Re-Sculpting the Earth

So, my stories take place on three worlds, which are all connected.
Our world - Technology Earth.
The world with magic but not technology - Magic Earth.
And then the world with mythical creatures - Soreina.

Magic-Earth has pretty much the same geology as our planet. I take advantage of that as much as I can. I try to find real-world locations to work in my stories.
But considering they're different worlds with different histories, I can also change things. Usually little things.
So I'm adding a cliff to Magic-Earth's version of Yosemite.

The powers of creation XD

First Kiss

Okay, it took about 24 hours for me to realize it. But I think I just wrote the first actual kiss scene I've ever put in a story?
I don't know what it says about me that it took this long to add a scene like that. Or that it took me a full day to realize that it was the first time.
Though to be fair, my stories really don't have much romance in them.
This kiss isn't even for any of the main characters XD

There's kisses on the forehead and stuff, but this is a real kiss XD
It doesn't have a happy ending.
And that forehead kiss I mentioned? Also doesn't have a happy ending (though it's a goodbye kiss, so I guess that's to be expected).
Huh. I didn't realize that was becoming a theme. It's not like any kisses have traumatized me. I better make sure to break that theme for the next in-story kiss, whenever it happens.



Random Zoooo tangent~~
Speaking of kisses

The sifaka lemurs got a kissing booth on Valentines day. They're so freaking cute. They're one of my top 3 favorite zoo animals.
Here are a couple more pictures of them.

Flashback

This freaking story is still giving me grief. I don't know why it's so hard for me to write it. It's going to need some major help in its revisions - mostly fleshing out.
One thing that will probably help is the big flashback. Right now, it's just one guy telling them what happened to start all of the trouble.
But I need to trash that. It really has to be a first-person account, or it has no emotional impact. It will probably take up a lot of space too. Which will help with all that fleshing-out stuff.

I'm really behind on posting zoo photos, so I'm going to throw a ton of lemurs at you!

Red bellied lemur


Ring-tailed lemur






Red-ruffed lemur






Crowned lemur






Black and white ruffed lemur

Arrin

Here's the picture I drew of Arrin!
(She's wearing snake sandals, because I saw them once and thought they were adorable)

Evil Dolls

For some reason, my last two stories have had some really strange dolls in them.
In Evva's story, one character has a collection of those expensive realistic dolls in beautiful outfits. She can make them move around. It freaks the hell out of Evva.
The dolls are symbolic, by the way.
Also creepy.

And in Arrin's story, there's a doll too. A cute little rag doll. I need to design what it looks like, because it's important. But anyway, that doll has a sad secret.

I don't know how I ended up with two weird doll scenarios in two different stories. I like dolls. I've made a number of dolls.


On the top left, my character Reein, followed by my character Pinyon. Then Midna, from Legend of Zelda. And the bottom middle is Waka from Okami, and Ling from Fullmetal Alchemist (the first doll/plush I made). I've made many others, but I've either sold or gifted them.
I also own a lot of stuffed animals. Some I've made, and some I've bought.

But I've never bought a doll. No way. Not me. I certainly wouldn't buy dolls of Disney characters.

It always feels a little like cheating when I'm supposed to be writing, but instead I'm looking at maps, or searching for pictures of dolls. (Both of which I need for my story, so it's not really cheating. But it still feels like I'm slacking)
More on dolls later.


Emerald tree boa

Back and Forth

A while ago, I set up part of the location for the last half of Arrin's story. It's a little inn where they stay for less than a day. Yesterday I realized it was kind of a funky place to have an inn. So I changed it to a little village.
Today I realized that there isn't a water source nearby, so it would be a stupid place for that sort of village.
So now I'm changing it back to an inn. I'm just moving it a little so the location makes more sense @_@
I probably missed some of the parts I had to shift back. During my first real edit, I'm going to be confused and not know what I was trying to write XD

I really need to get back to Yosemite and visit these places I'm writing about. It would make it so much easier to picture.

In the meantime, here's a wolverine having a bubble bath.

They all have Black Hair

I finally drew a picture of Arrin. I'll post it in a couple days.
I'm tempted to give my characters really different hair, including color, length, curliness, and style. Since I'm not great at drawing distinct facial features, the hair helps me give them more unique designs.

But my last two stories have been set in their world's equivalent of North America. In my worlds, the American Indians (their equivalent, anyway) weren't crushed when Europeans came (spreading disease, killing the buffalo, forcing them into reservations, all that stuff). They are still very much there. Some live in cities or towns. Many still live in their lodges or travel along with the buffalo.
I don't know the percentage, but most of the people living in their North America are the original people. There are plenty of people from other countries, because there's lots of migration in those worlds (it's fast and easy to travel, and it's easy to start living in another country). But still, most of them should be the original people.
Which means it would not reflect my world if my main characters all had really different hair colors. Because the local people all have black hair.
So a large majority of my characters have black hair too.

Well, my next zoo photo has black hair too.
The goofy teenage gorilla.