The Princess Bride - A One Page Book Review

This review accompanies my YouTube video reviewing the book orally and generally as well. This serves as a tutorial about how to review a book in a simple one-page review as seen in my Writer's Express book. 

You can check it out at the link: Click Here

 Princess Bride One - Page Book Review

What is the book about?

The Princess Bride is a classic fantasy tale about a kidnapped princess forced to marry a cruel prince and her true love Wesley posing as a pirate hunting for her. Along the way Wesley encounters three men that have kidnapped the princess to be married by Prince Humperdink, 

a genius mastermind, an expert fenceman and a giant. 

Wesley finds a way to outwit them one by one and rescues the princess from them. They each have their own motivations why they followed the mastermind. Eventually, Westley and Princess Buttercup get caught by the evil prince and his forces and get separated. Westley is taken into the dungeon and tortured to death. The three men that originally fought Westley change their minds and go to help him. The four of them united try to rescue Buttercup from Prince Humperdink and The Six-Fingered Man.

What is the book’s theme or message?

Can the humble beginnings of true love endure and overcome the realities of money and power? Can former enemies redeem themselves for the better? Will justice prevail? Will true love prevail? 

What do I like about this book?

The dialogue, the dialogue is hilarious and makes the story incredibly easy to follow. This book is not bogged down by unnecessary descriptive detail. It has just enough, just the bare minimum and this lets your imagination fill in the blanks. This makes the story flow much easier and faster.

William Goldman is incredibly easy to read and I like his first-person perspective changes of the grandfather telling the story to his grandkid. The fictional writer S. Morgenstern is a neat way to go into some backstory of some of the world without writing a lot of it out.

Having a good fantasy map is always a plus, the book gives a nice color map of the sea, the cliffs of insanity, the fire swamp, etc..

The fact that there’s NOT heavy world building in it is kind of refreshing. Florin could be set in our world but probably not.

The Paranormal Ranger - Book Review

 Book Review - The Paranormal Ranger

Alright, it’s been a while since I’ve reviewed a book on the blog so here I am. This latest book grabbed my attention when I came into the library lobby. I usually don’t go to the books they display but I’ve been into this subject a lot more recently due to things I’ve encountered recently in my own life that I’m curious about. I’m also a fan of odd and paranormal things in general, including the CanAm Missing Project and the 411 Missing series on YouTube. 

In this book, by Stanley Milford Jr. he talks about growing up in two worlds, one of America and the other The Navajo Nation. The unique combination of cultures this brought into his life as well as his early struggles. Also his paranormal experiences came on at an early age. Mysterious things turning themselves on such as a stovetop which would take a good amount of energy to turn on.

Also, odd apports such as material things showing up out of thin air such as a satanic book on a shelf.

When he gets into his late teens or early twenties he gives an old man a ride home from the drive-in movies. Maximum Overdrive out of all of them. He drops the guy off seemingly in the middle of nowhere and moments later, when he’s driving down the desert highway, he spots an animalistic creature running up to his car doing about 60 miles per hour. It’s a wolf-like creature with fangs and the whole nine-yards. It’s like something from an 80’s werewolf film. Eventually, it leaves him alone but the whole book has bits and parts of that kind of stuff in it.

Throughout the book there are neat little Navajo stories about creation and how humans came to be. Of course much of the history is very cryptic. I guess you could try to break down the symbolism of it but a lot of it was too huge to take literally and I couldn’t put it together with the context of the time. I’m sure some Navajo scribes could break down what was meant. It’s easy to get lost in it. Again, these chapters were nice little breaks in the reading. It helped absorb the information between chapters.

I really liked the pictures included in the middle of the book. They’re a series of pictures of Stanley on patrol, Bigfoot tracks & plasters, Bigfoot hair, UFO lights in the sky, his sketches of the wolf creature that chased him (he’s a good artist), Bigfoot, a Grey alien, American coins that fell out of the air and a knife that came out of its butcher block and shot into a grapefruit across the kitchen.

