A Look Into a World #4: The War Between the Sun & The Moon (The Princess Arisias Mystery Series)

                        (Picture from Pixabay, I normally use my own photos, but I did not have a photo of stars). 

Previous parts: #1, #2, and #3.  

Greetings travelers, 

I decided it was time for another installment of Look Into a World. This post is centered around two gods, one of which I introduced in this post. 

By the way, in the first installment of Look Into a World, I posted a song that inspired a part of the world-building. I should say this cover of a song inspired a part of world-building for this post: 

You'll see which part when reading... 

 The War in the Sky 

In the world where Arisias lives, the humans and elves believe that the sun and the moon are in a constant war, where each night/day one of the gods wins, temporarily. 

The moon goddess represents strategic warfare. Mortals who worship her call upon her in battle or when they looking for a strategic way to win. The moon goddess does help people outside of war, as well, with philosophy and non-war related activities. In contrast, the god of the sun, represents bloody warfare, and doesn't care about strategy only blood-shed. 

During the night, the moon goddess overpowers the sun god by using his own light against him. In the daytime, the sun god uses his light to overpower the moon goddess. Hence, while the moon may appear in the sky during the day, the moon goddess did not win that fight. 

The times we would consider the winter and summer solstice, are the times when holidays around victory of a certain god are considered. If the day is shorter than the goddess of the moon won the battle for the meantime and is making the god of the sun weaker, if the god of the sun and it is the summer solstice and the day is longer, it is believed the god of the sun won the battle for the meantime. 

And when there is a solar or lunar eclipse, it is believed the gods are fighting in closer quarters than usual. 

(Salissah and a comet). 

Salissah (the goddess of the moon) and god of the sun choose warrior spirits to fight alongside them. They are warriors who died in battle, and are chosen to fight. So they fall in a second battle for their selected god. When they fall, they are represented as shooting stars/comets and are then sent to the afterlife.

The war between the two gods was foretold by Karleon. However, the sun god did not believe this prophecy, for he believed Karleon was tricking them somehow. Salissah believed she could find a way to avoid the consequences. It is unclear what event exactly caused the war in the sky, however, one answer tellers like to say is that the fay and human war is what caused it. For every god had to pick a side in that war. Because of their opposing sides, the sun god and the moon goddess were destined to be enemies afterwards. It is often modified by the teller what the true cause was, depending on the place or time period. 

Relationship Between the Devotees  

(a devotee to the moon goddess (left), a devotee to the sun god (right).) 

Interestingly compared to Karleon and the god of time, the devotees in this case are rather nice to each other. They have a hope that one day the war between the sun and the moon gods will be resolved. And while they don't agree on everything, and fights do sometimes happen, most devotees don't get into heated debates over this. 

However, other devotees are not very calm about the human and fay war, and they always ask "which god are devoted to?" in order to gather what side that person may be on. However, because the war related to the humans and fay is so complicated that even knowing the gods that the person is devoted to, may not tell you their opinion on the war as a whole. This is especially true since the person may disagree with their gods' opinion. 

It happened that Elyerin (aka Detective Inspector Time) fought in the fay and human war before becoming a detective. He was on the side of the fay during the war. And while he ended up being devoted to neither god (he instead ended up being devoted to the god of time), his side of the war strongly honored the goddess of the moon. 

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Whose side (the moon goddess or the sun god) would you be on? What's your favorite myth involving the sun and the moon? 

-Quinley 

Using Polls to Create Art #9

                                                          Previous parts: #1, #2, #3, #4 ,#5, #6,  #7 and #8.

Hello everyone, 

it's time for another installment of Using Polls to Create Art.

 Unless otherwise stated every drawing was the result of a majority vote. This time around you may see some familiar characters, along with characters you have not yet met before, who will reappear in other posts. 😉

Let's begin... 

A drawing in which Tesariel "Tess" Short is celebrating the winter holidays. I had the voters vote on which character I should draw celebrating the holidays, and Tess won. It's been a while since I drew her, and felt good to draw her again. 

This drawing was based on a painting that the voters chose. Here is the painting that the drawing is based on, though I changed the setting from being outdoors to indoors. 

On the wall is a portrait that I think looks like Felix, though it is actually a self portrait of Arthur Hughes. I decided when making this drawing that it would be fun to do a multimedia piece. 

From the poll that I had in the previous post, here is the violinist as a fairy. 

And here is the video showing the process of drawing it. 

I had the voters vote on which outfit Elm should wear, and this one won. While Elm isn't a fighter with weapons (she uses her magical singing voice), I imagine that if she went on a quest with Oak (since they live in the same world), that she would probably borrow a sword from Oak for this. 

