Son of Neptune Book Review!

I've officially written a book review for the Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan! I've always been pretty natural at book reviewing but I'm so caught up in book writing/ reading! (I should book review more often!) If you are looking to learn about the Son of Neptune, the skills of Rick Riordan, or are just looking for a beautiful and logical way to learn Greek mythology, THAN THIS IS THE BLOG POST FOR YOU!!! Here you go guys! Hope you enjoy this pure awesomeness :D

   After the Prophecy where Percy Jackson and the Olympians defeat the Titan Lord Cronus, all is well until Percy Jackson mysteriously disappears from camp. In the search for him, we follow the story of Jason Grace, a demigod who has no memory of his life or even who he is, who also mysteriously appears on a school bus for a field trip to the Grand Canyon with girlfriend, Piper; and “best friend,” Leo. At Percy Jackson’s disappearance, these 3 go on a quest to rescue Hera and Piper’s father from capture. There they discover the evil forces behind these impeccable captures as Gaea’s forces that are in a long awaited process to raise her once again to wipe out the Gods and Mount Olympus. Jason also learns after some recollection of memory after the quest that he is really from a Roman camp called Camp Jupiter and Percy Jackson has disappeared to this exact place. This flip-flop may be no coincidence we have ever heard of in any Greek mythology story ever told to mankind.

        Percy Jackson, a previously famous Greek demigod-son of Poseidon, has returned to this new Heroes of Olympus series as a demigod with no memory waking up after a “long sleep.” The talking wolf, Lupa, has trained him for a month like every new roman demigod and has set him out on the world to find sanctuary at Camp Jupiter. He has no memory (like Jason Grace) of his previous life except a name…one name: Annabeth. After his month of running constantly from monsters and what-not, Percy Jackson must go on the ultimate quest: the Prophecy of 7 with demigods, Frank and Hazel who aren’t just any ordinary demigods off the street either. Frank, a son of Mars, has a secret that may kill him if anyone knew. Hazel is a half-sister to the Percy Jackson series’, Nico di Angelo- children of Hades, who also has a HUGE secret that makes her a bit unnerved to go back…let’s just say home. Camp Jupiter is located in the Middle Of Nowhere, Rocky Mountains USA, where the entrance is really in San Francisco, CA. The location for this quest is located in Alaska where these 3 must travel there and back to Camp Jupiter by June 24^th. This trio is more connected to the previous book’s characters, Jason Grace, Piper, and Leo, than you may think for most of this book.

        Percy Jackson MUST get to Camp Jupiter, except…the Gorgon sisters have been chasing him from state-to-state, not really dying and just reforming. Obviously the Underworld is having some serious problems that no one can really answer yet. Percy is desperate to get to the safety of Camp Jupiter, away from these undying monsters chasing him constantly. When he FINALLY finds the entrance in San Francisco, he finds this hippy named June, who gives him a choice: he can carry her to Camp Jupiter and across the highway and Tiber River to get his memory back and save the world…or flee to the safety of the sea to be safe and live a long, happy life. Of course he sees that the first option is the right thing to do down to his soul. He carries her where he meets Camp Jupiter guards, Hazel and Frank, who fight off the Gorgons while he runs to the camp. At the camp, Percy meets Reyna, the Praetor of Camp Jupiter where she knows something about Percy but unwilling to spill the beans. The hippy Percy has to carry past the Tiber reveals herself to be the Goddess, Juno (Hera). She announces to all Camp Jupiter (and Percy himself) that he is the Son of Neptune and has been sleeping for a month or two. The Camp of course wants Percy apart of their legion with all his amazing powers and abilities to fight like no other roman. During some battles against cohorts, Mars appears to the camp revealing that Frank Zhang is his son and that he must go on an INCREDIBLY IMPORTANT quest with two others.  As the quickly connected friends found among the trio: Frank, Hazel, and Percy; these three go on the quest. On this quest as Percy is trying to regain his memory, Hazel reveals that she died and brought back to life thanks to her half-brother, Nico, and the fact that the Underworld is in chaos for some unknown reasons. Frank also has a MAJOR weakness that turns out to be a stick but not any ordinary stick. This stick is literally his life force! If this stick is desecrated in any way shape or form, he will die. The farther on this quest goes by the hour, the more the fate of these heroes seems already planned out for them and the end result of the quest bigger than they could ever have imagined. The question is: what is really the cause for everything leading up to each of these demigods lives at this point? Everything that has happened in their pasts is no coincidence!

