Jean F. Blashfield (1939–2014)
Author of Villains of Volturnus
About the Author
Jean F. Blashfield is the author of 150 books, many for young people. Her books cover different countries and individuals of the world, along with science, the environment, and history. Peter Sluglett is Professor of Middle Eastern History at the University of Utah. He is the author of several show more books on the Middle East. show less
Disambiguation Notice:
Despite the incredible variety of books, I believe there is only one author here. The LOC has |aBlashfield, Jean F. 400 1 |aBlack, Jean B. 670 |aHer Apartment greenery, 1975. 670 |aHer Star Rangers and the spy, 1984 :|bt.p. (Jean Blashfield) 670 |aLC data base, 4/13/84|b(hdg.: Blashfield, Jean) 670 |aJacobson, N. Awesome almanac, c1993:|bt.p. (Jean F. Blashfield) verso t.p. (Black, Jean B.) 670 |aPhone call to author, 04-14-93|b(Jean F. Blashfield; author of books on apartment greenery, WW II, & created Awesome almanacs) 670 |aLMP, 1993:|b(Jean Blashfield Black, Pres. of B.&B. Pub.) 670 |aHer Women inventors, c1996- :|bCIP t.p. (Jean F. Blashfield) data sheet (b. 12/02/39)
Series
Works by Jean F. Blashfield
The Art of Dragon Magazine: Including All the Cover Art from the First Ten Years (Art Book) (1988) — Editor — 71 copies
Hellraisers, heroines, and holy women: Women's most remarkable contributions to history (1981) 32 copies
Above and Beyond the Encyclopedia of Aviation and Space Sciences (14 Volume Set) (1968) 26 copies, 1 review
Iolanthe 11 copies
When Ice Threatened Living Things: The Pleistocene (Prehistoric North America) (2005) 9 copies, 1 review
When Land, Sea, and Life Began: The Precambrian (Prehistoric North America) (2005) 7 copies, 1 review
The Healthy House Plant: A Guide to the Prevention, Detection, and Cure of Pests and Diseases (1980) 7 copies
When Life Flourished in Ancient Seas: The Early Paleozoic Era (Prehistoric North America) (2005) 4 copies
Apartment Gardener 2 copies
Pirates of Penzance 1 copy
Associated Works
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Legal name
- Black, Jean F. Blashfield
- Other names
- Black, Jean
Black, Jeannie (alias in romance writing) - Birthdate
- 1939-12-02
- Date of death
- 2014-07-24
- Gender
- female
- Education
- University of Michigan (BA|Experimental Psychology and English)
- Occupations
- editor
author
game designer - Organizations
- American Association of University Women
Aram Public Library Board
Childrens Press (Managing Editor)
New Horizons Publishers (Editor-in-Chief)
TSR (Managing Editor, Book Department) - Relationships
- Black, Wallace B. (spouse)
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- Madison, Wisconsin, USA
- Places of residence
- Evanston, Illinois, USA
Chicago, Illinois, USA
London, England, UK
Washington, D.C., USA
Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, USA
Delavan, Wisconsin, USA - Disambiguation notice
- Despite the incredible variety of books, I believe there is only one author here. The LOC has
|aBlashfield, Jean F.
400 1 |aBlack, Jean B.
670 |aHer Apartment greenery, 1975.
670 |aHer Star Rangers and the spy, 1984 :|bt.p. (Jean Blashfield)
670 |aLC data base, 4/13/84|b(hdg.: Blashfield, Jean)
670 |aJacobson, N. Awesome almanac, c1993:|bt.p. (Jean F. Blashfield) verso t.p. (Black, Jean B.)
670 |aPhone call to author, 04-14-93|b(Jean F. Blashfield; author of books on apartment greenery, WW II, & created Awesome almanacs)
670 |aLMP, 1993:|b(Jean Blashfield Black, Pres. of B.&B. Pub.)
670 |aHer Women inventors, c1996- :|bCIP t.p. (Jean F. Blashfield) data sheet (b. 12/02/39) - Associated Place (for map)
- USA
Members
Reviews
This was my first “choose your own adventure” book since I read Cinderella: Ninja Warrior almost a year ago. While that one featured better writing, I'd argue that this one was a better “choose your own adventure” - it included both more choices and more endings. Ring of the Ruby Dragon managed to occupy me for an entire day.
