A Look Into a World #3: How the Power of Prophecy Came To Be (+ P.2 of the Q&A)

So, in this post, I wanted to talk about an aspect of my general process of writing but one that is still related to Becoming the Body Thief and Arisias. So, I decided another installment for A Look Into a World. If you want to read the previous installments, here is #1 and #2.  

A Look Into a World: 

How the Power of Prophecy Came To Be

The Myth

Before Karleon had power over prophecy, the power belonged to the God of Time. The prophecies were very direct and to the point. They did not have any rhyming nor were they hard to decipher. Because of this a lot of prophecies came out sounding like threats rather than prophecies. Since a lot of people were not pleased to find out when and the exact date and time of their death, prophecies became less and less like a thing that people would travel to receive. It seemed prophecy was becoming a dying art. However, Karleon the god of mischief decided that he must steal the power. 

(Karleon catching the god of time in a form of a firefly (he's not a real firefly, so his glow wouldn't be yellow but instead silver)). 

So Karleon insulted the God of Time and challenged him to a shapeshifting contest. They took on different forms of different animals, until the God of Time turned into a firefly and Karleon caught him in that form and extracted the power that way. 

As a result, the temples that housed the God of Time's oracles suddenly became Karleon's temples of prophecy. And devotees to the God of Time were still devotees to him, but they had suddenly become devotees to Karleon as well--and not in the typical way which would happen during The Festival of Magic. 

This caused Karleon to get in trouble with the King and Queen of the gods again. But they were unable to remove the power from Karleon for he threatened that the power would cease to be in use if they removed it. Since he could see the future, they took what he said to be fact (though variations of the myth told by the God of Time's devotees, say it was one of Karleon's lies). 

But, even though they were not able to remove the power, the King and Queen tasked the God of Time with punishing Karleon. So Karleon was temporarily frozen in time. 

The Oracles & Their Powers

                                                            (An elvish oracle in a trance foretelling what is come) 

There are many oracles across the different kingdoms. When an oracle uses their power, they go into a trance. Their eyes glow a bright vibrant blue, and they talk in a voice that sounds unlike their own. 

The prophecies of course are told in rhyme and also are very ambiguous in meaning. In regards to prophecies related to heroes, some people in the world believe in "chosen ones." Others believe that the people mentioned in prophecies relating to quests are just descriptions of people who could fit the criteria, but not an exact person.

 But it does all come down to a belief in fate, and what power it has over actions in the world. 

The Relationship between the Devotees 

  Nisis/Nyro's and Karleon's devotees are on somewhat good terms. (The gods aren't exactly enemies, and despite their disagreements, they have teamed up more than once). On the other hand, the God of Time's devotees and Karleon's are not friendly. 

This is because some of the devotees, think that the power should have been left with the God of Time, as prophecy foretells the future and is related to time itself. They are also upset that they could have received the ability but the god of mischief, Karleon stole it from them. 

It is not unusual that arguments--even heated debates--would happen between them. The devotees to the God of Time would like the power back, whereas the devotees of Karleon think it is rightfully theirs. 

                  Part two of the Q&A For Becoming the Body Thief 

Now, we're back with part 2! If you wish to read part 1, you can so here. Many of the questions that were submitted related to the 2nd book in my Fantasy murder mystery book series, Becoming the Body Thief, and there were other questions relating to the world in general.                                      

Questions from Diane at Always Crave Cute :

I'm wondering how far Arisias will go with her ruse. Will she hold back just enough to not commit an actual crime?

Without spoiling anything, Arisias does admit she has had a lot of regrets from having to do things because of her alias in the 2nd book. She actually said that in this post (note, that I called her "Annabelle" then, so the post is a bit outdated in terms of names but not content), in response to the question "what is the hardest thing you've ever done?" So, I will just say-- she has a lot of regrets. 

                          Will she change the behavior of the real criminals?

                     You shall see, Arisias may be able to, or she may not. It all depends...

                 Does she use costumes, disguises, to hide her true identity and intent?

(Arisias in disguise) 

         The criminals Arisias works with, have no idea they're helping Princess Arisias. So, yes. She's in disguise, and she is using an alias, so no one actually knows it is her. However, that is not to say that someone won't discover that she isn't who she says she is. 😉

                                                  Question from Anonymous:  

                           Will Arisias find friends among the criminals?

 She will have to be allies with them, even if not close friends. Because if she is enemies toward them that will not help her get to where she needs to go. 

         Will she turn these in to the police when she sees the crimes they commit?

This is one time, where she cannot turn criminals in to the civil guard (police) because, she herself has become a wanted criminal. So, by doing that, she would risk being arrested just for the sake of arresting a criminal. At this point, she is at the same level of the criminals so cannot do much to go against them-- unless, she wants to end up arrested, too. 

