I Finished a Rough Draft of Tess Short Book One!

Hi everyone, and happy 2019!
I finally finished my first draft of Tess Short Book one!
I began writing this story and posting chapters on this blog in 2016, and finished writing it in 2019, so I've been working on this book for two and a half years. I should also briefly mention that this was one of my first stories, so my writing was slightly different then, than it is now.

 I am happy to have written a story with Tess as a main character, and I hope to write the second book, sometime, though not really soon, because another story is calling me.

Also, this story was written for a younger audience than my other books, so in a way it is a children's novel.  Another thing I should mention is that in this novel some of the characters are parodies of Lord of the Rings characters. ;)

Synopsis- 
Tess Short is a "normal" half elf half hobbit, until she sets off on an adventure to save elves and fairies, who are mysteriously disappearing. 

Characters- 

Tess 

A half elf half hobbit. Who struggles with being one, and sometimes wishes she was only an elf, or only a hobbit. 


Lida and Finn 

Tess's twin brother and sister, who tend to get into arguments over silly things. 

Silena 

A dryad princess and warrior, who joins Tess on the quest to figure out why elves and fairies are disappearing. 

Robin 

The person who told Tess about the disappearance of elves and fairies. 

                                            Inny 

A half human half hag, who is Robin's best friend. 

King Tirfendiel 

Tess's uncle, who is king of the Woodland Realm, and has a sword that he carries with him that glows bright green.

Lauralas and George 

An elf and a dwarf who are close friends and are members of Eldon's book club.

                               Thistle 

A fairy prince who joins Tess on the quest to figure out why elves and fairies are disappearing.  

Eldon 

The leader of a book club, who really, really wants to be an elf
and chooses elf related books for the members to read. 

Carmen 

Eldon's niece who is an half elf, who joined his book club. 

Excerpts-
I tried to include excerpts that are recent but don't really spoil the story. 

"Oh.” she said, but didn’t seem so convinced, but decided not to ask, sometimes new comers were different in unusual ways, but…he didn’t seem so unusual, maybe, it was just her, but she thought he was elvish in a way with his golden curled hair, and deep blue eyes, but he was a hobbit, so how could he be elvish? 

-Chapter 32. 

 He didn’t catch much of what she said after that except for a few words, “Magic”, “Mistake”, and “Wasn’t my fault” though the last one was three words. 

-Chapter 30 

You can read the complete first draft here on Wattpad.  

The Story Soundtrack-  

You can also listen to it here 
This was one of the first story soundtracks I created so it has a mix of different songs, including songs from Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, and a few Disney songs. 

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What was one of your first books you ever finished writing the rough draft of? 
-Quinley

P.S. My next novel that I plan to write is a Fantasy novel, and here is one of the songs from the story soundtrack that I am making for it:

You can also listen to it here 

 That's all I am going to say for now, and you are left to wonder what the story is about. ;)

Introducing some Characters: Holiday themed Characters

Happy Holidays everyone! :) 

To celebrate the holidays I thought I should introduce some holiday themed characters (and bring back the Introducing Some Characters series):

                                         The Holiday Fairy 

                 She shows up in a story from last year. Representing all the winter holidays, she spreads joy and cheer to everyone who celebrates them. Though her job can be very tiring she manages to find time to do it. (The holidays that are represented on her outfit are Christmas, Hanukah, and Kwanzaa.)

                  Mistletoe (AKA Niamh)

                  

                                 The Christmas elf???? 

What is an elf who is skilled in archery and fencing doing working in the north pole? 

No one is sure, not even the fairies who work with the Christmas elves, but even though her skills are different from the other elves, she manages to wrap the presents and make them for the children in the most surprising and awesome ways. She also gets very excited about the holidays, but unfortunately at some times she is prone to get nervous about attacks from monsters and is on alert at all times, and to be safe she keeps daggers in her socks.  

     Alyssa the Reindeer Trainer 

Training Santa's reindeer is one of the hardest jobs, and only a fairy who is purest in heart can do it. That's why Alyssa was asked to train them. When she ended up getting the job, her wings were turned magically into beautiful and colorful wings. She dearly loves animals. It is natural for a fairy to love them, but she has been attracted to reindeer the most, and has always wanted to see Rudolph's red nose glow. To train the reindeers how to fly she uses special fairy dust. 

