The Midnight Queen by Sylvia Izzo Hunter Review

**I was sent this book for free in exchange for an honest review**

The Midnight Queen is the first book in the Noctis Magicae Series and it follows Graham Marshall (Gray) on a journey involving magic, history, and at times love. The plot of the story was sort of hit or miss to me, but I have been in the mood for a good magic story so I was ready to pick it up. Off the bat I thought Sylvia Izzo Hunter's writing was really beautiful and she has this way of decribing people and places that was both complex and easy to read. 

The book switches between Grays point-of-view and a girl names Sophie's point of view. Sometimes the changes in point of view I felt were a little too sudden. Perhaps I just have not read enough romance (I understand the quick changes are sometimes normal in the romance genre). Even after a few paragraphs sometimes we would change perspective and that took some time to get used to. 

The romance perspective of The Midnight Queen is not the kind I typically favor. It is very much a gradual relationship. I do think it was handled very well and it was great that we got to know Gray and Sophie as individuals before we got to know them as a couple, but at some point it kind of dragged on for me. Once everyone around them could see what was going on and Gray and Sophie were still oblivious it kind of ran dry for me. 

The basic plotline of the story is tricky, as aforementioned. It is sort of a cliche. A princess, a prophecy, a 'chosen one'. In that regard I did not think the story overcame the cliche quite enough. 

Overall, I enjoyed the book but it sort of fizzled here and there and I can't say I'm too eager to continue the series, although I am sure I will pick it up at some point.

3/5

My Favorite Writing Apps

As promised this is another installment in the "My favorite writing..." series. Now I love apps when it comes to writing because my brain functions at 100% even when I want it to relax. However, that does mean I'm always thinking of ideas, plots, and characters. So since I always have my phone with me it is great at keeping me jotting these ideas down before I completely forget them.

Now I do have an IPhone, and an IPad so all the Apps I'm talking about are found in the Apple App store, but I'm sure at least most of them have Android and other downloads as well.

1. A Novel Idea: A Novel Idea has been my favorite writing app for probably about three or so years. It is very simple to navigate, which I find is increasingly difficult to find these days. It lets you basically organize characters, locations, and ideas for as many stories as you're thinking of. I mostly use it to organize my characters. I gives you a little sort of questionnaire where you fill in physical descriptions of your characters as well as their hobbies, motivations, and likes and dislikes. I think something like this is a must-have because I consistently forget characters eye-colors and which character is taller than which other character. This app has been a life-saver for me.

2. Werdsmith: Werdsmith is even more practical than A Novel Idea. I used to use Werdsmith in a very specific way. Werdsmith lets you set a daily word goal to work on one or more writing projects in the app. I hardly ever used it for whatever novel or looming project I was working on in the big picture. I would set the goal pretty low (around 500-800 words a day) and just write what came to mind every day. I do this just to keep my brain busy, keep writing, and train me to be more creative and think outside the box.

3. Google Docs: Now Google Docs is not really a writing specific app, but as it is one of my must-haves I had to include it. Google Docs became a big part of my life about three years ago when I started College and kept losing my very important flashdrives. As long as you have your Docs log-in you have all your work. It has been a blessing, and aside from schoolwork I also use it for writing between classes or on my phone in my downtime.

4. Writer: Writer is an app I only recently got into. It is very similar to A Novel Idea, but with some upgraded features. I want to talk about why I prefer A Novel Idea first. A Novel Idea is very simple where I find the layout of Writer confusing. The only reason I use Writer is because it allows you to add photos, voice memos, and link to any of your ideas, characters, or locations. And I like to have a visual aid for things like that. In that vain I think Writer is a good app to have.

There are some other apps I use on occasion such as nametrix, wattpad, and Hanx Writer, but the features you find in the apps aforementioned are almost all found in the apps on my list. The four apps I listed are  my must-haves that get me through writing every day. If you look to download them I hope they help you out too.

My Favorite Online Writing Resources

So I have been an aspiring writer since I could read. In the span of time that has passed since then I've come across some great resources to help organize my thoughts and story lines. I am going to include just websites here, but I also use smart phone apps and I will have a list of my favorite writing apps up tomorrow for the first day of Camp NaNo.

1. The Most Dangerous Writing App: This is a website I know is pretty big with the NaNo crowd. It is a very stressful experience, but it can be great for letting go of your reservations and just writing. The premise of this website is that you need to continue writing, nonstop, for whatever time limit you set up. If you pause it starts to delete what you've written thus far. Of course in an effort to keep your work you'll write faster. It's great if your behind on your word count or if you just need to break out of your headspace for five minutes.

2. DonJon: There are a few websites like DonJon out there, but I think DonJon is a simplified version that still creates great results. DonJon is a map creator. I write a lot in the fantasy genre and I cannot for the life of me draw my own maps -no matter how hard I try-.  I will often go to this website, plug in some basic info, and get to a map that most closely matches the image in my head. Once there I'll save the map and use it for reference throughout the story. I have forgotten aspects of land and location too many times to count so a map website can be a great help.

