Posting Schedule and Another Review

Hey guys!

Here’s the tentative posting schedule for this blog. By tentative, I mean that I’m not always good at keeping my word–for whatever reason–and sometimes life will happen and I won’t be able to post.

Anyway, I will do my best to post once a week on the weekends, probably on Fridays. And I will have a monthly post mostly about updates and such. Content of my weekly posts will be as follows: (and remember, this is tentative) an update or announcement if there are any, what I’ve been working on this week, a song of the week (#musicislife ya’ll), my latest graphic if there are any, a book review if I have one, and a picture word prompt. Feel free to interact with me; I don’t bite. 😉

For an example of what these posts will look like, scroll on down. 😉

 

This week has been my first week since NaNoWriMo, and I’ve been finding life very different without having to rush through school and cram writing in the afternoon. It’s odd, I will admit. So, after school, and prepping for a dance recital on December 15th, I’ve been getting back into the swing of making graphics (mostly premades) and editing my stuff. I’m not going to be doing any serious writing until the New Year when I plan to start writing Book 3 of The Princess of the Highlands Trilogy. What have you all been up to?

 

Song for this week is… drumroll please …Now We are Free from the Gladiator soundtrack, covered by Indigo Choras. It’s the most beautiful rendition of this song, and it’s the main thing I listened to during NaNoWriMo. Go check it out! Now We Are Free (Indigo Choras)

 

Graphics… Just slowly getting back into making covers again, and though I do not have Photoshop (maybe one day ;)), this is my latest creation: I’m honestly a bit proud of it. ^.^

 

Now, onto the review.

This review is for my friend and was done at her request. Enjoy!

A bit about the author:

Cross is your friendly neighborhood dragon who enjoys reading, doing karate, hanging out with her family, and writing fantasy books. She is also a Christian who is currently attending pursuing a college major in elementary education. Her novel, Midnight, was longlisted in the Wattys2018.

Title:

When I first read the title, I immediately think of something along the lines of the famous fairy tale, Cinderella. Which, since this is a Cinderella retelling, I suppose that is a good thing. XD

Cover:

mahana258‘s covers are always gorgeous, and this one is no exception. The cover is stunning and fits the story well.

Blurb:

The first paragraph reads like any typical Cinderella story. Until you reach the next paragraph–and then everything changes. (Like when the last stroke of midnight falls and I turn into a pumpkin) Boom! You immediately caught my attention and peaked my interest into reading this most unusual retelling of Cinderella.

The Good:

Great writing as far as blending so many fairy tales smoothly together. Amazing job on writing the action scenes and setting the mood for your story. Kudos as well for drawing the reader in immediately in the first few chapters; that’s always something difficult to achieve, but you nailed it.

The Bad:

A lot of times the pacing felt too fast to me. Especially in the later chapters, it seemed like there was so much happening that I began to get confused and would have to reread things to fully understand who was doing what, etc. I would advise spacing things out a bit. Yes, it’s action, yes, there’s a lot of stuff going on, but just slowing it down, or maybe describing what’s going on more would help.

Also, some of the characters (after Ash joins the ship) seemed flat. Like, we get introduced to them, and we’re given relevant personal links, but I could not get into the other characters. Caspian was fine, and Willow was okay. But the rest I found it hard to keep them separate. Maybe the show-not-tell technique would help with this.

What the Reader Thought: 

Overall, excellent. I have never been disappointed in this story. Time and time again, you managed to bring a chapter to a conclusive ending, and yet leave me hanging for more. Yes, there are a few issues I had, that I mentioned above, but I love the story for itself. Probably my favorite Cinderella retelling besides Ever After. It did have spots where it dragged a bit, or stuff happened to fast, but editing will definitely fix that.

I started reading this way back, one or two years ago, when TheFaeFolk posted a review on it. It piqued my interest, so I started reading. Your story has come a long way since then, and even though it’s not yet finished, and it’s still a bit rough-hewn in places, you should be very proud of it.

Score: 8/10

 

 

Picture word prompt for this week is below: Feel free to comment any story ideas or a six-word story if you have one!

 

 

Until next time,

Gwynnedd