Musical Tag

I was tagged quite a while ago -- I can't even remember by who, it's been so long. <_<  (I think it might have been Eldra, but I'm not sure...)  Anyway, the object of the tag is to shuffle your ipod songs and answer the questions with the titles of the songs you come up with.  Since I don't own an ipod, I just put my window's media player on shuffle and clicked the next button at random.  This is what I came up with. :)

IF SOMEONE SAYS ‘ARE YOU OKAY’ YOU SAY?
From the Western Woods to Beavers’ Dam

WHAT WOULD BEST DESCRIBE YOUR PERSONALITY?
Wunderkind  (Yes! *punches air*  I believe that song describes me very well. :D)

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOURSELF?
The Beggerman Jig (LOL!  If you only new… ;D)

WHAT DO YOU LIKE IN A GUY/GIRL?
The Sweetness of Mary

HOW DO YOU FEEL TODAY?
Firedance (lolz)

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE’S PURPOSE?

2/4 Marches

WHAT’S YOUR MOTTO?
Gleanntain Ghlas Ghaoth Dobhair  (Don’t know what that means, but it’s to the same tune as “Paddy’s Green Shamrock Shore” by the High Kings…)

WHAT DO YOUR FRIENDS THINK OF YOU?
Jigs

WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF YOU?
Drawn to the Rhythm (haha!  Probably… ;D)

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT VERY OFTEN?
Marta’s Dance/ The Russian Dervish

WHAT IS 2+2?
She Moved Through the Fair

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR BEST FRIEND?
Only Hope (very true… Jesus is my Only Hope.  And I love that song!)

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
Lord of the Dance (Nice!  Currently I have no person I think of in the implied manner, but if he were the lord of the dance, I don’t think I would mind too awful much. Lolz!)

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE STORY?
Factory Girl (Interesting…)

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP?
Danny Boy (uh… no thank you. Lolz! >.<)

WHAT DO YOU THINK WHEN YOU SEE THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
Andalucia
WHAT WILL YOU DO AT YOUR WEDDING?
Cry of the Celts

WHAT WILL THEY PLAY AT YOUR FUNERAL?
Ailein Duinn (Surprisingly, not a bad song to play at a funeral in my opinion…)

WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY/INTEREST?
Strathspeys and Reels

WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST FEAR?
Lucy Meets Mr. Tumnus (LOL!  Really?!)

WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST SECRET?
The Butterfly

WHAT DO YOU WANT RIGHT NOW?
May it Be

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR FRIENDS?
The Foggy Dew

WHAT’S THE WORST THING THAT COULD HAPPEN?
The Countess Cathleen/ Women of the Sidhe

WHAT IS THE ONE THING YOU REGRET?
American Wake

WHAT MAKES YOU LAUGH?
A Narnia Lullaby (O.O)

WHAT MAKES YOU CRY?
Macedonian Morning

WILL YOU EVER GET MARRIED?
The Voice

WHAT SCARES YOU THE MOST?
Harry’s Game (Uh… hmmm…)

DOES ANYONE LIKE YOU?
Heal Their Hearts (man, the guy who sings that has a good voice!)

IF YOU COULD GO BACK IN TIME, WHAT WOULD YOU CHANGE?
Only the Beginning of the Adventure… (Whaa…?!  LOLZ!  :D :D)

WHAT HURTS RIGHT NOW?
Marie’s Wedding (nice. :)

WHAT WOULD YOU WANT TO SAY TO THE PERSON WHO TAGGED YOU?
Suil La Ruin (I have no idea if I spelled that right… apparently the title of that song on my list is “track 8”. <_<)

WHAT WILL YOU NAME THIS NOTE?
New Grange

 (Then, just for fun, I decided to do the tag again just for fun.  Here we go! :D)

IF SOMEONE SAYS ‘ARE YOU OKAY’ YOU SAY?
A Hero Comes Home

WHAT WOULD BEST DESCRIBE YOUR PERSONALITY?
Come By the Hills (hmmm…. Not bad…)

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOURSELF?
Cottonwoods

WHAT DO YOU LIKE IN A GUY/GIRL?
The Wardrobe (hahaha!!! :D)

HOW DO YOU FEEL TODAY?
At the Ceili (lol! Nice!)