This is a reimagining of one of my old super heroes, Cheetah Girl. I redesigned her outfit, since her original outfit had been pretty much a copy of the cheetah creature power suit from Wild Kratts (that I watched when I was a kid). I had the voters vote on which of my super heroes I should redraw and Cheetah Girl was the first to win. 

Here is what her design originally looked like. 

This wasn't a majority vote but it was suggested by Tammie Lee at Beauty Flows. The suggestion was a fairy that lives in a tree, and it was fun to draw. It made me think about what type of fairy would live in a tree, and I decided to make her like one of those Victorian-style fairies. 

And here is the video of the process of making it. 

This is Ocean Guy, he was a character who came from a  super hero comic I made using Pixton. I had the voters decide on which super hero I should redraw/redesign and he won. I've been thinking that he would fit into the same world as Cheetah Girl and Skunk Girl, perhaps they could be a team of nature-related super heroes. 

So, I had a lot of old super heroes I made when I was younger. One of them was Skunk Girl (not Super Girl, Skunk Girl), I don't know what made me want to make her a skunk super hero!? And she came from the same world as another super hero of mine, Cheetah Girl. 

         Now for a new poll: This one is a bit different, instead of asking which character I should draw, it's asking what a character should be doing...

  -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Which drawing is your favorite? What are some of your favorite super heroes? 

-Quinley 

I Finished the Second Draft of Dolls of Wax, Eyes of Glass!

                                                              Greetings Travelers, 

On December 4th, I finished the second draft of Dolls of Wax, Eyes of Glass. I'm happy about that, since that means I can move onto the third draft. And I have a lot of plans for the third draft.

In comparison to the first draft, the second draft was much longer. I felt as if I knew the characters better. Hopefully I can carry that forward into the 3rd draft. 

                                                                               Synopsis 

Genre: Gothic horror | Historical fiction 

      Matilda 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.

What's Next For Dolls of Wax, Eyes of Glass? 

My plan, given that the writing style seemed somewhat modern, is to try to make it sound more like a 19th century novel. This seems important, because both the narrators are from that time period. 

The novels I'm using as an inspiration for the style are Jane Eyre and The Picture of Dorian Gray. In the second draft the characters sometimes (accidentally) use modern words, which I didn't realize until much later. I want the reader to feel as if they are reading a book from the past that someone happened to uncover, rather than a book by someone attempting to write about the past. 

I did write about the journey to the haunted castle in the second draft, but I feel I didn't write as much about it as I could. In the third draft, I will likely take inspiration from the characters' journeys through the country side in Dracula and Jane Eyre, since the landscape in my novel, is very important in representing how the characters are feeling. 

The characters, Matilda and Felix, have changed a lot since the first draft. And I feel like I have a better understanding of them as characters, than I did in the first draft. However, outside of my novel this does mean I will have to update their profile pages on my blog. They are rather outdated and don't really reflect their characters as they are now. 

(Image from wiki commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:John_Beattie_Eugene_Rochas_seance.jpg)

Another thing I am going to do is research the Spiritualist Movement, because Matilda is a part of it. It is important to how she views certain situations, so I want to make sure I get some of those details right. 

There are also stylistic choices I made in Felix's telling, that I wish to keep in the new draft, but want to make sure make sense to the reader as they read. Those choices show his state of mind, and that he may be unreliable. So, I am going to try and figure out how to do that better in the third draft. 

These are my plans for the third draft ahead. 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------What's your favorite 19th century novel? Do you like to write or read historical fiction? 

-Quinley

Miscellaneous Drawings #6

Previous parts: #1, #2 #3, #4 and #5

 Happy beginning of December, everyone. 

I thought I would start December off by sharing some old and new art. 

I did a redraw and slight redesign of an old goddess I came up with, who I am now going to use in Arisias's world. Fiáina is the goddess of nature and defender of nature, she fights against poachers.

She also lost her right arm in battle, and wears a prosthetic arm, that she carved out of wood. 

 The elves protect nature for the most part, and hunting is frowned upon.

Here is the original drawing that I reworked above. 

A portrait of Ophelia, I really like how it turned out. 

This was an attempt at drawing Fevvers from Nights at the Circus by Angela Carter. I like how her face turned out, but I feel that her wings don't look like bird's wings. 

This is a character I haven't really introduced yet, named Kira. She is a realm traveler from the real-world to fantasy worlds. I may have her exploring some of my characters' worlds in the future. 

