The Pretty Bookish Challenge March 2018

The Pretty Bookish Challenge is hosted by @stardustwrites, also on Instagram, and looks like it'll help a lot with filling out some more of the characters in both my last novel and the upcoming one.

(I'm sorry but I don't have a link to share with you. I believe the original account has been deactivated because I can't find it. Still, this challenge was a fun one. Also, it looks like this post is going to be a long one. My apologies, but I do hope you enjoy the content. 7/12/2020)

Day 1: WIP Setting - My head is so full of my CampNano novel, I completely forgot I wanted to focus this challenge on Over Land Under Stone (book 2). So yesterday's post is a super short description of the island where most of the story will take place. The climate is only one of the mysterious things about Yacan but you can only fit so much on that small square photo.

Day 5: A Picture of your MC - These are the main characters from my NaNo 2017 project, Over Land & Under Stone. I'll be working on revisions for that one soon. It could possibly turn into two or three books considering the length of time that passes.
I make my character concept photos using Doll Divine because I can't draw people or characters very well. (I'm not sharing the Doll Divine creations as I'm not sure what the copyright limitations are. I still shared the link because the games are fun and you can download some of your creations for your own personal use.) This is a great way for me to get back into writing when I hit a rough spot. I also use Polyvore for the same reason. (This site is now defunct.) You can create fun and interesting boards that represent people and places for your stories. It's amazing how it gets the creative juices flowing again. (3/7/2018)

Day 6: Fave Writing Drink - You have only to read my sidebar bio to know coffee will top the list and tea will join it. Kombucha is a must since it's the way I get my probiotics these days. :/ I hope to start brining our vegetables again soon, though. Another bit of trivia you might enjoy knowing is that when my mind is busy and there's a drink in front of me, it's gone in a flash. This is why I choose drinks like these. I think it took less than thirty minutes to finish this kombucha, tea, coffee and water in that order. (3/7/2018)

Day 7: Symbols are sometimes hard for me. When I think of my characters, I try to think of them from the inside out, so to speak. Religion is important to both of these characters for different reasons. For Zec, it's a way for him to stay connected to something that can't be taken away from him. And for Liha, she's been taught from birth to love and serve the Creator. As she grows, her connection to the Creator deepens through her connection with the world around her. Genzetti use prayer beads in their religious rites and some families observe the tradition of passing on a special set to the oldest child. Both Zec and Liha are only children. Zec knows where he got his and to him, they represent tradition and family honor. Liha thinks hers are just a pretty gift from her adoptive father. She doesn't know what they are because she's been raised in the Bot'ha way of living, including their religious practices which don't include prayer beads. So for her, they represent a place to belong.
To all Genzetti, the color blue is very important. The deeper the shade, the more revered. Piercings are also something very important to the Genzetti as they receive one for every milestone they reach once they've completed their Pilgrimage (which usually happens at the age of 9 SC [15.9 earth years]). And the moons are special to the underland dwellers simply because they are lights in the darkness.
Liha is raised in a Bot'ha shrine for her protection because she was born under the light of the suns. (That's a bad omen to the Genzetti.) Because of her pale gold color, and because of the facts surrounding her birth, the sun is a good symbol for her. She's learned to talk to the birds so songbirds also represent her. And the Bot'ha way is all about balance in spirit and in nature. One day, maybe I'll be able to come up with a somewhat original symbol that represents balance to the Bot'ha. (3/8/2018)

Day 8: Paradise Lane by William Taylor has been one of my favorite books for a long time, as evidenced by the state of the cover. My mom bought it for me at an elementary school book fair (I'm now 42!). Why do I like it? It still brings me to tears every time I read it. The main character, Rosie, has to deal with bullies and a less than happy home-life and still she walks on. The helpless feeling of the person who befriends her really tugs at my heart because I've been there -- clueless at first, then not knowing what to say or do but wanting to fix it all. It's a really great story...and I believe it's out of print. If you ever see a copy in a library or get a chance to purchase one, I highly recommend it.
Also, I was puzzled for a while about what to post for this 'stand alone' challenge. Thanks to another participant, I realized they meant "a single book that told a single story" and not "a scene from your current wip". I can be a real ditz sometimes. I totally face-palmed when I realized. (3/9/2018)

Day 10: This was originally supposed to be my favorite female hero/villain, but I was in a hurry when I glanced at the challenge on my calendar. It could've been worse. I just happened to choose two males. I might've chosen a male and a female! :D (3/11/2018)

