Morrigan Harker
Writer, Musician, Everyday Magic Seeker
My 2020 Resolutions
Well met, everyone, and welcome back to the blog! Considering I put down my 2019 resolutions in an article last year, I decided it’s now time to do it again for 2020.
My resolutions for 2020:
- Continue to develop my blog and YouTube channel, but do so with self-compassion and without comparing myself to others. Unlike some content creators I follow (no shade), content creation is not my full time job. While I’d love to continue posting content, I can’t compare myself to other creators that have more time and opportunities and different skill sets than I do.
- Continue to develop my music and a career in such. I have some ideas in the cauldron about some music videos on YouTube, and I’m hoping to include music more into my life.
- Continue to develop a daily routine that is sustainable and allows for self-care. This year my mental health recovery was gnarly but still made progress. My goal is to continue with that and develop a routine that helps with recovery and maintaining a healthy headspace.
What are your New Year’s Resolutions? Let me know in the comments! Thank you so much for stopping by! Until next time, stay magical, everyone!
The Reality of Rejection
Well met, everyone, and welcome back to the blog!
It’s been hectic since I last wrote on here, what with the Thanksgiving festivities here in the US as well as work and preparing for the upcoming holiday celebrations. In addition, I’m applying for my Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Creative Writing, and while it’s fulfilling and I’m excited for it, the application process is ripping open a wound I need to work on.
With my poetry, I was lucky to have been accepted and that my work was well-received. With my MFA, however, the applications require a portfolio and I’m now questioning everything that I’ve ever written in my entire life. Unlike my experience with undergrad applications, when acceptance can depend on test scores, community service, and other more concrete factors, the portfolio is what determines acceptance, and that can be quite subjective.
I often hear the stories of Stephen King’s rejection nail (#2 in this article) as well as the stories from other writers on my Twitter about the roller coaster ride also known as the querying process, so I understand that rejection is something that writers will have to deal with at some point in their careers, if not often. At the same time, knowing that rejection is going to happen at some point has the same level of dread I feel when I anticipate the jab of a needle at the doctor’s office.
Writing means a lot to me. Sometimes I consider myself a writer before I even consider myself a person. So, if I put that much of my time, effort, heart, and soul into my work and it costs me an acceptance into an MFA program, regardless of whether it’s right or wrong to do so, I’m going to take it personally to some degree.
In some instances in the self-help community, this advice to be persistent in spite of hardships can be well-intentioned but nonetheless a bit invalidating. We as writers put our soul into our work, so to have something so personal cast aside so impersonally is likely going to hurt, and it’s okay to feel hurt about it. What we have to do—and what I have to practice on—is not let that make us close up into our proverbial shells and stop trying.
Have you had to deal with rejection? How do you handle it? Let me know in the comments section below!
Thank you so much for stopping by! Until next time, stay magical, everyone!
PHANTOM-Inspired Mirror DIY (VIDEO)
Disclaimer: This article contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases, so if you make a purchase with the links, I receive a small commission at no cost to you. Thank you for your support!
Well met, everyone, and welcome back to the blog! I recently uploaded another video to my YouTube channel, in which I made over an IKEA mirror into a romantic, slightly Gothic art installation inspired by Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom of the Opera as well as Beauty and the Beast and Maleficent. I am of the belief that things in my house should be practical as well as aesthetically beautiful, so if I’m going to have a full-length mirror to examine my outfit (and—let’s be real—take a lot of Instagram selfies), why not make it look like something pulled from one of my favorite stories of all time?
The concept I had for this video was that the mirror was from Christine’s dressing room, and that some form of magic was causing real roses to grow from the wooden roses in the frame. This video was inspired by a mirror DIY by Mr. Kate (article) as well as a DIY flower wall tutorial by Lulu Sapphire (video). I also wanted this to be an experiment showing the creative process, rather than a tutorial.
The Mirror Frame
The mirror I used was the Nissedal mirror from IKEA (there are two widths available—I used the wider one). After using some artist tape and notebook paper to protect the glass, I started painting a coat of gold spray paint (Amazon). In hindsight, it was way too windy when I tried to paint the first few coats of paint, so the paint ended up going on unevenly. After some coats of the bronze spray paint (Amazon) from my candelabra DIY on a calmer day, the mirror was finally painted. I also added a clear enamel (Amazon) to prevent the paint from chipping or getting tacky. I also painted my millwork pieces—four corner pieces (Amazon) and one top center piece (Amazon)—with the same colors.
