Tea Tuesday: Zoe

I'm not really a coffee person. I prefer tea, and I know a lot of fellow writers love tea, too. But have you ever wanted to break out of the Early Grey or English Breakfast norm and try something new? Well, let me help you find some cool new teas! If you need a little hot and flavorful boost to help you reach your writing goal or you're just a lover of tea or you'd like to try some tea but aren't fond of the stereotypical types, these Tea Tuesday posts are for you.

This weeks tea is ... 

*drum roll*

Zoe

How I found it: I'm back with another fandom set from Adagio Teas. I've had my eyes on this one for a while and now I've finally gotten the Firefly set! Shiny! Any Firefly fans out there? Then this is the set for you. I'll be reviewing the six teas of this set: Serenitea, Captain Mal, Inara, Zoe, Jayne, and River Tam.

This is the same site I bought the Avengers set,Sherlock set, Tolkien set, Avatar: the Last Airbender set,  Doctor Who set, Attack on Titan set, RWBY set, and Divergent set from!

The Tea: Gosh, all of the teas in this set are just so delicious! I haven't had a set with this many tasty teas since the RWBY one. Zoe's tea fits her so perfectly! The tea is delightfully spicy from the Masala Chai, Cinnamon, Cloves, and Ginger, perfectly reflecting her strong, loyal, stern, and soldier manner. The hint of caramel reminded me of the color of Zoe's skin and of her hint of kindness especially with Wash. I just love Zoe's banter with him and with Mal!

Serving Recommendations: I steeped this tea for four minute and added sugar, milk, and a sprinkle of cinnamon and cardamom.

How much is it and where can you get it? You can find this tea at the Adagio website. I bought this tea in a sample set which was about $22 including shipping and you get a goodly amount of tea since you only need about a teaspoon per cup. Some of these teas you can buy individually for about $10 a pouch. 

So how good is it? This tea is just delightful! It's unique and scrumptious! Four stars!

Have you tried this tea? What did you think of it? Have you seen Firefly? Who's your favorite character?

Bonus! If you are a first-time Adagio customer I can send you a $5 giftcard! Ask in the comments for details! (This is no joke and no catch I seriously can. It's part of the amazingness of Adagio Tea!

If you liked this post, come back every Saturday for more writing advice, character interviews, book reviews and more! On Sundays I have Soundtrack Sundays where I post a new score piece, Tuesdays are Tea Tuesdays with tea reviews, Wednesdays I have Wonderful Word Wednesdays where I post a new vocabulary word, and Fridays are Fan Fridays where I post tags and other goodies. To help support my dream to be an author follow this blog, like me on Facebook, watch me on deviantART, and follow me on Pinterest and Twitter. If you want to know more about my books check out them out here. Thank you! :)

Click here for last week's tea!

Soundtrack Sunday: The First Town (Sword Art Online)

It's Soundtrack Sunday again! The day where I post awesome music to write to or just listen to for pleasure if you're a fellow soundtrack junkie. Just recently I rewatched one of my favorite animes Sword Art Online with my cousin for her first time to renew my love in this awesome show! During this I noticed how amazing the music for this show is. 

After picking through many tracks, I finally decided on this piece. It's very medieval with the guitar and violin and female vocals, but a lovely peaceful song perfect for writing a fantasy novel. You can listen to more epic music in my Soundtrack Sundays YouTube playlist.

Have you heard this piece before? What do you think of it?

If you liked this post, come back every Saturday for more writing advice, character interviews, book reviews and more! On Sundays I have Soundtrack Sundays where I post a new score piece, Tuesdays are Tea Tuesdays with tea reviews, Wednesdays I have Wonderful Word Wednesdays where I post a new vocabulary word, and Fridays are Fan Fridays where I post tags and other goodies. To help support my dream to be an author follow this blog, like me on Facebook, watch me on deviantART, and follow me on Pinterest and Twitter. If you want to know more about my books check out them out here. Thank you! :)

Click here for last week's Soundtrack Sunday!

Inciting Incidents 101

Inciting Incidents or the Disaster is the part of your story where the plot really gets started, like in Star Wars: Episode IV when the Storm Troopers killed Luke's aunt and uncle, forcing him to go on his journey on becoming a Jedi. It is a fundamental part of a novel. While at a conference a while back, I discovered there are a few more tricks to this important part of your novel than most people have pointed out. 

