This is MJ, I'm an author, I'm an artist, I'm an analyzer.
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Prepare yourself for some off-the-cuff book talk as I tackle another middle grade book chapter by chapter.
So here's a quick update for Swingin' Through Comics...no, Fortress Fiction actually.
It's related to Swingin' Through Comics as well, but the update is for Fortress Fiction, so I'll stay focused on that.
I have come up with a method, a plan, to consistently put out Fortress Fiction at least once a week.
It will be me analyzing chapter by chapter one of the greatest stories I've ever read.
I don't say book, I say stories because it's a five book series, it's The Chronicles of Bredain by Lloyd Alexander, I believe is the author's name.
He wrote other books as well, I haven't gotten into those ones yet, but for sure The Chronicles of Bredain are fantastic.
I think every person should read them. Yeah, I think every person should read them.
I think they're especially valuable for the young mind, especially for the young man's mind, but also I've heard it said that...
and I've actually seen it in my own life, that young girls will enjoy things that are made for boys, at least at first, and they can value those things.
And while they may not value them later, or if they encounter them later in the same way, at the same rate, those things will hold a special place in their hearts and minds.
And then maybe later on when they're older, they'll enjoy more womanly fiction. Jane Austen, that kind of thing, as opposed to, you know, Lloyd Alexander.
That's just a for instance, or Louisa Malakot, my daughter, she read Chronicles of Bredain, she discovered it, she read it, she loved it, she shared it with me.
And she kept telling me, like, yeah, you got to read this. And finally, I read it. And I said, wow, I wish I'd read this when I was a kid. It was so amazing.
And then she went ahead and read 100 books in 2023. And among those was Little Women, and she suggested I read that. And I read that. And I loved it, too.
But anyway, and she's been trying to write as well. And she's kind of swung between a couple of different things.
And it seems like things that she read a few years ago. There's very parental interruption there. So I lost my train of thought.
My point is that I'm going to be slowly going through in a quality way the Chronicles of Bredain chapter by chapter, once a week, minimum, guaranteed.
And besides that, I will still try other books out and see if I like them, see how I like them.
And if they are worthy, I will cover them chapter by chapter. I might drop a book and not finish it.
And then just that week, you'll just get the will you get whatever I got out of it. And I'll share with you whatever I got out of it.
But the ideal would be that all the books remaining on the list are great and amazing.
And I'll be able to cover them all chapter by chapter. If a book is so so like Maniac McGee, I actually listen to the whole thing.
And by the end of it, I liked it. There were a lot of things I liked in it, but I'm not going to go back over it.
I'm not retreading ground. Excuse me, because I don't think it's worthwhile to me.
And I don't think I'd benefit that much from a second reading of it, at least not now.
Perhaps not ever, but for sure. But for sure, not now and not in this state of mind.
I'm anxious to move on to the next book, which will be the secret garden.
And that's what I'm going to do for the book of three. I don't know how many chapters that is. I'll make a post announcing that I'll make a little mini episode announcing it as well.
Kind of like this update here. And I'll let people know about that and let you know where to get it.
Basically, you can get it called library or a regular library. There is a 50th anniversary that's out right now on Audible.
It's the first two books collect 50th anniversary. That might be right. Anyway, it's collecting the first two books.
And the two books are the price of one. It's the same. I don't remember.
I don't remember the audio. I don't remember who originated the audiobook, but there's several audiobook versions as well.
All five books. And this one, I double checked. I listened to it at least the beginning of it.
It has Lloyd Alexander's voice recording something special, a little message like a forward type of deal.
And then it's the same narrator who narrates, I believe, all the other five books or the other four books.
So it's one plus four or five total. So anyway, so that's great.
You can definitely get it free from the library or whatever. It's a worthwhile read. If you can find it, you want to read it.
If you don't want to listen to it, you could just check it out from the library or you could buy it from half price books or whatever.
I definitely strongly advise you get the book. It's a great series.
I strongly suggest you get it because it's just that good and like you have my recommendation on it right now.
And, you know, the first, you know, two people who get it and hate it, I'll I'll pay for the book.
You know, it's not strong of a commitment. If I said one hundred, that's that's opening me to too much anyway.
But yeah, it's a really good book. It's a really good book. It's a really good series. It's very interesting.
It's kind of a typical it's a little bit subversive, but it's not subversive, subversive in a negative or superficial way.
It's subversive in a real, like literary, legitimate, like a well read kind of way.
Like if you like, Lord Alexander, have read a lot of these classic stories of heroes in ancient days or medieval days type of time setting, you know, and there's prophecies and things like that.
You know, what do you expect to happen? You expect X to happen. Well, is that going to happen?
You can argue about that, but that's not what the books are about. They're about this boy's journey.
And it's just a fantastic adventure. It's really beautiful. It's really good.
So I strongly urge you to check that out. I will be covering it. I guess it week by week minimum or guaranteed on Fortress fiction.
That'll be the Friday release. And in between then, I'll see what else I release.
However, I did stumble upon a amazing looking manga. They released on October 19th, 2024, Chapter 1.1 and Chapter 1.2.
And I don't I've read Chapter 1.1 and it took me, I don't know, 20 minutes or something to read, partly because the artwork was so beautiful.
I kept looking at it and it was so great. That's something I started covering. It's on Swing into Comics.
You can find that on the website, MJMwinios.com. That's where you can find all my stuff, all my writing, all my art, all my analysis.
And anyway, you can definitely find that there. And there's also other things that I've been wanting to read and I've been putting them off for some reason.
I don't know why I've been putting them off because there's no perfect way to do anything. And I figure I'm done with that.
So you can pretty much look forward to daily releases of me covering different things, various different things on MJMwinios.com as I'm working towards getting my book published.
Well, book finished, first of all, which I'm probably like 30 percent through the whole process, I hope, of getting it published or finished and then published.
But anyway, I'm working towards that and I'm trying very hard to stay focused and get that work done while still, you know, taking in books that are good for me to read that are going to inspire me to greatness, to the greatness that they have and and beyond potentially.
Hopefully, I hope to be an amazing author. And I think you have to read amazing books for that.
And I also want to help people find amazing books that are good and clean and positive and strengthening and that will build up children who read the books as well as adults who read the books or for the child inside of those adults who reads those books.
So anyway, that's pretty much the announcement. I've kept this under 10 minutes, which is good.
And I have been very busy with my schedule. I'm going to be returning to a normal week work week next week.
And it should be normal for a while. So hopefully everything will even out and you'll get to see a lot more for me.
And I'll also do a lot more progress on my writing. And you'll have announcements for me on when you can get my book or when it's going to be going into production.
I'm really hoping that I can land it. It's an independent publisher who's doing this stuff. It's called Rack and Turpress. They've done a bunch of they've published a bunch of other books, mostly anthologies.
But this is standalone, like 50,000 word middle grade novel for boys. And that's that's what I'm working on.
So anyway, hopefully I'm successful with that. Hopefully I'm successful with everything else.
Hopefully you're successful in all your endeavors until next time, folks. Take care and be well.
I hope you enjoyed that. Please remember to like, share, subscribe. I invite you to comment, ask questions and share your thoughts with me.
It's always more fun when you're part of the conversation until next time.
Keep reading. Be well and do good things.
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