Day 11: I got the prompt for this day mixed up with day 10. Yikes! But it wasn't so messed up that I couldn't fix it. :) I chose Eleanor from "Sense and Sensibility" as my heroine because she is a strong woman. To live through the amount of hardship she had to deal with, and live with the terrible uncertainty of her future, must be a hard thing to do. And she overcame it all and her reward for her patience and steadfast loyalty was a happy ending. It doesn't usually happen like that in real life, I guess, but virtues tend to be their own rewards in my experience. For the villain, I chose Maleficent because she's always been a favorite character of mine, ever since I first saw the Disney animated feature years ago...long before liking villains was "cool". I'd also suggest if you enjoy the maleficent artwork, checking out the deviant art profiles listed under each. Or you can click on this link for Maleficent or find Maleficent and Dragon's artist by clicking this link which will take you to the main DeviantArt home page where you can type "nebezial" in the search box at the upper right. I still have to go find them and follow them, myself. (3/12/2018)

Day 12 - Your Bookshelf - I've been married since 1994 and I've homeschooled my children from pre-K on up. It's safe to say we have more than one bookshelf. We actually have nine. The photo I chose to share shows one my mom made when I was a kid. There's something to be said for good, solid, wooden planks. Most of the books on this shelf are non-fiction for school or Bible study books.

Day 13 - Song For One of Your Scenes - This was harder. I still only have a raw rough draft of Over Land Under Stone and it's almost impossible to choose a song for a particular scene. But this song speaks to me about Zec and Liha in general. I think eventually they both feel this way about each other. And since Zec kind of thinks of her like the suns, I think the song fits for that reason. It also helps that the bad is one of my all-time favorites. :) That's the only challenge post in this article that will be posted as a video. I hope you enjoy it. (3/14/2018)

Day 14: My favorite author is probably J.R.R. Tolkien. His attention to detail fascinates me. But I suppose my favorite fact about him is his unwavering faith. When I read Humphrey Carpenter's biography of Tolkien, I cried at the end. It was the first time I read a non-fiction book and cried as if I'd lost my own friend. (3/15/2018)

Day 17: I took this photo several years ago at a local camp near our house. I don't get to do it often but nature walks always calm and energize my spirit at the same time. It's a strange sort of balance and I love it!

Day 18: This particular challenge was disappointing. Finding suns that looked different but also like something that might actually be drawn by one of my characters was difficult. Then, finding moons or moon-shaped art in the colors I needed proved another hurdle. I'm really not satisfied with this but today's challenge, which I'll post later, came out so much better when I created it back in October of 2017. I'll be sharing that one in tomorrow's blog post.

Day 19: For this challenge, I chose to share my disappearing Cheshire cat mug. I used it for a while before the handle broke. :( Now I'm using it to hold art supplies. (3/20/2018)

Day 20: I already created a basic cover to share on the NaNo site back in October of 2017. I still like how it came out, though I'd love to improve on it. (3/21/2018)

Day 21: I know that since the movies were made, any LOTR quote is pretty over-used, but this one really resonates with me. There's so much truth in it. (3/22/2018)

Day 22: The antagonists for Over Land & Under Stone are still pretty hazy. I knew I needed some tangible antagonist (or group of them) in this story. Now I've got more than I know what to do with. But here's the basic run-down, photo 1 first from top left, clockwise:

• Jai Nisse - Jai is a Poten of Turmali City, like second in command of the Divini'I (religious leaders) of the city. Divini'I wear robes sort of across between priestly cassocks and the Emperor's red guards on Star Wars. Blue is a holy color to them and the deeper the blue, the more holy it is.
  
• Ibin Etina - She's a highly sought after assassin, hired by Jai and Shi to kill Zec.
  
• Shi Malaki - He's a member of the Ka, the law keepers of Genzet society. He's also very jealous of Zec's father (a'ada).
  
• The Drakmaugh - Imagine the bulky body and strength of a bear, the blood-thirsty nature and tenacity of a lamprey eel, and the skinless body and speed of a squid or octopus, and you've just about managed a picture of the drakmaugh. It's a denizen of the underground sewers of the overland dwellers. Without eyes, it hunts solely with it's highly developed senses of hearing and smell. It has a beautiful voice which lures the unsuspecting trespasser to its doom.
  

The second aesthetic board represents the Sekot-Mundei, which I've been calling the Sect of the Moon Deities up until this point. The photo doesn't have the moon name they are associated with but I'll add that in, giving you the moon name, the moon color, and what they are god or goddess of. Starting in the upper left and moving clockwise:

• Min - Blue Moon (also the largest and one of the guide moons) - God of the Heavens
  
• Dahl - Gray-white Moon (the smaller of the guide moons) - Goddess of Breath
  
• Go'it - Aqua Moon (second largest moon of Y'Dahnndrya) - God of Lifeblood
  
• Yur'eh - Yellow Moon - Goddess of Stone
  
• Sho'tha - Red Moon (the smallest of the moons) - Goddess of Dreams
  
• Sha'wath - eldest son of Go'it and Sho'tha - God of Shadows - lesser god
  
• Sensali - younger son of Go'it and Sho'tha - God of Beasts - lesser god
  
• Geila - youngest child of Go'it and Sho'tha - Goddess of Flora - lesser goddess
  
