Archives for 2015

Becoming an Author

November 21, 2015 by Vacen Taylor

When and why did you realize you wanted to become an author?

I told my mother once when I was 15 that I would write a book. I didn’t accomplish that until I was in my forties. I guess I knew I wanted to be an author when I was 15. I didn’t start writing until I was around 40.

I love telling stories. I love characters that believe in truth, courage and bravery. However, to become truly great at all of those things we first have to be challenged and that is what Starchild is about. To be truthful it’s also what writing is about. Not everything happens the way the characters expect it. It is the same when you are an author. Creating stories that have a deeper meaning is why I became an author.

What are you working on now? What is your next project?

I’m working on Starchild Book Four: Fire and the Falcon. In this book everyone gets to meet the falcon guard called, Tupuck. He’s really cool.

I’m also working on a YA Science fiction adventure and an Australian story about a teenage girl. This story is for anyone who believes in the complexity and fragility of a human life.

So until next time. Be brave and bold in your chosen field of creativity. And never be afraid to explore new techniques.

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Songs and Sounds from the Starchild Series.

September 21, 2015 by Vacen Taylor

Sharing today…

I decided to share a few very amateurish (I’m no songstress that’s for sure) recordings by me. These were recorded while I was writing book one, two and three. I tend to record something as I go because this is the purest of creative time for me. It’s when I am part of the story both in mind and spirit.

The first recording is a reading form Starchild Book One: The Age of Akra.

FROM THE SACRAL
Waterclaspers: dwellers of the ice regions and keepers of the land of ice.
Ability: to manipulate water and the ability to boil or freeze it. They can also cleanse the body and heal illnesses.

The Selection.

The second is a song from Starchild Book Two: The City of Souls

FROM THE HEART
Soulbankers: regulators of life and death, dwellers of the rainforest and defenders of the forest lands.
Ability: to locate any person’s soul energy across the world and transform mystically into liquid air, moving with the speed of the wind. They can enter the body of anyone and use their physical form to achieve their objective.

A low voice murmured the beginning of an old song. Mai knew of the soulbankers’ salute to the souls.

Song for the souls.

The next piece is also from Starchild Book Two: The City of Souls and is passage of praise to the blue moon.

Blue moon praise.

The last is from Starchild Book Three: The Healing Stone. The is a cheerful fisherman’s song.

The Water Song

While these are not professional pieces by any means they are pure and real while in the midst of creating a story and building a world that I am still learning about.

So until next time. Be brave and bold in your chosen field of creativity. And never be afraid to explore new techniques.

Starchild: The Healing Stone

September 21, 2015 by Vacen Taylor

Starchild: The Healing Stone

Song found in book three.

Aque’s tune was a cheerful song, and it made Mai forget her worries. Not long after, his foot began to tap a merry beat and he opened up in song.

From the clouds to the land
Yes my love the water ran
Over rocks and under twigs
Yes my love the water sneaks

Hey! Oh! Let me know.
Where does the water go?
Hey! Oh! Let me go.
To the water where it flows

Down the river and up the stream
Yes my love the water gleams
Through the valley to the shore
Yes my love the water pours

Hey! Oh! Let me know.
Where does the water go?
Hey! Oh! Let me go.
To the water where it flows

In my body and to my soul
Yes my love the water rolls
In my heart and in my hand
Yes my love water I command

Sooooooo
Hey! Oh! Let me know.
Where does the water go?
Hey! Oh! Let me go.
To the water when it flows
Hey! Ho!

The song had such a happy beat that Mai found herself clapping along. When Aque finished, she told him he had a good singing voice.

Book available Here

So until next time. Be brave and bold in your chosen field of creativity. And never be afraid to explore new techniques.

Awesome Interview With a #BookReviewer #MyCrazyReadingObsession

July 4, 2015 by Vacen Taylor

Today I’m lucky enough to be interviewing an awesome young woman who also happens to be a book reviewer.
Angelina, thank you for allowing me to interview you today.

1) Firstly, tell my readers a little about yourself and why you like to review books.

My name is Angelina and I run the book blog My Crazy Reading Obsession along with my friend Jessica. I am in 9th grade in the German European School.

There are several reasons as to why I review books. The main reason is that I absolutely love reading books. Reading is my life, I can’t imagine it without books. There are so many new books to discover which might not be popular and some of them are like little gold nuggets. Jessie and I started this blog for this exact reason: we love books and want to express our love for it on the Internet, where we can connect to other book lovers like us who understand our passion. Furthermore, writing reviews help me collect, analyze and process my thoughts while reading the book. Before I started writing reviews I used to give books 5 stars on Goodreads just because I liked them. But now I started to develop my thoughts and ratings for the books and think about the pros and cons of the book.

2) Have you ever read a book that has made you feel differently about something or perhaps changed your point of view on a particular subject?

