Jenna Blackmore Books @jennablackmorebooks - Tumblr Blog

My book collection 📚 Fantasy, mystery, and poetry 📖

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girl-blorbo-polls

What Classical Element is your girl blorbo?

Earth

Water

Air

Fire

Aether

Remaining time: 6 days 16 hours

#Margareta Fontaine's name means something like pearl fountain and a cult leader insists she's the priestess for a sea goddess #a sea goddess invented by lost sailors and for which a magical conch shell is sacred and pearls are an offering #I think water is the only beverage we catch her drinking in the entirety of Priestess of the Seventh Magpie's pages #and she takes a particularly unfortunate swim in the harbour once during a storm (out of necessity rather than want)#she does a sea glass ritual. at the sea.#chat i think she might be water?

girl-blorbo-polls

Would your girl blorbo believe in astrology?

Yes, she’s hardcore into it

She’s into it but not in that deep

Sometimes reads her horoscope for fun

Doesn’t care for it

Really does not like it

Other/nuance

Remaining time: 1 day 16 hours

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I think Margareta Fontaine reads her horoscope occasionally for fun and nothing more. She won't go out of her way to look for it, but if she's already got the newspaper in her hand, she might as well read the horoscopes. In Priestess of the Seventh Magpie, she's skeptical of metaphysical business and esoteric beliefs (p. 42), and even when she encounters in-world actual magic, she distances herself from embracing it, or even believing it at first, considering it foolish (p. 10) and dangerous (p. 118). However, there are a couple of pieces of evidence that suggest to me she's not unfamiliar with astrology and would view it as a bit of fun, though meaningless fun.

Firstly, Margareta is vaguely familiar enough with New Age concepts to ask Wilfrid Mason, "So, what are you, New Age or something?" when he tells her about his belief in the goddess he insists she's the new priestess for (p. 43). To know what is roughly in the ballpark of New Age, Margareta would have had to encounter New Age or related concepts and the term at least enough to be able to make the connection, and because astrology is one of the more common ones people encounter, Margareta definitely knows of astrology. New Age is enough of a bizarre novelty to her to have "or something" appended to it in her question, but but she's less actively hostile toward Wilfrid when she thinks he's kind of New Age instead of a complete "religious fanatic" for a specific goddess she's never heard of before this (p. 42). So, Margareta sees New Age stuff as a novelty; maybe not to be taken seriously, but something that some people engage in.

Secondly, a detail is narrated, much later, as three cultists carrying in "...water urns like a triplicated Aquarius constellation..." which suggests that Margareta knows enough about the zodiac symbolism and lore to call it to mind when she sees water carriers water carrying (p. 169). Margareta not only knows of astrology, but she's not averse to it enough to not reference it, and the zodiac is an easy enough point of reference for her to call up that she's definitely thought of it before now and then enough to know the details. (Is Aquarius her sign? Is that why she knows that one? if it were her crush Leigh's, I think she would not want to compare cultists preparing part of an unwanted marriage ritual to it.)

However, because of Margareta's skepticism and her religious leanings (she thinks she's not very religious and she only got it from her grandparents, but she complains of blasphemy once and prays consistently), she's not likely to take up actual belief in astrology as a fortune-telling method (p. 42).

My verdict: Margareta reads hers now and then and doesn't really think it means anything but a bit of fun. (But, I think she reads her crush Leigh's horoscope and fantasizes about what it might mean for the two of them, even if rationally, she knows it could apply to anyone.)

As for Leigh Irving herself, her birth date being "two and a half years" earlier than Margareta's suggests that if Margareta's is indeed Aquarius (which I'm willing to believe for the water symbolism in Margareta's whole deal alone) Leigh would have one of the summer ones (p. 28). Because Leigh loves and studied folklore, she might have an interest in the myths behind the shapes of the zodiac, and how people use astrology to interpret their lives. Does she believe it? It could be a similar case to the silver coin she carries in her pocket so her nan doesn't get worried about her being taken by fairies—she might not believe it wholeheartedly, but life feels more magical to her if she lets herself have a bit of fun with it (p. 26). She's checking her horoscope now and then 'just in case' and if you talk to her about it, good luck figuring out if the stars in her eyes are from genuine belief or from intellectual passion.