In Ring of the Ruby Dragon, you are Chandelle (yes, this is a traditional “choose your own adventure,” so it's written in the second person). Your father is show more a jeweler, and you've been his apprentice for five years. While on a journey to acquire emeralds for special jewelry for Lord Darkell, you and your father are attacked by a centaur and some winged lions. When you regain consciousness, your father is gone, and all you have are the ioun stones he told you about when you were a child. Each one has magical abilities, but you don't know exactly what they can all do. A young knight named Coren crosses your path, and you have to decide whether to trust in his abilities or head to town and find someone more experienced who can help you rescue your father.
If I counted correctly, the book includes a total of 18 endings. Of those endings, 12 are what I would call “bad,” five are “good,” and one is best described as “neutral.” “Good” and “bad” are somewhat debatable. For example, although Coren was almost always Chandelle's love interest, some routes led to Sir Torbeck being her love interest instead. I thought Torbeck's routes were some of the worst in the book. It was a little disappointing, because I initially found Torbeck to be more appealing.
One of his “good” endings involved Chandelle realizing that she would have to learn not to be jealous of his roving eye. Another involved Chandelle being okay with the idea that Torbeck was a wanderer and might not stick around. Even when things were going well with Torbeck, the ending could still suddenly turn sour – a couple routes resulted in both the loss of Chandelle's father and bitterness between her and her companions. Torbeck's routes were also the only ones that occasionally led to Chandelle accidentally killing everyone.
The first choice in the book turned out to be very important. Depending on which path you chose, you might end up skipping out on most of the book's creatures, characters, and events. As it turned out, I chose the wrong path. Although a good ending was still possible, the story was fairly boring, and Coren kind of annoyed me. Unfortunately, trying to abandon him led to me being enslaved. Several times.
The other choice was much more fun and led to routes with a lot more variety: mermaids, a halfling character named Jancy, Torbeck, a naga (who reminded me of Eeyore), a golden dragon, a couple different kinds of giants, dolphins, a talking door (capable of vaporizing anyone who wasn't truly in love), and more.
As a romance, this book left something to be desired. Torbeck's endings were kind of depressing, even when they were “good.” Coren was boring, and his desire to prove himself as a knight meant he occasionally required a little too much ego stroking (but don't go overboard, or he'll die and you'll end up enslaved). This was published in 1983, and it showed. Chandelle struggled with knowing when to take the initiative. Should she confess her feelings to Coren before he'd made his clear to her? Should she allow Torbeck to make all her decisions for her, or should she trust her own judgment? I was usually pleased with the way some of these decisions worked out, although the stuff with Torbeck...ugh.
While the romance didn't really grab me, I still enjoyed working my way through all the paths and endings. There was surprisingly little overlap among the various routes, so almost every choice led to some new event or character. I doubt I'd ever reread this, but I'm considering putting in an ILL request for another one of the books in the series.
Rating Note:
I honestly have no clue how to rate something like this, but I needed to pick a rating for my records. My final choice of 2.5 stars seemed like a good compromise between the story (meh), the writing (mediocre, unless you consider the complex issues involved in creating a coherent "choose your own adventure" with this many possible endings and paths), and the overall entertainment value (pretty good).
(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.) show less
In Ring of the Ruby Dragon, you are Chandelle (yes, this is a traditional “choose your own adventure,” so it's written in the second person). Your father is show more a jeweler, and you've been his apprentice for five years. While on a journey to acquire emeralds for special jewelry for Lord Darkell, you and your father are attacked by a centaur and some winged lions. When you regain consciousness, your father is gone, and all you have are the ioun stones he told you about when you were a child. Each one has magical abilities, but you don't know exactly what they can all do. A young knight named Coren crosses your path, and you have to decide whether to trust in his abilities or head to town and find someone more experienced who can help you rescue your father.
If I counted correctly, the book includes a total of 18 endings. Of those endings, 12 are what I would call “bad,” five are “good,” and one is best described as “neutral.” “Good” and “bad” are somewhat debatable. For example, although Coren was almost always Chandelle's love interest, some routes led to Sir Torbeck being her love interest instead. I thought Torbeck's routes were some of the worst in the book. It was a little disappointing, because I initially found Torbeck to be more appealing.
One of his “good” endings involved Chandelle realizing that she would have to learn not to be jealous of his roving eye. Another involved Chandelle being okay with the idea that Torbeck was a wanderer and might not stick around. Even when things were going well with Torbeck, the ending could still suddenly turn sour – a couple routes resulted in both the loss of Chandelle's father and bitterness between her and her companions. Torbeck's routes were also the only ones that occasionally led to Chandelle accidentally killing everyone.
