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Character Communication

- Slang Words - Online Slang Dictionary - Emotion - Words to describe emotion List of adjectives to describe emotional tone and feelings - Body Language - 10 Common Facial Expressions Explained Chest Body Language Body Language Cheat Sheet 41 Flavors of Body Language for Writers - Voice - A list of words to describe someone’s voice 1 A list of words to describe someone’s voice 2 Describing someone’s voice from A - Z 48 Tone/Attitude Words Words for making sounds Words to describe accents

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Why Clichés and Tropes Aren’t Necessarily a Bad Thing

I’ve tried to be very fair in my blog posts about using clichés and tropes. Stereotypes should generally be kept off the table, but I’ve seen a lot of writing posts about how terrible clichés are. Let me respectfully disagree. While constantly using clichés and tropes to flesh out your novel isn’t the best idea in the world, I don’t think you should (or can) remove them entirely.

Clichés:

A lot of experiences that are true to life can feel like clichés because we’ve heard about them so many times. For example, a coming-of-age story about the bonds of friendship has been done so many times and will sometimes utilize clichés to get the job done. There is a way, however, to take a cliché and make it your own.  If you’ve seen horror movies like Scream and The Cabin in the Woods, then you’ve seen stories that have used clichés in a creative way. They started off with a story that’s familiar and used those clichés against the audience.  Harry Potter uses the “chosen one” cliché which we’ve seen in an endless number of novels, but I think Rowling does a good job of making it interesting and adding new and exciting elements to it.

Take some time to think about your favorite parts of your favorite novels. Do they have anything in common with themes you like to use in your own writing? Chances are you’re using clichés! What I’m trying to say is—don’t let anyone scare you away from using common story ideas. Find your own unique way to make them interesting (change the setting, switch up the characters, etc.)

Tropes:

For people who have been reading and writing for a long time, it’s easy to understand the difficulty in maneuvering around tropes. These are scenarios that most readers are familiar with and can sometimes enhance a novel. Sure, overusing tropes and depending on them too much to tell your story is a bad idea, but your storytelling abilities can certainly benefiting from understanding them on a deeper level.

We see tropes in stories because readers can relate to them.  They can be realistic and familiar to a point where it’s nice to come across them. I believe that tropes can provide a common ground that writers can build on to make their stories more exciting. For example, good vs. evil is technically a trope that’s been used over and over and over again. It’s used so much because it works—we have a clear villain and a clear protagonist. We know who to root for. However, when you add in different shades of gray (the villain is the protagonist’s father… a cliché!), you can build a very interesting story. Both of these things have been done before (Star Wars, anyone?), but you can’t deny these ideas can be molded into great stories. It all depends on what you do with it!

Again, overusing clichés and tropes will build a very predictable story, but if you use them to structure you novel and pepper in some unique and interesting ideas…well, there’s nothing wrong with using them. Give something your own twist, switch up a common idea, or use tropes to steer your readers in a surprising direction.  Don’t drop an idea because it’s been done before!

-Kris Noel

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A brief summary of D&D alignments for the uninformed.

Lawful Good: Laws are good if they are just and fair.

Lawful Neutral: Laws are good because they are laws.

Lawful Evil: Laws are good, but only if they benefit me.

Neutral Good: Let’s do the Right Thing(™)

True Neutral: Please leave me alone.

Neutral Evil: What’s in it for me?

Chaotic Good: Personal freedom is the most important thing in the world, and I would die for others freedom.

Chaotic Neutral: Personal freedom is the most important thing in the world, and I would die for mine.

Chaotic Evil: Personal freedom is the most important thing in the world. Mine more than yours. 

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11 Rules for Better Writing

via

Know the difference between a topic and a story, which is this: A topic sits still, and a story moves. A topic is an answer, while a story asks a question that connects to the reader’s heart and mind. For example, I got fired from my job yesterday is a topic. I got fired from my job yesterday and this morning I began planning my revenge — that is a story.

Don’t fly solo. Find the best writers who’ve written in this vein and study them like a detective. Figure out how they attacked the problem. They are your coaches.

