Songkeeper - Artair's Sword

So, you have all heard that I am a terrible artist. Right? Well if the answer was no, now you have.
But if I get desperate/excited/inspired enough, I might give it a go.

Generally speaking those attempts end their very short days in shredded pieces in the bin.

But not this day!

To inspire me to even attempt anything slightly art-ish is an amazing feat (unless I'm making pizza, in which case it's easy to be artistic). Therefore I must impart the great and amazing thing that made me do it:

Songkeeper

A book. Called Songkeeper. And the fact that I'm on the 'launch team' probably helped a little.


So I guess you'll all want to see my picture now. *Sighs* Well, that's what this post was for. Here goes:

Ahem...So...yeah. How d'you like it? If you weren't sure, the picture's of a sword (Artair's sword) at the bottom of a river. It turned out better than I expected...

I just started with a sketch and then my DLS (A bit like DLF only it stands for 'Dear Little Sister' - even if she's older) helped me discover, ever deeper, the ways of colouring something in on photoshop. 


Now that we've got the picture over and done with, I can rant about 'Songkeeper!' Okay, I'll let you go lightly then. But only if you read the book!

Songkeeper is a really, really, really, really (really, really really) good book. Epicly so. I was actually jittering in my seat through half of it. It was good.

Oh, I guess I'd better mention that it's the second book in the Songkeeper Chronicles, and Orphan's Song (the first book) was definitely just as great.

I reviewed it on Goodreads here. And for those of you who couldn't be bothered to click on the link, I'll stick it in here too. :)


“This book is SO GOOD! I just can't even think straight anymore. I enjoyed Orphan's Song massively and expected great things from Songkeeper. And I am not disappointed at all.

The characters are all amazingly real, relatable, and just plain awesome. To start off the awesomeness we have the unique but pronounceable names, super great! Add that to complex personalities, struggles and pains. I was drawn ever deeper into the lives of all the characters.
And I will never believe that [character - whose name I shall not state] died unless I see the body. I refuse to believe.

This book had me literally jittering from epic-ness. The pace never slackens for a moment, and it's page turning the whole way. I can't put the amazingness into words! Everything about this book is impossibly and completely great and epic. Plus, there's now a map, triple the epic!

Songkeeper's tone is diferent than Orphan's Song. There is war all over Leira, and suffering at every turn. This book takes a darker turn, looking into the pain deeper, as the characters experience it in different ways. There is blood, there are wounds and deaths, but I was not bothered by it. The pain of the characters made them more real.

ARCs are officially amazing. I was barely able to put this book down as soon as I got it. When's the next book coming out?! Songkeeper has kept up the amazingness of Orphan's Song, adding to it, even. My recommendations for this books are flooding out over every single person ever.
Go read the book.”

Since I said I'd let you off lightly (trust me, I accidentally ranted for a whole page about this book in my last letter to my cousin) I'd better leave you with that final instruction. Read de book, see you on Friday, and (for all the Aussies) hope you have/had a great ANZAC Day.

Fair Winds!

Useless Inventions and Random Fangirling

“A monkey glances up and sees a banana, and that's as far as he looks. A visionary looks up and sees the moon.” Victor said.

Conor smirked, “Which resembles a giant banana” ~ Airman.

In my latest Dusty Red post (part 11), I mentioned that I'd recently finished reading Airman by Eoin Colfer. Here is the promised post, including one or two random bits and pieces. But first, the cover of the book and the synopsis...

"Conor Broekhart was born to fly. Or, more accurately, he was born flying. Little wonder he became what he became. In an age of discovery and invention, many dreamed of flying, but for Conor, flight was more than just a dream, it was his destiny. 

In one dark night on the island of Great Saltee, a cruel and cunning betrayal destroyed his life and stole his future. Now Conor must win the race for flight, to save his family and to right a terrible wrong..."

Doesn't it sound cool? And I reckon the cover's interesting too. You (yes that means you) should really read this book, it's great book. And now to tell you about the invention.

I decided that making a flying machine would be too difficult so I decided to try something else....a "Mysterious winged 'A'", as it is called in the book. See the big 'A' thingy in the picture? Not the one at the beginning of the word 'Airman' but the 'A' above the 'M'. That's what I made. Using tie wire, paper, scissors, glue, pliers and (of course) myself.

First I used the pliers and my fingers to bend the wire into an A shape (extremely difficult). I'd aimed to make the A slightly bigger than it is in real life on the cover of the book, but that kind of failed as I hadn't cut myself a big enough piece of wire so the 'wings' of the A were...not so good (or long) to put it lightly.

