WINNER OF THE HOP GIFTS!!!

Sorry guys - we were a little late getting back to everyone about the winners. I blame the cookies. I got distracted by the cookies. And then I got distracted by the wine. And after that it's just a blur!

Thank you so much to everyone who commented and joined our little blog. We have exciting things planned in the future - including a face lift, lots of contests, interviews with new and interesting authors and of course, lots and lots of talk about movies, television, books and food. We're thrilled to have you join us for the conversation!

Now, our winners!

Winner of the VISA card - crystaley73

Winner 1 of a whack of books - (digital or paper your choice) - traveler

Winner 2 of a whack of books digital or paper - CAROL L

Thanks again and here's to everyone's healthy and happy New Year!!

It's a HOP!! Or perhaps here at Drunk Writers, a stumble?

#XmasGIVEAWAY

 

Gifting Books Christmas hop was organized by Reading Romances!

The best books I've ever given or received? That's a tough one, we're a big book giving family. My husband is awesome with the cookbooks, the big fancy ones with pictures of food no one in my family will actually eat. My brother is a genius in the bargain bin and picked up one of my favorite books of all time: Brady Udall's genius book of short stories - Letting Loose The Hounds. There was the year my mom gave me the Little House On the Prairie Box set - that's a treasured gift. And this year, I'm giving the new Springsteen Biography - to MYSELF! I look forward to hiding from my kids stealing time to read that gem.

What you can win here: A $50 Pre-paid Visa card to help with your holiday shopping and a whole whack of books

Number of winners:One grand prize winner (The Visa card) and two winners of the whack of books

Open to US and Canada and winners will be chosen Monday Dec 24 and notified through this blog:

How to enter: Leave a comment below about your favorite holiday gift and follow us -- it's just that easy

Breaking the rules

I've been trying to say yes to things lately. I'd gotten a little set in my ways. I'd started having too many rules. I don't like books about World War II. I don't like to see movies based on books that I've read. I don't like Christmas and all the Christmas-y stuff. I don't wear horizontal stripes or socks with sandals. I only wear one pair of glasses at a time.

I went to see Cloud Atlas after having read the book and liked it. So I'm starting to break some other rules. Instead of shunning Christmas, I attended SantaCon this past Saturday. This is what Union Square looked like at about noon:

This is what I looked like:

This is what I drank at our first stop (we were damn classy Santas):

The experience was, in a word, awesome. Totally awesome. I loved it. If I'd stuck to my usual rules of avoiding all things Christmas that I'm not forced to participate in, I wouldn't have gotten to experience that. It would have been a shame.

I'm also considering breaking some of my writing rules. I've been a pretty strict POV task mistress with myself. No head hopping. If I'm in 1st person at the beginning, I stay in that person's head for the whooollllleeee book. If I'm in third, only one head per scene. You know, the drill.

I'm not saying I'm throwing it all out the window, but I'm considering writing one character in first person and the rest in third. Crazy. I know.

So what rules are you considering breaking in 2013?

Genre Mashups

I just finished Kristin Callihan's Firelight, a really great read, and a fantastic mash up of historical romance, paranormal and mystery. It reminded me a little of Meljean Brook and her steam punk romances.

More and more I'm leaning towards the genre mash up. I love the combination of elements and it's been missing from my reading list for a while. I go back to some of my earliest adult reading experiences and the Sydney Sheldon books I read over and over which combined adventure and sex and exotic locations, or Judith Krantz which was so over the top and completely enjoyable because they were so over written.

I love YA books, but I want to read about adults again, in dangerous situations, with great romance and fascinating characters.

That's what I'm looking for in the year ahead. More genre mashups, because they have been some of my favourite reading experiences this past year. Maybe if I'm lucky Brook will release another steam punk this year, and I'd love to find another great urban fantasy series, so any recommendations would be gratefully received.

Anything on your reading wish lists? What was the highlight of your 2012 reading year?

Bond, Old or New?

I love the new Bond franchise. Love, love, love.

I was a Daniel Craig fan from way back, having seen him in some great indie films before he was ever cast as 007, and I think the darker, more realistic rendering of this character is exciting and more appealing, but tonight I went to see A View to a Kill on the big screen and I'd forgotten just how fun and entertaining the old school Bond films are.

In fact, maybe I didn't forget. Truth is, I don't think I actually saw a lot of them. In fact, I don't think I saw any in the theatres. Bond movies were, for me, something you watched late at night when there was nothing else on TV, not something you went to see in a movie theartre where you had to spend your babysitting or gymnastic coaching money on a ticket....

