Here is the final part of The February Faces Challenge. It was a fun challenge and I am glad I did it. I think I will do it again next year, since it helped me draw more of my characters.
Here is the official (optional) prompt list:
Day #19 Eyewear, Ocean Guy adjusting his glasses.
Day #20 Cheeky, I didn't do cheeky in the traditional sense. I instead drew Matilda from Dolls of Wax, Eyes of Glass feeling embarrassed. And I drew attention attention to the blush in her cheeks.
Day #21 Thoughtful, I decided to draw Marigold. She's a character from The Mystery of the Body Thief my fantasy/murder mystery, and I decided to give her an outfit redesign.
Day #22 bald, I drew Picard from Star Trek: The Next Generation as he was the first character that came to mind with the prompt bald.
If anyone is wondering, I haven't seen the new show Picard. I am disappointed in what I've heard of it. It appears to have gone dark and grim, when instead I feel as if it should be optimistic like Star Trek usually is. In my opinion, they should have gone in the direction that the Leverage reunion show did, which was to have a light-hearted (and similar) take on the characters coming back together. Otherwise, it feels like Star Trek discounts Picard's character arc, that was brought on in particular by Q in "Tapestry."
Day #23 on the telly, I decided to draw a news show, that would appear in the world of my super hero characters, airing a story of about a villain covering the city in slime.
Day #24 hat/headwear, this is a drawing my character when she became the Mother the Elements. I picture this to be when she was younger and had found her purpose as a goddess. This is a drawing of the moment when she is about to put her circlet on her head.
Day #25 old, I drew Elvin the Silver, a wizard Dungeons & Dragons character of mine.
He was inspired by Gandalf from Lord of the Rings.
Day #26 Silly Face, This is another Dungeons & Dragons character of mine, Jinx. I figured this would be a face he would make if he saw something insane happen in one of the campaigns.
(Which does happen most of the time, whether he does it or another player's character does).
Day #27 self portrait, because I didn't feel like drawing myself (I did though enter in a self portrait contest last year, so I am not entirely against drawing myself), I felt like drawing one of my characters holding a self portrait of themselves. So, I drew Gaia, a Tiefling, holding a portrait of herself that I drew in 2020. Combining new art with old art.
Day #28 sleeping, I drew Kira for this one. On her bed is her phone which is playing an audiobook, and the portal to fairyland is open.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Which drawing is your favorite? Have you played Dungeons and Dragons?
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. 😃
It's been a while since I've done my "Introducing Some Characters..." series, so I decided to revive it. I thought it was time to introduce you to my Dungeons and Dragons characters. I do have some other D&D characters, but at the moment I am going to introduce you to the ones that I've actually played in campaigns:
Jinx Jekyll
Bio: Jinx (which is his alias) is a half elf rogue, and he somehow manages to get a whole following of people who believe he is a god. Unfortunately for them, he has stolen most of their money, but fortunately, they eventually find out he is not really a god and is conning them. (And the real gods weren't so happy about that either...) Jinx was orphaned and grew up on the street having to fend for himself. He doesn't know who his parents are, but if they are still alive he hopes they didn't abandon him.
Playing history: I've only played Jinx in one campaign, I intend to play him again if I get a chance to and maybe expand on his character more than I have already, and maybe develop him to see where he goes.
Aurinda Van Visser
Bio: Aurinda is an elven Druid. She comes from Sleepy Hollow and is something of a story teller. For reasons the townsfolk are unsure of Aurinda has a bit of a grudge against Katrina Van Tassel. Aurinda really enjoys nature, and tends to use a spell often to turn herself into different animals, horses being her favorite to turn into. She is a firm believer in ghosts and the supernatural. Aurinda went on a journey for a while to explore other parts of the world, and then came back to Sleepy Hollow only to find out the Headless Horseman was terrorizing it.
