Wednesday, May 16, 2012

You Know You’re a Fantasy Writer When…

All your character names are so long and confusing it takes a college professor to decipher how to sound them out correctly.

Your main character is referred to as “The Chosen One” more than their actual name.

Usage of the words left or right are forbidden, it’s always “to the west” or “eastwards”.

All your landmarks are enormous. The idea of a “small forest” is absurd.

Every single one of your world’s historical characters have at least one song written about them.

Your main character’s best friend happens to be a talking animal.

Rodents are no smaller than a St. Bernard.

The insect population is almost down to zero because there always seems to be a spider larger than your character’s house somewhere nearby.

Every single one of your characters just happen to know how to expertly use a sword.

Words such as magical, evil, fantastical, or hero tend to take up half of your novel’s word count.

You begin wondering what the point in your princess characters is because all they ever do is get captured, no matter how hard you try to prevent it.

You find your characters yelling out “Alas!” on a constant basis.

Every elder your characters ever speak to has “infinite wisdom” and yet are very cryptic with their information. They also tend to be really good at rhyming.

All your horses (which there usually is many of) always seem to be much more intelligent than those from the real world.

The main character of every single one of your novels happens to be an orphan.

Your villain either lives in a giant tower or foreboding castle. No other abode would ever do.

Dragons. Everywhere. Need I say more?

Everything is far away. It doesn’t matter where your characters are; if they need to get there, it’s going to be far.

It takes an entire page just to describe the intricateness and abundance of clothing your character is wearing.

Celtic sounding music always seems to fit with the feel of your novel.

Your main character most often has an item he/she needs located right in the very middle of places such as “The Forbidden Forest”, “The Volcano of Doom”, “The Raging River”, or “The Swamp of Death”.

Weapons that are gold are usually very important.

All the mountains seem to always have secret passages through them.

The majority of your characters happen to have pointed ears.

Sunday, May 13, 2012

My Mom…

Knowing she’s here comforts me.

When I’m upset, her wise words are always a salve to my heart.

When I’m with her I know I’m protected.

I know she’s always here for me.

Whenever I feel lonely, I can just remember how much she loves me and the loneliness disperses.

Seeing her smile makes me smile.

I treasure all the times we are together.

I marvel at her patience.

I’m in awe at how hard she works for us.

Her kindness nearly overwhelms me.

I aspire to be like her…

….and then fear I can never live up to being as an extraordinary mother as she once I have my own family.

Out of all the people I know on this earth, she is, without a doubt, the most amazing one I know.

This is for you, Mom, for I have a difficult time communicating my feelings verbally and fear I do not express how much I truly appreciate you.

Thank you for being you. Without you, I’d be nowhere.

I love you.

Vintage Mother and Daughter

Friday, May 11, 2012

Beautiful People: April Edition

Beautiful People Button

It is May, indeed. BP came a little bit late in the month plus I had all my blogger troubles (you can read about in my last post), thus I’m not getting to this until now.

Also, it has occurred to me Beautiful People seems to be about the only thing I do on this here blog, with just the occasional post in between them. This cannot continue. I am determined to be a better blogger. I know I keep saying that, but I mean it this time. Ideas are slowly forming in my head and with the new look, my vigor for blogging is beginning to return. Let’s just hope it stays.

Now then, Beautiful People is to help us writers learn more about our story characters and is put on by, in fact, beautiful people, Georgie and Sky. You can read all about it on their FAQ if you so desire, or find this month’s questions here or here.

This month I’ve decided to use Captain Nhimvaria Evreera Emmendo. With that name, I’m sure you’re imagining some great, strong, awesome captain, yes? What if I told you she is a 12 year old girl whom everyone calls Nhimi to her great disgust? Nhimi is an…interesting character from my steampunk novel. Her father is a mighty airship captain/pirate and literally bought her a small ship of her own when she was only 5 years old. She’s feisty and terribly headstrong, claiming she is, in fact, a deadly pirate. You don’t want to get her on her bad side, it’s true. But one can often forget when they’re looking down at a very small 12 year old girl.

1. What is their favorite type of shoes?
Nhimi is an airship pirate, so naturally she’d sport some very sturdy boots at all times. She wouldn’t be caught dead in anything fancy or too girly.

2. Do they journal?
At first my answer was no, then I began realizing Nhimi probably does everything she can to prove she’s an adequate captain. I would not be surprised a bit if she kept a “Captain’s Log” of some form. Perhaps she does journal but would never admit to doing such a thing, thus conceals it as her Captain’s Log.
Ah, Beautiful People, you truly do help one discover one’s characters.