                                               Questions from Fleming: 

What made you decide to change the character’s name to Arisias, especially after living with Annabelle for so long? 

(Still from the video where I announce Arisias's name change). 

When I named this character "Annabelle" back in 2016, the name fit her character at the time. However, when she was developer further, it stopped fitting her. So, it felt appropriate to call her "Arisias" as was drafting it now. 

Also, I realized the name "Annabelle" sounds very strange when there are other characters with names like Cerawen and Vonivera. And also since she is the main character, it felt weird that the other characters had fantastical names, but she did not. 

In the first book, Horatio only knows the character's name, rather than her as a person when he first wakes up. I thought "Arisias" as a name held more mystery than "Annabelle."

 The name Arisias also seemed closer to who she was, and as for the background in creating the name I talk about it in this post here. 

 Also, are there any characteristics of the fairies, elves or dwarfs that you feel are completely original to this world?

(Image from Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_mythology#/media/File:Riders_of_th_Sidhe_(big).jpg)

I wouldn't say anything is completely original. I am taking a lot of elements of my story from mythology from thousands and thousands of years ago (Greek, Norse, Irish, etc.), along with inspirations from some more modern fantasy stories. But, I would say they're different in some ways from other elves, dwarves, and fairies I have seen in the media. 

For my fairies I actually took some elements from Irish mythology. Because of that they're more trickster like, not someone you want to anger, nor someone you can completely trust which is why they have a bad relationship with the humans. They have the ability to make themselves "invisible" (go to  another dimension), and realm-travel. Both elves and fairies came from another realm, but fairies have the ability to actually magically get themselves there if they want to, whereas for an elf it would be harder. 

The elves are more trustworthy. They have been there for thousands and thousands of years. They are able to detect gods from within a crowd more than a mere mortal (human) could. And elves believe themselves to be made in the likeness of the very gods they worship-- which is why they're so ethereal and live longer than humans. 

Dwarves I'm still working on. At the moment, only two have shown up (the two criminals that Arisias has to work with). So their culture, beliefs, and society are things I'm still working on building as a whole. But, I will say that not all dwarves are miners. There are some who are, but while wealth is important to the culture (particularly jewels and gold), not all dwarves are miners.  

....And that's the end of the Q&A. Thank you to everyone who submitted questions. They were fun to answer. 😁

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------What would you (or your character) do if you could tell the future? What's your favorite Fantasy creature? 

-Quinley 

I Finished the First Draft of Becoming the Body Thief (+ P.1 of the Q&A)

      

On September 17th, I finished the first draft of Becoming the Body Thief! It was a novel I worked on during Camp NaNoWriMo, and it feels good to have the first draft done so that I can move onto the second. In this post I will also be including a Q&A about my novel. Thank you to everyone who submitted questions. Like my last Q&A, this is going to be divided up into two parts. I did this because some of my answers were quite long. So, if I don't answer your question(s) in this part I will in the next, and if you didn't get a chance to leave a question for this part, you can leave one for the next part here. 

The reason I decided to do a Q&A along with this celebration post was that I realized readers would probably want to know a bit more about the story, or about what it is like to be a criminal in my Fantasy world. So, I decided to make a post asking for questions about that. This post will answer those questions, as well as talking about what I will be doing next drafting-wise. 

Synopsis

(Images used from Pixabay. The paintings are: "The Soul's Prison House" by Evelyn De Morgen, "The Shadow" by Edmund Blair Leighton, and "God Speed!" by Edmund Blair Leighton. The lyrics quoted are from the song "Over the Hills and Faraway". The template I used to make this mood-board was made by Ayzrules). 

Genres: Fantasy | Crime | Adventure Series: Second book in the Princess Arisias Mystery series 

After Arisias is framed for a crime that she did not commit, she finds herself having to work amongst criminals. In order to bring the one who wronged her to justice, that is "The Body Thief," Arisias finds she will have to blend into her new surroundings by acting like a criminal. In doing so, she has to enlist the help of two thieves and a con-artist. But as all of this is happening, Arisias fears that she will become the very thing she is pretending to be. Will she become a criminal like The Body Thief? 

What's Next For Becoming the Body Thief? 

The next phase for this novel is to work on the second draft. In the first draft I worked to get down what happens in the story, but I did not focus much on the prose. So, I will now be focusing more on the style and the world-building. While I already built a lot of the world (though there is still more to work on--such as the pantheon of gods, and the magic system), I didn't include as much of it as I would like to do in the first draft. 

With this in mind, I will be focusing more on what the criminal world is like. In world-building for this book, criminals' relationship with the gods is different from that of law abiding citizens. Some gods will refuse to give criminals magic, but other gods are more willing to, or perhaps they just do not care about the background of the person. Karleon, the god of mischief, is one of these less careful gods. This is because he is a trickster god, and tricksters tend not to care about legality of most things. (Also, Karleon stole magic from the king and queen of the gods. I don't think he has a leg to stand on when judging criminals.)

