All posts tagged reviews

Save the Cat! Story Course and Cards

By Brookelorren on Leave a Comment

Oh no! The cat is in trouble and it’s up to YOU to save her! If you’re a fiction author like I am, then you know that it’s your job to put your protagonist into perilous situations and then help them find a way out of that mess. One tool you can use to make your novel look like an actual story is to use story beats. One of the best methods to get those beats down is to use the Save the Cat model. I was invited to review the Save the Cat! beat and scene cards, as well as the online course, as part of their latest Save the Cat! Blog Tour.

I’ve reviewed the book Save the Cat! Writes a Novel previously, but today I’m going to talk about the Save the Cat! online class and the Save the Cat! beat and scene cards.

I had written nine novels (or novellas) before I had ever heard of story beats. I wrote the first two books in high school (don’t remember the full details of those stories), but I think I got lucky with the next seven stories I wrote. If you’ve read books or watched movies before, you’re probably familiar with story structure, even if you’ve never used it before. Story structure probably was used even as far back as cavemen around the campfire. If you want your story to shine, then using the Save the Cat! beats as a guideline will probably make your books stand out.

When I started my tenth (still unfinished) novel, I ran into some problems. I knew where I wanted my story to go, yet it kind of ran off the rails. This is probably why this story is… still unfinished. I love the main characters, but not having clearly defined story beats when I started the story caused the middle to turn into an unfocused mess.

If you want to enhance your storytelling skills, Save the Cat! might be able to help. Some of the tools you might be interested in are Save the Cat! Writes a Novel, Save the Cat! beat and scene cards, and the Save the Cat! online course. I’m reviewing the last two today.

Save the Cat! Beat and Scene Cards

The Save the Cat! Beat and Scene cards are adorable! These can help you focus on what you want to write about in each beat. They’re big enough to make plans, but not so big that you’re going to outline EVERYTHING.

I probably should add more to the beat card above, because I know what the final image is going to look like, and I want it to mirror, in many ways, the final image. With my unfinished 10th novel, which I wrote for NaNoWriMo in 2019, I could definitely put some more thought into what I want the opening image to look like, as well as the final image. I’m already using these cards to plan my NaNoWriMo novel for this November, so hopefully it won’t run off the rails.

You probably have heard before that every scene should move the story along. The Save the Cat! Scene cards can help you make sure that each scene should be there, and that there’s some conflict in each scene. They come in different colors. You could use them for different books or different acts.

Sure, you could probably use regular notecards for these, but these cards already have everything you need in here. It’s easy to plan your story with these, because everything is already laid out for you.

Save the Cat! Online Class

The Save the Cat! Online Course outlines a lot of what you’ll find in Save the Cat! Writes a Novel, in an easily digestible video course. You can go through the course at your own pace, working on your own story ideas. The class starts out nearly opposite to how many writers create their stories: create a title and logline to your story first. A lot of times, writers will write the story, then try to figure out the title and logline. And then when they try to write the synopsis when they get around to querying, they have difficulty. Using Save the Cat! will help you write a story that works, rather than one you have difficulty querying when it’s done.

The Save the Cat! class works in conjunction with the book. If you have the book, great! The chapters you’re assigned as homework will reinforce what you’re learning when you watch the video. If you don’t have the book, you won’t be able to do that part of the homework, but don’t worry. You’ll still be able to put together all your story beats.

The online class is designed with screenplay writing, not novel writing, in mind, but the same story beats that work well in movies work well with novels too.

Does Save the Cat! Work for Pantsers?

A lot of people like to sit down at their keyboard with a blank screen and just write whatever comes to them. These are commonly known as “Pantsers.” Can you use Save the Cat! if you’re one of these people?

Yes! Well… probably. We all have different writing methods, but Save the Cat! can probably work for you. There are a couple ways this course can work for you: 1) If you’re a pantser and know about story beats, you will have a “milestone” that your characters can work towards, or 2) You may want to use these beats to help edit a book–especially if the story’s all over the place.

Whether you’re looking to fix a story that’s gone off the rails (like my still-untitled NaNo19 novel), trying to improve an already good story, or trying to create a story from the ground up, Save the Cat! can probably save you a lot of pain and suffering. It’s worth checking out.