Playing history: I ended up creating Aurinda for a Legend of Sleepy Hollow themed campaign. Aurinda was the first character I've done a full campaign with. I would like to use her again in the future, but I will have to find a way to seperate her from the story and/or put her in another Gothic-themed Campaign. At the moment I am using her in a Legend of Sleepy Hollow retelling.
Elvin (pronounced AL-vin) The Silver
Bio: Elvin is a human wizard, who worked for a king a very long time ago and gave him wise advice. However one day upon giving a young man advice about how to treat the King, he then decided maybe it was best not to follow his own advice and insulted the King. He was thrown out of the kingdom and became a wandering wizard giving advice to anyone who would listen. Elvin is very impulsive and uses the spell FireBolt whenever he can. This spell can lead to dangerous situations, but it can also be very useful.
Playing History: This was the first time I played a human and the first time I've played a wizard in a D&D campaign. It was a very different experience, but a fun one because I created a different character than I usually do. (Most of my characters are elves).
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Which character is your favorite? And have you ever played Dungeons and Dragons?
It would be good to read part one, and part two before continuing reading this post...
In Tolkien's story, it is quite clear that the elves are leaving of their own accord, but in my mine, the situation is different, because it is scarily unknown why the elves and fairies have suddenly vanished. There are clues here and there, but not much informations surrounding it. The elves are certainty not speaking about it, and the fairies run away before you can ask them.
Eerie Lullabies
But it occurred to me when writing that it would be a scary thing from the perspective of the elves and fairies. And perhaps from the point of view of their children. When something scary happens around children, they are likely to make a song about it. After all, Ring Around the Rosie may have come from the black death, and yet we still sing it today, forgetting the background behind it.
After a singer, Ashley Serena, posted this Russian Lullaby (which does sometimes have a different ending to it, depending on what version you hear), I felt as if it would be neat to create a haunting song for my own world:
I thought this was interesting because this version of the lullaby has an eerie ending when other versions do not. Since something in the world like an object or creature must be connected to the incidents, either in fact or because of a misinterpretation for the poor elf or fairy children who have little to no idea what is going on to make a song about it. They may have heard bits and pieces of information that adults have said by accident, which then becomes an eerie song.
And I also found that the song itself, "Bayu Bayuski" ties into another part of the plot, even though I intend to write my own eerie song for it. Since one of my characters is now a shepherd, and shepherds are a few of the people who've noticed the strange happenings (and blame it on wolves), as I stated in the first draft:
There had been a lot of unexplained events, and one of them (the sheep disappearing) is misinterpreted as related to wolves.
In the first draft however I didn't bring these events to the scary level that they could have. I merely mentioned them once and never brought them up again after that. But, I feel I want to create some fear for the readers and for the characters in the story, and mystery to what is happening with the disappearance of the elves and fairies.
Ghosts
Ghosts tie into the gothic elements of the story that I have added. I considered all the places that have been affected in my story, and I thought it would be really neat if there were certain ghost stories told by different people in each area. Even with all the fearful things that are happening, I
want to add some light heartedness to the story, as well as actually adding ghosts into the story, but that will be talked about later.
(Image from wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost#/media/File:Brown_lady.jpg)
Since Tess will be traveling (even if she didn't decide of her own accord to go to the places that she is traveling to), it would be interesting if there were a ghost story for every part of the world (like there is a haunted house, tree, bridge, lake, etc). Stories could be traded around to explain why they were haunted.
And besides there being the element of ghost stories (even if none of the ghosts come out in the places that are mentioned), I thought it might be neat if there were some actual ghosts, who perhaps act as an oracle to the plot-line or even a guide. I think I will have them appear and disappear at will, but not have it happen smack in the middle of a weird point in the story as I did with this scene in the first draft...
The problem with the first draft was that it happened and then no one seemed to be worried about what was going on at all. A friend of mine mentioned that it felt like Lida just shrugged it off and somehow forgot about it, without being concerned about her father in the slightest. And I also felt upon looking back at it that when I first wrote it I didn't really think too much about what happened to Mr. Short. I knew it was magical, but didn't consider an oracle like possession or ghostly one as a possibility of what it could be. So that is certainly a possibility of what it might be when I rewrite that scene.
