I feel like someone told me about this book a while ago, but I cannot remember who or how long ago. I have a vague recollection of someone mentioning this book in the same conversation as something about Cemetery Boys, at least, so when I saw it I figured it was probably worth checking out!
The book follows Alex, the middle of three sisters and a bruja who has been actively supressing her magic because it terrifies her. She wants nothing to do with it, but once her family finds out that her magic has appeared, she uses her death day celebration as an opportunity to try and get rid of it. This plan backfires and she ends up having to go through the portal into Los Lagos, a sort of purgatory, to try and rescue her family with Nova, a brujo with a mysterious past, and Rishi, her crush with no connection to this world.
Now, I will admit that I may have had trouble with this book as I read it while I was sick with Covid, but I had trouble keeping track of things. I disagreed with which parts were interesting, and the things that it lingered on had me a little bored. I wasn’t sure what made Alex special or why only she was, and there is a lot of longing looks in the love subplot that were losing me when I wanted some more foundational information about what was happening.
There was also random animal murder? Apparently everyone is just okay with stabbing a parakeet.
The plot progressed pretty briskly, though, and some of the concepts were pretty interesting. I did like the world of Los Lagos, though I never fully understood it ((There was some religious stuff in there, I think? Which would explain why, I am very bad at understanding that kind of thing)) and enjoyed the overall story of trying to rescue her family.
Overall, not bad! It certainly got me through a rough patch, and it’s an interesting concept. If you’re looking for a YA read, this might be something to check out.
One thing that people have trouble with when they start a project is whether they want to make their story into a series or a stand alone. There’s a lot to consider, from the size of the story you want to tell to what you ultimately want to do with it when you’re done.
Definitions
What is a standalone?
A standalone novel is a single novel with a beginning, middle, and end of a story. If you read just this one book, you could be satisfied that you knew everything about the story that you needed to know. All the major mysteries and plots wrap up, though there may be a few dangling questions at the end.
What is a series?
A series is multiple books that tell a story. Usually each individual book contains a beginning, middle, and end, but the story from book to book may feel somewhat incomplete. These stories usually have an overarching plot that does not get wrapped up until the final book and the story does not have a satisfying conclusion until the reader has gotten through all volumes.
Which should I write?
That depends on your story! There’s a lot of considerations when it comes to determining how to tell your story, even down to how many volumes it could be. Some things to think about are:
How complicated is your story?
The more complicated a story is, the more likely it is you will want to tell it as a series. If you have a lot of subplots or character perspectives that you would like to explore, then you may want to make the story longer so that you have the time to go into everything.
How long is the draft?
Sometimes it’s just a matter of sheer length. If your book is really long, it might be best to cut it up into smaller pieces, just so that your audience can take a rest and not be so intimidated by the sheer size of the book you’ve created.
Do you have multiple endings?
In a series, there tend to be individual book arcs as well as the overarching plot. If you have several end points where a number of plots are resolved, those might be good points in which you can split your work into a series. If you do not have these break points, then it is probably best to keep everything together.
What do you want to do with it?
The publishing question. Do you want to publish it and if so, do you want to do so traditionally or indie?
Traditional houses are currently leaning towards taking standalone novels, sometimes standalone novels with series potential. So if you have a standalone, that might be a good route.
If you are going to indie or self publishing route, series tend to do better in that market.
What I did
I am a series writer. I have tried to write standalone novels, but it just doesn’t work out very well for me and I end up writing more. White Noise was supposed to be one book that turned into a trilogy a few years. City Without Heroes hit that point in the middle where it just didn’t feel write keeping that as one book.
But ultimately, it is your story and up to you. So which are you writing?
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You know how I keep saying I’m not going to read any more self help style books? I think at this point we all knew that wasn’t going to stick for very long, given the number of times I’ve gone back to them. And well, here’s another one!
You Will Get Through This Night is interesting in that it feels like a very practical guide being told through the lens of someone who has been through it. Rather than framing it as “This is the thing that works, always do this” it’s more along the lines of “This is what worked for me and why” which is messaging that I’m more aligned with.
It is also filled with a lot more of the practical tools to help, split up in a more practical way (Based on stage of crisis you are currently in) which I think is useful for readers who might be looking for some guidance in dark moments. Once you are through one phase, you can move on to the next and the next, and I think it’s just generally much more practical than most of the other books of this sort that I’ve read so far, as it focuses very much on the reader and their needs over the author enforcing their authority on the subject matter.
Overall, it was an interesting read. If you deal with depression or other mental health issues, it might be interesting for you as well.
I’ve had this book sitting in my to check out list for my library for a while, and I have finally gotten around to it! The story of an underground post apocalyptic city on the verge of collapse just felt weirdly right for the moment.