     Glorfundor 

Though he doesn't work as a Christmas elf he lives with Mistletoe (Niamh) and is one of the very few elves who isn't a Christmas elf. He goes on quests around the north pole, is a very quiet person and rarely talks about his adventures. 

         

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Which character is your favorite? 

Love,
Quinley 

                           

                    

Why Choosing Actors and Actresses to "Play" Your Characters Helps You See Them Better

Hi  everyone.
Now, as it happens my characters don't always want to look like actors/actresses, but some do, and those who do tend to completely decide who they look like.

Why it helps 

I have found this happening in one of my stories that I did not have a clear vision of what my character's face looked like. I knew what their hair and their entire body looked like except for their face. It was like they were turning away from me. (Which I may add they probably were.)

One of the characters that actually introduced me to choosing actors and actresses to play my characters was Lady Annabelle. It took her several books to finally decide what she looked like. And in one of them she decided she looked like Emma Watson. Here is a photo edit I made of her:

(original image from Rotten Tomatoes, https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/beauty_and_the_beast_2017#&gid=1&pid=h-136537 ) 

 As you can see from this picture choosing an actress or actor to "play" your character does not change their hair color, or if they are human or an elf or whatever you had in mind for them.

Also with my main character Horatio it took me a long time to find an actor to "play" him,
until after rewatching a few episodes of the TV series Death in Paradise and watching the movie adaptation of William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice (2004), where the actor Kris Marshall plays both Gratiano and Humphrey Goodman. He caught my eye as being like Horatio. (Horatio had more control of what he looked like than I did.)

(Image from Rotten Tomatoes, https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/death_in_paradise?#&gid=1&pid=t-270000) 

After Horatio suddenly decided that he looked like that it actually influenced the way I drew him.



A Older drawing of Horatio:                   And a newer one: 

As you can see from my drawings, Horatio got quite developed because of choosing an actor. 

How it helps with writing 
Sometimes I have found that when I am (pretending) to talk to a character that my voice is the one responding to me, not my character's. (This mostly happens if the conversation is taking place in my head.) But if it is my voice responding to me instead of the character's voice then it can be kind of annoying. It's like I am talking to myself and not my character. Now this is where choosing actors/actresses to "Play" your characters comes in handy. If of course you decide to choose the actor or actress because of their acting and not because they look like how you imagine your character. (Though it is important to choose an actor or actress that looks like your character even if only in the face.)
If you have seen the actor or actress act before even if it is only once or even just in a trailer it can help you to understand what your character's voice sounds like. (Even if you decide to slightly modify the actor or actress's voice to go along with your character.)
But if you haven't I recommend at leaast watching a movie or TV show that they are in, but if you don't have the time for either then just watch a trailer from a movie they are in.

How this could help with writing screenplays 
 I've never really written a screenplay or script before, even though I do want to. But let's say you are a writer for a movie, TV show, etc. And you have a famous actor or actress who was asked to play the main character in the movie or TV show. As you write the script (if it wasn't already written) you probably would imagine the actor or actress playing the character. So before you get into writing screenplays for plays or movies or TV shows, these recommendations might be good to do in the meantime.

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Do you choose actors and actresses to "play" your characters? If so then which ones? 
-Quinley

May drawings

Hi everyone, 

It's hard to believe it's May already.

I thought today would be a good day to do a drawing post, 

here they are: 

Drawing of Riona "Fire," it was really fun to do the shading in this drawing. 

A native American girl, I like the way she turned out. 

A drawing of Annabelle,  I was actually inspired by a scene from one of my books when I was drawing this. 

This was meant to be a drawing of Hermione from Harry Potter, 

but unfortunately it did not end up looking like her. 

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

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Which drawing is your favorite? 

Love, 

-Quinley 

P.S. I will be responding to the other comments from my previous posts, though it may take me a little longer to respond to them. 

If My Characters Lived in Modern Times

Hi everyone, Camp Nanowrimo has started!:) I am so excited!:)
Also Happy (belated) Easter and April Fool's Day (I didn't have a post planned for either, since I was working on my blog anniversary posts).
 Anyway, on with the post, here is what my characters might do if they lived in modern times:

Lady Annabelle 

from the Lady Annabelle Mystery Series 

Annabelle would probably be a police (or private) 

detective, if she lived in modern times (and if she wasn't a princess).  

