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.

 

Using Story Games and Dice for Writing Prompts and Ideas

      I’ve been playing Untold the story game and have come up with a few good stories with it. It’s pretty good for short and comic book stories. I highly recommend the game if you’re a writer that needs a good idea. Using Rory’s Story Cubes helps a lot with writing beginnings and scenes. Here’s some writing prompts you can use for your own story or just for practice. I rolled up some story leads from the original cube set.

Prompt 1: Sometimes I see my shadow and it follows me wherever I go. All over the world even. One day though my shadow left…

Prompt 2:  Harry went to work one day but on this particular one he found that it was infested with termites. His co-workers were a little freaked out about it. The secretary, Agnus, was bent forard looking down as a couple of her friends tried to keep her from falling down…

Prompt 3: Sal parachuted into the pyramid. He had planned this landing for years, so it in his head like some woud dream to. He was proud of himself for nailing the landing as his feet touched the ancient stone. Lunch could wait, his search for the black scarab had begun. He bunched up the parachute with his waving arms… 

Writing Ideas and going back to the things you like to read.

    So, how to come up with new stories and be inspired again?

    It’s never a sin to go back to the stories you loved growing up or the genres you liked growing up. Never a bad thing to go back to the well of what you like, but don’t shy away from a new book if it falls into your lap.

    Currently, I'm reading The Shadow by James Patterson. It’s kind of like a revival of The Shadow if he woke up in the future from a cryogenic freeze. It’s a pulp, fish out of water story.

    Also, nothing wrong with going back and reading some classic sword & sorcery favorites like Conan the Barbarian by Robert E. Howard.

    A lot of what I read also affects what kind of comics I write. This next part is tough one, you must allow time to read new books. I try to go to the old classics in literature but sometimes those can be long and you have to be dedicated to get through them. It’s good to comic books too as long as its in a genre you like but you never know when something can completely surprise you in another genre.

    So I guess the point of this blog entry is to get back to reading what motivated me to write in the first place. I’ll make a list and get back the books that I loved to read back when I was a teen. Back to Conan.

The Delve

                THE DELVE

                by Chris Calderon

        The Captain steered the submarine deep into the furthest depths of the ocean with his pet monkey on his shoulder. They were searching for a goblet of legend. It was said to be guarded by a small aquatic gnome who protected an ancient gate to a subterranean cave that held it. All the signs of rock statues covered in coral pointed the way. Each one corresponded with the crude drawings on the map. The landmark of this mysterious goblet was guarded by a legendary giant fish-like beast. Through all his travels he’d seen things not explainable by man but never a fanged-fish as large one drawn on the parchment. If he had to guess it was 30 feet high.

The Captain’s dark vessel approached a cave guarded by a small-long-haired man. The front of the cave resembled a gate. He lowered the submarine in front of the small armed man who held a trident. The Captain thought of the only thing he could and showed the gnome the map he’d discovered through the glassed portal. The small long-haired man looked at The Captain through and then the map. He then stood straight and nodded allowing him passage. The Captain immediately steered the ship forward into the cave.

He hit the high powered beams as the submarine delved further into the darkness. Eyes peered in front of the ship followed by two rows of fanged teeth. The white grin terrified The Captain but he reacted on instinct and pressed the button on the dashboard to release the star pointed missiles underneath. The gigantic green and blue scaled monster twisted its body forward as it bit down on the top of the gold plated roof. The Captain held the ship steady by grabbing the wheel tight. On his shoulders, the monkey yelled in fear holding on tight to its master.

The giant fish creature bit down upon the metal once more scraping the shell. Inside some of the instrument panels flashed various colors. The Captain pounded his fist on the dash. He pushed the steering wheel forward and jerked it to the right simultaneously.

The ship was free and it turned fast searching for sights on the big scaly beast. He caught the oval black pupils reflecting the lights of the submarine’s headlights. Knowing it would be his only chance he fired the torpedoes into the blackness between its two eyes. Its body wiggled and shook. The shell bursted and a flack of light tore through some of the rock and dirty filled the cavern. The Captain knew this could be a problem so he activated the debri vacuums from the push of a gold button. The beast laid on its belly in the murky floor of the cave.