The book follows Lina, a young woman who has been given a job in the City of Ember, a place that has been having issues of late. The crops are starting to fail, the large storage of food is running out, and the power is going out, which is an issue when you live underground. But Lina’s friend, Doon, is starting to learn more about the inner workings of the city and Lina has uncovered a mysterious note that might be the way for them to leave the only place anyone living in the city has ever known.
Apparently this was a movie, which makes a weird amount of sense because it is written like it wanted a screen adaptation for a Disney movie and it was paced pretty similarly. I wasn’t quite sure how old the characters were for most of the book, but they read like they were twelve or thirteen, even though you later learn that they are much older. The motivations are uncomplicated and things are pretty straight forward, with very clear lines between good and evil.
The universe is still pretty interesting, though. The idea of an underground city and the things that would be put in place to maintain it for a finite amount of time was done very well, and the idea that the people who created it left behind such a flimsy method to tell people how to when the time comes is…. well, I’m in tech, I can believe it. It’s ridiculous, but I believe it.
Overall, it was cute. The characters read younger than they are, so it’s honestly better to pretend they are younger and think of it as a family movie. I don’t know how it stacks up to the movie, but it is a fun book.
I may not be great with description, but I love writing dialog. I find it to be one of the most fun parts of the process and it really helps me to understand how my characters interact with the people around them.
I know it’s not for everyone, though, so here’s some things you should keep in mind when writing dialog between two or more characters.
You should learn something new or reinforce something established
Banter is a lot of fun, but when two people are talking, there should be some purpose behind the conversation. Either this should be a time to introduce some new information or there should be some reinforcement of information that has already been established that you want to remind the audience of. Ideally, conversations should at some point touch on one of these three elements:
The plot
The characters
The setting or atmosphere
The characters should want something different
In order to keep a conversation interesting, the characters involved should have some different motivations or goals for the conversation. Some form of tension or motivation to keep revealing information or emotions will keep the conversation going and give you more opportunity to play with the characters.
It’s important to note that this does not necessarily mean conflict. This could be as simple as one character wants to know what is going on because they are scared and the other character wants to explain what is going on because they want the other to calm down. If it is two characters just stating the same information with no tension it gets dull.
Their voices should be different
This does not mean give everyone an accent. This does mean that it should be clear who is speaking without a dialog tag. ((A said, B asked, etc.)) I find this can be the trickiest part of crafting dialog, especially if you haven’t given much thought to how characters talk.
This is, however, a great time to draw on a character’s background and use it. If they are stern, serious, and to the point, you can use shorter sentences. If they are younger, they may have different slang terms. If they are from different areas, they may have different accent words or terms of endearment ((Hun, sweetie, darling)) and different ways of using them with people.
What other tricks do you have for crafting dialog?
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Are you ready to embark on a journey into the world of storytelling? Look no further! Introducing Write Your Story, a comprehensive resource designed to fuel your imagination, enhance your storytelling skills, and bring your characters to life. Whether you’re an aspiring writer, a seasoned author, or simply someone who loves crafting stories, this workbook is your ultimate companion.
I took a bit of a reading break, but I’m back and I have more library books! I am continuing to not read the descriptions very closely, but I feel like that makes my reading list a lot more interesting. Premise only, and then I see how long I stay for the ride!
So this book follows a family of women, from mother to daughter, as they suffer tragedy after tragedy as love comes in and out of their lives. From untimely deaths and heartache caused by families being torn apart, none of the women have had a solid, lasting love life that has been able to survive. The women all have something about them and rumours about what they can do follow them around until one day the latest in the line is a baby girl born with wings.
The premise in the description is about a girl with wings venturing out into the world and, well, Ava’s story doesn’t actually start until the half way point or so. Until then it’s about her mother and her grandmother and the relationships that have fallen apart for them to set up the ongoing tragedy of the family.
Once it hits Ava’s story, you’re already primed to know that any relationship she has is going to fall apart because that’s just what happens in the book. Everything ends in tragedy, right down to the ending. It is a depressing book without much levity, but written in an almost dreamy manner so the blow doesn’t hit quite as hard.
It’s not romantic, even with the focus on the love lives of these women, and it’s full of tragedy. If you’re looking for a read that’s a bit of a downer, but has some interesting concepts, this might be a good fit for you.
Some of you may have noticed, I’m making very slow changes to the official site where the shop is! In an effort to make some changes and be more focused on making this a business rather than a hobby, I’ve been in the process of making some decisions and those decisions are now turning into action!
The short version
I’m phasing out everything that I mail out myself.
The long version
I’ve realized that regularly holding a diverse inventory is making things a lot more complicated for me. Most of my stuff is already available elsewhere that will handle the shipping, and it will ship a heck of a lot cheaper from them than it will from me. It’s really a lot better for you in that regard.
For me, I’m also just realizing I don’t have a lot of space to keep stock in general. Now that I’m back home, I’m reassessing the space I have and what I want to do with it and, well, stocking inventory and materials for packing and shipping materials isn’t really what I’m looking to do long term. Not if I can help it.
