Games – Civilisation VI

I always loved my PlayStation 1 when I was a teenager and one of the games I loved to play was Civilisation II, I am so excited to discover that Civilisation has since gone through another three generations which I didn’t know about until just now.  2016 has released Civilisation VI, for both PC and Mac, for me it is a must have.

I love games like these.  I wish they would make a newer version of the game Black & White and perhaps EA Games could work on making Sims 4 as good as Sims 3 instead of taking bits out of it like they have.

As well as loving fantasy, horror, writing and art, I am a huge game buff, as you shall see in the future as I mention various new games I play.

 

Henry’s take on Dr Strange

My son is getting quite excited about a new movie coming out called ‘Dr Strange’ he is a huge Marvel fan.  I was shocked to discover that Benedict Cumberbatch will be taking the lead role, because I would have thought he’d be too busy for it, but also thrilled at the same time, he is a very talented actor.

He is looking forward to the prospect that other characters from Marvel will be having their own movies in the future that would be suitable for his age; he is six years old.  He wants Elektra, Blade and Dr Octopus.

I will say however, he has never seen Elektra or Blade the current movies, but he knows them from his Trump card collection.  He also knows Elektra from DareDevil the movie, which he watched only last week.

 

You can survive NaNoWriMo

 

NaNoWriMo is just around the corner, this is going to be my first proper attempt at NaNoWriMo this year.  I have researched this a lot and I have been preparing for it a lot in the last three weeks, so I am more than raring to go!

I have a whole novel mapped out and planned to precision, so hopefully there shouldn’t be too many blocked moments.

The aim of NaNoWriMo is that from the 1^st of November to the end of November (the 30^th) you aim to write 50,000 towards your first draft – it encourages you to actually complete your work.  You will receive lots of help and make lots of new friends that help encourage your on you way to completing your 50,000 words.  The concept is that this is how a successful best-selling working writer lives, they accomplish on an average around 50,000 words of something a month.  It’s to get you realising what life as a best-selling author is going to be like, if you wish to be someone as prolific as say Stephen King.  Now to accomplish 50,000 words in just one month, you will need to write 1,670 words per day.  Stephen King claims he doesn’t leave his writing den before he has finished writing six pages in any one day – that equates to about the same length we’re expected to write at NaNoWriMo and I must also say, his minimum is just six pages, it’s not what he does every day, he admits sometimes he writes more, but six pages is his daily goal.

Now for someone who is new to the idea of becoming a writer, or for someone who struggles putting pen to paper and is intimidated by that fearsome blank page, this idea can be very daunting – but hang in there!  NaNoWriMo members are there to talk you through it, give you tips on how to survive this and what’s more, it will help make you feel like you’ve achieved something.  Your first draft isn’t meant to be perfect, some authors have to redraft their work twenty times before it’s prime enough for publication – don’t be too hard on yourself, or your first draft or baby you won’t survive.

Simple tip for getting 50,000 words at NaNoWriMo, just write, forget editing, just write – it’s your first draft, it’s not meant to be perfect!

 

 

 

The wrong time

For the last two days I have posted later in the day, not the morning like I usually do because I have been busy with my son.  It is the October half term, I am still getting over what was now discovered to be a mild case of pneumonia, and thankfully they caught it with strong drugs on time.  I luckily had a doctor with the savvy to take a swab from me, something that’s getting rarer these days – intelligent and compassionate doctors.

I never heard of pneumonia of the ear, but it explains why my infection has lasted a solid 5 weeks this time around.

Anyway, I have tried to work hard and make various posts for scheduled posting to stick to my promise of a post a day, but for some reason or other the posts I have chosen to write aren’t time compatible.  I have been thinking about Christmas and New Year a lot, so a lot of the poetry and discussions I’ve written are schedule for 6 to 9 weeks’ time.

In those discussions I’ve spoken about how I feel about various festive traditions and songs, such as “Marshmallow World” by Bing Crosby and “Susie Snowflake” and the idea of the Krampas etc.

I don’t know why my mind is set in mid-winter but I find it very enchanting, however, it is not time compatible just yet.

Stick with me

 

 

 

Fantasy Art & Gnomevember

Gnomevember is something I found whilst using WordPress reader and looking for the tag “Fantasy” as I love to do every day.  I am really glad I found it and I think it’s a good idea, but I don’t think it should be just an artist thing – I think it should also be used for writers as well, write a gnome story for Gnomevember, but of course, because I am both an artist and writer, I shall be trying to do them both throughout the month, if I have time along with NaNoWriMo.