Since paranormal things that appear to be bad are happening, I think it would be neat if something paranormal happened that actually helped the main characters as well.
(Image from wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost#/media/File:Banquo.jpg)
This post will not only talk about Tess's powers but also about the other magic that resides in the world. I talked about Inny's powers in part two, which are more witch-like, but Tess's powers are different and more elven if anything. Though my inspiration was Lord of The Rings and The Hobbit, I will be giving my elves different powers than the powers J.R.R Tolkien's elves have. In terms of magic I noticed that the elves in Lord of The Rings did have some abilities, Galadriel is a little bit of a mind-reader (sort of psychic in some sense) and has some light related powers. Tauriel uses healing magic by chanting; however, I feel I want my elves' magic to be more involved, and perhaps more nature-like, perhaps druid-like, and have some elves use their powers more than Tolkien's elves would. I remember that in a Dungeons and Dragon campaign the elf druids and bards had much more magic than the elves in Lord of the Rings, which is something I am aiming for in my Fantasy world. And I've noticed that the powers are used more in Dungeons and Dragons than in Lord of the Rings, and the powers often tend to be more complex. This is something I enjoy, as well as the fact that the bard's music (in D & D) can actually do something magical or that they can inspire the other players with their music.
So, I want Tess's magic to be somewhat powerful (she is half elf, so it can't be as powerful as a full elves' magic), but not in the way that Galadriel's or Tauriel's is. And I want it to have some musical and non-musical elements to it, and be a lot more like elves' magic in Dungeons and Dragons than in Lord of the Rings or the Hobbit.
There is also a group of sorceresses that come together when they are most needed. (Ariel is part of that group.) Otherwise the members are solitary sorceresses, whose goal is to make the world a safe place by using their powers to frighten off anything that may cause a threat to the world. They also are the ones people turn to in times of need. But mostly they turn to a single sorceress and not the whole group. The group is very much against witches since most witches of the world tend to perform dark magic. They may have mixed feelings about Inny's using witch's magic even for good since there has never been a case besides her where someone used witch's magic in that way.
As a side note, I see this as a theme song for the group:
(Which includes fairies' magic, elves' magic, magic performed by sorcerers & sorceresses, etc.)
Shapeshifting
(Shapeshifting has rarely been used in a bad way, except when you turn someone into an animal against their will, but the group is all for shapeshifting).
Potions
(On and off, it really depends on the type of potion you make)
Psychics
(Some of the sorceresses in the group have psychic abilities, so it would be very difficult to be against that (it would also be very hypocritical), and besides, it has been useful.)
Things that the group of sorceresses is against:
Evil magic
(Witch magic. They are unaware that someone has used it for good, and that seemingly
evil magic can be turned good or at least gray magic).
Necromancy
(There is a some moral issue here, which is rather controversial (in Tess's world) about whether or not it is alright to raise the dead and make them alive again. (Several philosophers have debated it, but they came to no good conclusion))
Monsters
(Ogres and trolls aren't exactly considered to be people by this group. From what they see ogres
and trolls seem to have a very animal like reaction to anything and therefore don't deserve the respect that elves or fairies would get.)
Things the group has not yet decided on...
Intermarriage between species
(Even if Ariel supports it, the rest of the group isn't sure what to think of it).
And there are few other things they haven't decided upon, I just don't know which ones they are yet.
What are some of your favorite ghost stories? Do you have a favorite eerie lullaby/song you enjoy listening to (for the enjoyment of the eeriness)?
-Quinley
P.S. Some upcoming posts in the near future are a rewrite of a story I posted in 2017 (set in the same world as this novel), and a monologue from Romeo and Juliet spoken by Romeo. (Though I don't know when exactly I will post the monologue, since it still needs to be filmed), but be sure to keep your eyes open for those.