The monstrous scaly body swirled and spun into a fine mist, then dissipated into the floating dirt and sand. A green glow radiated in the cave coming from a small metal grail on the cave floor. The Captain drove his ship forward, a treasure hard won.

A bit more about educational games...

    Educational games, should be a foundational thing when learning. Case in point I’ve been teaching a young student in 2nd grade reading and using various games such as Quiddler for short word vocab and Rory’s story dice for comprehension and inferences. I also have a game with a spinner that focuses on prefixes, root words and suffixes. It’s all good and keeps learning fun, not just for the student but for me as well.

    You’ve got to keep things fun, hence the games. It helps you and the student loosen up and make things more interactive. It also keep things fun and easy to digest when you’re studying. That’s one of the reasons I’ve made some solo education games for myself. All I have to do is write on the flashcards which work as game cards to pic as well as trying to remember a certain part of my reading.

    Take a look at this video I made on my YouTube Soloquester channel. It shows how easy it is to make a game board on grid paper.

The making of my Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition learning game:

https://youtu.be/Uiwsmmnhc8Q

    Now the game is for learning the rules of Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition, but there's no reason it can't be used to learn another game system or possibly the rules of stoicism. As long as one is willing to make flashcards based off the source material one can make a simple game and learn while making it too.

Making Games

Alright, I’ve been developing games. Personal games at first but the more I think of it they are great for learning almost anything. Games are an incredible learning tool whether you’re learning about investing, grammar or math. Heck, I use to play educational games on the good ole’ Commodore 128/64.

When making a game I use just a simple piece of paper to draw the game board, some index 3x5 cards and  one 6 sided die. The player token can be just about anything while building the mechanics, a penny, a plastic miniature of some type or a cork. You can always upgrade the game later, the important thing is to get the mechanics down and keep it simple.

Building a game based on the 3% Man book by Corey Wayne, it’s still in the development stage but so far so good. I just have to work out a few game holes with it and I’ll be able to make it playable. I’ll keep you all updated!

Movin Slow!

Been a while, but now I’m back!

My comic Rage #4 is right around the corner. Just putting the finishing touches on it. Should be out hopefully by the end of the year.

Ideas for Rage#5 are being considered. It might be a celtic story like the short story I did.

So maybe Ireland in the next or maybe not, actually I might have it take place after the short story. I think that’s it. 

Limited Series Comics - The Adventures of Mr. L

 Been working on my secret limited-series comic.
The working title is, The Adventures of Mr. L. It serves as a
prequel to 4th Hour. It's been fun and a short comic. I'm trying to get a page drawn in one hour.

I’ve also been posting my drawing lessons over at mustangs7 on YouTube. I’m going to shoot for about 2 videos per week. I haven’t posted to Griffin Tutoring’s YouTube page in a while as well. I might trying doing 1-2 videos a week on that one but it’s tricky managing two YouTube accounts. Maybe I’ll discontinue it to and just do that one YouTube account. Not sure yet but I’ll keep you posted!

The Possum's Last Stand

WARNING: if you have a light stomach please consider not reading this story.

The Possum’s Last Stand

by Chris Calderon

While I was walking to 7-eleven more then a few weeks ago, I came upon a possum in the road. Something was wrong though, it stood a few feet from the railroad tracks hissing. A stream of blood ran from its mouth and a small red pool of blood underneath it. To save you the detail, it might’ve not been only blood but something else from within it.

I could tell the poor fella was on its last legs. It stayed in place not knowing what to do or where to go. Although, I meant to keep walking I couldn’t help but sympathize with it while being a safe distance away. Cars slowly stopped and drove around it.

“Poor guy, I’m so sorry.” I said.

I walked away but I felt that there might be something I could do, but what?

Eventually some young girls came up and asked if I called animal control. I did, and I told them the location of where the possum was but my phone died because due to the low battery.

A line of cars were stopped because of the possum holding up traffic. The possum still looked confused as to what to do and how to die right.

A bearded man in blue truck asked why everyone was stopped. “You gotta be kidding me, it’s not a fuckin’ dog!” He said.

