Justin Swapp's Blog, page 7

The Lost Hero – Book Review

The Lost Hero (Heroes of Olympus, Book 1)

The Lost Hero – Book Review

 

 

I’m giving the Lost Hero 4 / 5 drachmas

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Seven half-bloods shall answer the call,

To storm or fire the world must fall.

An oath to keep with a final breath,

And foes bear arms to the Doors of Death.

 

 

 

The back of the book jacket sets up the story as follows:

Jason has a problem…

Piper has a secret…

Leo has a way with tools…

And there we have our triangle of heroes. The Lost Hero starts off in fine fashion by introducing us to our new version of Percy Jackson (there’s more to that statement than you think). His name is Jason Grace, and the new series revolves around his blond hair, bronzed muscles, and strange tattoos. The story gets interesting right away as Jason shows up amongst his friends having forgotten who he is, and just about everything about his past. He’s even forgotten his girlfriend, Piper, much to her dismay. I really liked the beginning. It was well played, super-catchy, and engaging.

But Jason’s not the only one that’s interesting. Piper has a secret. She’s been put in a very difficult place; between people that she loves, and between various loyalties. She knows she will be the cause of much pain and anguish, but she has to do it, doesn’t she?

Then, there’s the comedic sidekick, Leo. Only, he’s not just a extra– a character present only to deliver a line. He is quite funny throughout the whole book, but he place a meaningful role too. He has special powers that he has suppressed for many years, because he believes he hurt someone he loved with them by accident.

The world all this happens in is the same epic world that Rick Riordan introduced us to in the Percy Jackson series. The descriptions are rich, the mythology is well researched, and revealed throughout the book in interesting enough ways to feel like a part of the story. I enjoyed how the heroes visited Camp Half-Blood again, but also how they visited a bunch of normal places, a department store, for example, and how Rick Riordan turned those places into mystical traps filled with interesting characters that make the mundane magical.

All in all, this was a really engaging read. I enjoyed the plot, the devices Rick Riordan used to deliver some interesting twists (especially the last one – well done!), and especially the God characters. They had so much personality, and, well, drama, that I kept looking forward to the next encounter. I’ll be continuing on with the series for sure.

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The Magic Shop: Shelf Unbound Middle-Grade Notable Book and Favorite Book Cover

 

I’m really excited to write this post. As I posted about a week ago, I recently learned that The Magic Shop has been honored in the December / January issue of Shelf Unbound magazine. This issue is special because it showcases the best books of nearly a thousand books that were submitted for review. I’m please two announce that The Magic Shop, my Middle-Grade Fantasy novel, was honored as both one of their favorite book covers, and also as a notable book for the Middle-Grade category! This means that The Magic Shop placed somewhere in the top one hundred books. I want to give a shout out to the great Arthur Wang, the artist, and mind behind The Magic Shop’s engaging book cover. I was lucky enough to trip over his work on www.deviantart.com and I am so glad we partnered together for this project, and hopefully future endeavors. I’ve included some screen shots of the Shelf Unbound pages that call out The Magic Shop.

Hopefully this exposure will help The Magic Shop find more readers this holiday season, and enable Arthur to continue to share his great talent.

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s the tribute graphic to Arthur Wang – The Magic Shop animated .gif. It shows the cover evolve as Arthur sent me updates every other week or so. You can watch it come to life before your eyes, just like I did. Congrats, Arthur!

 

 

 

 

If you are interested in reading the magazine for yourself, I’ve imbedded it below. You can also CLICK HERE, where I’ve linked to the page. Let me know what you think below in the comments!

 

 

 

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Kids, and the Plotting of The Shadow’s Servant

Kids, and the Plotting of The Shadow’s Servant

 

My two youngest children have been really cute lately. They have insisted on helping me plot out the second book in The Shadow Magic Series – The Shadow’s Servant. Ellie, my youngest daughter, read and enjoyed the first book, so she takes this very seriously. To do this, we decided to take a bunch of index cards and write down potential plot points, and post them up on the back of my study doors. This way, we can move them around until the story flows like I’d like. My wife likes to keep the study doors open, so, if the index cards are on the back of the doors, they are secretly out of sight – passing the wife test. She likes the walls bare and clean-looking.

I’m making progress on the draft. The children have come up with some excellent ideas, and I think I’m going to figure out a way to use one or two of them. At a minimum, we can laugh about it around a campfire one day, right?

 

 

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Venture Book Signing and Holiday Update

 

 

Middle Grade Book Signing

Recently I had the opportunity to visit Venture Academy and spend some time with its middle graders during their Student Lead Conference and Book Fair. It ended up being a great book signing. I laughed as the kids tried to inconspicuously sneak a peak of The Magic Shop book trailer running on a loop on my iPad, or full on try to watch the entire thing out of the corner of their eye.

I had a boy exclaim “Woah!” when he saw the book cover, and B-lined to flip it over and read the copy on the back. Apparently Brandon Mull was at the schooler earlier in the day, and some of the children told me all about what he had to say. It was great fun.

I want to thank the factually and staff for having me. They treated me very well.  A portion of the proceeds from each sale of The Magic Shop went back to the school to support the kids learning and reading.

Also, I have to acknowledge my wonderful wife who set the whole thing up for me. Good times.

 

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Thanksgiving

The Swapp’s had a lot of fun on Thanksgiving morning. My brothers-in-law organized a little skeet shooting for everyone before the day’s festive events. It was the first time my youngest son, Alexander (“Xander”) got to (read: dared) to shoot a rifle. I tried to instill a proper sense of respect for a firearm, but I think I spooked him at first. In the end, he came around, and shot the rifle a couple of times. Thank goodness one of his uncles brought a wad of socks (all clumped together) as padding for the boys. Those rifles have a bit of a kick from a youngster’s perspective.