        When you read this book, a huge theme is INCREDIBLY EVIDENT that gives the overall purpose Rick Riordan wrote an entirely new series to connect to his Percy Jackson series! It is not just to play with some awesome new myths, monsters, and stories he hasn’t been able to put a spin on yet but gets to write a side where the only way the demigods and the gods can fight such a huge menace such as Gaea, mother Earth, is for these two completely different groups of people to work together. The only way you can defeat Gaea and her forces out to destroy the Olympic Pantheon is for the Gods and demigods to work together. This theory was proven in the end of the book where Terminus and Percy Jackson team together (kind of unwillingly) to take down the giant, Polybotes. Percy challenges Polybotes to a duel and deliberately calls to Terminus’ help to really see if this theory is correct to bring down the enemy where Percy ends up throwing Terminus’ head into Polybotes skull. Together a god and a demigod took down Gaea’s nearly indestructible giant!

This series includes monsters, gods and goddesses, and classics references from the world’s encyclopedia of everything Greek mythology! Monsters included in the series are: the Gorgon sisters, Stheno and Euryale. Creatures that frequent the series are harpies’ like a special harpy named Ella they befriend in Alaska; Arion the Steed of Heroes who has an amazing ability to run at a speed as fast as planes (maybe even faster…); Cyclopes like the Percy Jackson’s half-brother, Tyson; a hellhound: Mrs. O’Leary owned by Percy (previously owned by Daedalus; . Giants become a pretty important factor in the evil forces of Gaea like Alcyoneus, and Polybotes who have been known to help her over-throw the Gods of Mount Olympus with Gaea. Gods and Goddesses mentioned/ participating in awesome roles in the book would be like Juno at the start of the book (note that she had a role in the Lost Hero as well!); Neptune a.k.a: Poseidon; Mars turning out as Frank’s father; Thanatos, the god of Death, who they must rescue in this ultimate quest since he is chained up in Alaska, most likely a trap for our heroes and the reason why the Underworld is going crazy because he is not guarding the Doors of Death; and Terminus, the god of borders, who guards Camp Jupiter as this statue (torso and up) and is the WORST OCD/everything must be clean etc. Rome mentions of awesomeness include the Tiber River (located in the Rocky Mountains where Camp Jupiter is located by; Praetors, Roman commanders of an army (in this book’s case: Camp Jupiter’s army) where there are two praetors per legion where the only surviving legion after the Fall of Rome is the Twelfth Legion Fulminata; cohorts are also used in Camp Jupiter where Percy, Frank, and Piper are in the Fifth Cohort; and last but not least: part of what Camp Jupiter is shamefully missing is their eagle, the pride of the Twelfth Legion, that is located in Alaska where Thanatos is chained.

The Son of Neptune WAS OUT OF THIS EARTH-AMAZING!!! I can’t see any better way you could learn about the myths than reading these books! You learn so much about Greek mythology and the Romans in such a fun and creative way that I will never forget the god of borders, Terminus for being SUPER OCD, for example. Rick Riordan successfully established amazing, stocked packed, Greek mythology, awesomeness where you will never want to go to bed and actually rather read and never want to sleep BECAUSE LEARNING GREEK MYTHOLOGY WAS NEVER MORE FUN!!! This book I would recommend to anyone of any age! Rick Riordan is and has always been a fantastic writer and never gives you chances to put that book down! This book was truly amazing but I 100% give you the advice to read the previous books that are just as amazing! Read the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series first where the first book is The Lightning Thief (made into a movie in February of 2009) where there are 5 books in the series total. I guarantee you some unforgettable laughs out of this and a truly great time reading (even if you aren’t the reading type). If you need to learn Greek mythology for school in any way, this is the way to go and you won’t regret picking up these books what-so-ever.