But A View to a Kill was so much fun.

Who couldn't love:

• A theme song by Duran, Duran (played both at the beginning--and the end)
• Tons of neon paint and ribbons, lit with black lights, in the opening credits. (seriously, one girl was only wearing neon ribbons)
• A snow boarding scene, before snow boarding was really a thing, with the Beach Boys' California Girls playing -- set in Russia. (I am not joking. The scene cuts from a fast paced skiing chase scene, with Bond being shot at and chased by about 15 KGB agents, with um, "this is exciting" chase music in the background, and then Bond straps part of a snowmobile to his ski boots, in some inexplicable way, and it becomes a snow board and the music changes to The Beach Boys...)
• Tons of eye rolling and/or groan inducing sexual innuendoes
• A total airhead of a Bond girl (seriously, I think she might have been the worst, ever) who's supposed to be a geologist, but who talks like a porn star and clearly had difficulty memorizing her lines, never mind injecting believable emotion into them, and wears high heels, not only to run around in a mine, but also to balance on the top of the Golden Gate Bridge. Good strategy. ;)
• Grace Jones, being kind of awesome--and also wearing high heels in a mine
• A young Christopher Walken as one of the best Bond villains ever. Seriously, why had I never seen this movie?
• A construction site trailer that turns into a blimp
• A crazy, Bond-worthy plot
• Hilarious computers
• Constant lessons/info dumps about microchips and how they're made from sand and used in computers... and why it's called Silicon Valley...
• Patrick Bauchau as the villain's main side-kick, who I think is one of the coolest actors ever. (I always think of him as Canadian actor, because he played the patriarch in Canadian TV's answer to Dallas and Dynasty, called Mount Royal... but, LOL, he's Belgian and his time in Canadian TV isn't even listed in his imdb bio! I loved that show... (Cool thing I did learn in his imdb bio... he worked for a time with Salvador Dali making sculptures. And he's married to Brigitte Bardot's sister. Told you he's cool.)
• At least three blonde actresses in the first ten minutes, all with Farrah Fawcett haircuts, whom I couldn't tell apart. Seriously. I was positive the chick in the restaurant at the top of the Eifell Tower with the butterfly act was the same girl who picked Bond up, with her snowsuit unzipped to her navel, in the submarine that was disguised as an iceberg, in Russia in the previous scene. (I think that was an experiment in how many phrases I can fit into one sentence. Fewer than that, I think.)
• A reminder that in 1985 there was apparently a rule that you either had to have your hair cut like Farrah Fawcett or Dorothy Hammil--even though both hairstyles were nearly a decade out of date by that time.

Oh, I could go on... So. Much. Fun.

And then I came home and watched last night's Christmas episode of Parenthood.

Is anyone else watching this show? Oh the tears. Oh the tears. I had to watch a Parks & Recreaction rerun to recover.

"Seven Heads, the dramatic tale of an Israeli soldier who falls in love with conjoined Palestinian sextuplets. Out soon from Focus Features."

"Welcome to "Thought for your Thoughts." I'm Derry Merbles sitting in for Nina Joplin who's touring the country performing a spoken word opera about pear shaped women."

"A bat signal, for listeners who might not know, refers to the children's character The Bat Man, a strong gentleman who fights crime nocturnally."

"Coming up after the break, movie reviews with Ken Tucker, who's filling in for David Ballincouli, who's in New York filling in for Ken Tucker."

All this before the opening credits.

Oh, that show cracks me up.

PS. In case you're wondering how I ended up seeing a Bond movie from 1985 last night: The TIFF Bell Lightbox has a Bond exhibition on right now to celebrate the 50th anniversary, and are showing all the old Bond films... And they are doing cheap martinis in the lounge, which is the real reason I went... And I actually got a scene and a half written. Martinis appear to be the secret ingredient for this manuscript.

Which Bond you like better -- old or new? Silly or dark? Shaken or who cares?

A Possible New Obsession

I watched an episode of Catfish over the weekend. It's the series that came out of the movie about the guy who fell in love with a girl online went to meet her and found out she wasn't even remotely the person she said she was but they became friends anyway.

The episode I watched was about a young woman who fell in love over FaceBook and texting with a young man who was a model who worked making cue cards for the Chelsea Lately show while studying to be an anesthesiologist online. Not suspicious at all, right?

SPOILER ALERT: The dude was not who he said he was, but what he was still surprised me, then horrified me, then touched me.

I know it's only been one episode and I might get sick of the whole deep psychological reasons that people might pretend to be something that they're not, but for the moment I can definitely see this as my new laundry folding companion. What better thing to match socks to then bizarre stories about online dating?

