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 

Using Polls to Create Art #8

                                                    Previous parts: #1, #2, #3, #4 ,#5, #6 and  #7. 

Hello everyone, 

I'm back with another installment of using polls to create art! 

To summarize what this series is about, I post a poll asking what I should draw. People vote, and whichever choice ends up winning, I draw. Unless otherwise stated, every drawing was a majority vote.  Also I should add, some of the drawings this time around are redraws of Pixton comics I made when I was a child (I was about twelve or thirteen I think?) I had voters vote on which of them I should redraw. While the others are the usual drawings you'd see in this series. 

Here's the drawing that came out of the poll in the previous post in the series. 

Felix Moore from Dolls of Wax, Eyes of Glass ended up winning. So I drew him as a merman. 

I had a lot of fun drawing details in the drawing like the suit and tail. 

I also made a video showing my process of drawing it. 

I did a poll where I redrew a painting in my style. The painting that the drawing was based on was this one. I thought it made sense for Ophelia to be using the crystal ball, given that she likes that type of magic. 

I had the voters decide on which of my characters I made in Pixton I should redraw in my style. 

Lieutenant Williams ended up winning. She is a half Klingon half human. 

Here is what she looked like in the Pixton style: 

I wrote the comic she was from years and years ago, and there were a ton of spelling errors in it.

But, I find it nice to revisit old stories and characters-- especially because they can show how different 

my stories are today than they were back then. 

 

Speaking of old stories and characters, I had the voters decide between having me redraw this Pixton comic  and another one.  The second one won, which is Edward's and Willow's wedding. I decided in the redraw not to draw them in the same pose but instead draw them in different poses. In the comic as a whole I would use real photos as the background while the characters would be Pixton characters. 

 Looking back at it now, the backstory of how they fell in love is really not romantic. The comic itself retold the story of The Little Mermaid (leaning towards the Disney version, not so much the Hans Christian Anderson one) but with dryads and wood cutters. And in this version Willow literately caused the shipwreck and then when she saw how handsome (and in pain) Edward was, she changed her mind. She didn't do this for the several wood cutters before 🤔-- 1,712,302 of them to be exact, I'm not joking: that was the number I wrote in the comic, minus 1. 😆

I don't know what child-me was thinking! 😂 Especially since Willow never once tells him that she was the dryad that did that at all. 

This is a drawing of Elm. I had the voters vote on what I should draw her wearing out of several options for outfits. This outfit ended up winning. I really like how the outfit looks. However, I feel her arms are a little too short proportion wise. But other than that I like the drawing. 

This is a character from the same fanfic that I wrote years ago. I had another poll, about which character I should draw in my style, and she won. She is called the EEH (Emergency Engineering Hologram). I was inspired by the Doctor from Star Trek: Voyager when creating her. I wondered why there were no holograms for emergencies involving engineering. (That we can see in the show). 

In the (Pixton) comic she is an enemy of the doctor on her ship. They don't have a particularly good relationship. And she was activated when most of the crew on the ship was kidnapped by aliens. So, she plays a similar role that The Doctor in Voyager plays.

This actually turned out to be a drawing that came out of a poll, and I somehow forgot that I had drawn it for that reason. This drawing was actually included in this post, though I combined it with a drawing that didn't come out of a poll. 

Anyway, I had the pollers vote on which character I should draw, and what they should be doing. And Oak doing archery won. 

Now for a new poll: 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Which drawing is your favorite? And would you like to have a wedding out in the woods? 

Or did you tell any funny stories when you were little? 

-Quinley 

Reintroducing Arisias

I finally have a name for the character that used to be called "Annabelle." 

Since it is such a major change to the character, I decided the best way to introduce the change would be through a video, so people both on my blog and YouTube channel would know about the change. 

