Big Mood

Your ladies can’t go anywhere with out their diamonds. Your king can’t go any where without his bling.

Jewel Cuts.

Round brilliant cut: This is the common cut of jewel. It is cone-shaped with a rounded top. It has 58 facets which makes for one sparkley rock.

Princess cut: This is a square shape with pointed corners.

Emerald Cut: This cut is set like a set of steps on a rectangular stone.

Oval Cut: Tis oval.

Baguette Cut: Similar to emerald but slimmer

Pearl: A teardrop shape has a single point with rounded end.

Marquise: Lengthened diamond with sharp ends.

Radiant: The rectangular shape but with 70 facets

Cushion: A square cut with rounded corners.

Trilliant cut: A trilliant stone will look larger than a round in the same carat.

Metal stylings

Filigree: intricate patterns made with thin strips of metal.

Meander/Greek Key: The famous greek symbols of squares.

Miligrain-set: a metal setting for stones decorated with tiny, raised beads.

enamel: glass that has been melted down to a liquid that can be applied to different metals

Red Gemstones

Ruby

Garnet

Andesine Labradorite

Red Coral

Strawberry Quartz

Pink Gemstones

Pink Spinel

Rose Quartz

Pink Coral

Kunzite

Malaya Garnet

Morganite

Pink Pearl

Blue Gemstones

Sapphire

Tanzanite

Blue Topaz

Iolite

Kyanite

Larimar

Blue Agate

Blue Apatite

Aquamarine

Chalcedony

Azurite Druzy

Blue Jadeite

Lapis Lazuli

Rainbow Moonstone

Sodalite

Turquoise

Green Gemstones

Emerald

Peridot

Prehnite

Actinolite

Cat’s Eye

Amazonite

Bloodstone

Apatite

Demantoid

Jade

Purple Gemstones

Amethyst

Geode

Charoite

White Gemstones

Moonstone

Howlite

White Opal

Pearl

Black Gemstones

Black diamond

Black pearls

Apache tears/obsidian

Jet

Necklace styles

Collar - 12 to 14 inches

Choker - 14 to 16 inches

Princess - 16 to 18 inches

Matinee - 20 to 22 inches

Opera - 30 to 36 inches

Rope - 36 inches and above

Multi Layered Chain Necklace: Necklace made up of many chains

Bib: comprises of layers on layers of jewels/metal that cascade down the chest.

If you’re stuck on a sentence and don’t want to skip over it, here’s something that works for me. Start writing it. If it sucks and you can’t move past it, return to the start and hit enter a few times, budging it down the page. It doesn’t have to be a complete sentence; a fragment is just fine for this method. Then try again. If it’s still not what you’re trying to say, send it down the page.

If you have to do this a few times and you’ve tried a few wordings, you probably do have some useful material in there. It might be possible to patch together a better sentence from pieces you already have. Here’s a super simple example:

With some tweaking, it could become:

@focusdumbass tagged me so now y'all have to see this. Many thanks for the tag! Love the idea!! 💕

Rules: Find 3+ covers/art that reflects your novel’s vibe, then answer the questions

This is for Patrigia

What are the motifs?

Top hat So Patrigia is a classic steampunk setting in a fantasy world, and I think the hat represents it quite well. The colours range from orange to brown and the hat has a few gears, which are (at least for me) major aesthetics for a steampunk setting. Also top hats are rad. It could represent one of my major characters, but also the government representatives who control the country in the beginning of the novel, so at least for me it gives a sense of authority.

Metallic flowers on writing Again, the flowers with the clocks are a major indicator for “hey, that’s steampunk” for me. I like how beautiful they are, so they represent the beauty that’s found all over the world and the gears the flowers are made out of represent the massive clockwork spanning the whole earth that makes all the beauty possible in the first place. The writing which they lie on is Rosalie’s. She’s the designated historian and the book will have many parallels to its own history, the war 300 years ago, and the fallout of it.

Ship sailing through the air I just really like airships, okay? They give off a sense of tranquility and major parts of the story deal with them – as war machines or homes (the latter is especially true for Shara, Flores and Cino, some major characters as well). So yeah, they’re designed pretty similar to the picture I chose and again, I am very enthusiastic about them.

