Last Post

Okay, so this is my last post.

But before you say anything, let me explain. I'm about to finish the rough draft of my novel, Lycan Island! Yay!

But when I look at it, I can see that there is something wrong.

It's my pen name.

When I first started this blog, I chose the pen name John Smith. If you're a fan of Doctor Who, you'll know why I chose that name. I got the idea from a YA author who uses the pen name Christopher Pike, which comes from a Star Trek character.

However, as I look at the name on my rough draft file, it doesn't seem like it'll work.

The name John Smith seems common, but when you walk into a library or bookstore, you don't see that name as an author. And that's why I thought that I could use that name.

But I'm starting to think that John Smith may not be a great pen name after all. After the rough draft, I'm going to edit it, and then I'm going to send it to an agent. I can just imagine it now. My future agent will try to change the name. He/She will say it's too common. They will probably change it to something like John L. Smith or John Richard Smith.

But I don't want that. It has to be John Smith. That's it.

But let's face it. That's not going to happen. John Smith is a way too common name. So I decided to change my pen name into something a little more uncommon. After some thinking, I decided that my new pen name will be:

John Caliburn

That was anti-climatic. Anyway, that is the reason why I'm canceling this blog. It's such a shame after all the work I put into it. But don't worry. I'm making a new blog:

http://johncaliburn.blogspot.com/

This new blog

So come follow me on my new blog

Also, if anyone here follows me on Twitter or Facebook or some other social networking thing, I'm going to cancel those too. Let's face it. I don't spend that much time on those other sites. In fact, they keep me away from my writing. So I think it's a wise choice to just stick with one blog.

So from now on, the only way to contact me is by:

1) email: johncaliburn42@gmail.com

or

2) comment on my new blog

A million thank yous to everyone who have been following my journey so far. With the completion of my rough draft, I am one step closer to being a published author. One day, I will be a famous writer, and then all of you can say that you were with me since the beginning.

Thank you everybody,

John Caliburn

P.S. - The word Caliburn is the Welsh name for Excalibur.

Fat Vampire

Fat Vampire is a novel written by Adam Rex

I've read a lot of books. Most of them are good. But every once in awhile, I come across a bad book. This is one of them.

Don't read this book. It sucks (no pun intended).

This novel is basically about a fat kid, named Doug "Meatball" Lee, who gets turned into a vampire. From the title and description of the novel, I thought it would be an interesting and funny teenage angst type of story or something.

So I read this book.

I didn't like it. And here are the 2 reasons why:

1) I did not like the main character, Doug Lee, who all the kids have nicknamed "Meatball". He is a fat, mean nerd (geek, dork, or whatever you want to call it). Normally, I kind of see nerds as the underdog to the story and I want to root for him to get the girl or something. But I hate this guy.

Doug is a mean nerd. He's the type of person that hates getting picked on, so he takes out his frustrations behind other people's backs. He calls them names and says mean things about them to make himself feel better. And he doesn't even realize that he's doing it. Seriously, people around him call him Meatball as a nickname and he hates it. But instead of asking them to stop, he just says mean things about them behind their backs instead.

I know with the concept of a fat vampire, the author was probably trying to make him as far different from the gorgeous Edward of Twilight as possible. But Doug Lee is not a main character that I liked and I just can't root for him as a hero.

2) And now for the absolute worst thing about this novel, which is the ending. I believe that no matter how good the book is, if the ending is bad, the entire book will leave a bad taste in your mouth.

The ending of this book is bad.

From this point forward, there will be spoilers about the ending of this novel. If you intend to read this book, don't read beyond this point.

Now for the ending of this book: ...It has no ending!

Or to be more exact, it has several different endings to choose from. In the final pages of this novel, Doug gets a stake in his heart. Does he die? I have no idea. Because the novel then gives you several different endings.

For example, after he gets a stake shoved through his heart...

-He lives on and marries the heroine

-He continues to live on and becomes a graphic designer

-In a parallel universe, he doesn't get turned into a vampire. He gets turned into a werewolf instead, and the whole novel would be different.

-He can't pull the stake out of his heart, so he files it down until it's small enough to hide under his clothes

-He dies.

-etc....

Now you can see why I don't like this novel. If I were to rate it, I would give it two stars out of five. So if you're planning to read this book, check it out at a library first. I don't think that it's worth buying, but that's just my opinion. If for some reason you might actually like this novel, feel free to purchase it at your local bookstore.