When I read Stephen King’s On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, he mentioned a formula he received in a rejection letter: 2nd Draft = 1st Draft – 10%. That inspired me and I set it as my goal. Numbers and me are good friends and I like having achievable goals I can see and…
Blog Hop: World Building Excerpt
Day 5 of the World Building blog hop, hosted by Sharon Bayliss. World Building Excerpt Book: Thanmir War Name: Cameron Hartford Title: Commander Age: 19 Race: Human Hair color: Auburn Eye color: Green The change was instantaneous. Cameron stared down at the invisible line dividing the two provinces. On one side, a breeze stirred the…
Blog Hop: Food, Drink, Holidays, and Culture
Day 4 of the World Building blog hop, hosted by Sharon Bayliss. Food, Drink, Holidays, and Culture Chikara has four festivals, each on the eve of the new quarter annual: Travad, Ruis, Mau, and Braum. The palace doors are opened and all are welcomed to partake in the food, drink, and dancing. For towns not…
Blog Hop: Religion and/or Magic
Day 3 of the World Building blog hop, hosted by Sharon Bayliss. Religion and/or Magic Chikara was created by the elemental deities, collectively called the Drethamir. There are five Drethamir, just like there are five clans. The Drethamir embody creation, order, and meticulous design. They created the elements, the elementals, the oazmir, and many other…
Blog Hop: History and Politics
Day 2 of the World Building blog hop hosted by Sharon Bayliss. History The human Chikaran calendar starts at 0 EE (Elemental Epoch). Elementals have no use for calendars or other time telling devices. Elementals are eternal and have existed long before the humans ran ashore on the hot desert sands in the Embrathael province….
Blog Hop: Geography and Climate
I’ve decided to participate in my first ever blog hop. Since this is my first, I admit I don’t know quite what I’m doing, so bear with me. I heard of the blog hop via my critique partner and a fantastic writer, Aldrea Alien, and decided that I could probably join in with the fun….
Silver Star Kingdom to Thanmir War
Fifteen-year-old me had an idea. How about write a story? As a huge fan of “magical girl” anime and fairies at the time, I started to formulate the following idea. A charming, superficial young man named Derek lives in California with his parents and brilliant little sister. He’s going to college for botany and dates…
Character Sketch – MaTisha
Here is my second character sketch. I’m happier with the way she turned out. I used the entire paper length, which I didn’t do with Derek. The black diamond is a little too high, which impeded my drawing of the pendant, and I was never very good at drawing cryptic symbols, so it looks more…
New Blog Name?!
I know, I know. Loni Townsend’s Blog is so… accurate. But I’ve recently stalked… er, read one of my critique partner’s guest post about bad blogging setups and realized that my blog name falls into the category of boring. So, Squirrel Talk. It was a play on “Girl Talk” and actually came to me years…
Sketching
I decided to try my hand at sketching today. I’ve never done much in the way of “realistic” drawing, having spent most of my artistic time on anime-style cartoons. But I bought a brand new sketchbook last night and my pencil demanded I give it a try. The flaws taunt and torment me—the left eye…