He discusses the interviews he had with an old man and his dog who witnessed a hovering spacecraft in his backyard as well as aliens. The man’s dog unfortunately passes afterwards. I’ve heard this story before so this must’ve been the origin of it. He goes into the Satan Butte Phenomena in Navajo County in Arizona. It’s the place where there’s that flat seemingly cut-off mountaintop as seen in the movie Close Encounters of The Third Kind. He talks about skinwalker activity there and a man who’s been cursed by one which was fascinating.

In conclusion, it’s an amazing book from someone that’s lived the disciplined life of a Navajo Ranger. He could be trying to sell books but I really doubt it. He’s a very credible source and has lived a very transparent and earnest life. The book goes a little off topic of the paranormal when he talks about some of the drug raids and a murdering militia but it gets back on board with the spooky stuff again.

I recommend it, it’s full of authentic stories and a point-of-view telling of his life growing up as a Navajo and as an American Ranger. My hats off to his service. Being a Ranger covers a lot of disciplines and can be very dangerous. What an interesting life he has led so far and what an eye-opener his paranormal interactions have been.

Check out my video version of the review here:

https://youtu.be/LU82GI3YitU?si=8O0C9t3DdU9lvwYu

Progress, Finally

So, lot’s of progress has been made on Rage 4.5. I’ve been trying to get it down to one page a week. Sometimes I can pull it off, other times not so much. When you work a steady job with set hours you can have little left in the tank for the creative arts.

The main thing is focus. Focus is what you need to keep you on task and away from distraction. I know I’ve mentioned it here before so I won’t over expand on it again…

Update: The penciling on Rage #4.5 has finished and I’ve finally moved onto Rage #5. Now the thumbnails aren’t done yet, but I can’t wait for them all to be done first because I have an tentative deadline of mid April (15th) of 2025 to get it done. I’ve mostly been doing a page a week but I need to do at least 2 pages a week at the very least to hit the deadline.

Also, I have a new website focused on Rage and my 10-Second Drawing book.

It’s ragingcomics.com. It’s a pretty basic Wordpress website. Normally, I would never do Wordpress but in this case I had to because it was the cheapest. I did this from a recommendation of a colleague of mine. He said it’s a good name for a website so I went with it. Let me know what you think. I plan to update it more with tidbits about Rage and his world. So far I have a short bio that includes his physical appearance and powers. I might draw up some other characters and list their powers and abilities too.

I wish it was easier to update the website but it's still pretty frustrating. It’s not as intuitive as it should be. Wix is much easier with its drag n’ drop but it costs a lot more per month/year. 

You can buy Rage #4 here for print or digital download.

https://www.indyplanet.com/rage-4

In the meantime, great ideas for Rage #6 & 7 are slowly taking shape. So like David Lynch would recommend, I’ll get the net out, catch those fishes and write them down for later. So grateful that the ideas are coming. Rage really has a story that he wants to convey and I got more direction about how to get there. Of course, I still gotta figure out as a storyteller how the characters get from A to B to C. That will all come in time. I gotta whole lot of work cut out for me with inking, doing sound effects and word balloons PLUS I gotta put the first 5-6 issues in a graphic novel collection. That’s not as easy as one would think! File uploads to Lulu anyone?

Anyway, thanks for reading this. It’s been easily a year since I’ve written anything here which is terrible. Do you draw reader? Do you draw comics? What are some of your stumbling blocks to finishing them? Comment below if anybody’s reading this and remember movin’ slow is still movin’.

 

Still Writing...And One More Video

Well, still writing the short story but in the meantime here’s the latest video on using comma’s as addressed in a QuickStudy guide that you find in bookstores. It’s such a helpful tool and saves a lot of page turning. I have about 1 more video to shoot on comma’s to tie them all together, stay tuned for that.

It's always a challenge writing a one page story. Not easy, but that's why I do it, to challenge myself. I'll get the story done eventually. I might even make a video on writing it too.

Comma’s are something that have plagued me for quite some time.

YouTube Link: Latest Comma Video

The Comma Series: Part 5 Nonessential Appositive Example

New Griffin Video!

    Finally after about 4 years I've finally put together a new video for Griffin Tutoring on YouTube! Why so long you say? It's because I've been focusing on my other channels, especially 10-Second Cartooning where I teaching drawing and cartooning. This one is more about learning grammar, punctuation, reading and writing, so basically English Language Arts but done in a fun way (hopefully). This video continues the lessons on the comma which I started about 4 years ago.

