#apieters

[temiree]

Colored sketch commission for @apieters, featuring Nes and his character Leo sparring in the gym. :3

WIPs showing the process of making this, and a full-res copy, are on my Patreon!

[fictionadventurer]

For the ask game: 5, 7, 11

5. What's your drink of choice? (Coffee/tea order, alcohol of choice, pop, etc)

At the gas station, I'll get a cherry Coke or a raspberry Lipton. At McDonald's, I'll get a Mello Yellow. I prefer tea over coffee, and on the rare occasions I have alcohol, it's usually a mixed drink involving some type of whiskey and Coke.

7. what's your favorite way to travel? Is there a mode of travel you haven't done that you want to experience?

I love car travel on the open road, and I'd like to someday travel by train, and maybe hot air balloon.

11. what kind of music is stuck in your head a lot lately?

I've had "Life's a Happy Song" from The Muppets stuck in my head a lot over the last several days.

[thatscarletflycatcher]

Angels

Hi!

The obvious choices for this one would be something like Hark! The Herald Angels Sing or Les Anges Dans Nos Campagnes or even Gabriel's Message, and in the theme of that last one, let me offer the medieval carol Angelus ad Virginem:

Send me an ask with a Christmas vibe word (loosely understood), and I'll recommend you a Christmas carol.

[ethanjhake]

For the end of the year asks, 25. If you didn’t create any new characters, describe your favorite self-created character.

25. Did you create any characters (in games, art, or writing) this year? Describe one

I came up with a new character that I'm calling Val for now.

She is from the creation myth story for my original world called the Traivelt.

In the beginning, it was the end of the world. The stars fell out of a burning sky and the earth cracked and shattered into a million pieces. The people of the world went mad with fear, grasping, clawing, dashing, killing for any chance at something—anything—that might give them a chance to live another day. The ageless story was drawing to a close, collapsing in on itself under the weight of eons of pain.  But as everything was falling apart there was a girl who still believed in happy endings.

Because Val believes that a happy ending is possible, she is able to become the seed of the new world, The Traivelt. She works in the world, weaving purpose into every mishap, darning every tear with beauty, and sewing death back into life. slowly and surly, making all things new, a world that—this time—would be able to have a happy ending.

Thanks for the ask!

[hart-arts]

whiteboard doodle with @apieters's Tristan in mind, i would've drawn moar of him but the markers kept dying on me

[ask-palaeoblr]

Is there an internet database anywhere that keeps track of up-to-date information and reconstructions of dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures? Kind of like the dinosaur-a-day Tumblr, but still active?

[fictionadventurer]

Top 5 books that shaped your worldview Top 5 novels that defined your literary tastes

Top 5 Books that Shaped My Worldview

The Fairy Tale Novels by Regina Doman: I can divide my inner life into pre- and post-FTN eras. Seeing characters who were joyful and curious in their faith, incorporating it into their lives, learning about theology--it was life-changing for me.

Orthodoxy, Tremendous Trifles, and Manalive by G.K. Chesterton: Related to the first (which introduced me to him), but these books made me fall in love with the author in his own right, and almost everything I read gets compared to this worldview in some way.

The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien: I first read this as an adult, and if it weren't for the fandom, most of it wouldn't have stuck with me that much. But the scene where Faramir refuses to take the Ring, even if it means the world ending, was a jolt of a moment that, in one swoop, destroyed relativistic worldviews that I'd been dangerously close to falling into.

These Beautiful Bones by Emily Stimpson Chapman: Introduced me to Theology of the Body, which is an absolute cornerstone of my worldview.

Bringing It to the Table by Wendell Berry: Made me think a lot more about agricultural practices, how society needs to care for people and the land, about the dangerous fragmentation and specialization of knowledge, and anyway it's had a lot of influence on how I view the world.

Top 5 Novels that Defined my Literary Tastes

The Little House series by Laura Ingalls Wilder: Sparked my love of historical fiction, historical research, and books that explore cultures very different from my own.

Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine: The very first fairy tale retelling I read, and the one that started it all.

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen: The first piece of English classic literature I ever read. Now that forms a huge portion of what I read.

The Fairy Tale Novels by Regina Doman: See the previous list. Without these books, I never would have read Chesterton, Lewis, Tolkien or almost any fantasy author.

Desire by Una Silberrad: It's an example of the type of light vintage novels that I already read a lot of, but it formed my tastes by starting me on a quest to search out very obscure authors and works (to the point that you have to read Gutenberg downloads or Google Books pdfs because they don't have print copies) in order to find hidden gems.

[fictionadventurer]

At the risk of self-aggrandizement, here is a poem I wrote back in 2016, after a slew of mass murders made the news cycle:

When death and tragedy surround,

When orphans cry and widows wail,

When darkest loss eclipses joy,

To what I turn that hope prevail?

When hate and anger rear their heads,

When man inflicts his pain on man,

When blood is shed for selfish cause,

To what I turn for shelter then?

When men forget our pain and loss,

When passions cool and ebb away,

When we're alone, yet still we grieve,

To what I turn that ever stays?

I'll look upon the cross of Christ,

My hope in time of sorrow.

The God who suffered for us then

Is with us, healing, here and now.

I love some good self-promotion! Thanks for sending this my way! It's great!