Making mistakes to LEARN!

Today I will "kindly" make an example out of Strange Angels by Lili St. Crow ONLY so that we can learn from the writing mistakes! What you can get from this? NOT TO MAKE THE SAME MISTAKES!

Alright I'll walk you through the beginning of the book (conveniently this is book 1). The story starts out introducing the life of Dru Anderson, a girl living differently from other teens with her father killing creatures that go bump in the night, they move every three months, she goes to school...sometimes, and to top the cake: she understands how the real world is different than the normal world and likes to show off in her head (to us readers) that she has everything all figured out.
LET'S STOP THERE.
Do you see something the author is trying to achieve? Crow is, as a YA (Young Adult) author, trying to connect to teens as a way to get more readers. But as a teen myself I can tell you that this teen view, besides the fact that this girl does not live a "normal" life style because of her supernatural involvement, isn't connecting to it's readers because the psychology is all wrong (this is a reason you should learn about psychology!) Teens don't all skip school, think their better than everyone else (unless they have a HUGE ego), or are all living the same way where this particular girl is different IN EVERY HUMAN-LIKE WAY!

Than you have to think: well if I am connecting to my readers, they are teenagers but book readers aren't the bad type and are usually more mature and don't really care about the losers at school. I shouldn't make my main character someone these people can't relate to! IT JUST ISN'T GOING TO WORK! Also keep in mind that what Mrs. Crow's "achieving" here is a good reason for a teen to not read your book and a majority of the readers will will unknowingly agree to this. :D

Also I've noticed the book just keeps talking and talking (read one page of the first chapter and you'll get what I mean) AND NONE OF IT IS REALLY IMPORTANT! Please don't do this either! You are giving your readers more of a reason to drop your book because you're working hard to "connect" with your readers. But what gets a book SELLING LIKE CRAZY is to give them a reason to not stop and put down your book because your book is so good that they literally have to stop themselves so they can go to bed!
NOT ACCOMPLISHED IN THIS BOOK!

A beautiful way to keep your readers flipping through those pages is chapter endings (literally already discussed is a previous blog post!) because that's where most book readers want to stop and take a break. Reminder: your chapter endings should be at a part where something traumatic/ unthinkable happens. The reader will go crazy and have to keep reading! This is a sure-fire-way to be a successful author.

In Strange Angels I can tell Mrs. Crow is trying her very best to achieve this but it's not really happening. The fact that she tried gives her points when publishing though!

At the end of the prologue, she ends with: "I never saw Dad alive again."
THIS IS A GOOD ENDING! The only problem is that Crow pretty much bores you with how Dru Anderson's life got so messed up. But Crow is just throwing out there all this information that has somewhat of importance for later but 80% is just "FLUFF." We don't really need to hear all this fluff because IT ISN'T IMPORTANT! Importance means everything to teens (hey you chose to be a YA author). This fluff is only in the book so it can connect to teens the "readers" and we have already pointed out that this is NOT connecting to the readers so it's just all wrong O.o

At the end of chapter 1, Crow ends with: "Maybe if I embarrass the kid he'll leave me alone." This is NOT working the "sure-fire" way of chapter endings because the book STILL hasn't picked up speed, has a bunch of fluff, and is continuously giving the reader a main character with a BIG ego and a bad example! I can see why Crow ends with this only because the chapter was 13 pages and it just "feels" like a good ending. Keep in mind that these type of chapters are acceptable in books so you can give the reader sometimes a break so they don't read your book in one day. Except in cases such as this one. The book is STILL in it's beginning and isn't really getting anywhere except Dru's constant worrying for her father blah blah blah. YOU CAN'T USE THIS METHOD IN THE BEGINNING! This book is just moving too slowly and isn't written in a way to gather up some readers!

