Join me in congratulating Earth for making another successful orbit around the sun. Good job, Earth!
I made up my own challenge and decided to do 24 days of art last month. The goal: draw/paint something or work on an unfinished piece for the first 24 days of December, and I am happy to report that I DID IT! If you remember my post in May when I lamented over the fact that I wasn’t as prolific as I used to be, 24 days of art helped me overcome that difficulty.
With out further adieu, here is the result of December’s challenge.
All
Mars
Nature
The Aurora Mountains
Inspired by the one and only Bob Ross! I learned so much from him.
American River
This is based on a photo I took during my July trip to my home state of California. It’s not finished yet, but it was so much fun to finally get this one started.
Alice of two worlds
My character Alice from my unfinished story set in the world of Sisters. What would you be like on other worlds?
Mars & Starfury
A tribute to two of my favorite things: Mars and Babylon 5’s Psi Corps. The Black Omega squadron soars through Mars’ atmosphere into the great beyond.
MCRN: Self portrait
Because I can, ha ha!
A Winter Escape
A fun painting that I had a great time working on and completing. A family of bears marches through the snow as the frozen lake glimmers in the moonlight.
Admiral Smith of the MCRN
A tribute to The Expanse, Mars, the MCRN, and of course Smith from The Man in the High Castle
Windy Beach
One of my first attempts at oil painting. This was a learning experience for sure!
Elf with blue hair
Something fun and different, an ode to the many elves I drew in the early 2000s.
I started writing something new, and I decided to share the first draft, chapter by chapter with everyone. I mean, it will force me to stay on top of things; plus, I can open the comments up to readers who enjoy spotting typos and grammatical errors (I’m thinking of doing something special to reward people for that–a prize tier list for how many errors you spot! Let me know if this sounds like something you’d like to participate in).
Metropolis is set on a distant, dying world (of the same name) ruled by an authoritarian government. Annalise Drake assumes life is good, for she knows nothing else…
I missed the last two Seriously Geeky Sundays. Let’s just say those two weeks were chaotic, and I suppose that is the norm because it’s 2020. For starters, this was my Internet for one of the weekends:
Fiber cable snapped in half by a large truck
You know what I miss? Traveling. Hell, I miss everything. I keep thinking that there has got to be a better way to handle a pandemic than this. We’re twenty years into the new millennium for Pete’s sake! Even I am starting to fray at the seams, but you better believe I am fighting it. 😉
Before I derail this week’s post into a vent session about 2020, I’ll just jump right into today’s prompt, which is the first in a series!
27th September – Around the World in 8 Sundays – Western Europe
It’s World Tourism day and today I’m launching SGS’s first multi-part theme! With 21st Century tech we don’t need to take 80 days like Jules Verne to go around the world. Instead for the next 8 months, one Sunday will be dedicated to a continent (with Europe divided into two to give us our total of 8). That week will explore fandoms set only in countries in that continent. For the first week, I’ve started with what’s home base for me; Western Europe.
I have to go with my current writing project’s protagonist and namesake, Alice from Alice in Wonderland. I have always been fascinated by her. She’s thrown into this strange world where normal physics and rules don’t apply. She is a character of discovery.
My character Alice about to step into another world.
Who is your favourite character from the Western European mainland?
Jean-Luc Picard from Star Trek: The Next Generation. He is a calm leader, but he isn’t without a certain level of strength and cunning. For starters, In the episode, The Ensigns of Command, he uses the bureaucratic Sheliak’s treaty against them. He out smarted them by using their own words.
Jean-Luc Picard as a Psi Cop Admiral because he’s badass like that.
Who is your favourite Western European actor?
Ahem. *Drops pictures*
What is your favourite film set in this region?
I absolutely LOVE WWII documentaries. One of my all time favorites is World War II in Colour on Netflix. If you are a history buff or interested in WWII, it is well worth a watch.
Western Europe is filled with history; which historical event, era or character to be featured in fandom has been your favourite?
The alternate outcome of WWII featured in Amazon’s The Man in the High Castle. We don’t get to see much of Europe, but what little we saw of it (Berlin) fascinated me. I was hoping they’d show more of Europe and how the alternate outcome would have affected the continent.
Choose one of your favourite fandoms to go on a trip to Western Europe; where do they go? What do they get up to? Is it business, pleasure or not by choice at all?
Since Smith, Joe, and others from High Castle have done that in the show, I’ll pick Babylon 5...and Alfred Bester of course!
I can see him chasing a Blip (a telepath who refuses to join the Psi Corps or take the meds that deactivate their telepathic ability ) all across Europe, a game of cat and mouse. He weaves in and out of historical castles, cathedrals, and possibly The Black Forest in Germany on an epic chase that he will remember as his toughest!
With a new decade upon us in just a few days, I am going to throw myself in the the cliche tradition of coming up with New Year resolutions. Worry not, dear friends, these aren’t your run of the mill, generic, go to the gym every single day and stop going after a week or start eating stuff I hate to go on a diet and fail because gross who wants to eat crap they don’t like? I want to start writing again.
That’s it. That’s my resolution.
I haven’t written much at all since 2018 and it’s high time I got back into it. I’ve got a novel planned and outlined that hasn’t been finished since…you guessed it, 2018!
Here is the first chapter, and let me raise a glass to everyone; may the 20s be roaring.
This post was inspired by a conversation I had with @tmithc_fanpage and my amazing #HighCastle friends on Twitter. We were talking about the multiverse and coming up with different worlds. We wondered how many would show up in Season 4 and if there was one ruled by the Red Army.
This reminded me of the alternate history novel I never finished where, you guessed it, the Red Army conquered most of the planet.
Enjoy the first two chapters for a look inside an alternate reality!
Just in case this needs to be said…This is not a political excerpt. It is pure fiction. That’s it. 🙂