Speaking of criminals who have magic, I have a con-artist character who was given magic by the god of music. But then, I also have a character who has no powers whatsoever, but his abilities as a thief seem magical even though they aren't. 

I also want to develop the locations of the story more. For example, I made some versions of one of the taverns that appear in the book in a virtual world. I did this because I generally have trouble figuring out the layout of a room in writing: visualizing it is just hard for me. I want the readers to feel as if they are there and could visit the taverns that appear in it. 

This was also one of the few books where I actually have written a fight scene. Most of my books didn't focus on fighting, but instead on solving a mystery. So, because fight scenes are important in Becoming the Body Thief, I want to make sure they are well written. For instance, I don't have my characters instantly defeat an opponent or monster with magic or weapons. 

So, that is my plan for the second draft of Becoming the Body Thief. Now on to the Q&A!

* * * * * * * * *  

Q&A 

In order to make this more fulfilling and to ensure that I give you the information you want about the novel (but not enough that it spoils the story), I asked for questions for my novel in the previous post. Here are my answers to some of the questions. 

The first wasn't really a question, but I want to talk about it anyway. Someone left a comment about fantasy stories involving heists and criminals, mentioning Six of Crows. I find this interesting, because it was only this year that I read Six of Crows. The Fantasy writing group I am running voted for it as one of the books to read for our book club. This really led me to think about the inspiration for my own story...

My inspiration was the TV show, Leverage (which is not Fantasy, but is a show focusing on heists). This was the first crime show I ever watched, and it also definitely inspired elements and characters of my story. However, I should say that, unlike the characters from Leverage, my thieves and my con-artist (who all work for Arisias) are completely unaware that they are doing something good (or at most, a pale shade of gray).  

But let's get started with the actual questions: 

Questions from Greg at Book Haven :

I love fantasy cities. Will Arisias be working with a thieves guild or anything like that? 

The thieves that Arisias works with are loners. They work for themselves and don't like being tied down to a guild. (There are thieves who join guilds in this world, just not these thieves.) Nevertheless, they were persuaded to work for Arisias.

I also enjoy Fantasy cities: my characters visit several throughout the story. Some are shader than the others, like the one where Venus (the con-artist) lives. However, to visitors the city appears to be safe, People ignore what is going on beneath the surface and generally come there to have a good time (with or without later regrets). 

I like the idea of Arisias having to work with criminals. I wonder if they'll be hardened ruthless types or more heart-of-gold types. :) 

I'd say the criminals are in the middle between these two. I will say they lean more toward hardened-and-ruthless than heart-of-gold since they have been in the criminal world for years and years. However, a lot of my sympathetic characters have backgrounds that are...bad or questionable. Despite their ruthlessness you, the reader, will eventually be able to relate to them on some level...even if you disagree with their (past) actions. 

Question from Anonymous: 

How long will your novel be, and how long do you think you will need to complete it? Good luck!

Thank you for wishing me luck. 😃 The first draft was 32,520 words in length. My best guess is that the second draft is going to be twice as long or longer--in the first draft I was outlining more than focusing on the prose. I really don't know for sure, but my best answer is, longer than 32,520 words. 

As for when I am going to complete it, it has really no exact date at the moment. It depends on other projects of mine-- given that I have to take into account details like world-building, character-building and naming certain characters and places. 

I believe I am going to finish (and publish) Dolls of Wax, Eyes of Glass first, and then The Mystery of the Body Thief, and then this one. As I answer this, though, I also have to take into account that I've been working on The Mystery of the Body Thief since 2018. My writing was very different in 2018, so I had to do a lot of work to get it to my current writing style. For Becoming the Body Thief, it will be far easier to rewrite. But since Becoming the Body Thief is the second book in the series, the first book will have to be completed first.  

Questions from Debra at She Who Seeks: 

I'm interested in the justice system in your novel's world. Is it fair? Are judges/lawyers corrupt and bribable? Is the justice system excessively punitive?

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

It really depends on what judge/lawyer you get and the situation as a whole.

 If the crime is related to royalty then there can be meddling and bias in the court (as in if the person who was attacked was royalty not the accused). Judges will be on the side of royalty for the most part and rule in favor of them. But, if a royal is accused of a crime, there will be different opinions.

 It is believed that if a king, queen, prince, or princess commit a crime, that they have gone against the gods, since they were chosen by the gods to be royalty. But others will assume that the royal is innocent and try their hardest to prove this, even if the evidence is pointing in the opposite direction.  