Figure out what your subjects/characters want — what they really, truly, deeply want — put it up top, and and let that question — will they get it? –  fuel your narrative.

Inside the narrative, obstacles are your friend. The bigger the obstacle, the better the story.

Seek out opposites. For example, if you were describing something rough and crude, you should use images of elegance and refinement (i.e. “the abandoned Chevrolet was a lacework of rust”). Or, if a 330-pound defensive lineman enters a room, focus on how delicately and balletically he walks. Sentences are like batteries: opposites create energy.

Outline like crazy, and revise those outlines constantly. I use two kinds of outlines: big and small. The big outline is for the entire narrative arc; the smaller outline is for each chapter. Like construction blueprints, outlines sound dull, but in fact are the opposite: the place where the most important creative moves happen.

Figure on a 10:1 efficiency ratio — that is, 10 pages of rough drafts and notes for every one page of quality writing. Which you’ll have to revise over and over again, of course.

Read like a thief. Underline good stuff, and read it over and over again until you figure out how they did that. When you find a passage, image, or description you love, write it down on a card and keep all those cards in one place.

Ignore small criticism.

Listen intently to big criticism. If someone doesn’t “get” your writing, it’s not their fault. It’s yours.

If you get stuck, get busy. Revisit outlines. Seek out new material. Keep plugging until something clicks. “Imagination” is overrated; creativity comes from making fresh connections.

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Words to Find: (solution)

accumulation

balmy

blustery

condensation

graupel

haboob

leeward

monsoon

upwelling

squall

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I need tips on writing an analysis paper

Hello nonnie!

I am sorry this has taken me so long. I lost it in all my submission pieces. Unfortunately, I am not so good at non-fiction and the good old analytical essay. So, I’m going to point you in the direction of some people who are;

An Analytical Essay Outline

Easy How-to Guide on Analytical Essays

How to Write a Killer Analysis, Video Style

Organizing your Analysis

On writing the Conclusion

Sample Conclusion

How to Write a Literary Analytical Essay 

How to Analyse Data

How to Analyse a Text

How to Analyse a Cast Study

I wish you the best of luck with your paper!

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Day 8 Of Beta Month!

Beta Month is your unique chance to read the first installment of Dark World dystopian six-part serial novel, for FREE, pre-publication through the month of August. This opportunity is available throughout the month of August with daily sneak peeks right here on my blog! Want to find out how to read for free? Check out the deets here! Daily Sneak Peek : I reached one of my hands forward and gave…

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Writing Research: American Revolution

The American Revolution was a political upheaval that took place between 1765 and 1783 during which colonists in the Thirteen American Colonies rejected the British monarchy and aristocracy, overthrew the authority of Great Britain, and founded the United States of America.

Starting in 1765, members of American colonial society rejected the authority of the British Parliament to tax them without any representatives in the government, and resisted renewed British attempts to collect duties on goods such as sugar and molasses that for many years had gone uncollected through widespread smuggling by colonists. During the following decade, protests by colonists—known as Patriots—continued to escalate, as in the Boston Tea Party in 1773 during which patriots destroyed a consignment of taxed tea from the East India Company. The British responded by imposing punitive laws—the Coercive Acts—on Massachusetts in 1774 until the tea had been paid for, following which Patriots in the other colonies rallied behind Massachusetts. In late 1774 the Patriots set up their own alternative government to better coordinate their resistance efforts against Britain, while other colonists, known as Loyalists, preferred to remain subjects of the British Crown.

Tensions escalated to the outbreak of fighting between Patriot militia and British regulars at Lexington and Concord in April 1775, after which the Patriot Suffolk Resolves effectively replaced the Royal government of Massachusetts, and confined the British to control of the city of Boston. The conflict then evolved into a global war, during which the Patriots (and later their French, Spanish and Dutch allies) fought the British and Loyalists in what became known as the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783). Patriots in each of the thirteen colonies formed a Provincial Congress that assumed power from the old colonial governments and suppressed Loyalism. Claiming King George III’s rule to be tyrannical and infringing the colonists’ “rights as Englishmen”, the Continental Congress declared the colonies free and independent states in July 1776. The Patriot leadership professed the political philosophies of liberalism and republicanism to reject monarchy and aristocracy, and proclaimed that all men are created equal. Congress rejected British proposals requiring allegiance to the monarchy and abandonment of independence. [1]

