C. S. Thurman

My home by Allagar – Deviant art

Here we are at the end of the year. This has been a crazy time and filled with tons of new stuff for me to unpack. I realize that I missed November’s time for posting and for that, I am deeply sorry. It’s always a bit of a nice surprise to see how many people come to my website to check for anything new when I haven’t posted. To be fair I only missed last month because I was at Disneyland and I thought I would have had plenty of time to write while on vacation. That was definitely not the case with us, and I definitely didn’t have as much time after since Thanksgiving was around the corner and made that a little harder to find alone time to write.

So because many of you come back to check-in, I figured I would load a chapter of the current story that I am working on. This story is a redone version of the first book that I wrote and finished, so I hope you’ll enjoy the beginning. Currently I do not have a book title so for now we’ll call it “The Aether Force Chronicles.”

Now I still plan on finishing Muldrix (I know I keep saying that), but I need to finish this other project first before I give myself permission to do other things. I have tried jumping from project to project in the past moving and so far the only time I finished any project was when I was mostly focused on that one project. As a writer its fun to be able to see what works best for me and what I can handle now that I couldn’t before.

For now, my current Work in Progress is going to be divided into 3 parts, or 3 points of view since it will be an epic fantasy. I don’t enjoy jumping view points within a group of friends/adventurers, and so for me it doesn’t feel worth it since it leaves little mystery for what each character might be feeling. This is one of the reasons why I really like books from Christopher Paolini, Brandon Sanderson, Brandon Mull, and Margaret Weis with Tracy Hickman. Each of those authors in the stories I have read from them use the multiple view points as a way to show what characters are doing when not around the other characters. Now of course some of that involves some interaction between characters when their around each other, but it’s the seeing what they do when not around the other is what intrigues me. That is why my current Work in Progress will have 3 points of view (maybe more depending on what the story needs) and why I’ll be writing it in 3 parts. Perhaps during that time I’ll write a new Muldrix chapter in between as a way to keep things fresh? Who knows.

Shout Out

Now it’s been almost 20 years since I’ve read these books, but I think it’s time to start a revival and let this person know how much these books meant to me growing up.

Before Percy Jackson and the world of Rick Riordan, there was K. A. Applegate. During the time that she was writing her most well know series (Animorphs), she came out with EverWorld.

This was a fantastic series were kids from our world are drawn to a fellow peer (Senna) who gets inexplicably swallowed up by the ground and all of them land in EverWorld.

EverWorld is a place where all the fantastical creatures and gods and goddesses fled to. Throughout the events of the EverWorld series, the characters find themselves entangled in affairs of Vikings, Witches, Wizards, the gods and goddesses of ancient civilizations and an alien race bent on destroying and consuming everything in EverWorld.

This was a fantastical tale and one I highly enjoyed. If you enjoy a good mix of Fantasy and Sci-fi then I highly recommend this book. Nostalgia wants me to give this series a 4/5, but I would probably give it a 3.5/5 since I haven’t read it in a while and couldn’t give you a proper rating because of that.

Reviews without Spoilers

Now to talk about some books that I recently read, I was able to read/listen to Murtagh by Christopher Paolini.

This book was great! It was so wonderful to be able to dive back into the World of Eragon and to view it from Murtagh’s perspective. I will say that this book was a slower read. Since everything is about Murtagh trying to avoid entanglements and getting to close to anyone it tended to make me feel a little lonely and sad for them and the life they chose. This book also made it hard as it delved more into Murtagh and Thorn’s murky history together and really shows the nitty gritty of what it had been like to be a slave to the late Galbatorix. I highly recommend the audio version as well since Gerald Doyle does an amazing job of bringing these characters to life again. 4/5 Stars for me.

Another book I listened to was Dragon Thief by Blake and Raven Penn, read by Brad Witbeck, and Rylee Haviland.

This book was everything a dragon lover could ever ask for. Dragons and magic abound in Dragon Thief, and I love the unique magic systems in this world. I will say that it was great to see an epic fantasy told in first person since it was my first time seeing one told that way. It is definitely one that I will continue to read and enjoy seeing as the series progresses. 5/5 stars for me. Both the writing and the narration was done wonderfully. You can follow more of them at https://www.skystonechronicles.com/