#it's past four in the morning why am I thinking so much about this #you know i;m in deep when i' m citing page numbers

girl-blorbo-polls

Does your girl blorbo have any floral theming/symbolism tied to her character?

Yes, flowers in general

Yes, a specific flower

No, but she’s associated with another plant

No, not at all

Nuance

Remaining time: 4 days 16 hours

#Camellia Sendry = I'll give you three guesses and the first two don't count #Oriel Madder = dyer's madder #Margareta Fontaine = annual honesty (but only during her dreadful wedding) (she really values being honest also yes)#Adrienne Passer = blue flag iris #Amara Toki = lilies #Mae Chouko = satsuki azalea #Fleurde Alba = moonflower #Dea Rodiké = moon orchid #Rhiannon Herkimer = lily of the valley in present and sunflower in the past #Marcail = magnolia because it was her Earth name before she went to a new magical world and got a new one #i could go on and on but i think we get the idea. i throw floral symbolism all over the place

lesbiantiana

if you had the money/time/resources to bring your OC’s story to life, what medium would you choose?

a book/book series

a comic book/graphic novel

a webcomic

a tv show/cartoon

a movie

a play/musical

an album

a video game

I don’t have any original characters

Remaining time: 5 hours 52 minutes

#I've already chosen the book option many times over ^^; I guess that makes my vote!#if I had to do something I haven't done already though I think movies or tv would be pretty cool to adapt the stories into

mizuthe-cat

sometimes you name your oc something stupid and it sticks and you cannot change it so you just have a guy named Hoobry Styloobs now

writeblrsummerfest

Isolation can be hard to get past. When we're alone, or lost, or somewhere we've never wanted to be...it can be hard. Terrifying, even.

What is your main character's lowest point? What made them think they might not be able to get back up, that they might not have had anything else in them?

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In Priestess of the Seventh Magpie, Margareta Fontaine has gone from being simply a bookshop employee mostly contented with her everyday routine to a cult leader's bride and priestess for a goddess she does not believe in, after having been influenced by the hypnotic powers of a shell sacred to the cult. Margareta feels worse the deeper into it she gets; her agency has been taken from her, her values of honesty have repeatedly been compromised, and she knows the cult leader does not even love her, but rather sees her as a quick replacement for the last priestess, and thus a way to restore his bond with his goddess.

But her greatest moment of despair, I think, comes in the final chapter. Margareta has been drugged by her new husband Wilfrid. She's been shut up in an attic that she cannot open from the inside. And Wilfrid has designs on sacrificing the heart of Leigh, the woman Margareta secretly loves. She tries and fails to warn Leigh, and in her drugged daze, Margareta loses consciousness. When she wakes, she knows there's a chance that it's too late, that Leigh might already be dead.

Margareta rested her head against the floor and held still in the darkness for a short time that stretched on forever. She tried to call Leigh again. The call went to voicemail. Margareta could not collect herself enough to leave one. She set her phone and purse down beside her and closed her eyes as the attic floated in dark, tranquil, anticlockwise circles around her. Hours passed. Margareta bolted to attention on the floor. When she checked the time on her phone, the large numbers on the screen told her it was five minutes to half past nine at night. A storm reverberated outside of the house; the weather system that had moved in on the city had grown from its expected size, sending torrential rain and high winds across the roof. She called Leigh and received no answer. Her head ached and her heart tightened. Margareta prayed she did not wake too late, that she had not slept off the drug while Wilfrid murdered Leigh. Margareta cried inconsolably, her sobs rivalling the noise of the storm. She sat up and wrapped her arms around herself, scared for Leigh and deeply alone.