Get your book rolling QUICKLY! It's also more fun for you to write and it makes your readers antsy for more and selling your books off the shelves like crazy! Just be careful with the planning of your book so that you can throw out all surprises at the end of your chapters so that you can have a super sweet and rolling book. OUTLINES ARE YOUR FRIENDS!!!

At the end of the 2nd chapter, Crow ends with: "When I woke up in the morning, Dad still wasn't there." CONGRATULATIONS Mrs. Crow, you have finally accomplished the chapter ending theory with our conformation that Dru's worrying wasn't something totally useless! Then she transitions into an Intermezzo, a brief diversion from Dru Anderson. YOU'VE ACCOMPLISHED your readers to stick to your book (if they are still even giving you a chance after 2 chapters and a prologue with a total of 28 pages of FLUFF) to actually give them a reason to buy/ finish the book!!!

Remember guys that you need to have a good story line of awesomeness lining up for those chapter endings, a quick beginning so your readers will buy the book, and a good main character to connect to your REAL readers.

For example we could have gone through the beginning in a much cooler, simpler, and more interesting way: start the book off with a tragic reason in Dru Anderson's point of when her grandmother died and how the things she taught you you must keep strong as she dies in your arms (Crow tries this but isn't using her 1st point of view to her advantage). This is much more dramatic and simpler way to add in fluff so you can get to know your main character and a quick way to start; including a VERY good reason for your readers to buy the book.

For the fluff transitions into your book, just slip them in but don't load your beginning with it. HUGE TURN OFF. As pre-teen author, Susan Selfors, once said: give your readers to kill for that info by slipping the fluff every once in a while. This gives the readers a hunger for it (instead of piles of it- like homework) so they can connect the dots to your book's problem/ plot.

A cool example of that would be like in Richelle Mead's Vampire Academy books, the first book starts out a year (or two) after Rose an Lissa escaped the academy for unknown reasons and are now being dragged back. Through out that book, they try to figure out how they can stay at the academy by fighting/ learning what they are afraid of. Mead gives the reader flashbacks of right before they left the academy (the reasons why they left). This gives the reader fluff in doses so you can learn with the main characters the solution to the problem.

Another example would be in Silence, the Hush Hush book 3 by Becca Fitzpatrick, where it's all of a sudden 3 months later from the end of the previous novel and the main character has lost her memory of it all. The author gives, the readers in Silence, doses of information of those three months through out the book while the main character learns what really happened.
Hope this helps in your books!

Cassandra Clare must know some Psychology

After reading her #1 New York Times Bestseller: Clockwork Prince, Cassandra Clare never disappointed me with her master piece of a Victorian era with Shadowhunters and the unbelievable connection to her Mortal Instruments series. Yet I couldn't help but notice something truly remarkable about Clare's characters and how she can come up with beautiful complications for her plots.

You see, in both Mortal Instruments series and the prequel series: The Infernal Devices, Clare comes up with these characters and these truly dramatic conflicts that somehow fit together in both series but anyone can get a kick out of it.

In the Mortal Instruments, you can't help but find it like a soap opera that's 100% not corny! I'll tell you what really gathers the fan base of this series together: the conflict Clare brings in is the strange affection between two characters (Jace and Clary) who struggle with the fact that they are brother and sister. Or are they?

Clare also brings in a new set of characters to the prequel series, The Infernal Devices, where the story revolves around 2 boys that are best friends (practically brothers) falling in love with the same girl. One boy dieing from an illness and the other who (mysteriously) can't have anyone fall in love with him.

