Nadaness In Motion is the book blog owned by Nada Adel Sobhi and it is where honest book reviews meet author interviews, guest posts, and personal writing ranging from poetry to short stories alongside the Takhayyal/Imagine writing prompt challenge. ---
“You cannot kill a breeze, a wind, a fragrance; you cannot kill a dream or an ambition.” - Michel Onfray
It's been a
while since I've featured books about princes and princesses so I couldn't skip
this opportunity to feature spotlights for author Connie Glynn.
Connie's been
writing her series The Rosewood Chronicles for some time and has recently released the
fifth book in the series.
In this blog post, you'll see the book
synopsis for books 1 and 5 (the latest) along with covers for each.
This post is part of The Write Reads
blog tour for Connie Glynn's Rosewood Chronicles.
When fairy tale obsessed Lottie Pumpkin starts
at the infamous Rosewood Hall, she is not expecting to share a room with the
Crown Princess of Maradova, Ellie Wolf. Due to a series of lies and
coincidences, 14-year-old Lottie finds herself pretending to be the princess so
that Ellie can live a more normal teenage life.
Lottie is thrust into the real world of royalty - a world filled with secrets,
intrigue and betrayal. She must do everything she can to help Ellie keep her
secret, but with school, the looming Maradovian ball and the mysterious new boy
Jamie, she'll soon discover that reality doesn't always have the happily ever
after you'd expect...
A thrilling world of parties, politics and bad ass princesses, this is the
first book in the brand new series THE ROSEWOOD CHRONICLES.
Now on to book 5 ;)
Synopsis:
Return to the magical world of The Rosewood Chronicles in the fifth and
final instalment of this gorgeous series for fans of The Princess Diaries and
Harry Potter.
Ellie is a rebellious princess who is no longer
hiding her real identity.
Lottie is her Portman, wishing that she could shield
Ellie from the threat of Leviathan.
Jamie is Ellie's Partizan, a lifelong bodyguard
sworn to protect the princess at any cost - but has mysteriously disappeared.
Not
all of the trio have made it back to Rosewood Hall. Can they be reunited? And
at what cost?
With the crown at risk, the stakes have never been higher...
Connie Glynn has always loved writing and wrote
her first story when she was six, with her mum at a typewriter acting as her
scribe. She had a love for performing stories from a young age and attended
Guildhall drama classes as a teenager.
This passion for stories has never left her,
and Connie recently finished a degree in film theory. It was at university that
Connie started her hugely successful YouTube channel Noodlerella (named after
her favorite food and favorite Disney princess).
After five years of publicly documenting her
life and hobbies to an audience of 900,000 subscribers on YouTube, Connie
closed the book on the Noodlerella project in a bid for more privacy and to
pursue her original passions in the performing arts.
I wasn't sure what The Subtle Art
of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson was going to be like when I started it
but I was curious what 'the hype' was all about. So I figured 'why not?'
I bought both The Subtle Art of
Not Giving a F*ck and the second book Everything Is F*cked. Though I
was planning to read the latter in 2021, that never happened. So hopefully I'll
be reading and reviewing it this year – 2022. (I'm just giving myself a
timeline.)
"There
is a simple realization from which all personal improvement and growth emerges.
This is the realization that we, individually, are responsible for everything
in our lives, no matter the external circumstances."
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck is a book about life and
experiences. While it's not for everyone, there's lots of storytelling and ideas that serve as food for thought.
Here are my main takeaways and notes from the book:
1)Mark Manson is a
great storyteller. No he's not a novelist but he can keep you captivated with a
story for a few pages till he gets to the point he wants you to see.
2)There are many
worthwhile thoughts and quotes in there. (You'll see many of them
here and the rest are on my Instagram page.)
3)There's lots of
food for thought. Particularly this next quote/section:
"Take
a moment and think about something that's really bugging you. Now ask yourself whyit bugs you. Chances are the answer will involve a
failure of some sort. Then take that failure and ask why it seems "true" to
you. What if that failure wasn't really a failure? What if you've been looking
at it the wrong way?"
If you're wondering about how much
profanity is in the book, well the title should be a strong indicator.