But what about the things I can’t get from the shops?
You can still get them from me at in person events! I’m planning to continue doing those, and that is honestly where the vast majority of those items that you can only get from me sell anyway. There’s just not a lot of interest in getting this stuff from my online shop.
Probably because Canadian shipping costs are pretty high.
What next?
Slowly, I’m going to be updating all of the buy links into links to the shops where you can get stuff and Scrap Paper Entertainment is going to become more of a hub of everything I do rather than a shop in and of itself.
It’s been fun. Thanks for understanding and stay tuned for what’s coming up next!
Did you know they made a book out of this? And a sequel book, no less! A new story from the world of one of my favourite Halloween movies from my childhood!
This book is told in two parts: The original movie from 1993 and the story of their children bringing the Sanderson sisters back to gain immortality and bring back more witches from the dead in order for them to have a coven that will take over and the kids must find a way to stop them before it’s too late.
The first half is exactly the movie in text form. If you have seen the movie, that’s the first half of the book. It felt off simply because it was in the wrong format, and it made me want to watch the movie.
The second half reads exactly like a 90s movie, but set in modern day. From the structure of the insults to the way everything falls neatly into place and gets resolved at the end, and there’s even a musical number in the middle which was… weird. I did ultimately feel nostalgic reading it, even while the Sanderson sisters were using smart phones to cast spells on the population, and it was surprisingly fun.
While I liked it, though, I would only recommend this if you were a fan of the original. The experience is very similar, if not identical, with a different plot. It’s fun and nostalgic, but it is also cheesy in the same way as the original.
I’m doing a lot of world building right now with my current project and that means one of my go to scenes has been heavily impacting: The info dump while people are cooking scene. ((No, I don’t know why I keep doing this. It just happens.)) Since this is a fantasy world, I have spent a decent amount of time trying to think about what cooking might look like and if it would be any different.
What is available?
If your story takes place in the mountains with harsh, cold weather, the local food is going to be a lot different from what someone on a tropical island has access to. The possible meats are going to be different, since not all animals exist in all terrains.
The vegetation is also going to be considerably different! If there is no room for farming, then there may not be such a prevalence of things like flour and baked goods might look different, have a different base for the starch, or just be less common.
And then there’s the question of spices. How do they season their food and what kind of flavours might be available in that climate?
Outside of that, there’s also the question of whether that climate shifts and how that impacts what is available. What’s available all year round and what needs to be preserved in some way? How can they preserve food for times when it’s not as readily available from their environment?
It’s honestly a lot of fun to research.
What other climates are they getting food from?
Trade routes! Allies! Food can be a great way to imply how the fictional civilization is doing in relation to the countries around it. Are they able to bring in food from other regions? Are there trade routes to foreign lands? Are there people from the other lands that come with special spices or ingredients?
All of these things can be a great way to add a subtle touch to your world building, or be used to emphasize something that you are already trying to establish somewhere else.
How are they cooking?
Technology is such a big factor in cooking. The invention of the fridge did some amazing and terrifying things to cooking when it was introduced. ((Just look up some of those Jello salad recipes.)) So what do your people have access to and what of those things would make the most sense with that set of ingredients and the climate?
Some interesting things to look at is how people in similar climates have historically cooked the food available to them and take inspiration from that. Not everyone is going to be having a roast and Yorkshire puddings, after all, and other methods are fascinating.
Another thing to consider is the presence of magic in your world. Magic is a type of technology that could be used in cooking, and the kinds of magic might influence they way food is prepared and what can be done with it. Keep it in mind and see what you can do with that!
What am I doing?
So per my current project, this is what I have in my notes so far.
This takes place on a fantasy island that has been cut off from the rest of the world, with a relatively warm climate. Meat-wise, it’s a lot of fish and birds and the very occasional land animal only for very special occasions.
There is not much land left that would be used for farming, but most of the towns on the island are covered in vines that grow fruits, vegetables, and flowers that can be harvested and used to add to their food. Most buildings have a garden on the rooftop that supplies the people inside.
The majority of the cooking is done over a fire or via stove top because that seems to be the best course of action for this set of possible ingredients and generally matches what people in similar climates tend to use.
And, because it’s a magic universe, there is the ability to chill things. They prefer to have things that are frozen, though, and do a mix of sweet and savoury frozen foods as both meals and treats. Freezing to cook is considered an equivalent method to heating.
What food are you making for your fictional worlds?
Write Your Story: Unlock Your Creative Potential
Are you ready to embark on a journey into the world of storytelling? Look no further! Introducing Write Your Story, a comprehensive resource designed to fuel your imagination, enhance your storytelling skills, and bring your characters to life. Whether you’re an aspiring writer, a seasoned author, or simply someone who loves crafting stories, this workbook is your ultimate companion.