The full Save the Cat! Blog Tour information is below:

Save the Cat Blog Tour

Use of Force Was Not My Favorite

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I recently read Brad Thor’s Use of Force, which is a good book, but was not one of my favorites.  The Kindle version of the book was $1.99, which was a good deal.  I’m not sure if I would have wanted to pay the normal full price for this book, but it did provide a few good hours of entertainment.

The book deals with terrorism, ISIS, and the recent refugee crisis, which makes the story interesting.  I enjoyed the main storyline of Use of Force, where the main character, Scot Harvath, was trying to track down the bad guys.  This part of the story was paced well, and was enjoying.  I also liked how the story took place partly during Burning Man, which made the book even more timely.

I normally enjoy Brad Thor’s books, but this one was not my favorite.  There were several chapters devoted to a battle that Harvath and his team fought against some of the terrorists, which some people might find interesting, but it didn’t really capture my interest.  There was another subplot where a good-guy-turned-bad-guy tried to go after some of Scot Harvath’s coworkers; it didn’t particularly grab my attention.  There was another subplot regarding a medical condition with one of the regular characters; it wasn’t resolved in this book, but if you read the entire series, it might add interest to the series.

Use of Force is an interesting book; however, if I was only going to read one Brad Thor book, it wouldn’t be my first choice.  I tend to enjoy his books, but there are other books that he’s done that I have liked more.

City of Bones was… Good

By Brookelorren on 16 Comments

City of Bones CoverSo I’m late to the party.  I just got around to reading City of Bones by Cassandra Clare, which is an 11 year old book.  I found it to be… good.  It’s not great, but it’s good.

I saw this book while looking through Goodreads 2018 releases, and found that Clare’s Queen of Air and Darkness is listed as highly anticipated.  I can’t start in the middle of a series, of course, so I clicked around and found this book which started it all.  Fortunately, my local library had it (although now I’m waiting to read book #2 and I’m tenth on the waiting list).

The book is about a girl, Clary, who stumbles upon a murder that only she could see.  Shortly after that, her world is completely upended when she discovers that the world that she believed to be true isn’t all there is.  Not only are there demons, werewolves, Nephilim, and vampires, but her family is a part of that world.  Over the course of this book, she discovers the truth about this world around her, and about her family.

I did enjoy this book.  Enough that I immediately got on the waiting list at the library to read the second book in the series.  I’ll probably end up reading all of the books, although that might take a while, since there’s quite a few books in this series, and there’s a waiting list at the library for most of them.  I didn’t enjoy the book enough to go out and buy the entire series.

There were a lot of things I liked about this book.  I liked the characters and their relationships.  I liked the imagery and the world-building.  I enjoyed the plot and kept wanting to read more.  The mythology was interesting.

There were some things that this story could have done better, however.  This wasn’t one of those books that sucks you in and grabs you and won’t let you go.  I’m not going to be fangirling over this book years from now after I’ve read it for the fourth or fifth time.  There were a couple of things that I found a little odd — the main character’s life was uprooted over the course of 24 hours, nearly everything she had is gone — you would think she would have a stronger emotional reaction to it.  The mythology was a little mishmashed, and that could have been better.  The final thing that I think could have been written better was, towards the end, where the characters are finding out these big revelations and… I would think that their emotional reactions would have been a little more pronounced.

This being one of Clare’s earlier works, I’m looking forward to continuing on with the series and seeing her develop as an author.  Since I’ve waited so long to read the first book, I can quickly catch up.

Indianapolis is a Harrowing Tale of Lost History

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Indianapolis CoverIndianapolis: The True Story of the Worst Sea Disaster in U.S. Naval History and the Fifty-Year Fight to Exonerate an Innocent Man (that title is a mouthful) by Lynn Vincent is an excellent story of a World War II naval disaster that you may never have heard of.  If you are a fan of World War II history, or military history in general, I highly recommend it.

The Indianapolis was the ship that was chosen to deliver the nuclear weapons that were used to help end World War II to Japan.  After the ship made its top secret delivery, it was sunk by an enemy submarine.  The captain was court-martialed, his career was destroyed, and the survivors felt that the whole situation was unjust.  The captain was finally exonerated about 75 years later, after most of the survivors had already passed away.  Indianapolis is the story of the delivery, the sinking, the destruction of Captain Charles McVay, and finally, his redemption.