For my second attempt (I was very committed to this) I got a nice long bit of wire and also decided to make the A smaller. I'd made the top corner and one side, but when I went to do the other side I squeezed the wire a little too hard and it snapped. Typical.

Then I used what was previously going to be a 'wing' and tried again. Attempt number 3. This time I was very careful not to snap the wire. And after a lot of twisting, bending, muttering and hoping, I did it! And it actually didn't look too bad.

But that was only the first part.

I then printed out an A like in the picture above and used the scissors to cut it out. Then I used bucket loads of glue (perhaps that's a slight exaggeration, but I did use more than I needed too) and glued the paper to the wire. After that I accidentally shoved the 2nd attempt other bit of leftover wire up my thumbnail (not a smart move), and so I decided to go inside and wash all the blood off my finger.

So that's how I made the random-and-completely-useless-but-cool invention (sadly I have no photos, but you can trust me. It looks cool.). I'm not entirely sure what to do with it now...but it was fun making it. I think I'm currently getting just a little obsessed with Airman. Oh well, who cares?

I think I may have run out of things to say, but I'll conclude with several quotes and adding one last time, "You should seriously read this book!" And if you find the quotes slightly confusing go read the book and you will understand everything.

“Don’t feel bad; I regularly reduce people to unintelligible stammers.” ~ Victor Vingy

“Conor, I could search the world for another swashbuckling scientist, but I doubt if I would find one like you.” ~ Isabella

“Other men look up and down, left and right; but men like us are different. We are visionaries.” ~ Linus Wynter

~ Jane, Misty Maiden

Dusty Red ~ Part 11

Since I started doing this, I keep finding it amazing how short a time there is between Fridays. I'm sure some days are longer than others, especially if I'm waiting for something. Sometimes I'll think, "We met them three years ago?" and other times "I thought we'd known them forever!" It can be quite confusing to contemplate the passing of time so I think I'll leave it at that.

Now, a bit about my week. 

It was a nice week, doing schoolwork, reading books, writing stories, making random and completely useless inventions...my usual week. But to go into more detail...On Monday I finally finished reading Airman by Eoin Colfer, I say finally because I was putting off reading the end because if I read it...it would be finished...there'd be no more...and that'd be rather sad. As you may have guessed I really enjoyed it...you can read my review on Goodreads. But you'll hear more about Airman and the inventing next Monday.

Just after I finished that wonderful book, Clare started reading Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. I hadn't read that yet (although I really wanted to) because I am 'forbidden' to read them before Clare. So when she started reading that book I decided not to wait around for her to finish it and I started 'The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes' because with Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets she took ages to read it. And naturally when I start a nice long book, she goes and reads it in one day! (and half the night) Now I have to wait for Myself, how annoying. (Myself should just hurry up and finish Sherlock Holmes so I can read Harry Potter) If only I could read a different book than what Myself is reading...

And speaking of reading I must say I didn't do much of it yesterday (Thursday) as I spent mostly all day writing Dusty Red. I was having difficulty ending it and so this instalment is by far the longest yet. It's 1,908 words including the 3 options, quite a bit longer than my usual one thousand and maybe one hundred. I hope you enjoy it as I'm not planning on doing it again. I might do something nice and long for instalment 100...But that is only happening in 2017 (the fifth of May I think) so I don't think I have to worry about that yet.

And now, before you start reading I'll warn you. There is loads of random fantasy creatures in here. Heaps of them. No, they (Flicks and co.) didn't world travel, but through the passage is a world full of all the magic creatures that used to live in Rocos and the surrounding counties. Now the magic things only venture out occasionally and then generally only the dragons are brave enough to do so.

A tangle of huge tree roots filled the large cavern, forming an underground forest. Along the twisting wood, hundreds of candles flickered, lighting up the web of roots.

Flicks took a slow step inside, looking around the candlelit room, her companions following behind her. The green dragon twitched its tail and leapt off Flicks’ shoulder, flapping its bat like wings. It settled on a tree root several meters away, fixing its orange eyes on Flicks.

Skilf tilted her head to one side. “Do we follow it?” she asked no one in particular.

Flicks shrugged. “We can’t very well go back while the storm is…umm… storming. And we’ve come this far we may as well keep going.” She walked over to the dragon but it took off again, stopping beside a candle set in the twisted roots.

