So Your Character is From Romania ... Teodora @ My Reading Nook

It's time for this week's So Your Character is ... Post! This is a weekly segment where 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 week's  So Your Character is from Serbia ... 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 are as uncensored as possible to preserve the authenticity of the cultures of each of the interviewees.

(None of the Images are Mine)

Henchmen 101

Villains can't be everywhere at once or do everything on their own, so that's why they have henchmen! But henchmen are people too, so that's why I decided to dedicate an entire post to these characters. Let's look at the definition of henchman real quick, so we can better understand them.

1.) an unscrupulous and ruthless subordinate, especially a criminal: The leader of the gang went everywhere accompanied by his henchmen.2.) an unscrupulous supporter or adherent of a political figure or cause, especially one motivated by the hope of personal gain: Hitler and his henchmen.3.) a trusted attendant, supporter, or follower.

The word henchmen has a wide variety of meanings, hence why I chose that word as opposed to lackeys or subordinates or disposable cannon-fodder. Some henchmen have evil intentions, others do not. That's part of the diversity of henchmen.

The biggest question to ask yourself when creating henchmen is:

Why did they join the villain?

What got these characters involved with this dastardly evil-doer? Why are they still with this person despite their ill-treatment or the dangerous missions their boss sends them on or the people they want this henchman to betray? That's what we're going to explore today!

Tori's Tips for Purchasing a Gaming Laptop

No Sam doesn't game, but it's October so Halloween so Supernatural so there.

I'm hoping in the next year to purchase a new laptop because my current baby is almost seven years old and it's starting to show. Now I've only purchased a laptop where I was actually involved once, which is my current laptop since my first laptop was a first writers conference present from my parents when I was 16. I'm not amazing with computers, but here are a few tips I've learned that are good for not just purchasing a laptop, but any laptop, including one for writing. Here we go!

So Your Character is from Serbia ... Featuring Norah @ Bookish Fever

It's time for this week's So Your Character is ... Post! This is a weekly segment where 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 week's  So Your Character is from Bulgaria ... 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 are 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 Music Videos: Shelter

Last Monday was Shelter's one year anniversary! This collaboration of American, French, and Japanese art has gained over 22 million views on YouTube. I didn't watch this video until this summer, but it blew me away with its fantastic storytelling in just six minutes! The only want to totally experience this brilliance is to watch it yourself! So give it a view then we'll get to the post!

A Book Review of Black by Ted Dekker

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Fleeing assailants through deserted alleyways, Thomas Hunter narrowly escapes to the roof of a building. Then a silent bullet from the night clips his head . . . and his world goes black.

From the blackness comes an amazing reality of another world where evil is contained. A world where Thomas Hunter is in love with a beautiful woman.

But then he remembers the dream of being chased through an alleyway as he reaches to touch the blood on his head. Where does the dream end and reality begin?

Every time he falls asleep in one world, he awakes in the other. Yet in both, catastrophic disaster awaits him . . . may even be caused by him.

Some say the world hangs in the balance of every choice we make. Now the fate of two worlds hangs in the balance of one man's choices.