I just got back into Death in Paradise, and decided to draw one of my favorite characters from it, Camille. 

And lastly, I drew the Greek Goddess, Athena. It was fun to draw her again. It's been a while since I drew her. 

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Which drawing is your favorite? Do you have any plans for December? 

-Quinley 

My Art from Inktober 2022 (Part Two)

Click here to read part one. 

Hello everyone, 

It's now time for part two of my Inktober series, so let's begin. 

The Official prompt list for Inktober: 

Day #11 Eagle. I used this as another way for myself to practice drawing birds, since I've really wanted to get back into the habit of drawing them. 

Day #12 Forget. I drew Oceana again, I had drawn her before last year for Inktober as well. The reason I associated her with the idea of forgetting, was because I wrote a song (which I will post later) that she sang called "Forget." Here is a sneak peek for it: 

Smell the salty perfume of the ocean, 

Forget your long-lasting devotion, 

To the place you called “home,” 

For to the ocean you are to roam. 

Day #13 Kind. I took this to mean "one of a kind." So I decided to draw this character I came up with a while ago, who is a unicorn-girl in her unicorn form. She can switch back and forth between being a unicorn and a human. Here's the post where I first created her.  

Day #14 Empty. Mediating came to mind, since the leader of the mediation I'm doing often talks about emptiness when it comes to meditation. 

Day #15 Armadillo. I decided to take this literally and draw an Armadillo. 

Day #16 Fowl. Similar to the one above, I drew a Guinea Fowl.

Day #17, Salty. My thought process for this one was that the sea was salty, therefore it would relate to pirates. In the end I drew Long John Silver from Treasure Island. 

Day #18 Scrape. I didn't really interpret the prompt as written. Instead, I drew a handkerchief-- a scrap (instead of scrape) of fabric. 

Day #19 Ponytail. I decided to draw Elm. This one is a mixture of ink and watercolor. 

Day #20 Bluff. Given that my D&D character, Jinx is a rogue so obviously a liar, I decided to draw him for this prompt. 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Which drawing is your favorite? What's your favorite classic novel? 

-Quinley 

Announcing My NaNoWriMo 2022 Novel: The Mystery of the Body Thief

During this year's NaNoWriMo I am working on the 3rd draft of The Mystery of the Body Thief. So, here is some information about my project and my plans ahead for the 3rd draft (and other drafts) in general. 

As a quick update, I'd like you to know that I've updated two pages. I've added a new character for Dolls of Wax, Eyes of Glass which you can see here. And, I've updated the page for the characters from The Princess Arisias mystery series here. 

                                                                        Synopsis- 

                 Genre: Fantasy | Murder Mystery Series: First book in the Princess Arisias 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, "Arisias!"

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

                                             Characters- 

A lot of things have changed about the characters since I last made a post about them, including some of their names, so here are the characters: 

                                                  Horatio- 

Horatio is a servant who works in the castle, and who has amnesia. 

He is still discovering who he is, and wants to know more, 

for he feels very lost and confused.  

                                        Princess Arisias- 

Arisias is a princess, who never woke up from her coma, unlike Horatio. 

Before the coma she worked as a detective part time, while also fulfilling her role as a princess. 

                                                                   Ophelia- 

            Ophelia is a healer and a priestess (to the goddess of the earth and the god of air). 

             She is a quiet, but very kind person. Though she doesn't talk a lot, when she does she always has something thoughtful to say. 

                                                                                         

                                       D.I. Elyerin Time- 

He is called "Elyerin" by those who know him well, and "Detective Inspector Time" when he is working. He is an elvish detective with time related powers from the god of time. D.I. Elyerin Time is currently working on solving the case of murdered royalty. 

Cerawen & Vonivera 

Cerawen and Vonivera are Arisias's ladies-in-waiting. 

Cerawen- is from another kingdom and was sent over to Dragons' Province for undisclosed reasons. 

Vonivera- is a fay, who used to be close to Arisias before the accident. 

Marigold- 

Marigold works for the civil guard and is training to be a detective. She has not gotten there, but she is working towards it. She hopes one day to be a detective like her father. 

My Plans for this NaNoWriMo- 

I decided to take a long break before working on the third draft. When I finished the second draft, I took some time for reading to get into the mode of writing the third draft. One book I found particularly helpful was Stephen King's On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft. I usually don't find self-help writing books useful, but this was really inspirational for me. 

In fact one piece of advice King gave was to embellish references/imaginary. King referred to his book Carrie, where he used blood related imagery, which he embellished more in later drafts. 

This made me think about the imaginary/references in my own work, that I plan to embellish more this time through. 

