Hi everyone, and happy 2019!
I finally finished my first draft of Tess Short Book one!
I began writing this story and posting chapters on this blog in 2016, and finished writing it in 2019, so I've been working on this book for two and a half years. I should also briefly mention that this was one of my first stories, so my writing was slightly different then, than it is now. I am happy to have written a story with Tess as a main character, and I hope to write the second book, sometime, though not really soon, because another story is calling me.
Also, this story was written for a younger audience than my other books, so in a way it is a children's novel. Another thing I should mention is that in this novel some of the characters are parodies of Lord of the Rings characters. ;) Synopsis- Tess Short is a "normal" half elf half hobbit, until she sets off on an adventure to save elves and fairies, who are mysteriously disappearing. Characters-
Tess
A half elf half hobbit. Who struggles with being one, and sometimes wishes she was only an elf, or only a hobbit. Lida and Finn
Tess's twin brother and sister, who tend to get into arguments over silly things. Silena
A dryad princess and warrior, who joins Tess on the quest to figure out why elves and fairies are disappearing. Robin
The person who told Tess about the disappearance of elves and fairies. Inny
A half human half hag, who is Robin's best friend. King Tirfendiel
Tess's uncle, who is king of the Woodland Realm, and has a sword that he carries with him that glows bright green. Lauralas and George
An elf and a dwarf who are close friends and are members of Eldon's book club. Thistle
A fairy prince who joins Tess on the quest to figure out why elves and fairies are disappearing. Eldon
The leader of a book club, who really, really wants to be an elf and chooses elf related books for the members to read. Carmen
Eldon's niece who is an half elf, who joined his book club. Excerpts- I triedto include excerpts that are recent but don't really spoil the story.
"Oh.” she said, but didn’t seem so convinced, but decided not to ask, sometimes new comers were different in unusual ways, but…he didn’t seem so unusual, maybe, it was just her, but she thought he was elvish in a way with his golden curled hair, and deep blue eyes, but he was a hobbit, so how could he be elvish?
-Chapter 32.
He didn’t catch much of what she said after that except for a few words, “Magic”, “Mistake”, and “Wasn’t my fault” though the last one was three words.
-Chapter 30
You can read the complete first draft here on Wattpad. The Story Soundtrack-
You can also listen to it here This was one of the first story soundtracks I created so it has a mix of different songs, including songs from Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, and a few Disney songs. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What was one of your first books you ever finished writing the rough draft of?
-Quinley
P.S. My next novel that I plan to write is a Fantasy novel, and here is one of the songs from the story soundtrack that I am making for it:
There are many movies I enjoyed seeing this year and I had many favorites, but here are a few. (I had many many favorite movies from 2018,
but if I included all of them, it would make the post really really long.) The Incredibles 2
(Image from wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incredibles_2#/media/File:The_Incredibles_2.jpg)
The sequel to the Incredibles was awesome. Labyrinth
(Image from Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labyrinth_(film)#/media/File:Labyrinth_ver2.jpg)
This is the first time I watched the movie in 2018, and I quite enjoyed it, and the songs from it are awesome! Fantastic Beasts and Where to find them (2016)
(Image from wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantastic_Beasts_and_Where_to_Find_Them_(film)#/media/File:Fantastic_Beasts_and_Where_to_Find_Them_poster.png)
Though this movie was not released in 2018 I watched it for the first time this year
and enjoyed it. And the beasts in the movie were so cute.
The Phantom of the Opera (2004)
(Image from Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Phantom_of_the_Opera_(2004_film)#/media/File:Poto2.jpg)
This was the first time I saw this movie this year, and I enjoyed watching it. I also enjoyed the costumes, the sets, and the singing. You can read my movie review here
favorite books from 2018:
Frankenstein by Merry Shelley Beren and Luthien by J.R.R Tolkien Phantom of the Opera byGastonLeroux Matilda's Secret (a Girl For All Time book) Splendors and Glooms byLaura Amy Schlitz A Drowned Maiden's Hair by Laura Amy Schlitz Peril at King's Creek by Elizabeth McDavid Jones Labyrinth Coronation by Simon Spurrier
To celebrate the holidays I thought I should introduce some holiday themed characters (and bring back the Introducing Some Characters series):
The Holiday Fairy
She shows up in a story from last year. Representing all the winter holidays, she spreads joy and cheer to everyone who celebrates them. Though her job can be very tiring she manages to find time to do it. (The holidays that are represented on her outfit are Christmas, Hanukah, and Kwanzaa.)
