If At First You Don't Succeed...

The other week I tried to make an iced coffee. Easy, right? Someone had told me that she had started making her own iced coffees and they sounded delicious so I had to give it a try. She said all she would do is pour some vanilla over her ice cubes, then pour her coffee on top of that, and to top it all off she would add in some chocolate syrup. Naturally, I thought with a recipe that simple there was no way I could mess it up.

Boy was I wrong.

Too much vanilla came out of the bottle, then my coffee hadn’t cooled down enough so it ended up melting my ice cubes. And no amount of chocolate syrup can rescue watered down coffee. Yuck!

It was a disaster, and if I’m being honest, I felt really bad about the fact that I couldn’t make an iced coffee. But it was something I could learn from. I know what went wrong and I know how I could improve it next time.

And really, the same thing could be said of writing. Let’s face it, we writers rarely get everything exactly right on our first try. If we did, all of our first drafts would be ready for publication the moment we finish them. Instead we find sentences, paragraphs, and even chapters that just don’t work the way we thought they would. So like many things in life, we go back and try to figure out what went wrong. And once we figure it out, we go back and tweak and rewrite until we get it the way we wanted it to be.

So if that chapter just isn’t going the way you wanted it to, don’t let it get you down. Instead, look at what’s going wrong and look at ways you can improve on it. Then give it another go!

After all, if at first you don’t succeed…

Try, try again.

Book Review: Black Widow Forever Red

I love superheroes. The Marvel Cinematic Universe contains some of my absolute favorite movies. One of my favorite superhero characters is Natasha Romanoff, the Black Widow. Spies tend to be intriguing characters, and Black Widow is no exception. So when it was announced that Marvel would be releasing a Black Widow YA novel I was very excited. And one of my best friends, knowing how much I love Marvel, got me Black Widow Forever Red for my birthday.

Here’s the synopsis:

Enter the world of the Avengers' iconic master spy

Natasha Romanoff is one of the world's most lethal assassins. Trained from a young age in the arts of death and deception, Natasha was given the title of Black Widow by Ivan Somodorov, her brutal teacher at the Red Room, Moscow's infamous academy for operatives.

Ava Orlova is just trying to fit in as an average Brooklyn teenager, but her life has been anything but average.The daughter of a missing Russian quantum physicist, Ava was once subjected to a series of ruthless military experiments-until she was rescued by Black Widow and placed under S.H.I.E.L.D. protection. Ava has always longed to reconnect with her mysterious savior, but Black Widow isn't really the big sister type.

Until now.

When children all over Eastern Europe begin to go missing, and rumors of smuggled Red Room tech light up the dark net, Natasha suspects her old teacher has returned-and that Ava Orlova might be the only one who can stop him. To defeat the madman who threatens their future, Natasha and Ava must unravel their pasts. Only then will they discover the truth about the dark-eyed boy with an hourglass tattoo who haunts Ava's dreams. . . .

My rating: *****

Black Widow Forever Red is an enjoyable story. The characters are interesting, the story is intriguing, and we even get an appearance from one of Natasha’s Avengers teammates. Oh and our favorite agent of SHIELD, Phil Coulson is here too and he’s as enjoyable as always.

I do have one slight complaint though. For a book with Black Widow in the title and Black Widow herself on the cover, Black Widow isn’t really the main character. She’s important sure, and an integral part of the story. But overall the focus of this novel is on Ava, as the synopsis does indicate. Ava’s not a bad character by any means, she’s interesting and enjoyable for the most part, but I really wanted the story to be focused on Natasha.

When this book was announced, I was hoping that maybe we would get to see her life in the Red Room and her transition into SHIELD. We do get glimpses of that in this novel, but it is by no means a major part. But maybe Marvel could cover all of this if they ever get around to making a Black Widow movie. Come on Marvel, you know you want to do it.

Overall, if you enjoy all things Marvel I would recommend checking out Black Widow Forever Red. It’s a good read and I hope that Marvel will release more YA books in the future.