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE’S PURPOSE?
Way of the Warrior (lol!  No… not really.  Although, if I were a character in a fantasy book, maybe… ;D)

WHAT’S YOUR MOTTO?
The Rocky Road to Dublin (hahaha!  Love that song!)

WHAT DO YOUR FRIENDS THINK OF YOU?
Mouth Music (hehe! Nice. :D)

WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF YOU?
Evenstar (Ooo!  I wish!  I would love to be the Evenstar… *sighs*)

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT VERY OFTEN?
Mo Ghile Mear

WHAT IS 2+2?
Orinoco flow

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR BEST FRIEND?
Elven Lament (hmmm… O.O)

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
The Parting Glass

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE STORY?
The Heart’s Cry
WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP?
The Blood is Strong (despite what that might seem to imply, I do not want to be a vampire… and this is not a song about vampires.  But it is a very good song.)0

WHAT DO YOU THINK WHEN YOU SEE THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
Ay Fond Kiss (Lol. :D  Well… maybe when I find just the right somebody…)

WHAT WILL YOU DO AT YOUR WEDDING?
Fields of Glory

WHAT WILL THEY PLAY AT YOUR FUNERAL?
The Highwayman (good poem, great song.)

WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY/INTEREST?
Lift the Wings

WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST FEAR?
The Little Beggar man (Haha!  Is he a leprechaun?  Or maybe a gnome… Then I might really fear him. ;D)

WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST SECRET?
Riverdance Reprise

WHAT DO YOU WANT RIGHT NOW?
Galway to Graceland (beautiful song…)

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR FRIENDS?
The Mystic’s Dream (A surprisingly good song based off of the book “Mists of Avalon”)

WHAT’S THE WORST THING THAT COULD HAPPEN?
Paddy’s Green Shamrock Shore

WHAT IS THE ONE THING YOU REGRET?
Slip into Spring/ The Harvest (O.O)

WHAT MAKES YOU LAUGH?
Shivna (Oo… definitely not.  In fact, that song is a little scary…)

WHAT MAKES YOU CRY?

Hedwig’s Theme from Harry Potter… (No, but it usually inspires me.  Haven’t read the books or seen the movies, but that song is definitely a keeper. :D)

WILL YOU EVER GET MARRIED?
Reel around the Sun

WHAT SCARES YOU THE MOST?
The Black Velvet Band (Indeed…)

DOES ANYONE LIKE YOU?
In London So Fair (But I won’t tell you his name… ;D)
IF YOU COULD GO BACK IN TIME, WHAT WOULD YOU CHANGE?
The Wild Rover

WHAT HURTS RIGHT NOW?
Will Ye Go Lassie, Go?

WHAT WOULD YOU WANT TO SAY TO THE PERSON WHO TAGGED YOU?
Dulaman

WHAT WILL YOU NAME THIS NOTE?
Ar Eireann Ni Neosainn Ce Hi (Beautiful, Beautiful Song… *sigh* :D)

I tag anyone who wants to be tagged.  Because I'm feeling lazy today and it's just easier to do that. lol! ;)  Have fun!

Curse of the Spider King -- Review

Ok, I know it's been quite a long time since I last posted a book review, so I figured I'd better get crackin' again. :D


An Overview (in my own words :D):

800 years ago in the land of Allyra, the Spider King first attacked the walls of Berinfell, the capital city of the elves.  In a massive battle between the Spider King's forces of Gwars, Drefids, Whisps, and War Spiders, Berinfell was destroyed, the Seven Elven Lords were killed, and the Elven population dwindled.  The only hope for the elves of Allyra lay in the hands of seven elven children, the sons and daughters of the seven lords and heirs to their parents positions.  But the seven young lords were taken by the enemy into the hold of the Spider King.

However, fearing the three generation long curse that would befall any who tried to kill the elven babes before the age of reckoning, the Spider King's minions sheared off the tips of the babies' ears to round them and carried them through time and space to a place called "earth", there left to die.  However, the babies were found by the human race and adopted into families, never guessing their noble and foreign heritage.

