Wednesday, February 18, 2015

TOAM: Into the Woods

***TOAM: thoughts on a movie

I'd been waiting for this movie for months and then had to wait another few weeks after it came out before I was able to find time to see it. When I entered the movie theater, I entered with high expectations. I LOVE fairytales, especially retellings and mashups. It was also a Disney movie to boot and Disney always has great songs riddled through their fairytale retelling movies. And the actors! They have such a great cast for this movie! But, alas... I left the movie theater highly disappointed. The graphics and costumes were okay, and the acting was really good but the stupidity of the plot made them seem really dumb. The songs were really annoying. I wanted to step into the movie and toss Little Red Riding Hood off the stage she was so irritating. And the morality of the movie was HORRIBLE! If you want to teach your kids that cheating on your spouse, weak men, and relativism is all okay, then take them to see this movie. But if not... then keep them away!

Friday, February 6, 2015

Music!

Thought I'd share some current songs that I just can't seem to hear enough...
















Wednesday, February 4, 2015

The Prophesy



**I do not own any of the photos in this post, I just thought it would be fun to show some artwork from Pinterest that reminds me of my work(s).

As I've been sitting here at my dinning room table dreaming, plotting, scheming and finally typing out both CAPTIVE and DESTINY'S HAND, I've come to realize that I need to do two things. One, is that I need a series revision of JAZMINE, and two, is that I need to rewrite the Prophesy...



Let's start with JAZMINE - 

I was pretty young when I began writing, finished, and published JAZMINE. I am still pretty young actually in terms of being a published author, but I have also grown a tone in my own maturity and writing style. And during the years JAZMINE has been published, I've also been able to build the world of Geia into something that is more structured as well as more thought out. It was a bit sporadic in JAZMINE, but I've come to work out those knots since its publication. Another drawback, not necessarily for me but for you (my readers), is that the company I decided to publish with has put my novel on sale at a rather ridiculous price. $26.95 is just way too much for a paperback book. I know that I would never buy a book that was that expensive--I just don't have the money to splurge like that, and I know it must be that way for you as well.



Because of these things, I've decided that after I finish DESTINY'S HAND and CAPTIVE and before I start on the next story in the Saga, I'm going to take JAZMINE off the bookshelf and do a major revision on it... fixing plot, grammar, writing style, and characters. Then I'll re-publish it through a different company that should cut the price in half.

I'm very excited for this new revision because the story of JAZMINE is very dear to my heart and I can't wait to return to it to improve it even more.



Now, let's go onto the news about the Prophesy -



One of the first things I began to notice (really only this year - 2015) is that the Prophesy is just way too long for people to whisper it to one another quickly, and then immediately have it memorized in order to pass it on to the next person. Because of this, I'm going to be re-writing the Prophesy into a shorter version with a better punch and input the new version into the upcoming books in the Saga as it  is repeated. I'm also going to switch it out in JAZMINE when I do the revision, so you'll have to bear with me and the old version until I'm able to do that. 

Here is the rough first-draft just for you, written when I was on a three-hour bus ride and seriously began thinking about this problem.




The Prophesy

At the end of the Golden Age will come a new foe,
Drenched in darkness and bringing nothing but woe.

Out of the ashes a warrior will rise,
The white-haired maiden who will conquer our demise.

For by a woman we fell,
And by a woman we will be set free.

We live in hope for that fateful day...


Monday, February 2, 2015

The Trylle trilogy - by Amanda Hocking


When Wendy Everly was six years old, her mother was convinced she was a monster and tried to kill her. Eleven years later, Wendy discovers her mother might have been right. She’s not the person she’s always believed herself to be, and her whole life begins to unravel—all because of Finn Holmes.

SWITCHED at birth...

Finn is a mysterious guy who always seems to be watching her.  Every encounter leaves her deeply shaken…though it has more to do with her fierce attraction to him than she’d ever admit.  But it isn’t long before he reveals the truth:  Wendy is a changeling who was switched at birth—and he’s come to take her home.


Now Wendy’s about to journey to a magical world she never knew existed, one that’s both beautiful and frightening.  And where she must leave her old life behind to discover who she’s meant to become…


I'm not someone to obsess about a series that much anymore. And I definitely don't finish it in less than a week. I have too many other things going on like school, work, and my own writing. But I literally could not put this series down! I don't remember the last time I stayed up still 2am just to finish a book... But I did with the third book in the series, Ascend. I read the whole book in just a few hours because I couldn't put it down! That's how good it was!

TORN between two worlds...

Her writing style was clean and to the point. Wendy's emotions in the first book seemed to be flying by too quickly to seem real but, when I thought about it more, that's actually how our quick teenage brains works, lol. We don't dwell on one thing, thought, or emotion for too long. The character growth was amazing, especially Wendy's. I didn't really like her at first but by the third book I felt like she was one of the best people I could ever possibly meet. It was through Wendy's perspective, but Hocking seemed to portray the other characters and their own personality and growth extremely well.

And the love triangle! OMG! I never expected it to end the way it did but I was soooooo happy with it! I actually got emotional (and I don't usually get emotional... ever) while reading the Epilogue and short story at the end of Ascend, the feels were intense!

ASCEND to the magic...

I do have two things that I didn't really like, and they're really only my own personal opinions because they didn't coincide with what I believe in. For one, I didn't really like some of the romance that happened outside of the character's marriages. And two, there was a gay character that made me a little uncomfortable. I actually loved the character, he was amazing. But this little side thing made it hard sometimes to read near the end of the series. I have nothing against gays at all, I love the people, but I just have a hard time copping with what they are doing.

But, besides that, I'm happily giving all three books a whopping 5 out of 5 stars for the character development, plot, and writing style... Good job Amanda Hocking!