Azalea Forrest's Blog, page 8

Writers Self-Doubt and Anxiety

Cheyanne Murray - Author

As long time followers will know, I have had a constant struggle with writers doubt and anxiety. I love to write, but the after scares me so much that sometimes it is hard to get myself to sit down in front of the keyboard. By “after” I mean when the book is done, and the world gets to see it.

I have often heard the advice “pretend that no one will read what you are writing” but I guess I am not that good at playing pretend, because I can never do that. No matter...

Aftermath of the Chase – MHA Oneshot

I debated sharing this for a while because I haven’t written fanfiction in such a long time, and there still seems to be this disdain for fanfiction writers in the writing world. But I had fun writing it, and I want to share it. So here it is! A short between Deku and Kacchan. This takes place after chapter 323 of My Hero Academia.

Spoilers below for those who only watch the anime, or aren’t caught up in the manga!

Deku sat in the tub of All Might’s bathroom back at U.A. High, fu...

A Forrest’s Ramblings #1

July is almost over, and that means only three more months until the next NaNoWriMo! To be honest, I’ve had NaNo in the back of my mind all year. I can’t help it: I’ve written a book every year now for the past four years because of it. But I keep asking myself: Will I be participating this year? What will my next story be? What do I want to accomplish? 

I still have two drafts that need revising, not to mention A Bitter Drink which I’ll be releasing this fall. I may just spend NaNo editing s...

Only Yesterday – A Forrest Review

Only Yesterday is an animated drama produced by Studio Ghibli, written and directed by Isao Takahata, with Hayao Miyazaki as the general producer. It is based off of the 1982 manga of the same name, by Hotaru Okamoto and Yuko Tone. Only Yesterday was released on July 20th, 1991, and today it still has a 100% Rotten Tomatoes score, with an audience score of 84%. 

The film opens up in a busy office building in Tokyo, Japan where Taeko, the main character, is speaking with her boss. He’s app...

Kodocha – A Forrest Review

Back in 2002, Tokyopop published a shoujo manga series called Kodocha by Miho Obana, in English, in North America. It was probably that same year when I discovered it, wandering down the manga shelves in Barnes and Noble. I’d never bought manga before, but I vaguely knew what it was. I certainly knew what anime was.

Picking up that first volume, I was like… “What the heck. This looks really neat.” Like yeah maybe the cover art was a little goofy, but these kids look bad ass. The main character ...

The Tombs of Atuan – A Forrest Review

The Tombs of Atuan is Book #2 in The Tales of Earthsea, a high fantasy series by Ursula K. Le Guin. Tombs is about a young girl named Tenar, who is taken from her home to become a priestess in the middle of a desert, where nothing ever seems to change, and the world outside is something evil, and to be feared.

FYI This review contains some minor spoilers, but the biggest spoiler is surrounded by asterisks down below.

I would have at first complained that the first 40% or so of The Tombs of Atua...

Chiloé – Influential Cultures

Have ya’ll ever heard of Chiloé? From its description alone, Chiloé appears to be a gorgeous archipelago that reminds me very much of Le Guin’s A Wizard of Earthsea.

I know, I know, the Earthsea series is reminiscent of Indonesia or the Philippines, but due to some of its folklore and geography, I couldn’t help but think so anyway. As a disclaimer, I am Very White, and I am getting this information from Wiki, so please correct me if any of this is incorrect. I just wanted to share some neat thi...

The Legend of Hei – A Forrest Review

The Legend of Hei, or The Legend of Luo Xiaohei, is a Chinese animated film that was released in the summer of 2019. It is apparently a prequel to the TV series of the same name, detailing events that lead up to the show. I haven’t seen the show myself, so I don’t know the details, but one day, perhaps!

After Xiaohei’s home is destroyed (due to deforestation), the cat-fey is forced to the city. Living as a small kitten, he steals food to survive, hoping to find a home again. When Xiaohei is atta...

A Simplified Mapmaking Process – Guest Post

Hey everyone! Today’s post is written by the lovely Cheyanne Murray, a fellow indie author! Cheyanne is a fantastic artist located in Canada, with her work shared on her Twitter and Instagram. Her art embodies the fantasy world she’s been working on, currently titled WOAD, and her blog has tons of great writing tips, including folklore and bits of what life was like in medieval times.

Today, she’s written up an excellent bare-bones How-To on mapmaking, using the program Wonderdraft. This is a gr...

Ebook Giveaway!

Hey everybody! I'm doing a giveaway on my Twitter account for both of my books, Witch in the Lighthouse and The Underground!

Head on over to @aforrestwrites at the link below to join in on the giveaway. :)

https://twitter.com/AForrestWrites/st...