Throughout her other challenges, Margareta's misery is joined by her attempts to figure out how to improve her situation. Here, there's no problem solving going on, no clever or foolish plan to try to turn the odds around. The best she can do is make a call that will go unanswered.

#writeblr summerfest

gr8writingtips

watching the eclipse right now? that doesn't sound like writing to me

#OKAY SORRYYYY i got a couple of sentences done after i got back inside thoughhh #the partial eclipse does not have much of a prominent effect where i am right now but it put a subtle evening-like glow to the afternoon #looking outside of the window it's harder to tell but walking around outside felt like being in a very slightly colour-graded movie #but. peak coverage is over for my area. back to the document. prequel book doesn't stop entirely for wondrous cosmic events !!

writeblrsummerfest

Look, there's a lost and found box at the bottom of the merry-go-round! Oh, I wonder what's in it!

Let's see. We've got an old pair of sunglasses, a broken cellphone, one red clown shoe (right foot), and a rubber ducky.

That's...unfortunate.

Did I mention, I've lost my favorite bracelet?

...do you think you can help me find it? Oh, say yes, please! It's really simple to do!

Just go find a book that has a bracelet mentioned in it as an important detail! Then come back and tell me what book it's in.

jennablackmorebooks

My 2019 fantasy novel A Chained Sunrise has an important bracelet, and, indeed, a lost bracelet in it. Sara Herbst wears a gold bracelet and then loses it when she... transforms into a mythical tusked horse?

And standing there in the water, she understood what had been wrong. The little bracelet given to her by her sister Lieselotte, which she had not removed from her wrist in at least two years, was gone. Could I have lost it in the river when I transformed into Rykte?

The bracelet is one fifth of a legendary chain that is said to be the object that could convince a tyrant king to undo his rule that humans and magical creatures must not interact, which is a total wrench in Sara's plan of retrieving her bracelet normalstyle.

(I started writing this plot after misplacing a meaningful piece of jewelry in my room, and feeling quite awfully about it. That's about the most autobiographical it gets around here. I found it again, not long after finishing the book. Not all is well that ends well, but this was.)

#writeblr summerfest

jennablackmorebooks

Sentinel of the Seventh Magpie reached 10040 words yesterday :) It's a lot of fun to write.

I tried to design a cover for it, but that has been a lot harder than I expected. I love Priestess of the Seventh Magpie's cover, and I think the symbolic central photo motif matched with cool tones and contemporary lettering really gets the combination of modern and mystical across well.

I took another photo I really like for Sentinel, and have my front cover typography done in the style of the typography on Priestess. The problem is, I have a couple of options for Sentinel:

Lean into those cool tones again, but the cover might look too similar to Priestess on a quick glance.

Correct the colours in a different direction, but since I am so fond of the colours on Priestess and what they communicate, I fear the Sentinel cover may look worse.

So, I need to figure out how to make it unique, but still cohesive, and say everything it needs to and looking good.

And if I were to choose option one from my little list, I don't know how I did what I did to make Priestess look like that. Did you know that if you want to make something lighter there are about twenty different ways to do that? Did I change the saturation? Brightness? Luminosity? Did I overlay a lighter colour on a lower opacity layer effect layer? How did I preserve the vibrant tones of the shell while taking the background from heavy black to dark grey speckled with deep blue? I can tell you the only tool I did use 100% and that was the one called colour balance in Clip Studio Paint but beyond that I don't have a sweet clue how I even did what I did before, because critically,

I did not think I would need to do it again quite just like that!!

And, of course, as I am doing all of this, I am thinking things like, "Priestess makes a perfectly fine standalone. Does it even need a prequel?"

There will either be another book or there will not be another book. It could go any way at this point.

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I've adjusted the colours (AKA started over everything but the typography from scratch with the original photo and worked ahead from there) and I've got something that looks so much better and cohesive now. I'm going to sit on it for a while before doing a cover reveal, to see how far I make it into this book and to see if I need to adjust the cover, but right now, I'm feeling pretty good about it.

#about the author #book cover design #writing