Monthly Wanderings: April 2020

Am I the only one who feels like the last two months have felt like ten years? March was definitely a dark month, but it feels like hope started to come back into the world at the end of April. My state is beginning to open up along with others in the US, so maybe we're finally reaching the light side of this tunnel. 

ScribeTunes: Chasing

The newest ScribeTunes is here! 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! 

A Book Review of The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

This bewitching and harrowing tale of mystery and survival, and memory and magic, makes the impossible all too real...

A middle-aged man returns to his childhood home to attend a funeral. Although the house he lived in is long gone, he is drawn to the farm at the end of the road, where, when he was seven, he encountered a most remarkable girl, Lettie Hempstock, and her mother and grandmother. He hasn't thought of Lettie in decades, and yet as he sits by the pond (a pond that she'd claimed was an ocean) behind the ramshackle old farmhouse where she once lived, the unremembered past comes flooding back. And it is a past too strange, too frightening, too dangerous to have happened to anyone, let alone a small boy.

Genre: Fantasy
Publisher: William Morrow (June 3, 2014)
Page Count: 181 pages

At this point, I've dabbled into Neil Gaiman quite a bit. I've seen Stardust and Coraline and I just recently read Norse Gods. Now I wanted to read one of his books that hasn't been adapted into a film and really dive into original Gaiman writing. 

A Book Review of Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson

For a thousand years, the ash fell and no flowers bloomed. For a thousand years, the Skaa slaved in misery and lived in fear. For a thousand years the Lord Ruler, the "Sliver of Infinity," reigned with absolute power and ultimate terror, divinely invincible. Then, when hope was so long lost that not even its memory remained, a terribly scarred, heart-broken half-Skaa rediscovered it in the depths of the Lord Ruler's most hellish prison. Kelsier "snapped" and found in himself the powers of a Mistborn. A brilliant thief and natural leader, he turned his talents to the ultimate caper, with the Lord Ruler himself as the mark.

Kelsier recruited the underworld's elite, the smartest and most trustworthy allomancers, each of whom shares one of his many powers, and all of whom relish a high-stakes challenge. Only then does he reveal his ultimate dream, not just the greatest heist in history, but the downfall of the divine despot.

But even with the best criminal crew ever assembled, Kel's plan looks more like the ultimate long shot, until luck brings a ragged girl named Vin into his life. Like him, she's a half-Skaa orphan, but she's lived a much harsher life. Vin has learned to expect betrayal from everyone she meets, and gotten it. She will have to learn to trust if Kel is to help her master powers of which she never dreamed.

This saga dares to ask a simple question: What if the hero of prophecy fails?

Series: Mistborn (Book 1)
Genre: YA Fantasy
Publisher: Tor Teen; Reprint edition (May 13, 2014)
Page Count: 672 pages

I read Steelheart several years ago and I honestly don't remember a ton about it, but I've been wanting to try some Brandon Sanderson again and fans of his that I know have been recommending Mistborn, so I tried it and honestly I'm now a huge fan too. 

Now I'm 27 ...

 Well, my 27th year has not started in the most optimal fashion what with coronapocalypse and all, but there are some good things that happened on my birthday and some things to look back on from my good 26th year!

ScribeTunes: Skirmish

The newest ScribeTunes is here! 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: Final Fantasy X

AT LAST, I'VE FINISHED THIS GAME! I started it on my PC like last year or so and never finished it because my PC was so freaking aggravating to play on, but then in November, I got a copy for my PlayStation which I played through until the final battles which I watched on YouTube because I didn't feel like grinding to play these mega-hard bosses that are all consecutive. But! Overall, I really enjoyed the story. It really struck me the second time because I was too distracted with tech difficulties last time. Some of the quotes just really struck me and I really got into the emotional beats of the story. They were so inspirational I decided to write a whole post about the game! 

After a mysterious entity called Sin thrusts Tidus into another world, our hero finds himself trapped in the mystical land of Spira where Sin is a plague defeated only by Summoners. Tidus finds himself a guardian of the beautiful Summoner Yuna as he helps her on her journey to defeat Sin and find a way home. 

Warning: Big fat spoilers in points three and four.

A Book Review of Let the Ghosts Speak by Bryan Davis

In 19th century Paris, Justin Trotter, an immigrant from England, is making his way as a book translator while paying for his blind twin sister’s care. One evening, Marc Noël, Justin’s well-to-do friend and fellow thespian, invites him to a masquerade party at an abandoned schoolhouse. Justin hopes this will be an opportunity to get to know Marc’s lovely though sharp-tongued sister, Francine.

At the event, Justin meets four ghostly strangers—two adults and two children—who warn him that the party guests are in danger, and they must leave at once. True to their prediction, a murder takes place, and Justin is the prime suspect. He escapes and becomes a fugitive, hiding in the Paris catacombs.

Mystery and intrigue swirl as the ghost of Joan of Arc and other martyrs guide Justin on a lonely journey to prove his innocence and protect his sister from an abusive caretaker. Who really committed the crime? Marc? Francine? A ghost? And does seeing these ghosts mean he is going insane? Maybe he really is the murderer after all.

Genre: Adult Mystery
Publisher: Mountain Brook Ink (April 15, 2020)
Page Count: 245 pages

I've had the honor to be able to obtain an advance reader copy of Bryan Davis' new release coming April 15th!