Now, however, the age of reckoning has come, and at the age of 13, the seven lords are coming into Elven powers.  And that's not all... though 800 years have passed in Allyra while only 13 years have passed on earth, the Spider King's forces are once more searching for the seven elven lords in order to finish what they were afraid to do before.  The only hope for the lords and for the elven people is for the 7 middle graders to travel back to Allyra, their rightful birthplace, and be trained there in their powers to take up the thrones of their parents as the Protectors of Berinfell.  It's either that, or risk the lives of the ones they love on earth.



Pros: (caution: there may be spoilers ahead.)
I read this book quite a while ago but I never got around to typing up the review, so before I wrote this post, I decided to flip through the book a bit and try to remember all of the notes I had on it. :D  First and foremost, I really enjoyed the story as a whole.  As an adult/young adult reader, I found the book gripping.  There was a lot of risk involved, a lot of high-fear elements, and quite a few intriguing elvish powers! ;)  All of which are (of course) good elements to look for in a middlegrade/YA fantasy.  As a reader, I felt like the elvish population and the history of the elves was well thought out and fairly consistent.  Also, the 7 main characters were easy to relate with and, much more importantly, they were likable.  In contrast, the villains were (for the most part) dastardly and frightening.  

Especially the Whisps.  *shivers* I mean, I would hate to find out that my parents were killed while the people who looked like my parents are actually evil shape-shifters intent on killing me.  And the war-spiders... *shivers again*  I will never look at a spider the same way again.

Then you have the plot.  The plot, when coupled with good characters, is what really turns a good story into a great one. 

As I already mentioned, I found the characters to be intriguing and likable (for the most part).  They were also equipped with their own sets of strengths and insecurities, making them seem well rounded and more complex that what a person might behold on the outside.  For instance, Kat’s amazing mind reading abilities are coupled with her insecurities about how she looks to other people.  Another example would be Johnny and Autumn; Johnny has the gift of flame-throwing and Autumn can run like the wind – literally – but having been adopted brother and sister on earth made their bond to each other much stronger than it might have been otherwise.  And like all brothers and sisters, they tend to argue and quarrel.  However, they also have a deep connection and protective instinct that sometimes drives them to do crazy things in order to make sure the other one is alright.  The balance between the characters’ strengths and weaknesses make the characters seem believable and helps readers to relate to them.  .

Then you add the plot.  And tell me, which YA fantasy/sci-fi reader WOULDN’T enjoy reading a book about elvish aliens living in today’s modern world?  The drive behind the characters is definitely intense.  The Spider King’s forces have come to earth and they are absolutely intent on killing the seven young lords of Berinfell.  But the Spider King’s minions are not the only ones searching for the lords.  The Elves of Berinfell have also discovered that the seven lords are not dead, and they too have traveled through time and space in order to search for the missing heirs.  However, the Spider King’s forces are much closer to finding the heirs than the elves expected, and they are willing to tear apart the entire earth in order to find the lords and kill them.  The only way to save the elves of Berinfell, the world of Allyra, and the earth rests on the shoulders of 7 thirteen-year-old kids!  And if you are a bit older than thirteen, you can probably look back to the time when you were the same age and recall some pretty stupid decisions that you made.  I know I can.  So, because of the age of the lords and all of the stakes, I found myself constantly wondering if the lords would make the right decisions and how the events would play out from there.  Most assuredly gripping. J

Then, on top of all of these aforementioned pros that the book has in favor for it, the morals about friendship and family are clear, while there are also some subtle references to Ellos (God) and His plan woven throughout the story.

So all in all, the action was good, the flow was good, the characters were likable and well rounded, the villains were nasty, there was good history development and good race development, there was a strong plot, and clear morals. :D

Cons:
Like I mentioned before, there are 7 main characters and the story follows all of them… at the same time.  I personally didn't have that much trouble keeping track of who was who, and who could do what throughout the story.  However, I know that having so many MCs can make it difficult for some people to understand what is going on during the entire book, mainly because they can't keep the characters straight in their heads.  

