I found out about a challenge by a Kick in the Creatives that involved drawing portraits throughout the month of February. I decided to do the challenge as a way of drawing my characters, who had not gotten a lot of attention.
Like my Inktober posts, I will be dividing this up to into parts of 9 drawings per part, with 10 at the end. And for context, for those who don't know my characters well, all the gods (and also Ophelia) in this post come from The Princess Arisias Mystery Series, which is my fantasy/murder mystery series. As for the non-god/goddess characters I will be saying where they are from.
Here is the official (optional) prompt list:
And here are the drawings for the first part:
Day #1 Glamorous, I decide to draw Nisis/Nyro. They're the god/goddess of love, beauty and marriage, and can appear as anyone someone loves (romantically or platonically). They can also look similar to a type of person an onlooker is attracted to without looking like a real person they know. Because of this, Nisis/Nyro doesn't have a defined form. So, this isn't exactly as they appear because their appearance will always change depending on who is the onlooker. I always when drawing them drew one side, and never did a split face drawing showcasing both sides (Nisis (the female side) or Nyro (the male side)). So I figured, I should draw that, and I like how it turned out.
Day #2 Baby, I find babies incredibly hard to draw so I challenged myself with this one.
Day #3 Hidden Face, Ophelia putting on her cloak for a ritual/healing ceremony. Her cloak doesn't so much "hide" her face, as it is only partially covering her face during rituals. But I thought it matched the prompt of "hidden face." This was also inspired by a Pre-Raphaelite painting of Olivia from Twelfth Night by Edmund Leighton.
Day #4 Bored, I decided to draw Felix Moore from Dolls of Wax, Eyes of Glass for this one. He probably went somewhere and is thinking about something, so not exactly bored, but more thoughtful.
Day #5 Sad, I drew the god of time for this one, since I figured out his design. One side of his face is young and the other is old. In the drawing, I wanted to draw attention to time passing with the depiction of one of the flowers wilting and dying.
Day #6 Hairstyle, I drew, Salissah (pronounced sil-is-uh), the goddess of the moon, for this. She has hair with stars in it, so I wanted to draw attention to that.
Day #7 Makeup, I drew Skunk Girl from my super hero story for this. I decided she would use green lip-stick. My backstory behind this image is that Skunk Girl and the other super heroes got brand deals for merchandizing for things such as action figures, makeup, etc. This is done in order to get money from visiting tourists (who travel to see the super heroes), and to pay for the damage that villain and hero fights cause.
Day #8 Pouting, I drew Tesariel "Tess" Short for this one. She is from the first novel ever I finished the first draft of (Eyes in the Night). I've gotten back into drawing her, so, I decided that I should draw her for this one.
Day #9 Tongue Out, I drew Karleon, my trickster god of mischief for this one. While most of my characters (whether they be gods, elves, super heroes, or 19th century gentlemen) would not make this facial expression because they feel it would be undignified, Karleon and Skunk Girl are the exceptions. I already drew Skunk Girl, so, I decided to draw Karleon.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Which portrait is your favorite? Are you doing the February Faces Challenge or another challenge this February?
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.
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.
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. 😃
This particular post is for the world of the Lady Annabelle Mystery series. These posts have helped me so far to know the world better. Also, in case anyone is confused and wondering why the gods from All Is Not Lost For All Will Begin Again are involved in something from the Lady Annabelle mystery series, that is because I ended up moving the gods (except the Creator Goddess, who will be modified) to that world, due to the setting change in All Is Not Lost For All Will Begin Again.The gods seemed a bit out of place, so I moved them to a series that seemed very in keeping with their nature.
Along with the world-building series on my blog, I will also be occasionally posting articles on World Anvil about this world. So sometimes when a Look Into a World post is published I will also post a World Anvil article that is related to it. I have an article that goes along with this post called "The Festival of Magic," which I will be linking on the world-building page on this blog. (You will see it under the "World Anvil" section of the page) and I will update you about it in a blog post.
Anyway, on to this post:
How Magic from the Gods Came to the World-
Nisis (left) and (young) Karleon (right)
Two trickster gods were involved in bringing to the world magic that is not inherited at birth. Their names were Nisis/Nyro and Karleon. These two trickster gods were very fed up with the fact that the King and Queen of the gods were hoarding all the magic and were unwilling to teach the mortals any.
