The Snowy Day: A Lyrical Photo Shoot (A Collaboration with Hailey)

 

Greetings Travelers! 

Hailey (at The Girl Behind the Camera) and I decided to do a collaboration. I wrote the poem and Hailey took the photos for it. Also, I should let you know that you can also read the post over at Hailey's blog. 

So, here it is, I hope you enjoy it: 

The Snowy Day 

The sun rises on the cold earth, 

Filling it with mirth* 

Sounds of animals are heard, 

From a sleep some are stirred. 

They look out the window at the world below, 

Seeing the silvery snow, and ice on the window. 

They run outside, through the trees and feel the soft breeze, 

Gazing upon the beautiful freeze— 

Silvery Snow, 

The icy glow, 

All capture a beauty that will one day melt away, 

Like Venus arriving on the ocean sway, 

The beauty is brief, and will disappear like a frozen leaf. 

The feeling of joy, like when you get a brand new toy, 

Is filling the hearts of children who head out to play, 

On such a snowy day, 

They only think of what they can make, 

With snow and a garden rake. 

They grab silvered pine cones, while the icy wind blows, 

They create a shape, 

With the snow now made enormous in weight, 

Of a man. 

They choose a name from the 1960s special, they decide to name him after “Frosty,”

And then the wind becomes gusty, 

And they decide to go home.  

Oh, the beauty of the cold earth, 

Is seen by many, 

Though it brings joy to many, 

And others would pay a penny, 

For it to simply melt away. 

The beauty of the snow, 

Before it goes, 

Is a thing to see, 

For a brief moment it makes many feel free,

From the stresses of life that make them feel 

As if they are stuck at sea. 

Once more,

 the sun rises on the cold earth. 

                    *Author’s Note: mirth means merriment. 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------What is your favorite season? And why? Do you like snowy days or prefer warmer ones? 

-Quinley 

Character Q&A (part 2): Phoenix Answers Your Questions

                                                              Click here to read part one 

 This took me a long time to make, because Premiere decided to have an error, then I finally fixed it and then another error popped up and I spent time fixing it. But, now I have finally finished it. So, I hope you enjoy it: 

For those who don't know, Phoenix is one of the many main characters in an ensemble story. Unlike Annabelle who is the main character, Phoenix is one of many characters who each share the spotlight at different points throughout the novels. I haven't really introduced the other characters yet. But, you did get a sneak peek as to who one of the main characters is (i.e. Veraly) in this video. 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  If you could dye your hair any color, what color would you dye it? And what is your favorite place in nature? 

-Quinley 

Announcing My April 2022 Project: Dolls of Wax, Eyes of Glass

I have started rewriting and editing Dolls of Wax, Eyes of Glass for April's Camp NaNoWriMo. Since I do not plan to repeat myself, because not a lot of the story has drastically changed (partly because it didn't take me so long to finish the first draft), I will not be including the characters' bios again.  So if you wish to learn more about the characters, I recommend checking out this post or looking at this page. 

Let's begin:                                                    

                                                     Synopsis- 

Genre: Gothic Horror | Historical Fiction 

Maltida Moore was found dead at the castle, her brother, Felix, is missing. No trace of him was found except an eyeless wax doll made in his likeness. What happened at the castle is unknown, but it is as if something evil is lurking within it...something evil is causing these terrible events to happen.

                                           How the editing is going so far- 

At the moment, I am rewriting the part of the novel that is told from Felix's perspective, since in the first draft, I did not really focus on his that much. (I focused on Matilda's more.) By focusing on him I have managed to figure out details about him that I did not discover before. 

(image from wikipedia,

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Hughes_(artist)#/media/File:Arthur_Hughes_by_Arthur_Hughes.jpg)

I've also been working on figuring out his voice more. I have it somewhat figured out, but I want to get more into the details about him, because like Maltida he is a complex character. 

I am in multiple "cabins" this Camp NaNoWriMo: one that I am running, and one I am just a member of. In one cabin there was a character development question prompt, which I answered for Felix. I discovered elements about him through doing the exercise. For example, some random things I discovered about him were that he wanted to visit France, and that he used to (long ago) tell stories to his sister, Maltida. Felix in the first draft mostly kept to himself, so I am so glad that he is finally speaking to me and revealing his secrets. 

(Image from Pinterest, https://www.pinterest.com/pin/312859505337819468/)

Other parts of my rewriting work taught me about Matilda. 

I found this painting. It was a catalog cover. It took me a while to find the original painting, but when I did couldn't help but write a scene inspired by it told by Matilda. The castle in my story is surrounded by a forest and trees, and I could imagine Matilda choosing to walk through it and reading there, and having something mysterious or unexplainable happen while she was there. 

I have also started expanding on scenes that didn't get much attention in the first draft. The first draft in a way acted as an outline for the novel. For example, I created a scene (which wasn't really a scene in the first draft since Matilda simply told the audience she stopped at a village), and added in details like what was going on in the village, who the people Maltida met were, and even what the village looked like (the general mood/atmosphere). 

I've also been focusing on keeping the audience questioning whether what the narrators are saying is true or not, because I want the readers to be confused as to what is actually happening and have to decide on one of the many answers provided by Felix and Maltida. My goal is to create something similar to what happened in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, where there are several answers as to where Ichabod Crane went--whether the headless horseman actually kidnapped him or whether he left because Brom "Bones" scared him away. 

So, that has been how Camp NaNoWriMo has been going for me so far.

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If you're doing Camp NaNoWriMo, how is it going for you? What project(s) are you working on? 

-Quinley 

Using Polls to Create Art #7

 Previous parts: #1, #2, #3, #4 ,#5 and #6.  

Hello everyone, 

I am happy to tell you that I have finally fixed the doubling effect in the character interview with Phoenix, and I plan to have it edited and posted sometime soon. I'm sorry about the delay. 

But now on to this post. Here's the next installment of Using Polls to Create Art. Unless otherwise stated, all of the art in this post came out of majority votes... 

This was not a majority vote. When I made a poll about which character I should draw, people started wondering "what does a ghost bride look like?" and "what would a ghost bride mermaid look like?" because of the questions that were circling, I decided to draw the ghost bride as a mermaid. 

However, I did also draw the majority vote, which I will include in the next post, but since this post is themed around mermaids/merman it won't appear here. 

I asked the voters whether I should draw a sailor or a siren, and a siren ended up winning. 

So I drew Oceana again. I may end up doing a digital version of this drawing in the future. 

In this poll, the pollers helped create an original character who is a merman. I'm not sure what to call him, so if you have any name suggestions I would love to hear them in the comments below.  

Ophelia as a mermaid. This was fun to draw. 

Phoenix as a merman. I decided to make his tail feathery almost like a bird's feathers, but actually a fish's tail. 

This is breaking from the mermaid theme a little bit. I had the voters vote on what should appear on the cover of The Case of the Poisoned Goblet. The three things that needed to appear were Annabelle, Ophelia, and a dragon. I ended up having the dragon appear on the poisoned goblet, and I thought it would be neat if Annabelle and Ophelia appeared above. 

Now, I have a poll for you: 

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Which drawing is your favorite? Do you have a favorite mermaid/merman character? 

-Quinley