Excitement!

Ohmygollywowzamatilda!
Artemis Fowl #7 has a title and a release date! Artemis Fowl: The Atlantis Complex is due to come out July 13th! It's unknown whether it is to be the last book in the series, but it IS known that this book will deal with Artemis's long-time enemy: Opal Koboi. That girl just can't stay dead--I love it!

I can't wait for October, either, because that's when Leviathan Book 2: Behemoth comes out. I loved loved loved loved the first. I'm so excited for #2!

Come on, Christopher Paolini, what's taking you so LONG?? I want to know what your book's called, when it's coming out, and what HAPPENS! I'm bet it'll be worth my wait, though, so I'll hang tight. (but just barely)

It's not a book, but right up there on my excitement list (Ooo, good idea--Note to self: make an Excitement List) is the release of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (the movie). December 10th, 2010. Yup--I'm excited.

Untitled Werecat Story

A while ago I posted the stories I'm working on, but I forgot this one. So maybe, to make it up to the forgotten tale, I'll make its synopses longer than the others.

Untitled Were-Cat Story:
Dain Vecelli is a special student, an amazing student. Even at the age of fifteen, his artwork is compared to that of the great masters Titian and Da Vinci. Soon his skill captures the attention of Lucio Gavwin, the one of the greatest classical artists of the modern age, and he is enrolled at Rosetta School for Higher Learning to study under the master himself. However, this little boarding school situated in the mountains of North Carolina outside of the little village of Devotion holds more secrets than one would first assume.

First of all is Gavwin himself. Dain's first impression of him is a serious, critical art teacher, but soon he hears the rumors of his inexplicable disappearances every night and his seemingly nonexistent past. And then there's the mysterious figure that apparently only Dain can see--a tall, silver-haired young man, only ever seen out of the corner of his eye or as a shadow in the morning mist.

Along his hunt for answers, Dain meets Jena, a young guitarist who is studying Poetry at Rosetta.

After this, it gets a little sketchy. Basically, Gavwin is a were-cat, which means he can turn into a cat any time he wants, but must at night. Dain, for some reason, ends up getting bitten by Gavwin--for his own good, because of a prophecy, something along those lines. He has to keep it a secret from Jena, which she doesn't like, so, being naturally curious, she has to find out what's going on with him. Meanwhile, Dain finds out who his mystery figure is--Tavis Tracee Royal, a deadly rogue were-cat, who apparently has it in for him. Like I said, a little sketchy, but I'm working on it. I'll put up some of my pictures of the main characters later.

Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment

Title: Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment

Author: James Patterson

Length: 413 p.

Genre: Fantasy/Urban Fantasy/Science Fiction

Brief Summary:
Maximum Ride isn't like other fourteen year old girls. Sure, she's smart, funny, pretty, but one thing sets her apart from the rest of 'em. She has wings. She, along with the rest of her "flock" were the results of avian DNA being grafted with human cells. Four years prior to the opening of the book, these six kids had escaped from the nightmarish test facility of their youth, also known as the School. Ever since then, they have been living in peace, undisturbed, and relatively happy. This doesn't last long, as almost immediately things go wrong. Angel, the youngest of the flock, is kidnapped by their old enemies--the Erasers, men that can morph into wolves. Friends are rescued, feelings are betrayed, tails are whooped, and secrets are revealed. Full of humor and page-turning action, Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment is a great, great read.

What I thought:
Maximum Ride can be compared to a roller coaster. Immediately, you start going uphill, building up to something that quickly becomes a fast and furious ride. Buckle up, because it gets intense. I absolutely love the character of Max, who is the one telling the story form her point of view. She's the leader of her flock, and is one tuff gal. However, between whaling on Erasers and saving innocents from the common bully, she finds time to love and take of her flock, something that I as a reader find very refreshing and admirable.

I once had a writing teacher that said that a truly masterful author is one that sneaks up on you. His greatness isn't obvious, but when you stop to smell the roses, you realize that they are sweeter than you thought. James Patterson certainly shows his excellence by not being obvious about it. I was completely unable to put down Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment, and I suggest it to anyone looking for an unconventional adventure.

