I’m a college student who has unrealistic dreams of being a famous authoress who writes mystery novels. Either that or a goblin... haven't decided which. I live on a farm up on a hilltop where the wind likes to mess up my hair and the trees sway poetically in the wind.
I usually don’t share my art on my blog but today I wanted to share a few little digital doodles I did this week for no real particular reason besides the fact that I have blog posts I want to do but no real time to write them until this weekend. So feel free to scroll through a few pieces of mine and offer your thoughts and critiques. Have a wonderful day, lovelies.
This a quick Azula sketch I did the other day. Avatar the Last Airbender was a huge part of my middle school years so why not?Had a few ideas for some concept art of some butterfly cats so here we go…I made the wings rather fancy on this one.Here is a collage of the neon versions.
And speaking of cats, I also drew a cat sitting on a skull for funsies. Above is displayed both the uncolored and the colored version.
Just a few gentle-manly skull sketches… (these were my favorites I think).
And here are a few collections of fashion sketches I did while catching up on a few shows. (Mainly The Book of Boba Fett <3)
And finally we have a fish haired princess. I like the color and concept of this one though I would love to do a cleaner version in the future.
Hello lovelies! I hope this post finds you well on this fine Wednesday!
It has been quite a week for me. Second week of college and while I don’t have as much homework as last semester, I will say my 8am class is not my favorite thing to attend on chilly winter mornings. But, regardless, I am enjoying my classes and teachers and all the cool little factoids that I am slowly accumulating over time. It makes me feel a little less sad that I have less free time for banging out blog posts though admittedly I had a streak going on there through December and January that I would love to continue. But we’ll see what the school year brings.
Ah, anyways. Enough about me. Let’s play a game.
Welcome to the “If I owned a Bookstore game”!
Bookstore Name
I definitely would want a wistful or magical sort of name. Something fantastical like “Silver Pages” or perhaps something a bit more dark and mysterious like “The Black Cauldron” (though I’d probably save that name for my nonexistent Witch-themed coffee shop).
At the end of the day, as I wrack my brain for names, I think the Bookstore would be called “The Scarlet Letters” as a sort of pun off of the classic book “The Scarlet Letter”.
The Location
This is going to be a hard decision. Ireland, New Zealand, Scotland (anything that ends with “land” I guess that isn’t Greenland) are all marvelous locations. But another part of me would love to have located in a sleepy southern town near where I live while rolling hills and cow fields just outside the outskirts.
The Outside
Ideally, my bookstore would be located on a town square in an older sort of building with a shingled overhang. I would love a big, store window that allowed people to walk by and look inside. Oh, and some sort of outdoor string lights framing the window. And the entrance door must be red painted wood.
On the Inside
I would love to have two floors with a spiral staircase leading to the second. An outdoor area on a patio roof would be amazing as well. There would be all sorts of little nooks and crannies where people could sit and read. I would love lots of windows to allow for natural lighting but these windows would be red stained glass, casting a sort of scarlet tint upon the shelves.
The floor would be hardwood and shelves stained dark oak. The shelves would be arranged a little precariously to give book browsing an adventurous feel. Oh, and if there was a mini bakery inside that sold pastries and raspberry & cherry tarts, that would be cool too.
The Vibe
The vibe would be antique-y & a sort of old European feel. In general, the color palette of the place would be dark wood and red (matching with the Name of the bookstore). It would have a very calming vibe and would be the perfect place to stay during a rainy day.
Oh, and if you pay attention and look hard enough, there might be a cat roaming about, further adding to the bookworm vibe.
The Workers
I would try and have people who really truly loved books to come work there. And while I would not technically want a “work uniform”, I think it would be neat if everyone wore a singular red accessory of some kind. You know, a red scarf, red silk hair ribbon, that sort of thing. It would just be neat.
The Music
Probably some calming classical though changing it to something subtly spooky during Halloween would be amazing. I would want the music to fill any uncomfortable silence but not loud enough that it feel as if its interrupting people’s conversations or reading.
Now It’s Your Turn!
What kind of bookstore would you want to have? This sort of day dreaming is what I live for so if you’re interested in a doing a post about your own fictional book store, feel free! Until next time, bloggers!
Good evening, ladies and gents! Hope you are all doing well this fine night!
This weekend I have been busy typing away and making a few changes to my little corner of the internet and I wanted to just give you a quick heads up as to what I’ve been up to!