So overall, for Royalty the legal system is complicated and sometimes can be corrupted. I should also say this applies to priestesses/priests, because they the same power as royalty. 

All that being said when a crime involves only common citizens, the legal system in this world is quite fair. Nevertheless, other biases can arise in the court (such as people avoiding angering the god(s) they're devoted to, political biases, biases based on species, etc.) 

Penalties for some crimes are quite extreme. But once again it really depends on the situation. Some people are not eager to give out penalties that are irreversible for petty crimes such as theft. Instead people will be confined to prisons for a certain amount of time. But for murder, it depends: some people believe in the death penalty, while others have argued that a life sentence is better.

(Keep in mind that a "lifetime" to a certain species might be different. For the Fair Folk that is hundreds if not thousands of years, to a human it would be shorter). 

Will Arisias face the death penalty for any crimes she may commit or be framed for?

The death penalty is a thing some criminals face in Dragons' Province for committing crimes, and public executions are held (this is something some kingdoms ruled by elves find primitive, so don't do it, but since Dragons' Province has had both elvish and human rulers at different points that it is why it happens). In this case-- without spoiling anything, the crime Arisias was framed for would usually have the death penalty, but, they were unable to do it. (This is for reasons that will be revealed in the book. I'll let you, the readers, speculate for now on what those reasons are.) But regardless, her punishment is far from being pleasant and is very traumatic, even if not that extreme. 

What are the prisons like? Warehouses or hellholes or both?

It depends on the prison you're sent to as a prisoner. Most are far from pleasant and quite hard to escape from (whether it was made by humans, dwarves, or the Fair Folk--that is the elves or fairies). They're all different, and they have different ways of messing with a prisoner's mind. This is not illegal to do in their world. (It would be illegal in our world.) 

(A typical made by the Fair Folk, prisoner at the front an illusion appearing at the back). 

A prison made by the fair folk (the elves and fairies) would seem beautiful upon entering. It would even be hard to tell that it was a prison because of its sheer beauty. However, upon staying there for a long time, one will begin to feel like the prison is playing tricks on their mind. They will see visions of different things that happened in their prior life and of their greatest fears. At times, it will seem possible to escape the prison-- the prisoner will have false hope and only later will find out it was all a trick. And sometimes when walking around the prison, they may feel as if they are getting lost in it. Time will feel as if it either going too quickly or too slowly, depending on what the prisoner is used to.  

(A fay and a human prisoner in a prison made by humans) 

A prison made by the humans is mostly like a warehouse. Prisoners are allowed to leave their cells periodically and wander around-- but only at certain times. Prisoners usually keep to themselves. Even though it is periodic isolation, this kind of isolation eventually begins to mess with the minds of the prisoners confined there. 

(An elvish prisoner in a typical dwarf prison). 

In a dwarfish prison, one is confined in a completely underground prison. There are cells for different prisoners like in human prisons, but prisoners are not allowed out. The cells have the feeling of a collapsed mine: no sunlight is allowed in, and prisoners can feel as if they are stuck unground for ages and ages. It does not help that they are not able to wander about. 

The state of the prisons makes criminals (and people in general) want to avoid getting arrested. Some authorities believe that the harsh nature of the prisons makes crime-rate lower, but in reality the prisons are not the issue. It just makes criminals try to avoid getting caught at all costs. And for those who are framed for crimes, it is a very scarring punishment when they didn't do anything wrong. 

 Are there a lot of criminals in this world? Are people forced into criminality in order to survive?

There are a lot--enough that I'd say that the crime rate is high in Dragons' Province. Generally, people are forced into being criminals in order to make ends meet. Though, people's reasons also depend on the  crime committed. For murder, there can be sympathetic reasons (such as self defense), but it can also be done for horrible reasons...

Theft or conning someone, is something most people do to survive, at least something they are forced into doing. There are others, who do it for greedy reasons or because of the fun of it. But, mostly people do it because they have to or are forced to. It really depends on the criminal whom you're talking about. 

...This is 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.  

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Which prison from my Fantasy world would you least like to be confined in? And, do you have a favorite Fantasy story that involves criminals or crime? 

-Quinley 

I Need YOUR QUESTIONS About my Novel...Again

I just finished the first draft of Becoming the Body Thief. It is a novel I was working on during this year's Camp NaNoWriMo. Last year I did a Q&A for The Mystery of the Body Thief, which you can read here and here. I thought I would do a similar post for Becoming the Body Thief, because I don't want to just give a simple description of the project and what I am going to do next. So, a Q&A with questions from you, the readers, is also going to be included in the post. 

      Here is a synopsis, which will also be included in the Q&A post, and may be helpful for coming up with questions: 

This takes place after the events of The Mystery of the Body Thief. 

