rfmadison

Novel Reaction Post: Warbreaker

Tue, 14 Aug 2012 21:01:25 GMT

Woah, it's been awhile since I've done one of these. I blame this on Tumblr. However, I don't like how all-text posts look on that site, so I'm on here.

Today I'm writing about Brandon Sanderson's novel Warbreaker because it holds the distinction of being the first novel I've started and actually finished in a good while. Whether or not this novel has finally broken my reading slump remains to be seen, however.

The summary (from Goodreads):

Warbreaker is the story of two sisters, who happen to be princesses, the God King one of them has to marry, the lesser god who doesn’t like his job, and the immortal who’s still trying to undo the mistakes he made hundreds of years ago.

Their world is one in which those who die in glory return as gods to live confined to a pantheon in Hallandren’s capital city and where a power known as BioChromatic magic is based on an essence known as breath that can only be collected one unit at a time from individual people.

By using breath and drawing upon the color in everyday objects, all manner of miracles and mischief can be accomplished. It will take considerable quantities of each to resolve all the challenges facing Vivenna and Siri, princesses of Idris; Susebron the God King; Lightsong, reluctant god of bravery, and mysterious Vasher, the Warbreaker.

This is Sanderson's fifth novel after Elantris, and the Mistborn trilogy, none of which I've read. However, Warbreaker is a stand-alone novel, so it's not necessary to have read his previous works.

My thoughts are below the cut. There will probably be spoilers, so be warned. Also, know that I read the version he posted online here.

( She frowned as she saw that he was wearing some ridiculous frippery on his head... )

Right now, I'm reading the annotations Sanderson has on the website. It's a good chance to see why he made the decisions he did while writing his novel.

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Playing with DrawCast and Manga Coloring

Wed, 18 Jul 2012 03:27:56 GMT

Firstly, whoo! I'm updating this journal for once. As it turns out, I've been putting a lot of my works in progress and random graphics on my Tumblr instead of on here. Whoops.

Speaking of works in progress, I'm here to share two versions of an unfinished manga coloring, and I might as well throw in the finished piece while I'm at it. I say these are "works in progress," but they're pretty much finished. I even took the time to add random shading. (Still need to work on that, by the way) If you have't read the latest chapter of Kimi ni Todoke, this picture has potential spoilers. Beautiful spoilers depending on who you are, but potential spoilers all the same.

Here's an icon-sized sample, which I tried to keep as spoiler-free as possible:

Colored full-sized images are behind the cuts:

( Version 1 )

( Version 2 )

Here's the finished version:

( Final Version (hopefully) )

I'll probably post it again if I ever get around to finishing the other manga colorings I've left alone due to my fickle nature. Or hey, there's always Tumblr.

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Almond Chocolates

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 06:38:25 GMT

Happy Valentine's Day! In honor of that, as well as my first sporadic post on this account on Dreamwidth, I've decided to post the results of my latest dessert making experiment. For Valentine's Day this year, I originally wanted to try making red velvet cupcakes and experiment with coloring the frosting. However, while on Tumblr earlier scrolling down the Kimi ni Todoke tag (I still need to get around to a review of that manga), I came upon this recipe from a fairly new blog focusing on anime inspired recipes. Since I had just about everything it called for (with a few substitutions), I decided to try these instead.

( Recipe, pictures, and notes below cut )
Final verdict: Not bad. Not sure if being able to taste the salt is a deal breaker, but I like it. It made the chocolate less sweet than I thought it would be. And almonds make everything better. =D

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