3. Springhole: While Springhole may be a bit of a dated website, there are still a lot of great resources on it. There are all sorts of generators (for character names, location names, and backstory generators), character quizzes, and a lot of information about world-building, relationships, and plot.

4. BehindTheName: As the name suggests this is a name website. It has quite a broad array of names as well as meanings and origins. I'm personally a character driven writer and I always want my characters to have names that match their personality and this website can really help with that.

5. Pinterest/Tumblr: I've grouped these websites together because you are likely to get a lot of the same information on them. Pinterest is going to be more article based and my favorite thing about the writing community on Pinterest is the infographics. I am a big fan of writing-based info-graphics. I realize Tumblr is kind of a scary website for most people, but if you're in the right tags and following the right people it is a great place for inspiration and community. There is a large creative writing community on tumblr with whole blogs being dedicated to daily writing prompts etc.

6. NASA: Nasa Was kind enough to put together a website of accurate space jargon that has been commandeered by many a sci-fi writer. I have dabbled in sci-fi in my time and I've gotta tell you this website is crucial.

7. Thesaurus: This might seem like a no-brainer. If there is one tab open on my computer while I'm writing it's this one. I have saved many a list of great alternatives for 'said' and 'walked', but better than a list is a website. It's a pretty basic concept but for me, at least, it's make or break sometimes, or at least it feels like it.

8. RanGen: Remember a couple numbers back when I talked about Springhole? RenGen is Springhole on steroids. It has a myriad of generators for everything. You can generate a job, a pet, a motive, a super power, a vehicle, a race, and even a plot. It can be a fantastic starting point for any story, and a great way to further develop worlds and characters.

I believe these websites are a great start to any project as well as immensely helpful throughout the trying journey of writing a book. Of course there are other websites I could recommend, but these are my quintessential choices and if you check them out I hope they help you too!

Camp NaNoWriMo 2017

It's time for Camp again kids!

I'm pretty excited for this Camp NaNoWriMo as I am excited about the story I am working on. I'm not going to divulge too much Intel but it is a pretty large endeavour in a fantasy world. It is YA focused with diverse characters and I've been excited about it for the year(?) or so that I've been working on it.

My guesstimate is that this first draft is going to clock in around 80k words, and I've written about 35k already so I'm looking at writing 45k this month which should be doable. I have completed regular November NaNo with a 60k goal so I should be able to do this! I have a post planned for going over apps or websites that aid in NaNo progress because over the years I've definitely come across some great help out there that just may not be as mainstream as it should be so look forward to that post here soon!

If you're participating in Camp NaNo this year let me know what your writing and how it goes!

Windfall by Jennifer E. Smith Review

I was sent Windfall by Jennifer E. Smith for free in exchange for an honest review.

So, as you may know I am not the worlds largest contemporary romance fan. I have been trying to change that. In that vein I requested Windfall. It had an appealing cover and what seemed like a cute and generally appealing storyline. It follows three main characters in their late teens as one of them comes into a 'windfall' of cash. The rest of the story however, was fairly predictable. Person A won a lot of money and started by spending it on ridiculous things. Person B thinks that's not a good way to spend money. Person C thinks everyone should relax. Person B and Person A have a falling out before coming to a compromise and Person A learns what the best thing to do with the money is so on and so forth. 

Add in the predictable and (for me) lackluster romance aspect of the story and it just wasn't all there for me. I thought that Leos (Person Cs) relationship was far more interesting than anything Alice was getting involved in and Leos relationship is hardly mentioned.

I went into this book with a pretty open mind, and bear in fact that I thought it was well written and it had a good idea behind it as well as pretty relatable characters. It just wasn't my cup of tea storywise and pacing wise.

3/5

Marked in Ink by Megan Massacre Review

*We'll side step the 'where-have-you-beens' because I moved, moved back, got a terrible job, quit that terrible job and now I'm back so there!*

I was sent this book for free in exchange for an honest review

First of all, can we talk about how much I love adult coloring books? I've been obsessed for over a year and have a whole shelf dedicated to a myriad of subject matters. Megan Massacre is actually someone I am a fan of. I used to watch NY Ink and I loved her in it! I had tried tattoo design coloring books before and when I found out she was releasing one I had to have it! Lucky me I had the opportunity to try it. 

First I'd like to just applaud the quality. The book is very well made, the pages are thick, and the art is beautiful. The tattoo designs she came up with are both classic and innovative and were a blast to color. I can't say I'm impressed, buts that only because this is the five star quality I expected from Megan Massacre and I got it!

This coloring book is one of my favorites to color in, and I'm sure anyone reading this -whether you've dabbled in adult coloring before or not- will love this book!

5/5