Tag: story

Update from Jen

Hey all!

It’s me, your neighborhood not-so-friendly Jen! I figured I haven’t done a more personal blog recently, so I thought it was time to update you guys! Cause you guys are the best readers ever.

So, some exciting things. I’ve been working a lot. I work at a little store called The British Pedlar. We sell imported British food, candy, and gifts. I like it. I get to work on WatL stuff all day and eat yummy candy. I’m slowly but surely trying everything. My favorite is the Mr. Kipling Mini Battenbergs. They’re soooo good! They are little squares of sponge cake with apricot filling wrapped in marzipan covered in sugar. I wasn’t sure I would like them, now I’m addicted. I also really liked the Cadbury Twirls. If anyone in our readerverse has tried the Cadbury Flake bar, this is basically a Flake covered in more chocolate. For those who don’t know what a Flake is, it’s a very crumbly chocolate bar. It’s really good. You should try it. Anyway, work is fun.

I love being able to work on my MacBook Pro. I feel like a real writer! I’ve got it all loaded up with awesome programs such as Calibre (see my review of that awesome program here), Word, Kindle, and iBooks. I also have Adobe Creative Cloud, which has Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, and others. My new desktop iMac also has these programs, as I use them so often. I do all of the Quotes of the Week in Photoshop using images marked “for non-commercial use with modification” on Google Images. I love playing around with Photoshop. I added the text to our story “Uncovering the Phantom” in Photoshop.

Oh! Speaking of “Uncovering the Phantom!” The cover is finally finished. I had been looking through Google Images for the perfect picture and I stumbled on this one Etsy seller who had these amazing pictures of women in Victorian dresses that she made. I consulted with K. Leigh and Cym to see if they liked the photos, then immediately messaged the seller. She said that we could use her image, even modified, as long as we give credit. So, next came the task of finding someone to edit it. I had asked some friends to do it, but they got too busy to finish. So I asked my fiance James if he could edit it, and boy does it look nice! I can’t wait for you guys to see it, but it’ll probably be after the fourth part of the story since it pertains to a plot twist.

Now, we hope to publish the first part of the story soon. I have just finished writing the next part of the story, which contains the twist. We really hope you like what we’ve done with our Round Robin writing. It’s interesting to do since you never know what the other writers are going to do with what you’ve written. We have done it a little bit differently, as we have done a slight outline so that we know where the story was going. However, all of the details are all Round Robin-ed. You guys should like it. If you’re a Phantom fan, you should love it.

One thing that I am excited about is coming up on the 23rd-25th. It’s called Pensacon, which is the shortened version of Pensacola Comicon. The past two years I have volunteered as a Celebrity Handler, which is the most awesome job ever. Basically, I get to sit with a celebrity for the entire time I am working. I take the money from the customers and take photographs of the celeb with the customer. I got put on this team because I cannot stand for a long period of time due to my knee problems, but I absolutely love it! The first year I got to sit with Maximiliano Hernandez, who played Agent Jasper Sitwell in the Marvel-verse. He was awesome and insisted on signing everything I had for nothing. He was so incredibly nice. The second year I wanted to sit with Sean Maher, who played Simon Tam on Firefly/Serenity. However, since he was only going to be there two days and I volunteered for 3, they asked who else I would like to sit with. I threw out Sylvester McCoy, figuring that he was taken but it didn’t hurt to try. I was lucky and they sat me with him. If you’re not familiar with him, he played the 7th Doctor on “Doctor Who.” I was worried because he didn’t seem to want to be there, but it turned out he was just jet lagged and he turned out to be the sweetest man! He signed a picture for me for nothing. This year I’m crossing my fingers to sit with Dacre Stoker. Now, that name may sound familiar because he’s the great-grandnephew of Bram Stoker, who wrote “Dracula.” Yes, that Dracula. As an English/Writing Arts graduate, I have a deep need to sit and talk with this man. Not only because of his relatives but because he, too, has written his own Dracula novel, titled “Dracula the Un-Dead.” So yeah, here’s hoping. Cross your fingers for me!

