NaNoWriMo day 15: Meet the Characters

It's day fifteen of NaNoWriMo and first things first... Bookkeeper did not update yesterday. The update she had planned was so amazing that it summoned a thunderstorm and she couldn't turn on the computer to post it.

At times like this the bookkeeper realizes just how nice it is to hand write her novel. She has written 25,194 words by the way.

Before she gets on with her post, Bookkeeper just noticed that she now has nine watchers on this blog. NINE, do you hear me, NINE WATCHERS.

You are all awesome people and you deserve cake.

Anywho... here's a picture of all the reoccurring characters in Bookkeeper's NaNo this year:

From left to right they are:

Mysterious-Person-Who-Does-Not-Have-A-Name-Yet, who has only appeared once so far. After stealing Vanessa's notebook, this mysterious person shouted "Thank you!" and ran away.

Mysterious-Etc. remains unnamed simply because the bookkeeper doesn't feel like coming up with a name right now. Technically the mysterious person isn't reoccurring yet, but will be eventually.

Hildegard who likes to call herself "Fern" and also likes to avoid dark forests and creepy shadows. She met a monster on her way to the grocery store once and has been paranoid ever since (for good reason).

Fred, who Bookkeeper finally came up with a name for. He is Hildegard's younger brother and he has no personality, but that's okay. We'll edit one in later.

Vanessa, an overconfident girl who fancies herself the leader of the group because she's the oldest. Her idea of hunting monsters is standing outside in the woods and calling for them.

Thingy that carries an umbrella. Not quite sure what it is, but it can change it's appearance to look like just about anyone. It usually disguises itself to look like a man with mustache who carries an umbrella, but the bookkeeper can't seem to draw mustaches today, so she drew its default face. Even though it often carries an umbrella, it doesn't really understand it's function and will hold an open umbrella over it's head on warm sunny days. It also kills people, possibly on accident.

And there you have it! Bookkeeper is mildly amused at how the question marks over the Mysterious Person and the Thingy's heads make them look confused.

Aw3som3!

Guess what? The bookkeeper's blog now has three (count 'em, three) watchers!

Which has absolutely nothing to do with the picture above. So. Bookkeeper did some sketches during her vacation including the unique candle holder you just saw.

In an attempt to broaden her art skills, Bookkeeper spend about a week trying to copy Dr. Suess's art style. She's not putting those pictures up on her blog though, because she practiced by drawing pictures of her friends and doesn't want to put those pictures up. (In an effort to be vague, the bookkeeper refers to just about all of her random acquaintances as as "friends" on this blog. If you want to be Bookkeeper's friend, just hang around long enough to get mentioned.)

Anywho, you can see some Suess influence has seeped into Bookkeeper's style, and it's obvious in the candle holder picture. Just look at those sleep-deprived eyes and the carefree shading. *emotional sniffle* It's lovely.

Not everything the bookkeeper draws is lovely, though. Just sayin'.

Oh, how cool! A superhero! This girl is based on a character belonging Bookkeeper's friend and cousin, who also happens to be an artist.

Bookkeeper loves her artist friends. Artists all seem to have the same problems, it's weird...

And that's it for the vacation drawings. But we're not done yet! Bookkeeper's been drawing this week, too.

Way back in May the bookkeeper mentioned that she was trying to write a graphic novel. Bet you thought she'd given up, hm?

Well, she's still working on it. In case you were dying of curiosity, it's a retelling of Rumpelstiltskin (rewriting the Brothers Grimm = unoriginal originality). She even got a book of all Grimm's fairy tales from the library for inspiration. Wow.

If you ever get the chance to read all of Grimm's fairy tales, don't. Er. Like the one with the roasted chicken that turns into a giant face-eating toad. Without using a pun on "Grimm", the bookkeeper can definitely say that a lot of the stories had bits that were

(adj.) Bleak, forbidding, morbid (antonym: pleasant)

This week the bookkeeper realized she's still not very good at drawing scenery with perspective. Quick, someone give this girl a pencil, she's got a graphic novel to draw!

Thank you.

Bookkeeper is going to focus quite a bit on trying to draw some pictures with scenery in the background. Starting with a picture of a mill, but you already saw that. Bookkeeper's brother says the miller looks like Caesar. There goes that character...

Here's another picture with some scenery, though it's a work-in-progress:

This is being drawn special for Bookkeeper's brother. The boy with the sword is supposed to be Bookkeeper's brother, and no, Bookkeeper is not going to be a stereotyped older sister and say her brother acts more like a minotaur.

Instead she's going to take this time to say that her lil' brother is a cool kid who knows a thing or two about fantasy monsters and how to deal with them, and what's more, he's just generally fun to hang out with. (He's a friend now too, for being mentioned in the blog.) Are you jealous of Bookkeeper yet? If not, we can move on to describing how incredibly awesome the other members of her family are...