Book Review and Writing Lessons: The Mark of Athena by Rick Riordan

 

In The Son of Neptune, Percy, Hazel, and Frank met in Camp Jupiter, the Roman equivalent of Camp Halfblood, and traveled to the land beyond the gods to complete a dangerous quest. The third book in the Heroes of Olympus series will unite them with Jason, Piper, and Leo. But they number only six--who will complete the Prophecy of Seven?

The Greek and Roman demigods will have to cooperate in order to defeat the giants released by the Earth Mother, Gaea. Then they will have to sail together to the ancient land to find the Doors of Death. What exactly are the Doors of Death? Much of the prophecy remains a mystery. . . .

With old friends and new friends joining forces, a marvelous ship, fearsome foes, and an exotic setting, The Mark of Athena is be another unforgettable adventure by master storyteller Rick Riordan.

Series: The Heroes of Olympus (Book 3)
Genre: YA Fantasy
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion; Reprint Edition (April 8, 2014)
Page Count: 672 pages

If anything I need this year is a laugh and Rick Riordan’s books are always my happy place books where I can read about amazing characters in epic quests but also giggle along the way.

So Your Character is From Malta ... Featuring Charlene @ OnlyfortheBooks

 

So Your Character is ... is back for a time after a long hiatus! In this series, 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 time's So Your Character is from Mongolia ... 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)

So Your Character is From Mongolia ... Featuring Jenny Sandiford

 

So Your Character is ... is back for a time after a long hiatus! In this series, 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 time's So Your Character is from Latvia ... 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 Video Games: Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition

 

I've only heard of this game recently what with the remake having just come out this year, but my two good friends recommended it to me so I thought I'd give it a shot. I really enjoyed it. It was a great original story with more twists at the climax than I’ve ever seen in a story! The characters are all great and so well developed for a large cast! And the world building is just amazing!

Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition is set on a world where people and machines live on two dormant titans known as the Bionis and Mechonis. These two races are at constant war with each other. After a terrible attack on his village a Homs named Shulk armed with the mysterious blade called the Monado seeks revenge against the machina who have devastated his people.

Warning: Big spoilers for points 3-5!

Book Review and Writing Lessons: Gatekeepers by Robert Liparulo

 

The house talks. It breathes. And it's hungry.

The Kings have been in the creepy old place, their new home, for only a few days, but they've experienced enough terror to last a lifetime. And the mystery is growing even more baffling. Shadowy and shifting, the big house conceals doors into other worlds that blur the line between memories and dreams and the slightest misstep can change history forever.

At least, that's if they believe the trembling old man who shows up claiming to know them. "There's a reason you're in the house," he tells them. "As gatekeepers, we must make sure only those events that are supposed to happen get through to the future."

The problem is that horrors beyond description wait on the other side of those gates. As if that weren't enough, the Kings are also menaced by sinister forces on this side like the dark, ancient stranger Taksidian, who wants them out now.

Xander, David, and Toria must venture beyond the gates to save their missing mother and discover how truly high the stakes have become.

Series: Dreamhouse Kings (Books 3)

Genre: MG Fantasy
Publisher: Thomas Nelson Publishing (February 21, 2012)
Page Count: 320 pages

My friend and I decided to read this book together and it's certainly one of my favorites of the series so far!

Book Review and Writing Lessons: Crooked House by Agatha Christie

The Leonides are one big happy family living in a sprawling, ramshackle mansion. That is until the head of the household, Aristide, is murdered with a fatal barbiturate injection. Suspicion naturally falls on the old man’s young widow, fifty years his junior. But the murderer has reckoned without the tenacity of Charles Hayward, fiancé of the late millionaire’s granddaughter.

Genre: Adult Mystery
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks; Reissue edition (February 1, 2011); Originally Dodd, Mead and Company (March 1949)
Page Count: 256 pages

I've become an Agatha Christie fan in the last year, so I've been itching to get my hands on another one of her mysteries! Crooked House is considered one of her best, so I decided to give it a go! 

Writing Lessons from Video Games: Ori and the Will of the Wisps

I played the first game a few years ago and fell in love and I played the sequel as soon as I could download it in March! One of my many corona coping mechanisms. This one completes Ori’s story and brings a satisfying conclusion to the series. The writing for these games is just fantastic.

Ori and the Will of the Wisps is about a forest spirit who helps raise a young owlet named Ku. After Ku learns to fly, she and Ori fly to another land far from their home, but a terrible storm thrusts them out of the sky and damages Ku's wing. Ori must find a way to reunite with the owlet while evading the evil entity Shriek and find a way to heal the land before they can go home. 

Warning: Spoilers about the first game and spoilers in points 2-5.

Advanced Description: Take Your Prose to the Next Level

In the past year, I've learned that description is a lot more complicated than you think. It's not just using the five senses. It's about invoking emotion with your description as well. 