Personally, I thought Manson overused the 'f' word. I mean there were parts
where you could just move on without using it, but he just added it.
Though The Subtle Art of Not
Giving a F*ck involves good storytelling there were many stories where Manson speaks about ex-girlfriends that I thought were boring.
And since the book focuses on
experiences, here's an interesting thought/comment/quote about experiences:
"Values
underlie everything we are and do. If what we value is unhelpful, if what we
consider success/failure is poorly chosen, when everything based on those
values – thoughts, the emotions, the day to day feelings – will all be out of
whack. Everything we think and feel about a situation ultimately comes back to
how valuable we perceive it to be."
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck is a light read. It's a break from
suspense and fantasy novels (that I like to read) and the heavy informative self-help and non-fiction books (that I come across).
But if you really want to summarize
the book, then this is it: (excuse the profanity)
The
3 subtleties of not giving a f*ck:
Subtlety
#1: Not giving a f*ck does not mean being indifferent, it
means being comfortable with being different.
Subtlety
#2: To not give a f*ck about adversity, you must first
give a f*ck about something more important than adversity.
Subtlety
#3: Whether you realize it or not, you are always choosing
to what to give a f*ck about.
And if you're looking for some
confusing wisdom, read this one. Think about it and you'll realize it makes a
lot of sense:
Overall rating for The Subtle Art
of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson: 3 stars. Hopefully, I'll get to his
second book over the summer.
Keep up with
me on Instagram to see
the remaining quotes that I liked in the book.
Today, I'm
excited to feature indie author Ian Price and his debut cyberpunk novel Dystopia's
Edge.
I'd heard of
cyberpunk before but never really looked up what it meant. So, I took the
opportunity to ask Ian what cyberpunk is along with his research process, who does he imagine his main character would look like, and more!
This post
includes an exclusive interview with Ian Price along with an excerpt from Dystopia's
Edge. I look forward to reading the book over the summer :) so stay tuned
for the review.
First,
here's a quick bio about Ian followed by the synopsis for Dystopia's Edge.
About
the author:
Ian Rollins Price was born in New York, growing up there before moving
to Massachusetts in order to attend Harvard University’s prestigious weekend
bartending course.
Glad to have written a novel during the COVID-19 pandemic, Ian is
looking forward to his next project while raising a newborn daughter alongside
his wonderful wife.
The year is 2121. The world has changed a lot, but in ways that you’d
probably expect.
I thought I put my hitman days behind me. Turns out that couldn’t be
further from the truth.
I’m Benjamin Edge, mercenary for hire. Running guns, carrying out hits,
I’ve done it all. When you grow up as a child soldier fighting for one
city-state against another in the crumbling ruins of a fallen civilization,
killing becomes second nature.
This newest job seems a breeze, though. Smuggling lab equipment from San
Francisco to New Tijuana means running a harsh gauntlet, but it’s nothing I
can’t handle. A few hired guns—even a reformed drug addict who let me down in
the past—should be enough to blaze a trail through the Badlands.
Or at least I thought it was.
Until a corpse came back from the dead.
Sergeant Reaver, a bio-engineered super soldier I killed a decade ago,
is somehow still breathing. Not only that, but he’s brought all the crime
syndicates in Los Angeles under his banner. Now that he knows I’m on his turf,
it’s me against an army all the way to New Tijuana.
Good thing I packed plenty of ammo.
Interview with Ian Price by Nadaness In Motion
1.Can you tell us a bit
about yourself and your writing?
Ian Price: I was originally born in New York City and grew up in
that area before moving up to Boston for college. I was a biology major at
Brandeis University, but I frequently took literature classes for fun (it was a
liberal arts school with a strong science program). By the time I found myself
in a creative writing class, I found that I’d taken enough courses to pick up
an English minor.
My writing style tends to have a sense of humor to it
while attempting to tackle serious issues. A holdover from contributing to the
humor magazine on campus.
2.What are your
favorite reading genres? Can you name a few favorite authors?
Ian Price: I like to read a bit of everything. In terms of
non-fiction, I can’t recommend the works of Candice Milard enough. She writes
historical novels about pivotal points in the lives of Theodore Roosevelt,
Winston Churchill, and other prominent figures.