Anyone else watching this one? Seen the movie?

I've changed my mind about Bradley Cooper

I'm in the process of revising a book (WILD CHILD, more to come about that) and there's sort of a seedy, good-looking bad guy that a very nice, slightly repressed woman can't stop having sex with. Partly because he's so good looking and partly because she has some deep-seated sexual issues that we'll get to in WILD NIGHTS, more to come about that too.

Now the seedy bad guy was initially a good guy and the guy in my head was Idris Alba...nice, right? But then he had to be bad and I didn't want to waste Idris on a bad guy. So, the best good-looking slightly slimy guy I can think of - Bradley Cooper. Because no matter what character he plays...I think he's kind of a scum bag. And that must suck for Cooper - because I imagine a lot of people think that about him. Was it the Hangover character? While hilarious, still awful. Not sure.

But then last night I saw Silver Linings Playbook - and my opinion has changed. that was a naked, raw, actually kind of ugly performance. He's a man with mental illness, undiagnosed bi-polar. He's awful and wonderful in turns and he knows it and he tries to be wonderful, but can't stop being awful. He's freaking GREAT in it.

There were problems with the movie - the first two/thirds made my quirky romance loving heart go pitter pat. But the last third fell apart. The transition from gritty to screwball, just didn't work for me. Oddly, enough it worked for Maureen.

Anyone else see it? Anyone else discover a new love for Bradley Cooper?

My new favourite movie

This year is an embarrassment of riches where movies are concerned. We had some great, fun summer movies, The Avengers and Cabin in the Woods are the first that come to mind, then a fantastic Bond movie, a great Batman movie, and soon, so soon, Les Miserables.

I'm not a huge musical theatre fan, but I'm a massive Les Mis fan, and when they released the trailer of Anne Hathaway singing Dream a little Dream, well, it became my favourite movie of the year, right then.

I'm going to adore Hugh Jackman as Jean Valjean, and Hathaway apparently is amazing and my favourite character has always been Eponine. Who doesn't love noble, unrequited love?

I'm in, and waiting impatiently for the release Christmas Day, and at the same time, also looking forward to Zero Dark Thirty, and I still have to see Argo. So many movies to see, and add Life of Pi to the list.

It's like summer all over again, except with darker, more serious movies.

What I'm missing are some books to get excited about. I would love to be anxiously awaiting the release of something great. I kind of wish book releases got the same treatment as movies. I know book trailers are important, but they're not the same medium and they don't go viral in the same way. There are some book review sites I check all the time, like Dear Author and All About Romance, but nothing that really creates a real excitement for a great book.

Anyone got any recommendations? Anything coming up you're really excited to read?

Actors and Reality TV...

I’m going to start out by saying this post is probably going to sound a lot like sour grapes. People who read this might think I’m jealous. I am. Bitter. A little bit. Annoyed. Yup.

But it occurs to me I’m getting a small taste of my own medicine and I hope I can learn from this experience.

Lately I’ve been seeing a lot of deals in the publishing industry, big deals, good deals, major deals which constitute half a million dollars and up to authors who have built a fan base by self-publishing. There are at least three deals that I know of that are Fan Fiction work of Twilight. That means three authors who did not create their own characters but simply created a story of their own for Bella and Edward, then changed the names, have been offered half a million dollars for their efforts.

Another major deal recently posted was for a young woman (early twenties) who self-published her book and had a big following. Interested in what garnered so much attention I downloaded the sample. And yep, it’s exactly the type of book I would have written in my teens before I understood the mechanics and craft of writing. Silly word choices, odd first person POV observations. For me the sample was nearly unreadable. Half. A. Million. Dollars.

I’ve spent over twenty years writing books. Working on my craft. Reading books on craft. Going to conferences. Taking classes. I’ve written books only to turn around and put them in a drawer because for most of us that’s where our first efforts belong. And now you wonder… does anyone really care anymore? Publishing is out to make money. I get that. If a poorly written, amateur effort has already sold X amount of copies then the likelihood is traditional publishing can make money on it too. I guess that’s the theory.

But I’m really starting to wonder where all this might lead and what might happen overall to the quality of stories readers will be offered. Then I remembered a friend of mine who is an actor. For many of the same reasons she lamented the upsurge of reality television. She’d taken dictation, studied with famous acting coaches, worked on her craft, on her auditioning skills, and her ability to perform live and on camera. A life spent in pursuit of achieving something beautiful in her chosen artistic profession. Only to spend much of her time waiting tables while people like Snooki and the Situation take up television time and become famous for nothing.

