Who is this woman? When is she living? What does she do every day? What does she eat for breakfast? What does she dream about? What is her deepest secret? Write for five minutes on paper.
Author: byjehunter
I'm the author of the Black Depths and Artifacts of Avalum series. I'm also a reader and I love posting young adult book reviews and blogging about everything related to books. In the morning, I can be found drinking coffee and wishing it was still dark outside. In the afternoon, I'm stuck at my day job, and in the evening, I'm probably working on my latest creation.
What I’m Reading: Spirit Animals Vol 1. Wild Born by Brandon Mull
The title is kind of a lie. I actually listened to this on audiobook and didn’t read it. But I did enjoy it. I haven’t read the books, so I can’t compare the reading experience to the listening one, but I really enjoyed the audio book of this children’s fantasy adventure.
Spirit Animals: Wild Born by Brandon Mull follows four eleven-year old kids who call The Fallen as their spirit animals. There is quite a bit of set-up in this book, but there are seven books in the series, so I appreciate all the time taken to give the story a good base. Even with the set-up, there was a good amount of action. The story had me longing for a spirit animal of my own, and I keep hoping one will just appear any day now.
Spirit Animals Wild Born is definitely children’s fiction, not young adult, but I think for any fan of the fantasy genre, the Spirit Animals world would be an enjoyable one, especially if you have a secret longing to be a veterinarian, like I do. This is the kind of book that I would like to read to my children one day—maybe once they are old enough to sit through more than on sentence from a board book. This is the kind of fiction that is uplifting, and good to read on a stressful day.
As for the audiobook, it was read by Nicola Barber and I thought she did a wonderful job with all of the varying voices and accents and characterization. Though I think she actually did a better job of the male voices than the female voices, which I find to be a problem with a lot of audiobooks. Or maybe it’s just me.
Have you read or listened to this book? What did you think?
4/5 Stars
JEH
Coffees, Words, and Update #16
Where to start? I’ve been so busy with writing events this week that I haven’t had much time left to blog, especially when trying to fit in my 1,000 words a day of drafting and some rewriting. I’m currently running right on target and I’m going to have to try to fit in a marathon day sometime soon to get my cushion up again. I like having a cushion. It keeps me comfortable. I attended multiple readings this week and a small seminar put on by the Saskatchewan Writer’s Guild, called Writing North. This years theme was Mutations, and it was interesting to hear so much discussion about change.
As a writer busy with rewrites, things are constantly changing for me. A word here, a sentence there, a whole chapters. Characters, colours, sounds. Everything changes during a rewrite. Nothing is sacred, everything is on the line. I have to say that I’m enjoying rewriting at the moment. When life is busy, or higher stress, I find rewriting easier than drafting because the pressure is off. Though sometimes I just have to draft to get some of the stress out. But mostly I like rewriting. This past week was pull of coffee and tea and all kinds of words. Here are a couple of my favourite pictures for the week, including the muffins I made tonight:
This week I’m going to announce more about my rewriting project. I’m so excited. It’s something that’s been sitting around my desk forever so it’s so fun to prepare it for the world!
I just tried to touch my laptop screen to autocorrect a word like I do on my tablet. I’m taking that as a sign that I’m too tired to continue tonight. You should see a bit more of me this week, as there aren’t any writing events. Talk later!
JEH
Some Thoughts on Pollution
This is more of a photo-essay than anything. And it’s a bit off-topic considering I usually talk about books and coffee and my love of books and coffee. But sometimes there are other things that I think about.
On one of the days I was in Mexico, I went for a two hour walk up the beach. From previous travelling experience, I knew that beaches were often combed, cleaned by early morning workers at the resorts. I knew that I would find a different world, have a different experience by walking up the beach, but this time I saw a few things that got me thinking.
We stayed just north of Playa Del Carmen, on the Carribean Sea. There was both a lot of seaweed and a lot of litter washed up on the shore. I began taking pictures, because all of this litter just began to catch up in my mind and a lot of it is something that we can all do something about. You see, what I most commonly saw washed up on the shore were bottle caps. Plastic bottle caps that come on water bottles or soda bottles or sports drink bottles.
Then I realized that while people can recycle the bottles themselves and get money back, there is nothing you can do with the lids but throw them in the garbage. But why, both the bottle and the lid are plastic. Can’t we do something about that other plastic, reuse it somehow?
