Monthly Wanderings: January 2020

January has been a pretty good month. I've been working on my late New Years' resolution of going greener with recycling and reusable bags. There's been some stress at work, but writing has been going extremely well and something happened that I did not at all expect to start off 2020. 

ScribeTunes: Soft Tension

I’m excited to announce the launch of ScribeTunes! American and Canadian powers combine in a collaborative project between me and Cassia Schaar to help writers have the best music for their writing. Have you ever spent half an hour or more trying to find the right mood music when you should be writing? Then this project is for you! Every other week we will be releasing playlists on Spotify and Apple Music that are themed for any writing scene you can think of! 

Writing Lessons from Video Games: Forgotton Anne

In 2018 when I got my Nintendo Switch, I saw the trailer for this game and I immediately put it on my to-play list. A steampunk world where inanimate objects come to life and the main character has steampunk wings? Yes, please! In October 2019 I finally bought it and man do I love this game. The worldbuilding. The characters. The story. All of it is fantastic. It's my favorite indie game to date now.

Forgotton Anne is about a human girl who lives in a world of forgotlings, objects who've gone missing and been transported to this place where they're brought to life. She's an enforcer, a policewoman of sorts, of these peoples and helps her master Bonku in his efforts to build a bridge to return to the human world. But terrorists want to prevent this bridge from being built so she has to investigate and discover the truth of their plot.

Warning: BIG FRIGGIN' SPOILER in tip three! Point four has minor spoilers.

A Book Review of The Blood Spell by C.J. Redwine

Series: Ravenspire (Book 2)
Genre: YA Fantasy
Publisher: Balzer + Bray (February 12, 2019)
Page Count: 448 pages

After reading the Shadow Queen, I knew I had to read more CJ Redwine so are Realm Makers bought the Blood Spell! I love Redwine’s style of fairytale retellings and her writing journey really resonates with me and gives me hope for success in my writing. Without further ado let’s check this Cinderella retelling!

Introducing ScribeTunes - Peaceful

I’m excited to announce the launch of ScribeTunes! American and Canadian powers combine in a collaborative project between me and Cassia Schaar to help writers have the best music for their writing. Have you ever spent half an hour or more trying to find the right mood music when you should be writing? Then this project is for you! Every other week we will be releasing playlists on Spotify and Apple Music that are themed for any writing scene you can think of! 

Why Retconning is a Writer's Deadliest Sin

I've disliked movies and abandoned series for many reasons, but one of my biggest reasons is for retconning. For those who don't know retconning means to "revise (an aspect of a fictional work) retrospectively, typically by introducing a piece of new information that imposes a different interpretation on previously described events." J.K. Rowling is notorious for doing this with her books like changing Dumbledore's sexuality and how Voldemort's name is pronounced. Fortunately, the books are safe from these changes from taking much effect, but that's not the same in other cases. 

TV shows and other franchises retcon very often. In rare circumstances, it's a good thing, but the only reason why it's needed in the first place is that the writers didn't do a good job in the first place. If something is so bad that it must be retconned then that's an error with the writer.