I read several books that have made me think twice about a subject or an opinion. One that comes to mind immediately would be “Skinniness is Next to Goddessness?” by Julia Keanini. It is about an overweight girl who desperately wants to become skinny quickly and therefore suffers from an eating disorder. She then goes to a club to get help and realizes that looks don’t always matter. This book made me think twice about skinniness.
3) What motivates you to keep reading?

All the great and new books motivate me to keep on reading. There is a quote that says:”Don’t judge a book by its cover.” But that’s what I do almost all the time. Looking at beautiful book covers makes me pick the book up and read the blurb and by now there are so many awesome books I have found and loved. There are many new stories and sometimes you find that one book you fall in love with because it’s that amazing.

4) What is your most favourite book and can you tell my readers a little bit about how you felt after you finished this book? And what made you like it so much?

Which books to choose from? My favourites always change over time. My current favourite book series is the whole Percy Jackson and Heroes of Olympus series by Rick Riordan. My favourite book is probably “An Ember in the Ashes”. I recently finished reading it and it left me feeling kind of lost, because I had to finally return to reality. I also wanted to read more, I wanted to complete the journey with the characters and learn more about their lives.
5) Lastly, if you had to pick one book that could be made into a film what book would it be?

Well, there are several books I want to see as a movie and some of them have already sold their movie rights or are being worked on! (crossing my fingers that they will be made into a film sometime soon) One of the books that are being made into a movie is called “Lockwood & Co. The Screaming Staircase”. I absolutely love that book, I recommend it to everyone! But I will pick a book that isn’t being made into a movie from what I have heard. I think that I would pick “The Summoning” by Kelley Armstrong. It is a really awesome book and I really hope that there will be a movie for it someday!

I was delighted to be asked by Angelina to be interviewed. You can check out the interview @ My Crazy Reading Obsession here!

There is noting more important to me than an honest review. Yes, an honest review is worth its weight in gold. Not only does an honest review provide an author with the thoughts and feelings of the reader but it also gives an author the opportunity to learn. So thank you Angelina and Jessica for providing the world of authors and readers with such a wonderful blog.

The book review by Angelina on Starchild Book One: The Age of Akra can be found here.

Thank you Angelina for allowing me to interview you. I am blessed and grateful to know you.

So until next time. Be brave and bold in your chosen field of creativity. And never be afraid to explore new techniques.

Supanova #popculture and Cosplay Expo

April 14, 2015 by Vacen Taylor

Some of you reading this may know about pop culture and cosplay but some of you may not. So let’s begin with the event, Supanova. What is it exactly? The Supanova Pop Culture Expo brings together ideas, creativity, images, perspectives found in different types of creative mediums like comic books, anime, science-fiction, TV/movies, games, fashion, the fantasy realms, games, books and costumes. I have missed a few others but I think you get the idea. Cosplay (costume play) refers to cosplayers (people, mostly fans) who dress in costume representing a particular character of their choice. Like Groot or Cinderella here.

Over the weekend a steady stream of pop culture enthusiasts filed into the exhibition grounds. On entering some people paid homage, a certain respect and allegiance overcomes them, others squealed and gradually an excited chatter began to fill the venue. Now usually when I see something that takes my interest I photograph it. I’ve been coming to these events for many years now. But what I like doing best is talking to people, fans. The art of conversation with pop culture fans is not something I’m unfamiliar with or perturbed by because I’m a comic collector and anime fan myself.

Supanova offers some wonderful experiences from meeting guests and visiting talented creators in Artist Alley to deciding what to buy from the exhibitors. The quality lineup of guests is something fans speak about a lot too.

One young lady explained to me, “I’m not a fan of anything else but Star Trek. That’s why I’m here.” She had come to see George Takei.

There are always times when I learn more about people from what they don’t tell me. Often when I attend these kinds of events I watch for connections, enjoyable experiences, and those incredible moments fans class as an everlasting experience. I’m reminded that no one is alone in their fan convention journey. For this event a young editing intern was with us. Yes, she was a first-timer to Supanova. And yes, she had a lot of fun.

Shopping. Yes, that happened. I can never attend an event like this without buying something. This time it was a Spider-Man t-shirt. And my young intern friend bought a Star Trek tee, amongst other things.

Whether people are fans of Veronica Mars, Stargate SG-1, X-Men, Game of Thrones, Star Trek, Dragon Ball Z, Firefly, Wonder Women, Ben 10 or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, it is clear the fans support the entirety of ideas, attitudes, characters and the creative concepts of their favourite books, movies, TV series, games, or anime series. If you don’t believe me look below.

The thing I find about Supanova and so many other similar events, the fans of these events are happy to share their passion and enthusiasm with other people at the event. I believe this widespread activism for some takes up a considerable amount of time in their lives: beginning with a great comic, book, anime, TV series or film and a few conversations between fans and slowly a fandom begins to grow.

Pop culture will continue to evolve and these shared social gatherings will continue to be supported by the legions of fans from around the world.

So until next time. Be brave and bold in your chosen field of creativity. And never be afraid to explore new techniques.

Archives for 2015

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