Then I began to think that that isn’t the main problem. the main problem is that we’re using plastic bottles in the first place. When at home, I often drag around a refillable water bottle. I don’t buy bottled water unless I’ve forgotten my refillable container. But I do buy it sometimes. I also occasionally buy something else like a pop or a juice. And all of those lids are ending up in the ocean and destroying these beautiful beaches! So now, after my two hour long walk, I’ve developed a new goal of lessening my purchase of plastic bottles to practically nil (I’m going to be realistic, it’s going to happen sometimes, but I’m going to try really hard to avoid it). I have two favourite coffee travel mugs, and a few water bottles. I can do this. I can avoid purchasing plastic. Hopefully it helps my wallet out too.
And maybe these pictures will help you think about litter and the state of our oceans and lands as well.
JEH
Weekly Writing Prompt
Have your character describe this scene. Then have your character sit down and transition into their thoughts about how they feel. Write for ten minutes.
What I’m Reading: As I Darken by Kiersten White
One of the books I fininshed reading while on vacation was As I Darken by Kiersten White. This is an ‘alternate’ history, taking place during the time of the Ottoman Empire and Mehmed the II. The ‘alternate’ comes from the fact that White has made Vlad the Impaler a girl. This bring such an interesting dynamic to this story. The whole book was well written, rich with detail and character and raw emotion.
There are really three main characters in this book, Lada, her brother Raul, and Mehmed. Lada is just what I love in a heroine, she is fierce, fiery, and needs no one (or likes to think she does). It makes me wonder what other histories would sound like if famous males were females. It’s an interesting concept to say the least. I’ve never read any of White’s other books, but I’ve heard from other people that they are great reads as well. As I Darken has definitely encouraged me to seek out more of White’s work.
5/5 Stars.
JEH
Back From the Beach and Other Things…
I have to say, Mexico in January was a great place to be. Now I’m back in the snow, though the temperatures have been surprisingly pleasant. I was happy to learn that it was -40 C while I was away, plus there was a blizzard. I’m glad I got to spend time on the beach reading instead of dealing with snow. It’s taken me a few days to readjust to winter and work and regular life. I think it would be all to easy to live on a resort where you ever have to cook clean or worry, except maybe worry about if it’s going to rain. Here are some picture from around the area we stayed in, it was gorgeous.
I finished reading two books on vacation and read parts of a couple others. I never read just one book at a time, but read whatever suits my mood. GoodReads tells me I’m 1 book ahead of my reading goal, which is excellent because I think reading 60 books in a year is going to be quite the challenge, especially since I have a couple long books on my shelves.
I’ll post a review of As I Darken tomorrow, one of the books I finished while on holiday.
Till then,
JEH
365K Words In a Year Update #14
Well, soon I will be sitting on a hot beach reading and writing away. I’m looking forward to my vacation, and will be taking a short break from blogging to enjoy myself. Don’t worry, I’ll be back for the second half of a January, and I’ll report on my word count then. So far, I’m still 12,000 words ahead of my goal.
Have a great week!
JEH
Weekly Writing Prompt
He walked into the wild saloon and he
heard…
saw….
felt…
touched…
said…
J. E. Hunter’s Ten Favorite Reads of 2016
*I was actually going to post this last week and forgot. Oops
It’s the end of year, which means it times to spend a bit of time contemplating what I’ve spent the past year doing. I wrote a lot, read a lot, worked hard, and traveled a bit. The post is going to focus on the reading. My Goodreads goal was to read 40 books, which I met just this week. I read an assortment of YA, Fiction, Non-Fiction. All kinds of things really. I’ve reviewed the list, and here are my top ten favorites, from most loved to least (Though I did love everything on this list).
- Queen of the Tearling
- The Name of the Wind
- Daughter of Smoke and Bone
- The Shadow Hour
- The Selection
- Rebel of the Sands
- Empire of Storms (Throne of Glass Series, really, since I read the majority in 2016)
- As I Darken
- The Bands of Mourning by Brandon Sanderson
- Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
Hexed by Michelle Kays
I feel like I’m quite behind in my reading, since half of the books on my list weren’t published in 2016. A lot of the books I did read were from series, as I seem to like reading these only once their completed. I know I’m not the only person who hates waiting for sequels, but this list makes it pretty clear that I prefer to read the whole thing in one go if at all possible. Unfortunately, this makes it a bit rough for new releases. I also hate having to buy hardcovers. I don’t mind ebooks, but I prefer paperbacks, which means I have to wait even longer to find the books I want. Why is the entire publishing industry working against me??? Good thing I can still use my e-library.
I’m setting my reading goal for 2016 at 60 books, slightly less than the number of unread books currently lying around my bedroom. Here’s a glimpse at my overflowing bookshelf:
I’m sure some new releases will jump the cue as well. What were your favorite reads in 2016? What are you looking forward to in 2017?
JEH
J. E. H U N T E R 