Mistletoe (AKA Niamh)
The Christmas elf????
What is an elf who is skilled in archery and fencing doing working in the north pole?
No one is sure, not even the fairies who work with the Christmas elves, but even though her skills are different from the other elves, she manages to wrap the presents and make them for the children in the most surprising and awesome ways. She also gets very excited about the holidays, but unfortunately at some times she is prone to get nervous about attacks from monsters and is on alert at all times, and to be safe she keeps daggers in her socks.
Alyssa the Reindeer Trainer
Training Santa's reindeer is one of the hardest jobs, and only a fairy who is purest in heart can do it. That's why Alyssa was asked to train them. When she ended up getting the job, her wings were turned magically into beautiful and colorful wings. She dearly loves animals. It is natural for a fairy to love them, but she has been attracted to reindeer the most, and has always wanted to see Rudolph's red nose glow. To train the reindeers how to fly she uses special fairy dust. Glorfundor
Though he doesn't work as a Christmas elf he lives with Mistletoe (Niamh) and is one of the very few elves who isn't a Christmas elf. He goes on quests around the north pole, is a very quiet person and rarely talks about his adventures.
This movie was very fun to watch especially since I knew most of the songs in it. (Such as Think of Me, All I Ask of You, and Phantom of The Opera.) I do compare the movie to the book in the movie review. This movie is rated: PG-13
Thoughts about the plot (and accuracy to the book) **This may contain spoilers for the original book and the movie: read with caution**
The movie opened with an auction, which I have to say was a pretty neat way to start the story.
In the book the story opens with people investigating what happened at the opera, and the movie did an interesting twist and went back and forth between the present (which was in black and white) and the past (which was in color).
Another change to the original story is that Christine did not pass out on stage after singing Think of Me (in the book she sang a different song). As a result Raoul didn't show up on stage to ask if she remembered him (since he was the boy who caught her scarf when she was little).
Instead he came to her dressing room and talked to her. To me it felt kinder to the character Raoul to do that, rather than to have Christine laugh at him, because she "doesn't" remember him. Both versions of the scene managed to communicate Raoul's and Christine's relationship. The audience in both could see that they truly loved each other. I believe both scenes effectively illustrated that Christine was protecting Raoul from the Phantom.
The movie is a musical, which slightly changes the story of The Phantom of The Opera, so it was not entirely true to the book. One scene that stood out to me which was particularly different was the moment when the chandelier was supposed to fall when the diva started croaking. They did have it fall at the end, but they had a different reason why it had to fall. Another important difference was the murder of Joesph Bouquet, which they moved later in the movie after the song, Poor Fool He Makes Me Laugh.
As for the Phantom (also known as Erik), I felt that he was a hard character to feel sorry for in both versions. Since he murdered people in cold blood, wouldn't let Christine out of his sight, wouldn't let her do anything like getting married or be with other men. (Which is what happened in the book.)
He proved himself to be cold hearted, and if he didn't get what he wanted he would lash out at the stage hands, singers, and Raoul. Though one thing I found neat was that the movie actually talked about his past. Erik's past is also talked about in the book from the Persian's point of view, he talks about Erik being displayed in fairs and to royalty as "the living corpse." Erik also mentions that his own mother would not kiss him because he was so ugly.
