Book Review: Chivalrous

Chivalrous by Dina L. Sleiman

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Chivalrous was an odd mixture of adventure, relationships, and faith. They weren't balanced together very well, but there were a few elements of the story I really liked

I don't have a favorite character in Chivalrous, but I do like how most of the characters interacted with one another. The main male character, Allen, thought almost constantly about God and his faith, and while that got overbearing at times, I like how it affected his decision-making.

I liked Gwendolyn more in the parts where she wasn't being a sissy and more of a tomboy, but I can understand her backing down at times because of her abusive father. Also, her relationship with Allen was the most interesting aspect of this book. It was an insta-love story, which I don't normally like, but I honestly didn't know if these two were going to have a happily ever after with all the twists and turns in their romantic plot. The romance between these two saved the story, I believe.

The other main character is Rosalind, Gwendolyn's lady in waiting. I enjoyed her character through most of the book; she's a loyal friend that sometimes shows some snark. However, towards the last half of the book,the author added a pointless sub-plot about abortion with this character that was never resolved, and I don't understand why it was included in the story.

The character Merry from the first Valiant Hearts book made a cameo appearance. I guess she's a Robin Hood character, but she was a damsel in distress in this book, and her part in the story seemed kind of pointless except to show how bad the bad guy was. Why make her the victim, and she never makes another appearance in the book. The whole ordeal with Merry was meh.

I probably would have liked this book better if I had read the first book in the series, but this book does okay as a standalone. 3/5 stars.



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Trading Cards

I've managed to turn a lot of my focus from Libera Battle to my writing projects, which is a good thing, but I'm still trying to be somewhat consistent with my card creating.  Below are some more cards that I've created for your viewing pleasure.

 
 



I was particularly excited to do the "Black Griffin of the Sapphire" card, as it was a ring I had fondly imagined while writing about the ring's owner, Othorro, but never drawn.  I'm not really thrilled about the background, though; I couldn't figure out what to do, so I turned to GIMPs fractal explorer script.

The Captain Hoofwind card is probably going to print darker than I intended, so I may go back and lighten the picture a little.  For Bronwyn I referred to a pencil drawing I had created that details her armor a lot better than this character card.

I imagined Bronwyn having metal plate armor that resembles an insect's carapace, a grasshopper in particular.  It has spiny protrusions and sharp angles.  The sketch of her also has detail on her wings, which I always enjoy drawing.  I considered using the drawing for the card, but I didn't in this case.  I may use hand-drawn pictures for future cards, though.

Have a nice evening :)

Getting Out

This month and in October I have the opportunity to play soccer as part of a regional Stake tournament.  I was excited when I learned about the sign-up, and yesterday was our first game.  I thought I might not be able to go because my knee was bothering me, but I got some cleats and shin guards anyway and got really excited and decided to go.  I didn't regret it.

I pounded across that field and managed to catch the ball a few times.  I say catch, and I mean with my feet mostly.  I was afraid I wouldn't be able to endure, but I was on the field most of the time, and though I was tempted to switch out several times during the first half, I stayed on the field.  It was way fun, and I look forward to the rest of the games.

I talk about soccer because I thought it would be a good outlet for me, to do something good for myself besides staying at home.  It allows me to get out and meet other people, as I don't have much of a social life at the moment.  It's also good to know that I'm healthy enough to play soccer, and I plan to continue to get into good shape and keep it a habit.

Making a Character Unique

Something I've learned during character building is that it normally takes one or two unique traits to help me make them unique characters.  Once I have those few traits, I can build off of them and learn about the other personality traits a character has.

I've really realized this while writing In Chaos Forged.  As the story has grown, I've been dealing with more and more characters.  I think I'll soon be juggling as many if not more characters than I did in Founders.  The biggest challenge has been the main character, Jivasi.  He's naturally very curious and hates to rub against authority (although in strenuous circumstances, he will), but at the same time very loyal to himself and to those he thinks he can trust.  However, I have to be very careful not to deviate from the core of his character and make him sound like other characters, like his cousin, Ndegana, for example.  Ndegana is outspoken, and is normally very good at forgiving himself.  He doesn't like to dwell on past mistakes, although some come to haunt him quite a bit.  I have to be careful not to mix up Ndegana's outspoken personality with Jivasi's quiet curiosity.

I've jumped back into revising Gift Search, and a character I've had the opportunity to explore more is a villain named Uty, who didn't get much air time in the original Sunstone manuscript.  She had more show time in the Revisited manuscript, and she's getting even more in the beginning of Gift Search.  She's such an actress, I've discovered.  She knows how to put on a royal air, but at times her temper shows.  She can switch back and forth between royal serenity to venomous cruelty.  Like all characters, it's been hard really writing about her starting recently, but it'll be interesting to see how things turn out with this character.

Refocus

Boy have I been distracted.  I've managed to work on book projects lately, but I feel like the way I do things isn't very organized.  I do it a day at a time, and haven't seriously scheduled myself when it comes to my writing and art projects.  My life revolves around mostly my little boy, and some around my husband and his crazy school schedule.

Most of my extra time recently has been taken up with editing one of my old projects and working on my trading card game.  However, I've jumped back into writing In Chaos Forged, and my mind has been turning to revising Book 2 of The Legend of Draconite: Gift Search.  Currently I'm writing a whole new prologue for Gift Search, and there will be at least one new chapter before the original chapter 1.  It's amazing the things I notice about the story and characters I need to address that I never noticed seven years ago.

I've been lax on updating my social networks, and I'm making it a goal to update my major ones once a day with something.  I think my Facebook page has been the most neglected of my social sites, but today I updated the art album and posted an update about my TCG.  Probably the hardest one to update regularly is actually Xenithar's Musings.  However, my goal will be to post on here at least once a week.  Readers, feel free to hold me accountable if I'm not living up to these goals.  Spam the comments! ;)