On that same note we’ll look at the style of the story.  The entire book is written in third person omniscient view which, though it is a valid writing style and often noted in some of the older fantasy stories (such as LOTR and NARNIA), has been greatly discouraged in the modern writing world because of the tendency the style has to “head hop”.  Head hopping happens when a writer writes their story and keeps switching around their POV character.  One moment the reader might be reading the story from one character’s point of view, and the next minute they would be reading it from a completely different character’s point of view.

A good example of head hopping would be this small section, taken from page 54 when Johnny and Autumn take a copy of an elvish book to show their earth mother (at this point in time, they don’t know they are elves yet…):

“It’s not there.”  (Autumn’s) mind was racing, trying in vain to sort it all out.  Johnny, too, was perplexed, thinking as fast as he could.

In that one section, we suddenly slipped from how Autumn was thinking in her own POV, to how Johnny was thinking in his.   Now, not all of the sentences are like this and sometimes the head hopping is not as easy to spot, but it’s still all there.  If you are a writer and know what to look for, you can’t miss it.  And if you are a reader and find yourself wondering how you suddenly went from one character’s thoughts to another’s, head hopping is most likely the culprit.  

I also felt like the names of the lords were pretty generic.  Tommy, Kat, Jimmy, Johny... while these are perfectly good earth names, they just don't stand out from the page.  (Well, maybe Kat stands out a little more than the other three listed...)  We don't learn the lords' Elvish names until later, so throughout most of the first book the Mc’s are referred to by their earth names and I, for one, kept getting Jimmy and Johny mixed up.  Besides that, however, names like "Tommy" and "Jimmy" and "Johny" make me think of Andy Griffith and the town of Mayberry.  Not that that’s a bad thing: far from it!  (I love Andy Griffith! <3)  BUT, you don't hear very many “generic” names like that in the modern world... many parents I know seem almost competitive about whether or not their children's names will stand out from the crowd.  (Just my own little opinion there... ;) )

Also, we don’t learn very much about the Spider King in this book.  We just know that he’s really evil, really twisted, and wants to wipe the elves of Berinfell from existence so that he can take over Allyra.  However, we never actually see the Spider King, we never hear him speak,  and we never get anywhere close to him while reading this story.  We simply watch his minions follow out orders previously given to them while the Spider King himself remains utterly invisible.  While such obscurity has worked for fantasy villains in the past (LOTR, for example, or EREGON), I couldn’t help but feel that if the book is named after the villain, then the book should better inform the reader OF the villain.  And what exactly IS the Curse of the Spider King?  Is it the curse befalling any who kill the children before the age of reckoning, or perhaps it is the children themselves?  We never really find out.  In my opinion, the title of the book should definitely adhere to the main subject of the story, and the reader should be able to recognize the connection (which I wasn’t able to. <_<).

The last thing I noticed were a few typos here and there scattered throughout the book, but honestly the only reason I noted them was because of how I had started to crack down on editing SOTD.  I know that almost every book has at least one or two typos in them, so they weren't really anything to detract from the story.

So, in order to sum that up, there were too many main characters all at once, there was “head hopping” in third person omniscient, there were generic MC names that didn't really "pop" for me, there was an inconsistent title (in my opinion), and there were a couple of typos.


All in all, I did find "Curse of the Spider King" to be an enticing and engaging read.   And, as you can see, the pros far outweigh the cons.  I finished the book and was excited to start the second one, but unfortunately I had to wait for the second book to arrive and then life got in the way, effectively stopping my pleasure reading for several months.  However, I did start reading again after school was over and just finished "Venom and Song" last Saturday evening, so expect a review on that within the next week.   

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars for being an engaging, edge-of-your-seat story with well thought out plots and characters.  Even though, as a writer, I did notice “errors” (so called <_<) in the writing itself, the story was gripping enough to make me turn off my inner editor and just enjoy the read.   Wayne Thomas Batson and Christopher Hopper are good authors who know their technique and know their target audience.  This book is well worth it. :D

Preparing Your Vassals… er… Characters

Interesting title, isn't it? *grin* And just why would I want to refer to my characters as my "vassals"? It's quite simple, really. The word "vassal" means all of three things:

1. Dependent landholder in feudal society: (somebody who gave loyalty and homage to a feudal lord and received the right to occupy the lord's land and be protected by him.)