The first choice in the book turned out to be very important. Depending on which path you chose, you might end up skipping out on most of the book's creatures, characters, and events. As it turned out, I chose the wrong path. Although a good ending was still possible, the story was fairly boring, and Coren kind of annoyed me. Unfortunately, trying to abandon him led to me being enslaved. Several times.
The other choice was much more fun and led to routes with a lot more variety: mermaids, a halfling character named Jancy, Torbeck, a naga (who reminded me of Eeyore), a golden dragon, a couple different kinds of giants, dolphins, a talking door (capable of vaporizing anyone who wasn't truly in love), and more.
As a romance, this book left something to be desired. Torbeck's endings were kind of depressing, even when they were “good.” Coren was boring, and his desire to prove himself as a knight meant he occasionally required a little too much ego stroking (but don't go overboard, or he'll die and you'll end up enslaved). This was published in 1983, and it showed. Chandelle struggled with knowing when to take the initiative. Should she confess her feelings to Coren before he'd made his clear to her? Should she allow Torbeck to make all her decisions for her, or should she trust her own judgment? I was usually pleased with the way some of these decisions worked out, although the stuff with Torbeck...ugh.
While the romance didn't really grab me, I still enjoyed working my way through all the paths and endings. There was surprisingly little overlap among the various routes, so almost every choice led to some new event or character. I doubt I'd ever reread this, but I'm considering putting in an ILL request for another one of the books in the series.
Rating Note:
I honestly have no clue how to rate something like this, but I needed to pick a rating for my records. My final choice of 2.5 stars seemed like a good compromise between the story (meh), the writing (mediocre, unless you consider the complex issues involved in creating a coherent "choose your own adventure" with this many possible endings and paths), and the overall entertainment value (pretty good).
(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.) show less
Third star is mostly for nostalgia. Read this when I was a kid, and recently read an article that there were a whole series of these. Got them through ILL and am reading through. I did go through every choice iteration. Lots of memories, but pretty silly and simple writing. The premise is that these are "romance" choose your own adventure books, so the protagonist is naturally put in romantic situations with a couple of different adventurer types, depending on the path you choose. show more Unfortunately, she didn't seem super confident or empowered, and there was a lot of "what should I do to make the big strong man like me?" It was fun to see lots of different creatures and the inner illustrations enhanced the story. show less
I don't know where to begin. For one thing I thought this was for adults, not tween/teens, so that was disappointing. For another there's no real sense of time unless the lath specifically needs an amount to pass) so these deep feelings she has make no sense.
I did appreciate that any time she was negative, selfish, a brat or judgemental the book slapped her down with a horrible Bad Ending.
Meanwhile it never occurred to me before but these types of books were the pre cursor to the show more otome/visual novel games I like. Except saving multiple times for dif endings is hella easier then rereading TSTL life multiple times. show less
I did appreciate that any time she was negative, selfish, a brat or judgemental the book slapped her down with a horrible Bad Ending.
Meanwhile it never occurred to me before but these types of books were the pre cursor to the show more otome/visual novel games I like. Except saving multiple times for dif endings is hella easier then rereading TSTL life multiple times. show less
This book is an informational book on Germany. It begins with a new Germany, telling how it used to be a seperate country til the fall of the wall. It covers the language, food, people, history, and much more.
Again I really enjoyed this book because I've lived in Germany and love the country. I miss Christmas time more than anything over there, you've never seen beauty until you've been in Germany for Christmas!
I would use this along with the France book in my places you've been unit. I have show more pistures I can share as well as the book. I'd like to also have food and personal items I have to bring in and let the students experience a little bit of Europe with them. show less
Again I really enjoyed this book because I've lived in Germany and love the country. I miss Christmas time more than anything over there, you've never seen beauty until you've been in Germany for Christmas!
I would use this along with the France book in my places you've been unit. I have show more pistures I can share as well as the book. I'd like to also have food and personal items I have to bring in and let the students experience a little bit of Europe with them. show less
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Statistics
- Works
- 116
- Also by
- 1
- Members
- 2,217
- Popularity
- #11,562
- Rating
- 3.6
- Reviews
- 21
- ISBNs
- 238
- Languages
- 7
- Favorited
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