Feeding Jasmine Valetine

Creative Prompt: Foxy came a calling

/ The Magpie at Midnight / 2 Comments

We have a fox that pops in and out of our garden on a regular basis, and this photo was taken earlier this year when we had a rare few days of snow. I had thought that I had missed the boat with this prompt but then we had an odd morning of April snow last week so here it is. In the novel I am currently working on, Feeding Jasmine Valentine, foxes play an important role in the narrative, so it was a bit magical to see these foot prints in the snow.

I have the kind of romantic relationship with snow that you can only have when you don’t really have to deal with the practical consequences of it. When I was a child I was enthralled by the tale of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, (affiliate link) in which a group of children climb through the back of a wardrobe and find themselves in a snow covered landscape. I could help but feel a bit disappointed when that snow began to melt.

I like to share photos of things that give me ideas, as sometimes I think they may give other people ideas too. What does this picture make you think of? What kind of tales does this picture inspire?

I’m not a huge fan of creative exercises, so it’s not my habit to tell people what to do with these prompts. There are lots of options – a scene, some flash fiction, a short story, an idea for a short film or a physical piece of art. If you do have a go with this one and would like to drop the result in the comments please do so. I would be very interested to see what people make of these.

Thank you for reading. I also write, make art and films. If you like these prompts and want to get a copy of a free short book of them I wrote, and to hear more about my writing projects please join my mailing list here. You can see my films at my YouTube channel here. You can see things with my designs on at my shop here. Could even treat yourself if you wanted to. Just saying. If buying art is not your thing, but you would like to support what you see I also have a Patreon Page here.

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Researching for my novel and a new YouTube Video

/ The Magpie at Midnight / Leave a comment

A few weekends ago I uploaded the most recent of my YouTube Videos. I first started creating them as a kind of research project – one of the characters in my novel (currently called Feeding Jasmine Valentine) is a wannabe YouTube star and I felt it would be helpful to understand the process. As one of this people who tends to learn by doing, I was finding it a bit difficult to get into the perspective of this character, and now I feel better able to see ‘through his eyes’ as it were. The journey so far, however, has not been entirely smooth.

The best I can say is that as a research exercise, it has been quite successful in discovering the many splendid technical difficulties that can occur when making these films. My most recent two videos have suffered from some pretty substantial camera shake (although I think the narration to both was rather nice so if you are the kind of person who listens to films while working on other things, these could be for you), and problems with the camera adjusting to changes in the light.

I have also managed to run down the power on all of my equipment half way through filming something, and in my last attempt, to record no sound at all, despite using equipment that I know well and have used many times. It has been interesting, and sometimes disheartening, to understand the many ways in which something can go wrong. I am hoping that my next set of experiences may be about what can go right!

In the next few weeks I’m going to experiment with a different kind of film, and have taken some footage from a single viewpoint instead of trying to walk and talk. I’m looking forwards to seeing how that goes, and what kind of films I end up making. I hope to bring you some more successful videos in the next few weeks. In the mean time, I would really appreciate it if those of you who are into YouTube would pop over and have a look at my channel, and consider subscribing. You can see my latest effort below.

Thank you for reading. I also make art and films. You can see my films at my YouTube channel here. You can see things with my designs on at my shop here. Could even treat yourself if you wanted to. Just saying. If buying art is not your thing, but you would like to support what you see I also have a Patreon Page here.