I first heard of the Indianapolis last year, when I read Bill O’Reilly’s Killing the Rising Sun, which is another excellent book on World War II.  Although that book focused on the war in Japan in general, I remember reading about the fate of the Indianapolis (and its captain) and thought that it was really sad.  When I had the opportunity to read Lynn Vincent’s book on this ship in exchange for an honest review, I jumped at the chance.

Indianapolis tells the story of the ship from before the delivery of the atomic weapons to Captain McVay’s absolution.  It tells about how the crew dealt with the sinking ship.  It tells about how the crew fought off sharks, dealt with dehydration and hunger, and tried to keep from going insane.  It tells about the incompetence of the Navy in even recognizing that such an important ship was lost in the first place.  It describes what could potentially be thought of as corruption during McVay’s court martial, and the bureaucracy that prevented him from receiving justice for well over half a century.

The story was exciting.  Vincent helps us get to know many of the sailors over the course of the book, which helped me care about what happened.  The descriptions of the ship’s sinking and the sharks in the water were page turners, almost as if you were reading fiction.  You feel for the captain as he realizes that his career was sunk.  I cried tears of joy at the end when he was finally cleared of all charges, even though he had committed suicide years before.

One of the problems that I have with some military books is that they sometimes tend to use a lot of military terminology without adequately defining them.  As a former military officer, I’m familiar with terms like 1MC, forecastle, gunwale, bulkhead, and the like, but if you’re not familiar with shipboard terms, don’t worry with this book.  Vincent doesn’t introduce naval terminology without defining it for you, and she often even tells you how to pronounce it.  If you’re new to military books, this can be a great help.

If you like to read history and are familiar with the US fight against Japan in World War II, I highly recommend this book (if you need a refresher on the US fight against Japan, Killing the Rising Sun might be a good place to start).  Indianapolis is a good book if you want to delve more deeply into the war and want to read a good story of shipwreck and survival.

Indianapolis won’t be released until July 10th, but you can pre-order it now.

The Smoke in the Sun Robbed Me of Sleep

By Brookelorren on 1 Comment

Smoke in the Sun, the sequel to Renée Ahdieh’s Flame in the Mist, robbed me of my sleep.  I was fortunate in that it arrived a day early.  Yay!  It was a great book, although perhaps not as captivating as the first one was.

This review contains spoilers for Flame in the Mist, so if you haven’t read it yet, proceed at your own peril.

What of Mariko
With wedding bells in her sight
Will she lose her love?

As we begin our story, Mariko is getting ready to marry Prince Raiden, a man that she does not love.  Her true love, Ōkami, is locked away in the dungeon, destined for death.  Mariko has to play the part of a clueless, submissive girl in order to try to save her love, even if it means that she will have to marry someone else.

Smoke in the Sun answers a lot of the questions that we are still left with at the beginning of the first book.  Will Mariko be able to save her true love from the jaws of death?  Who tried to kill her in the first place?  Will Mariko and Ōkami get to live happily ever after?  You’ll have to read this book to get the answers.

I enjoyed Smoke in the Sun a lot.  The book was full of court intrigue, introduced us to new characters, some honorable, some not, and kept us wondering what will happen to our two lovebirds up until the very end.  I love how Ahdieh wraps up the book nicely.  I also loved how some of the characters that we got to know in the first place stepped up to become more than they were in the original book.

I didn’t think that Smoke in the Sun was quite as good as Flame in the Mist, however.  One of the charming things about the first book is watching Ōkami and Mariko fall in love, share their first kisses, that sort of thing.  That’s a little hard to do when half of the couple is in the dungeon and the other half of the couple is marrying somebody else.  I suppose it’s not the story’s fault — obviously, these problems are going to have to resolve themselves before they can get back together, but it does make the first book much more fun than the second book.

If you enjoyed the first book, you’ll definitely want to read Smoke in the Sun.  It answered all of the questions that I had at the end of Flame in the Mist, and resolved itself in such a way that I’m not going to go to bed tonight (as I just finished it) crying in frustration or vowing to fix the ending with fanfiction.  Even if it’s not quite as good as the first one, I’m sure that you’ll still love it like I do.

