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 

Character Interview With D.I. Time and Shadow (A Collaboration with Hailey Marshall Writes)

Greetings Travelers, 

 Hailey Marshall Writes and I, decided to do a collaboration, that features our characters D.I. Time and Shadow, interviewing each other. You can check out Hailey's part here where Detective Inspector Time interrogates interviews Shadow. Here is my part, where Shadow interviews D.I. Time: 

In doing this I learned a lot about my character, D.I. Time, that I hadn't known before, and it was really fun. Thank you, Hailey, for collaborating with me. One thing I noticed, is that D.I. Time does not like being the one who is being questioned (in this case interviewed), which I realize is why he felt so awkward in answering questions. When he was interviewing Shadow he behaved like he usually does. 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Did you relate to any of D.I. Time's answers? Have you ever been interviewed? 

-Quinley 

Miscellaneous Drawings #4

Previous parts: #1, #2 and #3

Greetings Travelers! 

I thought it was time to do another drawing post, so here it is: 

This drawing was actually inspired by a prompt that my writing group on NaNoWriMo posted-- which was a guest prompt by Alien Romance. The prompt involved frogs, so, I ended up deciding to draw Ophelia helping a frog get back to its pond. Since Ophelia is a priestess to the Earth elemental goddess, it seemed in character for her to do that. 

A drawing of Oceana my siren character-- I really like how her hair turned out. 

I really wanted to capture her personality in the drawing, and I think I managed to. 

I was kind of frustrated that Tinker Bell's wing was healed at the end of The Secret of the Wings. 

So I redesigned her as if she never had her wing healed and was much closer in character to another fairy, Rani. 

Austen is a character who used to be part of The Mystery of the Body Thief. He used to be Ophelia's boyfriend interestingly enough. However, I'd figured I'd redraw him (since I drew him a while ago) and reuse him but in a different story. 

I don't know which story he should go in, but I am thinking a ghost story of some kind might be fitting for his character. Given that he is in between being dead and alive-- and isn't quite dead, and isn't quite alive.

This is an old D&D character, who I decided to redesign and redraw and may use in a story of some kind. The Character's name is Sarah, and she is a warrior-- Her lower body is paralyzed so she uses a wheelchair, but that does not stop her from fighting, because she is skilled fighter with a bow and arrow. 

And lastly, I have a drawing of Elm. I've been playing around recently with drawing in Photoshop and been getting better at it. This was one of my recent attempts, and I really like how it turned out. 

Also, here's a video I made of my process of drawing her: 

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           Which drawing is your favorite? And have you ever helped a wild animal? 

-Quinley 

The Waves Come Crashing | An Original Song

I decided this song deserved its own post, since it is one of my complete songs that I am really proud of.  I wrote it for a songwriting guild; the prompt for it was to write a song inspired by a painting. So I ended up choosing, this painting  as inspiration for it, it was of a sinking ship so my first thought was a siren song. While writing this song I was very much inspired by "My Jolly Sailor Bold" from Pirates of the Caribbean and "Arms of the Ocean" by Blackbriar. 

In my process of creating the song, I decided that instead of using a background track with instruments, that sound effects of waves and thunder would be better suited for it-- as I wanted to capture the feeling that you're hearing this when you're in the ocean or traveling at sea, like the man and woman in the painting. 

Lyric writing wise, I decided to focus on ocean related imaginary, such as poetic images related to sea foam, the waves, and the ocean itself. Since the song is being sung by a siren in the ocean, it would make sense for her to focus on ocean related imaginary. Also, when writing this song, I eventually had an idea for a character who now appears in my posts regularly: Oceana. She is the one who sings the song. I never really write songs from my perspective-- but instead from a character's perspective. 

So, here is the song:  

This is the lyric video I made for it.   

But if you want to listen to the music alone, here it is:

Phoenix The Poet · The Waves Come Crashing

🎶 Lyrics 🎶

The waves grow stronger, 

You can’t wait much longer, 

The ocean is your home, 

You long to dive into the silver foam, 

And follow my voice, 

You don’t really have a choice, 

For the waves come crashing, 

Upon your boat they come thrashing, 

You can’t help but follow my voice, 

You don’t have a choice, 

Your sail you can barely now hoist. 

The waves grow stronger, 

You can’t wait much longer, 

The ocean is your home, 

You long to dive into the silver foam, 

And follow my voice, 

You don’t really have a choice, 

Tales of sirens are often told,

The truth for you is about to unfold, 

For you will find that beneath the sea, 

Many souls become free. 

The waves grow stronger, 

You can’t wait much longer, 

The ocean is your home, 

You long to dive into the silver foam, 

And follow my voice, 

You don’t really have a choice, 

The kingdom under the sea, 

Of life’s obligations is free, 

Many bodies have sunken down, 

But they didn’t drown, 

They grew scales, 

And now are the creatures in many tales, 

The waves grow stronger, 

You can’t wait much longer, 

The ocean is your home, 

You long to dive into the silver foam, 

And follow my voice, 

You don’t really have a choice, 

Just take a deep breathe, 

And listen as you sink to my voice. 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------What's your favorite lyric from my song? Do you have a favorite siren-inspired song?  

-Quinley