The windy first day of painting also added another problem. Underneath the notebook paper, some paint got onto the glass. I was able to wipe it away with acetone, but if you use acetone, be sure to use rubber gloves (not plastic gloves like I used in the video—acetone can damage plastic) and work in a well-ventilated area.
There were some things I wanted to do in this project that I ultimately decided against doing. For instance, I had the idea to de-silver the mirror edges to give it more of an antique feel. I decided not to do that, because it’s hard to do indoors, and it’s difficult (if not impossible) to reverse if I decided I didn’t like it. For this project, I left the glass as it was, but I may try it if or when I revisit this project in the future.
After cleaning off the acetone residue with glass cleaner, it was time to add the millwork. I measured the center line for both the mirror frame and the top center piece, and then I added felt pads so the bottom edge didn’t scuff the floor. (I initially thought I’d hang the mirror on the wall, but I ultimately decided to leave it on the floor to add to the “Parisian chic” vibes as I observe them on Pinterest. It also doesn’t help that that would have likely required drilling holes into the wall, and I didn’t want to do that.) I also laid down a plastic sheet to protect the floor from any stray drops of glue. Once everything was ready to go, I attached the millwork to the frame with Super Glue. You can also use E-6000 or any other strong adhesive.
As I came to realize, this part was much easier said than done. The pencil marks I made to mark the center lines were so hard to see that I ended up eyeballing the center piece (oh, well—I tried). There was also another hiccup; the top center piece didn’t sit flat against the frame so I had to mortar one side down with hot glue. This gives the optical illusion that it’s tilted ever so slightly, but I didn’t mind that much. Let this be a warning to work quickly with Super Glue because it dries fast.
With that, the mirror frame is complete! At this point, the mirror would probably look good as it is, but I want to take this to the next level, so it’s time to work on the roses.
The Floral Arrangement
This part was more challenging than I thought it would be. While these flower stems from Michael’s (similar product) were beautiful and fit almost perfectly into the look I wanted, I was very frustrated with them during this process. With many fake flowers, the leaves, structural pieces, and individual sheets of petals all separate with relative ease. These hardly separated at all, which made it much harder to paint them than it needed to be. It can be done, but if you want to do this quickly and (relatively) painlessly, flowers that separate into individual pieces and put back together easily would likely be your best bet.
My initial plan was to spray paint the stems with the metallic colors and then spray paint the roses red (no Alice in Wonderland reference intended). In between coats of paint on the mirror frame, I added some small pieces of aluminum foil to protect the blossoms from the metallic spray paint. I then sprayed the stems and leaves the same colors as the frame.
It was when I went to paint the blooms that I realized my cunning plan in fact had a critical flaw. In hindsight, it would have been easier to paint the blossoms first and then paint the stems to cover up any stray paint. Desperate to make this work, I wrapped the stems and leaves in foil and plastic wrap to protect them while I tried to spray paint the flowers anyway. To my further horror, I came to realize the red spray paint I had chosen (Amazon) was too bright for the aesthetic I wanted. I then made the bold, slightly reckless decision to paint the blooms by hand with acrylic paint.
I used a lot of naphthol crimson (Amazon) and a whisper (seriously—it’s potent) of dioxazine purple (Amazon) to make a rich burgundy color that went better with the aesthetic I wanted, and then proceeded to paint the rest of the blooms with this color. Take your time with this, and definitely wear gloves, unless you want your non-dominant hand to look like a crime scene. The painting process took me about three hours total.
Finally, I cut the flowers into individual stems and used clear 3M hooks to keep the flowers anchored to the frame and guide them up the wall. After some rearranging, it’s done!
I may revisit this project at a later time to see what can be improved, but I’ll also be honest: this came out way better than I anticipated. As a craftsperson, I often get caught up in my fears that it’s not going to come out as I’d like, and I was pleasantly surprised to see how well it came out. Hopefully, this will inspire you to start a project you’ve been hesitant to do; maybe you’ll surprise yourself. I’d love to see what you come up with, so let me know in the comments, or tag me on Instagram and Twitter!
Thank you so much for stopping by! Until next time, stay magical, everyone!
I went to Sleepy Hollow (VIDEO)
Well met, everyone, and welcome back! To get a better idea of the vibe for my novel The Hollow Bones, I wanted to go to the source—namely, Sleepy Hollow, New York. When I was in New York for a family trip, we took the opportunity to go to Sleepy Hollow Cemetery. I took some video footage while I was there (with some help from my family) and made it into a vlog on my YouTube:
The point of my going was to see if I could feel the atmosphere of the area as Washington Irving had described:
“It is remarkable that the visionary propensity I have mentioned is not confined to the native inhabitants of the valley, but is unconsciously imbibed by every one who resides there for a time. However wide awake they may have been before they entered that sleepy region, they are sure, in a little time, to inhale the witching influence of the air, and begin to grow imaginative, to dream dreams, and see apparitions.”