I Loved The Fates Divide

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The Fates Divide coverThe Fates Divide is Veronica Roth’s sequel to Carve the Mark, which I reviewed last year.  I loved this entire duology.  Some people anxiously await the releases of new movies… other people (that would be me) anxiously await the releases of new books, counting the days until they arrive in the mail.  I pre-ordered this book months in advance and couldn’t wait until it was released.  I currently work as a self checkout host at Walmart — right before this book came out, there was a sign saying how many days until Easter, and I would add nine days every time I looked at the sign and would excitedly think to myself “that’s how many days until The Fates Divide comes out”.  I’m currently anxiously awaiting the release of Marie Lu’s Wildcard on September 18th (and her scheduled 2019 release Kingdom of Back) and Renée Ahdieh’s Smoke in the Sun on my daughter’s birthday (June 5th), but I digress.

I had to go to my kids’ homeschool coop in the morning, but as soon as I got home, I went straight to the mailbox (oh, and I was tracking the package’s progress to my mailbox for days before its arrival), got my book out, and started reading.  Aside from having to take my daughter to American Heritage Girls that evening, I didn’t stop reading that evening until I was finished.  I love that I don’t have to work on Tuesdays, because that’s when all the new books come out :-).

If you haven’t read Carve the Mark yet, don’t read on if you don’t want spoilers.

The Fates Divide follows Akos and Cyra as they fly off into the stars after they capture Eijeh and Ryzek.  Lazmet, Cyra and Ryzek’s father, was recently revealed to be alive, and they will have to put a stop to him; after all, Ryzek learned to be the cruel person that he was because of his father.  It is written in four POV’s: those of Akos, Cyra, Eijah, and Cisi.

Before I started reading this book, I was a little wary of how this duology was going to end, especially since the book has the tagline He’d die for her.  She’d kill for him.  I absolutely hate chapter 50 of Allegiant (and no, We Can Be Mended did not fix things for me), but I still love the Divergent series because the rest of the story is so good.  Before this book’s release date, I reread Carve the Mark 3 times (twice in English and once in Spanish) and mused over the fates that these characters have.  Is there any possible way for this story to turn out well? I thought to myself.

Fortunately, I’m very happy to say that this story did have a satisfying ending and did not leave me crying at 4 AM as I crawled into bed as Allegiant did.  There are a couple of twists in this book (one I kind of guessed could be a possibility of after I finished Carve the Mark, the other one that happens in chapter 2, surprised the heck out of me).  I was very happy with the direction that this book went in and I’m sure that most readers will too.

Although I loved this book overall, I didn’t really love the storyline with Cisi as much as I loved the storyline with Akos and Cyra.  Cisi’s POV chapters were an interesting side story, and they did contribute to the overall progression of the story, but I didn’t love her character as much as I love the characters of Akos and Cyra.  I didn’t really find Eijah’s chapters to be detracting.

The Fates Divide is definitely written for the older side of the YA audience.  I recently read The Weight of Feathers, and one of the readers commented about how he was disturbed by the scene where one of the characters was swimming topless in front of a boy that she liked because her bikini that she normally wore with her mermaid costume had been destroyed.  If that sort of scene disturbs you, then you should probably seek out Middle Grade books and avoid The Fates Divide for now.  Akos and Cyra do quite a bit more than kissing in this book, and some of the scenes are fairly descriptive.  I love their relationship, but it’s also part of what makes this book suitable for an older YA audience.

This is the kind of book that leaves me thinking about the characters after reading the book, and is one that I plan on rereading.  It is the kind of book that I might write fanfiction about (I actually did write a short fanfiction scene called Five Seasons Later the morning after I read the book; it contains spoilers for The Fates Divide, so don’t read it if you have not read the book yet).  I give this book a rating of 5/5 stars.

Ōkami and Yumi: Free (for now) Flame in the Mist Stories

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Okami coverŌkami and Yumi are two short stories by Renée Ahdieh that occur after the book Flame in the Mist (which I can’t say enough good things about).  They are currently free for now (although some of Renée Ahdieh’s other short stories are currently selling for $1.99 on Amazon.com, so you probably can’t expect them to stay free forever).  You will not want to read either of these stories before reading Flame in the Mist, because you’ll either figure out some spoilers, or you’ll be completely confused.  Neither short story goes into a great deal of world-building, and assumes that you are already familiar with the characters and the situations that they have gotten themselves into.

