IA: Initiate

Welcome back!

I have another book review for you... In under a week too!

IA: Initiate by John Darryl Winston

Genre: YA Supernatural Thriller

Naz Anderson is a seemingly normal 13 year old boy, with secrets even he is unaware of.

He tries to keep out of the way at his foster parent's home, but unfortunately walks in his sleep, and hear's voices in his head. He's protective of his little sister, and wants to go unnoticed in school, however, on the mean streets of America, this attracts the attention of the gang Incubus Apostles... After an act of gang violence one morning on his way to school, Naz tries to keep out of their reach, and find answers surrounding the deaths of his parents, while uncovering his supernatural abilities. With a violent gang after him, the only way Naz can survive is to unlock his supernatural abilities.

IA: Initiate certainly lives up to its name. This book is the start of something big...

Events of the past are filtered throughout the book, making readers wonder how things turned out the way they did. With the clever use of dreams, John Darryl Winston shows us what happened in Naz's past, making your heart ache for him and his sister.

Winston has a way to call forth your emotions, and make you question if you could survive everything Naz has gone through, which I would be glad to never find out. With mysteries to uncover, and finding the courage to overcome the evils that are after you, this hard to put down book is a great start to what is going to be an even greater series. I look forward to seeing what else John Darryl Winston has in store for us.

This style of book is different from what I normally read, but it is always good to branch out! I am giving this book four out of five stars.

Happy reading, everyone!

Feel free to check out my book, Witch In The Woods in paperback on creatspace and Amazon!

Or get a sample chapter of my series on Smashwords!

Have a nook? My books are on the Barnes and Noble website too!

For the nook!

If you like my blog, please add me to your circles! I'll add you back.

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Thanks for reading!

Flight of the Vessel

Welcome, readers!

It has been awhile since I last reviewed a book, but here it is at last!

Part One: Flight of the Vessel (Vision Dream Series Book 1) by Robert Clifton Storey Jr.
Genre: epic YA Fantasy.

Set in a medieval fantasy world, the princess of Palzintine, Angelterra finds that on her nineteenth birthday, the peaceful existence she has always known is torn from her grasp, as the evil one took away her homeland and killed her family.

Angelterra and her young lady knight, Jeela, flee Palzintine and are constantly hunted by monstrous beasts and dark agents of the evil one, Shutharja. With no home, parents, and no thrown, Angelterra must stay strong and inspire her exiled people in order to keep hope alive, that they and their allies can resist the menace that threatens all the kingdoms of the world.

This fantasy has a religious theme, many feasts, and magic of both varieties. (Light and dark magic)

For a free eBook, this one is well written, and with all the hard names, I was impressed that there were no typos. Those who enjoy a good fantasy would surely enjoy this one, especially if they're into magic, strong and brave women, wizards, and a war between good and evil.

While reading, I often found myself wishing that history books could be written like this. Then I might have done better with American history in school...

Like other books, this one did lag throughout different parts of the story, (like history class) but you learn the history of many things in their world. For a while there, I seriously thought I would give this book a three out of five star rating. But then I reached the last few chapters...

Pretending that I was princess Angelterra while reading these last chapters, I was intrigued and hurt, but forgiving under the circumstances.

If you want to know why, you need to download the free eBook from amazon!

Like I mentioned earlier, I planned on giving it three stars, but things changed... I am giving Part One: Flight of the Vessel four out of five stars!


Now go read a good book!


Feel free to check out my book, Witch In The Woods in paperback on creatspace and Amazon!

Or get a sample chapter of my series on Smashwords!

Have a nook? My books are on the Barnes and Noble website too!

For the nook!

If you like my blog, please add me to your circles! I'll add you back.

Please like my author page on Facebook! Send me the link to your's and I'll return the favor.
Don't forget to follow me on Twitter and friend me on goodreads!

Thanks for reading!

Characters

Welcome back!

I thought it would be a good time to go over characters. How hard could it be to create one?

It's only a fictional person after all.
Well, it is more in depth than think...

It is not as simple as giving your character a name and face. You can't have flat characters if you want your readers to care for them. You must give your character a back-story, emotions, personality. What do they desire? What is their goal? What is their breaking point? Etc, etc. These are important elements of character creation. If you can give your characters depth, your readers will have an emotion connection with them.