Now that I’ve rambled on for what seems like forever, I suppose I should stop. Keep a lookout for the first installment of “Uncovering the Phantom,” as that should be up soon!

-Jen

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Recovering from Mental Health Concerns

Around the holidays, many people get what’s known as “seasonal depression.” I happen to be one of those people, however, I do have bouts of depression at other times as well. I have not been mentally present/focused in any aspect of my life right now, to be honest.

I am starting to break through and get back to being the self I like to be. I know other people are struggling more than I am and I hope they can fight it and recover, but I don’t want solely talk about this because there are plenty of blogs that have more helpful insight than I do.

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Vinland Saga Vol. 1 by Makoto Yukimura

Rating:

Here at Writing Across The Lines, we want to keep things interesting. What better way than reviewing a manga? Of course, I can’t review the whole story because I have not ready every volume, but I can review the first volume.

What is a manga? It’s essentially a Japanese comic book. Why am I reviewing a manga? Because I like manga, just as much as I like books, comic books, musical theatre, and movies. I am not into anime and manga as much as I used to be, but I do like indulging in them from time to time.

Vinland Saga is a story about vikings. It opens on a scene where a Frankish Fort is being attacked and it is going in the favor of the defenders. A viking group lead by a man named Askeladd, offers his help to the losing side in return for half the riches. Thorfinn, the man character as we will see, wants nothing but to challenge Askeladd. Askeladd tells him, that he will fight him if he kills a high ranking officer in the Frankish Fort. This serves to show the reader what lengths Thorfinn will go, his skills at killing, and his clear obsession with challenging Askeladd. It also makes the reader question why this is so important.

After the Vikings help win, outsmart the army that they helped (who were going to turn on them anyway) and make off with all the riches, the Vikings celebrate their accomplishments in Denmark. Thorfinn finally gets his challenge and although he is very skilled for his young age, Askeladd defeats him, sending Thorfinn into angsty brooding.

This leads us into the history of Thorfinn as a boy. He had a mother, father, a sister, and listened to the tales spun by the great Leif Ericson firsthand. His father, Thors, was a well know Viking and was even called “The Troll of Jom,” but gave up fighting to lead a quiet life. Thorfinn, wants to be a great fighter like his father, but doesn’t even know that Thors had abandoned the Jomsvikings by faking his own death. Now, he is found and they are asking him to return to battle, or the people of his new found home will be punished. He decides to put his people first, without knowing that his son, Thorfinn, snuck onto his boat and is now heading to battle with him.

What happens after, is the start of Thorfinn’s quest for revenge.

I am not a huge fan of the art style, the order of the story in the first volume threw me off, and if you don’t know much about Viking history, there are some Viking words that are not explained until the end of the manga. Overall, the story is great and some of the characters are based on real Viking figures in history or at least share their names. It moves very quickly and it doesn’t take long to get through the volume. The plot is not overbearing and it doesn’t throw things in just for fun. There is a reason for everything that happens that leads to another situation. It keeps your attention.

I rated this volume a 4/5 because I definitely want to keep reading and because I do have a thing for Vikings.

-K.

art, comic book, history, japanese, manga, revenege, story, vikings, Vinland Saga, volume

Hi from the Admin Team!!

Hey everyone, it’s Jen! I just wanted to give you guys a little update on what we have in store for you.

If you’ve been browsing the website, you’ll see that our Phantom of the Opera story has a name: “Uncovering the Phantom”! We are currently working on the first few chapters which you will hopefully be able to read within the next few weeks. The story will be updated every other week after launch, and please don’t hesitate to comment after you read a section. We love comments!

If you’ve been following us on social media, you’ll see we’ve been updating our Quote of the Week and our reviews. We’ve got movie reviews, book reviews, electronic reviews, and more!

We hope you like the content we provide. We try to keep updated regularly and with interesting content.

We would also love to hear from you guys! Don’t be afraid to leave comments, as any and all are greatly appreciated!

-Jen

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