For fiction, I don’t think it’s controversial to say
that Neil Gaiman is one of the best out there.
3.Your novel Dystopia's
Edge is in the 'cyberpunk' genre. What is cyberpunk exactly?
Ian Price: Cyberpunk is a genre pioneered in the early 1980’s by
artists like William Gibson in his work ‘Neuromancer’ and Ridley Scott’s ‘Blade
Runner’.
It explores the idea that advancements in technology
aren’t inherently linked to advancements in how people treat one another; that
the human condition could involve the rich getting richer and the poor getting
poorer. The 1% getting flying cars while everyone else is forced to build those
cars in corporation-run work camps. ‘High tech, low life’.
Ian Price writing and editing tip - from his interview with Nadaness In Motion
4.Is Dystopia's Edge
your first book or have you published other books?
Ian Price: I was a hobbyist cartoonist all throughout college
and published comic strips in various school-run publications during my time
there. I later collected all of ‘em in a paperback published through Lulu, so I
guess that’s my first book?
I’ve had other outlets for my creative side since then
(a little stand-up, some extra work in a couple Boston produced movies, etc.)
but I guess Dystopia's Edge is my first proper fiction novel!
5.What inspired you to
write Dystopia's Edge?
Ian Price: Short answer—when the pandemic hit and the world
seemed to be falling apart around me, I tried to distract myself by playing
video games in my free time. My April wedding got cancelled due to safety
concerns, watching the news had my nerves on a razors’ edge, and eventually I
just needed to do something more constructive with all that anxiety.
So, one night at 3 AM, I was physically unable to fall
asleep. Not knowing what else to do, I picked up my laptop and started writing
until I was able to fall asleep. That’s what I did for about a year. The result
was completing the first draft of Dystopia’s Edge.
Cyberpunk just seemed like the best genre to express
the anxieties I felt at the time. Eventually, after I submitted the first draft
to a few beta-readers, I was told that the story also had some Western vibes to
it. So that’s cool.
Some characters in the book let me explore themes like
drug addiction, the value of nature, and how much I idolize the children’s’
entertainer Fred McFeely Rogers. But I won’t talk too much about them. I
wouldn’t want to get into spoilers.
6.If Dystopia's Edge
were to be made into a movie or series, who would you like to play the main
character Benjamin Edge?
Ian Price: Oh gosh, Jason Mamoa? Or maybe Bo Burnham if he went
on one of those Hollywood workout regimens to get absolutely jacked? If some
studio somewhere wants to adapt my novel, they’re welcome to cast whoever they
please.
7.Dystopia's Edge has a lot of military-and-gang-themed parts
How did you go about researching this?
Ian Price: In my novel, California isn’t really a unified state
anymore. It takes place about 50 years after a period of tremendous global
instability that subdivided that area into 3 regions.
The area around San Francisco is what we would
consider the most normal. It’s where the wealthier population lives a
comfortable lifestyle that’s equitable to our own. Political power is in the
hands of big corporations. My day job is as an office-worked in the
pharmaceutical industry, so that was easy to write.
In Dystopia's Edge, the area around Los Angeles
has been taken over by a fascist dictatorship. I’m a big fan of history. I
studied the rise of Stalin and the Soviet Union back in college, watched more
than few documentaries on pre-WWII Italy / Germany documentaries, and even
visited Argentina shortly before the pandemic happened. Military coups are no
joke and I wanted to express the anxiety they give me when I think about them.
The land just outside those two cities is largely
decentralized. They’re controlled by a loose collective of organized gangs.
Growing up in a well-off New York suburb, I always thought the divide between
rich and poor was obscene. All one needed to do was walk over a tiny bridge
into an underprivileged neighborhood and find themselves in a place where the
crime rate had tripled. I spent some time on that other side and based the gang
stuff on my experiences there. I’ll leave it at that.
8.Dystopia's Edge is quite a big book :D – how much editing
did you have to go through? Can you tell us a bit about your writing and
editing process?
Ian Price: I did A LOT of editing. I spent about a year on the
first draft and a second year on post-production work. After reading through
the book and editing a 2nd draft myself, I then submitted it to 6 beta-readers.