After Arisias is framed for a crime that she did not commit, she finds herself having to work amongst criminals. In order to bring the one who wronged her to justice, that is "The Body Thief," Arisias finds she will have to blend into her new surroundings by acting like a criminal. In doing so, she has to enlist the help of two thieves and a con-artist. But as all of this is happening, Arisias fears that she will become the very thing she is pretending to be. Will she become a criminal like The Body Thief? 

Here are two posts I made during Camp NaNoWriMo that involved Becoming the Body thief: part 1 and part 2. And lastly, here is the page with profiles of the characters from the entire book series (Becoming the Body Thief is the second book). I have not yet created the profiles for all of the new characters, but most of the characters who are included on that page also appear in the second book-- even if they don't directly talk to Arisias in it. 

Regarding the questions: feel free to get creative with your questions. (But please avoid asking questions that have spoilers in them such as "who or what is the Body Thief?"). If you're feeling stuck, here are some example questions to get inspired by-- 

• Has your story surprised you in anyway while you wrote it? 
• What are the new characters (the thieves and the con-artist) like?  
• What is it like to be a criminal in your Fantasy world?  

• What was the inspiration for your novel?             

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 

How Camp NaNoWriMo Has Been Going For Me (Part 2)

                    

                   Click here to read part one                        

   I'm back with part 2! This will be more of a wrap-up post of my Camp NaNoWriMo experience compared to the first post-- which was talking about what was actively happening during it. Also, if you have not read it already, I recommend going back and reading part one for context. 

Also, one quick blog update: if you want to check it out, I have made profile pages now for my characters: Cerawen here and Vonivera here, since they didn't have profile pages before.

                                                              Let's begin: 

My Writing 

  And now I am going to talk more about of what I've been writing this month. 

The first news I wanted to share is that I reached my word count goal! 🎉 🥳

(Just want to point this out--I love how the winner badge is making an allusion to Don Quixote)

Here's the winner certificate by the way, I really like how it looks Fantasy themed: 

And if you're wondering what "BOTBT" is, it's the title of my book, Becoming the Body Thief in acronym form. For some reason NaNoWriMo's certificate wouldn't allow a long title. In the past it has allowed to put my other book title: All Is Not Lost For All Will Begin Again on the "author of" section. But I digress. 

However, even though I got to my word count goal, I still had plans to work on my novel this month because it is far from finished. In other news, I did three guest prompts in a writing group I'm in (not running but in). One of them was a picture prompt I came up with: 

The painting included in the post (though there are others not seen) is Ophelia by John William Waterhouse. 

I'm currently running my own group and am trying to get it to be more active (believe me running a group is hard work, but worth it). It is fun to have a really active group using one of my prompts and to see people's responses. There is just something about seeing people respond to something you have written yourself. It was cool, because people shared so many beautiful excerpts from their novels-- one person even wrote a whole song in response to the prompt. And this honestly reminds me why I like teaching workshops. You get to see people's artwork, and knowing that you inspired them is always a good feeling. 

In even more exciting news involving the same writing group: 

(My character Annabelle (left) and A.J.'s version of Karen from D.C. Super Girls (right)) 

I was talking with a member of the writing group I am in, and we decided it would be fun to do a crossover between our stories. We have plans to publish it once we publish our novels. We have to wait until then, because it is set during the time of my novel, Becoming the Body Thief and two characters from A.J.'s novel, The Protector are involved in it. 

Anyway, this has been fun to write because it allows me to explore my characters in an alternate universe. When Karen/Bumble Bee (A.J.'s character) appears some things that happen in the original story change a bit in the new universe. And our crossover is way more lighthearted than my novel is, which is fun because it gives my characters a break from all the torture I'm putting them through. My cowriter on this project, A.J. actually has a blog, so if you want to check it out, you can do so here. 

And...world-building! (Switching back to talk to you about my current novel writing.) I came up with a monster that was inspired by Medusa. Like Medusa (depending on the version of the myth you hear) she was cursed to be in this form: A water snake/maid form, forever. 

There hasn't yet been a hero that has defeated her, since her wounds in battle will be able to heal quicker than normal. As for her origin story, she was cursed by Nisis (the female side of the god, Nisis/Nyro) to be the trapped in this form forever, after defying the god/goddess by doing something unspeakable in their temple. I should also add, I was inspired by water snakes when creating this monster. Her snake tail and her hair are actually based on two real water snakes. I will be getting into her backstory more in the future. 

Excerpts from Becoming the Body Thief 

 

I realize I have not really shared excerpts for most of my novels recently except Dolls of Wax, Eyes of Glass. So, I thought I would share some excerpts from my novel. These excerpts feature the characters Venus and Ophelia; however, they are in different scenes, and the characters are from very different areas of the world's society. But I thought I would go for a common theme, which would be magic that comes from the gods: 

When Venus (as she called herself) performed, she performed in a way that was so mesmerizing almost like the sirens, who would lure sailors to their deaths. She would perform songs of old to a rowdy crowd, one of: criminals, gamblers, and some rich people who seemed to get themselves involved in the mix, for hardly good reasons. 