So, Nisis/Nyro and Karleon came together and formed a plan to get the magic and give it to the mortals. Karleon played a role in distracting the god who protected the magic, while Nisis/Nyro took the magic down to the world and gave it to the mortals. The mortals were really happy about this; the king and queen of the gods were not.
While Karleon escaped punishment, Nisis/Nyro did not. Karleon told the king and queen of the gods that he completely misunderstood the plan that Nisis/Nyro had "told him" and didn't think the magic of the gods would come into the world of the mortals. In contrast, Nisis/Nyro got banished to the world of the mortals for a few years so they would learn from their "mistake." Though there are variations on this myth (some where both the gods get punished, and some where Karleon is the one who gets punished instead of Nisis/Nyro), all end with Karleon and Nisis/Nyro not being on good terms. In the version of the myth I'm following, Nisis/Nyro got banished because the other gods worried they would take on the form of their loved ones (since Nisis/Nyro has no clear form other than that) to escape punishment. So this was the reason for their unfair punishment of Nisis/Nyro.
After Karleon and Nisis/Nyro released magic into the world, the king and the queen of the gods decided to put restrictions on how much magic the mortals could have at once. This is because it turned out the other gods were very unwilling to take their magic back. Hence they created rules for becoming a devotee to a god or a goddess. This made it so that the gods whose magic was in the world was limited and had to be taught. The king and queen did this because they believed the other gods would be too vain or not feel that the mortals were worth their time. However this backfired, because the gods whose magic was given to the mortals spent a lot of their time teaching them the craft.
And out of this event came the Festival of Magic. It is celebrated biannually given that there are two different assumed dates for when it happened. These two dates are in the middle of spring and the beginning of winter.
Magic given at birth-
The species who have this are fairies, elves, and some other creatures. According to the religion that is predominant in Dragon's Province, the gods created them to have these powers and gave a little bit of their magic to those creatures.
For the fairies, the gods decided to give them the ability to make themselves "invisible" (though in reality they go to another dimension). This is a power that every fairy has, and the gods gave it to them so they could protect themselves if they were in grave danger (to hide from their attackers or from wild monsters).
For the elves, they were given better eyesight and hearing than humans, as well as a better connection to the gods. While they may not be able to turn "invisible," elves can spot a god within a crowd of mortals or see a god when a human couldn't. This also links them to the major religion in Dragon's Province, where the gods teach mortals magic.
Enchanted Objects-
An enchanted mirror
There are many different kinds of enchanted objects: one being enchanted crystals and jewels. If one believes the legends, then out of spite Karleon made all the jewels have different powers. (Some versions written by Elven scribes who don't have to mine in cold and damp mines say this is a "blessing;" most others call it a "curse.") Karleon thought it would cause confusion for mortals (dwarves in particular) and that it would be fun to watch. To this day, no one is quite sure what the powers of enchanted jewels and crystals are, and in mining them people have to be careful or they could be cursed by them.
There are also objects that are less dangerous and unambiguously blessed by the gods. These are considered sacred and can grant certain powers. Some are even said to be given to certain heroes on their journeys.
One notable magic object is a magic mirror, which can have different abilities. Usually they can used as a way to look at different areas of the world or see the true nature of a person. Fairy dust is also commonly described as being an "enchanted object," because it can be used in many ways: as a dye, as a way to find fingerprints, and for other uses.
Ever since I finished Tess Short (book one), I thought I should make a post about the novel that I have been plotting and what I have so far...so let's begin:
The inspiration for my story was Doctor Who, though I admit I have never watched the show. I like the fact that the character dies and then comes back in a different body and has a different personality and yet is the same character and is aware that this is all happening. So, instead of one character, I decided to do this with all the characters, and make them aware of it, thus... All is Not Lost For All Will Begin Again was created.
Synopsis (what I have of it so far)-
(First book in the series(though it is not the first in the time line for the world) All is Not Lost For All Will Begin Again)
At the age of twenty every young man and woman finds out what they were in a past incarnation.
Phoenix has reached that age, and is interested in finding out what lies ahead... The Main characters- Phoenix
Phoenix is an orphan, who wants to promote change for the orphans through his poetry.
(I'm currently trying to find a good name for her)
Her father is a martial artist and she was trained in self-defense by him.
Princess Ashalena
A princess who is rather upset that her parents are not
focusing on the orphan problem that looms over the kingdom.
(Another nameless character)
I don't know much about him yet, all I know is that Phoenix met him one way or another.
