives or officers in the police department do have powers (though people are not required to have them) he does have powers (and so does his adpoted daughter, Marigold). But they aren't exactly what you think they are. Upon touching an object, D.I. Time has the ability to know what it has gone through and who has touched it. But he can't tell the names of the people who touched it, only the texture of their hand, the way they hold the object, and other feelings like (warmth, cold) he gets from where the object was, how it was made, what it has been through. 

The fact that murders are happening in multiple kingdoms is intriguing too. that makes me wonder if Time and Lady Annabelle are part of some far flung agency or detective group, or ?

So, there are several detective agencies working on solving the murders of royalty. This is partly because concerned royalty (who is worried they one of them could be next), would rather have more than one agency work on solving it than a single one. So agencies from all over different kingdoms are working to solve it. Admittedly, this rarely happens, since crime solving is usually limited to one kingdom, but since the life of different kings and queens is on the line, multiple detective agencies happened to get involved.  

Annabelle is not a part of the detective agency though. Her father would never let her give up her position of princess to be a detective, though she has gotten herself involved in several different cases, I'd say in a very Sherlock Holmes-like fashion. 

                        Questions from Grace Thomas at  American Girl Dolls Chat Club 

    Is there any drama in this story? I would like a lot of drama in your story! I love drama!

 While the story itself is not a melodrama, there are some social conflicts (drama) and internal psychological conflicts. Gossip often plays a negative role in the social drama, and since this is a murder mystery, there is of course the drama of murder itself and having to look for the killer or killers. There is also magical and supernatural drama throughout the series, as magic plays a role in causing and solving cases. Gods and goddesses often come to the mortals' world, and sometimes they cause a bit of drama whether they meant to or not. 

 

Why are the murders happening in the story? Is it because of money or something else is going on?

That contains spoilers, so you will have to wait for my book to come out in order to figure out who the murderer or murderers are, and why the murders are happening. If I revealed it here, it would remove the mystery from The Mystery of the Body Thief. 

...And that's the end of part one of the Q&A, if you would like to get a question or questions in for part two, you can ask them here or comment them down below.  

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Are you doing NaNowrimo this November? If you were to have powers, what type of powers would you like to have? 

-Quinley 

I Need YOUR QUESTIONS About My Novel!

 Greetings Travelers, 

So that my post about The Mystery of the Body Thief this NaNoWrimo is not a repetition of what I have said before, I will be answering your questions about it in an upcoming blog post. Here are some examples of questions you might want to ask: questions about the characters themselves, the story, the setting (as I am world-building it), my inspiration behind the novel, my writing progress, or even fun questions, like if my novel was a movie who I would cast to play the characters? 

 If you don't know what The Mystery of the Body Thief is about, here is a quick synopsis and a link to my most recent post about it: 

Horatio wakes up from being in a coma, but he doesn't remember anything that happened before he fell into unconsciousness. All that he remembers is a name, "Annabelle!" 

Also... Detective Inspector Time finds himself having to solve a case without Lady Annabelle.
Murders have been happening throughout many different kingdoms, and no one knows who exactly is behind it all. 

You can either ask the questions you have about it down in the comments down below, or ask it in this Google form (I will be mentioning who left the questions hence the name and blog part of the form, but if you would like to be Anonymous, you can just enter "Anonymous" and entering your blog is optional (since not everyone has one)): 

-Quinley