2. Slave: (a bondman or slave)

OR

3. A Person or nation dependent on another: (a person, nation, or group that is dependent on or subordinate to another)

I like to use the third definition (although the other two aren't too far off the mark. ;D) reason being that my novel characters rely solely on me, and depend on me for their very existence… they wouldn't even have a story or a life if I hadn't made one up for them. And I don't say that in a pride-filled manner; it's a simple truth.

It's also true for all writers. Just think on it: where would your characters be if you hadn't created them? They'd be non-existent, wouldn't they? They'd have no purpose, no life… they probably wouldn't even have a name.

What's interesting is the fact that I could apply such a title to myself. After all, I am God's vassal… one of many. I would be nothing without Him. I wouldn't even be alive! I've learned that I have to depend on him if I want to live my life to my fullest extent, which is indeed what he wishes for me. He thought me up and knew all about who I would become and everything I would do in my life long before I was even conceived. What an interesting concept: God had a (very) detailed character sheet on me before he ever brought me into play. Wow! :)

But life tends to throw people curve balls, doesn't it? I mean, things don't always go the way you'd want them to if you could plan your life out for yourself. Bad things happen. They always do. People die and people get hurt and people live poor when they deserve better. Even "religious" people… even Christians. (Some might say 'especially Christians' but I'm not going to go there… not when I can recall all the horrible persecutions thrown at the Jewish people throughout history.) However, it's also true that these hardships seem to help develop a stronger sense of character in people; a more pronounced personality. It is my belief that without the trials, many people would never ever reach their full potential, and that would be a real shame.

Speaking of "Jewish people" and "trials", last Sunday's message at my church was about Esther and how God had chosen her to save his people from total destruction. The way the story played out wasn't your typical "Hero to the rescue" story (and by "typical" here, I am referring mostly to epic fantasy… LOTR, Narnia, Eregon and the like). There were no big, bad Generals with giant swords leading large hosts of soldiers to the rescue. No Dragons or Dragon Riders. There was just Esther, a normal girl leading a normal life before she was discovered by King Xerxes and made Queen. And like many of today's young adult women, she probably had a few self confidence issues. I haven't met a girl yet who doesn't.

The sermon mostly capitalized on the fact that saving her people would SEEM to be the real purpose of Esther's life, and the pastor said (in passing) that it's interesting how that one event was probably the most important thing to happen to Esther… the rest of her life couldn't have been nearly as significant, since none of it was really ever written about… <_<

Well, as much as I enjoyed the sermon for the most part, as a writer I whole-heartedly disagreed with that one statement, and I doodled a statement of my own in my Everything-Journal. My note simply read, "God does not use an unprepared vessel… he completely prepares his vessels before he uses them." And yes, in that statement I used the word "Vessel" which is slightly different from the word "vassal" and which would refer to something like a ship, or a container of some sort. Well, to God, I believe we are both a vassal and a vessel: we are vessels in the fact that we carry the good news of His love to share with all people… but we are also His vassals... we are dependent on Him to sustain our spiritual selves (and we are dependent on Him to care for our physical needs as well, probably more than a lot of people like to admit), much like how our characters are dependent on us writers. The simple truth is that you wouldn't put water in a vase if the vase had never been fired in the kiln and made water-proof, would you? You wouldn't use a broken cup to drink from without gluing the crack shut.

Well, it's the same with God. He makes sure that we are fully prepared – fire, glue and all – before He has us fulfill our true purposes in life. And I don't think that watching those purposes be fulfilled is half so interested (or nearly as painful) as watching the subject be prepared to fulfill the purpose. I'd rather watch the process of the clay being turned into a vase and that vase being put in a fiery kiln before I watch someone put water in the vase. I wonder how God prepared Esther's life for that one historical moment, long before we ever start reading about her story in the Bible… How did her life develop her as the woman who could and would save her people from destruction? Perhaps she didn't have the most exciting life before she became queen, but she went through trials of her own, I'm sure… she was orphaned at a young age and raised by her cousin who was a very devout Jew. It must have been an interesting child hood to say the least.

