Dancing on the Head of a Pen

"The Practice

of a Writing Life"

Bookworm's Ranking - 4.5 Worms
 

About - Writing is a way of life and an adventure. Robert Benson has been living this life for twenty years, struggling with the work and thriving. With lessons of his own life and quotes for other writers, Benson takes readers on a journey of living and writing.

Author - Robert Benson

Publisher - WaterBrook Publishing

Age Group - 15 and up

Personal Opinion - This book was unusual for a writing book. While most books about writing cover fundamentals, are how-tos, this one was about living the life of a writer and living with, and working with, your book. It has a mix of devotional/advice book that was poetry while being read. Each chapter covered a different aspect of living and writing, usually starting with an event in the author's life, moving on to general ideas for the reader to think about and consider for their own writing, and a lesson at the end. What did bother me was the short bursts and the a section break before the next part. I felt it would have been smoother to remove the section breaks but that is a stile difference. It was a beautiful read and one I will keep around and want to share with my fellow writers.

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Disclaimer - In exchange for an honest review, I received this book for free from the publisher through Blogging for Books.

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Mythmaker: The Life of J.R.R. Tolkien

"Creator of The Hobbit and
The Lord of the Rings"

Bookworm's Ranking - 3.5 Worms

Storyline - J.R.R. Tolkien was a man of many things and his life lead him down many different paths. In this biography, readers can look into his life, his happiness and struggles, as he became the author of some of our world's favorite fantasy novels. From his early life in Africa to living as an orphan in England to becoming the writer of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien is presented simply and begins the readers journey in knowing the man behind Middle-Earth.

Author - Anne E. Neimark

Publisher - HMH Books for Your Readers

Age Group - 12 and up

Content - *May Contain Spoilers* Is a bit disobedient as a boy growing up. He encourages a woman he wants to marry to ditch the guy she is engaged to, convert, and marry him (they do end up living happily together though). Despite the negativity of his colleagues, Tolkien pursues his writing career even when it is hard and he wants to give up. He stays true to his convictions and faith.

Personal Opinion - While this book gave revealed information I did not know of J.R.R. Tolkien, it was also really simple. Not that that is a bad thing but it was not nearly as in depth as I would have liked.  It seemed to skim over and tell the story very straight forward of his life. An example of this is when it mentioned that one of his friends died who he was really close to and that it was painful for him, but that was it. It had only mentioned the friend one other time and there was no development of their friendship or information on how he dealt with the grief after. Yet, it makes a good start on learning about Tolkien and, because of its simplicity, allows for readers of about twelve to start learning about this author. But, for older age groups, they might want to find other books that will have more to it.

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The Complete Guide to Self-Publishing Comics

"Taking Control of Your
Comics-Writing Destiny"

 

Bookworm's Ranking - 4.5 Worms

 

About - From concept to marketing, everything changes when writing and self-publishing. Many books cover the ins and outs but how about for comics? Comfort Love and Adam Withers, wife and husband team having written and self-published their own comic book series, present a guide on self-publishing comics, giving their advise for writers, artists, colorers, and letters on creating their story.  With advise from top members in the industry and step-by-step details on creating a comic, this book delves into all areas of the creating process and marketing and selling process, giving a complete guide to self-publishing your comic.

Authors - Comfort Love and Adam Withers

Publisher - Watson-Guptill; an imprint of Crown Publishing Group
 
Personal Opinion - It doesn't matter where you are in your comic creating process, conceptualizing, crafting, or marketing, or who you are in the team, writer, artist, colorer, or letterer, this book will help. Each chapter not only gives insight into not only each persons area but also so each member of the team knows what is needed and problematic for everyone, preparing all members for the challenge ahead. Reading not only their experiences and advise but also the industry experts really revealed the world and business of creating a comic. Even though this is a non-fiction, how-to book, it was not dry, but used images and side bares that makes comics special within the book to illustrate and expand on their lessons. Some of the chapters go really into detail that isn't needed if you don't do Photoshop or Illustrator but those chapters do provide great insight into what members of the team are going through and expected of them. One thing I wish they had gone more in depth on was setting up the script. As they mentioned, they didn't have the time nor was it the point to give advice on the writing process (other books exist for that) but they did cover on setting up the script's format. Yet, I felt it was really general and could have had more details especially considering the details given in the artist, illustrator, or letterer chapters. Anyone interested in creating comics, even if they are just beginning, would find this book helpful and a great resource.

Video - Okay, so this isn't a trailer but fun, right?

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Disclaimer - In exchange for an honest review, I received this book for free from the publisher through Blogging for Books.

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Writing Contest and Cover Reveal: Bonus GIVEAWAY

Hey Bookworms,

Here is an exciting opportunity for those who are interested in writing and get published. Today, I'm helping out Ann Elizabeth Stengl with announcing the new writing contest and cover reveal of Rooglewood Press's third fairy tale anthology.

If you are not familiar with their previous two, Five Glass Slippers, released in 2014, and Five Enchanted Roses, releasing this month, read up now.