• Tsifi'Ra - the larger golden sun of Y'Dahnndrya - Goddess of Time
  
• Mi'Tah - the smaller silver sun of Y'Dahnndrya - Goddess of Cycles
  

I know this is a lot to take in. Just imagine trying to build your own religion from scratch. <sigh> But I'm doing my best. Time and Cycles seem so closely related, I may have to change that. But the story so far is that Min and Dahl overthrew Tsifi'Ra and Mi'Tah when they refused to allow them to do something they wanted to do (haven't ironed out what yet). Now they rule the spirit realm, along with their siblings and grand-children. That's as far as I've gotten on their back story.

As I mentioned, it's still a work in progress. This story will likely take at least two years to straighten out and get ready for publication. But I like what's coming out and how it's all coming together. And in the end, I need more info on the Sekot-Mundei for use in Surge, which I'll start writing on April 1. (3/26/2018)

Day 24: I didn't even have a tag-line yet but that's what you need for a movie poster -- the hook that gets the viewer in the door. Over Land & Under Stone was so badly planned that it'll take me a while to get it together enough to go to an editor.

Day 25: For this one, it was necessary to give a little (translated lot because I can't seem to help myself) background information on the traditional styles of each applicable clan before getting down to the particulars about the MC's personal styles. Pictures three and five give the personal style run-down, if you'd prefer to skip the other two. (3/27/2018)

Day 27: (Even though the picture is labeled wrong...) For the favorite line challenge, I actually had to go digging through my rough draft. I just like the imagery of this line. I already see a way to make the line stronger by simplifying it (leaving off that last prepositional phrase since it's not really necessary). (3/28/2017)

Day 29: I feel like day 29 needs a little more explanation.

• Lord of the Rings - I chose this book mostly because of genre. Tolkien believed fairytales were for adults and I happen to agree.
  
• The Dark Crystal - This kids movie is probably the most similar to my book. Two beings of the same race, raised by people other than their own parents, go on a quest together. In Over Land & Under Stone, Liha and Zec don't actually quest together but they share some adventures. And both are raised by people other than their parents. The first fun fact I shared yesterday came from this post. I read the children's book 'The Dark Crystal, before I saw the movie. We couldn't afford to go see it at the theater. But that book hooked me. It was also my first encounter with Brian Froud's artwork which I still love.
  
• Spellfire - Similar in genre, this book is about a band of people going on a quest which is full of adventure.
  
• Legend - Similar in genre, though the MC's roles are reversed. Whereas in Legend, Lily is a princess and Jack is a forest child, in OLUS, Zec is more like a prince (his adoptive parents are master guildsmen in the underland region of Genzet) and Liha is more like a forest child, being raised in the Bot'ha way of having a closer connection with the earth. (3/30/2018)

Day 30: I can't pinpoint any one book that made me want to write. I just always loved reading and writing down the things that popped into my head. I wrote short stories first when I was in elementary school. I wrote a couple more story beginnings when I was in high school, but I started writing song lyrics then, too. I wrong song lyrics for years and every now and then I still do.
I said all that to say this: I snapped a shot of my bookshelf because every book I've ever read had an impact on me in some way. If I had to choose, I would say the Bible, the Baptist Hymnal, and early childhood Disney and Dr. Seuss books because they are the reading material of my early childhood.

My favorite scripture verse is Philippians 4:8. It says, "Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lively, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, let your mind dwell on these things." It's a good rule of thumb for me. I sometimes get so bogged down by the bad things happening around me that I become blind to all the good things.

"Oh Sacred Head, Now Wounded" is one of my favorite hymns. I love the complexity of it compared to many others in this version of the Baptist Hymnal (or those which were printed after this one). The day they took choral music out of schools (before my time) was a sad day. After that, not many people knew how to read the notes or sing all the lovely harmonies. The beauty of hymns doesn't only lie in the words. I just wanted to say that.

The first book I read by myself was Lucky Puppy. It was a Disney early reader book and sort of a spin-off (or a different character's POV) from 101 Dalmations movie. This book, as you can see, is not that one. Sadly, I read the other so much that it hasn't survived for the 38 years since I got it. No. This is Robert The Rose Horse which was another favorite. There's just something really fun about a horse who's allergic to roses and ends up becoming a decorated police horse. :D

Day 31: I posted this in a hurry. Then I noticed that it's glaringly obvious this WIP is still a first draft. I have to laugh at my redundant self...for now. And then I'll be removing that last phrase.

Finally! The Slideshow... XD