May Characters in Costume Challenge - Reveal

And once again, the Characters in Costume Challenge reveal.

This month both my sister and I participated.

This is my sister's character:

She is a pilgrim. And she has a knife. That is the extent of the information I managed to glean from my sister.

And a pony.

This is my character. Her name is Vixa Shen, often just called Vix.

She is an orphan living in the desert country Eremnan, famous for its silk and dyes. She hunts and gathers edible plants for a living.

 Her treasures are a dagger, a single red headscarf, and the strange necklace and parchment that I posted here.

Her headscarf

She actually has red hair and gray eyes.

April Antagonists - Characters in Costume Reveal

This month I participated in the wonderful Characters in Costume Challenge at Gillian Adams' wonderful blog. This month's challenge was to dress up as or draw a picture of a villain, preferably from one of your stories. I chose to draw Interitus, the main villain for my WIP Project Awaken: Fully Alive.

My apologies for the poor photo quality. And the unfinished state of the drawing.
Interitus was once the most beautiful of all creatures, the best of the Shining Ones, the jewel of God's creation. He was named Filius Aurorae, the Son of the Morning. But he became proud, and desired to become like God, to be God. He waited, sowing the seeds of deception in the hearts of his brothers for millennium. Finally, he rebelled. He and his legions, a full third of the Shining Ones, brought discord and fear, anger and war to the Spirit Realm. They became the Night Legions, and he became Interitus, the Deceiver.
They were hurled from the heavens, sentenced to eternal separation from the presence of God. In his bitterness and anger, and hoping to find another way to wrest the Existence from God, Interitus poisoned the Basin, home of the humans. He blinded them and led them astray, destroying the link between their world and his.
Be sure to stop by the other participating sites!

In the Lamb,

~Maria

4/15/2013 - for lack of a better title.

Yikes, it's been a long time. Blogging kind of fell of the bottom of my to-do list.

Oopthie.

Anyway, I have been spending a great deal of time over at Jeff Gerke's/Jefferson Scott's engaging website Where the Map Ends. He is a Christian multi-published author who loves Christian speculative fiction, which happens to be my favorite genre, also. I warn you, he is not a conservative Christian, but I have not found anything inappropriate. He does have links to non-Christian websites, which I have not explored, so have caution.

The other thing I have been busy with is my photography. Here are my favorites from the last few months:

The bronze eagle in the hall of the Academy of Arts building.

An experiment in shallow depth-of-field with the Azaleas outside our gate.

Betcha can't guess what this is : ) Okay, I'll tell you - it's a stump.

Grass. In the wind.

Killdeer eggs. I was zoomed in all the way to get this shot.

Strange flowers on a tree at dawn.

Dew on the grass at dawn.

Chicken-nugget bats! No, this picture isn't that great, but I loved those bats. They really were the size of chicken nuggets - with wings.

And there you have it, folks!

Ciao,

~ Maria

Characters in Costume Challenge, March Edition: Reveal

Today is the deadline for the March Characters in Costume Challenge issued by Gillian Adams on her blog (http://ofbattlesdragonsandswordsofadamant.blogspot.com/). I drew an accessory for Vix, one of the main characters in my previous story, Daysong.

Please excuse the bad photo quality - I didn't know where to find a scanner.
This is a small wooden canister on a string. It contains a piece of vellum (calf's hide), on which are written several lines of script (yes, the page I drew is blank. I haven't formulated the alphabet yet.). Vix found it on a junk heap near a mansion. She really, really wants to know what it says, but she can't read this inscription. It's actually a section of the Verses, Alt-Valor's version of the Bible. It is really quite small, about three inches long. She keeps it on the string around her neck, because she never knows when someone might help her decipher the mysterious letters that have taken such a hold on her life.

News

I have some exciting news! Actually, more than some.

First off, we got Adobe Premiere Pro - for $20. Okay, $20 a month, but still. Using it is soo much fun.

Second, I found some epic music. Jonathan Maiocco, college age, has simply blown our socks off with his music. My favorites are The Wild Hills of Erin, Ever After, 100 Cupboards, and At Least You Know Who Your Are (find them here: http://jonathanmaiocco.com/fr_home.cfm).

Third, I obtained a wonderful new book: John J. Horn's Brothers At Arms. I will be posting a review on my other blog, here, as soon as I can.

More news later! I have to bake a cake.

~Maria

Hope

Hope

The silver fire within our breasts

Possessed by all whom grace have kept

Kindled first beyond our gaze

Of mortal eyes, on which a haze

Has been since Adam's fall

Hope

Placed within our hearts

For help traversing the lonely dark

Formed by the Maker in shining lands

Crafted by his powerful hands

To place within creation

Hope

Powerful though it may be

Falters when the Maker leaves

Or is forsaken by shifting man

For lies of power and riches grand

Snares of enemy cruel

Hope

Then like a lantern begins to wane

Discarded for the dangerous game

Of destiny held in mortal's will

Apart from God they slowly fail

And sink into oblivion

Hope

Yet can enter the heart of man

If he before flees the demand

Of subjection from devil's call

Into the tender mercies fall

Of Jesus' gentle arms

Hope

Then burns brighter than sun or stars

Fed by the Power that mend the mars

In souls of men both small and great

Hope leads them through the darkest night

To Zion's glorious dawn

-Maria Rod.

"Give Thanks! x7" Challenge

"Seven times a day do I praise thee because of thy righteous judgments."

Psalm 119:264

KBR Ministries is offering a challenge for girls and young women to write down 7 things they are grateful for every day, between November 1st and November 30th.

Read more at: http://kingsbloomingrose.com/challenges.html