Prelude to Write a Novel in November

It is less than a week away before I begin my journey to writing a novel in November, I have spent my time looking for jobs, finishing up books, starting up books, and various forms of self loathing over lack of employment. Also hating a sudden weight gain I have that my family claims isn’t showing (I know they’re lying!)

Are You Some Sort of Narcissist?

Nah, I hate myself too much to be a narcissist, but thanks for thinking I have a self esteem that strong. I decided to do one last blog before I try this little experiment of writing something so long within such a short amount of time. It will literally be the longest form of writing I have ever written if I am successful.

What is Write a Novel In November? How did you Discover it? Why are you Participating?

Click here to learn more about write a novel in november! Don’t want to click that lovely link I provided that will conveniently open in a new window because I’m that nice of a person? Yeah I don’t blame you I normally left click and open links in a new tab too. Anyways the actual name for this is National Novel Writing Month, I don’t know why it’s associated with November directly, but why not?

I discovered this little thing writers do via the FAQ page for Marissa Meyer’s website when I decided to look her up after reading the first three books in The Lunar Chronicles (you should totally read The Lunar Chronicles). I thought it was an interesting thing to do for some people.

I decided to participate because why not? My friend Sam and I were going to try it last year, but we didn’t really accomplish much.

What was Last Year’s Book About? What’s This Year’s Book? 

A mermaid committing homicide because her entire school was killed in a boating incident with stupid rich kids. This year’s book is still a mermaid story, but there is no homicide, I don’t think I can write constant homicide scenes and keep them interesting. I suppose this year’s book can be labeled as a “scientifically accurate Little Mermaid.”

Dude Mermaids Suck! Write about badass girls in lovetriangles fighting a totalitarian government in a distopian world! 

I can’t help but feel that story has been done already, but this story is different from what I normally write. As mentioned above it has to atleast be 50,000 words which is alot longer than my little collection of short stories.

I’ve also been advised to write a story that is the opposite of what I normally go for in entertainment (in my case alot of science fiction with some fantasy. Also I haven’t seen too many YA books about mermaids (once again single track mind with my fiction).

Okay so how’d you come up with the idea?

My degree; to be more precise I came up with the idea while taking a hydrology class. Mainly from reading Water the Fate of our Most Precious Resource by Marq De Villiers. I’m actually devoting most of tomorrow to skimming through the book and looking over my notes from an Oceanography class I took in college too.

I guess in a sense I’m applying “write what you know” to this story in the sense that I’ve written short answers to questions in both hydrology and oceanography. I also know the feeling of grief and loss a little too well so there’s that too.

Themes?

Environmentalism for sure, some religion (mainly Christian, Jewish, and Hindu faiths because those are the only ones I know fairly well). I don’t plan on writing it in a dystopian way though.

That’s all I’m gonna say for now, wish me luck!

 

 

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Turtles all the Way Down Review

       

Turtles all the Way Down the long awaited novel by John Green after his heavy success with The Fault in Our Stars. If you follow his vlogs like I do you will know that until a few months ago he had stayed very quiet about his work post The Fault in Our Stars. Many fans of his (some known as Nerdfighters) were very excited to see the release of Turtles all the Way Down, and since I have read most of John Green’s books I figured I’d read Turtles all the Way Down too.

        Also fun fact, I had intended to grab the book at Target because Target dictates to me what is worth reading and what isn’t and to my surprise I got myself a signed copy of Turtles all the Way Down. It seems like something silly to gush over, but there’s just something nice about knowing a book you bought was in the same area as their ‘parent’.

Spoilers from this point Onward, can’t jedi mind trick this out of you. Hehe Star Wars reference in a book that has NOTHING to do with Star Wars. And maybe some discussion about John Green’s vlogs over the past few years.

        Turtles all the Way Down follows a girl named Aza Holmsey, a girl who suffers from a form of OCD that involves the fear of Clostridium Difficile (C.diff) and other bacterias to the point where she’s always applying hand sanitizer to one of her fingers that has a perpetual cut due to always pushing her thumbnail into her middlefinger. Aza has only her mother due to her father dying when she was a child.

        Aza also has her best friend Daisy who is a big Star Wars fan having knowledge of the current expanded universe, the Legends universe, and even writing her own Star Wars fanfiction. The story kicks off with Daisy taking interest in the disappearance Russell Pickett wanted by the police for a white collar crime due to a large reward being offered for the knowledge of the whereabouts of Russell Pickett. Because of this Aza runs into Davis a childhood friend of hers and son of Russell Pickett.  

        In all honesty I was a little worried reading the first quarter of the book; worried that this was another flavor of Looking for Alaska in the same way that Paper Towns was due to the mystery of the disappearance of Russell Pickett that our protagonists want to solve. After some bribe is involved the mystery is dropped down to mainly background noise in the novel with the bulk of the story involving Aza’s OCD and how it affects not only her, but her relationships and prevents her from experiencing life in the same way a normal person would.