Five retellings of classic fairy tales. And now I will share the information for the newest contest to be part of the next fairy tale retelling collection!

___________________________________________

 

 

Rooglewood Press is delighted to introduce their third fairy tale novella contest—

Five Magic Spindles
 

 

a collection of “Sleeping Beauty” stories

The challenge is to write a retelling of the beloved fairy tale in any genre or setting you like. Make certain your story is recognizably “Sleeping Beauty,” but have fun with it as well. Make it yours!

Rooglewood Press will be selecting five winners to be published in the Five Magic Spindles collection, which will be packaged up with the phenomenal cover you see here. Maybe your name will be one of the five listed?

All the contest rules and information (how to enter, story details, deadline etc.) may be found on the Rooglewood Press website. Just click HERE and you will go right to the page.

Rooglewood Press’s first collection, Five Glass Slippers is available for purchase, and our second collection, Five Enchanted Roses is scheduled to launch on July 27, and is currently available for pre-order. Be certain to get a copy of each and see what previous winners did with their wonderful retellings.

_______________________________________

 

Ann Elizabeth Stengl would also like to thank Julia Popova or “ForestGirl" for her work on the cover. I have to agree, it is beautiful. I hope she keeps making covers.

 

This is something I am planning on working on because I love fairy tale retellings and this seems like a cool project. Hope some of you also write and submit your work. Write a good story so others can chew on it, readers!

 

Of course, it is best to read previous work published by the group you are submitting too so I am offering a giveaway to get you studying. You can either win Five Glass Slippers or the soon to be released Five Enchanted Roses. Please use the Rafflecopter below to enter.

 



a Rafflecopter giveaway

Video Game Storytelling

"Unlock Your Game's Narrative Potential!"

 

Bookworm's Ranking - 4.5 Worms
 

About - Video games are unique story telling systems. Not only do they have the basics of story, characters, plot, theme, etc., but also of being interactive, the player choosing what happens and how to react to situations. Yet, story is not always given the attention it needs in video games. In Video Game Storytelling, the basic principles and systems of writing story is given and also presents how narrative experts work in each section of game creation. Anyone who is working on video game narration will find this book helpful and insightful to give basic, beginning information.

Author - Evan Skolnick

Publisher - Watson-Guptill

Age Group - 15 and up

Personal Opinion - Evan Skolnick, a video game writer who has worked on Marvel, Star Wars, and other such games, shares detailed yet simple basics of story writing as well as how each section of the games creation team needs to welcome that narrator. Have read multiple writing books before, this one did present good, beginner information of writing as well as new terms for certain concepts that I know be never heard by those names. This section is really good for those who work on the technical side of the video game to understand what the writer is doing and thinking. The second half of the book talks to the technical workers of the video game such as the animators and programmers revealing how the writer will benefit their section and needs them to welcome them into their group to get the best result possible for the story. This book is a wonderful help to those working on a video game who is expecting a writer to come on board and is also helpful to writers to know what to expect and some of the troubles of working on these types of stories. I usually don't play video games (okay, almost never) but have thought about creating educational type games so thought this book might be insightful. The first half made me confident as a writer, believing I could work on these teams. The second half was more helpful because it revealed how the industry worked and created games, and also showed that I need to know more about games before I could get a job writing them (which makes sense). This is a perfect book for anyone working on a video game and would be helpful for everyone to read to see how and why they should collaborate closely in order to create the best narrative possible for their games, making them stand out.

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Disclaimer - In exchange for an honest review, I received this book for free from the publisher through Blogging for Books.

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Outlining Your Novel

"Map Your Way to Success" 

Bookworm's Ranking - 5 Worms
 

About - Ever wished you had a way to organize all your notes for your next novel? Have an idea for a novel but have no idea how to plan it? Think that outlining is just that boring system you learned in school? No worries. K. M. Weiland discusses these and much more. She has you forget that old way to outline and introduces ways that are just as creative as writing itself but also give a guide to follow on your next writing excursion. Weiland introduces basic ideas for plotting your story as well as a look at her system as well as advice from other writers in the business. Discussing ways to go deeper into your character and story world as well as ways to discover new ideas for your novel, Weiland writes simply and understandingly and practically for experienced and new writers. Go a head and take a look at this new tool for creating your next story.

Author - K. M. Weiland

Publisher - Pen for a Sword Publishing

Age Group - 15 and up

Personal Opinion - I have watched K. M. Weiland's youtube videos on writing before and found them insightful. So when I saw this book, I had to get it and this book gave me some great ideas on future outlining. I tried not outlining (big mistake) before so it didn't need to convince me that it is important and helpful to outline. I have also tried using outline systems taught in school (works pretty well). But this books suggested technique sounds a lot funner and challenges you to not just know what event will happen next but plan characters, setting, and consider multiple events before writing out what will happen. K.M. Weiland's examples to demonstrate what was being discussed were excellent and really gave a concrete situation to think about to grasp the concept. Her writing style is also engaging and kept my interest. I will be reading more of her books in the future. This is something I will be referring back to and using in the future. I might change a thing or two in my process but that is encouraged and will help me the best.

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