The Friday 56 (120) & Book Beginnings: The House of Shattered Wings by Aliette De Bodard

The Friday 56 is a weekly meme hosted by Freda's Voice where every Friday you pick a book and turn to page 56 or 56%, and select a sentence or a few, as long as it's not a spoiler. For the full rules, visit the the page HERE

Book Beginnings is a weekly meme hosted by Rose City Reader that asks you to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you're reading.

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Synopsis from Goodreads...

Multi-award winning author Aliette de Bodard, brings her story of the War in Heaven to Paris, igniting the City of Light in a fantasy of divine power and deep conspiracy…

In the late Twentieth Century, the streets of Paris are lined with haunted ruins. The Great Magicians’ War left a trail of devastation in its wake. The Grand Magasins have been reduced to piles of debris, Notre-Dame is a burnt-out shell, and the Seine has turned black with ashes and rubble and the remnants of the spells that tore the city apart. But those that survived still retain their irrepressible appetite for novelty and distraction, and The Great Houses still vie for dominion over France’s once grand capital. Once the most powerful and formidable, House Silverspires now lies in disarray. Its magic is ailing; its founder, Morningstar, has been missing for decades; and now something from the shadows stalks its people inside their very own walls. Within the House, three very different people must come together: a naive but powerful Fallen angel; an alchemist with a self-destructive addiction; and a resentful young man wielding spells of unknown origin. They may be Silverspires’ salvation—or the architects of its last, irreversible fall. And if Silverspires falls, so may the city itself...

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Beginnings: "It is almost pleasant, at first, to be Falling."

56: "There were no dragon kingdoms here--no spirits of the rain and rivers, not under the polluted clouds that rained acid; not in the blackened waters of the Seine; not in the wells that had long since run dry."

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Comments: I don't believe I've ever talked about this book on Our Thoughts Precisely before, and since I still haven't read much in the month of December, I decided to mention it for The Friday 56 and Book Beginnings. The House of Shattered Wings is one of my favorite books and has one of the most unique uses of fallen angels. 

What are you reading this week?

WIP December #5: Still Painting

WIP: Painting; original character without a name.

Comments: This painting is the product of two factors: I wanted to work on another face and continue painting. Both things happened to work in conjunction with each other. So, I pulled a sketch from my sketchbook.  This is the result. I had so much fun with this painting. Faces/people are one of the things I’ve struggled to paint using traditional mediums. Through trial and lots of errors, I’ve realized that it was time to upgrade my supplies with ones that were better suited for my needs. Changing the type of watercolor paint and colored pencils I was using made a noticeable difference in my process. Reeves works for what it’s worth—landscapes in particular—but going forward, I much prefer Sakura Koi because of the way the paint works when layered. It still took some time to achieve the look I wanted; however, it was much easier. Also, practicing faces helped a lot. I found it easier to get the contours and shadowing the way I wanted.

There are a number of old paintings that I want to redo, and there's one in particular that's already at the top of my list: the Padme Amidala painting from the Halloween Post .

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Are you working on anything interesting?

Holiday Treats: Chocolate Chip Cookies

The December festivities finally crept its way to the food corner of the blog. No, I'm just kidding. Holiday Treats was a minor part of the plans I made in November—I even had the post graphic ready—but once December started, I originally I thought I would skip it altogether because WIP December was taking longer to finish than I originally thought. Then I did some baking and everything changed.

Making something sweet and festive is simple even if you onky have the basic ingredients. It doesn’t have to be elaborate. It can have classic flavors with fun shapes or simply a variation in color. And sometimes, it’s as simple as making a few alterations to a basic chocolate chip cookie recipe.

I chose cookies because they’re easy to make and it’s kind of simple to mix and match flavors and add extra ingredients like sprinkles, dried cranberries, etc.. Time is always a factor, and simply put, cookies aren't as time consuming as my favorite rough-puff-pastry recipe, which requires chill time and a few tedious little steps—but the end result is worth the effort.

I used Hershey’s Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe and dressed it up to make them more festive. I replaced vanilla extract with almond extract, and added around a ¼ cup of Christmas tree sprinkles for the whole batch. That’s it. The almond extract alters the taste, and the sprinkles give the cookies little pockets of texture—a light crunch that’s similar to the edges.

Of course, almond extract isn’t the only option. There are other choices like mint—which always pairs well with chocolate—strawberry, lemon, hazelnut, and even cinnamon. Yes, cinnamon extract. And sprinkles are always an option. In my opinion, cookies are better with sprinkles.

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What are you cooking this holiday season?

WIP December #4: New Paint + Another House

WIP: I've returned to drawing houses.

Comments: The simplest explanation behind this painting is that I got some new art supplies that I needed to get comfortable with. I haven’t done a proper review for them and figured that I might as well go ahead and talk about them, since I will be using them regularly. The first item is a new set of colored pencils: Prismacolor Premier. Second, Michaels had a 60% off coupon on the Saturday after Black Friday, and I got new watercolor paint: Sakura Koi Pocket Field Sketch Box. I have used products by Sakura before—including the white gel pens and the fine liners—and have wanted to try this set of watercolors for a long time.

Sakura Koi is very different from Reeves Watercolor. The colors are vibrant, and I disn't feel like I had to try as hard to achieve the shades I wanted. The finish is smooth. It’s not chalky once it’s dry, which is what I was expecting since this paint is a little more expensive than Reeves. I also love the colors, and I'm especially a fan of the olive green. I’ve tried to mix paint to get that shade before, and it’s never been exactly what I’ve wanted. So, having the shade already there—no mixing required—makes me absurdly happy because I know that I’m going to get a lot of use out of it.

This painting was more of an experiment than some of the other pieces of art I’ve talked about on the blog. So, I also wanted to see how white gel pen and my new set of Prismacolor Premier colored pencils would look on top of the paint. Due to the colors I was using, you can’t really see the colored pencils. That being said, the white does standout.
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Music Monday (35): Holiday Music Part 3

Rules:

• Music Monday is a weekly meme hosted by Lauren Stoolfire at Always Me that asks you to share one or two songs that you've recently enjoyed. For the rules, visit the page HERE 

Breana: I can’t end the year without mentioning Merry Christmas by Mariah Carey. It’s my all-time favorite holiday album. My picks this week are O Holy Night and Hark! The Herald Angels Sing/Gloria.

 

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What are you listening to this week?