Writing Lessons from Video Games: Horizon Zero Dawn

This is my favorite game I played in the latter half of 2019. I fell in love with it from the first scene. I love the gameplay, plot, characters, world, music, graphics, just everything about it. The only thing I was little miffed with is it had a bit of a left-leaning feminism vibe with some characters, but other than that golden. It's become one of my favorite games of all time. And as is always a big qualifier for why I like most anything, the writing is also excellent so I'm going to rant about the writing and some more about how much I love this game.

Warning Spoilers: Everything is clean except point five.

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.

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. 

Writing Lessons from TV Shows: Gravity Falls

This past month I've finally gotten into Gravity Falls. I've known about this show for years. I've seen fanart and cosplays, but the animation was a big put off for me. I thought this was just another stupid kid's show with cheap animation, retcon character arcs or zero character arcs, and a shallow incoherent plot if there was one at all laced with fart jokes. So when my good friend Cassia suggested I watch this I was honestly thinking, "Really? This show?"

I was very surprised.

To be honest, I still dislike the animation (I'm spoiled on anime.). I'm a big fan of the redraws I've found online, but the characters and writing are very impressive. The plot grows and so do the characters. Stakes escalate and real bonds are created. The show does not use the typical kid's show tropes like stagnant characters, inconsistent animation, and retconned plot points. So I'm happy to announce I'm a fan and here's why. 

SPOILER WARNING: The biggest ones are in points three, four, and five.

If this is your first exposure to Gravity Falls, I'm sorry but this gif was too perfect.

Writing Pets 101

Pets can be some of the most fun—and most annoying characters in stories. Some of the best characters are animals like Toothless, Appa, or Zwei. They’re adorable and they do help the plot move forward. I’m going to be discussing pets as they would in a standard fiction novel, not as protagonists like in Lady and the Tramp or Homeward Bound nor slice of life with the book entirely centered them like Marley and Me or That Quail Robert. That’s for another post. 

Let’s get started! 

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. 

How I Write and Got Into Writing Articles AND Get Paid for It

If you've followed me for a while then you probably know I've written articles for a few magazines and webzines. I mention it on my social media and my monthly wandering posts. I'm not an expert article writer ... person since I don't make a living off of it but I do get a few hundred bucks a year for doing it. If I had more time I could probably get into it more and maybe I will in the future but for now it's a nice little profit. For an aspiring writer every penny counts and I'll be honest, it's really validating to get paid for your writing. It's like "Yay! Hours of working my butt off are actually paying off." XD 

I've written for Splickety Magazine (Now Havok), Area of Effect (Now Mythos and Ink), and I'm currently a monthly contributor for Think Christian. I got my first piece published in a magazine in 2016 and I've been writing essays and short stories since. Though essays are my specialty. Since becoming a monthly contributor at Area of Effect in summer 2016 I've probably brought in over 1,500 bucks. 

15 Natural Healing Materials to Help Your Ailing Characters

The top medical technology isn't always available to your characters, so how do they survive without aspirin, cough drops, or antibiotics? Humanity has been using natural healing substances for thousands of years and though some entail cat dung and frogs the list I've composed include healing materials that actually do work. So whether your character is in a medieval fantasy setting or stuck in the wilderness with a hospital a thousand miles away, here are some items that can help! I'm focusing on more first aid or illnesses as opposed to beauty treatments, but many of these plants can be used to keep your characters looking fine too!

Disclaimer: I'm not a medical professional, so if you do happen to personally try some of these remedies make sure to do your due research!


Images are not mine

How to Get the Most Out of Your Writing Research Trip

The internet often falls short of the best research you can get. You have to really check for reliable sources and you don't get a lot of the details that your own experience can glean. That's why if it's possible, go on a writing research trip! I count Iceland as my first official writing research trip. Canada has been a huge part of my inspiration and research, but unlike in Canada, I didn't have a friend whom I could ask random questions about her country any time I pleased. This time I had to give a little bit more effort to gaining information that was pertinent to my stories.

So Your Character is Goth ... Featuring Elliana Reickard

It's the first So Your Character is From Another Country of the year! Woo hoo! And Elliana is back to share with us! You may remember her from So Your Character is from the Midwest United States ... and I'm excited to have her! I've always had mixed thoughts about the gothic subculture and honestly when I think of it the first thing I think of is Sam from Danny Phantom (Did anyone else here watch that show?) hence the above image, but Elliana shed so much light on the subject!

Tools for Writers: Campaign Monitor Review

I know I’m supposed to be on hiatus but I had to delay it because I got my very first sponsored post! Woohoo! Thank you, Campaign Monitor. ^ ^

Why I Love Writing Second Drafts

NaNoWriMo is the time of the year when we word vomit our first drafts but I relish the coming time when I can smooth out that rough draft and shape it into something more cohesive. NaNoWriMo helps me speed through the initial messy beginning, but here’s why I love the second draft.