        I don’t have OCD, I’ve made jokes at the expense of individuals of OCD (mainly out of my lack of education on the disorder and inability to organize my living space), but TatWD gave what has been described by fans on the Facebook Nerdfighters page as a very accurate internal description of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. It probably helps that John Green as admitted to having OCD and knowing the experience for it.

        The way it affects Aza outside of the fear of C.diff is a constant fear of not being clean enough and losing the ability to do things that some people would enjoy doing and have no problem doing (such as French kissing) where the thoughts of another person’s bacteria inside of her make her unable to enjoy the sensation and her thoughts focusing primarily on the fact that something that isn’t hers is inside of her.

        Aza also struggles with her relationship with Davis, who she does have feelings for, but the above side effects of her OCD prevent her from enjoying the more physical parts of their relationship. While both of them do have a unique form of communication via text message. Even though Davis does return the feelings towards Aza he does have physical desires (not sexual, but atleast some form of physical intimacy.

Aza does feel guilt for her choice t date Davis despite his dad missing because it distracts Davis from taking care of his little brother Noah who isn’t taking the disappearance of their father in the same way that Davis is.

There is some strong emphasis on parents in this novel, even stronger than Green’s previous work where parents are far from a obstacle in their stories as seen in some other YA books. Aza has only her mother who worries about Aza frequently because of her mental health and just because she’s a good mother. Davis’ father on the other hand abandoned both his sons, was never too close to them, had arguments with his wife before she passed away, had the staff of his house raise his sons, and left all his money to a tuatara named Tua in hopes that the research to discover the secrets to the long life of tuataras can be found and he’d get the credit for funding it. Daisy’s parents are mentioned, but never seen due to Aza never asking about them or ever going over to Daisy’s house.

        My favorite character in the novel is Daisy, as I mentioned before she’s a huge Star Wars fan, but she was fun. There were moments of her being shallow and using Aza a bit (she did kick off the whole plot by making Aza not only trespass on Russell Pickett’s property but start a relationship with Davis Pickett for the sake of information on the whereabouts of Russell Pickett. Daisy also makes some points that Aza’s life isn’t as bad as she feels it is due to Daisy only having a smartphone as her only form of online entertainment which becomes very shocking and impressive when people remember that she has written lengthy Star Wars fanfiction on her smartphone. I felt myself siding with Daisy in one argument when Aza is concerned about her spending habits after they receive their hush money through buying not only a new car, but a new laptop. Daisy argues that Aza has a laptop and a car and lives in a house with her own room despite having only one working parent while she only has her smartphone, shares her room with her eight year old sister, and lives in an apartment complex even though she has both her parents and both of them being employed. Minor fun fact, but the paper BB-8 seen in the photo above was used as a bookmarker because I couldn’t find a bookmark that wasn’t currently being used, you can imagine how delightfully surprised I was discovering that Star Wars was mentioned frequently in this book and how appropriate it is.

        As I mentioned before I don’t have OCD, but anxiety issues; there were parts of the book where I could relate to Aza’s mental health and constant moments of being a prisoner in her own mind and having internal conversations with herself. Some parts of the book were very eye opening at how OCD isn’t “a need to have everything perfectly tidy” as I’ve joked around about in the past, but something more that really does control how a person functions and can prevent them from having a normal life and in some cases making horrible decisions based on the mental argument they have with themselves.

        I really enjoyed Turtles all the Way Down; it was a nice alternative to the usual John Green protagonist of teenage boys feeling the need to prove something about themselves, or being fixated on ‘the girl’. Aza and her friends were really fun and even the main conflict of Aza’s OCD causing problems in her life her friends and family still love and care for her.

        I give Turtles all the Way Down by John Green four Star Wars fanfics out of five.

Star Wars Rebels Heroes of Mandalore Parts 1 and 2 Review

        Being the Star Wars fan that I am and this being the final season of Star Wars Rebels I have decided to review each individual episode (well episodes since they’re being released two episodes a night) for the final season of Star Wars Rebels. There will be spoilers.

        This week’s season premiere of Star Wars Rebels kicked off with the continuation of the Mandalorian Liberation arc from the previous season. Sabine and the Wren clan fight not only to free Sabine’s father, but to also destroy the weapon of mass destruction designed and created by Sabine known as the Dutchess. Also there’s the return of Bo Katan from Star Wars the Clone Wars.