Style? Photo, airbrushed, anime, etc.?

I know I chose two photos and one drawing, but I’d love it if it were all drawings. And if I had to choose a style, then definitely anime. The first idea that set the whole thing off was, “hey, I watched too many anime and now I want a protagonist with blue hair”. Ironically, none of my protagonists actually have blue hair, but you get the idea.

Colors? B/W?

Colours. No question. Maybe dark and gritty, lots of brown and red, but also in contrast some light and blue. Depending on which colour dominates, they can make you take away different elements of the story. I think the uniform brown makes you think of something dark in themes of story (at least I do), and the light blue and especially the airship represents hope and freedom, so I’d love to go with that.

Details? Anything specific? Gloss, mat, velvet?

Okay yeah, I’d love some gold elements which shine on the cover, maybe the flowers could be a really shiny gold? Other than that, wood would be super awesome for the top hat cover. And A3 size for the airship cover. So, this got very specific very quickly, but I love those ideas and now I wish I’d have the novel finished and published already. Ah, sweet dreams…

Limited Edition/Collector’s Edition?

The flower cover is the normal edition. I would love to have a bright and sweet cover like that because I feel it represents the story I’m trying to write and how it is in my head the best. So yeah, that would be super fitting.

The left top hat cover would be perfect for a collector’s edition + author’s notes on various story elements, why I chose to do what I did, what I think about it. Not in the sense of the author dictating what’s meant in each sentence to the audience, but what I take away from the story for myself – I’d rather not pull another J.K. Rowling.

The right cover would be super fitting for an artbook. Who knows, maybe I’ll share some of my sketches for airships, backgrounds and even characters in the future. I can’t really make face claims since they all look rather unique to their world and I didn’t find anything fitting, but also – hey, try to find a pink haired girl with three very specific scars on her face and one white + one brown eye. So yeah, I’d definitely love to show off my illustrations and give various worldbuilding details.

Woah, this was so much fun! I got a few new ideas I really want to incorporate off of it and I loved thinking so hard about my novel. Thanks for the opportunity!

we are the daughters of the witches you couldn’t burn

moodboard representing the types of magic that are relevant/will be used in Witching Hour

Crystals used for healing, enhancing power, etc. the type of the crystal determines its use. most commonly used for enhancing the user’s magic and ward off evil.

Herbs used for potions. the type of potion determines the herbs used. most common are healing potions.

Runes used for protection, binding spells, warding off evil. enhanced when used with a charged crystal.

Pseudonyms: North Carolina

It was moments like that, though, that reminded me why Frances wanted to go on this trip in the first place, or at least part of it. I always got caught up in wishing that we would get married, and settle down, and just pick a city, and all of that, but I guess that’s what Frances had ahead of her. Her whole life, she got it into her head that she wasn’t going to end up anywhere except for someone’s kitchen. Of course she wanted to see what was out there first. Of course she wanted to go to a jungle. It made sense when I thought about it. 

Honestly, I guess I should’ve just been happy that she let me come on her great adventure in the first place. It would’ve been so easy for her to say that she wanted to leave everything from North Carolina behind forever.

It was sort of funny to think about the things that made me the person I was and brought me to the place I was. Because some of it lined up perfectly, but a lot of the puzzle pieces just didn’t fit quite right.

With Frances, I could see where it lined up. She grew up without her father, and her mother spent a lot of time out of the house and working different jobs (it was a multiple jobs sort of area; my father had them too). She got bad grades in highschool from working a lot of hours at her own job. She knew she wasn’t going anywhere. Exploring the country nomadically made sense for her. She could work at a CVS anywhere. 

Me, though, I wasn’t sure. I didn’t try too hard in school, but my grades were okay. I wasn’t going to get into our good state college, but I think I could’ve gotten into some of our middling ones. I could’ve been an elementary school teacher, or a salesman, or something like that. I mean, I don’t think I’d ever get a really nice job, but I could’ve gotten a respectable one. It was hard to say where it all could’ve gone.

…Sins you held to your chest, while the rest were just mangy and gory.

Inspired by Andrew Bird’s The Trees Were Mistaken and today’s writeblr discourse about scars and bird symbolism, a short excerpt from Retrocognition follows below the cut. (CW: Discussion of scars due to injury in the line of duty.)

