Category: personal

LivelyLightbulbs #3

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“Don’t rely on the bulb to light up on its own; power it yourself!”

Time for another adventure into what gets my fingers flying across my keyboard – for those who care, anyway, not that I delude myself into thinking that this is a whole lot.

Photography, as always, remains an inspiration… butbutbutbut, travelling mixed with photography truly oil up the gears and gets them going!

Residing in Denmark, but having an American fiancee, I oftentimes travel to the US. Northern Minnesota, more specifically. This time, however, I also swung by New York City to breathe in the grease and blazing Subway heat. You’ll find little concrete and asphalt pictures here, however, because the deep woods and lakes are my truest friend when it comes to renewing my creativity. As a matter of fact, most of my serious writings, my novels, incorporate some element of nature. One of my past protagonists was a human vessel of Artemis the Olympic God, able to create and manipulate nature. My current protagonist is situated in an alternate Hokkaido ruled by feudal-style monsters living in the wilderness. But, back on track; I found nature in NYC, across the High Line Park, an old railway across western midtown that has been renovated into a park raised above streets and stores, but otherwise most of the photos are from Bemidji and Itasca State Park – my home away from home…

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Liebster (Discover New Blogs) Award!

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Ah, so I got nominated for the Liebster Award. Which I had no idea existed. Whatsoever. At all. So, yes, that took me by surprise. But by nice surprise, of course! And it’s all thanks to the lovely, talented Storyspiller! Make sure to give the blog a peek. If it counts for anything, it has my stamp of approval. Anyway, on with the (award)show!

The rules of this award:
1. Acknowledge the blog who nominated you and display the award.
2. Answer the 11 questions the blogger gives you.
3. Give 11 random facts about yourself.
4. Nominate 11 blogs.
5. Notify those blogs of the nomination.
6. Give them 11 questions to answer

My answers:

1. What is the first moment you remember from your life?

I honestly don’t know if this is a true memory or not, but I have a very vivid memory of crying in my stroller, staring up at the sky, having lost my pacifier, supposed to sleep, but now upset that nobody can hear me and haven’t picked me up…. Like I said; I have no idea if this is fabricated or not, but regardless, it’s there in my memory.

2. What was your last milestone?

… Paying my bills, feeling real good at adulting.

3. What is your favorite cuisine?

Danish traditional cuisine, particularly fish.

4. If you could give a speech to the whole world what would you talk about?

Not myself. For the love of god, not myself.

5. Do you like fried or baked?

I just… love food… both fried and baked.

6. Brown or white rice?

White for Asian dishes, definitely. And for fish. Brown for, well, meats?

7. Favorite disney movie?

Beauty and the Beast – no other contender for the spot. Also, I’m a feminist by nature, so no, don’t get me started on the Stockholm Syndrome debate here.

8. Who’s your favorite author?

Hmmm. Maybe if I had a starting letter, I could choose from the dozens of authors that I wholeheartedly love? No? Let’s see… Stephen King for horror, Diana Gabaldon for historical romance/drama/sci-fi, Neil Gaiman for whatever the hell his core genre is, Laurell Hamilton for supernatural, Charlotte Brönte and William Faulkner and Ray Bradbury for classical lit, Lisa See for historical with Asian focus, Jay Kristoff for YA (the only YA author I’ll read nowadays), Ai Yazawa for manga…… erm… yeah, I better stop now…

9. What kind of magazines do you read? 

Online literary ones. But I was never that great of a magazine reader, truth be told. Do comics count as books or magazines? Or, wait, they’d be a genre on their own, wouldn’t they?

10. If you could go anywhere where would you go?

Into a book. Or computer game. Or a movie. Anything with a good, fantastical narrative.

11. If you had your own mythical animal which one would it be? (Animals from books count)

Don’t know if this counts as a mythical “animal”, per se, but here goes: the specific yōkai from Japanese folklore that floats around and licks ceilings. I’d like to float around and lick the ceilings of my enemies.