        The episode itself is primarily action packed with much attention devoted to Sabine and her allies rescuing her father from Imperial forces as he is about to be executed in Part 1. As mentioned above Bo Katan does return to the series, but only gets a few lines and proceeds to aid the other Mandalorians in kicking ass and taking names and to say “a Mandalorian with a jetpack is a weapon.” Outside of Ezra having trouble with using a Mandalorian jetpack (how do those work anyways?) there is little to no comedy present in the episode along with the episode ending in a cliffhanger.

        Part 2 focuses on Sabine’s efforts to destroy the weapon ironically named as the Dutchess (Dutchess Satine was a devout pacifist, you can imagine how pissed Bo Katan must be gaining this knowledge). The weapon is designed specifically to affect Mandalorian armor so that it literally bakes the individual inside of it and causes them to be incinerated and reduced to ash. Of course the Rebels succeed and Mandalore is liberated.

Despite my enjoyment of the episodes I was a little disappointed that Sabine’s arc in the show has been wrapped up so quickly. I also didn’t like that Bo Katan didn’t really have development in the episode, but we can blame that on the fact that Clone Wars was cancelled before her own story with Mandalore could be animated and recorded.

We do also meet Sabine’s father who is an artist and actually critiques Sabine’s artistic abilities shortly after he is rescued rather than concentrating on her abilities as a warrior. I have a feeling Sabine’s father was a supporter of Duchess Satine since he isn’t as combat ready as the rest of his family (that we see).

Despite the episode being Sabine centered we actually don’t get too much development out of her as a character outside of rejecting the opportunity to get revenge on someone who hurt her family and betray Mandalore. I still enjoyed the episode for the action sequences and the score for Sabine’s theme.

I give Star Wars Rebels Heroes of Mandalore Parts 1 and 2 three Mandalorian jetpacks out of five (seriously how do those work?)

Star Wars Phasma Review

        Once in the year 2015 there was Star Wars The Force Awakens; many didn’t know what would happen in the seventh unexpected installment of the Star Wars saga outside of large amounts of merchandising, but based on this merchandising we were introduced to new characters. One of these characters is Captain Phasma; she was known as the first female stormtrooper, people knew she meant big business with her chrome armor and phabulous cape. She was described as “this trilogy’s equivalent of Boba Fett” meaning she was meant to be intimidating and evil.

Ironically she technically was like Boba Fett in that she got taken out with little to no fanfare. The best term to describe Captain Phasma in The Force Awakens would literally be ‘epic fail’. She disappointed many fans since her actress Gwendoline Christie was one of the few new cast members of the new trilogy to already have a name for herself due to her role in the HBO series Game of Thrones. To be fair though when a wookie knocks the shit out of you and demands you lower the planet wide shield, you best do what the wookie says.

However as promotion for the upcoming Star Wars The Last Jedi a new wave of merchandising and novels was released, one of these novels being Star Wars: Phasma by Delilah S. Dawson. The book actually isn’t from Captain Phasma’s point of view, but rather her story is being told by Resistance spy Vi Moradi as she tells Phasma’s origins to First Order member Captain Cardinal.

Also I listened to this audio book via my local library and the app Axis 360, if you want to listen to audiobooks or just check out books and save money go to your local library (I have a strong feeling someone at my library is a big Star Wars fan).

Spoilers from this point on. Phasma will hunt you down and kill you for any knowledge you may have of her past.

Phasma is evil, possibly one of the most evil non force sensitive being in the new Star Wars canon. Her life was far from an easy one being from the planet Parnassos, a planet all but forgotten and unobserved by the Galactic Republic and the first order under the impression that “there’s no real life there.”

As mentioned above the story actually centers around Resistance spy Vi Moradi who is captured by the First Order and is being interrogated by Captain Cardinal because he wants dirt on Phasma to get her kicked out of the First Order. Vi agrees to tell Cardinal the story of Phasma in exchange for her escape and in hopes that Vi can help Cardinal realize the First Order is not the right side to be on.

Phasma is from a warrior tribe known as the Scyers that is actually very humble, spiritual, and respectful towards life and not allowing anything to go to waste. The Scyers celebrate the birth of children because they are such a rarity and if a child makes it past five years of age it is something worth celebrating. Phasma is a skilled warrior and respected leader of this tribe with many of the few younger members of this tribe looking up to her and trusting in her wisdom. Things change one day when a First Order ship carrying Brendal Hux (father to Amitage Hux) crashes on Parnassos. Phasma and members of her tribe investigate the happenings.

The character who tells of Phasma’s origins on Parnassos is Siv, she has known Phasma her whole life and respects her. However Siv begins to see that Phasma is changing (or rather showing her true colors) as soon as both of them along with other members of the Scyers begin their travels with Hux to his ship. Phasma slowly begins dawning stormtrooper armor feeling that they suit her. It is shown that Phasma is very fond of bloodshed, killing her parents, her brother, many minor characters, and even the youngest child of the Scyers Frey. She eventually kills Armitage Hux and is implied to kill Cardinal after poisoning him and is off to kill both Vi, Cardinal, and eventually Siv to make sure no one knows of her past for good.