    Also, if you go on the channel and notice some of my ukulele videos where I explain how to do a simple chord stroke. I'll keep doing those vids too.

    I'll try to do at least a few videos a month but my cartooning channel still has to come first.

    Here's the link if you like it subscribe, you know the deal:

https://youtu.be/nW1wdqhKcmI 

    Looking forward to making some more vids, these will be educational. When I do these vids it's good for me because I'm reminding myself the rules of grammar, punctuation, writing, comprehension and more! It's like a refresher. Hope you'll follow me on that journey.

New Short Story Coming

Hope everyone had a Happy Halloween, I’m currently writing a short, short story in the spirit of Halloween with the working title The Salesman. I’ll make an audio version of it eventually, it should be a fun story.

I used an interesting method for coming up with it. I don’t want to spoil the story but I liked how I came up with it and I used the ‘Hat Method’ that some indie filmmakers use. This simple but effective technique is great and keep one from overthinking a story plot and has a jumping point from which to start writing from.

Sometimes though you just gotta get in there and start writing too. It’s easy to get analysis paralysis. Also, I don’t want the story to be too long. Sometimes, even the shortest of stories can get out of hand.

Hopefully my next post will be a decent draft of it.

The Shadow by James Patterson - Book Review

    So I just finished reading The Shadow by James Patterson. This would be the first book I read by him. It has a great beginning, a real cliffhanger but slows down quite a bit after that as it introduces new characters and a futuristic world. Maddy, one of the main protagonists in the story, narrates her thoughts and becomes the first person narrator throughout the book. The book shares narration between omniscient and first person. This is a rare thing in fiction and I’ve done it myself in my, yet to be published 4th Hour where I have two of the main protagonists fighting for narration,  I blame The Breakfast Club for inspiring me to do that. Mostly, The Shadow falls onto the third person for most of the story.    

    I blame The Breakfast Club for inspiring me to do that. The book slows down quite a bit after the strong prologue and you really have to hang with it as it switches to a new time era with new characters. I think this is where the book could’ve used some cutting or action. Patterson builds on the setting details and Maddy's thoughts as she does mundane things, at least it's not written in an interesting way after a cliffhanger prologue that was set up.

    It picks up again when Maddy finds Lamont Cranston in a cryogenic facility. That part is pretty good. Finally we get the sense of where the story's going. He’s been in cryogenic sleep and they get him to wake up out of his slumber now that they have the technology. When he slowly starts to wake up it’s done really well.

    He patches things together about where and when he is and acclimates to his surroundings. Once he gets his bearings, they find that his girlfriend Margo Lane is also frozen and they go to release her. That was a big revelation in the book.

    Also they find that The Shadow’s old nemesis Khan is still alive and living in Lamont’s mansion, which I thought was a fun twist.

    Lamont explains the myths and truths of his powers. What’s real and what was exaggerated. They go into his invisibility powers a little bit and how they work. 

    What’s important here is that the author doesn’t take all of the fun out of the character by trying to make The Shadow too realistic but he does ground him in some ways. Lamont also has developed a new fireball power which I thought was surprising, weird but was a neat evolution.

The ending when it arrives is good but goes a bit too quick. It’s very visual like you’d see in movie. Good twist ending in the conclusion. The story could’ve ending a few different ways at least which is good because it’s unpredictable that way.

Overall it’s a good book and I’m glad I read it, I enjoyed reading the short, short, chapters one at a time so I never felt I had to re-read much to get me caught up again. Wish it was a little shorter near the beginning and middle but it’s great to read a new Shadow adventure that has a neat twist on the genre by merging a little bit of low sci-fi with it. If you're a fan of The Shadow you'll like it and if you don't know anything about The Shadow you'll like it too I would think. Patterson knows the voice and spirit of the character which is great. I recommend this as a fun piece of fiction that will hopefully inspire the reader to seek out old Shadow radio shows which are a lot of fun to listen to. I’ll give it an 8 out of 10.