So Your Character is From Romania ... Teodora @ My Reading Nook

It's time for this week's So Your Character is ... Post! This is a weekly segment where I interview lovely volunteers from around the world to give you a firsthand account of being a citizen of their respective country or having a disability. I'm hoping to encourage international diversity, break stereotypes, and give writers a crash course on how to write a character from these different places on our planet. If you haven't checked out last week's  So Your Character is from Serbia ... be sure to hop on over there and give it a read!

Disclaimer: The content below may be culturally shocking to some. Each of these posts are as uncensored as possible to preserve the authenticity of the cultures of each of the interviewees.

(None of the Images are Mine)

Henchmen 101

Villains can't be everywhere at once or do everything on their own, so that's why they have henchmen! But henchmen are people too, so that's why I decided to dedicate an entire post to these characters. Let's look at the definition of henchman real quick, so we can better understand them.

1.) an unscrupulous and ruthless subordinate, especially a criminal: The leader of the gang went everywhere accompanied by his henchmen.2.) an unscrupulous supporter or adherent of a political figure or cause, especially one motivated by the hope of personal gain: Hitler and his henchmen.3.) a trusted attendant, supporter, or follower.

The word henchmen has a wide variety of meanings, hence why I chose that word as opposed to lackeys or subordinates or disposable cannon-fodder. Some henchmen have evil intentions, others do not. That's part of the diversity of henchmen.

The biggest question to ask yourself when creating henchmen is:

Why did they join the villain?

What got these characters involved with this dastardly evil-doer? Why are they still with this person despite their ill-treatment or the dangerous missions their boss sends them on or the people they want this henchman to betray? That's what we're going to explore today!

Tori's Tips for Purchasing a Gaming Laptop

No Sam doesn't game, but it's October so Halloween so Supernatural so there.

I'm hoping in the next year to purchase a new laptop because my current baby is almost seven years old and it's starting to show. Now I've only purchased a laptop where I was actually involved once, which is my current laptop since my first laptop was a first writers conference present from my parents when I was 16. I'm not amazing with computers, but here are a few tips I've learned that are good for not just purchasing a laptop, but any laptop, including one for writing. Here we go!

So Your Character is from Serbia ... Featuring Norah @ Bookish Fever

It's time for this week's So Your Character is ... Post! This is a weekly segment where I interview lovely volunteers from around the world to give you a firsthand account of being a citizen of their respective country or having a disability. I'm hoping to encourage international diversity, break stereotypes, and give writers a crash course on how to write a character from these different places on our planet. If you haven't checked out last week's  So Your Character is from Bulgaria ... be sure to hop on over there and give it a read!

Disclaimer: The content below may be culturally shocking to some. Each of these posts are as uncensored as possible to preserve the authenticity of the cultures of each of the interviewees.

(None of the Images are Mine)

Writing Lessons from Music Videos: Shelter

Last Monday was Shelter's one year anniversary! This collaboration of American, French, and Japanese art has gained over 22 million views on YouTube. I didn't watch this video until this summer, but it blew me away with its fantastic storytelling in just six minutes! The only want to totally experience this brilliance is to watch it yourself! So give it a view then we'll get to the post!

A Book Review of Black by Ted Dekker

Buy from Amazon

Fleeing assailants through deserted alleyways, Thomas Hunter narrowly escapes to the roof of a building. Then a silent bullet from the night clips his head . . . and his world goes black.

From the blackness comes an amazing reality of another world where evil is contained. A world where Thomas Hunter is in love with a beautiful woman.

But then he remembers the dream of being chased through an alleyway as he reaches to touch the blood on his head. Where does the dream end and reality begin?

Every time he falls asleep in one world, he awakes in the other. Yet in both, catastrophic disaster awaits him . . . may even be caused by him.

Some say the world hangs in the balance of every choice we make. Now the fate of two worlds hangs in the balance of one man's choices.

So Your Character is Hard of Hearing ... Featuring Lelia Rose Foreman + Kiara @ Bookends

When I was a kid and in my early teens, my piano teacher was actually deaf. A lot of people think that's an impossibility, but she could see the keys and feel the vibrations of the piano. Since then I've felt a connection to deaf and hard of hearing culture. I even took a semester of sign language in high school and whenever I see my piano teacher I sign to her. Whenever I see a deaf character in a show or movie I have good memories of my piano teacher. Some of my favorites are Emmett Bledsoe from Switched at Birth and Cass from Doctor Who. I'm really happy to have Lelia on the blog to give us some firsthand incite on being hard of hearing!