Since I wrote my post about finishing the second draft, I've come up with fantastical names for the characters: Cerawen, Vonivera, etc..  At this point only one character still needs a fantasy name, and that is Marigold. She has two names, an elvish name and a human name. Marigold is the name she goes by as a human, but since she lives among elves and was raised by an elf, she also needs an elvish name. 

I'm also rereading  Lord of the Rings for inspiration, and I'm thinking about ways to describe my elves without immediately saying that their ears are pointed. They are pointed, but I don't want to just rely on that imagery to define them as elves. I need to capture that something which makes my elves different than humans, and I want to show that without directly saying that they are elves all the time to my readers. This is something that will take several drafts to figure out how to do, but it is something I've been thinking a lot about recently. 

 My fantasy world has been built much more, since I last wrote about it. 

I'm actually working on a side project, a collection of myths involving the myths of the gods and goddesses of that world.  I realized the stories and the myths are very important to that world. And while I have talked about the myths in blog posts, I want to steadily build a collection of short stories. I should add, I was partially inspired by Bardugo's Lives of Saints, for the Grishaverse series. While hers is much shorter than this is going to be, it definitely served as an inspiration.

 I've found that it helps to understand the world, because the world will effect the characters' actions in ways, whether unconsciously or not. 

So, those are my plans for this NaNoWriMo. I hope NaNoWriMo is going well for everyone else!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Are you doing NaNoWriMo this November? If so, what are you working on? If not, have you re-read any favorite books of yours recently? 

-Quinley 

I Left No Ring With Her | A Performance from Twelfth Night

Greetings Travelers, 

I filmed a Shakespearian soliloquy, this time from Twelfth Night, another one of my favorite Shakespeare plays. I've been working on it for a while, and I finally got around to recording it. 

I hope you enjoy it: 

Since I have been exploring this soliloquy for a while, I really thought about Viola's character and what she must be thinking in this situation. Such as, whether the words she is saying are communicated exactly as they are written, or whether Viola has a different perspective on the matter than she is letting on. 

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Do you have a favorite Shakespearian Comedy? Do you have a favorite character or monologue from Twelfth Night? 

-Quinley 

Miscellaneous Drawings #5

Previous parts: #1, #2 #3, and #4

Greetings Adventurers, 

I thought it was time to do another miscellaneous drawings post! In regards to later posts...I have two Inktober posts planned, as well as a post introducing my novel for this NaNoWriMo, and a post involving Shakespeare coming soon...

But back to this post...since Halloween is near I sprinkled some spooky drawings throughout the post, along with my Fantasy drawings: 

A drawing of Elm, I really like how it turned out.

I thought I would include the sun necklace she wears in the drawing. 

A drawing of Karleon, the god of mischief, from Arisias's world. 

This is a drawing of Galadriel from Rings of Power. I drew this long before the show came out, since I saw a promotional photo for Galadriel and thought her armor was awesome. My main focus in this drawing was the shading, which I think turned out well.  

As for the show, I'm watching it now and am I really enjoying it so far. However, there are bits that bother me (the way the elves act--they're too human for my taste, also don't get me started on their hair).

A drawing of Salissah. I figured out that she is the goddess of the moon, but also the goddess of strategic fighting (fencing, archery, martial arts, etc.), as well as philosophy, much like the Greek goddess, Athena. Whereas the god of the sun is like Ares, and just cares for bloody warfare in general. 

I've recently been drawing illustrations for a story with a dog character, and I decided to make another dog character. The dog doesn't have a name yet or a story, but I plan to come up with one later... 

I figured with Halloween being this close, I couldn't not include a drawing of this eerie door. I drew this a while ago, and I decided to include a figure hidden in shadow on the other side of the door. 

A drawing of Arwen from Lord of the Rings. This was inspired by the scene where Arwen rescues Frodo from the Ring Wraiths. 

**Warning eerie drawing ahead** 

This is a drawing that I created a while ago. I put the warning up in case viewers don't like spooky things, so they can scroll past it. But, my idea for the drawing, was that the woman had her dead fiancée (or husband) return to reunite with her in death. I am thinking of turning it into a short story sometime. 

But this drawing also helped me explore making some of my drawings spookier, which is something I intend to do when I illustrate (and publish) my book Dolls of Wax, Eyes of Glass. 

**The eeriness is over now...** 

Willow the dryad. This is a reimagining of a Pixton character I created. I didn't include it in the post where I introduced her, since it wasn't a majority vote. But I like how it turned out. 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Which drawing is your favorite? And do you have any favorite animal characters? 

-Quinley