Cassandra Clare comes up with these conflicts between people and throws them into an urban fantasy world of Shadowhunters, warlocks, werewolves, demons, and even vampires.

That's the trick, my beautiful writers! Psychology, the study of people, is the key to a beautiful spiderweb conflict and plot to create a story worth getting published! My older step sister took a couple classes on psychology and she told me, a girl studying to be an author, that when reading books she can't but notice the psychology of the characters.

For those of you who plan to get as much out of college as possible and plan to keep in mind writing books, TAKE SOME PSYCHOLOGY CLASSES!!!

Cassandra Clare has created an amazing artwork of books with beautifully crafted characters, plots, and a creative world that she has become quite successful. From my study of Cassandra Clare's writing and her breathtaking surprises that she could only have created from psychology research, I really think you should seriously consider taking psychology classes in college and use this knowledge to your advantage to come up with some amazing stories that will wow anyone who comes across them.

Write like your book is a movie

I've been boggling around in my head this concept to write a book like a movie would play on your TV screen. Even NaNoWriMo sent a message last November to it's writers' advice to write out your book's plan like it's a movie trailer.

When connecting all this and wondering about it constantly as I have, all I needed was proof, someone doing it successfully (maybe unconsciously).

And today...I have found that book!
Ally Condie's Matched series (in particular would be book 2: Crossed) is written like a movie's transition from scene to scene.

You may think this wouldn't turn out so great but these books have turned out to be quite successful! But the way it's written keeps the pages turning, and that I can tell as a writer learning from author's writing, is a way that can get you published if you're doing it right.
Ally Condie continuously writes in sections in her chapters. These sections are shortish scenes where they will cut off when they are done. They're short because it's written like a movie scene!

With Condie's creative story of a Society's complete and totally horrible control over people and the point of view of a teen through it all trying to escape make's this style of writing truly unique.

But you have to be careful when using this idea to write like it's movie scenes. PLEASE USE GOOD FORM OF WRITING THAT YOUR COLLEGE PROFESSORS PROUD!!! Writing these days isn't showing up as good but in my opinion, what people consider good writing has HUGE writing flaws as well. In content writing, writing like a movie is cheap, but it's effective in today's society and it makes good books.

The Hunger games single- Safe and Sound- lyrics

Putting these lyrics on this post because we can always learn from music's words and this is a really good one because the song has so much personal meaning that connects fully to the YA trilogy, The Hunger Games So here's a link to the song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZeY0CwPtLA&feature=youtube_gdata_player

and you can follow along and really understanding the words is what it's all about, including it's relation to the Hunger Games. So here we go:

I remember tears streaming down your face when I said, "I'd never let you go."
When all those shadows almost killed your light.
I remember you said, "don't leave me here alone."
But all that's dead and gone and past tonight...

(CHORUS) Just close your eyes, the sun is going down.
You'll be alright, no one can hurt you now.
In the morning light...you and I'll be safe and sound.

Don't you dare look out your window , darling everything's on fire.
The war outside out door keeps raging on.
Hold on to this lullaby.
Even when music's gone.
Gone.
(CHORUS)
Ooo's ooo's la la (la la) la la (la la) ooh (ooh) ooh (la la's) (la la's)
(slower chorus) Just close your eyes, (you'll be alright.
(harmonized) The morning light...you and I'll be safe and sound.
(ooh's) ooh (wow wow) (ooh's) (ooh's wow wow) (ooh's) ooh (wow wow) (ooh's) ooh (wow wow) (OOH's) OOH (wow wow) OOH OOH (wow) wow.