Names

ModernMom - Popular Baby Names in the 1700s

British Baby Names - Curiosities of the Seventeenth Century

Medieval Naming Guides - Early 17th Century English Names

Internet Archive - Early census making in Massachusetts, 1643-1765, with a reproduction of the lost census of 1765 (recently found) and documents relating thereto;

Olive Tree Genealogy - Irish Passenger Lists: 1765, no ship name, arriving from Ireland in Boston, Massachusetts

Trail Of Our Ancestors - Names of German Pioneers to Pennsylvania:  Passenger Ships’ Lists, 1750

USGenWeb Archives -  Names of Pioneers from the Palatinate Germany to Pennsylvania, 1754

RootsWeb’s Guide - Given Names in Early America

GIGA - Name Chronological List, 1760 - 1779

Society & Life

History.com - The American Revolution Begins: April 19, 1775

History.com - American Revolution

History Channel - American Revolution History (Video)

PBS - Liberty! The American Revolution

PBS - Africans in American: The Revolutionary War, Part 2

The History Place - American Revolution

The History Place - Prelude to Revolution, 1763 to 1775

The History Place - The American War for Independence: 1775 to 1776 Conflict and Revolution

University of Houston - Overview of the American Revolution

Library of Congress - The American Revolution

Encyclopaedia Britannica - American Revolution

U.S. National Park Service - The American Revolution

Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History - The American Revolution, 1763-1783

America’s Library - Revolutionary Period, 1764-1789

Coastal Heritage Society - American Revolution

About.com - American Revolution

United States Department of State - 1776-1783: American Revolution Timeline

United States Military Academy - American Revolution

British Library - The American Revolution from 1763 - 1787

National Endowment for the Humanities - Voices of the American Revolution

University of Groningen - Was the American Revolution a Revolution?

Independence Hall Association - Revolutionary War Timeline

North Carolina Encyclopedia - Reasons behind the Revolutionary War

Social Studies For Kids - Causes of the Revolutionary War

Mount Vernon -  Ten Facts about Washington and the Revolutionary War

Cracked - 5 Myths About the Revolutionary War Everyone Believes

Journal of the American Revolution - 7 Myths about the Boston Tea Party

University of Notre Dame - Revisiting America’s Revolutionary Myths and Realities

History Net - Debunking Boston Tea Party Myths

Smithsonian - Myths of the American Revolution

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill - The Colored Patriots of the American Revolution

The Washington Post - The American Revolution Was Not A Whites-only War

University of Houston - Slavery, the American Revolution, and the Constitution

Colonial Williamsburg -  African Americans During The American Revolution: Teacher Reference Sheet (PDF)

Rutgers University - African Americans in the Revolution

Ducksters - American Revolution: African Americans

North Carolina Encyclopedia - African Americans and the Revolution

University of California, Irvine - African American Soldiers and the American Revolution

Colorado College - Blacks and the American Revolution

History Net - Black History

Wikipedia - African Americans in the Revolutionary War

National Endowment for the Humanities - The Native Americans’ Role in the American Revolution: Choosing Sides

Independence Hall Association -  Revolutionary Limits: Native Americans

History Wiz -  Native Americans and the American Revolution

ABC-CLIO - American Revolution, Native American Participation

University of Houston - Native Americans and the American Revolution

Prezi - Contributions of African Americans, Native Americans and Women during the American Revolution (Video)

PBS - Liberty! The American Revolution: Daily Life in the Colonies

Ducksters - Daily Life During the Revolution War

Independence Hall Association - The Revolution on the Home Front

Library of Congress - Revolutionary War: The Home Front

American History - Colonial Daily Life During the American Revolution

New York University Libraries - The American Revolution: An Everyday Life Perspective

ABC‑CLIO - Daily Life During the American Revolution

ABBE Regional Library System - The Lives of Children During The Revolutionary War (PDF)

