Okay now! Every friday I'm gonna blod about writing!

   Now initially I wanted this blog to be about wordsmiths and their books but I'm not that good at reviewing so while I will still be doing that I will also try to just blag about writing in some way every Thursday for now on.
   So on to my blog!
   Today I'm going to talk about a writing group called Long Ridge Writers Group. This is a type of writing school that pairs you off with either a accomplished writer or editor for one on one mentoring for about a two year long course. This mentor that will be only working with you is supposed to help you through each of the assignments and to help train you to become a more accomplished writer. Before you can even join they make you take this writing test that you have to send in for them to analyze to see if you have a talent for it. They are so confident at what they do that they give this promise "Whatever your writing goal may be, by the time you finish our program, you will complete two manuscripts suitable to submit to editors.  You’ll also write a character sketch, plans for six stories and articles, and eight complete manuscripts." 
   Sounds like a big promise right? Well i thought the same thing so I sent in a writing test and wala! I've been accepted and am waiting for my first assignment and the course books to come in the mail. So my plan is to secretly review this school on how I feel the program does. I say secret because right now this blog is so unknown that no one will really know I'm doing it (But I wont let that get me down!). I'll try to find a way to separate all my Long Ridge Writers Group blogs from my other blogs so it will be an easy reference.


Thanks for reading <(^_^)>

A Blogspot Wordsmith!

Well I've decided to try and blog more often. So... Lets Review a Wordsmith!

   Today our wordsmith is a Jack LaBloom. I can't tell if he's actually a published author or not but from if his short story is anything like the rest of his writing I think he should be. His story is told from the point of view of an unnamed person--I'm guessing himself but since there is no name for him in the story I'm not sure. Even with that fact I felt he wove the tale very well.
   The story is about how his 22 year old neighbor named Eddie, for which he is buying a Christmas gift for, comes over needing to borrow his car so he can get his wife a  Christmas gift. Because the story is told in the first person point of view you really get to quickly enjoy the main character and see how they all are just good people. I can guarantee this is a writing style you have never quite seen before. I greatly look forward to the next installment and recommend you all take a look.

Here's his blog.
http://jacklabloom.blogspot.com/

Let's Review a Wordsmith!

   Alrightly then! Let's begin shall we? Now I've already told you a little bit about one Wordsmith, the amazing J. R. Parker, but now I'm going to tell you about Jim Butcher. Whereas J. R. Parker is a good friend and a great writer, Jim Butcher is my role model and who I want to be like when I become an author.
   Jim Butcher is the author of the Dresden Files and the Codex Alera. His Codex Alera series is a great fantastical tale taking place in the land of Alera. In Alera everyone is tied to one or more furies, which are elemental abilities of either wind, earth, fire, metal, wood or water, but I'll do a review of that series on another blog. This blog will focus more on his more famous series, the Dresden Files because of his newest book. It's collection of short stories that happen between the books. And here is a picture of it from jim-butcher.com:

http://www.jim-butcher.com/pics/sideJobs_lg.jpg   The Dresden Files is about a Wizard PI named Harry Desden. Now I call him a Wizard PI because he basically calls himself that in his Yellow Pages Add in which he's actually under wizard. Which reads:

HARRY  DRESDEN--WIZARD

Lost items found. Paranormal Investigations.

Consulting. Advice. Reasonable Rates.

No Love Potions, Endless Purses, or 

Other Entertainment

   Now come on, that one fact right there has to give you a little interest in the book. Harry is a great character for a series, (which is good cause its told in first person). He has believable conflict about what he does. His humor combined with a self-deprecating views and his want to always give a last sarcastic comment no matter what, gives you this amazing sense of humor to his narrative, even in the thick of things. 
   Through a combination of interesting characters, tight plotting, and fresh, breezy writing makes this popcorn tale a whole lot of fun. The story's paranormal, creatures, magic and events are really described in the great detail of a textbook, as are the descriptions of Harry's own powers and how he uses them. All of Butchers books are very involving and always have an intriguing beginning, a big middle, and a big magical climax that has all the appropriate fireworks and special effects.
   When reading about Harry's tale and all of the trials that he has to go through in each book, (don't really want to get into it because it will have lots of spoilers), you might begin to wonder weather Butcher hates Harry. He doesn't and in a interview he likened it to when Joss Whedon, director of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, told Sarah M. Gellar, actress who plays Buffy, after a long and heartbreaking scene that people enjoy watching her pain. Trust me their is plenty of pain for Harry when fighting werewolves, vampires, other wizards and much, much more. Overall a great series and definitely a recommended read.   

   If you want to learn more about Jim Butcher you can visit his website, livejornal account at http://jimbutcher.livejournal.com/, or listen to his podcast which you and get on itunes or at his website.

An amazing new author

   I've been raking my brain trying to find a good thing to blog about when I realized that something really cool happened to me last Sunday. The 19 year old author J. R. Parker came down to our Lewiston fair to sell his brand new fantasy book Kestrels Midnight Song. Unfortunately I was away at the Idaho's Writers League Conference in cda Idaho so I missed all of the fair except on Sunday. Though their is good news.
   Not only did I get a chance to meet with him on Sunday but--due to my mothers niceness and good cooking--he came over to have dinner with us and he later stayed the night because of some campsite difficulties he had. J. R. Parker is really good people and I feel will make it big in the writing world. Hopefully I will eventually be able to follow in his footsteps.

Here is his website so you can check out his amazing book http://www.songlore.com/