She would dance along the stage, her red loose fitting dress flowing along with her, she moved fluidly like water. And used her magic, which came in whenever she sang. For she had learned her magic from the god of music and in performing used it to bring people into the tavern. It was in the very least, as the owner of the tavern said, a way to attract customers. For everyone was soon enticed by her beauty, her singing, her dancing, and her magic that they would come in hoping to see that, and then stay for a drink or more. 

 

* * * * 

This was one of the very few spells that required one to have magic from both gods, usually spells required just one. For gods, like humans and elves, tended to get into arguments quite a bit, and it was rare to have them both work together. But in this case, the gods had a very neutral and generally friendly relationship with each other. 

Ophelia had been working on the spell for months, and still had not managed to get it right. Every time she had tried it, it seemed to fissile out. Like it wasn’t strong enough. 

Why this was happening she was not sure, for she was able to hold a wind storm and even make plants grow without them dying down suddenly or wilting. But perhaps, it was because this was her first time combining both earth and air magic together. Even the simplest spells she had done, the healing spells for example, she had only used one element at a time. 

But now, she focused on it, she needed something to take her mind off of her wild thoughts. She opened her hand, and tried to envision the spell— it was a mixture of earth and air. She felt like she needed to think of what would combine those two things— the trees leafs blowing in the wind to and fro on a summer’s day, the...she stopped, the spell she had felt beginning to grow in her hands suddenly diminished. 

* * * * 

Books I've Been Reading 

This is continued from part one of the blog post. I have a lot of updated thoughts on the books I've been reading, as well as thoughts about books that I didn't mention in part one. 

(Images from Goodreads, here and here)

This year I've noticed I've read a lot more poetry than before. This time, I'm actually seeking poetry out rather than reading a poem every once in a while. Recently I read "Ode on a Grecian Urn" (excuse the fact that the image has the title wrong) I love the allusions it makes to Greek mythology, and my favorite line from it has to be this one: 

  "In Tempe or the dales of Arcady?

       What men or gods are these? What maidens loth?

What mad pursuit? What struggle to escape?

               What pipes and timbrels? What wild ecstasy"

I will also say some of the lines from the poem were inspiring for my own writing. If you can't tell already, the world my series is set in is Greek mythology inspired (and Tolkien inspired as well). So, certain lines stood out to me. Also, here's the link to the poem. By the way it's in the public domain, so the Poetry Foundation is able to post it. Also, the site has a lot of Keats's poetry on it. 

And, I am currently rereading Hamlet. I am doing this in a dramatic reading with a group and at the same time reading my own edition of the book (because the reading was abridged). So far, in the group reading I have read for/played a variety of roles, including Polonius, King Claudius, Ophelia, Horatio, and Player 1. 

Hamlet has been inspiration for a lot of my writing and acting. In fact, the first monologue I memorized (and performed) was "To Be or Not To Be." It is always fun to revisit stories like this-- because I know the characters so well, and they are like old friends. 

(images from Goodreads here and here) 

I have a lot of thoughts about Dracula, but I'm probably going to talk about these more in later posts. 

I have a lot of thoughts about Where the Crawdads Sing. The plot-twist was really surprising. Even though I partly figured it out, it really made the story more intense. Also, I liked how the images of nature were used to foreshadow the murder. 

 The writing itself is very poetic, and the way that scenes are described in it is very well done. 

I really enjoyed the book, and I want to reread it again in the future. I also love how poetry is weaved into the story, with Kya quoting poems throughout and relating them to certain events/emotions.  

Lastly, I have just begun reading Nights at the Circus by Angela Carter. I had previously read Angela Carter's Book of Fairy Tales, so it is fun to read one of her other books. I like all the references to Greek and Roman mythology in this book. Fevvers refers to herself as a "Cockney Venus," and there are references comparing Fevvers's wings to Cupid and to Icarus. 

Some Fun Things 

I have three fun things to share this time around. 😃

The first is, I ended up dong two (one-shot) Dungeons and Dragons campaigns.

But I will discuss only one of them, since the storyline for that one has finished. It was basically a continuation of another one shot, so the same people from the prior campaign were in this one. Anyway, I role-played as my D&D character Jinx, who I talked about in this post. At the beginning of the campaign, Jinx did not have the best experience. He literately almost died because he was attacked by his what he decided to be his holy symbol (ravens) (The number of near death experiences Jinx seems to have is astounding.) Anyway, he may or may not be be scared of ravens now. Adding onto that, Jinx had the worst possible fate that could befall someone with his charisma level. He got a large amount of stinky mud dropped onto him....which was very unpleasant.

