Chris D'Lacey - The Fire Within - Review By Tim

Chris D'Lacey – The Fire Within

The Fire Within follows college freshman David Rain into the eccentric Pennykettle household when he becomes their tenet. Liz Pennykettle is a locally renown sculptor, creating clay dragons so artfully crafted, it would be hard to believe they weren't real. Upon moving in Liz gifts David with his very own dragon, a storytelling dragon. With the inspiration of his dragon, David begins to write a short story about a one-eyed squirrel who is the passion of Liz's daughter Lucy and in the process finds his stories uncover more than he could have imagined.

On a whim and between books I picked up this book from my shelves. A book bought, largely on a whim because it dealt with dragons, from my middle school Scholastic Book Fair. I remembered that I had absolutely loved the book then, but that was about all I could really remember about the book.

I got quite a kick out of the large print and small chapters (we're talking roughly 200 words per page, eight pages per chapter). I admit I was slightly worried that this old favorite of mine would not hold up to the test of time and I would find it excessively childish or boring.

A decade later, as a college kid myself, I still found myself cheering for the characters, swooning for the lovely Sophie and even getting misty eyed towards the end. I was honestly amazed how entranced I became with such a simple and elegant plot line.

As the first part of a series, expect further reviews from this author. (Truth be told, I've already read and finished the second book).

As for my recommendation – If you like dragons, squirrels, and the creative pursuits (sculpting, writing, storytelling) then read it!

Wishing I had a Gadzooks to help me write better,

~Timothy Reid

Stephen King - On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft - Review By Tim

Stephen King's On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft (2000)

              Before we start this review I have a dirty little secret:

              This is the first thing by Stephen King I have ever read. I'm just not one for suspense/horror. Not my tastes. But for a college class (Historical Writing, interestingly enough) my teacher assigned this book and I was blown away with this man's talent. (Only a surprise to me at this point, I know, I'm behind.) I've already went out and bought a couple books by him (Under the Dome, The Stand, Salem's Lot) and look forward to reading them.

             Okay, secrets out of the way, lets crack on with this review.

This book can essentially be broken down into two parts. The first part is more of a straight memoir, telling the story of how King came to be a literary legend. Pulling no punches, King starts with the innocent enough horror/thriller movie loving childhood on to the more gritty parts of his life dealing with his addiction issues, and at the end of the book, his near death experience with a blue van driven by a man with a dog named Bullet.

             The second part of this book harkens back to King's education days. King takes the position of the hard-ass but inspiring teacher to any inspiring author. “If you're a bad writer, no one can help you become a good one, or even a competent one.” “I'll be as encouraging as possible, because it's my nature and because I love this job. I want you to love it, too. But if you don't want to work your ass off, you have no business trying to write well.”

Technical aspects aside, such as the murder of adverbs or Strunk and White's Rule 17 (Omit Needless Words!), King's advice boils down to two simple concepts. Read and write compulsively. Work hard, but do it because you love it. Beautiful in its simplicity.

Overall, this book was just a lot of fun to read and as an inspiring author myself the book was filled with many little insights into the writing craft which I could eagerly connect with. Two of my favorite quotes from the book (there were actually quite a few, King is filled with soundbites, but I narrowed it down): “Even after a thousand pages we don't want to leave the world the writer has made for us, or the make-believe people who live there.” & “Stories are relics, part of an undiscovered pre-existing world. The writer's job is to use the tools in her or her toolbox to get as much of each one out of the ground intact as possible.”  

[My next review, on King's Salem's Lot will be coming out shortly. Look forward to it!]

~Timothy Reid

Write Off! - #001 - Bottled Emotion - Sept. 2015

The first of the monthly writing prompts comes courtesy of the subreddit r/writingprompts [LINK] Once you have created your own short story, you should go check out some of the redditers submissions in the link. They're quite good.

'You live in a world where you can buy bottled emotions.'

Due Date: By the End of September 2015

Submissions: 

• Jonathan - UNTITLED
• Timothy - EmJ
• Simone [Link Not Available]
• Sam [Link Not Available]

Chapter One of Chapter One

Simone needs to work on this one.

I'll tell you the rules - Write Off!

Sorry, pun intended. Ha.

Write Off! is going to be a monthly writing prompt chosen by a different writer of this blog each time.

Each writer will get to choose the prompt as well as the level of challenge. Some challenges could include word count, POV, style, etc.

Everyone has one month from the initial prompt to write a short story. These stories will be posted on the main page of the blog and linked in the original prompt's post.

People outside of this blog are more than welcome to join in on the fun and write their own stories which could be posted onto this blog as well.

Really, there's not much more to say as it's pretty self-explanatory.

Keep Writing,
Timothy Reid

PostScript - It's a monthly 'challenge' but honestly anyone can submit at any time. These are not strict rules, it's meant to be just fun.

Blog Introductions~ The First Post

Why do we write? 

I've seen countless authors approach this question with essentially the exact same response; We write because we need to. It is a compulsion.

But as four kids, just starting out in the real world of full time jobs, serious college training, and marriage, finding the time or drive to write becomes much harder. 

So the purpose of this blog is to build a creative space for a group of friends to help make time for the creative endevours which even in 'adulthood' still remain a quiet compulsion in the back of our minds. 

The blog itself will be a collection of many different creative enterprises. Organized in the bar located beneath the blogs title '| Written Between Lines |' are links to these various projects. Each project's main page will contain a directory of links to the various pages associated with the project. Please feel free to explore these in your free time!

As a brief rundown of what projects are currently being worked on (though may not be currently online at the moment) here is a list and description of each project:

• Write Off! 
• Twice a month (probably) a creative writing prompt will be posted. This project will serve occasionally as a competition, but ultimately is about keeping the creative mind 'fresh' and allowing authors to share and grow more confident in their writing styles. 
• The First Chapter
• This is Simone's project so I'm really not sure what exactly this will be. Simone, you will be made an admin (naturally) so please change this once you've got stuff sorted.
• Tim's Random Reveiws
• Exactly what you'd expect, I will be reviewing various books. While popular books should likely make it into the mix, many of the books will be ones which you might not have heard of otherwise. For example English translations of Japanese 'Light Novels' [novellas] or self published ebooks which are currently flooding the internet. While currently labeled as just my reviews, that may change if others wish to post their own reviews. 
• Miscellaneous
• I don't even know eactly what will be going here, but that's why it's miscellaneous right?
• Tim and Sam's Story
• While not currently online, this is a project which Sam and I will be working on. I will write it, with the creative imput of my soon to be wife, while she will draw images to match. Please look forward to it!
• Jonathan's Story
• Jonnyboy, I figured you might want to do something a little more long term as well so I'm putting this up. As you'll be an admin, please fill this space in or delete as you decide.

For more information, or to get started reading please visit the respective Projects, linked above. 

And as a final note, while for the foreseeable future it'll just be the four of us, this blog will be an open place for anyone who wants to exercise their creativity, especially with the Write Off! Project.

Keep Reading, 

Timothy Reid