Now, as writers we should all apply the same lesson to our characters. Not that we should make them all devout Jews, or anything, but we SHOULD regard their development as just as important as their purposes or their climactic moments or their revelations. I just hate it when I read a book and the whole thing feels like there's no purpose or reason behind the MC's drive to do whatever it is he/she does in the story, don't you? And I especially hate it when the book comes to a climactic moment and the MC does something that seems totally out of character for them… either that, or they suddenly realize something that should have been made very obvious to them half a book before. That just drives me crazy! And it stems from a lack of good character development.

For Plot-first novelists, character development is something that takes a serious amount of time and effort, and sometimes many, many rewrites. I don't know whether you would call me a Plot-first novelist or a Character-first novelist, but I will tell you that only recently have I started to understand the true value of strong character development, and this during the fifth rewrite of SOTD. The very definition of the word "development" is "the process of change". When something then becomes "mature" it has actually become fully developed. Our characters must go through something similar. Before they can be mature enough in themselves both physically and mentally in order to confront their climactic moment, they must first go through a developing process which usually takes place over the course of the story. This is what is called "Character Arc" – the process of development and change for your character – and it's what makes a character seem more realistic and connect at a deeper level with your reader. Basically your story is, in essence, what you use to prepare your character for his trials. You don't just start the story and jump right into the climactic moment… you work up to the climax by developing your character through the series of events that forces your character to question and learn about himself/herself. And, during that process, you may find that you learn much much more about your character than you would have if you had just jumped right into the climactic moment.

So no, I don't believe that Esther's only important moment was when she saved her people from annihilation, and that her life before and after that event were basically irrelevant. As a writer, I would consider her life before King Xerxes' decree to be (if anything) even more intriguing than the event in itself, because her life before shows me how she grew into the heroic woman of the histories. God prepares his vassals before he uses them. We, as writers, should follow His example and do the same for our characters if we want them to be as believable and as deep as real people.

A Finished Project: Map for "Offspring" by Scott Appleton

Well, it's finally finished!  And actually, it's been finished for a little while now, but at long last I have time to post about it.  Some of you may know the exciting news already, and for those of you who don't, I will tell you about it right now. :)

I was commissioned to do the map that will be featured in author Scott Appleton's new book "Offspring" coming out in July.  Yay! *does a happy dance*  Here it is.  Click to view a close-up.

In April I was lucky enough to meet Scott when he came to the central IL area for a book signing event and the Homeschooler's Convention in Peoria.  It was an amazing experience for me, and I loved meeting him and his wonderful family.  His wife, Kelley, is an wonderfully sweet person and his son Andrew is the cutest little thing!  And the best part of all was that they love God with everything they are.

As he was out here, Scott and I started talking about fantasy and books and writing, and the conversation eventually swung around to fantasy maps.  At that time I was (unknown to him) researching and experimenting with a few different mapping techniques, but I didn't show him what I was working on right then because it wasn't finished yet and... well, I'm just funny that way.  After he left and I finally did finish the practice piece I was working on (a map for my WIP "Eldrei"), I sent the file to him and he emailed me back asking if I would like to do the map for his book.

Of course I said "yes".  How exciting!  My first commissioned piece and it was going in the book of one of my favorite authors!  I had to do some other research before hand, mostly concerning price and rights and so forth... Art, I know about, but commissioned art was a whole new monster to me and I didn't want to tackle it without knowing what I needed to.  After we settled on what we both felt was a reasonable price, I started on the map and boy was it exciting!

In the program that I use for my art, I have many differen't types of brushes to help me with my art... including map brushes of mountains and trees and so forth and so on.  I experimented with these brushes when I was making the practice map for Eldrei, and I found most of the brushes on Deviant Art for free (with credit to the brush-artist).  For Scott's map I started by using these brushes, then later switched them out with brushes I created just the map.  I studied the brushes I had, and studied other fantasy maps as well, and finally came up with a look that I liked.  When I had the symbols I wanted to use, that's when I started working on the shading.  In my practice map I hadn't used any shading, but I liked how it made the images in Scott's map "pop out" and come alive.