Wikipedia - Children of the American Revolution

U.S. National Park Service - Children’s Rights and the American Revolution

Teachinghistory.org - Colonial Teenagers

The Santa Fe New Mexican Newspaper -  Fighting Spirit: Teenagers in the American Revolution

Google Books - The Brave Women and Children of the American Revolution

U.S. National Park Service -  Patriot Families’ Role in Effecting American Independence and the American Revolution’s Effect on their Family Life (PDF)

U.S. National Park Service -  Life during the Colonial Period and the American Revolution

Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History - Assessing Change: Women’s Lives in the American Revolutionary Era

Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History - Lucy Knox on the home front during the Revolutionary War, 1777

American Revolution - Women in the Revolution

Wikipedia - Women in the American Revolution

Journal of the American Revolution - 10 Amazing Women of the Revolutionary War

History of Massachusetts - The Roles of Women in the American Revolutionary War

Women History Blog - Women’s Role in the American Revolution

Social Studies - Roles of Women in the American Revolution and the Civil War

Independence Hall Association - Revolutionary Changes and Limitations: Women

Annenberg Media - Women of the American Revolution (PDF)

About.com - Women and the American Revolution

The Examiner - The Role of Women in the American Revolution

Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media - Women and the Revolution

Prezi - Women’s Roles During the American Revolution Outlined by Hannah Schierl (Video)

United States Army - Women in the Army

Atlanta Blackstar - 5 Extraordinary Black Women Who Played Major Roles In The American Revolution

Women History Blog - Women’s Rights After the American Revolution

Journal of the American Revolution - Top 10 Marriages Gone Bad

National Women’s History Museum - American Revolution

American In Class - Civilians in the American Revolution

National Humanities Center - Religion and the American Revolution

New York University Libraries -  The American Revolution: Religion

Library of Congress - Religion and the American Revolution

U.S. National Park Service - Religion and the American Revolution

Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History - Religion and the American Revolution

Social Studies For Kids - Religion and the Church in the 13 American Colonies

Social Studies For Kids - Education in the 13 American Colonies

New York University Libraries - The American Revolution: Education

Oregon State University - Education in the Revolutionary Era

Prezi - Education During the Revolution Period (Video)

Wikipedia - Education in the Thirteen Colonies

Chesapeake College - Early National Education

Mackinac Center for Public Policy - Early Colonial Period to the American Revolution

Noah Webster House - Life in 1770s Connecticut

Rutgers University - The American Revolution in New Jersey 

Wikipedia - New Jersey in the American Revolution

Wikipedia - South Carolina in the American Revolution

Wikipedia - Pennsylvania in the American Revolution

Wikipedia - Virginia in the American Revolution

Wikipedia - Maryland in the American Revolution

Wikipedia - Georgia in the American Revolution

Wikipedia - Massachusetts in the American Revolution

United States History - Massachusetts and the American Revolution

Wikipedia - Connecticut in the American Revolution

Connecticut History - Revolutionary War, 1775-1783

United States History - Delaware and the American Revolution

Wikipedia - New Hampshire in the American Revolution

United States History - New Hampshire and the American Revolution

Wikipedia - North Carolina in the American Revolution

United States History - North Carolina and the American Revolution

Wikipedia - Rhode Island in the American Revolution

United States History - Rhode Island and the American Revolution

Internet Archive - New York City during the American Revolution

Early America - New York City During the First Year of the Revolution

AM New York Newspaper - NYC Has A Lot More Revolutionary War History Than You Might Think

Wikipedia - Germans in the American Revolution

McGill University - Why Canada Did Not Join the American Revolution

Canadian War Museum - The American Revolution, 1775-1783

History Net - Invasion of Canada During the American Revolutionary War

Biography - Famous People in the American Revolution

Wikipedia - George Washington in the American Revolution

Ducksters - American Revolution: Life as a Revolutionary War Soldier

Independence Hall Association - The War Experience: Soldiers, Officers, and Civilians

The Countryman Press - Soldier of the American Revolution

PBS - Liberty! American Revolution: Military Perspectives

Prezi - Daily Life of an American Soldier During The Revolutionary War (Video)

Independence Hall Association - American Revolution: Selections from the Diary of Private Joseph Plumb Martin

JSTOR Database - Journal of a British Officer During the American Revolution 

U.S. National Park Service - Privateers in the American Revolution

Reddit: Ask Historians - What did the people of Great Britain think of men like George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson during the American Revolution?