She would love reading mystery novels like, Sherlock Holmes, Murder Most Unladylike, 

The Secret of The Sealed Room. 

Mr. Robertson 

from The Legend of Sleepy Hollow: The New School Master (my fan fiction of Washington Irving's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow) 

He would probably be a teacher of literature and history,

and would be especially fascinated with the American Revolutionary War 

(and would be trying to figure out how the British lost). 

He would live in New York (near Sleepy Hollow.)

Tesariel (Tess) Short 

from Tess Short book one 

                                           Tess would probably be a writer
                               (and compete in NaNoWrimo and Camp NaNoWrimo),
                          would be a member of a book club, and would be a huge LOTR
                                (The Lord of the Rings) and Hobbit fan.

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What would characters do if they lived in modern times? Which of my characters is your favorite? 

love,
Quinley

P.S. I may not be able to post as much as I normally do, since I will be doing Camp NaNoWrimo.

December Drawings

Hi everyone, I hope you are having a good weekend. 

Today I felt like was a good day to make a drawing post. 

Here are the drawings: 

Wonder Woman in the snow, I based this on a scene from the movie. 

This drawing is my new header. 

I kept the theme of the dryad in the tree.

A Christmas elf, I liked how she turned out. 

 I had fun drawing her braids. 

Legolas in the snow, this was inspired by a scene from Lord of The Rings. 

I thought Legolas turned out well. 

Another Christmas elf,  I like how his hat turned out.

A drawing of a dreidel, I like how it turned out. 

This drawing was inspired by Lindsey Stirling's Shatter Me. 

I like the pose she is in. 

A girl in the snow. I like how her hair turned out. 

The Holiday Fairy, I tried to include most of the holidays in her outfit.

The holidays I have represented are Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa. 

And this character will show up in a short story I plan to post on December 24th. 

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Which drawing is your favorite? And are you excited for the holidays? 

Also do you like my new header? 

Love, 

Quinley

Autumn Drawings

Hi everyone,  I thought today would be a perfect day for a drawing post, 

here are the drawings: 

I enjoyed drawing this one, 

probably because of the colors. 

A quick drawing I did of Tauriel.

I like how her hair turned out.

I just wish I could have gotten her ears into the drawing.

This is a drawing of Demeter from Greek Mythology. 

A drawing of Persephone from Greek Mythology. 

It was fun to draw her eye shadow. 

A drawing of an elf character, 

I like how her hair turned out. 

This cat will probably become a character in 

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow: The New School Master?  

A drawing of a girl dressed as a fairy, 

I like how her hair and wings turned out. 

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Which drawing is your favorite? 

Love, 

-Quinley 

P.S. I am going to post the next part of The Legend of Sleepy hollow: The New School Master? on Halloween (October 31st)!:) 

Thursday Drawings

Hi everyone!:)

I thought today was a good day to post a  drawing

post. So here are the drawings: 

I talked about Eric Hunt's former spy partner in this post 

Though I never mentioned who his new partner is. 

This drawing is of Eric's new partner... who 

I haven't found a name for yet. 

A drawing of Gletta  (one of my characters) as a 

Jane Austen Heroine. 

A  realistic drawing of one of my characters from a 

novel I wrote a long time ago... this drawing 

is of Delphi who is a half siren, half human. 

This is a drawing of Annabelle...

I enjoyed drawing her hair. 

This is a drawing I drew a while ago, of one of my 

characters: Destiny... 

She is an oracle...And I hope to write a few stories about her soon. 

This is an another drawing of Annabelle... 

even though Annabelle tends not to 

wear much make up (or any at all) 

there may be a scene in the next book, 

where the servants  give Annabelle too much make up... 

(considering Annabelle is a half elven princess the servants 

tend to do almost everything for her even if she doesn't want them too)

This drawing is based on a scene 

where Tirfindiel (one of my elf characters)

                                                  accidentally gets turned into a hobbit.

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Which drawing is your favorite? What would you like to see me draw next? 

                                                        Love,
                                                    Quinley

P.S I will respond to the comments from my previous post as soon as I can.