3. What’s their favorite animal?
I’m inclined to say an elephant. You see, when she received her own small ship from her father when she was five, she named it The Winged Elephant, fondly calling it Ellie for short. This name came from her five year old mind, claiming the curved stern looked like an elephant's trunk and hoping if it had a name like 'elephant' it would seem bigger than it actually was.

Now if an elephant is her favorite animal, I’m not really sure. I have a feeling she’s rather fond of monkeys as well for some reason.

4. What does their average day look like?
Upon this question, she wants to scream, “Adventurous!!”

Having a pirate captain for a father does make for an interesting life. Much of her time is probably spent soaring through the sky in their airships and looting goods. Though she is often forced to stay behind on the more dangerous journeys. During these times, she stays on her own ship with her father’s rather wacky but highly intelligent brother, Professor Barnabas Duckington, who seems to want to do nothing but drink tea and read. Nhimi, being the adventurous girl she is, detests these quiet times.

5. Night owl or morning person? (Optional: What time do they usually wake up? Go to bed?)
Nhimi is not very fond of sleeping at all. She awakes with the sunrise, vigorously awaiting for the day’s excitements. She would never admit to being tired, but, being only 12, her body gets quite taxed by the end of the day. She usually ends up finding herself in bed by about 9 or 10 at night.

6. Do they have a sweet tooth?
I think Nhimi adores sweets much more than she’s willing to admit to. Most her life she’s tried to act anything but a child. In her mind, sweets are a childish thing; unfortunately, her taste buds are inclined to highly disagree.

7. What colors are their bedroom?
Just a brown room made from wood and steel of her airship.

8. Can they cook?
Nhimi? Cook? She might can explode a kitchen, if that counts. Cooking is not her forte.

9. What is their favorite household chore?
It is a rule on the ships that the entire crew, captain and captain’s daughter alike, must lend a hand in all things, chores including. Nhimi is a rather spoiled little thing and thinks the crew should do things like swab the deck or clean the windows. Unfortunately, she finds herself having to do such chores often. Her favorite would probably be swabbing the deck. Getting it all wet and sliding around proves to be most entertaining.

10. Favorite kind of tea?
Nhimi has been drinking tea since she was practically a toddler, having the mentality that it makes her seem older. Not only that though; she uses it as her sugar fix instead of succumbing to candy and sweets. She drowns her tea with excess amounts of sugar. She does not have a great preference with tea but detests anything bitter and is quite fond of minty kinds.

Monday, May 7, 2012

Oooh, shiny!

Apparently, my ol’ blog here decided it didn’t like the template I had on it. For, much to my chagrin, said template began messing up. Odd black images with exclamation marks on them were appearing all over my blog.

Error

Perhaps it was Bloggy here crying out for change. I had been meaning to change the template for a while, seems my blog was getting impatient.

So here we are then. This new look is rather nice, though I’m not sure if it is permanent or not. When you look up the word ‘indecisive’ in the dictionary you will find my picture there. Or not since I couldn’t decide if I wanted them to take my picture and put it in the dictionary or not.

*cough*

Regardless, at least this template isn’t becoming all buggy like the last one was doing. Let’s hope it stays that way.

Perhaps I shall keep it. It is quite pretty.

On a side note, I know I’ve been severely lax in my blogging as of late. I was actually determined to fix that only to find my blog all in a mess. Ah, such is life. Now that the problem is resolved though, perhaps you’ll be hearing more from me now. I certainly hope so anyway.

Now I’m going to go decide what to do…

…perhaps it will be bed time by the time I make up my mind.

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Tucked Under His Wing

In life, there is one thing every person wants.

Knowing they are safe.

Scared, alone, fearful, worried, frightened—we’ve all experienced these. Thinking we are not safe is a horrible feeling.

No matter what we are doing, as long as we know we are safe, it’s easy to push through. We all need that security.

And we do always have that security, no matter where we are or what we’re going through.

“I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for thou, LORD, only makest me dwell in safety.”
Psalm 4:8

God promises as long as we trust in Him, we will always have His protection. He is forever with us, comforting us, caring for us, and protecting us.

“He shall cover thee with His feathers, and under His wings shalt thou trust: His truth shall be thy shield and buckler.”
Psalm 91:4

There is nothing that can break that security we have in His protection. Even as the storms surge around us and it appears like there is no hope, He is still there, keeping us secure under His wing.

“How excellent is Thy lovingkindness, O God! therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of Thy wings.”
"Psalm 36:7

We have no reason to fear, for the all powerful, all merciful, loving, and kind Creator of the universe has us safely tucked under His wing.

No power of hell, no scheme of man,
Can ever pluck me from His hand…

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