Reddit: Ask Historians - What was popular British opinion of the American Revolution?

Reddit: Ask - British Redditors, how were you taught the American Revolution?

Study - British Loyalists vs. American Patriots During the American Revolution (Video)

Ducksters - American Revolution: Patriots and Loyalists

Independence Hall Association - Loyalists, Fence-sitters, and Patriots

Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History -  A patriot’s letter to his loyalist father, 1778

Wikipedia - American Revolution: Patriot

Wikipedia - Patriots in the American Revolution

Independence Hall Association - The Boston Patriots

Wikipedia - American Revolution: Loyalist

United States History - The Loyalists

Wikipedia - Loyalists in the American Revolution

University of Groningen - Loyalists During the American Revolution

Women History Blog - Loyalist Women of the American Revolution

PBS - After the Revolution: A Midwife’s Tale

Journal of the American Revolution - Top 10 Facts About British Soldiers

History.com - Tea Act: American Revolution

National Endowment for the Humanities - After the American Revolution: Free African Americans in the North

West Virginia Division Culture and History - Revolutionary War and Its Aftermath

North Carolina Encyclopedia - American Revolution- Part 6: A Troubled Aftermath

Brown University - The American Revolution and its Aftermath

About.com - The Effects of the American Revolutionary War on Britain

Prezi - The American Revolution and its Aftermath (Video)

NPR (National Public Radio) - What Happened To British Loyalists After The Revolutionary War?

The Atlantic - What If America Had Lost the Revolutionary War?

Teachinghistory.org - What If…? Reexamining the American Revolution

The Huffington Post - What If We’d Lost the American Revolution?

How Stuff Works - What if America had lost the Revolution?

Commerce

JSTOR Database - Prices and Inflation During the American Revolution, Pennsylvania, 1770-1790

The Food Timeline -  Colonial America & Fare

Wikipedia - Financial Costs of the American Revolutionary War

British Library - The American Revolution: The Costs of Empire - The Seven Years’ War and the Stamp Act Crisis

Smithsonian Center for Education and Museum Studies - Revolutionary Money

Independence Hall Association - Following the Money

Ludwig von Mises Institute - Inflation and the American Revolution

Entertainment & Food

Massachusetts Historical Society - Newspapers from 1765 

Mount Vernon - Reporting the Revolutionary War

Journal of the American Revolution - Top 10 Revolutionary War Newspapers

Assumption College - Newspapers in Revolutionary Era America & The Problems of Patriot and Loyalist Printers

Wikipedia - American Literature: Revolutionary Period

The Examiner - Literature of the American Revolution

New York University Libraries - The American Revolution: Music

University of Houston - Music and the American Revolution

PBS - Liberty! American Revolution - Revolutionary War Music

Independence Hall Association - Songs of the Revolution

Wikipedia - Songs of the American Revolutionary War

Smithsonian Folkways - American Revolutionary War Songs to Cultivate the Sensations of Freedom

Smithsonian - The Food the Fueled the American Revolution

National Museum of American History - What did soldiers eat during the Revolutionary War?

Wikipedia - Cuisine of the Thirteen Colonies

American Revolution for Kids - Revolutionary Recipes

Colonial Williamsburg - Colonial Foodways

Independence Hall Association - Firecake Recipe

Colonial Williamsburg - Drinking in Colonial America

Serious Eats - 5 Colonial-Era Drinks You Should Know

Colonial Williamsburg - Dessert: A Look into the World of the 18th-century Confectioner!

Social Studies For Kids - Food in the 13 American Colonies

Wikipedia - 1760 in Poetry

Wikipedia - 1765 in Poetry

Prezi - Leisure Activities and Sports During the American Revolution (Video)

Journal of Sport History - Sports and Games of the American Revolution (PDF)

National Museum of American History - What did Revolutionary War soldiers have in their pockets?