However, things got better later for Jinx and the others. The characters (Jinx and the others) started bugging one of the NPCs (None Player Characters) who was their close friend. They bugged by telling him that he was in love with the person they were trying to find. Actually, it turned out they were right. Because of this, at the end of the campaign, Jinx initiated the wedding for the NPCs as...kind of the priest. He's pretending to be a god, so it makes sense. 

(Jinx and the Goblin)

And to make things even better for Jinx. Jinx made a friend with a goblin, who now throughly believes Jinx is a god (a god of mischief, that is), and wants to go adventuring with him. 💖 Anyway, it's really fun, and I love playing D&D and hanging out with the groups I'm in. 

Continuing from part one, the second thing I've been doing is building rooms for my characters in virtual worlds. Webkinz actually had a challenge where you could win a stage. 

And I ended up winning it. This helped complete the second part of the tavern from my novel. I'm going to make a third part that looks closer to the first part, since it is a pretty large tavern. But for now, I feel good because I finally have the stage where Venus performs laid out which really helps me envision the scenes. (Of course without the animals-- given that there are no anthropomorphic characters in my story). 

Also, it is great that I was able to find a stage in Webkinz, one that even looked like the one from my story. Because a lot of the stages in Webkinz were either retired or something only Deluxe members could get. So, thank you, Webkinz, for creating that challenge so I could make that part of my tavern. 

And lastly, I recently created a Soundcloud account, which you can check out here. On Bandlab, I usually show my songwriting process, so on SoundCloud I thought it made sense to upload the fully finished songs. I just thought I would let you know, given that I didn't want anyone to think that someone else was uploading my music. 

And...that's it. That was my experience this month at Camp NaNoWriMo in July of 2022. And I'm now looking forward to November Novel Writing this year. 😃

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How was Camp NaNoWriMo for you? Have you read any of the books I mentioned or had any fun D&D experiences? 

-Quinley 

How Camp NaNoWriMo Has Been Going for Me (Part 1)

 

So, I was not prepared for Camp NaNoWriMo this month. In fact, I didn't even think I was going to be doing July's Camp NaNoWriMo, but I then had a sudden change of plans and decided to do it anyway. 

But this is why this post is not my usual "announcing my..." project post, like I did for April's Camp NaNoWriMo. Because while the project I am working on is a new one, I did not have the time to plan ahead for a description of what my story was or  make drawings of my characters like last year.  That is not to say that I won't make a post like this, but I don't have what I need to do it right now. 

So, instead this post will be more like a journal entry about how Camp NaNoWriMo has been going for me this month. 

                                      My Writing 

The project I am currently working on is called Becoming the Body Thief, and it is the project I mentioned in this post. Basically it is the second half of The Mystery of the Body Thief, but since I felt like this was a whole novel smashed together into another whole novel, I felt the need to separate them. 

Without spoiling anything, I can say there will be a whole new view of the world. In the first book, I primarily focused on the upper class--royalty to be more specific--and on detectives. In the second book, however, there is a change of perspective, and I am now focusing on the criminal world.  This is interesting, because the series as a whole focuses on crime in the Fantasy world, but crime from the perspective of a detective not a criminal. I feel is really helpful in world-building and understanding the characters, in seeing both sides of crime. 

I will say, I have taken inspiration from a lot of TV shows in doing this. I feel the dynamic of characters in my story currently reminds me strongly right now of the characters from Leverage. In fact, a character whose stage name is Venus (I'lll talk more about her in later posts) started reminding me of the character of Sophie Devereaux. Venus like Sophie is a con-artist and an actor. 

By the way, here is a small update on the renaming of my characters, which I talked about in a previous blog post:

My characters' names for this novel series are probably going to steadily change over time, as I am give them more fantastical names. So, I renamed Angela. Her name is now Cerawen (pronounced SERA-wen or SEERA-wen) which I think fits her better than Angela. (Even from the beginning, I thought it was a little weird to call her Angela given that the name meant "messenger of God" and given that the world has Greek mythology-inspired polytheistic religions, it felt really out of place). 

However, I am still working to create a new name for Annabelle. I haven't yet, but I feel I am getting closer, and once I come up with one, I will update her character sheet.

But, I should say what helped me create the new name Cerawen was actually a technique that the YouTuber Ginny Di suggested which was "keyboard smash." If you can believe it, the name Cerawen actually came out of the gibberish, "Ceqw," from the keyboard smash. 