The “Prompt Directory” Tab
The longer I blog, the more writing prompts I have accumulated and published for the world to see. These prompts, however, due to the format of my site, tend to get lost in the backlog of posts I put out on a pretty regular basis. So, for ease of access, I have made a Prompt Directory tab that can be accessed directly from the menu. There you will find an alphabetized list of every collective prompt category I have covered thus far. I will continue to updated this list as I make more writing prompt posts.
The “Generators” Tab
I don’t know about you, but as a writer I can tell you that I end up googling a lot of name/character generators. You know, to help with inspiration in a specific area when you need it. A few sites I have used for this are known as Springhole.net & Chaoticshiny (definitely check them out if you get the chance). But, despite these sites having an enormous backlog of writing generators, sometimes I found myself searching for a very specific one. So I coded some of my own. During the pandemic, I made of plethora of these generators for all sorts of purposes (but mostly for writing inspiration). Then, a week ago, I decided that it would be fun to share these generators with my fellow writers. So, to make a long story (that I admittedly just told you) short, you can find a categorized list of my generators under my new Generator tab on my site menu.
To Conclude…
Those are my big updates as of right now, but I have a few ideas churning in my head for the future. Feel free to stick around and see whatever changes are coming to my blog next (no pressure though). Thanks for reading & happy blogging!
You’re a struggling anthropologist who wishes to get your name out there in the scientific community. But you often find yourself assigned to odd and miserable expeditions. Finally, you manage to get signed onto an expedition taking place in Ireland. You’ve always wanted to visit so you’re excited to see the country and its rolling, snow capped hills.
The expedition takes a turn when you’re digging into a mound and unearth a rather odd looking skull. You work more and more and assemble this near perfect skeleton. Your stomach drops as you place the last bone in place. You’ve read enough fairytales to recognize the skull, the horns, the teeth, and the wings. You have unearthed a fully in tact dragon skeleton. They’ll never believe it.
☀Snap Dragon
You’re an avid plant mom who sets out to decorate your new apartment in a wide variety of plants. You visit every store in town, including a rather shady looking one on the outskirts. There you buy a single snap dragon plant that appears to have just barely sprouted. The cashier says something weird about how “The plant will give back if you tend it well” but you didn’t pay much attention…
At least until the plant grows fully and the petals of the large, red bloom peel back to reveal a tiny, sleeping dragon.
☀Treasure Hunter
The time is the age of great discovery, and while many people are flocking to the new world or to start a business in stock goods, you can’t help but scoff at them. You know you really have the best job in the world. You are labeled a treasure hunter but only your clients know your real specialty; finding dragon eggs.
☀The Last Dragon
Dragons are going extinct. This of course doesn’t surprise you. One sip of dragon’s blood can cure a man or woman of any illness. Their scales make impenetrable armor. And their teeth when fashioned and placed upon the tip of a staff can conduct powerful magic.
You are dying.
You have a rare genetic disease that there is no known antidote for. But one sip of dragon’s blood could heal you of your illness. But everyone says the dragons are already gone… until one day a rumor circulates that there was one last dragon seen in the high mountains.
You set out with a Witch who desires a tooth, A Knight who wishes for the scales, and some weird beast studying librarian who is just along for the ride and the knowledge he might obtain.
And the race is on to find the last dragon.
☀Hidden
You have finally been hired as a government scientist after 20+ years of experience working in your field. You are ready to serve your country with your knowledge and skills- at least until they assign you to one of their latest and most secretive projects.
You are called to a secret test site where you are going to be briefed on your duties. You weren’t expecting what you saw next…
A dragon, chained in a warehouse with guards flanking the entrance. You’re an avid scientist and respect the pursuit of knowledge but this entire scenario just doesn’t sit right with you.
☀Dragon Princess
You know how this story goes. You’re a princess who it sent to find a dragon so you can be saved by a knight who comes along and find a husband. You want to argue with your father, The King, but of course it doesn’t work. Angry but resolved, you head towards the dragons cave.
But you find no dragon.
Instead you find a rag tag group of Princesses who take you in as their own. Turns out they have a kite-like contraption that looks like a dragon to keep the myth alive but the old dragon really died a long time ago. This group of princesses banded together to be each other’s new family seeing as how their own let them down by sending them on this ridiculous mission for marriage in the first place. And so, enticed by freedom and loyalty, you join the ranks of the Dragon Princesses.