11 Random facts ’bout me:
  1. I paint as a secondary hobby.
  2. I’m a master of lies.
  3. I decided to learn Japanese recently… I now live to regret it.
  4. I’m a longtime lover of K-pop and K-drama. (And J. And Chinese.)
  5. I love writing to the flicker and flame of candlelight.
  6. I wish I dared taking singing lessons.
  7. I also wish I knew how to ride a horse.
  8. I have weird, soft nails that grows in curves rather than straight.
  9. I recently chopped off half of my hair, including every last bit of dye. I now carry my own hair color for the first time since thirteen years old. And the color is not at all what I spent the last fourteen years thinking it was, meaning boring and bland. What a waste of money, right?
  10. I began my writing career as a writer of fanfiction.
  11. I prefer craft beer to white wine, but I prefer red wine to white wine.
Blogs I nominate:

https://rltierney.com/

https://simplesoulsister.com/

https://piecesandpapers.wordpress.com/

https://sawritingsblog.wordpress.com/

https://fictioncafe.net/

https://lowfrequenciesatnight.wordpress.com/

https://orchidslantern.wordpress.com/

https://aplikestowrite.wordpress.com/

https://jccauthon.wordpress.com/

https://weedstoash.wordpress.com/

https://randomroamings.wordpress.com/

My questions:
  1. What is your favorite type of weather?
  2. Do you like licorice – as in, real black licorice?
  3. What other language(s) do you wish to learn?
  4. What is the most comforting sound you can think of right now?
  5. Have you ever considered a name change for whatever reason?
  6. Which book do you hate the most?
  7. Who’s your favorite author?
  8. Christmas or New Years?
  9. Travel by plane or by ferry?
  10. What color highlighting pen do you prefer?
  11. If you could live a day of no consequences, what misdeed would you do first?

That’s it! I’ve not been very active lately, but this nomination finally seemed to set things into gear once more. It was super fun, too! And as for the blogs I’ve nominated, I’m crossing my fingers that you choose to participate in this bit of innocent fun. Promoting each other, especially fledgling and growing bloggers, is an honorable thing to spend one’s time on, is it not? As far as I understood, the blogs that I nominate has to have less than 1000 followers, so even if they aren’t actually new in terms of time, they are new in terms of deserved recognition. And new to me, as well, and hopefully now new to you!

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LivelyLightbulbs #1

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“Don’t rely on the bulb to light up on its own; power it yourself!”

I longed for a series that was less about my writings and more about what drives the creative process behind it.

Thus, lo and behold, LivelyLightbulbs came into sweet cyberspace existence!

Now, where to start – authors, music, painters, sculptors… food… ferrets?

Well, this is a writing blog, so it would be proper to focus on authors at first, but, in all honesty, I’d rather focus on what inspires me at this very moment.

And at this very moment, my inspiration comes from watercolors!

Or, more precisely, my first ever foray into watercolors (sans childhood dabbling)!

Having painted with acrylics all my life, developing an abstract and impressionistic style, I’ve felt attracted to watercolors for some time. Despite the difference in texture and feel, they have some of the same characteristics that abstract acrylics do, so I guess that my interest in them should not be a surprise.

With acrylics, I paint wet-on-wet.

As such, with watercolors, I decided on doing the same…

… after doing a bit of research on watercolor techniques.

At first, before doing research, I tried to wing it, just for fun, figuring that after a lifetime of acrylics I had to at least be able to make something of worth. Please look at the result below:


Now, please look at the result after I did a bit of research:

Needless to say, I was severely disappointed in myself with the first result, which then resulted in the second result… and then my disappointment was washed away – so yay!

Anyway, I’ve always worked best with warm and earthy tones, something that obviously also comes into play this time around – and something that will likely never change.

What does painting, be it watercolor or acrylics, do for me, then, in regards to writing?

Painting makes my brain go creatively blank in a way that writing does not.

Painting, for me, is centered on color-play and less on motifs.

Also, for me, impressionism and abstract art rely heavily on emotion.

With emotion, I can let my brain go completely blank in a way that I can’t when I write – for obvious reasons, of course, with plot structure being a main reason for that.

This “creative blankness” of my painting brain offers me a respite from intellectual thinking that thus reinvigorates my writing brain, inspiring me to return to my writing with renewed energy!

That, I feel, is grand inspiration, even if it isn’t the kind where I can step forward and say “painting this *insert-blank* inspired a sad mood within me that inspired a scene within my novel!” Now, this is the kind of inspiration that I want viewers of my art to have, but not necessarily the kind of inspiration that I myself get from crafting the piece of art. Not that there’s anything wrong with that kind of inspiration. I myself also experience that kind. Just not when I write, that is.

And… I think that’s it?

Yup – that’s it.

I’m outta words.

For now.

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