I also learned that there are other months too, MerMay, Junicorn, Smaugust and Orctober. 

Now you’re probably wondering what are you talking about?

Well, where I found all these delightful things, simple, here https://rachelillustrates.wordpress.com/2016/10/22/gnomevember/ Gnomevember aims to get fantasy artists concentrating on gnomes throughout the whole of the November month, a gnome a day.

MerMay simply concentrates on mermaids and mermen.

Junicorn obviously concentrates on unicorns and so on.

It’s all in the spirit of Inktober and NaNoWriMo creative kick up the backsides.  It’s to get you doing something every day, working as a team to motivate each other, which helps not only to increase your creative social circle, but helps make you more productive, more regularly and get you into doing some of your art each day.  I think it’s wonderful and we should invent something for every month of the year, as we all, even professional artists and writers feel very sluggish sometimes.

I think there should be a Dracember (a dragon a day month for December).

I also think it would be cool to do one off days, not whole months.  Perhaps Howlaween, making sure you create a werewolf or a wolf for Halloween, either as a story or a piece of art?

Anyway, get visiting Rachel’s website, the link can be found above and get stuck into Gnomevember.

 

 

#Gnomevember!

Really glad I found this, found it very insightful as I have never heard of mermay, junicorn or any other the others. Thank you.

Rachel illustrates : fantasy art and Faerie devotion

In the spirit of MerMay, Junicorn, Smaugust, and Orctober (and any others I don’t know about), let’s make this a thing!

Draw a Gnome every day for the entire month of November! (And yes, obviously, I’ll be doing this too!) Hope to see lots and lots of Gnomes around here soon ❤

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Anne Stokes Aracnafaria

Anne Stokes is one of my favourite Gothic artists; if I had money I would try and decorate my house with more of her work.  As a Christmas present in 2012 my nephew Carl and his daughters gave me a 1000 piece puzzle of Aracnafaria, one of Anne Stokes masterpieces.  I finished the puzzle in just 10 days.   I am so proud of it, it’s still wrapped in cling film around a board that I had intended to use as a backboard in order to eventually frame it, but I have never got around to doing that and it’s stored on the top of my wardrobe.

As an artist I aspire to do work as great as Anne Stokes, however, in my own opinion it’s just an airheaded dream, because I am nowhere as good as Anne Stokes and I specialise mostly in what I think are cartoon dragons and animals.

 

 

Tina is dead, long live me

I have chosen to die

I have chosen to grow

I have chosen to be someone you don’t know

Someone that was hidden

Far from view

Someone who knows you, but you don’t know who

I am now new

Though I am almost old

I was someone who did as they were told

Now I am fresh and I am now wise

I have changed totally in everyone’s eyes

But I am not changed because of who I am with

I am changed because I feel less stiff

I feel more free

 To be more me

Not someone that you wanted me to be

I am not Tina, I am not there

I am someone else, someone you can’t scare

Tina is dead

Long live me

Tina is gone

Now I live free

 

 

elusive inspiration

I will be talking more about what inspires me in the future of this blog, because there are a lot of wonderful things out there that fills this creative mind of mine right up.  A lot of things that take my interest seem to be almost unheard of, music, artists, fashion experts etc.  It seems to me that I like the obscure or the famous that aren’t that famous enough to be a known household name.

I think it’s a shame that some people who inspire me aren’t known more.  I think it’s a shame that even I find it hard to find their works.  Also, not all people who inspire me are famous – not all people who inspire me have say – published a book yet, or sold a piece of art.  But there are some who have made it into their local newspaper for producing good art at big social events, but aren’t well known in any other form.

I like the elusive people, but I wish they weren’t so elusive.

 

 

The Moon Dancing Witch

Shards of moonlight glimmer through the night forest canopy, silver lights my path towards the centre where the agaric grows and now at this midnight hour, I see them glowing.  I hear little titters of laughter around me, gently little folk enter the toadstool circle and surround me.  Smiling, cheerfully, welcoming me to their magic circle.

A young girl elf holds out her hand and greets me, smiles at her brother as she leads me to join hands and join in with the moon dance.

Merriment was made there that awesome night.

What a grand thing to be a witch.