Journal of the American Revolution - The Role of Dancing

Encyclopedia Virginia - Dance During the Colonial Period

Hygiene, Health & Medicine

New York University Libraries - Health and Medicine in Revolutionary America

United States Department of the Air Force - Military Medicine During the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries

Tredyffrin Easttown Historical Society - Medicine in the Revolutionary War

Prezi - Health and Dental Care During the American Revolution (Video)

The Dallas Morning News -  Medical Care in the American Revolution

PBS - Liberty! American Revolution - Medicine

Office of Medical History - Medical Men in the American Revolution

National Center for Biotechnology Information - Medical Men in the American Revolution 1775-1783

JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association - Naval and Maritime Medicine During the American Revolution

MedPage Today - George Washington, Smallpox, and the American Revolution

National Center for Biotechnology Information -  Drug Therapy in Colonial and Revolutionary America

Minnesota Wellness Publications -  The Revolutionary War: The History of Medicine

American Revolution - George Washington: A Dental Victim

Mount Vernon - The Trouble with Teeth

Project Gutenberg - Drug Supplies in the American Revolution

Colonial Williamsburg - To Bathe or Not to Bathe: Coming Clean in Colonial America

Revolutionary War Museum - Medicine and Hygiene

Independence Hall Association - Surgeons and Butchers

eHow - About Hygiene in Colonial Times

Legacy - Life and Death in The Liberty Era 1750-1800

National Center for Biotechnology Information - Revolutionary Fever: Disease and War in the Lower South, 1776–1783

Wikipedia - Disease in Colonial America

Army Heritage Center - A Deadly Scourge: Smallpox During the Revolutionary War

PBS - The 9 Deadly Diseases That Plagued George Washington

Mental Floss - Biological Warfare in the American Revolution?

Prezi -  Health Care And Hospitals During The American Revolution (Video)

Wikipedia - Physicians in the American Revolution

Journal of the American Revolution - Surgery

Campbell University - The Colonial Family In America

Fashion

North Carolina Encyclopedia - Outfitting an American Revolutionary Soldier 

Colonial Williamsburg - Introduction to Eighteenth-Century Clothing

American Revolution - Clothing 1770 - 1800

History of American Wars - Revolutionary War Uniforms

Ducksters - American Revolution: Soldiers Uniforms and Gear

American Revolution - The Revolution And The New Republic, 1775-1800: Colonial Clothing

Massachusetts Department of Higher Education - Men’s Clothing from the 1770s

Massachusetts Department of Higher Education - Women’s Clothing from the 1770s

Massachusetts Department of Higher Education - Girl’s Clothing from the 1770s

ehow - Makeup & Hairsyles of the 1700s

Colonial Williamsburg - Stuff and Nonsense: Myths That Should by Now Be History

Wikipedia - 1775-95 in Western Fashion

Dialogue

Ducksters - American Revolution: Glossary and Terms

Colonial Quills - The Art of the Olde-Fashioned Insults

History of Redding - Exploring Period Vocabulary & Slang

Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation - Military Slang of the Revolutionary War Era

Colonial Williamsburg - Puttin’ on the Dog: Adventures in the Idioms of Our Mother Tongue

Shmoop - The American Revolution Terms

HyperVocal - 38 Vulgar Terms From the 19th-Century Urban Dictionary

Justice & Crime

Wikipedia - Prisoners of War in the American Revolutionary War

Mount Vernon - Prisoners of War

Wikipedia - Militia Generals in the American Revolution

Colonial Williamsburg - Colonial Crimes and Punishments

History.com - Redcoats kill sleeping Americans in Paoli Massacre: September 20, 1777

H‑Net: Humanities and Social Sciences Online - The Fate of Britain’s Convicts after the American Revolution

Early American Crime -  An Exploration of Crime, Criminals, And Punishments From America’s Past

Colonial Williamsburg - Cruel and Unusual: Prisons and Prison Reform

Slate - Did the Brits Burn Churches?

