One of the reasons I like writing fantasy is because I can create a completely new world, and then I can come up with how it was made, how the people in the world believe it was made, and how similar or different those two things are.
I like mythology in general. I mostly realized this because of The Lightning Thief which I am currently reading, which is all about Greek mythology. For Skies of Fire I knew what the people believed in, but I didn't really know what actually happened until recently in my writings when a plot twist surprised me and in order for that twist to make sense, I realized that I needed to know how this world was made, and by who, and a few minor events since then. This was fun. Even if most of it won't make it into the story, I still enjoyed thinking it up. It makes the world I made feel more real to me.
I'm also reading a book called "The Third Sign." In the first couple of chapters, a good deal of the worlds mythology is explained and revealed, and I loved it. It was interesting and unique and I liked learning about the world that I'm exploring through the pages.
Yes, I realize that I'm a nerd.
On a note about Fablehaven: I just read the chapter in it called "Inside the Barn." It was probably the weirdest chapter I've ever read in any book. I was like this while reading it O.o Not to say that its a bad book or that I'm giving up on it, its just weird is all. I'll talk more about it when I finish.
Monday, January 25, 2010
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
AH HA!
Number of pages it took for Fablehaven to include the word Dragon: 169
Sorry, I know this is a silly post, but I was just waiting for that. +1 awesome point for Fablehaven. Now what would really be something is if there was an actual dragon, and not just someone talking about dragons.
Sorry, I know this is a silly post, but I was just waiting for that. +1 awesome point for Fablehaven. Now what would really be something is if there was an actual dragon, and not just someone talking about dragons.
Monday, January 11, 2010
Dragonhounds
Generally after reading a book about dragons, I have dragons on the brain for a good while. I had just finished a chapter in one of my dragon books (Throne of Jade) and thus had dragons on the mind. I was with my dog and recalled that he was named for a dragon (Falcore from Never Ending Story) and this idea popped into my head. If I don't write it somewhere it will leave me, and I might as well put it here.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Keith followed his guide into the rebels camp, noting how disastrously organized it was. If this place was attacked, even by a small force, it would be decimated, and the fact that he had found it so easily suggested that Lord Graslin probably knew of this place and was biding his time, letting the rebels hope before he tore them to pieces. Hopefully he would be able to change the circumstances here before it was too late.
There was some barking up ahead and a few enormous dogs started running for Keith's guide. Keith had never seen dogs of such size before, and as they got nearer he began to doubt that they were dogs at all.
"Falcore, Tempest!" Keith's guide shouted as the beasts neared.
Keith had no idea what to think of these beasts. They had the shape of dogs, yet instead of fur, they had scales. Their eyes were not reptile eyes however, and looked like dog eyes. There were stubs on their shoulders that looked as if they might have once been wings. Their tails wagged like a dogs and they barked like dogs, but they were definitely not dogs!
"What...?" was all Keith managed to say.
"What's the matter? You've never seen a dragonhound before? That's not surprising, they're a rare breed," Keith's guide said.
Dragon...hounds?" Keith asked. This revelation only brought more questions.
"Yep, you see a few decades or so ago, there was a wizard who knew that his dogs were nearing the end of their lives. His dogs were his only companions, so in order to elongate their lives, he magically infused them with dragon blood. This definitely made them live longer, and had a few side effects that he wasn't expecting. We have that with a few more years of proper breeding that we can make those stubs on their backs become full wings, wouldn't that be something?"
"Its definitely something alright," Keith agreed, unable to look away from the dragonhounds.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Perhaps I am a bit too obsessed with dragons?
I'm not sure what I'll do with this. I already am writing to many things at the moment, so perhaps this will stay in the archives until I can finish a few of them. Who knows. Also, it already sounds incredibly cliche, what with the rebellion, and the evil lord who knows where they are but is confident enough in his awesome to let them think they have a chance (ultimately leading to his demise). So if I do ever make something more of this, I'll have to work to make it any good. But this is true for any story.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Keith followed his guide into the rebels camp, noting how disastrously organized it was. If this place was attacked, even by a small force, it would be decimated, and the fact that he had found it so easily suggested that Lord Graslin probably knew of this place and was biding his time, letting the rebels hope before he tore them to pieces. Hopefully he would be able to change the circumstances here before it was too late.
There was some barking up ahead and a few enormous dogs started running for Keith's guide. Keith had never seen dogs of such size before, and as they got nearer he began to doubt that they were dogs at all.
"Falcore, Tempest!" Keith's guide shouted as the beasts neared.
Keith had no idea what to think of these beasts. They had the shape of dogs, yet instead of fur, they had scales. Their eyes were not reptile eyes however, and looked like dog eyes. There were stubs on their shoulders that looked as if they might have once been wings. Their tails wagged like a dogs and they barked like dogs, but they were definitely not dogs!
"What...?" was all Keith managed to say.
"What's the matter? You've never seen a dragonhound before? That's not surprising, they're a rare breed," Keith's guide said.
Dragon...hounds?" Keith asked. This revelation only brought more questions.
"Yep, you see a few decades or so ago, there was a wizard who knew that his dogs were nearing the end of their lives. His dogs were his only companions, so in order to elongate their lives, he magically infused them with dragon blood. This definitely made them live longer, and had a few side effects that he wasn't expecting. We have that with a few more years of proper breeding that we can make those stubs on their backs become full wings, wouldn't that be something?"
"Its definitely something alright," Keith agreed, unable to look away from the dragonhounds.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Perhaps I am a bit too obsessed with dragons?