And that he has some secrets that will be revealed later in the book.
One distinct characteristic about him, is that he loves food, compared to Phoenix, who,
does not like it...at all.
The Gods and Goddesses-
One of my favorite things about this novel is creating the mythology for the world. I thought I would introduce you to the gods and goddesses I came up with (most of the gods or goddesses are loosely inspired by Greek, Egyptian, and Norse mythology, and I will mention what inspired them): The creator goddess
The creator of the world and the people in it and the queen of the gods,
and later creator of reincarnation.
She is known by many names, but people (the mortals that is) call her "the queen of the gods" or
"the creator" or "all powerful." She is known for creating the world and the people in it. She pitied them for dying and not being able to finish all they wanted to, and because of this created reincarnation.
However, no mortal has exactly seen what she looks like, no one has seen her face. All they've seen is silvery white hair, and that is why it is one of most recognizable features, and was in fact given to mortals of high class.
(Since in most mythologies I have read there is a king of the gods who oversees everything, there is never a queen of the gods who oversees anything, so I thought why not change it and have there be a queen of the gods in this world's mythology).
Nisis/Nyro the goddess/god of
love, beauty, marriage (both female and male sides of marriage), etc.
No one exactly can draw the god/goddess of beauty, since Nisis is prone to change her shape to reflect what a specific person thinks is beautiful to them, and so is the male side Nyro. The only reason there is a drawing of them is because one of my characters just so happened to see them in this form. Their symbol is two snakes intertwined, which is similar to Hermes's Caduceus but not on a wand. The fact that they can shape shift between male and female was inspired by the myth of Tiresias, who hit two snakes who were mating and got changed into a woman by the goddess Hera as a curse. After seven years, he was able to turn back from being a woman by trampling on two mating snakes. (In some versions he leaves the snakes alone and remains a woman.) The female version of this god's name (Nisis) was also derived from the Egyptian goddess Isis's name. Isis was also the creator of the cobra. The King and Queen of the sea
The god and goddess of the ocean,
marine animals, sailors, etc.
They are the rulers of the sea. (Inspired by Greek mythology's Poseidon) I have still more gods and goddesses that I am working on that will be posted in later posts about this novel. My characters' casting choices-
A habit of my characters is to decide that they look like an actor or an actress. I thought I should mention it in one of my posts since it never really gets mentioned in the other posts about my novels: Eddie Redmayne as Phoenix
(image from Rotten Tomatoes, https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/fantastic_beasts_and_where_to_find_them#&gid=1&pid=n-1382982)
(image from Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camille_Bordey)
Once again, this character also decided right away what she looked like.
(The actress Sara Martins has acted in Death in Paradise andsome movies.) Linda Park as Princess Ashalena
(image from Wiki, https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Hoshi_Sato?file=Hoshi_Sato%2C_2154.jpg)
Princess Ashelena also surprised me (yet again) by deciding that she looked like Linda Park. (The actress Linda Park has acted in Star Trek: Enterprise and Jurassic Park III and several other movies.) In later posts about this novel, I plan to do photo edits of the actors/actresses as the characters. The world- I don't have much information about the world figured out yet, other than that what I wrote in the Synopsis. So far humans and fairies, and possibly other different creatures live in this world. And there are thirty-two hours in a day, which makes the world run on a (modulo) 16 clock. Not just the clock is different but the world rotates more slowly than ours, so there are eight more hours than our world's clock. I don't exactly have the clothes figured out yet, at least for that particular time period in the All Is Not Lost For All Will Begin Again series, so that is why in some of the drawings you never really get to see the character's clothes. As I continue world-building, I will post again. Music that goes along with the story-
The story soundtrack (aka music playlist) isn't ready to be posted yet, but I will give you a preview of some of the songs that go along with the story...
This song first came up in this post , and was the clue that I gave out about the novel.
If this novel were a movie, I would say it is the soundtrack for (part of) the first chapter.
Awake by Kalie Shorr
You can also listen to it here
If I told you what part of the story this song reflects it would be spoiling it.
But let's just say...this talks about something Phoenix has to go through.
As I continue to plot this novel, I plan to make more posts about it. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What is your favorite thing to do when plotting novels? Do you work on the world first or the characters? Also do you like to create mythology (or mythologies) for your fantasy worlds? Also do you enjoy doing world building?
Love,
Quinley