So when does the inciting incident need to happen? Your inciting incident needs to happen as soon as possible in your story. Of course you need to establish your character's basic life and their goals, but you don't want to dwell on this too long before you get the story started. It is best to have your inciting incident come in within the first three chapters or the first 5,000-10,000 words. You can possibly have it come a bit sooner, but I wouldn't recommend any later than that. 

The Four Basic Types of Inciting Incidents:

I have noticed that each inciting incident has one of these or a combination of two types of these inciting incidents. 

1.) The Character Has a Choice - In the Hunger Games, the inciting incident is when Prim is picked at the Reaping and Katniss volunteers. Katniss had a choice whether or not she would speak up, but she chose to go into the Games, which is one reason I love her so much. I glass up at that part every time. Her choice is what started the story.

This part gets me teary-eyed every time.

2.) The Character Doesn't Have a Choice - On the other hand, in the Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Gandalf warns Frodo of the coming of the Nazgul. Frodo had no choice but to flee or he'd be Nazgul bait. This is when the story started and Frodo had to go on the journey. 

Poor Frodo. He goes through so much.

3.) The Character Causes the Incident - Sometimes the character himself will make the inciting incident happen. In How to Train Your Dragon, Hiccup gets the story started when he shoots down Toothless with his machine. Because he did that, he meets Toothless, and their friendship begins, thus starting the story. 

They're so cute. ^ ^

4.) Outside Forces Cause the Incident - Then at other times, outside circumstances cause the story to start. In The Hobbit: The Unexpected Journey, Gandalf, someone not the main character, volunteers Bilbo for the position as burglar for the dwarves and this gets the plot going. 

Right before the dwarves invade his house.

Bonus: Combination of 2 and 4 - Now we get to a combination of two of those inciting incidents. In Attack on Titan, Titans (outside forces) murder Erin's mother, giving him no choice but to flee his home. This in turn begins his determination to eliminate the vile Titans to avenge his mother and save humanity from extinction.

Attack on Titan battles are amazing.

Every story has an inciting incident. The plot can't start without one! Try picking out the inciting incidents while watching movies and reading books to research. When plotting out your story, keep these elements in mind. I hope this helps you pick the best incident to jump start your story!

Do you have any more questions about inciting incident? What is the inciting incident in your story? If you don't write, what is an inciting incident you really enjoyed?

 You may also like:

Reeling In Your Reader: A Guest Post by Lauren Claire

Six Tips For Line Editing

Twelve Rookie Writer Mistakes and How to Mend Them

Writing Humor Into Your Story

A Dragon and Roadmapping Your Tales

Questions for Faol!

Not exactly how I picture Faol, but this is the closest
blue wolf pic I could find that looks like him.

This month's interview is with Faol from Red Hood, and it is coming up in two weeks, so he needs questions! He is one of the secondary characters from my steampunk fantasy novel. Let me tell you a little about him:

Faol is a werewolf, a beast created by Nzelt, Lord of the Land of Isriki, the leader of the Isamaour, a race of humanoid beings with white skin and transmutation abilities. He has indigo fur, bright yellow eyes, and sits nearly nine feet tall. His type of werewolf is called a Blade-Paw because of his mechanical right leg with razor claws as long as knives. Since his creation, he has been a soldier against the human residents of Silfurlund, but now he has realized the error of his ways and seeks to save the humans from the Isamaour he has served.

He is not proud of his past. As faithful commander under Lord Nzelt, many times has he crossed the border of Isriki and Silfurlund with his pack, raided dozens of villages, and torn apart even more people. Red Hoods would hunt him and his brethren and end their lives by the only way possible: a head or neck strike with a weapon of silver. In turn, he has killed many of them in defense. When he wasn't on a mission, he would patrol the Isriki villages to keep them safe from bears or attacking Silfurlund armies.

Unlike the other werewolves, he never truly enjoyed warring against the neighboring realm and would rather live a life of peace and quiet, catching wild deer when needed and spending time among the more pleasant Isamaour village-folk, especially the children. But as is fated for his race, he is sworn to obey his master.

After being ordered to wipe out an entire Red Hood village down to the last child, he finally reached his breaking point and decided to desert. Now he seeks to offer himself up as a prisoner to the Red Hoods, the women sworn to kill his kind, to give them information to finally end the war. Will he redeem himself or will he be heading to his death? Either way the violence must stop even if that meant he would perish in his efforts.

