Comic Con Giveaway! (and a Blog Tour)

UPDATE: Congrats to Haley Scully for being our winner! She picked the pocket watch!

Hey everyone! I promised to do a giveaway after Comic Con. I wanted to bring back something cool, but there was just so much going on! So instead I picked a bunch of prizes online from the fandoms I saw (and one writing book for the writers).

How to Enter:

**You must be a friend/follower to win 

- Like, or share the giveaway post on Facebook. Do both to enter twice. (Make sure when you share that it's set to "public" so that I can see that you shared it.)

- Retweet this tweet on Twitter or reply to it telling me what prize you would pick. Do both to enter twice.

- Like or Reblog this post on Tumblr. Do both to enter twice.

- Comment on this blog post, telling me what prize you would pick if you won. (must be a follower of this blog)

So, you can enter up to seven times.

(Please note I reserve the right to change prizes if for some reason the item becomes unavailable.)

Is this an international giveaway? Yes! and no. It depends on the prize you want. So if you win and you live outside of the U.S. we'll talk :)

UPDATE: Winner will be selected Dec. 14th

Prizes:

 One winner will pick from these prizes:

- (my followers' favorite) Fullmetal Alchemist Pocket Watch (become a dog of the military)
- Harry Potter Time Turner Necklace (Need a few extra minutes? No problem!)
- A key to 221b Baker Street--who wouldn't want that ;) --key chain, so you can entertain Sherlock when he's bored.
- Dr. Who Soap (Defeat Daleks by washing your hands!)
- Attack on Titan Cape (Defeat Titans in uniform!)
- Hunger Games Shirt (Gain sponsors by looking your best in this t-shirt)
- DBZ Goku Art (It's over 9000!)
- The Emotion Thesaurus. Learn how every mood is expressed physically, internally, mentally, and how it is suppressed, then learn how to write it! (This is an ebook copy, no a physical copy.) (I use this book almost every week.)

**See bigger pictures of each prize at the end of the post!

Blog Tour

This giveaway is also part of what turned into a guest post blog tour of sorts! These bloggers are awesome and will be having me as a guest over the next several weeks. :') Please visit them! And follow them! And check their blogs for a post by me :)

WritersPayItForward.Org (My post will be there Oct. 27th!)

Bonnie Gwyn (My post will be there the 1st week of November)

Amanda K. Thompson (1st week of November)

James Duckett (2nd week of November)

Jake Jeffries (3rd week of November)

Ronda Hinrichsen (3rd week of November)

Lysandra James (4th week of November)

Jay S. Willis (4th week of November)

Tristi Pinkston  (November 30th)

Konstanz Silverbow (TBD)

Nathan Barra (TBD)

Katherine Ann Olsen (December 12th)

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Birthday Giveaway!!! Harry Potter, Sherlock, The Hobbit, Trigun, FMA

(This giveaway is now closed)

Fun fact: the more birthdays you have, the longer you live.

Today is my birthday! Yay!! I'm older than I've ever been!

To celebrate, I'm doing a pick-your-prize giveaway, where the winner gets to pick an item from one of my favorite stories. These are a few of my favorite things: Harry Potter, Sherlock, The Hobbit (but more than that, Lord of the Rings), Trigun, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. I tried to find a cool Hunger Games thing to giveaway, but had no luck.

Here's what the winner gets to pick from:

• Harry Potter Time Turner Necklace (Need a few extra minutes? No problem!)
• Trigun Decal (Meyaaaw)
• A key to 221b Baker Street--who wouldn't want that ;) --key chain, so you can entertain Sherlock when he's bored.
• (followers' favorite) Fullmetal Alchemist Pocket Watch (become a dog of the military)
• The Ring from The Hobbit/Lord of the Rings (Renders you invisible. Side effects include fleeing for you life from Ring-wraiths)
• A Dark Mark temporary tattoo (Become a Death Eater . . . temporarily)
• One of my favorite writing resources The Emotion Thesaurus. Learn how every mood is expressed physically, internally, mentally, and how it is suppressed, then learn how to write it! (This is an ebook copy, no a physical copy.) (I use this book almost every week.)

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Best Books/Shows of the Year, 2014

I know people who read more than me. I know people I read way more than. Same goes for shows and movies. Whatever relationship I have with you in that regard, here are my top discoveries for the year. Please note that these aren't necessarily books and shows that came out this year, just books and shows I read or watched this year.

Top Reads

(In no particular order. With each of these books, I was thinking about them when I wasn't reading them, always a good sign)

Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson

Hero of Ages is the last book in the Mistborn trilogy, so I'd rather not give you a synopsis that spoils the other two books. All I want to say is that this is one of the most epic conclusions I've ever read ever. I don't think I've seen a conclusion to a series that was this epic since Lord of the Rings. Given, if you read more than me, you might disagree. Hero of Ages was fresh with surprises but with an ending that still ties everything together. The characters, world, history, and abilities are awesome. Definitely recommend this series for the high fantasy reader. The second book was just okay. The first was great, and the third was amazing. Read my review of the first book Mistborn here.