As for songwriting, I made these not too long ago, and they are kind of a work in progress. However, since I am talking about my story which does involve world-building, I thought I would talk about some songs I've been working on that are for my story: 

 

   

I am planning to make more songs of this type. Basically, these are songs that the priests/priestesses or devotees would use when doing healing in my Fantasy world. I also thought it would be neat if it had an atmospheric background instead of a musical one (that is sounds of fire cracking, forest noises, etc.). These are the musical versions of the chants I had written, here. Like the last song I made a music video for, I am thinking it would be neat to make a music video with all of these songs combined somehow (once I am finished of course). 

 I should say I am in three different cabins this year for Camp NaNoWriMo--two that are being run by other people, and one that I am running myself. It is fun, as usual. I love connecting with writers from all over the world and getting to discuss writing as we're doing it. I've had a lot of really thoughtful conversations that just happened over an element or a character from one of my stories, and I love it. And actually, two of the drawings I drew in a previous post came from prompts from one of the groups I am in. Anyway, these prompts are really inspiring my writing and motivating me, which is awesome. I love being in writing communities. 

                                    Books I've Been Reading 

(Images from Goodreads, here and here) 

The two books I've been reading recently are Dracula by Bram Stoker, and Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens. For Dracula, I am in fact following the now-very-famous Dracula Daily I love getting it, because I feel like the main character is emailing me, which is fun. However, I do admit that when I get shorter emails I tend to get impatient for the next response. Unlike when reading, I have to wait for the next part (well not really, I could read ahead but it would defeat the purpose of doing Dracula Daily).  This is frustrating because I really want to know what happens next. I also love how beautiful the prose is. The prose in classic books are usually so beautiful, and I love taking my time reading it to just get lost in it. 

I'm also really enjoying Where the Crawdads Sing. I love the descriptions and the characters. I am listening to an audiobook version of it, so it can be nice to just close my eyes and listen to the descriptions. I love how we get to see Kya's everyday life in the marsh. There is something nice about that, and I will say Owns's writing really reminds me of Shirley Jackson's writing style. Shirley Jackson is another author I love. I will say, though, for any younger readers of this blog, that there are two disturbing adult scenes in the book. They are done for the plot and have a purpose later on, but, I didn't want anyone who is young here to pick up the book and get traumatized. Other than that, I am loving the dual time-lines element of the story. It's always cool to read books that have that, because there are basically two storylines to follow, and it is fun to see how they intertwine.

 And while I haven't seen the movie yet (I have plans to see it when I finish reading the book), I really love the song that Taylor Swift wrote for it: 

I feel it captures the character of Kya so well. And it's also so relaxing to listen to. 

                            Music that Inspires My Writing   

I've included playlists for my stories in prior Camp NaNoWriMo posts, and while this post is very different than the usual structure, I thought I'd keep up the tradition.  

                                 Some Fun Things  

Okay, so I would usually talk about Webkinz on my other blog. However, I just realized Webkinz is actually a really good place for designing rooms for your characters. I made three rooms that I want to share: one for my story, and two inspired by the classics (Gothic and Greek mythology).

I made one of the taverns that appears in my novel in Webkinz! I found that making it in game, was really helpful to figure out the layout. This is the tavern where the main characters meet Venus (character mentioned earlier). It is one of the most luxurious taverns that appears in the story. While some very shady things happen in it, outsiders who go to it are kind of unaware of that. Basically it appears to be safe, but it is a place where criminals often meet and shady things happen. It wants you to think it is safe, but isn't. 

One of the reasons why the tavern is so luxurious is due to Venus's performances (at least one of the least shady reasons). Because of her, this tavern has many expensive things in it: an exquisite rug, a beautiful fireplace, and intricate tables. And my Webkinz room is only part of the tavern: the tavern in the book is pretty large, so I may create the second half in the future. (However, I will need to get the same wallpaper, which may take a while, since I had to win it from JumbleBerry Fields, a game within the virtual world). 

And since you know I love Gothic literature, I of course made another room, based on one of my favorite Gothic books. This room is inspired by "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. I tried to make the room seem cramped and uncomfortable, like it was in the book. Unfortunately, Webkinz did not have aging yellow wallpaper, so I had to improvise with yellow paint instead. 

One of my Webkinzes is actually named Apollo, after the Greek god of the sun and music. So I made a room for him. I tried to give it musical references as well as light ones (with the fairy lights). So anyway, I thought I would share this room, because it was Greek mythology inspired. 

Also, I thought I would show what kinds of things you can create in a game like Webkinz, because not everyone has the money to use a more expensive game like Sims 4 to create rooms for their stories. But some people do have Webkinz accounts they made when they were children, so it can be an affordable  option for creating rooms for your characters. 

And that's all I have to say for now, but I will say more later in part 2! There are a lot of adventures I'm going to have later in Camp NaNoWriMo, and I will update you on them. 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------How has Camp NaNoWriMo been going for you? And have you read any good books or played any fun games recently? 

-Quinley