I would like to post more about the process of making the map... sort of make a tutorial or an info-dump on the subject, but I don't think I really have enough content for that.  For me, making the map was like painting a picture... there are, of course, technicalities to be aware of in the process, but it is more of a "feeling" thing than it is technical.  You just work on it until it looks and feels finished, and then it is.  Perhaps one of these days I'll post a brush pack for you GIMP users out there, but I don't have it ready yet. <_<

This map is currently featured at Scott's main website here: http://www.wix.com/scottappleton/sword-of-the-dragon

And here are Scott's other Websites for "Offspring" and his other books, as well as his Publishing Company "Flaming Pen Press".

http://www.theswordofthedragon.com/novels.html
http://www.flamingpen.blogspot.com/
http://www.wix.com/scottappleton/flamingpenpress

The Writer In Me

Hello Blogger friends. :D

As many of you already know, school is out and that means (theoretically ;D) lots and lots of time in which to write and to catch up on my reading. I have a very large pile of books right now that I was supposed to have read during the school year, and of course I didn't have time to finish most of them… or to even start more than half of them. I was excited the first day after finals because, even though I'm looking for a summer job and training to be a writing consultant at my school, summer vacation was officially before me and I would have TIME… lots and lots of TIME!

But soon after that, I put down the book that I was in the middle of reading and picked up one that I had already read. I can't even explain why. I'm sure I'm not the only one who has done this in the past, but it rather felt like I just needed to read a different writing style… a CERTAIN TYPE of different writing style, to be exact.

The book I picked up is titled "The Elfstones of Shanara" written by Terry Brooks, and I had first finished reading it several years ago and hadn't tried to read through it since. (Note: Mr. Brooks' works are definitely not Christian, but I'm not overly bias about that as long as the non-Christian books I read don't step too far over a certain line.) Mr. Brooks writes in third person limited for the most part, slipping in and out of third person omniscient on occasion, and he uses a narrative voice (I believe). His works have been compared to Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" in the past, though it is my opinion that Tolkien's style is more lyrical and light while as Mr. Brooks' style is slightly more… "heavy", if that makes any sense. Mr. Brooks' books have also been acclaimed for their strong and visual prose; he is certainly a good writer (even if his books come close at times to overstepping that line I've set in my head…) He is most definitely a writer I admire, even if he is not my exactly my "favorite".

So as I was reading his book the other day, I started paying attention to every time a passage inspired me or evoked my imagination. If I read something that brought beautiful scenery to the forefront of my mind, then I took note of the passage and how I had noticed it and what it inspired. (I didn't actually write down any of this stuff… I just took a mental note and paused a moment to reflect on it.) If I read something that evoked a sense of dread in the center of my being, I did the same thing. In doing this, I started to ponder what it is that sets "the writer" apart from "the reader". It's not exactly easy to draw the line between the two, because writers are often readers at the same time.

In order to define what is my "writing self" and what is my "reading self", I started to take mental notes of each time I read something that affected me, and then which side of me it affected. That means that every time I noticed a repetitive word, or a typo (there weren't many), or repeated information, or took a note on how character #1 reacted to character #1 for future reference, I filed the incident away in a mental filing cabinet under "Writing". And every time I caught myself reading a scene that seemed so vivid as to be alive in my mind, or found myself getting really caught up in the characters or settings, I filed it away under "reading". Doing this doesn't separate the two "me's"… I couldn't do that if I wanted to. I am both a writer and a reader at the same time, and trying to actually separate the one from the other would be like ripping me in half. What it does do, however, is help me to define the line between what makes me one thing and what makes me the other thing so that I at least can get a clear picture of myself in the end, and can understand the elements that make up that picture.

Sort of like a mirror image, if you really think about it. Both the real me and the image of me are "me". They both show me for who I really am. They both reveal my flaws and my attributes. But they are also both different… one is all of me, while one is just a reflection.