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Plotting Tool: Death by Surprise

Today I'm bringing you a plotting technique I call "Death by Surprise," and it works as a great pinch to your readers. It can give them a twinge of suspense, shock, dread, and sorrow all at once. It works like this:

Your character is battling his way through your story, facing villain, monsters, or whatever kind of obstacles you are throwing his way. Then something out of the blue actually inflicts a fatal wound to him. It's something the character (and maybe the reader too) never saw coming. The intensity of this plotting technique comes from the shock and surprise the character has as he realizes, he's come so far only to die from this.

Let's look at examples to see some different ways "Death by Surprise" can be done.

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Editing with the Elrics: Closing Remarks + Giveaway Winner + Giveaways to Come

Over the last month I've been giving out writing tips pulled from Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, while having an FMA pocket watch giveaway. First, I would like to say, there is plenty more going on in that story than what I've covered. I'll be talking more about Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood in the next couple of posts (like one I'm doing about writing action scenes), but since I'm talking about writing in general and pulling from other stories, I'm not including those in my "Editing with the Elric" series. I'll just be referring to FMA for extra examples.

I'd also like to point out that I'm new to the Fullmetal world (saw it for the first time this year), so I wasn't able to go as in depth with the story as I would have liked. Someday I'd like to dig deeper to see exactly how it works. It's definitely one of the best written stories I've encountered.

What's to Come?

 

For at least a month, I'll be doing some general writing/reading/life posts, but I have been working feverishly on another story dissection like this. One word: Trigun. And that's one show I've probably seen a million times--so these posts are deep. I mean like, it's crazy the stuff I found when I started pulling that story apart. If you're a fan of the show, you're gonna eat it up. If you're a writer, you might learn something new.

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Editing with the Elrics: Sacrificing What You Want Most

So I've been discussing some lessons I learned from Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood. Here is another plotting tool/technique/method that hit me right in the gut--if done right, it can be really powerful emotionally for your audience. But this post does contain a spoiler, so if you plan on actually watching or reading Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood, you'll want to finish it before you read this.

Alright, so I mentioned last Monday that one of the main characters, Alphonse, doesn't have a body. The laws of alchemy require equivalent exchange--you give something to gain something. One of the things Al gave up accidentally during an alchemical transaction was his own body. Ed is missing an arm and a leg. The protagonists' goals for the whole story is to get their bodies back to normal. It's a quest they've been on for years. It's a quest we go on with them for over 60 episodes. They scour the field of alchemy to find a way to do it.

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Editing with the Elrics: Breaking Your World's Rules ( + FMA Pocket Watch Giveaway!)

Giveaway is now closed.

To go along with my "Editing with the Elrics" writing tip series, I'm giving away a Fullmetal Alchemist pocket watch! You have several opportunities to enter for a chance to win. (You must be a follower/friend to win)

• Like or share this post on Facebook. Do both to enter twice. (Make sure when you share that it's set to "public" so that I can see that you shared it.)
• Favorite or Retweet this tweet on Twitter. Do both to enter twice.
• Like or Reblog this post on Tumblr. Do both to enter twice.

Winner will be selected at the beginning of August. Scroll to the bottom to see more pictures of the pocket watch. And stay tuned for more opportunities to enter.

Breaking Your World's Rules

In one of my college classes, we talked about what constitutes a good fantasy or science fiction novel. One of the qualities is that the story follows its own rules, meaning, if Harry Potter book one states that it's impossible to magic food into existence, Hermione better not create a bowl of stew out of thin air in book five.

The Harry Potter universe has to follow the rules it sets up for its readers. Otherwise, it feels like a continuity error. It doesn't make sense. Or, in other cases, it feels like the rule was broken out of convenience for the plot and as readers we feel cheated. We'll probably question the writer's abilities. The fantasy or science fiction world needs to follow the rules it lays down. . . usually.

There is a right way to break your world's rules, a plotting technique that can kick up the heat of your story, and keep your reader glued to the page.

In Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood the magic system for the world is based on, as you probably guessed, alchemy. An alchemist can break down matter and reassemble it into something else. It's impossible to create a living, functional human being this way.

Or so we think.

But then the protagonists get stuck in a fight with humans who have crazy abilities and can regenerate. We learn that they are "man-made" humans, called "homunculi," who have been brought into existence through alchemy. So the characters are shocked because it's supposed to be impossible to do. Bam! Rule broken.

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Editing with the Elrics: 10 Methods to Make Characters Likeable

Over the winter Holidays, my sister-in-law and I watched Les Miserables. It was her first time seeing the latest film. And when it was over she said, "Every character in that movie made an emotional connection to the audience." She's right. Valjean, Eponine, Cosette, Marius, even Javert--we felt something for all of them.

Later, I was watching this show called Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, and my brother asked me how it was. "It's getting so crazy," I said. "There are like 12 main characters (I might have exaggerated a bit for effect), and they're all in different battles at the same time. And they all have different goals."

"12? I thought it was just that guy in the red coat who was the main character," he said.

"Well, it started out that way, and then changes as he meets more people."

Not gonna lie. When I started Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood and met some of the characters, I wasn't impressed with them. But by the climax of the story, I was in love with all of them! I wanted everyone to win, even though some of their goals completely contradicted each other's. Like my sister-in-law said, by that point, "Every character made an emotional connection to the audience." It's not just the protagonist's story anymore. It's everyone's.

How do you create that? In the writing world, authors often talk about making characters "likeable." We have to like the person before we are going to connect with them on an emotional level.  Here are 10 ways to make your character likeable, with examples of each from Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood.

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