The Bloodstained Searchbar Tag & The Daily Quote Challenge

I'm very excited about these tags, especially since they're all going to be relevant to books and NaNoWriMo! Yays! My thanks to Melissa Gravitis @ Quill Pen Writer who both created and tagged me in the Bloodstained Searchbar Tag and thank you to Emma @ Creative Explorations and the Author @ To Write or Not to Write for tagging me in the Daily Quote Challenge!

A Book Review A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness

At seven minutes past midnight, thirteen-year-old Conor wakes to find a monster outside his bedroom window. But it isn't the monster Conor's been expecting-- he's been expecting the one from his nightmare, the nightmare he's had nearly every night since his mother started her treatments. The monster in his backyard is different. It's ancient. And wild. And it wants something from Conor. Something terrible and dangerous. It wants the truth. From the final idea of award-winning author Siobhan Dowd-- whose premature death from cancer prevented her from writing it herself-- Patrick Ness has spun a haunting and darkly funny novel of mischief, loss, and monsters both real and imagined.

Writing Lessons from Movies: The Jungle Book (1967) versus The Jungle Book (2016)

The Jungle Book is one of my favorite class stories. I've loved the concept of a boy raised by animals ever since I was a little kid, especially in the mysterious land of India. However, even from a young age Disney's The Jungle Book nor any other versions of the Jungle Book seemed to capture the essence I always wanted it to have. Something was always missing, but I didn't know what it is.

When I watched the 2016 version of the Jungle Book back in April, I was absolutely blown away. I knew in my heart this was a movie Rudyard Kipling would be proud of. The movie added in all of the elements I felt like were missing in past movies. This is by far my favorite version of this story. (If you want a full review you can just out my review of the film on Geeks Under Grace.) This movie has so many great story elements that I just have to have a blog posts dedicated to it. I made this a versus edition, because I want to show how this movie built on the original animated film. Let's jump right in!

Interview with Silanoc (Starbloods)!

Silanoc

Me: 

Hey, everyone! It's time for this month's character interview! Today's is with one of the side characters from my high fantasy series Starbloods. If you want to know a little about him before we start, check out his bio. Now let's get started! *turns in interview chair to Silanoc* Good afternoon, Silanoc.

Silanoc:
*sitting straight, has a light British accent* Good afternoon, Victoria. How are faring?

Me:
Pretty well, thank you. Are you ready to get started?

Silanoc:
I am.

So Your Character Has These Various Injuries ...

Characters get all sorts of injuries, but we don't always experience these injuries. Nor do we want to many a time. I've gotten some interesting injuries, so I thought I'd make a post about it. Perhaps this can help you out if you have one of your characters with one of these injuries--or give you some plot bunnies on new ways you can hurt your characters. 

Warning: I will be showing some slightly graphic images of what these injuries look like. Proceed at your own risk.

So Your Character is From Slovakia ... Featuring Simona @ Girl with Cloudy Head

It's time for this month's So Your Character is From Another Country! This is a monthly or bimonthly segment where I interview lovely volunteers from around the world to give you a firsthand account of being a citizen of their respective country. 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 week's So Your Character is From China ... be sure to hop on over there and give it a read!

This has to be the country I'm least familiar out of these posts so far. Before reading this post I knew next to nothing about Slovakia, only that it's a country in Eastern Europe. I know so much more after reading this post!

Disclaimer: The content below may be culturally shocking to some. Each of these posts are as uncensored as possible to preserve the authenticity of the cultures of each of the interviewees.

(None of the Images are Mine)