Three were close friends and 3 were people I hired on Fiverr. In addition to
catching typos I might have missed, they also helped me fine-tune the plot. If
1 beta-reader doesn’t like a portion of your book—it might just be personal
taste on their part. But if 6 beta-readers don’t like a portion of your
book—it’s something that just doesn’t work and needs changing.
I also hired a professional proofreader. Always hire a
professional proofreader.
9.Have you set a
Goodreads goal for 2022? If yes, how many books would you like to read this
year?
Ian Price: I have not set a Goodreads goal for 2022. My wife is
due for a baby in April and I’ve got a few more baby books I need to finish up,
though. Shout-out to The Expectant Father by Armin Brott. It’s a
baby book written by a Navy Seal who became a stay-at-home dad.
10.While we're still not sure how travelling will work in
the summer of 2022, if you could travel anywhere this year or in coming years,
where would you go?(This is an invitation to come visit Egypt, where I'm
from ;) )
Ian Price: I would LOVE to come to Egypt. My wife and I were
supposed to have a honeymoon in Italy back in 2020, so at some point I’d like
to do that to. Heck, it’s a wonderful world out there and I want to see it all!
Watch Dystopia's Edge book trailer
If you're thinking Nada (me) and Ian are chatty – I must admit we are! But there's a lot to be said about Dystopia's Edge, which I'm looking forward to reading in a couple of months.
Now here's an exclusive peak at Dystopia's Edge, the cyberpunk novel that's kept Ian busy during the pandemic.
The book is written from the first person perspective of Benjamin Edge (the Jason Momoa maybe-lookalike ;) )
Excerpt from Dystopia's Edge by Ian Price
We kept heading east, veering ever slightly to the south as we went. I
told Rita that we’d need to go that way to steer clear of some old, abandoned
copper mines that could be found nearby. Those caves had been stripped clean of
their precious metals a century ago. Now their winding, underground caverns
functioned mainly as the perfect hideout for marauding raider clans.
Corvin, myself and the rest of our old mercenary company had once been
hired to go there for a job. A group of about thirty or so crazed barbarians
had taken up residence in those caves. This particular clan had been vigilant
in their apparent goal of robbing every passing cargo truck they laid their
eyes on. The lot was especially violent in their methods too.
So violent, in fact, the U.S. government itself actually took notice.
They were willing to pay a flat fee to any private mercenary group that went in
there, rooted them out, and brought back proof of their eradication.
When our troop got there, the first thing I remember noticing was the
smell.
There was a sick, sweet aroma floating out from the underground… a stale
odor wafting from the mouth of those caves like bad breath.
Once everyone got inside, we realized it was the dead bodies of all the
passengers they’d robbed. We’d been briefed that they’d gone missing, abducted
for some twisted purpose by the raiders. Honestly, though, I still believed
we’d find them alive… forced into manual labor at gunpoint. I thought they’d be
tired, a little beat up, but still capable of rescue.
Instead... the raiders had cannibalized them all for food. I was the
sole member of our group who was surprised by this, so maybe I was just more
naive back then.
Our shootout with those barbarians was won easily enough. There were a
lot of ‘em, sure. But we had much better guns and even better training. The
hostiles were only used to dealing with one or two security guards who’d been
hired to protect any cargo transports they’d robbed. Against us, they didn’t
stand a chance.
Most of my team spent the day behind cover, waiting patiently for the
barbarians to get aggressive and charge us. They were cannibals, after all, so
it didn’t take much to get them angry. A few smoke bombs, a couple well-placed
taunts… that usually set them off enough to make ‘em fight sloppy. They’d rush
out from cover, guns blazing. Then we’d pick ‘em off.
A few of them tried to retreat, fleeing the caves through tunnels we
hadn’t known about. When they got outside though, Corvin was waiting for them.
He’d found a perch from where he was able to snipe the yellow ones at a
distance. Most of them couldn’t make it ten feet before they received a bullet
in the head.
Their war chief had been a little more challenging to deal with. Every
time his clan had raided an armed truck, he’d always pilfer their best weapons
for himself. Our team eventually fought our way into his deepest lair (an
underground lake located at the bottom of the mine). I remember thinking that
the fella looked like a walking arsenal.