Let's welcome Lelia!

(Images aren't mine) 

Necrologies and Debacles: Avatar: The Last Airbender & The Legend of Korra Edition

Villains meet their demises in so many different ways. For some this means death, for other this means an unfortunate incapacitating situation. Writers put a lot of thought into how their antagonist finally fails, but which way is best for your villain? That all depends on so many different circumstances, including audience and genre. This is what inspired my series "Villain Necrologies & Debacles." Over time, I'll be analyzing different animation studios, franchises, and more. These posts are meant to show you what sort of defeats have been done whether common or uncommon, perhaps inspire some villain defeats of your own, or you can just enjoy the morbid humor. Check out last month's Villain Necrologies and Debacles: The Lord of the Rings & The Hobbit Edition!

If you've been reading my blog for any length of time then you know I'm a huge Avatar: The Last Airbender/Legend of Korra fan. I've watched the entire ATLA series at least ten times. This show changed Nickelodeon forever when it aired. ATLA was the first Korean-animated, more seriously-toned show ever to air on the channel and the behind-the-scenes folk were very skeptical about it and expected it to fail. However, ATLA has become one of Nickelodeon's most popular shows of all time and Legend of Korra became one of the top ten most watched shows on television during its run.

Most people know about the horrible live action adaption the Last Airbender, but the show is one of the best animated shows I've ever seen. If you'd like to see more about the show as a whole check out my writing lessons post, but today I'm focusing on the villains. To this day I still believe that ATLA and Korra have some of the best villains their genre has to offer.

Warning: Spoilers for both shows.

Beautiful Books 2017 ~ Introduce Your Novel: Silhouette

NaNoWriMo approaches so it's that time of year again! Time for Beautiful Books! This is a link-up hosted by Paper Fury and Further Up and Further in! Instead of the usual character focus, this time it's about your whole book in preparation for NaNo! I've been participating in it for the last three years with Red Hood (Post #1, #2, and #3), Subsapien: Hybrid (Post #1, #2, and #3), and Starbloods (Post #1 and #2). It's been great fun! If you'd like to participate, head on over to Paper Fury or Further Up and Further In!

So Your Character is From Bulgaria ... Featuring Vilina Christoph

It's time for this week's So Your Character is ... Post! This is a weekly segment where I interview lovely volunteers from around the world to give you a firsthand account of being a citizen of their respective country or having a disability. I'm hoping to encourage international diversity, break stereotypes, and give writers a crash course on how to write a character from these different places on our planet. If you haven't checked out last week's  So Your Character is from Ukraine ... be sure to hop on over there and give it a read!

Disclaimer: The content below may be culturally shocking to some. Each of these posts are as uncensored as possible to preserve the authenticity of the cultures of each of the interviewees.

(None of the Images are Mine)

Monthly Summary: September 2017

September was a whirlwind of a month! It had a lot of great times and a lot of stressful times what with Hurricane Irma and two conventions!

DragonCon & Anime Weekend Atlanta 2017 Report

I've never done two conventions in one month before! DragonCon I hadn't been to in two years and AWA I've wanted to go to for quite some time, but could never manage it. Thus I'm very happy to have been able to attend these two conventions!

So Your Character is From Ukraine ... Featuring Valery @ Sunny Eri: Beauty Experience

It's time for this week's So Your Character is ... Post! This is a weekly segment where I interview lovely volunteers from around the world to give you a firsthand account of being a citizen of their respective country or having a disability. I'm hoping to encourage international diversity, break stereotypes, and give writers a crash course on how to write a character from these different places on our planet. If you haven't checked out last week's  So Your Character is from Qatar ... be sure to hop on over there and give it a read!

What I mostly know about Ukraine is the location, that they've been at odds with Russia, and the food. I'm a big fan of pierogies, borscht, and blintzes. They're some of my comfort food. I'm so happy to have Valery on the blog to tell us more about this country!

Disclaimer: The content below may be culturally shocking to some. Each of these posts are as uncensored as possible to preserve the authenticity of the cultures of each of the interviewees.

(None of the Images are Mine)