Hello everyone! I’m resuming my MBTI writing prompt posts yet again! And today I’m doing the ISFP MBTI personality. They’re also known as “The Adventurer” so I’m hoping to inject that curios and adventurous spirit into these prompts! Please enjoy!
★Space Train
All aboard the space train! The next stop could be anywhere in the universe. Humanity, at this point in time, has advanced to living on multiple planets. Travel between their homes has been restricted by regular space craft until a rather looney inventor creates a most ingenious piece of machinery- The Space Train. The Train can travel speedily across the stars, able to reach the furthest edges of the universe in minutes. The only issue is, the train seems to have a mind of its own, seemingly sentient. Or perhaps this was no accident….
★Charmed
You find yourself wondering your small town when you noticed a shop that you didn’t recognize. Curios, you enter to find it is a jewelry shop. But not your average one of course. This shop is called “Charm”, and is run by a rather curios lady with a tall pointy hat (or perhaps it really is a witch’s hat?). The Charms displayed everywhere look normal at first, but upon closer inspection you find them moving and alive.
★Pennies
There is a fountain in the middle of town with a statue of lady holding a pot and pouring water. You think it is a rather striking piece of work but pay it little to no heed. But little do you know, this fountain is very special. The statue (also known as the lady of the fountain) records the wishes of those who toss a penny in her waters and chooses a few to grant. This, of course, is unbeknownst to you- at least until she grants your wish.
★Chosen One
Your family drags you on a camping trip. This doesn’t surprise you as your Dad has been doing this for years, driving the family to his favorite camping spot between a mountain and a large lake, trying to encourage you to “connect more with nature”. You begrudgingly go, as per usual.
One day, you decide to go swimming in the lake beside your campsite to pass the time. You swim around a bit only to stub your toe on something hard. Annoyed, you fish it out of the water from the depths of the lake, only to find a rather large and magical looking sword. A lady with a cloak made of water suddenly appears before you, informing you that you hold the legendary blade known as Excalibur and you have been, in fact, chosen.
★Portraits
You are a worker at a rather high end art museum. You like your job well enough though sometimes you’re not a fan of the late hours. So its no surprise that you found yourself a little annoyed when you were informed that you were going to need to stay extra late one evening to hang up a new shipment of paintings.
So at about midnight, you find yourself opening up crates of artwork in the basement of the museum. Then you come to one box that is comprise entirely of portraits. You admire them-they are of marvelous workmanship. But, as you hold the canvas in your hands, you see the man in the paint blink and then turn his head towards you. Screaming, you drop him him back in the box only to hear a few annoyed complaints from the other portraits.
Yet another list for the sake of writing reference. I went with the more basic/well known mythological creatures so I didn’t really include some of the old and very obscure ones. I also want to specify that these a more European/American based mythological beasts. There is an enormous amount of mythological creatures special to every part of the world. Perhaps I’ll make more lists of fantasy creatures but more country/region specific?
“I did not fall in love. That makes it sound like a sort of accident. No, I did not fall. I descended a spiraling staircase, following it downwards, deeper and deeper. Sure, it was slower, but I was aware of every single step.
And the walk back up was so very, very slow.”
~ Excerpt from “Velvet Heart”, A story a began a year ago but never finished.
~*~
“I once met a fox who said, “lying is just another form of Story telling.”
“Yes,” I said. “That is true. But the intentions are never the same. A story is not built to manipulate.”
“Oh, but they are! Emotions and thoughts are twisted around the writer’s pen.”
“That is true. But the intention is to find beauty in manipulation. A means to an end. It is not a story woven to conceal and shadow. Fiction is called just that. ”
“Not all. Some are mislabeled and presented truthfully. Some are called history.”
“History is a story?”
“Indeed. Only ever told by the victors.” “
~Excerpt from “The Tales of Mr. Fox”, a short novel I started a year and a half ago. I hope to finish it eventually.
~*~
“Good can praise the Good, Evil can praise the Evil, but when Evil praises the good and Good understands the Evil is when it’s truly special.”
~Excerpt from a short story titled “Paper Girl”. Wrote it four years ago and never Finished it.
~*~
“I’ll tell you a secret:
You spot a romantic simply whether or not and how long they look at the sky.”
~Another Excerpt from “Paper Girl”
~*~
“I think I’d rather be an optimist than a pessimist- I don’t think I could take being wrong that often.”
~Excerpt from an unnamed short story.