Crash!

Flicks jumped in surprise and whirled around as the bang echoed through the cavern. The door was shut. Flicks tried to quiet her thumping heart, it was just the door, everything’s fine, just the door. Old Ron walked to the wood and iron door. “There don’t be no ‘andle as I can be seein’,” he said, turning back to the four watching him. “I guess we be goin’’ on.”

Kendal snorted softly, “There’s not much else we can do. I say we shouldn’t have followed the dragon in the first place, but it’s a bit late now.”

Flicks returned her gaze to the Seodín and moved towards it, stepping over a few entwining roots. Old Ron came after her, behind him, Nainsi and Kendal took their places silently. Skilf again took up the rear, only just managing not to measure her length on the ground as she tripped over a protruding root.

The Seodín led them through the tangle to a clear path which they were all thankful for, as face-planting on the rock and clay underfoot wasn’t the most pleasant prospect. On the track the going was much easier and the Seodín, satisfied they were heading in the right direction, settled itself on Flicks’ shoulder once more.

It was only a short time until Flicks emerged from the forest of tree roots and into what seemed like a completely different world.

There was light everywhere, not just from the candles, it appeared to come from no particular place, simply lighting up all around the five travellers. And now they stood among trees, tall trees with vines and creepers spiralling up the trunks. And from the trees came a constant whispering like that of leaves rustling together in a breeze, only the air was perfectly still. Flicks and her companions regarded the strange place they’d entered, wondering vaguely if they’d just world travelled again.

Skilf took a few steps forward, advancing along the trail, her eyes on the trees and plants around her. “This is an odd place,” she murmured, kicking idly at a twig lying on that path.

Instantly the twig leapt up and shrieked, jumping up and down in what looked like a furious anger. Skilf yelped in shock and jumped backwards, landing hard on Flicks’ foot.

“Ow!” Flicks grabbed her foot, hopping on the other, nearly knocking the Seodín from her shoulder. But she stopped quite suddenly when the whisper from the trees became a screech and the leaves and twigs detached themselves from the branches and came hurtling down towards the two foreigners in the center of the path.

Skilf and Flicks had no time to move before the strange creatures reached them. It was like being caught in a whirlwind in autumn, leaves and twigs flew everywhere. Flicks batted them away, but they just kept coming. The dragon on her shoulder wasn’t fairing much better, and it flapped its wings in an attempt to knock the attackers aside. It’s uncertain what would have become of them had it not been for the intervention of the Woodsman.

The first Flicks and Skilf knew of him was a loud voice calling through the clouds of leaves and sticks. “Leafits and Twigins! What do you think you’re doing?”

At that the whirlwind abruptly subsided and Flicks blinked in surprise to find a tall manlike creature standing nearby. He was just as strange a thing as the Leafits and Twigins now standing silently on the ground around Flicks’ feet. He didn’t look like a tree, but more as if he was made up from bunches of sticks and small branches all joined together somehow. His sky blue eyes rested on the crowd scattered around on the dirt path.

“You know you must never do that kind of thing. It is a disgrace to our realm to have visitors welcomed in such a manner. I am ashamed of you all.” the Woodsman admonished.
The small critters hung their leaf and twig like heads in shame, shuffling their tiny feet like disobedient children. One Twigin spoke up in a squeaky voice, “We are disgraced, Master Woodsman.” All the heads nodded in agreement.

Woodsman turned to the Leafits, “And you?”

“As are we, Master Woodsman,” one Leafit replied.

“Very well, return to your trees now,” Woodsman instructed.

The green Leafits and brown Twigins departed quickly and the Woodsman looked at Flicks and Skilf, who stood on the path not a little bemused by the goings on.

“Never mind them,” the Woodsman said. “They do that often.” He clapped his wooden hands together, “But you must be the visitors the Queen is expecting. I shall take you to her immediately.”

“The queen expects us?” Nainsi said. She, Kendal and Ron had been far enough back that they hadn’t been affected by the leaf and twig fight going on in front of them.

Flicks pulled one last stubborn Leafit from her red hair, it shook a tiny fist at her and struggled in her grasp. Flicks released it and the leaf like figure wiggled its pointy ears at her and shot up towards a tree, the Seodín looked as if he considered flying after it but must have decided against it, preferring to stay perched on Flicks’ shoulder.

“Where are we anyway?” Flicks asked the Woodsman curiously. “Are we still in Rocos or…somewhere completely different?”