Along with the origins of Phasma it is shown that Phasma cares only for herself explaining why she so willingly lowers the shields for Starkiller base during the events of The Force Awakens movie. It’s also shown that her armor is very unique among Stormtrooper armor in that it was forged using the parts of Emperor Palpatine’s yacht.

I felt at times the book spent too much time on Parnassos, but also understand why so much time was spent on there. I also enjoyed the introduction of Vi and Cardinal; it was interesting seeing the perspective of Cardinal, someone who is grateful to The First Order due to him being on the planet Jakku and loathing the fact that the Galactic Republic often ignored outer rim/poor planets like Jakku and supports the First Order so that no other planets will ever be overlooked again. We also get exposition on how this new generation of stormtroopers came about; they’re all more or less kidnapped children and orphans gathered from planets overlooked by the Galactic Republic.

I also felt that the book was very similar to A Song of Ice and Fire; no where near the violence, gore, and sexual activity as A Song of Ice and Fire (I don’t think we’re ever getting a sex scene in Star Wars outside of fanfiction and porn parodies), but the violence and betrayal constantly seen in the book make it seem like Phasma would fit right in at Westeros.

I very much enjoyed listening to this audiobook, I give Star Wars Phasma by Delilah S. Dawson four phabulous chrome stormtrooper helmets out of five.  

 

#RealityHigh Review

        I saw #RealityHigh pop up while scrolling through Netflix last night and decided to view it out of curiosity. The story follows high school senior Dani Barnes, a modest girl who cares about one thing and that’s the health and well being of dogs. Dani is low on the social radar until she’s pulled into the world of social media by showing interest in the ex boyfriend of her local social media star classmate Alexa.

        Spoilers from this point on, really like most highschool stories, this is kind of predictable.

        Yes that brief bold sentence is right; if you’ve seen any movies about kids in highschool (particularly Mean Girls), then you know what will happen. “Girl is ‘ugly’, has one best friend, gets noticed by cute guy, becomes popular and irresponsible, makes big mistake, has fight with best friend, fixes everything, jackass rival gets comeuppance, HAPPY ENDINGS FOR EVERYONE!”

        There are select variations in the plot of this movie, but nothing that hasn’t been seen in a teen movie. The main premise of this movie is that Dani’s school rival isn’t just any old mean girl, she is a social media celebrity known as Alexa Medina. Alexa is known for her vlogs, fashion tips, life tips, and being a saint online by promoting positive body images and other social justice issues. In real life Alexa is manipulative and selfish and spends her time using her star status to get what she wants. She’s kind of like an evil Michelle Phan (yes I’m aware there is someone who runs a tumblr dedicated to finding each and every flaw with Michelle phan, we are not opening that can of worms.)

        The interesting approach this movie has is how social media and Alexa’s status as a online celebrity plays affects Dani’s life as someone who wasn’t on social media.

        Dani had nearly no online presence and was one of the few teenagers using a flip phone instead of a smartphone. Things change as soon as Dani falls for Alexa’s ex boyfriend, just like in Mean Girls. Dani hangs out with the popular kids, begins to upgrade her fashion and briefly puts her responsibilities secondary in life. Things go predictably south for Dani after Alexa gets her drunk and secretly records a conversation between the two later editing the video recording to make Dani look like she had been stalking Alexa.  

        This knocks Dani down and has her realize that Alexa had been manipulating her own life to throw her off tracks. A key difference between this film and other teen films is that as soon as mutual friends between Alexa and Dani see the youtube video, they are pissed at the way Alexa used Dani and proceed to unfriend Alexa on on social media and in real life.

        Dani proceeds to do a livestream explaining she doesn’t care what people think of her, and only asks for people bothering to watch her live stream help with a animal clinic charity. Said stream is successful, partially because of some networking between some other (fictional) YouTube celebrities who also love animals.

        Everyone more or less gets a happy ending, Alexa is outed as a fake with some help from Dani’s sister, and is also exposed to somehow faking her youtube views. Everyone but Alexa is happy by the end of the film.

        I wasn’t expecting much from this movie, and I still ended up disappointed. I feel like there was more potential for the movie concerning the villain being a social media celebrity who constantly used her celebrity status to get perks in her life and look like the victim whenever things didn’t go her way.

        As I pointed out this is a movie with a highschool setting, but nearly everything in the plot feels borrowed from other highschool movies. As I also mentioned before the plot is very similar to the plot of Mean Girls; there are even times when I’m not even sure if portions of the plot are shout outs to other (better) movies, parodies, or the possibility of creating a drinking game for people watching the movie.

        I give Netflix’s #RealityHigh two  blackberries out of five.