Park & Eleanor – Review

4/5
Yesterday I finished this fine story. It took me a few days to read it and I’m hear now to tell you all fine folk about it.
The book is about a Korean teen named Park and an American girl living in a house of abuse named Eleanor.
They begin seeing each other on the bus to and from school although they don’t say a word to each other. As you can guess from the back cover of the book, a romance begins between them that is genuine, unique and believable rather than stories by… John Green.
The story thrived on convincing dialogue and a wide range of diverse characters from parents to other schoolmates.
It is more than easy to sympathize with Eleanor’s terrible home life, but not too much that you feel the writer saying “do you feel sorry for her yet?”
Both characters show obvious flaws which help the story’s realism.
The only weak point was about 3/4 the way through when the story started repeating itself and slowed the plotline. Luckily, Rainbow Rowell moves it on from there and the story continues on pace for a fitting ending.
For teenage romance stories go, consider this. And if you mind foul language, avoid it because it’s a book that shows how real people talk.

Also, Dreamworks is in the process of making a movie!

Thank you for reading
Zac Zinn

March 11, 2015March 11, 2015 by Zac Zinn Categories: Books, family, literature, novels, ReviewTags: book reviews, books, creative writing, Eleanor and park, rainbow rowell, reviews, Writing Leave a comment

Reverberations – A Poem

I feel deep reverberations from the trembling in my heart
It ripples through my chest and travels to the corners of my body
Lifting me with hope of a better tomorrow
Drowning me with memories of yesterday

The waves of yesteryears wash over me
High tide will be the death of my hollow whole
Only my hand reaches the surface
My lungs burn as I’m losing this fight

I’ve cried wolf too many times
At what I thought heartbreak felt like
Little did I know they were tremors
Compared to the earth quakes and hurricanes inside me

Do I plead for help from above?
Or try and swim myself to the air?

Thank you for reading
Zac Zinn

March 4, 2015March 4, 2015 by Zac Zinn Categories: family, friends, inspirational, life, literature, Love, Photography, poetry, regrets, WritingTags: life, love, poems, poetry, reflection, struggle 1 Comment

Rhyme & Reason

Yes I know this is a dark and depressing poem. I’m not one of those guys that lives in dark and terrible poetry.. However I’m in a point of my life where things are rather dark. So like why writer, I turn to words express myself.
Here is Rhyme & Reason

There is no rhyme
All I am is losing time
There is no love
It flies away like a fleeing dove

There is no reason
Just another fading season
There is no plan
I’m just a wandering man

This isn’t the year
It will shed the same tear
Where is my ever after
It’s lost in the wind with my childhood laughter

Thank you
Zac Zinn
Photo by yours truly

Thank you for reading
Zac Zinn

January 28, 2015 by Zac Zinn Categories: family, friends, life, literature, live your life, Love, Photography, poetry, Quotes, Reflection, WritingTags: dark, life, love, poem, poetry, time, Writing Leave a comment

What Inspires You? (A Story of My Friend)

What inspires you to write? What hits your bones and your blood pump and make you want open up the word document or a blank page and write?
I’ve asked why do you write before, but now I’m asking what inspires you?
Religion? Love of any sort? Nostalgia? Or maybe just a creative edge that needs to be let out.
I write in a mix of all of them. Besides the fact that I just enjoy writing, I do it because I have things to say.
I do it because I want to portray a message of _____ to people.
I think all writers can say that statement. But the question is – what fills that blank?
Maybe it’s hope. Maybe it’s despair and everything in between.
My answer would certainly never be just to write an action book. I’m not hammering on people who write those, it’s just not for me. Anything I ever write is either a release for me in some way, or it’s something I want people to read.
People sometimes, well, oftentimes mention that my books are very sad and depressing but that’s because they miss the mark. Take the main character of my 2012 novel, Landon. He was in high school and had cancer. When they were done reading it, they told me it was a very sad book but I disagreed with them. My message was hope; not to write a book for the sake of being sad, unlike another absurdly famous book regarding teenage cancer… but we won’t get into that now.
My message of hope was if your time was rapidly coming to an end, how would you spend your time? What’s worth your thoughts? Words? Everything suddenly matters a whole lot more than it did before.
It’s nostalgia. A very good friend of mine died of cancer in 2011. And like my book, the outlook was grim. It didn’t stop him from becoming a man I could look up to because even in the face of death, he shone a bright light for everyone to see. He found the secret we all search for. It was true happiness with his life, from his wife to his friends; it was truth.
When my fingers hit the keyboard, they wrote about what was inside my heart. Nostalgia of my friend. I saw truth, and I had to write it.

So what inspires you? Is it something specific or something abstract?

December 22, 2014 by Zac Zinn Categories: cancer, family, literature, Reflection, WritingTags: cancer, death, friends, God, hope, life, literature, memories, Nostalgia, poetry, reflection, terminal disease, Writing Leave a comment

Thanksgiving Without My Brother

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
I have a small story for you about why family is most important to me.

When I was growing up, my brother and I didn’t get along at all. Being seven years older than me also didn’t help either. He was into punk, I was into Backstreet Boys…I know…I know…
But it was a strained household at times and I could say to myself, I had a brother but also didn’t at the same time. There was no brotherhood there, no meaning behind it. Just someone who liked to boss me around.

Then comes a few years after he graduated high school. He’s going into the army. All of the sudden I felt like I was losing a brother that I kind of never had. We started hanging out, becoming friends and knowing each other. It helped that I dropped my whole boy band phase.

In the weeks leading up to his basic training departure, I had more of a brother in those weeks than I ever did my entire life.

Now here we are another six or seven years later, he’s deployed into God knows where, we’ll spend Thanksgiving away from each other.

But there’s just one thing that I’ll say: the army may have physically taken away my brother for long periods of time,  but without it,  I may have never found him at all.

Happy Thanksgiving
Miss you bro

November 27, 2014 by Zac Zinn Categories: family, Reflection, WritingTags: brotherhood, family, friends, holiday, Thanksgiving 3 Comments