I enjoyed the added information in the movie about how Erik actually got to the opera, it was definitely worth having in the movie. As for the "romance" of Christine and Erik (which isn't really a romance, it's more of him trying to stalk and control her) there wasn't really a lot of it in the movie, at all. At points she did try to runaway from him, and there are several lines where she states she is afraid of him such as in the song, Why Have You Brought Me Here? / Raoul I've Been There, which shows that she doesn't want to be controlled by Erik anymore. The only "romance" that there is between Christine and Erik is the scene in, the Point of No Return, where she does kiss Erik. However, she does this to help with Raoul's plan to defeat the Phantom (Raoul does seem a litte shocked that she would do that, however, there are two reasons for his shock: It is the Victorian time period, so it could scar Christine's reputation to kiss a man she isn't married to (however, she did also kiss Raoul, so perhaps that proves that Christine doesn't care about what society thinks of her), and Raoul probably didn't think she would go as far with their plan as to kiss the Phantom). Perhaps Christine felt sorry for the Phantom. Another thing that distinguished the Phantom's relationship with Christine from Raoul's, was that Erik would give her a rose with a black ribbon tied around it, while Raoul gave Christine a ring. Raoul, being a gentleman, would have had enough money to buy a ring, while the Phantom didn't have any money and he can only get Christine a rose (although he then takes the ring that Raoul gave her, and gives to her as "present" from himself). In the movie Christine drops the rose, while in the book she loses the ring in the book. It is an interesting choice, because she doesn't panic when she drops the rose, but in the book she panics when she loses the ring. One cool thing that I remember that the Phantom had in his lair, was a miniature version of the Opera House, that he had set up for certain acts of the opera Christine was singing (mostly the ones with Christine in them). Nearing the end of the movie, I thought it was neat, that Raoul was in a group with some of the other characters thinking of a plan to stop the Phantom, while in the book he is just with one other person.
Nearing the end point of the movie when they had the chandelier fall, it causes a fire, which didn't happen in the book. In the book the chandelier falls, and kills someone and doesn't cause a fire. The whole sequence of the fire was very stressful. I won't give out the details of it entirely, but there was a character missing from this sequence, the Persian, who accompanies Raoul in the book when he is trying to rescue Christine. One interesting thing in the movie was that there was no torture chamber in that scene, which was described in the book as being forest-like, though I suppose the place where Raoul managed to find himself after trying to run after the Phantom is somewhat like the torture chamber, however, it appears much earlier and during the Masquerade scene.
As for the ending, it is sad. It shows Christine's grave years after Raoul's and Christine's marriage. That she seemed to die early, was the saddest part of the movie I thought. But one of the most interesting parts of that scene was that a rose with a black ribbon tied around it was left at her grave...which might mean that the Phantom is still alive. However, I am not going to connect Christine's death with the musical, Love Never Dies, or suggest that the Phantom may still be alive. Even though this movie is a musical based on a book, I see it as a stand alone story.
The Scenery and Costumes
The Costumes: the costumes in this movie were awesome,
especially Raoul's and Christine's.
(image from Rotten Tomatoes, https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/phantom_of_the_opera#&gid=1&pid=h-3270)
This dress I have to say is one of my most favorite dresses that shows up in the film.
(image from Rotten Tomatoes, https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/phantom_of_the_opera#&gid=1&pid=h-23274 )
Raoul's outfit looks so comfortable.
(image from Rotten Tomatoes, https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/phantom_of_the_opera#&gid=1&pid=h-28900)
I love Christine's dress, and Raoul's jacket in this scene from the movie.
(image from Rotten Tomatoes https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/phantom_of_the_opera#&gid=1&pid=h-36642)
(I'm not very fond of the Phantom's clothes, though the fact that he has two interchangeable masks is kind of cool.) However, I do love the ruffles on Christine's dress.
As for the scenery in the opera house, it was very well done (it probably took them a long time to make it).
The Music
The music from this movie definitely had an operatic feel to it, which added to its awesomeness. Here are some of my favorite songs from the movie (in no particular order): Think of Me
You can also listen to it here I like the elements of opera music they have in this song (though it's not in Italian). That's All I Ask of You
Even though this just instrumental (and you can't exactly sing along to it),
this is one of my favorite songs from the movie.
Overall rating for this movie:
Despite some inaccurate scenes, the movie was awesome. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Have you seen this movie? If you have what did you think of it?
Love,
Quinley
Hi everyone, I hope you are having a happy Thanksgiving. I thought today would be a good day to do a drawing post (though I do try not to do two drawing posts right after each other).
Happy Halloween everyone! To celebrate Halloween, I drew some drawings:
A drawing of trick or treaters walking through a forest, (possibly Sleepy Hollow ;) ).