Excerpt From: Washington Irving. “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.” Apple Books.
I also wanted to go into the Old Dutch Church to see what it looked like, as well as visiting the Old Dutch Burying Ground to visit Washington Irving’s grave. We also went to visit a scenic bridge crossing the Pocantico River on the cemetery grounds. The original “Headless Horseman Bridge” is now part of Broadway as it leads towards the Old Dutch Church, so the scenic bridge is closer to what the iconic bridge may have looked like in 1790 when the original story takes place. This bridge, as well as seeing Philipsburg Manor and the old mill-pond, made it feel like even though it’s the 21st century, in that part of the town, history still has its influence there in part due to Washington Irving’s legacy.
As I’ve described in a previous blog post, Sleepy Hollow means a lot to me. Even though I’ve never lived there, it’s an obsession I’ve had for years, and I hadn’t been to the area since I was very young. To come back to Sleepy Hollow for some reason felt like coming home, and I’m even more inspired to finish my novel now than ever before.
I hope you enjoy the video, and that I’ve inspired you to visit Sleepy Hollow as well! Are there places that inexplicably feel like home to you? Let me know in the comments section!
Thank you for stopping by! Until next time, stay magical, everyone!
The magic of making things
Well met, everyone, and welcome back to the blog!
One of my aspirations for my life and my home is something I picked up from the elves of middle-Earth. What I loved about Lothlórien and Rivendell in Lord of the Rings is that the items in those places are both aesthetically beautiful and practical. As much as I can appreciate the light, simple aesthetic and practicality of a modern minimalist home, the utilitarian, geometric silhouettes of currently fashionable home décor are not part of my dream aesthetic, which is mainly inspired by the Art Nouveau movement, Baroque furniture design, Tudor and Gothic Revival architecture, fairytales with a moody twist, celestial and steampunk-like accents like those of the Wiseacres Wizarding Equipment shop in The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, and a use of clean, flowing lines that feels timeless and organic.
As I wrote about before in a previous article, I have so many skills I want to develop so I can create things to use in my everyday life, from reupholstering furniture to carving my own wood accent pieces like Christine McConnell did in this video, to sewing a lot of my own wardrobe pieces like Bernadette Banner and Enchanted Rose Costumes (in this video), among others. My problem is, sometimes working up the motivation to start a project is like psyching myself up to get teeth pulled without numbing medication. I never put much thought into the phrase “once begun is half done” until now, because for me, it is very much a thing.
Earlier this week, I was finally motivated to do something creative. As a result, I blew the dust off my sewing machine and made a wrist pincushion in the shape of a rose! Roses are my favorite flower, so I love the idea of having a pincushion that is I can use for dressmaking that’s also beautiful and in my aesthetic. I was also pleasantly surprised about how empowered I felt with the emotional high of “I made this and it came out great”, so much so that I took out the pins and went out that evening with the rose on my wrist as a bracelet. One idea in my head was, if making this tiny thing makes me happy and empowers me, how would that feeling be amplified if I’m surrounded by more and bigger pieces I make in my life? I once saw an image on Pinterest that had a message along the lines of, “what you create with your hands holds magic,” and I believe this world needs a bit more magic in the everyday!
I’m hoping to develop my sewing skills over the next few months, as well as working on more home decor DIYs similar to the candelabra I transformed back in August of this year. Are there any DIYs you’re working on right now? Let me know in the comments!
Thank you so much for stopping by! Until next time, stay magical, everyone!
Why I don’t write what I know
Well met, everyone, and welcome back to the blog! Recently, I was asked why I write fantasy with supernatural creatures instead of writing stories in a so-called “normal” setting. Aside from the bitter memories of people gatekeeping fantasy and science fiction as “not classic literature” (a day may come when I write about that in another post, but it is not this day), I don’t like to read about things that I have to deal with in my everyday life. I read novels to escape reality, so why in all the high heavens would I want to write about reality? In addition, there’s the dreaded phrase “write what you know”, which I’ve seen be credited to Mark Twain. Even though I do appreciate Mark Twain’s wit in many cases, I don’t believe this is a helpful piece of advice as it is often presented. While I often agree with the idea that you have to learn the rules before you can break them, in my opinion, this rule borders on ridiculous.