↳  Vermilion (241 Words)

Original Character: Serpentine St. Jude Linda Ahmed, from Devida & Goliath Occupation: Debutante Suffragette and Journalist | Age: 18-19 | Ethnicity: British Indian of Mixed Descent (Sidi x Persian)

Relevant Excerpt* & Tag List Below the Cut

*Note: The original text has been modified for the purposes of this character introduction.

Pseudonyms: Oregon 

We left the bar around one in the morning. It was a little damp outside as we walked back to our motel. The water buildup reflected fuzzy neon signs, and the plants gave off that post-rain smell, and the air was just a little too heavy (in a nice way). I could hear Frances sploshing through some water, and I smiled — she liked to walk through the puddles. She appreciated the rain. Kutcher loved it; that was one of many little facts I knew about her. We all thought that it was a nice way to end the night, really.

“Hey, what happened with that girl you were talking to?” Kutcher asked. 

I hesitated, and shrugged. “Oh, she wanted to take me somewhere, and I didn’t really want to go.” I explained it like that. I didn’t tell her that I almost went then chickened out at the last second, but that was what actually happened. I would tell Frances later, though, and we would laugh about it. 

“Somewhere, like her place?” She prodded. 

“Yeah.”

“And you didn’t want to go?”

“Hey, let him be,” Frances said. She smiled, and laughed slightly, but you could tell she was serious. “I haven’t seen you go home with any random girls lately either.” It was quiet a second, then Frances shrugged. “It’s a fair point, though. You didn’t like her? She was pretty.”

I hesitated. “Sometimes being pretty isn’t what’s important, you know?” Kutcher laughed. “Hey, come on, I mean it.”

“Yeah, okay.” 

The way Kutcher talked made me feel like she knew something I didn’t, which was a bit irritating at the time. Now, of course, I know that she did, and it was the sort of thing that I probably should have known at the time, but I didn’t know any of that yet. So I let the subject drop and I didn’t think about it again. Another bad decision, probably. I’m a classic under-thinker. I think that’s the reason for a lot of my qualms.

That morning is one that I vividly remember. It was the sort of morning you could pinpoint as the one where things changed. I remember the way my lungs seized up and the way my mind started racing. The way I instantly knew what had happened and at the same time had no idea what was coming next. The way that I somehow, devastatingly, was not surprised. The way I panicked when I heard Frances start to wake up and the way I tried to think of a way to disguise the situation. 

Kutcher was gone. 

It was obvious and immediately clear. Her bag on the table across from the beds wasn’t there. Her coat with all its bright patches was gone from the rack. The coffee pot was off, no incessant morning beeping. Frances was splayed out over the entire bed that she and Kutcher always shared. And so many more little details that I wouldn’t notice until later, when I would finally realize how finely ingrained Kutcher was in our lives.

Shmuel raised his hands in a surrendering gesture. “Another time, Ezra. But… I did have a great time tonight. You make a great conversationalist and a killer pizza, I’ll have to get you to make another one for me sometime.”

“Please do leave a review,” he teased, starting towards the front door.

“I’m serious, okay! Your pizza was phenomenal and it was really great talking to you, and I would love to do this again. Genuinely. I… sort of like you.”

“Was that on purpose?” He pulled open the front door but paused to look at Shmuel, a grin playing on his lips.

“Was what on purpose?”

“You know what.”

“No, I don’t know what. What is it you think I did on purpose?”

The grin on his face spread wider and he stared down at Shmuel, eyebrows crinkling together in thought. “I… genuinely can’t tell if you’re joking.”

“And you may never know.”

“Is that how it is?”

“That is how it is.”

“I sort of want to kiss you right now. Sort of been wanting to kiss you all night,” he whispered, a nervous smile playing on his face.”

“Yeah? What’s stopped you?”

“I… didn’t know how to ask… or if you’d be okay with it… or if it’d freak you out… or all these other thoughts.” Ezra felt his heart jackhammering in his chest, waiting for a response. Hoping for a positive response.

“What’s stopping you now?”

There was a pause, Ezra searching for the right answer - trying to explain everything he was thinking in a few simple words.

