Monthly Summary: June 2018

I hate the summer heat so I'm hanging in there this month. XD Pokemon GO is the only thing motivating me to go outside and spend more than a minute that it takes to get me from building to building. But I've had some fun highlights, most of them while remaining in air conditioning. ;)

Interview with Cohen (Silhouette)!

Me:

I haven't done a character interview in a long time but since Beautiful People has ended for the time being I thought I'd bring it back ... because I miss talking about my characters. XD Thank you to everyone who asked questions! This really helps me develop characters. *sitting in a chair Tonight Show-style, turns to Cohen who's sitting in the chair next to me* Hey, Cohen.

Cohen:
Hello.

Me:
Ready to get started? You've got a lot of questions.

Cohen:
Yes, it'll be a good break.

So Your Character is From Switzerland ... Featuring Anonymous

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 Spain ... 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 is as uncensored as possible to preserve the authenticity of the cultures of each of the interviewees.

(None of the Images are Mine)

My Top 5 Favorite Series Endings and Why They're So Satisfying

Endings to a long series are so bittersweet. You've went on this big journey with a character/characters and now it's finally coming to a close. Sometimes this close is terribly unsatisfying (*coughs* Castle and Divergent *coughs*) and other times it comes to a close in such a perfect way that you can't imagine how it could be any better. I have a lot of favorite series endings (Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, Harry Potter, and the Grisha Trilogy are honorable mentions), but these are what first comes to mind when I think of my top five. I also am going to talk about why these endings are so effective and how you can apply that to your story. 

Warning: Spoilers galore cause we're talking about endings here. What did you expect?

A Book Review of Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

Buy from Amazon!

In order to develop a secure defense against a hostile alien race's next attack, government agencies breed child geniuses and train them as soldiers. A brilliant young boy, Andrew "Ender" Wiggin lives with his kind but distant parents, his sadistic brother Peter, and the person he loves more than anyone else, his sister Valentine. Peter and Valentine were candidates for the soldier-training program but didn't make the cut--young Ender is the Wiggin drafted to the orbiting Battle School for rigorous military training.

Ender's skills make him a leader in school and respected in the Battle Room, where children play at mock battles in zero gravity. Yet growing up in an artificial community of young soldiers, Ender suffers greatly from isolation, rivalry from his peers, pressure from the adult teachers, and an unsettling fear of the alien invaders. His psychological battles include loneliness, fear that he is becoming like the cruel brother he remembers and fanning the flames of devotion to his beloved sister. 


Is Ender the general Earth needs? But Ender is not the only result of the genetic experiments. The war with the Buggers has been raging for a hundred years, and the quest for the perfect general has been underway for almost as long. Ender's two older siblings are every bit as unusual as he is but in very different ways. Between the three of them lie the abilities to remake a world. If the world survives, that is.

Series: The Ender Quintet (Book 1)
Genre: YA Science Fiction
Publisher: Tor Science Fiction (July 15, 1994)
Page Count: 352 pages

This is another story where I saw the movie first and so I knew about the big ending twist before. Some people I've spoken to say that may have hampered my enjoyment of the book, but I still wanted to read this classic. 

So Your Character is From Spain ... Featuring Ana @ The Misstery & Paula @ Flaw Decay

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 Luxembourg ... 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 is as uncensored as possible to preserve the authenticity of the cultures of each of the interviewees.

(None of the Images are Mine)

5 Ways Classic PC Adventure Games Trained Me to Be a Writer

It's no secret that I freaking love PC Adventure Games. I've been playing them since I was seven-years-old. My mom had a lot of them on floppy disc. Yes, floppy disc. If you don't know what those are, look them up (It's also what your save icon is in Microsoft Word). XD Then later on with CD-ROM (Now we have snazzy disc-less download stuff. I'm so grateful for that.). So I have many fond memories get on our dinosaur of a computer in the office after finishing my schoolwork for the day and spending time with some of my pixel best friends. I wouldn't be the same writer I am today without the many skills I learned by playing these games.