Encyclopedia Virginia - Convict Labor During the Colonial Period

Wikipedia - Laws Leading to the American Revolution

Sam Houston State University - Military Punishments in the Continental Army

History.com - Pennsylvania militiamen senselessly murder Patriot allies: March 8, 1782

Mount Vernon - American Spies of the Revolution

Wikipedia - Boston Massacre

National Archives and Records Administration -  The Declaration of Independence: A Transcription

Wikipedia - United States Declaration of Independence

Independence Hall Association - Declaration of Independence

University of Groningen -  The Final Text of the Declaration of Independence July 4 1776

Library of Congress - Declaration of Independence

History.com -  Declaration of Independence: American Revolution

Independence Hall Association - When Does the Revolution End?

Study - Effects of the American Revolution: Lesson & Quiz

Net Industries - The Early Years of American Law - Colonial Freedom, Britain’s Push For Greater Control, A New Start, A New Criminal Court System

Journal of the American Revolution - 10 Facts About Prisoners of War

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I Chose to Die (Siren Suicides #1), Ksenia Anske

On a rainy September morning that just so happens to be her sixteenth birthday, Ailen Bright, a chicken-legged, straw-haired teenager, decides to commit suicide via drowning in the family bathtub. The ornate marble tub, adhering to her abusive father’s love for anything expensive and Italian, is decorated by five sirens – who seemingly help her escape the house when her father breaks down the bathroom door. After an almost-successful suicide attempt number two, which lands her at the bottom of a lake, she learns that sirens are, in fact, real, and they want to turn her into one of them. An amazing, yet dark look into the mind and heart of a suicidal teenager, this urban fantasy follows Ailen’s struggle to figure out the meaning of life, the unraveling of her confusing feelings for her theatrically goofy best friend Hunter, and her desperate battle for her father’s love.(source:goodreads)

My Review:

I CHOSE TO DIE is the first in the three-part SIREN SUICIDES trilogy and Ksenia Anske’s first book. Despite that, it’s the third of Anske’s novels that I’ve read, and holy smokes – this woman does not disappoint.

Ailen Bright is sixteen years old, and she’s ready to commit suicide. Only things don’t exactly go as planned and she instead meets the five sirens who are normally made of marble and brass – the same ones who adorn her father’s bathtub – and Ailen agrees to let them turn her into a siren in order to get revenge on her  abusive father. Of course, that revenge doesn’t go as planned, either, and she winds up going on the run through Seattle with her best friend, Hunter, who she’s in love with (and who also might have a secret or two up his sleeve…).

Basically – this book has action, and humor, and it’s kind of painful every time Ailen has a meeting with her father, and it’s mind-twisting because you have no clue if the other sirens have Ailen’s best interests at heart. It’s high-intensity action and psychological thrill wrapped up in beautiful prose meant to captivate:

I’m like a series of petals town off of a daisy, in perpetual wonder.” (page 69)

To be brief: Ksenia Anske has proven herself to be a master of subtlety, weaving fantasy into a much more important search for identity and the troubled psyche of the narrator, whose desperate search for love brings her at odds with her abusive father and the best friend she’s not sure she can trust. Ailen Bright is a character who’s damaged, but not obviously; it’s only in moments of high stress that you, as the reader (if you’re looking closer), see the undertones of the fact that she’s had a troubled childhood, starting well before her mother committed suicide when Ailen was ten years old. By giving away only a few details at a time – and often in the midst of scenes that are live-or-die – the almost horrifying picture of Ailen’s life comes together, the pieces made of tiny little ants that make your skin crawl, but never in the way you’d think.

This book takes you to places you’d rather not go, but once you’re there you can’t tear your eyes away from the horror and the darkness and the contempt and the complexity that is Ailen Bright.

If you’re wondering if this book is for you, it’s got a little bit of everything: adventure and action, mystery and suspense, fantasy elements, as well as a main character whose depth is as stunning as it is terrifying.

Final Answer: 5 / 5

Have you read any of THE SIREN SUICIDES yet? What about any of Anske’s other novels?