Hopefully you enjoyed your thanksgiving as well, surrounded by family and friends.

 

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Hastings Book Signing #2

I was excited to be invited back to the local Hastings to participate in a 40 + author book signing. I got to meet some very nice people, and to spend some time with an old friend/author/co-worker of mine, Amy Wilde. She wrote a very inspirational Memoir entitled, White Bees that has caused a ton of tears. I might start calling her Noah. Her long time friend, Karen Sunderland stopped by and spoke to us too. She has an amazing food storage cook book (the cover had the power to make me hungry, even though I had just eaten.) She’s been in the industry for a while, and shared some nice best practices.

I also got to chat with some other interesting authors, and to discuss how they approach things. I probably spent the most time with S.R. Ford. He has written some great fantasy that you might want to check out.

My youngest daughter, Ellie, decided that she wanted to come to the signing with me. She was adorable. Not only did she walk around and talk to everyone as if she was my agent, when she got bored, she asked if she could take a copy of The Magic Shop and walk around the store and approach customers about visiting the authors and buying the book. She’s going to go places.

Now, she may be outgoing, but that doesn’t mean that the pictures she took came out as amazing as she is. I’ve posted them below. (A ++ for effort and attitude.)

 

 

Hastings promotional flyer. A list of the authors in attendance.

Authors Justin Swapp (The Magic Shop), and Amy Wilde (White Bees)

 

 

 

 

 

Authors talking (Karen Sunderland, Amy Wilde, and Justin Swapp)

 

 

 

A stack of awesome

 

The Magic Shop visiting the Best Seller shelf

 

Justin Swapp at the Hastings book signing

Various authors waiting for customers

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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September Goodreads Contest Give Away for The Magic Shop

 

Congrats to Erin L. of Pennsylvania, and Jeremy G. of Alabama. They are the winners of the September Magic Shop Goodreads giveaway! I sent the two signed copies out earlier this week. Enjoy!

For those of you unfamiliar with The Magic Shop, here’s a short trailer and a link to learn more about the book here (Click)

 

 

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Audiobook Auditions for The Magic Shop

 

 

 

I’m excited to announce that I’m exploring the audiobook version of The Magic Shop. I hope to use Amazon’s ACX platform to find a good narrator that can bring the book to life. There are a lot of shady characters in The Magic Shop, so finding someone that can make each one come to life is critical making the audiobook all it can be.

Below I have included the voice auditions that I have collected so far. As I get more, I will add  them to this post. Which do you like the best?

Click here to visit the audio book audition page.

Audition ONE: SB’s Voice

http://justinswapp.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/SB-audition.mp3

 

Audition TWO:   DG’s Voice

http://justinswapp.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/DG-Audition.mp3

Please participate in the poll – Which voice do you prefer?

Which audiobook audition do you like the best?

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Writing Music

Art Begets Art

Most writers would agree that your selection of music during a writing session can largely influence it. Your mood manifests itself in your writing, and music can easily influence that. So, if you are like me, you keep your eye out for good track recommendations, and you log them somewhere for later use. Also, FYI, If you don’t have a Spotify account, you can actually use YouTube to listen to full albums.

Here’s what I’m listening to recently for my writing music:

Original Sound Tracks for Writing

 

Child of Light Original Sound Track

Transistor Original Sound Track

Skyrim Original Sound Track

Bastion Original Sound Track

The Last of Us Original Sound Track

 

I hope this helps your writing!

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The Hero’s Journey – Glove and Boots

Writer’s are always looking for models to either give their work structure, or to help them find themselves when they get lost in the writer’s journey. Below is a funny take on The Hero’s Journey by the folks at Glove and Boots.

 

After the video I’ve included a few different versions of the monomyth model with the hopes that one might resonate with you.

 

 

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Free Scrivener Templates Part 2

Check out my novel, The Magic Shop. You can also check out The Magic Shop book trailer here.

New to Scrivener? Download a trial.

If you haven’t read my first post with scrivener templates from around the web, you you might want to start there before continuing with the templates below.

 

More Free Scrivener Templates

 

All Indie Writers blog has a case study template.

Scrivener’s homepage posted a novel template for its members participating in National Novel Writing Month.

Caroline Norrington has posted a wicked outline template for novels. It’s very detailed, and looks quite useful.

Jami Gould posted a basic template that seemed to be based on the 7 point plot system. Her article on using beats with Scrivener is quite good and full of information.

David Hewson has created a story bible template that can be used for keeping the background detail that we writers create. You never know when you’ll need to refer back to it.

Tony McFadden updated his novel with 4 parts template (to v 2.0). The updates are worth checking out.

Byzantine Roads posted Lester Dent’s Fiction Master Plot template.

Sean Williams posted the Vertigo Scrivener template (comic template).

Belinda Crawford posted about an article Kitty Chandler at Kitty Space regarding a fantastic template she calls the World-building Leviathan Scrivener template. I mention Belinda because she posts great articles and info that I think other writers will find useful. For example, the writer’s notebook template that she posted here.

Scrivenercoach.com has a slew of blog related scrivener templates: Here are the Power Blogging, 60 Minute Sales Letter, Getting Things Done, Lightening Fast Blog Post, Snowflake Method, and The Minimalist Brainstorming templates. You can download all of them at once right here.

John Castle posted some Save the Cat templates, and they look pretty good.

Claire O’Brien has a great post with Picture Book templates.

 

If you know of any great templates, please feel free to share in the comments section below!

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