Fan Fiction

I have recently (last night) been familiarized with the term fan fiction. (Thank you Beth) I was very puzzled as to why author's choose to do this.

To me, Jane Austen was an incredible authoress ahead of her time. Living in the seventeen and eighteen hundreds, going where no women had gone before.

Pride and Prejudice is probable my favorite novel. However, if a sequel was written, I don't think I would read it. (Maybe someone already has)

The same with this newly published sequel of Sense and Sensibility. Why?

I mean no offense to those who have done this, I just don't understand it. If you are a writer, God gave you the wonderful gift of creativity and you are an original work made by his hand. It is hard for me to understand copies of someone else's genius. You have your own genius in there somewhere.

I'm sure there are many who disagree with me and that's fine. We all have our own unique views, that's what keeps life interesting.

Here is a blurb from the continuation of Sense and Sensibility:

A lost love returns, rekindling forgotten passions… In Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility, when Marianne Dashwood marries Colonel Brandon, she puts her heartbreak over dashing scoundrel John Willoughby in the past. Three years later, Willoughby's return throws Marianne into a tizzy of painful memories and exquisite feelings of uncertainty. Willoughby is as charming, as roguish, and as much in love with her as ever. And the timing couldn't be worse—with Colonel Brandon away and Willoughby determined to win her back, will Marianne find the strength to save her marriage, or will the temptation of a previous love be too powerful to resist?

Austen would never have written a novel like this.

I give it one praise, I love the cover.

The Art of Storytelling

Everyone loves a good story. A dashing young prince carries a beautiful young maiden off to a far away land. A sea fairing captain's ship is taken over and pillaged by a band of pirates. A brave knight slays a fierce dragon and saves a terrorized village from coming undone.

A good story has the power to transform us to another time and place. To an imaginary world, where good overcomes evil, and evil pays a high price for his misdeeds.

A suppose this is what fuels my passion for writing. Attempting to tell a story in a new and captivating way that has yet to be told. To enrapture a reader as well as plant a seed of striving at all cost to do what is just and honorable no matter what insurmountable barrier blocks his path.

As I spend hours at my computer punching keys and creating a new world and new character's that have never before been introduced into the hearts of man. I am continually enraptured by the experience. I do not feel as though I am just writing yet another novel that might be read then set aside and forgotten. It is my passion to instill into the hearts of young readers a desire for the written word. For the reader to see their hero do the right thing, and find the courage within. To conquer their fear and defeat the darkness that looms before them. Threatening that all hope is lost and evil shall prevail against good.

I know it's been done before, again and again, and it will continue to be done by writers far more gifted then I. But we all have a voice.

There is someone out there each of us can reach where others may fail. Whether it's writing a novel, singing a song that will move an audience to tears, or simple living a life of integrity before a lost and fallen world.

No man knows exactly what the future holds, but each man holds his future in his hands. What we do with it is up to us. A gift of free choice and free will that no man can take away is ours. What path we take is entirely up to us.

Book Review - Keys To the Kingdom: Mister Monday

I recently finished a children's fantasy novel by Garth Nix.

Arthur Penhaligon is a twelve year old boy and an asthmatic. He is the youngest child in a large family.

Upon his first day at a new school he finds that Monday's are when the kids participate in a run around the school grounds.

Arthur recently got out of the hospital from an asthma attack, but doesn't want to seem foolish in front of new classmates so he runs anyway.

Shortly into the run he has an attack of which he falls to the ground unable to breathe. Here is when Arthur's life takes a dramatic, fantasy spun turn.

He is given a key in the form of a second hand to a clock. This key has power and eventually Arthur is swept away into another world.

Knowing there is a horrible plague back home on planet earth or what the author calls, "the second realm" he is driven to do all that "the Will" commands of him.

The Preface is: There was a will, it was broken into seven pieces and left unfulfilled. There were seven trustees who wanted to prevent the will from being fulfilled. The Trustees are Mister Monday, Grim Tuesday, Drowned Wednesday, Sir Thursday, Lady Friday, Superior Saturday and Lord Sunday.

This first book in the series, Keys to the Kingdom is only about Mister Monday.

Mister Monday is the trustee of the Lower House where Arthur finds himself. Arthur must defeat this trustee with the help of a twelve year old girl named Suzy Blue and the first piece of the Will which can take on different forms.

There were two things I personally disapproved of. But they were very short lived.

It is a bit complex, I doubt most kids would be able to keep up with everything when I had a difficult time. But it was entertaining, well written, and not dark like most fantasy novels of today.