Random Thoughts

What a fun and original story Marissa Meyer crafted in Cinder. I was hooked from the beginning and enjoyed the entire ride. I was kept guessing about some of the twists, others I thought I figured out but was happy with how they played out.

I felt the ending was a bit sudden. Clearly Marissa knew she was writing a multiple book series and decided to end the book in a cliffhanger. I would have like to see Cinder's tale given an ending for this book.

I will definitely be moving on to Scarlett, and more than likely, all the other books in the series. I would recommend Cinder to Sci-fi and dystopian future fans.

In the sequel to Merlin's Blade we are treated to the unfolding tale of Merlin as reimaged by Robert Treskillard. 

After destroying the sinister Druid Stone and freeing his people from its dark control, Merlin finds himself to be a royal advisor without a king. Along with his friend Garth and Natalenya, his betrothed, Merlin treks north with the orphaned Arthur in hopes of keeping the young ruler safe from soldiers misled by their turncoat captain. Relentlessly pursued by his nemesis Vortigern, Merlin and his band make for the fortress of Dintaga. 

But dangers multiply when Merlin realizes that Vortigern is not his only enemy. Even his own sister appears bent on Merlin's destruction. As the threat on all their lives increases, Merlin discovers their only hope is sailing to the lands of eternal darkness and once again cleansing the world from an ancient and powerful evil.

Through out the story you are introduced to familiar characters from Arthurian legend, but Treskillard does a great job of making them fresh and new. There is no shortage of fun and excitement.

Now on to book 3!!!

I received this book as part of the BookLookBlogger program in return for an honest review.

Are you a writer? If you are, stop reading this and go buy a copy of this book, I will wait for you to get back.

Welcome back. You just made one of the best choices a writer can make. This book should be on the shelf of every one who is, or who wants to be, an author of any kind.

Ok, I can hear you now telling me to stop raving and get reviewing. You want to know what this amazing book is all about? Just look at the tagline: “How to strengthen and sell your story in one essential sentence”.

The word for the day is “Logline”. Once you know what a logline is, you will fall in love with it. Here is the synopsis from the author:

*** What’s your story about?

 

It’s the most frightening question in the world if all you have is a blank stare. But what if you had an attention-grabbing answer that left your audience wanting more? It’s not only possible, it’s simple if you have the right tools.

 

Story consultant and author Jordan Smith has helped countless storytellers strengthen and pitch their stories. His tool of choice is the logline, a technique for selling screenplays that is little known outside of Hollywood. Jordan has adapted this powerful tool and made it accessible to all storytellers.

 

Not only is a logline useful for answering that frightening question, it’s also handy for keeping your story on track. If you don’t know the core of your story, you run the risk of meandering it into places where it doesn’t belong. With these techniques, you can solve story problems early before they cause you trouble. ***

 

This book is written in such a fun and entertaining way, I hardly noticed I was learning something. Be assured though, I learned a very valuable lesson. After reading this book I will now make writing a logline for all my plots a must.

Jordan Smith gives clear, step by step instructions on how to write a logline, and along they way tells you why they are important. He also gives plenty of examples of loglines so you can see how they are used.

Now, I have only read this book once and I finished it last night, so bare with me for a moment. A couple of posts ago I was talking about a new story I was writing and I wrote a logline for it.

After a chance encounter with lady luck and a courageous blond, an unlucky gambler gets involved in a police investigation to take down a greedy philanthropist.

Does it sound like an interesting story? Does the logline wet your appetite for this story? Now if my story can just live up to the logline I may have something here. And that brings me to the second, and what I feel is the most important use of a logline. By having a logline based on a plot outline you can use it to make sure your story stays on track. So if I feel I NEED to tell about the childhood of the detective, I look to the logline and see if that storyline progresses the logline story or distracts.

If the idea of loglines sounds at all interesting, trust me when I say, read the book because Jordan can tell you about them even better than I can.

Until next time…