“Take it from me, darling. I’d rather be single and happy then committed to the wrong person and miserable. “
~Another “Paper Girl” Excerpt
~*~
“Do you know what all stories have in common? They end.
Such is the human life.
Since the beginning of time, no one has escaped the sad truth that our human lives will meet a conclusion someday. Many have tried to escape this, but none succeed. Nothing is new under the sun. We live and die-that is life.
But how do we as humans cope with this unrelenting cold truth? That all we know will pass in the blink of an eye? The same way we deal with all hardships:
Art.
We tell stories. We sing songs. And create.
Through art we find beauty and solace in the saddest of truths. Because sometimes the loveliest things in life are tragic, and there is beauty in caring- therefore there is beauty in hurt. This is why we can smile a little as we realize the bittersweet truth- we cannot take anything with us, but we always leave something behind.
I am choosing to leave this behind. “
~Excerpt from “Space, Soul, & Death” which was intended to be a short story collection. I started it three years ago. Perhaps I’ll write enough pieces to finish it someday.
~*~
Thanks for sticking around to read this hodge podge of a post. Perhaps you might draw some inspiration from these dusty words and snippets of dialogue!
Yet another little fun personal post. I caught covid over a year ago and while I am thankful that it is over and I got better, it has left me with my taste buds rather… altered. This list of my favorite foods would have looked vastly different before catching the illness. I used to adore savory, well seasoned foods but now I find myself enjoying much sweeter things that are a bit easier on my palette. All that being said, welcome to my list of five favorite foods! Who knows, you may find a new food you want to try?
Beignets
This was the first food that really tasted amazing after I recovered from Covid. It was about four or five months since I had caught it and I was finding out that many meats, eggs, and a lot of easy protein foods tasted rotten and weird. Event things that I could eat smelled wrong and funny to me now. But then I went to a restaurant with my sister when we were visiting the city of Saint Louis… and I had a Beignet. And it tasted and smelled amazing, as it should. Turns out sugar and cinnamon a flavors that Covid left untouched and it was incredible. You might think I’m being dramatic and maybe I am, but at the time, It was a big deal to find a food that actually smelled and tasted good. Up until this point I was craving flavors I could no longer taste correctly like egg salad, fried chicken, or roast. But they smelled rotten. Then I had a Beignet and it actually tasted amazing and familiar.
And that’s the story of how they’re my favorite food, dethroning my long standing favorite food of tacos.
Greek Gyros
Oooooooh, greek food. Lovely, lovely greek food. We have a scrumptious greek food place about twenty minutes from our house and it is amazing. With the perfect balance of meat and salad and seasoned just right, I adore these wraps as they don’t sit on your stomach like a brick and leave you feeling gross like a lot of takeout.
Fries
Hehe… speaking of feeling gross…
Even as an adult, I still really like McDonald’s fries A LOT. I mean, as long as they’re hot and I don’t eat too many of them as they can definitely make you feel icky after too many. But those first few fries are so good, especially if they’re salted just right. I know they’re terrible for me and I try to limit the amount of fast food in my life but dang, they really are my Achille’s heel sometimes.
Funfetti Goey
If you’ve had a good funetti goey butter cake piece then you KNOW. I don’t really know how to describe this dessert. I used to serve them when I worked at a tea shop and they were INCREDIBLE. They’re kind of like cake flavored brownies but goey-er (as the name implies). If you haven’t tried them before then I STRONGLY encourage you to look up a recipe and give ’em a try, especially if you have a sweet tooth. Some people eat it with ice cream, but I personally like it plain. Either way, they’re awesome even though they’re basically diabetes in a square.
Chocolate Moose Tracks Ice cream
Fun fact, I’m slightly allergic to dairy. But also fun fact, I don’t always let that stop me. Another guilty pleasure of mine is ice cream in general but especially moose tracks ice cream but especially, especially chocolate moose tracks ice cream. Chocolate is just good, man. What can I say? It’s also worth mentioning that I had a chocolate moose tracks milk shake once and that was divine. So if you ever get the chance to order or make one, I implore you to take it!
Aaaaand that’s a wrap! Just a fun little light-hearted post for you to enjoy. It’s definitely not a list of the healthiest foods but sometimes the best stuff is simply terrible for you. So what are your favorite foods? Feel free to tell me down in the comment below! Let’s discuss, this is important stuff you know!
By the Brooke 