Idiot's Never Start on the First Chapter

Why does anyone bother starting their first draft on the very first chapter? Yes, this bit of information is important, it sets up the entire story...But it's also an author's worst nightmare. While you're busy typing, erasing, re-typing, and then just smashing buttons on your poor keyboard trying to get out the perfect first chapter, you could be working everything else out for your novel. You could just begin the second chapter, the chapter that could quite possibly throw all of your characters into the tasty plot. But of course that'll never happen while you're busy flipping out over the boring and almost impossible to write first chapter.

And I'm sure all of you are going to tell me about structure, the importance of the first chapter, and that you would never harm your keyboard in such a way; but I'm all round ready to just give up on the first chapter until I'm sure I'm ready to tackle it. When I got this amazing epiphany yesterday I was able to crank out two chapters in one day, both nearly five thousand words long. Both of them were relaxed, steady, and moved along quite nicely even without the first chapter of the novel. Heck, maybe I should just call the second chapter the first one, just throw my poor audience into a loop.

Anyway, I'm gonna go play Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess....

An Idiot's Review of Delwyn of the Realms

I know, I know it's been way too long since my last post. However lots of things have been going on in my life, things you probably don't care about, so let's jump right into today's topic...A review. Now this isn't a main stream book instead it's a self-published fantasy book. So yeah, just a warning before you decide to kill time by reading the review. But you guy's should know I'm all about fantasy books by now, unless you're dropping in for the first time, in which case welcome.

Anyway, boring intro aside, let's get down to business!

So, as previously mentioned, the story is called Delwyn of the Realms written by Mrs. Kelly Proudfoot. If Alice Liddell became a thirty year old with mental disorders, divorced, and Australian this would be her story. It just has the curious atmosphere and array of interesting characters that the drug dream that was Alice in Wonderland. However, unlike Alice, we get the opportunity to have a plot and a woman that had some life experiences. Which actually starts me off on the first point of this review...

Delwyn isn't a young adult.

Now as a teen I mostly read YA fantasy. Why? Mostly because I like urban fantasy and you can find that in abundance in that section. Not only that but, as stupid as this sounds, I can relate more to the teens than the adults. However Delwyn is refreshing in the fact that even though we're over a decade apart in age, I can still relate to her on some level. That just shows that Delwyn in herself is a rather fleshed out character that anyone can just up and read about. Of course she still has her flaws, but those only help to progress the story along and show that her family life wasn't just her fault.

Speaking of which.

The family members in this story make up a huge part of the way Delwyn thinks. I won't go into overwhelming detail, but let's just say that it's like a Cinderella story. Except that Delwyn didn't have any step siblings and her father didn't die. However she almost has a fairy godmother in the form of her Aunt. Unlike Delwyn, however, I didn't see her as fleshed out and actually was bored whenever she was on the page. Her dynamics with her niece are sweet, but any form of conflict between the two felt so contrived I almost laughed a few times.

Now, I know I went into the whole spiel with the characters first and I'm sure you're curious about the plot, but please excuse me for that, I'm pretty character driven. Anyway, the plot is an interesting tale about Delwyn and her adventure in-between her normal and almost peaceful life within Australia and her exciting journey through the land of dreams. The story has a false start, but when it is explained later on about her issues with nightmares it makes some sense. The actual start has Delwyn leaving a mental institution and heading off to her aunt's farm in the middle of Australia. There she lives with her aunt and things begin to happen that lead to the plot of this tale. Unlike a lot of stories where the hero/heroine's mental issues are forgotten once the plot get's going this story sticks to it. In fact that is woven into the entire story and affects her in plenty of ways both good and bad, dream world or real world.

Speaking of the dream world.

I enjoyed Delwyn's time in the dream world far more than Australia. The way it is described is just amazing as are all of the colorful characters she meets while there. This brings up possibly the best thing that the authoress is able to do: write amazing smell descriptions. Every time Delwyn took in a breath and smelled something I swore I was smelling the same thing. The words used are colorful and yet also relatable enough to give me an idea on exactly what I should be smelling at that point and time. I don't think I've ever had the opportunity to have that experience with any book I've ever read in my entire life. Mrs. Kelly does a good job with the visual, auditory, and feeling senses as well, but the sense of smell just takes the cake.

However, like all stories, this one does have its problems. While I did enjoy the story the beginning was just so slow. It took a long time to get into the actual plot and fantasy aspect of the story, especially since I got a chilling; although over used, first few lines. Another issue I had was the head jumping that would randomly happen during a conversation. One minute I could be in Delwyn's head, but another time I could be inside her aunt's. It was rather irritating and almost threw me off at times. The final issue I had was the all round over used plot devices that were thrown into the story. While I did like the mirror since the story gave off an Alice in Wonderland vibe, I didn't appreciate the false start at the beginning of the story, especially with that slow exposition filled beginning I had to read through.

All of that aside I did enjoy this story and the many interesting landscapes that I was dropped into. I'm hoping that the authoress takes note of her mistakes and will improve when she get's the next volume of the series done. Guess we'll see then, huh?

If you'd like to purchase Mrs. Kelly Proudfoot's book you can do so here: http://www.amazon.com/Delwyn-Realms-Storming-Archives-Book-ebook/dp/B00TD0RF7E