Seeking Giants Book Giveaway 18 IG Challenge *needs slideshow*

The first challenge I signed up for during November is hosted by Elizabeth D Marie (link is to her Amazon author page) and you can see some of her work related items here on IG. She's an author I admire because she, too, works her faith into her fantasy tales without being preachy or ruining the fantasy element. You should definitely check out her work. Here's her Goodreads page, too. Below is the IG photo of the challenge prompts and I've linked it to her website. If you want to join in, she's offering a couple of prizes.

Week 1

This is a super fun challenge with prizes involved (as mentioned above). One of my new favorite authors is Elizabeth D Marie. She has been writing a fantastic series of fairytale retellings. I know what you're thinking. You're saying everyone's doing that right now. And you'd be right. But if you pass up her stories, you'll miss something truly different.

1. Tournament: NaNoWriMo kick-off! - I shared a screenshot of my Nano stats page.
   
2. #fairytalefriday - I have no idea where I was going with the photo for day two and the original post isn't wanting to load properly for me to grab the caption. I'll try to add it later.
   
3. Joust: Competition
4. Suitors: book character crush
5. #mapmonday - I chose to share my 'map' of the Y'Dahnndryan calendar.
   
6. Rebel: pets with books (You'll have to pause the slideshow when you see the first picture of Olly, maybe. My caption is a bit long.)
   
7. Cloak: disguises
   

I have to be honest, these prompts have pushed me to really think about what I can post. I'm loving it! It's different than any other IG challenge I've tackled before.

Week 2

My responses for week 2 are either written on the photo or typed into the slide show so I'm not going to re-write those. I will say I'm having a lot of fun with both challenges. The #nanowillow challenge has been a huge encouragement while the #seekinggiantsbookgiveaway18 challenge has been exactly that. Because the prompts are so targeted, I've really had to dig deep for some way to connect my WIP with them. Sometimes I can, sometimes not, but no matter what, it ends up back at writing anyway. Every experience a writer faces builds more stock for future books, after all. :)

Week 3

I really had to plumb the depths this past week for this challenge. I pulled from real life for one of them, and from one of my different books for a couple others. It was fun but I just feel like I'm taking on so much this month. I guess Nano does that. Oh, well...keeping on...
The challenges this past week were:

• Day 15 - Bride: A Proposal - Sa Mye is betrothed to Ruu Yvii Nol against her will. And since they have very little in common, I divided their inspiration photos with the cliff that also inspires me about Kai's home.
• Day 16 - Desert: Arid Landscapes - I had to pull from "Ripples" for this one and chose some photos from Pexels that made me think of D'Koruyin territory.
• Day 17 - Sword - There aren't any swords in this story...or any of my others, really. They use weapons, just not swords. Kind of ironic, I suppose, considering my genre. Can you say 'rule-breaker'? Anyway, I chose a photo of some travel items which looked like things Sa Mye might've brought along in her pack when she ran away. She does carry a dagger. And the other photos reminded me of the SCA and blacksmithing and all things medieval which I inevitably link with 'fantasy' in my mind. The SCA was an excellent learning opportunity for our whole family and I know the things I learned there will help inform my writing from time to time.
• Day 18 - Dance: Ball Gown on Cover - I don't own many books with fancy clothes on the covers. Most of my romance novels show close-ups of faces or people in modern casual closing. Most of my fantasy novels show people in fighting stances. I don't go in much for the damsel in distress, or princess stories. Fairy tales are a bit different but I don't own many retellings in hard copy format. So instead, I shared a black and white crop of one of the photos I'm working with to create the cover for book 2. I knew as soon as I saw it, I wanted to try creating something awesome with it.
• Day 19 - Princess: A Spoiled Character - I chose to find a photo of a woman in exotic showy garb to represent Sa Mye's mother. That woman is indeed spoiled by her husband (i.e. life-mate in the book) and rarely takes no for an answer.
• Day 20 - Shadowhand: Assassins and Thieves - I used the same villain inspiration board and used a photo of an open hand as an overlay. It came out pretty well, if I do say so myself. And since I want to use an open hand as one of the final cover elements, it fits.
• Day 21 - Arrows: Robin Hood in Theaters - I wasn't aware Robin Hood was coming out in theaters once again. I haven't heard a thing about it! But then again, I rarely watch anything but Netflix or YouTube these days. And whenever possible, I block ads. (If anyone reading this blog has a problem with that, then y'all should take it up with the ad creators who want to promote sex and p0rn when I'm trying to read a sweet shoujo manga. Don't even get me started...) Anyway, I shared my own IRL arrows for this prompt. The Bible says children are like arrows and the man whose quiver is full of them is blessed. :) (That red hair don't lie, y'all! My girls are jam packed with attitude. XD)
  

Week 4

I'm so excited because I won a prize in this challenge. I got some beautiful bookmarks highlighting the book covers in the series and a postcard-sized map of Asteriae.:) It was fun to participate and spread the word about an author whose work I respect. Winning was like icing on the cake. The challenge prompts for the last week and a half of November were:

• Day 22 - Sowers Festival : Thanksgiving - I hadn't really solidified many of the celebrations in my fantasy realm so this one was tough. But celebrations are big in Bot'ha so it was the perfect time to do so. Now I've got two but the first one I created was the Arivesti Festival. I was going to make it a harvest festival but the name works better for a New Year festival, I think. So I created another name for the harvest festival.
  
• Day 23 - Shield - I love coming up with wedding vows, even though none of them have seen the printed page. I think book four might actually see this change, though. I'm particularly proud of these and having some confirmation from another published author helped encourage me to do so.
  
• Day 24 - Castle : Favorite Fantasy Realm - I couldn't pick just one. LOL
  
• Day 25 - Siblings : (Happy birthday to the hosting author's brother!) - For this one, I had to go back to Ripples. So far, it's the only book which directly deals with siblings.
  
• Day 26 - Training : Necessary Pain - This one was difficult. Both my MC's have some training to go through but the formal training isn't discussed much except at her having gone through it. As far as my hero goes, his is less formal and continues through his life.
  
• Day 27 - Elder Queen : Villain - I don't have a single villain in this book. It's more of a collection of individuals facing off against the related MC.
  
• Day 28 - Stars - I don't have constellations yet in my book but those are definitely going to play a part in a future tale. I'm going to have a lot of fun with that.
  
• Day 29 - Young Love - Yes, my MC do find they love each other but it's not an easy road for them.
  
• Day 30 - Giants: NaNoWriMo Wrap-up - I won Nano! Though I wasn't able to meet the really high goal I'd set for myself, I still ended up with a win and a good solid rough draft which goes from beginning to end of the story.

And now for the slideshow!