Usborne Fantasy Quests
Andy Dixon
Usborne
Fiction, YA Fantasy/Picture Book
****
DESCRIPTION: Can you find hidden objects? Solve puzzles? Three challenging picture adventures, illustrated by Nick Harris, await within:
Dragon Quest: An evil spell has deprived the people of Shortsville of their hair, but the only way to break the curse lies beyond the lair of a fearsome dragon.
Sword Quest: Recover the kidnapped king and magic sword to free the land of Glee from a foul villain's grip.
Star Quest: An alien seeks help to stop the destruction of his world's sun.
REVIEW: The stories may be silly, but the detailed and imaginative illustrations are great. The hidden image searches added a nice extra dimension, and proved to be more challenging than I expected. I admit, I never did find a few needed items. Fortunately, there's an answer key at the end of each quest, plus a few additional puzzles for any eagle eyes who found the quests too easy. I enjoyed it for what it was, and can certainly appreciate the time and effort that went into devising the challenges.
You might also enjoy:
Heart of a Tiger (Marsha Diane Arnold, YA Picture Book - Detailed watercolors with hidden images illustrate the story of a shy kitten who wants a tiger's name)
Alternamorphs (K. A. Applegate, YA Fiction - A choose-your-own-adventure story in Applegate's Animorphs universe)
Fairy Dreams (Carol McLean-Carr, YA Picture Book - Fairies lose a young girl's borrowed toys in their night's journeying, but replace them with gifts found along the way)
Dragonology Pocket Adventures (Dugald A. Steer, editor, YA Fiction - Four choose-your-own-story booklets featuring dragons)
Sir Toby Jingle's Beastly Journey (Wallace Tripp, YA Fiction - An aging knight sets out on one last journey to seek his fortune)
Return to Top of Page - Return to Book Review List
Write As Fast As You Think
Angie Dixon
Amazon Digital Services
Nonfiction, Writing
****
DESCRIPTION: To any writer, time is money. The more you can write in a month, a week, or even a day, the greater your potential income. So doesn't it make sense to
write as quickly as possible? Angie Dixon, a prolific writer of both books and articles, describes her MindWriting (TM) system that allows her to maximize quantity and quality -
not to mention profitability.
A Kindle-exclusive title.
REVIEW: As a would-be fiction writer, I've read a small library's worth of books on writing. While each promises a fresh take on the matter, most of them boil down to the same advice, redressed and repackaged. Dixon's writing system, while aimed at nonfiction freelancers, actually presents a different workflow. She targets those areas where writers tend to bog themselves down and lose their way, offering credible solutions to keep on track and increase output. Dixon makes some assumptions that I'm not sure real- world experience bears out - the idea that every mind retains copious amounts of information on first blush, for instance, presupposes a level of reading comprehension and retention that not everyone has developed. I also wondered why, in an ebook format, she didn't hotlink her worksheets for each chapter rather than piling them all at the end of the book. Overall, hersystem is intriguing. Once I finish the current draft of my latest fiction monstrosity, I might give it a try.
You might also enjoy:
No Plot? No Problem! (Chris Baty, Writing - How to write a novel draft in 30 days or fewer)
The Moonlighter's Guide to Online Writing for Immediate Income (Connie Brentford, Writing - Write articles and other material for money)
Write a F*$%ing Book Already - The Insider's Guide To Increasing Your Sales & Improving Your Career With A Book (Jim Kukral,
Nonfiction - Why everyone, even you, needs to write a book to get ahead in work and life)
Write Good or Die (Scott Nicholson, editor, Writing - Articles and essays on writing and publishing)
Words to Write By(Elaine L. Orr, Writing - How to organize thoughts and write effectively)
Return to Top of Page - Return to Book Review List
Return to Brightdreamer Books Home
Brightdreamer Books is created and maintained by TBW, a.k.a. "Brightdreamer."
E-mail: tbweber AT comcast DOT net. (Remove spaces, replace AT with "@" and DOT with "." - please put "Brightdreamer Books" in the subject line, or your e-mail may be deleted as
spam! Thank you!