Leave your questions in the comments and he'll answer them Friday the 19th! Thank you!

Wonderful Word Wednesday: Commensal

It's Wonderful Word Wednesday again! Do you as a writer ever struggle finding that perfect word to describe something or you want to shake your writing up with some new words? Each Wednesday I post hand-picked descriptive words for writers and other vocabulary nerds out there. ;) 

commensal

adjective

1.) eating together at the same table.

2.) Ecology. (of an animal, plant, fungus, etc.) living with, on, or in another, without injury to either.

3.) Sociology. (of a person or group) not competing while residing in or occupying the same area as another individual or group having independent or different values or customs.

noun

4.) a companion at table.

5.) Ecology. a commensal organism.

Example Sentence: Every morning Mor meets up with Dina during the commensal gathering. 

Dina, Mor's best friend, from Red Hood.

Have you seen or used this word before? What do you think of it?

If you liked this post, come back every Saturday for more writing advice, character interviews, book reviews and more! On Sundays I have Soundtrack Sundays where I post a new score piece, Tuesdays are Tea Tuesdays with tea reviews, Wednesdays I have Wonderful Word Wednesdays where I post a new vocabulary word, and Fridays are Fan Fridays where I post tags and other goodies. To help support my dream to be an author follow this blog, like me on Facebook, watch me on deviantART, and follow me on Pinterest and Twitter. If you want to know more about my books check out them out here. Thank you! :)

Click here for last week's word!

Tea Tuesday: Inara

I'm not really a coffee person. I prefer tea, and I know a lot of fellow writers love tea, too. But have you ever wanted to break out of the Early Grey or English Breakfast norm and try something new? Well, let me help you find some cool new teas! If you need a little hot and flavorful boost to help you reach your writing goal or you're just a lover of tea or you'd like to try some tea but aren't fond of the stereotypical types, these Tea Tuesday posts are for you.

This weeks tea is ... 

*drum roll*

Inara

How I found it: I'm back with another fandom set from Adagio Teas. I've had my eyes on this one for a while and now I've finally gotten the Firefly set! Shiny! Any Firefly fans out there? Then this is the set for you. I'll be reviewing the six teas of this set: Serenitea, Captain Mal, Inara, Zoe, Jayne, and River Tam.

This is the same site I bought the Avengers set,Sherlock set, Tolkien set, Avatar: the Last Airbender set,  Doctor Who set, Attack on Titan set, RWBY set, and Divergent set from!

The Tea: This tea is a perfect fit for Inara! Though I don't agree with her "profession," she is a kind a beautiful lady character. The Thai Chai and Oriental spice blend together into a rich taste that reminds me of Inara's affinity for Asian couture. 

The hint of lemongrass and the Assam melody remind me of her sassy banter with Mal. Lastly the rose hips, safflower and raspberry pieces make me think of her kindness and gentleness especially toward Kaylee and the colors of those remind me of the colors of her dresses.

Serving Recommendations: I steeped this tea for three minutes and added sugar. 

How much is it and where can you get it? You can find this tea at the Adagio website. I bought this tea in a sample set which was about $22 including shipping and you get a goodly amount of tea since you only need about a teaspoon per cup. Some of these teas you can buy individually for about $10 a pouch. 

So how good is it? Love this tea! I was skeptical with the lemongrass, but I really enjoyed it. I'll definitely be drinking this again. Gosh, all this Firefly talk makes me want to re-watch the show lol. Four stars!

Have you tried this tea? What did you think of it? Have you seen Firefly? Who's your favorite character?

Bonus! If you are a first-time Adagio customer I can send you a $5 giftcard! Ask in the comments for details! (This is no joke and no catch I seriously can. It's part of the amazingness of Adagio Teas)

If you liked this post, come back every Saturday for more writing advice, character interviews, book reviews and more! On Sundays I have Soundtrack Sundays where I post a new score piece, Tuesdays are Tea Tuesdays with tea reviews, Wednesdays I have Wonderful Word Wednesdays where I post a new vocabulary word, and Fridays are Fan Fridays where I post tags and other goodies. To help support my dream to be an author follow this blog, like me on Facebook, watch me on deviantART, and follow me on Pinterest and Twitter. If you want to know more about my books check out them out here. Thank you! :)

Click here for last week's tea!