Writing a False Protagonist

Imagine you meet a stranger who’s going on a road trip. You’re so intrigued by this person and what they’re after, you can’t help but invite yourself along. So, day after day you keep this stranger company on their epic journey, slowly getting to know him as he tells you about his life, family, struggles, and goal. You become invested in this person. You care about them. You want to see them achieve their goal. Now, imagine you’re sitting in your motel room one night when Dave (the stranger, who is now your friend) shows up at your door with another stranger in tow. Dave apologizes, says he’s got to bail on the road trip (HIS road trip…) and fly back home, but this is his son Dan, who’s going to finish the road trip with his own goals in mind, and you’re welcome to continue along with him. So, the next day, you climb back into the passenger seat you’ve occupied for days or even weeks, and watch as this complete stranger climbs in beside you to finish the journey. All of the time and effort you spent getting to know Dave was for nothing, and now you have to start from scratch with Dan. 

That’s essentially what you’re doing to your reader when you use a false protagonist. You’re making them invest in the life and circumstances of one character only to shove them aside to make room for a brand new one. There isn’t a lot of advice about writing a false protagonist, but the advice you hear most often is not to do it…

Now, writers should never say never, so if you want to write a false protagonist you should, but consider that road trip scenario and how you’d feel in that situation. It isn’t a very nice thing to do to a reader, so how can you do it better? Let’s say that during that first leg of the road trip–the part when Dave was still at the wheel–he spent a lot of time talking about Dan. He talks about who Dan is, what he’s like, what he’s done, and what he wants to do. After a while you feel like you’re getting to know Dan almost as well as Dave, even though you’ve never actually met him. So, when that moment comes when Dave bails on the road trip and Dan takes over from there, it’s not going to be so jarring. You’re not stuck with a total stranger after all. You kind of know Dan. You have a pretty good idea of who he is and what his situation is, so that makes easier to get invested in his journey, too. 

Ultimately, that’s what you need to do with a false protagonist. Here’s how…

1. Early Introduction

Introduce the real protagonist as early as possible through the references, stories, flashbacks, dreams, and memories of other characters. Don’t just name drop them here and there–start to actually build the character up by giving the reader something they can sink their teeth into. Help them get to know who this person really is and what they want. Remember, you want the reader to actually care about the real protagonist before they show up and replace the false one.

2. Earliest Possible Physical Appearance

The real protagonist needs to make a physical appearance as early as humanly possible, even if they’re just popping their head into a scene for a moment and ducking back out again. If it’s not possible for them to make an actual physical appearance early on, see if you can create the illusion of physical presence through stories, memories, dreams, or flashbacks of another character. If you can’t do that either, just make sure you’re bringing them physically into the story at the earliest possible point.

3. Make the False Protagonist Matter

Make sure the false protagonist’s part of the journey wasn’t for nothing. Everything they’ve done up to the point of the switch needs to matter to the story, because you don’t want the reader looking back and asking “what was the point of all of that?” You want them to see that there was no other way to get from the beginning to where they are now.

4. Never Forget the False Protagonist

Sometimes the false protagonist doesn’t leave the story, they just become less significant. That’s going to be the easiest on the reader because they’re not actually losing the character, and hopefully they’ll still get to see the character reach their goal and make it through their arc. But if the false protagonist leaves the story, through death or any other reason, make sure they’re not completely forgotten by the remaining characters. Your reader isn’t going to forget them, so the characters shouldn’t either. You can preserve the false protagonist’s memory in much the same way as the true protagonist was gradually introduced, through references, stories, memories, dreams, and flashbacks. It doesn’t have to be a constant thing, though–you don’t want to beat the reader over the head with memories of the now absent false protagonist. Just remember them once in a while and show the impact of their legacy. Illustrate how their part of the story mattered to the rest of the story and to the remaining characters.

Google BetaBooks. Do it now. It’s the best damn thing EVER.

You just upload your manuscript, write out some questions for your beta readers to answer in each chapter, and invite readers to check out your book!

It’s SO easy!

You can even track your readers! It tells you when they last read, and what chapter they read!

Your beta readers can even highlight and react to the text!!!

There’s also this thing where you can search the website for available readers best suited for YOUR book!