Here's the video: 

Also, I have finally updated the character profile page which you can read here. Her new name is Arisias it is pronounced like Er-is-ius or Air-Sy-Ris. Arisias prefers the first pronunciation. It took me a while to come up with the name. I smashed together two names create Arisias which were the names of two figures from Greek mythology: Tiresias and Ariadne. 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Have you ever renamed one of your original characters? Or if you haven't, do you have a character whose name you really like? 

-Quinley 

Once and Future Fantasies: My First Conference

(The background image is from Pixabay, the drawing I did myself)

                                                       Greetings Adventurers,  

In July, I presented at a conference with the The Centre for the Fantasy and the Fantastic at the University of Glasgow, virtually. I could not attend in person due to the fact that I had a surgery (tonsil surgery if anyone is worried) and also because of other health reasons, but it was a fantastic experience that I wish to share with you, along with my paper and my experience writing it. 

The conference was called Once and Future Fantasies playing on the title of the book, The Once and Future King by T.H. White, which is a retelling of the Arthurian legends. The Conference on the other hand was about the past and future of fantasy. So, here is my experience with the conference: 

                                                      Writing the Paper-

(Image from Wikipedia, 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Changeling#/media/File:John_Bauer_-_The_Princess_and_the_Trolls_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg)

 I feel like I should mention this part before I talk about my experience with the conference itself. I first heard about Once and Future Fantasies through a request for papers from The Centre. And I decided to submit a proposal to them. Here is my proposal: 

This paper will begin by looking at the theme of the Changeling Child in Celtic fairy tales. It will show the similarities between this theme and present-day dilemmas of parents of disabled children. It will demonstrate that there are parallels between the parents’ appeal to magic in fairy tales and the parents’ appeal to medicine in today’s world. In both contexts, parents call on special powers to “recover” the child that they expected to have. In spite of this, trying to recover the child can cause a disconnect between the parents and the child, because it communicates that they do not love the child as they are, and that the child needs to be “fixed.” As someone who is disabled, I find researching and analyzing this analogy between fairy magic and Western medicine to be interesting. In Folklore, a parent gives birth to a child; the child is not what the parent expected, and it turns out their real child was replaced with a Changeling. The parent tries to return the changeling to the fairies in order to get their real child back: that is, the child they expected. In our modern-day world, a parent gives birth to a child; the child is not what the parent expected, and it turns out the child is disabled. The parent turns to Western medicine to find cures for the disability in order to get their “real” child back: that is, the child they expected. Comparing these two contexts helps to highlight the flaws in medical-centered “cures” for disabilities and in the thinking of parents and doctors about disabled children.

In the months after my proposal got accepted, I worked hard on my paper in order to get it to the point where it could be presentable. This required a lot of research and reading to find the sources I needed to get my points across. Though it was a lot of work, it was very fun because I got to read a lot of books I had not thought I would read before and I learned a lot while doing so. Some of the books I read were: Fairies: A Dangerous History; Disability, Deformity, and Disease in the Grimms' Fairy Tales; and a lot of Irish fairy tales and folk tales, as well as folk tales from other Celtic and European cultures. 

When writing the paper, I talked about my own experiences with my disabilities as well as those of others, so this paper was pretty personal as well as academic. 

I should say, for those looking to write a paper or essay for a conference, that like novel writing you will go through several drafts, and you will do a lot of research before you arrive at an end result you're happy about. (I had to read several books, some of which did not end up getting included in the final paper). I began writing in February, and didn't deliver the paper till July, so I had a lot of time to research and write. 

                             The Paper and My Experience Presenting-

(Image from wiki commons, 

                                https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Z%C3%89LIE_AND_THE_FAIRY_CANDIDE_PRINCE_CH%C3%89RI.jpg)

My paper was pre-recorded, so I spent time editing and recording it before the conference. To me it was really similar to the experiences I've had with recording my acting videos-- though a bit different since I was not in character. I was very happy with the end result. On the day of the conference, I had to wake up very early, but it was worth it. The video for my paper was just posted on The Centre for the Fantasy and the Fantastic's YouTube channel, so you can check it out: 

I also want to give a huge thank you to the Centre for the Fantasy and the Fantastic for allowing to present virtually and making this a wonderful experience. I want to say "thank you" to them, also, for posting the video of my paper on their channel. 💙 This experience has inspired me to want to be a professor, because I won't be doing acting, writing, animating, etc. as a full time job. Having a job as a professor would allow me to continue to do those things professionally-- while still having a "day job" that I like. 