What I thought later:
(This isn't a normal section that I'll include in my reviews, but I just thought you should be aware...)
The Maximum Ride series is one that I liked at the beginning, got hooked on, but then went down hill from there. Basically, in the end, I was just reading to find out what happened next, not because I was enjoying what I was reading. The books move really fast, and the characters are life-like and well developed, so I wouldn't say they're a waste of time. I just think it's really sad that it turned in a direction that seemed, oh, anticlimactic compared to the beginning of the books.

What I'm Working On

Alrightly, just so you're all on the up and up, these are the stories I am currently working on followed by their very own brief synopsizes.

Adventurers Academy:
Princess Damelza Eirwind enrolls under an alias in a school designed to teach its students how to be adventurers. There, she meets Quill, an extremely talented archer, and Cyara, a peaceful Grial (a creature I made up--it looks like a cross between a lizard, a fish, and a red-head human). They A) learn how to be adventurers, B) go on adventures, and C) uncover a secret plot to overthrow the Four Kings and Queens. NOTE: this is a trilogy, and the two books after it are The Orc Wars and The Land Beyond

Fairy:
A long time ago, so long ago, it's considered ancient times, Fairies protected the peace of Itheenia (much like the Jedi, but not quite). However, the ambitions military leader Yilrida killed them all so he could take control and rule the empire. They are now an extinct race. Or so everyone thought. Now fairies are being born to non-fairy parents, and the emperor wants them. And will stop at nothing to get them. The story follows three such fairies--Paige, the protagonist; Nadia, her sister; and Jack, an escapee, on the run from the emperor's men. Nadia gets kidnapped, Paige tries to rescue her, along the way meeting Jack, and a whole plot of espionage, daring, treachery, self-discovery, and the tight bond of family ensues.

Sky Keys:
This one's plot has changed about seven times, so don't be surprised if it changes again soon. It's actually the story I got from that little picture form my most resent "WRITING TIPS". I'll just type it all again in case you missed that post. However, a bit at the end is different, so if you DID read that post, don't skip over the ending of this one.
Nait is the young captain of the Eclipse, a small but sturdy airship. His first mate, who's also his best friend, is a magician named Licia. Between them, nothing in the four skies is off limits. Nate's also an orphan. His mother died at childbirth and his father, the queen's Commander if Chief, died during the resent, unexpected coup. After his father died, Nait ran, not daring to collect his father's personal possessions until a couple years later when the price on his head had gone down a little. But when he did stop to read his father's journals, he found the secret to a treasure so wondrous, it had been known to drive the most respectable sky pirate mad--the Keys to the Sky. Like every treasure, this one need a key. Ours just happens to reside with Anda, a self-taught acrobat and big-time pirate magnet.

Well, there you go. All three (count 'em--3) stories I'm working on and will occasionally brodcast my frustrations/successes about.

~Read. Write. Love.

Post Numbero Uno

Hey there! Wow, my very first post on Uncommon Nonsense! Well, I'll start off by giving you a little taste of what's to be expected:

WRITING TIP:
What I like doing a lot is looking at lots of pictures (like on Google pictures, or Photobucket) and finding ones that inspire me to write stories. During one of these sessions recently, I fell across this picture:



and came up with this:
His name is Nait, and he's the young captain of the Eclipse, a small but sturdy airship. His first mate, who's also his best friend, is a magician named Licia. Between them, nothing in the four skies is off limits. Nate's also an orphan. His mother died at childbirth and his father, the queen's commander if chief, died during the resent, unexpected coup. After his father died, Nait ran, not daring to collect his father's personal possessions until a couple years later when the price on his head had gone down a little. But when he did stop to read his father's journals, he found the secret to a treasure so wondrous, it had been known to drive the most respectable sky pirate mad--the Keys to the Sky. On his treasure hunt, he meets up with Anda, an anti-social self-taught acrobat, who somehow holds the answer to it all.

See? And all that from one, teensy-weensy, little picture of a guy with an old gun and a nice-looking jaw.

~Read. Write. Love.