Jessica Strider

@jstrider66.bsky.social

809 Followers 251 Following

Medievalist, science fiction & fantasy book reviewer, crafter, traveller, and cat lover. I post book reviews & other things at scififanletter.blogspot.com Photos are mine unless otherwise indicated.

Four pairs of homemade earrings. One pair is made from green resin alien ducks, one pair are moons that have a gold outline and dark blue with glitter filling, one is of cat heads with a gold outline and large glitter flakes in dark blue resin inside. The last pair are white hearts with a blue and silver marbeling effect across the front.
A self-portrait of my Scriptorium character. She is sitting on a wooden box wearing a gold veil and robe. She is holding tools of the trade (quill and knife). Behind her is a giant cat and a blue leaved tree. On a bench to the right is her uncle, a human sized green skinned fish creature. Next to him is a cat doing yoga. Behind his ear, floating in the air, is a little demon holding a flail. On the ground beside the bench is a goblet and a cauldron with a giant fish sticking out of it.
A bowl filled with fries, cheese curds, chopped pickles, and a breaded pickle drizzled with pickle mayo.
A pair of miniature wish bottles with cork stoppers made into earrings. Inside is some chunky blue glitter, some pale yellow stars shapes, and a moon.
The west front of Salisbury cathedral has arched windows and lots of sculptures in niches.
1) Repetition → people start to believe what they hear a lot 2) Vivid language → imagining things helps them stay in your mind and remember them 3) Guilt by association → talk about their immoral friends and associates, implies your opponent has all their vices (hard to refute as the claim didn’t state that YOU did something, only that your friends did) 4) Exaggeration → if you accuse someone of dozens of crimes, your audience may not believe ALL of them, but will believe SOME of them (where there’s smoke, there’s fire) even if you don’t offer any evidence of any crime 5) Labelling → associate positive adjectives with yourself/your side and negative ones with the opposition 6) Fear mongering → paint a picture of apocalypse that will come about if opponent wins 7) Us vs Them mentality → idea can’t be neutral or see good on both sides, must go to extremes 8) Mud slinging → focus on their personal defects rather than any policy issue; avoids focus on policy and legitimate debate 9) Rhyme → people remember rhymes/slogans/catch phrases better than prose 10) Simplification → reduce complex issues into simple debates, so can’t see any positives in their position (appeals to emotions) 11) Claim religious right → God is on my side, so not on their side 12) Transferral → if you are accused of wrong doing, accuse your opponent of the same, it muddies the field and people are more likely to ignore both accusations as a result 13) Testimony → cite witnesses to back up your point WITHOUT CITING ANYONE, “everyone knows this” 14) Divert and Distract → If an opponent has a good point, distract with a sensational statement so people aren’t paying attention to the real issue anymore 15) Paralipsis → the speaker claims will not bring up slanderous charge while doing so 16) Humour → mock adversaries’ physical appearance, entertain the audience 17) Props and Visual aids → good for eliciting strong emotions 18) Delivery → can save a bad speech or kill a good one
The monastery is a round building with a thatched roof.
An acrylic pour painting with swirls of black, purple and white.
The full Gallus portal at Basil's Munster is on the north porch. The tympanum shows Last Judgement imagery (Christ in majesty, wise & foolish virgins, rising dead) and carvings of the Acts of Charity.
The full portal is now enclosed to keep it safe from the elements. There is a light stone arch (archivolts and tympanum) above. Below the arch is a pair of bronze doors. To either side of the doors, the light stone comes down half way in columns with heads at the tops. Below the columns it changes from stone to bricks.
Buildings in the distance across a river. The square tops of several buildings indicate where medieval towers were reduced in size.
The nave of the Dom is mostly white with low vaults.
St Paul's Dom, Munster, Germany. The south side has a tower on the left, and extended covered porch in the foreground of the photo, and a transept end to the right.
A darkly lit Christmas tree, with white and blue lights on it.
This is a wooden altar triptych. In the center Mary and Christ are crowned and sit on thrones. On either side, the open wings depict several saints on 2 registers.
Inside the church the vaulted ceiling soars. There are piers dividing the nave from the aisles, but all 3 are the same height. The vaults are set off with darker browning stone lining the white vaults.
The spire crows nests are 3 metal cages in a triangle formation. Below them is the clock with a gold face and hands.
Looking at a church up an old street that has a lot of beautiful facades.
The cover of Down Among the Sticks and Bones shows a barren hill with a dead tree at the top and a slightly open coffin with a light coming from it.
The cover of Paladin of Souls shows a woman in a purple dress. Her grey cloak is blowing open and has the faces of 5 gods in it. Behind her is a dirt road and a grove of trees in a fantasy countryside.
The cover of The Conductors shows a black woman holding a lantern in front of a white magical drawing of a bird in flight.
The cover of A Dept to Pleasure shows a close-up of a ripe peach on a white surface.
Vie of the upper chapel. Only the apse still has its murals.
View of the lower church, showing a lot of paintings on the vaults. In the middle is a railing, where people from the upper church can look down.
The road leading to the double church. The church exterior is mainly white with brownish accents at the windows and corners. The roofs are grey.
The cover of The Girl With All the Gifts shows a silhouette of a girl with her arms outstretched, on a plain yellow blackground.
The cover of Darkly Dreaming Dexter shows a man with his head in his hand, only the hand is much paler than his face (it's from one of his victims).