Ōkami is the story of… Ōkami (who else?).  It does advance the story of Flame in the Mist a little bit, although I’m sure that if you don’t read this short story, you’ll be caught up once Smoke in the Sun comes out.  It’s a story that allows you to delve more deeply into his character and thought process.  At only 13 pages, it doesn’t take a great deal of time to read.  It’s more of a scene than a heart-stopping action sequence or love story with a plot, but if you love this fandom, it’s well worth reading.  Plus, it’s free (for now) so you might as well pick it up, even if you are taking advantage of the generous offer to get a free paperback copy of Flame in the Mist when pre-ordering Smoke in the Sun.  Don’t read this first, but get it now so you can read it later.Yumi Cover

Yumi is the story of what happens to Yumi (duh) after the events of Flame in the Mist.  We don’t see much of her in the first book, but after reading this short story, I have a feeling that we’ll be seeing a lot more from her in Smoke in the Sun.  In this story, Yumi receives a letter from her brother, containing news of what happened at the end of Flame in the Mist.  As she reads the contents of the letter, and thinks about the recent shakeup that occurred at the capital, she makes a decision.  She had lived for quite a while as a protected bird in a gilded cage; her brother had done what he could to protect her, but she wanted more out of life than to be protected.  This story doesn’t show her taking action, but it does hint at the promise that we will see more from her.  I am excited to see more from her.  It seems like she may end up having a bold spirit like Mariko does.

With the release of Smoke in the Sun being only a week away, now would be a great time to pick up these free Kindle books.  It will get you excited for Renée Ahdieh’s new book release next week.  Plus, they’re free right now, so even if you’re not planning on reading either book right now, you might as well get the books now so you can read them later.

The Fool: Ray Comfort’s Inspiring Documentary

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Ray ComfortI had the opportunity to watch Ray Comfort’s new upcoming YouTube documentary The Fool this evening.  I found it to be very interesting and inspiring.

If you’re unfamiliar with who Ray Comfort is, he’s an evangelist who was originally born in New Zealand, but has been working out of Southern California (primarily Huntington Beach) for the last decade or so.  He has partnered with the former atheist child actor turned Christian, Kirk Cameron, for many years.  He’s the guy in charge of Living Waters.com as well as The Way of the Master.

The Fool speaks about how a little comedy bit that Comfort had been using for years was ridiculed incessantly — but was eventually used mightily by God.  He had a comedy bit where he spoke about how a Coke can looked like it had a designer, and then compared it to a banana.  Eventually, the atheist community picked up on it, and started calling him a buffoon and an idiot, and gave him the moniker “Bananaman”.  While they were relentlessly mocking him, however, the gospel was getting out — to millions of people.

Being “Bananaman” opened the door for Ray Comfort to speak to many atheists and people who opposed his work, but most of the people were cordial with him.  His ability to reach all of these people would not have been possible if people hadn’t been mocking him for all of these years.

For a movie, The Fool is fairly short — it’s a little over an hour.  It kept my interest the entire time.  I cried a little towards the end.  When he goes to Huntington Beach, comfort often talks to people, and some people come to see him quite often.  The Fool cuts to scenes where he talks to one of these regulars; I’m not going to spoil what happens, but it did leave me in tears.

When it is released (sorry, I don’t know the date) it will be released for free on YouTube.  I will definitely be sharing it with my friends, because I found it to be inspirational and convicting.

Flame in the Mist was On Fire!

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Flame in the Mist coverFlame in the Mist is one of my new favorite books. I was recently looking through Goodreads for something good to read that I could check out of the library on my Kindle, and I came across it as a recommendation. It was available for checkout, so I decided to take a look.

I couldn’t put it down. Well, I actually had to, because I had to go to work, but I read it at lunch.  I thought about it while I was working.  I read it on my break.  When I went home, I finished it.  Then I pre-ordered the sequel, Smoke in the Sun.  Then I read it some more.  Even though I checked it out of the library, I’m considering buying a copy of my own.