After I presented, the audience asked a lot of wonderful questions about my paper, such as how disability is presented in current Fantasy media-- or even how disability should be discussed and presented in classroom settings, and what resources to use. I am very happy that my paper sparked discussion and questions. And I am so happy that I got to present at Once and Future Fantasies. 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Have you been to or presented at a conference? And do you have a favorite folktale involving Changelings or the Fair Folk? 

-Quinley 

Introducing Some Characters: Ghosts (P.1)

Here are some ghostly spectres, who I think deserve a proper introduction, since I didn't really give them one before. I am working on my novel, Dolls of Wax, Eyes of Glass this month, and I thought getting into the spooky mood was appropriate. And also I must add, I may or may not have been influenced by Debra's post to be in a "Summerween" mood. 😉

Since this is part of a series (that I started in 2017), you can check out the other installments of it here. (It will be under the "Introducing Some Characters" section). 

Here are the ghosts, the stories of these ghosts are not for the faint of heart: 

                                            The Solitary Violinist 

The Solitary Violinist is a performer, who was murdered. She performs while waiting for her killer to come back, so she can make him dance to death. However, he has yet to return. Many people watch her perform from a distance and hear the sound of her violin playing next to the tree where she died. 

She will often ask passersby, if they know where her killer went. The answer is important. For if you give the wrong answer (that is, if you answer "no" or "yes"), the ghost will be unhappy with you, because you will have either given her false hope or no hope. And you don't want to know what she will do--it is said many have met their demise or been lost forever in the woods. So, it is advised that you don't stop and listen to the music, and don't answer her question, but instead carry on as if you never heard it. 

                                  The "Painted" Devil 

The "devil" is a doll sewn from a woven bag that has the face of a devil embroidered (not painted) on it and a strange marking in red. The doll is possessed by a vengeful spirit which someone summoned into the doll for their own selfish reasons. 

The doll has been found at different antique shops and purchased by different owners over the years. Whoever owns the doll always reports strange ghostly activity and sudden unexplainable deaths. However, no one who has had these experiences has owned the doll for long, for it always mysteriously vanishes. Then it seemingly reappears in another shop. No one is safe, are you next?                                                

                                        The Ghost Bride 

"The Ghost Bride," as she is called, was a woman who died on the day of her wedding. She is seen walking around wearing a wedding dress and veil. How she died is unknown, but it is speculated she died of a sudden illness. 

She won't stop her haunts until her dying wish is granted. She is said to even go as far as possession to achieve this--which is why young women who are to marry are advised not to stop by her grave. And those who aren't getting married but want to appease her, often leave little presents or "wedding gifts" for her, so that she feels less restless. 

However, it is unclear whether this will actually stop the spirit. For she has plans...

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Which character is your favorite? And, which of their backstories scared you the most? 

-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 

My Process of Making "The Sorceress's Hide-Away" | A Textile Art Piece

 

Greetings Travelers,

This is a continuation of this post where I talked about and showed my textile art pieces. However, since the videos that were posted in that post didn't show how I made it, I thought it would be time to show you my embroidery process and how I made this art piece: 

The backstory for this art piece is that the figure at the top (Rosalind by Arthur Hughes) is coming through a magical portal into the Sorceress's Hideaway. And the figure at the bottom is the Sorceress (Boreas by John William Waterhouse) performing a spell in her cauldron. 

Anyway, here is my process of making it. It took two days to finish making it. 

And this was also the first time I've recorded myself doing embroidery, so I will be doing more in the future. 😉

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Have you done embroidery? If you met a sorceress how would you react?

-Quinley