The cover of Transformation shows a shirtless man, with pale green bat-like wings, crouching on a rocky ledge, holding a curved sword. In the distance a lightning strike is hitting a castle.
The cover of Ella Enchanted shows a young girl in a gorgeous dress holding a mask. She is stepping out of a magical pumpkin carriage.
The cover of Black Rain shows some of the ruins at Hiroshima's Peace park. Black streaks run down the image. The book is about the after affects of the bombing of Hiroshima.
The cover of Emile Male's The Gothic Image: Religious Art in France in the 13th Century, shows part of a rose windoe from a cathedral.
The cover of Eloquent Bodies: Movement, Expression, and the Human Figure in Gothic Sculpture shows three stone statues of wise virgins from a cathedral.
The cover of The Jew, the Cathedral & the Medieval City shows a gothic sculpture of Ecclesia, who holds a chalice and a staff.
The cover of Pride & Prejudice shows a woman holding an open book. She's resting her head on one palm and she's facing away from the book.
The cover of Terry Pratchett's The Hogfather shows a fantasy version of Santa (played by Death) and some helpers in a sleigh pulled by several large pigs.
The cover of The Devil: Perceptions of Evil from Antiquity to Primitive Christianity shows a metal buckle next to the text.
A white cat with black ears and tail, is curled up in a lap on top of a striped blanked.
The cover of The Postman, shows a lone man walking down a path. Behind him is a collapsed building.
The abbey from the outside. The building has a double apse and several towers on each end.
The cover for The Dance of Death in the Middle Ages shows part of a coloured dance of death panel. Death is dancing with a noblewoman who has an elaborate headdress and a fur trimmed robe. Next to them, another death figure is dancing with a cardinal. Below the dancers are the text lines of what the figures say to each other, written on a flowing wavy parchment design.
The cover of Anthology of Japanese Literature shows the text on a light green background that has a sort of plant motif in white. Above, are 2 thin Japanese bamboo curtains, one of which is partly pulled up.
The cover page for an old print book of the ballads of Robin Hood. There is a black and white block print style image of two men fighting with staves.
The cover of African Zion shows an open Ethiopian icon. It is made of wood. On the left is an image of Mary and the Christ Child with two angels holding swords behind them. On the right are 3 rows of saints. The bottom row includes two saints on horseback.
Small drawings of a woman grinding pigments by candlelight and a man at a desk writing a manuscript.
The cover of Ancient Inventions. It's a black cover with some random ancient Egyptian/historic images at the top.
The cover of Homeland features the protagonist, the heroic dark elf Drizzt Do'Urden and his astral plane companion Guenhwyvar (a giant panther). The background shows an underground cavern with purple lighting and giant white mushrooms.
A picture of the ceiling fresco of the baptistry in Padova, Italy. In the middle is Christ, right hand raised in blessing, left holding an open book. Below him is Mary in blue robes, hands up in prayer. Beside Mary, making a ring below Christ, are several rows of seated Biblical figures and saints.
The cover for the Sword of Shannara has 3 people (an elf, a human, and a dwarf) looking at a glowing sword sticking out of a black rock.
Book cover for Magic in the Middle Ages. It shows a large crow on a pale green background.
The cookbook's cover shows some baked rolls with a spatula on top that has a pretty orange bow on it. In the background is a jar with layered dry ingredients for soup and some sort of canned vegetables. In the foreground corner are fudge squares.
Cover of the book the encyclopedia of things that never were. The background is green with a castle on an island in the distance. In the centre of the page is an amalgamation of numerous fantasy creatures all on top of each other: a fairy, a dragon, a unicorn, a giant, a massive skull, a mermaid, etc.
Cover of The Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius. It shows Philosophy as a woman in a dark blue dress and white headdress commiserating with Boethius, who is wearing a reddish robe. To the right Fortune is personified as a woman in front of a wooden wheel, which is turning. On the wheel are several people being raised up or brought back down depending on their personal fortunes.
Cover for the collection: classics of children's literature. It shows a boy standing on a wagon waving his hat in the air. A bunch of other boys are climbing up and others are pulling it along.
The Seventh Princess by Nick Sullivan. The cover shows a young girl wearing a red rob lined in fur. She's wearing a crown and lots of jewelry. Behind her is a castle and a bunch of zoo animals on a field of grass.
The front of a rectangular sarcophagus. There are two registers of carvings. On the top is an epiphany scene (the 3 magi visiting Mary and Christ), on the bottom are several groups of scenes smooshed together like a comic book page without any dividing panels.
A calendar page from a psalter. The left side has roman numerals for the days of the month, followed by names of saints. On the right are two golden circles. One shows a man threshing wheat. The lower circle has Sagittarius (a centaur with a bow) shooting an arrow that is outside the circle.
A wide angle view of the first room of the medieval collection. The back wall has a painted altar. There is a large crucifix in front of the altar. Several sculptures of Mary and saints are to the left and right, with smaller capital carvings in the middle.
A painting from the ceiling of a cathedral. A bust of Christ is in the middle of a large golden cross. Between the cross arms are heads of the 4 beasts of Ezekiel (Angel, Eagle, Lion, Ox) as representatives of the 4 Evangelists. Strings with bells stretch between midpoints of the cross and the ends of the cross, making a large diamond pattern.