Then, a train could be heard from half-a-mile away. Almost instinctively the possum slowly walked towards the train tracks.

The lady in the second car got her phone out, “Gonna post this on YouTube and get me a million views!”

The train roared louder. The possum walked towards the train tracks as if to shrug its shoulders and say ‘awe well, it’s been a good life’.

The train roared louder. Without hesitation it walked towards the over-sized metal bullet. I turned my head, I couldn’t watch what was about to happen and didn’t want to watch the blood splatter against the train walls. I turned away, then I turned back.

It was still alive! The possum had somehow timed itself just right to go under the tracks and make it to the other side.

I’m sure the lady recording for YouTube was disappointed.

The two girls ran over to him in an attempt to get it off the street. A women from one of the cars ran over with a towel, “oh for peetz sakes!” She said. She nudged with her foot behind the blanket as the possum slowly made its way to the side of the road.

Not sure if the possum died soon after, but at least it was in a safer place, maybe on the grass? Maybe ifit kept going after that, somehow living and remembering the human attention finally given to it. Caring beings willing to see it through. I like to think that anyway.

Not sure if pest control ever showed. It was a little mortality reminder that no matter where you are and how safe you may think you are, death can find you on a beautiful, sunny, day in your own neighborhood.

Commentary: In take-away I ask the human race to not purposely record deaths of living beings for monetization, please have more class then that.

Also, every being has a right to go about its final hours any way it chooses. If it holds you up from getting to your crappy rinky-dink job a few minutes late, too damn bad!

Drawing in an Anime/Magna Drawing Style

Lately, over at Micheals I've been teaching how to draw in the Anime/Magna style. While I've never gotten much into drawing in that style I've grown to appreciate the talent in drawing figures using that style. I have actually borrowed drawing speed lines in the background of some of my panels. So there's been some influence.

Some of the basic skeletal foundations still apply, long cross for the chest and back, oval for the head (more or less) and  cylinders for the arms and legs. Maybe I'll post a pic or two in the coming days.

The Adequates

Had an opportunity to play some D&D and Untold with some friends over the weekend. Playing story games can help inspire you and create new possible scenarios for your characters, new plots.

Whether it's Rory's story cubes or a role playing game like Dungeons & Dragons, they're worth it for the inspiration alone!

If you're a DM or GM you're given the regular monthy task of creating a small story or part of an epic one! It can 

be fun too! 

Case in point, we had a lot of fun coming up with a story about 3 superheroes called 'The Adequates'. Bigfoot invaded a shooting range! The three superheroes tried to stop him from taking some guns and killing everybody. Unfortunately my hero in his alter ego, Alex Walter, was in the Loo when it all went down. He jumped out, toilet paper dangling, took aim at the hairy beast with his beretta and accidentally shot his sidekick Quentin in the buttocks! 

Part 2 to come soon...

Easter Eggs!

Had a chance to make some Easter Eggs this month...

One tablet in each cup...

Put the eggs in the cups for 2-10 minutes and let em' dry in the egg carton to dry...

Dip glitter in bags, then eggs in bags. Move them around...

I bought this bunny tray from The Dollar Tree. Mom had the pink plastic grass...

Lay it out with some stuffed bunnies the basket to add the cute factor...

Camping logo?...

...more like the flipside of the twin peaks symbol...

Coloring eggs are always a great traditional mindfull activity! Maybe marbled colored next time?

Quick Drawing Tip!

Here's a 30-second quick-tip spot!

Drawing the human face and head. Comic book style!

https://youtu.be/SFq23ciUeoY

Homemade Twin Peaks Game Cubes!

    During my down time I've been making my own storytelling dice. First, I draw them with my pencil and then ink them with my Faber-Castell ink markers. Fans of the new Twin Peaks can recognize Cooper, Evil Cooper 

(Mr. C), Major Brigg's floating head :) Jack Rabbit's Palace and some arm-wrestlin'. Looking forward to using these in my Untold game. My next season of Twin Peaks, starts early.

Cooper looks more like 70 the way I drew him...

Here's almost all of em'. The fourth one is Dougie with his case files...one more to go!