Yeah, that's a good metaphor. Trying to define what makes me one thing (a writer) vs. what makes me the other thing (a reader) is sort of like two mirror images of me. The writer is one image, and the reader is the other image. Only in this metaphorical world, if you put the two mirror images of me together, you get the real me. J

(And this blog post is, of course, being filed away in my little mental filing cabinet under "writing". I mean, only a writer would try to analyze the difference between the two word-loving personalities, right? :D)

This starting me thinking yet again. You see, I respect Terry Brooks as a writer and as a published author. And my respect for him stems from both my writing and my reading side. So that got me wondering, just what DOES capture a writer's respect in the literary world? Is it publication? (I think that for many writers that is, indeed, a small part of the respect gained). Is it the ability of the author's book to turn off the writer's analyzing mind so that the writer just enjoys the reading simply for the fact that it's reading?

This is, of course, another hard question to tackle. And it wasn't easy to come up with an answer, because if you are a writer, then everything you learn about writing you automatically subconsciously apply to what you are reading. You look for mistakes, and you look for good ideas, and you are aware of things such as "plot" and "character" and "grammar" and "spelling" and "typos" and "double meanings" and "character growth" and "sub-plots" and "Technique". You know about them because you've been studying them and applying them to your own writings in the hopes that one day your book will be in the hands of a reader who is just as eager for the written word as you are.

The difference, however, between you and that future eager reader is that that future eager reader might not also be a writer. They might just be a person who likes to read books.

The writer's job is to ask what the reader wants; what will make the reader interested and keep them interested. However, I think that many writers are often too caught up in "writing" and they forget what really makes a book seem interesting to readers.

Now don't get me wrong here. Writing for other writers is important too. And writing to the very best of our abilities is one of the most important things a writer can strive for (which is why we have our WIPs checked by other writers). But just think about it for a moment. Go back to the time in your life before you knew you were going to write a novel… before you were aware of just how powerful words could be, and how you could manipulate characters and foresee events. Go back to before you cared that much about brainstorming, back to when (if you were like me) you hated outlining of any kind because it made no sense to you, and when you would read a book just to say that you had read it… back before you even had a favorite genre.

I can still remember what it was like. I remember the types of books I liked to read. I also remember that I would read just about anything I could get my hands on. Back then, I didn't read books to analyze how another writer created a character trait, or figured out how to work in twisting subplots, or search for grammatical errors and prose genius. I just read because I loved to read, and I loved the fact that it was possible for me to catch a glimpse of another world in someone else's words. I didn't start writing because I cared for all the technical stuff; I started writing because I admired how words could create. I didn't care about typos and grammar in the beginning, and my spelling was a far cry from readable.

Rereading "The Elfstones of Shanara" helped me recall what reading used to be like for me, because I had read the book in a time before I fully understood that I was a writer. Reading over the chapters and pages, I remember passages that I admired just because they sounded beautiful, and passages that I liked because of the action and the movement. Now, as a fully realized aspiring author who has erred much, learned much, and is still learning, I can go back through the book and understand WHY those passages sounded so beautiful or so sinister, and why the action flowed and moved.

So that is my answer to the question. I believe that what makes a writer really respect another writer, admire them, and look up to them is the "why". And also "How".

As a writer now, I can look at a book and not just love a passage because of the prose, but also because I understand why those word choices were used and how they affect the paragraph and the story… how they will affect the reader. I can also understand why and how those word choices will affect me. As a writer, I can really appreciate the effort put into a full-fledged, published book. I understand the sweat and frustration and emotion and longing and hurt and pain and tears and ecstasy that are poured into each and every page. That is what truly gains my respect.

There are, of course, other things that I look for in writers and books… other aspects of the art that heighten my respect and draw me farther into the glorious and various universes derived from the written word. But those will have to wait for another post. In the mean time, have any of you ever wondered about the differences between what makes you a writer and what makes you a reader? Or perhaps you've pondered the ability of another writer to draw you into their words and hold you captive there? Tell me what you've learned about these subjects, and how it's affected you. I'd love to hear about it! :D