This book is set in a sort of medieval-fantasy Japan.  Our heroine, Mariko, is set to marry one of the emperor’s sons, but she is very resentful of that fact.  Mariko is very clever and wants to be more than just a bargaining chip that her family can use to improve their status in the kingdom; however, in the beginning of the book, she has resigned herself to becoming just that, and nothing more.

All that changes when she is traveling to the capital city of Inako and her party is ambushed by, presumably, the Black Clan.  She manages to escape, and must make brave choices in order to survive.  One of these brave choices is to dress up like a boy and infiltrate the Black Clan itself — she wants to find out why they tried to kill her.  While with the Black Clan, she finds that she is valued for who she is, and ends up falling in love.

As I read the book, I had to know what was going to happen next.  Surely, they’re going to discover that she’s a girl.  I had to go back to work right in the middle of a scene where she is taking a bath in these hot springs with a boy, and I’m at work thinking about whether she is going to be found out or not.  Of course, she is eventually discovered, and that does cause some complications, but I won’t give away any spoilers here.  You’ll really just have to read it to find out (I’m sure that you’ll want to).

I love just about everything about this book.  I love the characters, I love the setting, I love the relationship between Mariko and her newfound love (and I’m not saying who that turns out to be either) and I find the plot twist at the end interesting as well.  There are still a few unanswered questions left as I finished the book, but I’m sure that they will be resolved on June 5th, which I will be spending reading Smoke in the Sun (hooray, I don’t work on Tuesdays and can spend the entire day reading it!).  I feel fortunate that I just discovered this book last week and only have a few weeks to count down before the sequel comes out (whereas I spent months anticipating the release of The Fates Divide).  I think that the one drawback that some people might find a little hard to deal with is all the Japanese terms that are used.  Some of them I understood, like katana, but then there are others that I didn’t.  There is a glossary in the back (which I didn’t know about until I finished reading the book for the first time), but even without the glossary, I still had the general idea of what all the terms meant.

Read this book though.  It’s great.

My Daughter LOVES her CatLady Box!

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Laurana and her Cat Lady BoxMy daughter LOVES cats.  Her birthday present last year was Kitiara the cat, who will appear in this review.

After approximately a 10-year hiatus, I started doing sweepstakes again.  I knew that I would be winning some prizes, but I was so surprised when I got an email from Deals Among Us, less than 2 weeks after I had entered my first sweepstakes, notifying me that I had won a Cat Lady Box!  This was right before Christmas, and we hadn’t purchased any gifts for the kids yet.  I knew that my daughter would love this as a gift.  Even though I knew it wouldn’t arrive by Christmas, I wrote a note and put it inside a Band-Aid box (giving Band-Aids for Christmas is sort of a joke in our family) telling her that once the Cat Lady Box arrived, it would be hers.

I knew that the Cat Lady Box had some great items in it, but I was kind of hoping that they’d be sending the January box instead of the December box, because I had seen a post by CatLady Box that made it look like there would be a Cat hoodie in the January box (there were some great looking gloves and a ring in the December box though).  I told my daughter that if she got the January box, that it would probably include that awesome hoodie, and I was correct.

I was sent the Crazy Cat Lady box (which includes goodies for your cat as well) which normally sells for $39.99.  There is a $34.99 option that only has items for the Cat Lady in your life.  Other then the hoodie, the items in the box included cat socks, cat bookmarks, a cat picture and two cat toys.

The cat really enjoyed the first cat toy that we got out of the box:

We realized that there were a couple more items in the Cat Lady Box as well:

Overall, my daughter loves her CatLady Box. They have great items for cat lovers in the box every month. While my daughter certainly does not have enough money to subscribe to the box, and we’re not generous enough to buy it for her, we have definitely found something that would make her smile if we’re looking for Christmas and/or birthday ideas for her and can’t think of anything else to get her (outside of art supplies, she can be difficult to shop for). If you have a hard-to-shop-for Cat Lady in your life, I highly recommend this box.

Disclaimer: I received this product free as part of a sweepstakes sponsored by Catlady Box and hosted by the Deals Among Us blog.  I was not asked to review the product as a condition of winning the sweepstakes.  The opinions given here are those of mine, my daughter’s and Kitiara the cat.