As I’ve been working towards editing a draft of The Hollow Bones with the intent to send it off to beta readers, I’ve basically flouted the idea of “write what you know”, but at the same time, there are points I can take from this advice. Do I have firsthand experience about life in late 18th, early 19th century New York state? No. Does that stop me from writing my story by doing research about that time period and writing about it to the best of my ability, as well as drawing on similar experiences in my own life? That answer is also no. While there’s something to be said for writing about what you have experienced firsthand, I think it’s too easy for this advice to limit us to semi-autobiographical writing and in my case, doesn’t allow for fantastical elements that could allow for a nice temporary escape from daily life.
While I was writing this article, I put up a poll on my Twitter to see how many of us had even heard the phrase “write what you know” in our time writing. At the end of the 24-hour poll, six of the eight contributors had voted that yes, they had heard that phrase before. Now here’s the question: if so many writers like Ursula K. Le Guin, Toni Morrison, Ernest Hemingway, Dan Brown, Avi, and Philip Pullman advise (at least partially) against the “write what you know” cliché, why are a decent majority of writers still being taught this? I want to hear from you: have you heard the phrase “write what you know”when you’ve been writing? How do you interpret this in your writing process? Please let me know in the comments section below!
Thank you so much for reading! Until next time, stay magical, everyone!
Too Ambitious For My Own Good?
Well met, everyone, and welcome back to the blog! It’s been a bit slow around here after being happily busy these past few weeks. A few days ago, I came down with laryngitis and bronchitis, and I was somewhat disappointed that I didn’t have laryngitis when we were at Disney World so I could make all the Ariel jokes (oh, the joys of having red hair). So, in all seriousness, what do I do when I can’t talk, and therefore can’t work? I drink a lot of tea with honey, hope and pray I don’t get an upset stomach from the antibiotics, try to finish the first draft of The Hollow Bones before NaNoWriMo starts (and get horribly distracted in the process), and binge a lot of YouTube videos.
I’ve been watching the videos from Christine McConnell’s YouTube channel after Netflix mistakenly made no second season of The Curious Creations of Christine McConnell, and I find myself wanting to do so many things like woodworking and sewing. Her aesthetic is a lot more retro than my own, but it’s also reassuring that aesthetics don’t have to be dark or depressing in order to be goth. Now that I’ve gotten my sewing machine up and running (the house fairies ran off with the foot pedal and power cord), I’d love to start making my own clothing like tops and dresses, as well as home décor items like pillows and duvet covers. I get frustrated with the clothing I find in the store when it’s not exactly how I want it to be (don’t even get me started on the disappointing depth of most hoods), so there are so many times I just think, “Screw it; I want to make my own clothes.”
The only problem is that I’ve said the same exact thing about other skills and hobbies like painting, knitting, spinning fibers, bobbin lace making, cooking, resin crafts, baking, and learning how to play at least three musical instruments, and there’s only so much time I can devote to developing all these different skills.
I get too ambitious for my own good, and I also don’t want this blog to get too scattered with too many topics. As a result, I’m curious: what would you folks like to see posts about? Writing? Documenting the progress on my new hobbies? Music? My favorite recipes? Please let me know in the comments section below!
Thank you so much for reading! Until next time, stay magical, everyone!
The Magical Wonders of THE SIMS 4
Ad disclosure: This article contains affiliate links. As an Amazon associate, I earn from qualified purchases, so if you make a purchase using the links in this article, I receive a small commission at no additional cost to you. I have not been compensated for my commentary about The Sims 4: Realm of Magic or The Sims 4: Strangerville.
For the past two years, I’ve been in love with the video game The Sims 4, but over the past two months, my copy of Origin must have been dealing with a gremlin infestation because I couldn’t open the game. But now that I can open the game, I realized that they released a new game pack called Realm of Magic, and now I just can’t get enough!
When I started playing this game pack, I fell in love with the concept of the neighborhoods, the outfits and accessories, and the Art Nouveau-inspired designs in Build Mode. I also found the game pack Strangerville, and it reminded me so much of the podcast Welcome to Night Vale that I wanted to try it out. I’ve been focusing more on the Realm of Magic game pack, but I liked the concept of Strangerville being more story-driven, so I’m excited to start and see what’s going on for myself! Who knows? It might inspire some ideas for a new story!
Do you play The Sims 4? Have you tried Realm of Magic yet? If so, what were your thoughts about it? Let me know what you think the comments section below!
Thank you so much for reading! Until next time, stay magical, everyone!
Meet the Characters: My “Sleepy Hollow” Retelling
Disclaimer: This article contains affiliate links.