Keeping a writing journal can help. In my journal, I have a page for each character in my Witch In The Woods series. It helps me keep them separate and also to remember certain facts or aspects about them. It can be a forum, questionnaire, or even a resume if you prefer.
Below are the main questions I ask my characters.

• Name:
• Date of Birth:        Age:
• Appearance:
• Occupation:
• Life story:

These, I feel, are the important questions. Their future can change on a whim, but the past can never change. (Unless they are time travelers, I suppose)

Recently I read a fantasy in which the characters are at war with a Dark Wizard. One character told a story about a wizard whose parents died when the wizard and his brother were very young. All they had were each other. As they grew older, the younger brother succumb to the Dark Wizard, despite his efforts to save him...

A couple pages later, the wizard's story was continued. The wizard had left his brother and had not heard from him in many years. One day, the wizard was contacted by his brother, who told him that their mother had fallen gravely ill...

What? They just said she died when they were young! Did she magically come back to life? These were my personal thoughts... I have to shake my head and laugh.

The point to this little story is plane:

Though it was only a small part of the book, it did concern the plot. I am sure that many who read the book will not notice, but there are those who love to pick a book apart. Other than that, the book was very well written.

You don't want to fumble the ball with something as silly as this, so that is why I feel a journal is an important addition to your writing arsenal. All it does is help.

Happy writing everyone!


Feel free to check out Witch In The Woods in paperback on creatspace and Amazon!

Or get a sample chapter of my series on Smashwords!

Have a nook? My books are on the Barnes and Noble website too!

For the nook!

If you like my blog, please add me to your circles! I'll add you back.

Please like my author page on Facebook! Send me the link to your's and I'll return the favor.
Follow me on Twitter and friend me on goodreads.

Thanks for reading!

Being a Writer

Welcome back,

As writers, we know what our job entails. We know to write a book, we first need to get an idea. It could be anything. The idea for a book could come from a quote, music, art, or even a person you saw at the local super market. It doesn't matter where came from, as long as you got the idea. Now all that is left is to put pen to paper. More accurately, fingers to keyboard.

The process of writing a book is different for everyone. What works for one does not always work for another.

Being in the writing business, you have probably been told that writing a book is easy. They expect you to crank them out! People are expecting quantity from you, but what you really need to focus on is quality.

We all know that the more books you have, the more people will take you seriously as an author. Don't let that bother you, take your time with it.

Here is some great advice from an author everyone knows, and will hopefully show what being a writer is like.

I love this quote, because it's true for everyone, and not just writers.

Many people think that writers have it easy. All you have to do is sit and write, right?
They don't know what it is like, all they have to do is read the book. You have to research things, know what genre your are writing, is it historical or futuristic? You need to create characters that you pray others will find believable, likable, or hate with a passion. Creating a back story for these characters is essential. Not to mention creating a plot and setting for these characters to live in. You need to delve deep and unlock secrets of this new place in your mind.

When you have this sorted out, the writing may begin! There is also the occasional writers block, where you will stare at the screen for hours, hoping that something will spark and you can start writing again. Other times, you will be in the writing zone, your fingers typing away full bore!

After you write the book, you have to revise and edit, revise and edit again. If you can, find a willing participant to go over it for you and see if you've missed anything (The odds are, you have). After your work is published, then comes the criticism. It will either lift your spirit or crush your soul. But all is useful in the end.

I know I have written about this before, but I can't stress enough how important it is to promote your book! Which is a full time job on its own. (Hopefully you have been promoting your book before it was published, so people will actually be looking for it.) You need to join all the social media sites, send out daily messages, (several tweets a day for twitter), and build a following. Keep this up, even while writing your next book.

Being an author actually takes work. But the experts say that if you enjoy your job, you never really work a day in your life. Some may think that writers have it easy, but they are just as busy and hard working as everyone else. To be frank, writers never have a day off. Sure, they may take a break from writing, but they are always collecting information, creating knew ideas, and going over their current project, and studying peoples reactions.

Writing is a great and rewarding career, if you don't mind putting in the work!

Carpel tunnel, pains of being a writer! 

Feel free to check out my books in paperback on creatspace and Amazon!

Or get sample chapter of my series on Smashwords!

Have a nook? My books are on the Barnes and Noble website too!

For the nook!

If you like my blog, please add me to your circles! I'll add you back.

Please like my author page on Facebook! Send me the link to your's and I'll return the favor!
Follow me on Twitter and friend me on goodreads.

Thanks for reading!