Pretty good? Did you notice how I included the ooh's and the back up parts? I did this for a reason (not because I didn't know what I was doing [lol]) because everything about a song is important. It's practically another way to read a book (out loud). Swift, singing with the Civil Wars, is telling a story of how it is in Panem for people. But as Hunger Games fans, we know it's more than this. The song brings in all sorts of meanings (like the most popular): Katniss' love for those she loves, how she wants to protect people like Rue, Peeta, Gale, Prim... The feeling in this song really helps you as readers understand what the main character, Katniss Everdeen, has to go through in a dismal a place as Panem.
But the way this song is written is also important. You can learn how to write certain ways through song's like this. You can also think of songs like this that can give you the motivation and determination to write a scene that means more than it's being described. Because words have meaning that can become thousands of numbers! That's why it's really great to get different opinions on ideas and sections in text of what is being portrayed.

I thank Fireside Chat for inspiring me to write this post, for their #39th podcast on "Safe and Sound" really went in-depth on the situation for us fans about the song and how it really is a good choice for the hunger Games movie (companion CD or not).

Dont Stop Believing

Through my constant research on advice from authors on publishing books has singly been all on the same thing. It must be pretty important to ANY AUTHOR! After going to the Northwest Book Fest in October and talking to children's book authors, such as Howard Shapiro, the advice is wholly "...believe in yourself and your writing and don't EVER stop trying to reach your goals." - Howard Shapiro. Authors can't stop and say anything else is more important!

In school, we (as in the International School of Communications [ISC]) believe to have the right mindset on anything will help you achieve success in anything you do. I can't but not recall this as authors tell me to never give up and believe in what I am writing.

But as we all know, authors and soon to be ones, have to face rejection. "If one publisher rejects you, which many will, just keep moving forward because eventually if you work hard enough you will find someone who believes in you and your writing." -Shapiro

Before I have talked about "What Makes You a Special Writer". The hardest thing to consider ,as a writer hoping to get published, is your creativity. Creativity is being cut in schools all across the country (the arts) but those of us, who will work hard enough, have to be incredibly creative to catch that one publishers eye that believes in you and your book. It's a tough job ahead of us all but we can not give up. But you HAVE to believe in yourself. That perfect "mindset" will help you get there!

If you can't really see this mindset, let me give you an example:
My thoughts: "All right Ashley, this essay can only be great if you work hard enough and actually understand the lessons." (ISC DAILY TO DO:) find the problem, ask the questions, do the research, find the solutions, figure out the improvements, etc. Doing any essay, lab report or any books you plan to write lies wholly on the work you put into it. To be proud of something you must believe you can do it! But you must put in that work ethic and you can practically achieve anything!

"Don't Stop believing! Hold onto that feeling!" This song came to mind on this whole subject and it helps people like me to get into that perfect "mindset".

I hope all of you can achieve this mindset because you can achieve it and I believe in anyone who wants to be published to find some sort of success with this. Remember it has been proven by many authors, like Howard Shapiro, and you can be one too! Please check out Howard Shapiro on Facebook to discover his awesomeness of success as a children's book author here:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Howard-Shapiro/296610707017204?ref=ts

Creating A Facebook Page for your Book!

Around a year ago, i stumbled blindly on an author about to publish her first book, DEMON KISSED. There was an add about liking her Facebook page to get to know the author and the book series before the book would even come out! I was so excited and liked her page without a second thought.
As a supporter or amazing authors and future authors, I found this coincidence to be a super amazing one and automatically wanted to support her I liked her page and have been fallowing her news and achievements of her teen book series and she has been doing REALLY WELL.
The author is H.M.Ward.
She wrote the DEMON KISSED series and she has been quite successful.
I didn't realize how successful till she posted today on her blog: "How I Did Facebook Wrong and Got 43,000 fans- A Writer's Guide To The Social Media"

http://sublimeromantic.wordpress.com/2011/12/15/how-i-did-facebook-wrong-and-got-43000-fans-a-writers-guide-to-social-media/

Wondering how such an author did some seriously creative ways of building a HUGE fan base SUPER DUPER FAST?! Check her out! Even like her own Facebook page:

http://m.facebook.com/DemonKissed?_rdr

Or on her website: http//:www.demonkissed.com