Buddy, this guy was carrying everything except the kitchen sink.
Submachine guns in each hand, every inch of him covered in body armor,
night-vision goggles, a shoulder-mounted rocket launcher…
The moment I learnt that the new Beast
and the Bethany book has been published and is available for review, I jumped
on the blog tour by @TheWriteReads!
And the new book doesn't disappoint!
In this blog post, I'm sharing my book
review of The Beast and the Bethany: Revenge of the Beast.
Synopsis:
Lemony
Snicket meets Roald Dahl in this riotously funny, deliciously macabre, and
highly illustrated sequel to The Beast and the Bethany in which Bethany and
Ebenezer try to turn over a new leaf, only to have someone—or something—thwart
them at every turn.
Once
upon a very badly behaved time, 511-year-old Ebenezer kept a beast in his
attic. He would feed the beast all manner of objects and creatures and in
return the beast would vomit him up expensive presents. But then the Bethany
arrived.
Now
notorious prankster Bethany, along with her new feathery friend Claudette, is
determined that she and Ebenezer are going to de-beast their lives and Do Good.
But Bethany finds that being a former prankster makes it hard to get taken on
for voluntary work. And Ebenezer secretly misses the beast’s vomity gifts. And
neither of them are all that sure what “good people” do anyway.
Then
there’s Claudette, who’s not been feeling herself recently. Has she eaten
something that has disagreed with her?
Book title: The Beast and the Bethany: Revenge of the Beast
"There
was fear in their eyes, and that fear looked awfully like respect."
The Beast and
the Bethany: Revenge of the Beast is the second book in The Beast and the Bethany
book series by Jack Meggitt-Philips.
Revenge of the
Beast opens with a
flashback to Ebenezer Tweezer's life and when he first met the beast. The
chapters alternate between the past and the present, where Bethany lives with
Ebenezer in his 15-story house.
In the
present, Bethany is on a mission to "de-beast" the house, her life,
and Ebenezer's from all things beast-related. And it's going swimmingly!
"Why
do we need to de-beast?" Ebenezer asked. "Claudette killed the beast,
I'd say that's pretty thorough de-beasting already."
But things
aren't what they seem. While Bethany is trying to get rid of all reminders
of the beast, the beast is secretly alive and plotting his revenge...
And what a
revenge it is!
"Throw
me at the one with the unpleasant face, if you want to have some fun."
Like the first
book, The
Beast and the Bethany, Revenge of the Beast is filled with
laugh-out-loud speech and events.
"I
bought [these paintings] myself. If we got rid of them we wouldn't be de-beasting,
we'd be de-Ebenezering!"
In addition to
the old cast, we meet many new characters, all integral to the book's progress
and to the characters' development.
Revenge of the
Beast sees a lot of
growth for the pompous, selfish, 500-year-old Ebenezer. There's also
development for Bethany but since she's young (11-ish?), we see her become
easily influenced by others and ignore her instincts.
There were
moments where I was laughing, others when I wanted to hug Bethany, and then
there were moment where I was "Noooooo" and "Focus,
Bethany!"
If you're
reading Revenge of the Beast, you'll likely be talking to yourself so
make sure no one is in the room with you or they'll think you're crazy. And if
they see the book you're reading, they'll probably get a confirmation of that
craziness.
Overall, Revenge of the Beast is a 5-star must-read children's book.
Overall
rating of The Beast and the Bethany: Revenge of the Beast by Jack Meggitt-Philips:
5 stars.
Note:
I received a free copy of The Beast and the Bethany: Revenge of the Beast
as part of a blog tour via The Write Reads Blog Tours. This has not, in any
way, affected my review.
Jack Meggitt-Phillips is an author, scriptwriter, and playwright whose work has been performed at The Roundhouse and featured on Radio 4.
He is scriptwriter and presenter of The History of Advertising podcast. In his mind, Jack is an enormously talented ballroom dancer, however his enthusiasm far surpasses his actual talent.
Jack lives in north London where he spends most of his time drinking peculiar teas and reading P.G. Wodehouse novels.