My computer growing up looked just like this one.

A Book Review of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling

Buy from Amazon!

Harry Potter is midway through his training as a wizard and his coming of age. Harry wants to get away from the pernicious Dursleys and go to the International Quidditch Cup. He wants to find out about the mysterious event that's supposed to take place at Hogwarts this year, an event involving two other rival schools of magic, and a competition that hasn't happened for a hundred years. He wants to be a normal, fourteen-year-old wizard. But unfortunately for Harry Potter, he's not normal - even by wizarding standards. And in his case, different can be deadly.

Series: Harry Potter (Book 4)
Genre: YA Fantasy
Publisher: Scholastic Paperbacks (September 1, 2002)
Page Count: 752 pages

I'm on a Harry Potter kick right now, because I'm trying to get all the books read, including Fantastic Beasts, before The Crimes of Grindewald releases! I'm a slow reader and I'm getting these books from the library so it's a bit of a feat for me, but I think I'm going to make it!

So Your Character is From Luxembourg ... Featuring Stephanie @ Phannie the Ginger Bookworm

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 Denmark ... 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 is 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 Anime: Noragami

A few years ago a friend introduced me to Noragami and it quickly became one of my favorite animes. I love it so much I've done a cosplay of Lady Bishamon! I fell in love with the neat dynamics of gods, phantoms, and mortals, but also amazing depth the show has. I wrote a whole article for Geekdom House about a plot thread from the second season.

Noragami means "Wandering God." In Japanese Shintoism, there are many gods and spirits and this show circles around that religion, particularly on a god named Yato who's almost completely unknown. He dreams of getting his own shrine and gaining flocks of worshippers. A human girl named Hyori got mixed up with this world of gods and phantoms when saves Yato's life and has now caused her soul to slip in and out of her body.

This is one of those plots where I sound kind of crazy when I try to explain it, but it's super good! Let me tell you about some writing points I learned from it!

Warning: Some spoilers. The biggest one is in five.

Questions for Cohen (Silhouette)!

Since Beautiful People has ended for the time being I thought I'd try reviving character interviews on the blog so I can talk about my books a little bit. This is Cohen Makovsky and he's the main character of my Adult Science-Fiction novel Silhouette. He had his own Beautiful People, but I need to get to know him even more. XD Let me tell you a bit about him. 

Cohen is a twenty-five-year-old convict from the planet Copec, but he's currently imprisoned on the volcanic planet of Valdura and furthermore, he's trapped inside a clay replica of himself as further punishment. He longs for the day the appraisers come and he has a chance to serve the rest of his sentence on a different brighter planet. 

Cohen was raised on an apiary in Copec with his mother and sister. He had a very poor upbringing and always dreamed of bringing a better life for his family. After receiving a scholarship, he went to university and gained a degree in mathematics and worked as an accountment before he got wrapped up in illegal financial dealings.

Besides his ambitions, he loves astronomy and one of the things he misses the most on Valdura is the inability to see the stars because of the planet's clouded toxic atmosphere. His best friend Osment helps him keep hope as each day grows closer to when he can leave Valdura and make his family proud of him again.

Leave your questions in the comments or in the form if you'd wish to remain anonymous or if you're having trouble with the comments. Cohen will answer them on June 29th! Thank you! 

So Your Character is From Denmark ... Featuring Michelle Ofelia @ #ofeliasbookshelf

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 Costa Rica ... 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 is as uncensored as possible to preserve the authenticity of the cultures of each of the interviewees.

(None of the Images are Mine)

Monthly Summary: May 2018

May was an eventful month! I met Victoria Aveyard author of the Red Queen series, I attended MegaCon, and got a second job!

MegaCon Orlando 2018 Report

This is my third year in a row attending MegaCon Orlando and I got to check yet another swath of celebrities and cosplays off my bucket list!