Monthly Wandererings: August 2019

August took a lot of unexpected turns and honestly, August is usually my least favorite month of the year because I'm sick and tired of the heat by now, but it had some good highlights.

A Book Review of The Black Prism by Brent Weeks

Buy from Amazon!

Guile is the Prism. He is high priest and emperor, a man whose power, wit, and charm are all that preserves a tenuous peace. Yet Prisms never last, and Guile knows exactly how long he has left to live.

When Guile discovers he has a son, born in a far kingdom after the war that put him in power, he must decide how much he's willing to pay to protect a secret that could tear his world apart.

Series: The Lightbringer (Book 1)
Genre: Adult Fantasy
Publisher: Orbit; Reprint edition (July 23, 2013)
Page Count: 688 pages

I meant to have this review finished before Realm Makers but this was a super long book so better late than ever. Brent Weeks was the Keynote Speaker last month at RM in St. Louis. He had some really great things to say and has a fascinating writing journey. I really wanted to love his book more and I feel like I would have if it wasn’t for the mature content level.

Keeping Morality in Fiction: Are We Tired of Good Characters and the Good Winning?

Over the summer a “What if?” film called Brightburn released with the premise of Superman being a villain and as expected it ends in tragedy. I have a weird curiosity when it comes to most horror films. I won’t watch them but I’ll look up the synopsis to know what happened. While perusing on IMDb I came across some reviews about the film and many of the people who liked it did because they were tired of superheroes and Superman being good. Here's one for example:

"Great movie with a great story. If you're tired like I am of watching superhero movies already knowing the good guy is always going to win, you'll love this."

That got me thinking about if people are really getting tired of good characters, of the good guys always winning?

Language of Worlds July-August 2019 Edition!

I'm really excited about this link-up because I get to squee about the sequel for Red Hood, the book that got me an agent! A lot of stuff is spoiled just in the back cover copy for book two so I'll try to keep this spoiler-free as possible. But basically, Mor has to recover from the events of the previous book and make the treacherous journey home to save her friend from going mad. If you'd like to participate in the link-up, hop on over to Liv's blog!

How Writing Chapter Summaries Can Help With Editing

I first heard about these when I was writing my first book proposal. I had no clue how to do that, so I looked at all of these different publisher requirements and just included them all in my proposal. Apparently, chapter summaries are used for just non-fiction books for proposals, but I've found that writing them can be so handy for fiction writers. We have to juggle so many elements of story it can be overwhelming and writing these has saved me a lot of headache. I tried this method with my last draft and I love it. I'm definitely using it from now on. 

I've written mini versions of these as I write as I've mentioned in another post, but these I've written while editing. The way I outlined my last book was I read every chapter then wrote chapter summaries for each one then I went over them to help create an outline. I want to use these again for the next stage of editing to help me remember elements of my story. I wish I did this with my previous book. Thank God for ctrl+F. 

Interview with Gunn (Silver Hood)!

Me:

Hello! And thank you for the questions! *turns in Tonight Show desk to Moira who's sitting on a couch* Good afternoon, Doctor Gunn.

Gunn:

Good afternoon. *has ankle crossed on his knee*

Me:

Ready to get started?

Gunn:

Yes. This sounded fun from Chalmers' description.

Writing Lessons from Anime: Attack on Titan

This is just becoming Attack on Titan month and I have no shame since I just freaking love this show, guys. I haven't done an AoT Writing Lessons post earlier because I thought I did one, but I didn't so now I am. I've been with this fandom for six years and next fall the final season will release. It's been a long commitment, but so worth it.

Attack on Titan is set in a world where Titans, man-eating giants, have brought humanity to near extinction and what remains of it live behind gigantic walls, but Eren, Mikasa, and Armin dream of a world outside of the walls. When Titans break through one of the walls, Eren and Mikasa's mother is eaten and their father disappears, leaving Eren with a key to a basement that holds the secrets of the Titans. Eren, Mikasa, and Armin join the military to fight the Titans to take back their world for humanity.

Warning Spoilers: Steer clear of point two and four if you're not caught up.

Questions for Gunn (Silver Hood)!

Interview time and this is with Chalmer's older brother Gunn! He's been a stubborn little twit and not wanting to tell me anything about his past, so he needs an interview. Their mom is Snow White so that's pretty cool. 

Gunn is a twenty-something Silver Hood and the eldest of his seven brothers. His father Rem is the leader of the Silver Hoods and his mother is the cultural leader of his people. Gunn is a doctor, apprenticing underneath another doctor to learn his skills. He is closest with his younger brother Chalmers and they work together to invent medical advancements to help patients. Because leaders are elected Gunn isn't obligated to take his Father's position when it's time, but it's a rumor that he'd likely to be elected. Gunn would rather focus on his medical profession. He enjoys helping others heal and that's what he'd like to spend the rest of his life doing.

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. He will answer them next Tuesday! Thank you! 

Attack on Titan and Mystery: How to Keep Your Readers Turning Pages (Or Clicking on the Next Episode)

Mystery is not just for mystery stories. Attack on Titan is one of the most popular anime out there running and it's not primarily because it's packed with action, it's because of the questions it makes you ask: Where did the titans come from? Who is Colossal Titan and Female Titan? When is this story taking place? In the future? Is it in our world? What are the intelligent Titans' goals? How will our heroes ever stop these things?

You want to click to the next episode not just to see if characters live or die but to find out all of these mysteries! Season three has finally revealed a number of these answers prefacing the show's final season and this show handled mystery in such an amazing way and it's something you can apply to your stories too to make sure they flip to the next chapter as fast as you can click the next episode on Crunchyroll.

WARNING: Spoilers up to the end of Season 3 of Attack on Titan, but I will redact the big spoilers with a black highlight which you can highlight with your mouse to read.