Review of Chime by Franny Billingsley

Chime is like a fairytale. No, not the Disney kind. Like one of the original Grimms tales, where Cinderella’s stepsisters cut off bits of their own feet.

Chime is like a fairytale told as a stream (or, should I say,river…) of thought from a 17-year -old girl who claims to be a witch.

Chime is, by far, one of the craziest things I’ve ever read. Continue reading

How to Write a Unique Story

You can’t.

Okay, the title of this post is misleading, but bear with me.

The issue of creating a unique story used to constantly plague me while I was writing Aza. I could see so many connections to my favorite books at the time– the tribes came from Warriors by Erin Hunter, the camouflaged cloaks were from Ranger’s Apprentice (even though I came up with the idea before I read that series) by John Flannagan… the list goes on. There were times when I considered giving up just because of Aza’s lack of uniqueness.

Luckily I didn’t, and now I realize something: no one can write a truly unique story. Here are the reasons why: Continue reading