Kasper's Ramblings from Kasper Beaumont

A professor's thoughts on Elven Jewel 'Fantasy in the Grand Tradition.' @JoshuaGrasso #FSFNet #fantasy

8/29/2015

'Kasper is a prolific writer of fantasy and a loyal supporter of other writers, so it's a pleasure to read her work here and review it. Her stories are easy to characterize but hard to put in a nutshell: that is, she writes epic fantasy in the best Tolkein tradition, and yet it's not derivative or run-of-the-mill. She excels at wide-eyed narration with beautiful, yet never effusive description, and characters who seem as familiar as your old friends, but much more powerful!

'I think she bridges the world of adult fantasy and YA fantasy quite well with this story, and it would be a great intro to a younger reader first venturing into the wilds of the fantasy genre. That said, a seasoned reader would appreciate her attention to detail and the small twists she introduces to the traditional lore. It's a fast-moving, well-written excerpt, the kind of writing you like to curl up in a bed with on a long winter's night. So glad she found her way to Inkitt!'

Overall Rating 5 star
Plot                 5 star
Writing Style   5 star
Grammar and
Punctuation    5 star

Critique by Joshua Grasso

Inkitt review: http://www.inkitt.com/stories/20964/reviews

Elven Jewel is book one of the Hunters of Reloria trilogy and has been well-received by readers from age 10 to almost 100. Please take the time to read and offer your opinions as well.

Elven Jewel on Amazon

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Guest post by children's book author Wanda Luthman on forgiveness #author #blog @wandalu64

8/23/2015

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Wanda Luthman published her first children's book, The Lilac Princess in 2014. She writes when she's not busy being a Guidance Counselor.

Welcome Wanda. What are you currently writing and when will you have another book out?

I'm currently working on a second children's book about a turtle who doesn't like being in his shell.

I'm not sure when it will be out. I need a good edit and to figure out KDP and someone to do the cover.

Who did that great cover for The Lilac Princess?

I self-published through Xulon and they did the artwork for my cover. I'm very happy with it.

Wanda's blog post on forgiveness

In my children’s book, The Lilac Princess, a princess is faced with the dilemma of whether or not she will choose to forgive the dragon that was going to kill her. What would you do? What have you done with the dragons in your life? Forgiveness is not easy. Forgiveness takes a lot of courage. I want to encourage you today to choose bravery by choosing to forgive and begin enjoying happiness and better relationships and emotional freedom. You’ll be glad you did!

We’ve all had something happen to us in our lives that hurt us. Hurt that may have even come to define us. We may not open up as quickly as we used to or not trust like we used to or even have developed emotional walls to keep people out entirely. These coping skills may serve us well until one day we realize we are sad or lonely or bitter. That’s when we start looking for a way to heal.

Don’t stop reading after what I’m about to say, but the path to healing lies in forgiveness. Stay with me. No one likes to think about forgiving that person or persons that hurt us. We’ve held on to that hurt and maybe even nursed it, feeling justified. And we are justified because yes, our pain is real and no, we didn’t deserve to be hurt. But, the path to us re-gaining our lost self and finding healing rests in forgiveness.

For me, my journey towards forgiveness began when I was going through my divorce. I picked up a devotional book. In it, I found a definition of forgiveness that I could finally embrace—“letting go of all hope of having a better past.” I wish I could remember the name of the book or the author, but I don’t unfortunately. However, these words rang true for me. It spurred me on to take those first few wobbly steps towards forgiveness.

We tend to think of forgiveness as saying, “it’s ok that your hurt me,” or worse, “it’s not a big deal that your hurt me.” But, we don’t feel that it’s ok to be hurt or that it’s no big deal. So, it’s no wonder we don’t want to grant anyone forgiveness. Likewise, the princess in my book cannot just say that it was ok for the dragon to steal her away and threaten to kill her.

But, if we use our new definition of forgiveness and we start with giving up our hope of having a better past, we get off the hamster-wheel of grinding over it. We may grind about why it happened to us, or why it happened at all or what had we done to deserve it or what could we have done to prevent it, etc. While it’s worthwhile to analyze something to determine if we did anything to cause the problem in the first place so we can make changes, often we were just plain vulnerable and/or naïve. There’s nothing we could have done differently.

The grinding we are doing is not productive, it is just that, a grind. We have to stop that hamster-wheel thinking because we all know that leads to nowhere. We need to let go of all hope of having a better past. When we let go, we find ourselves lighter and freer. We realize we’ve been carrying a heavy burden and we’re exhausting ourselves emotionally re-living and re-analyzing our past. All of that energy causes us to come to the same conclusion we did originally; the world isn’t safe and we have to pull in to survive. Ultimately, that conclusion is what led us to this place of unhappiness that we’ve found ourselves in and why we are now looking for healing.

Alternatively, when we let go, yes, we feel more vulnerable and that’s a scary new feeling, but we also feel happy. For the first time in a long time, maybe. If we get off the hamster-wheel and stop grinding over the past, we stop re-enforcing old thoughts and ways that lead us to being sad, lonely and/or bitter and we start to feel free and happy. We embrace the here and now. We live in the moment. We begin the journey of healing. As in the story, healing not only comes to the dragon but to her and her friend and then the whole country.

We find ways to feel more comfortable with being vulnerable. We realize the risk of being vulnerable is worth it because the cost of protecting ourselves was our sadness, loneliness, and/or bitterness. We also learn we are older and wiser and therefore less vulnerable. We’ve learned good judgement which we can use to determine if someone is trustworthy vs. not trusting anyone. We’ve also learned how to walk away when someone is unsafe. In other words, we have new and improved tools.

Can you feel the difference letting go makes? Just that one change has changed our path. We are free and it’s all because we chose the path of forgiveness.

Thanks Wanda. I appreciate your thoughts on forgiveness. It shows your passion for honesty and is often as you say, not the easiest path.

Folks, here are the links to follow Wanda and to get a copy of her great book:

The Lilac Princess on Amazon

Wanda Luthman on Facebook

Wanda Luthman on Twitter

Wanda's blog

The Lilac Princess by Wanda Luthman

She is loved by many, and equally as loving to others, a kind-hearted princess who exemplifies the genuine care bestowed by her kingdom to everyone.
Yet the desire for adventure calls to her each day, whether through seeing the excitement of knights being readied for battle or from wanting the freedom to explore life outside the castle walls.
So when Princess Dreama is given a flower by a sweet village boy named Dirk, she sees a person with a kindred spirit who could help her with her mission to escape being a princess for a while.
Their adventure is detailed in The Lilac Princess, the new fairy tale novel by author Wanda Luthman. As Dreama gets her chance to enjoy being free from her royal duties, she soon finds herself in the clutches of an evil dragon, Liam.
It becomes a race against time to locate the missing princess before the malicious plans of the dragon commence. Will she be rescued in time? Who will also be her rescuers; the knights of her father’s kingdom, or her brave friend, and potential first love, Dirk?
The Lilac Princess is an exciting adventure into the mythical world of dragons and fairy tale magic, but also presents lessons to young readers about the merits of responsibility, forgiveness and standing up for what you believe in.
Delve into the whimsical world of Dreama and her friends as they experience the adventure of a lifetime, but come away with lessons that change them forever.

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A professor's thoughts on Elven Jewel 'Fantasy in the Grand Tradition.' @JoshuaGrasso #FSFNet #fantasy

Guest post by children's book author Wanda Luthman on forgiveness #author #blog @wandalu64

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