I'm not sure what I'll do with this. I already am writing to many things at the moment, so perhaps this will stay in the archives until I can finish a few of them. Who knows. Also, it already sounds incredibly cliche, what with the rebellion, and the evil lord who knows where they are but is confident enough in his awesome to let them think they have a chance (ultimately leading to his demise). So if I do ever make something more of this, I'll have to work to make it any good. But this is true for any story.
Monday, January 4, 2010
Guys don't read?
So I was catching up on all the blog posts that I missed during NaNo and the holidays when I read this post, which discusses the problem of too few guy readers and why perhaps that is.
I'll be honest, I didn't even realize this was an issue until just before Christmas. After all, I'm a guy, I read A LOT, my friends are guys who read, and the first book blog I ever read was by a guy. But then I found myself in Wal*Mart with $20 with which to buy things, so I headed to the book section. I, for one of the first times ever, had a hard time finding a book I wanted to read. It seemed like EVERY book in that section was aimed at females. D:
Now, I think the reason I never noticed this before is because I usually know what I want before I go to buy, and I tend to buy from Amazon or B&N and not so much at stores.
My younger brother was only interested in Video Games and was feeling very impatient with me as I struggled to find a book to get so I also felt rushed. Perhaps if I had had more time to browse the books I would have found that more of them would have interested me, but I didn't have time, I was judging almost entirely on book covers (a horrible sin, I know) and most of them looked full of flowers and fairies and other such things and so I passed over them because it was obvious who they were geared toward and it surely wasn't me!
Finally I found a little area that had fantasy and I cried tears of joy. More like I fell to the floor to get a better look as they were very low to the ground. And even then most of them looked girly. Thankfully one cover caught my eyes, it had a dragon on it, or four, or a four headed dragon. Either way, dragons, I was happy. But it was a book four :( So I looked for book one of the series and to my unspeakable horror, book one's cover was filled with fairies! How could fairies become dragons? Luckily I noticed the blurb, it was a blurb by Christopher Paolini (you know, the guy who writes those books about DRAGONS?). The blurb said that it was one of the most enjoyable fantasies that he had ever read. This sold it for me. He is one of my favorite authors (because he writes about dragons, seriously, that's all you have to do and you will likely have my undying devotion) so I picked up the book. What book was it? Fablehaven. I hear its pretty popular no?
I had money for more books, so I looked for more. I saw a cover with a guy on it holding a sword :D called The Lightning Thief so I snatched it up, and then I saw Inkheart which one of my friends (who is a guy) recommended, so I grabbed that one also. Yay for three new books, of which I am currently devouring, and they are tasty.
What that? What's my point? I dunno, perhaps that I just discovered that something is very wrong with publishing today (besides that it needs more dragons, but no matter how many it produces I shall not be satisfied). Perhaps to say that while it is a problem, it isn't exactly all that bad as I could still find books that interested me, even if two of them have girl MCs and one had fairies on the cover. Perhaps it's been to long since I just discussed something here and I wanted to. I dunno, what I do know is that I'mma go write more Skies of Fire, I've been neglecting the poor thing since November.
I'll be honest, I didn't even realize this was an issue until just before Christmas. After all, I'm a guy, I read A LOT, my friends are guys who read, and the first book blog I ever read was by a guy. But then I found myself in Wal*Mart with $20 with which to buy things, so I headed to the book section. I, for one of the first times ever, had a hard time finding a book I wanted to read. It seemed like EVERY book in that section was aimed at females. D:
Now, I think the reason I never noticed this before is because I usually know what I want before I go to buy, and I tend to buy from Amazon or B&N and not so much at stores.
My younger brother was only interested in Video Games and was feeling very impatient with me as I struggled to find a book to get so I also felt rushed. Perhaps if I had had more time to browse the books I would have found that more of them would have interested me, but I didn't have time, I was judging almost entirely on book covers (a horrible sin, I know) and most of them looked full of flowers and fairies and other such things and so I passed over them because it was obvious who they were geared toward and it surely wasn't me!
Finally I found a little area that had fantasy and I cried tears of joy. More like I fell to the floor to get a better look as they were very low to the ground. And even then most of them looked girly. Thankfully one cover caught my eyes, it had a dragon on it, or four, or a four headed dragon. Either way, dragons, I was happy. But it was a book four :( So I looked for book one of the series and to my unspeakable horror, book one's cover was filled with fairies! How could fairies become dragons? Luckily I noticed the blurb, it was a blurb by Christopher Paolini (you know, the guy who writes those books about DRAGONS?). The blurb said that it was one of the most enjoyable fantasies that he had ever read. This sold it for me. He is one of my favorite authors (because he writes about dragons, seriously, that's all you have to do and you will likely have my undying devotion) so I picked up the book. What book was it? Fablehaven. I hear its pretty popular no?
I had money for more books, so I looked for more. I saw a cover with a guy on it holding a sword :D called The Lightning Thief so I snatched it up, and then I saw Inkheart which one of my friends (who is a guy) recommended, so I grabbed that one also. Yay for three new books, of which I am currently devouring, and they are tasty.
What that? What's my point? I dunno, perhaps that I just discovered that something is very wrong with publishing today (besides that it needs more dragons, but no matter how many it produces I shall not be satisfied). Perhaps to say that while it is a problem, it isn't exactly all that bad as I could still find books that interested me, even if two of them have girl MCs and one had fairies on the cover. Perhaps it's been to long since I just discussed something here and I wanted to. I dunno, what I do know is that I'mma go write more Skies of Fire, I've been neglecting the poor thing since November.
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