The Woodsman tilted his head thoughtfully. “We are…under Rocos…we call this place Esueño. I think I shall let the queen explain further.” He turned and began tramping along the path, looking back once or twice to make certain they were following him.

“Does this kind of thing usually happen around here?” Flicks asked Skilf, who was busy avoiding all the fallen sticks and leaves that lay on the path.

“Not as far as I know,” she replied. “This is the weirdest day of my life. I think through the passage it’s, not a different world entirely, but more a different realm. A realm of magic perhaps. Maybe this is where all the magic things live, and they come out every now and then,” she paused. “Although I’ve never seen a Twigin or a Leafit before, just dragons really and the occasional Imp-goblin. Never seen a thing like Woodsman either.”

At this Woodsman turned again, as if hearing his name. He beckoned them to follow and continued on his way. Fairly soon the surrounding forest became more sophisticated looking, with tall lantern like flowers on either side of the widening road and more people hurrying along past.

Flicks noticed that not all of these people were strange creatures, in fact many of them looked like perfectly normal people but for the fact the every one of them had a dragon balanced on his or her shoulder. The other occupants of the road were stranger, Skilf pointed out several Imp-goblins -- short men with leathery skin, pointy ears and a mischievous grin -- and there were other things she couldn’t identify. Flicks almost laughed when she saw a rather funny looking mushroom man strolling along the street, but she sensed it would be a mistake and so smothered her mirth.

It seemed all too soon for Flicks that they were brought to a halt by two guards, both with a dragon companion, standing in front of two large doors of glittering white, with opal coloured swirling engravings around the edge.

“I have the visitors the Queen was expecting,” Woodsman said. He turned and spoke to Flicks, “You will be escorted to see the queen presently. As for me, I must leave you now and return to my duty.” With that he stomped off back the way they’d come.

One of the guards, a brown haired young man with an orange dragon, stepped forward and addressed Flicks, assuming that since Woodsman had spoken to her she must be the leader, “I am Lieutenant Hákon Dragontíre, guard of the Queen of Esueño. I shall escort you to a place where you may await the queen’s bidding.”

Flicks nodded a little uncertainly, “If you say so.”

He turned on his heel and pushed lightly on the doors which swung open silently. Flicks and the others entered the room, staring around them in wonder. The door swung shut silently behind them. The walls of the castle were as white as the main door, and the opal blue was also present in the beautiful swirling designs that wound along the walls, floor and ceiling.

The guard led them to a smaller antechamber. Motioning for them to be seated on the chairs, he walked through a door on the far side, leaving them in silence. Flicks looked at her hands, feeling uncomfortably dirty in such a clean and spotless palace. She began to have doubts, she’d never seen a castle before, let alone spoken to a queen. What if she said something wrong?

The young guard re-entered the room. “The queen is ready to see you. But only the two red-haired ones are permitted, I am to show the rest of you to rooms where you can repose, eat and wait.”
Nainsi, Ron and Kendal all protested at this but the guard was firm. “It is the queen’s order,” He replied to their complaints. Eventually they subsided and the guard led Flicks and Skilf through the door and into the great hall.

The room was styled the same as the entry hall, but for the blue design on the ceiling high above them. It wasn’t a random pattern of swirls but a picture. Flicks could make out a dragon and some kind of bird, perhaps a phoenix. But she brought her mind back to the situation at hand and turned her eyes toward the end of the room, to where the throne was situated. Then something rather strange happened...

~

Now, your options. And trust me, no matter what some have said, you do make the decision, not me. I simply write the story. (This I say with a look of utmost innocence on my face.)

1. Flicks noticed a small table by the throne, and her attention was caught by a glowing stone resting in a shallow woven basket.

2. Just then there came a flurry of movement and a guard rushed in through a side door and ran to the queen’s side. His voice was urgent as he addressed the queen, “Apologies, my lady. But there is an enemy in the castle. ”

3. Flicks looked at the throne. It was empty. She frowned, but then shrugged, the queen will walk in presently, she told herself. But then the guard stepped forward, staring around the empty room, he turned to Flicks and Skilf, “My apologies ladies. The queen was in here just seconds ago. I’m sure she will be back soon. If you will just excuse me I shall find out the reason for her sudden departure.”

~

I must say, I quite enjoyed creating thing like the Woodsman, Twigins, Leafits and all the other things. It was rather fun. I hope you had just as much fun reading about them. I await your comments eagerly.

Fare Thee Well.

~ Jane, Misty Maiden