Review: The Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien

The Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Riveting conclusion of epic proportions...

Return of the King begins with the Gondor story line where The Two Towers leaves off. Sauron's eye is focused on the city and his forces are gathering for a final strike. Ringwraiths, men, ogres, orcs and trolls are on the move. In Gondor, Faramir struggles to gain the acceptance of his father, Denethor. The young hobbit, Pippin, swears fealty to Denethor on a whim and soon finds himself garbed as a soldier of Minus Tirith. As Denethor loses his grasp on reality, Pippin must decide whether to stay true to his oath or true to his conscious.

Likewise, Merry has sworn his services to the King of Rohan. But the King, unlike Denethor, does not want his small vassal in harms way and decides to leave him behind. His plight is noticed by another who would also fight, despite being told to stay behind, and the two join up and follow together, a decision that just might mean the difference between victory and defeat in the final battle.

Maintaining balance as an overacheiver

Another legacy post from my Goodreads blog...

People often ask me how I manage to wrangle family time, errands and writing books.  Here's what I do to preserve my sanity.

December 24, 2012

I'm on holiday this week and so I'd like to take this opportunity to write about balance, something overacheivers like me tend to forget sometimes.

Balance, in this case, is a way of keeping yourself fresh, keeping your family ties strong, and enriching yourself. It's easy to go out of balance when you're working towards a deadline (either self-imposed or otherwise) and especially if you tend towards perfection. Having finished two books and one draft and started a fourth, finding balance this year has been a challenge for me. However, I do have some tips that have worked well for me.

Inspiration: Character Name-Tully

Here's another legacy post from my Goodreads blog.

Sometimes character names come from odd places.  Here's one of my favorites.

December 21, 2012

One of the characters in Shadows of Valor, Tully, got his name from a creature I created in Spore, a game that let's you create creatures in the cell stage and evolve them to the space stage. The good news is that all he got from the Spore creature was his name. It would have been difficult to explain where the short, round, hot pink guy with the heart shaped horns fit into my military sci fi book.

       

Published on December 21, 2012 06:36• Tags: characters, funny, humor, inspiration

Review: The Sity by Curran Geist

The Sity by Curran Geist

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Read from March 25-April 01, 2013. Original review written April 03, 2013.

The Sity is edgy and action packed.

The story opens with Victor, who discovers he possesses a superhuman power fueled by rage. He escapes from an alien-run freak show into the sinister Sity. Memory wiped, only faint impressions of his mother and sister remain, but he's certain that they are still in the clutches of the evil alien, Zaku. Victor vows to exact revenge on Zaku and rescue his family.

Side Bar: Unexpected rewards

Here's another legacy post from my Goodreads blog.

December 20, 2012

Today I'd like to take a detour into a new topic: unexpected rewards.

No, I don't mean cash, winning contests or scoring a book deal. Instead, I'm talking about rewards that aren't on the radar, and perhaps those that don't even register as rewards when you first encounter them. In my case, they all stem from my foray into self-publishing.

Obviously, having a book published (even if you do it yourself) is rewarding in itself. Your work is out there where people can buy it, read it, and perhaps even love it. It's a heady feeling and also a bit scary, because you always have that thought that maybe they won't like it.

Later, you begin to fear that no one will ever see it at all, especially when your friends and family have all received their own copies. Some will tell you how much they enjoyed it, some (like my dad) will insist that you get started on a sequel right away, and some won't say anything (at least not to you).