Well met, everyone, and welcome back to the blog! I’ve noticed with fans and writers alike that it’s fun to put real-life actors to the characters in books, and it’s interesting to see why people see the actors they chose as those characters. I like to write my book like I’m making a movie; I want to be as descriptive as possible as well as have a dynamic pacing that keeps the reader engaged and rooting for the characters. As a result, it helps to have actor’s likenesses linked to character names, since it gives me a clearer image of how the scene will appear.
As I’ve been writing my manuscript for The Hollow Bones, a sequel/retelling of Washington Irving’s “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”, I’ve been thinking of who I’d want to play the characters of the story, if it were completely up to me. So, here’s my dream cast for The Hollow Bones:
Evangeline “Lina” Van Brunt: Lily James in BBC’s War and Peace
Like her mother Katrina in many film adaptations of the story, Lina is blonde, and I mention this because a lot of the reference photos I saw of women in Regency-era films like the Jane Austen movies were brunette (with the exception of Rosamund Pike as Jane Bennet in Pride and Prejudice). As a result, I ended up using photos of Lily James as Natasha Rostova in BBC’s War and Peace as reference images for Lina.
Runner-up: Elle Fanning in Mary Shelley
Michael von Essen: Tom Mison in FOX’s Sleepy Hollow
It feels strange “casting” Tom Mison because he played Ichabod Crane in FOX’s TV series Sleepy Hollow, but after listening to his audiobook narration of “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” (affiliate link), now I can only imagine his voice as that of Mr. von Essen.
Runner-up: Aidan Turner in BBC’s Poldark
Washington Irving: (tentative) a dark-haired version of Jack Lowden in BBC’s War and Peace
For reference, I used a painting of Washington Irving by John Wesley Jarvis dated to 1809, but I wasn’t finding actors that were enough of a likeness of our favorite writer for me to go, “That’s it!” When I saw photos of Jack Lowden as Nikolai Rostov in BBC’s War and Peace, all I had to do was imagine him with darker hair to be satisfied for the time being. I’m open for suggestions on who would be best to play Washington Irving—I don’t want to mess this one up, considering he’s the author of the original story!
Sarah Van Ripper: Miranda Richardson in Phantom of the Opera
Sarah Van Ripper’s household owned Gunpowder, the horse that Ichabod Crane rode on that fateful autumn night, and she likely knew more of the town’s secrets during the time Mr. Crane would have been there—almost two decades before the timeline of The Hollow Bones. Possibly because of her knowledge of the Hollow, I drew a connection to Miranda Richardson’s portrayal of Madame Giry in the movie Phantom of the Opera, due to the similarities in their characters. (Interestingly enough, Miranda Richardson was also in Tim Burton’s Sleepy Hollow as Lady Van Tassel. What a coincidence!)
Katrina Van Brunt (née Van Tassel): Hayley Atwell in Disney’s live-action Cinderella
While Katrina Van Tassel is eighteen in 1790 when the original story takes place, I had to take some creative liberties to make the timeline work for The Hollow Bones (sorry, Mr. Irving). Even if Katrina is older in my version of the story, I believe she’d still have her charm, wit, and beauty almost twenty years after the events of “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”.
Abraham “Brom Bones” Van Brunt: (tentative) Oscar Isaac
Say what you want about the new Star Wars movies (which brought Oscar Isaac to my attention), but in some of the photos I’ve seen of him, it seems like he would be old enough to be Lina’s father, but also would have been young, lively, and handsome when he married Katrina.
Baltus Van Tassel: Donald Sutherland
I first knew Donald Sutherland as Mr. Bennet in Pride and Prejudice (seen above), so that along with his performance as President Snow in the Hunger Games series sealed the deal for him to be who I imagine as playing Katrina’s father and Lina’s grandfather.
Ichabod Crane: Matt Smith in Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
When I thought of who would be Ichabod Crane, my mind went straight to Matt Smith as Mr. Collins in Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, because he looked so similar to how Washington Irving describes Mr. Crane in the original story. If you aren’t familiar with the story “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”, you can find the Amazon Kindle and Audible versions here (Amazon affiliate link).
This is not a list of all the characters in the book, but those are the main characters. Have you done this for your stories? What else would you want to know about the story? Let me know in the comments section below!
Thank you so much for reading! Until next time, stay magical, everyone!
Edit: I previously wrote that Katrina Van Tassel is blonde in the original story. I have not found reference to Katrina’s hair color in Washington Irving’s story, but in Tim Burton’s 1999 film Sleepy Hollow and the 1949 Disney cartoon, Katrina is shown with blond hair. The relevant parts of this article have been edited accordingly.