This was incredibly fun to draw since one of the trick or treaters is dressed up as
Hobbes (from Calvin and Hobbes).
The textures in this were fun to draw.
A drawing of Clara from Splendors and Glooms.
Her eyes didn't look right the first time I drew them,
but they look better now.
A drawing of Christine from The Phantom of the Opera,
This was quite fun to draw (I based her costume on the costume from the 2004 film).
I tried to draw Lizzy-Rose holding a violin, since she
plays a violin in the book (Splendors and Glooms).
That didn't work, so I decided it would be better to do a
portrait of her without an instrument.
A drawing of Raoul from The Phantom of the Opera,
his clothes and hair were fun to draw.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Which drawings are your favorite? What are you dressing up as for Halloween?
-Quinley
Hello everyone,
I hope you are having a good October.
To get into the Halloween theme, I thought it would be fun to make a post about my favorite gothic books. (In no particular order):
Coraline
(image from Amazon, https://www.amazon.com/Coraline-Neil-Gaiman/dp/0380807343/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1538610118&sr=1-1&keywords=coraline+book)
This is kind of fantasy and sort of gothic at the same time, and maybe a little horror. (Though mind you I tend not to like horror stories.) The story is quite fun and there are some Shakespeare references here and there since two of the characters used to be Shakespearian actresses (though, those references tend to be very brief.) This story has a lot of twists and turns and likable characters as well as characters that may terrify you. Splendors and Glooms
(image from Amazon, https://www.amazon.com/Splendors-Glooms-Booklist-Editors-Choice/dp/0763653802/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1538610233&sr=1-1&keywords=splendors+and+glooms&dpID=51lYXH84q7L&preST=_SY344_BO1,204,203,200_QL70_&dpSrc=srch)
If you like gothic books, you will like this one. The story is set in Victorian England.
There are a lot of mysteries in it, and being gothic, it also has some magic.
The main characters in this story are quite likable and relatable, although
the antagonist is terrifying. I enjoyed that there were facts about the Victorian period throughout the book.
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
(image from Amazon, https://www.amazon.com/Sterling-Unabridged-Classics-Washington-Hardcover/dp/B00ZQB4F9U/ref=sr_1_77?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1538681791&sr=1-77&keywords=the+legend+of+sleepy+hollow)
This was really the first gothic book I read, and was also the cause of many of my fan fictions, and a few movie reviews. It is one of my favorite gothic stories with its twists and turns, and of course my favorite character Ichabod Crane and his romance (and love triangle) with Katrina Van Tassel. And the question of who Katrina should marry (Brom or Ichabod) adds a lot of drama to the story. Sadly, that drama is a lesser known part of the story. It is only near the end, that you finally get to see the famous figure of the story, the Headless Horseman.
The Phantom of the Opera
(image from Amazon, https://www.amazon.com/Phantom-Opera-Inktober-2016-Sketchbook-ebook/dp/B01N9VXMMG/ref=sr_1_25?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1538609684&sr=1-25&keywords=phantom+of+the+opera+book)
(Also even though the cover above is for the sketch book and not the actual novel I thought I should add it anyway, since it is such a cool cover.)
I am in the middle of reading a full version of this book. My description below is based on an abridged version of it, I have already read. This book is perfect for those who like operas and mysteries, especially those who do theatre, because most of the mysterious that happen in this book tend to take place back stage (as well as on stage, and below stage.) And also in this book there are wonderful backstories for the characters, that will make you like them even more.
A Drowned Maiden's Hair
(image from Amazon, https://www.amazon.com/Drowned-Maidens-DROWNED-Sep-12-2006-Hardcover/dp/B00EEUIIRY/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1538609046&sr=8-2&keywords=a+drowned+maidens+hair )
If you like calmer stories that aren't as spooky as the others I mentioned, then you will like this one. It's not as scary as the others. This book was written by the same author who wrote Splendors and Glooms, however, it shows what spiritualists (or fake spiritualists) were like in the Victorian times. And this book also has a similar plot line to Oliver Twist. This book does have some sad parts in it, but overall it is a good and calming book. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Have you read any of these books? Also are you excited for Halloween? Love, Quinley