I told her then, hey there is a place for both. Great acting and Bad Reality Television.  It’s just the way it’s going to be.

Now those words have come home to roost.

Let’s hope it remains true and there is a place for both… Great writing and Fan Fiction turned into Pop Culture Phenomena.  

Visual Storytelling

I recently saw a few movies that made me think about how it's possible to tell great stories with images, or how significantly images can enhance a story.

Last night I saw Life of Pi.

Full disclosure. I LOVED this book. Loved it. Loved how it made me think about the power of faith and/or how the human mind uses storytelling to cope with not only the unknown (God) but also to cope with traumatic experiences...

And the movie did the same, if maybe in a more heavy handed way. This movie is an interesting one for this topic because, while I think a big part of the appeal of the movie was the images, I also think images were a big part of the appeal of the book. The writer was able to describe things in such a way that we saw them as a reader... I must go back and take another look. It's been nearly a decade since I read the book.

Good news is that I loved the movie, too. The story is framed differently than the book, (I'm pretty sure... **see I haven't read the book in a decade) but the framing worked and added some context and a sense of reality and was a more interesting framing than a boy in a hospital bed talking to Japanese businessmen. Which, if I recall, didn't actually frame the book, just ended it... (And the framing in the movie meant we got some nice shots of Montreal.)

The other two I want to mention are probably a little harder to find: Beasts of the Southern Wild and Samsara.

Beasts of the Southern Wild I actually saw months ago and meant to talk about it then. If you can find this one somewhere, I highly recommend it, and also highly recommend seeing it on a big screen if you can.

It's the story of a little girl named Hushpuppy living in a swamp called the Bathtub. I'm not 100% sure, but I got the impression it's an area that was purposefully left partially flooded and unprotected after Hurricane Katrina. The government tried to move everyone out of the area, but some people refused to move. And still refuse to even when another storm approaches and floods them again.

But it's not really about that. It's about this very little girl (5 or 6?) who's almost living on her own. Her dad is around, but he makes her live in her own dwelling and barely takes care of her and he's not doing too well and often she needs to take care of him. The girl has been learning about prehistoric animals and imagines danger in the form of these great mastodon-sized pigs. And that image/idea comes to a head near the end of the film in an inventive way and shows the great bravery of our young heroine.

Great movie. Try to find it.

And Samsara. This one is purely visual. I'm not sure if there is a word spoken during this movie. It's a series of spectacular images set to music and it's mesmerizing. Wow. Hard to describe. Try to find it in a good movie theatre. And Go. :)

This trailer intrigued me enough to want to go, but it doesn't do the film justice.

Look at what I got!

Yep! A great big box of the mass market re-release of Dead on Delivery. So if I got a box of 'em. You can get 'em, too!

I'm really pleased about this re-release. I feel like this is one of those instances where a publisher goes the extra mile for an author. We were never sure where my Messenger series belonged. Was it a paranormal romance? Was it an urban fantasy? Yes, to both. So now the first two books are available on both sets of shelves.

I'm not sure if you remember from the last re-release, but I wrote a short story that takes place in the Messenger world with a different protagonist to celebrate the whole re-release thing. Payback for a Post-Mortem is still available for just 99 cents or, if you feel like signing up for my newsletter over at my website, you can get it for free!

Happy Tuesday everyone!

Breakouts in 2012

My post today is more of a question. Were there any breakout authors who published their first books in 2012?

It's a question that was asked on another website and they couldn't think of any, and neither could I, except maybe one, which was Gillian Flynn's book Gone Girl, but it's not her first book, but I think it's definitely a breakout book, but it's an adult thriller.

Anything in romance? Molly did awesome with her book release, and Cecilia Grant got some great buzz with her release, A Lady Awakened, but nothing else comes to mind.

As for YA, I can't think of a release in the past year that has gripped the market in the same way that Hunger Games, or Divergent, or Beautiful Creatures has.

The only breakout books that come to mind are erotica, who at this point hasn't heard of the 50 shades books, or the other books that followed, all packaged similarly, all erotica.

But that's it. Is 2012 the year of the erotic book breakout? I must be missing something. What breakout authors did I miss?

Books for a Cause

So, I've been thinking lately about book related charity drives. I'm all for helping out good causes but when charity events involve artists or entertainers (including authors) they typically also have the ulterior motive of promotion.

And I guess there's nothing wrong with that, but there's an invisible line somewhere and I'm just not sure where it is.

Cases in point...

Several times a year there are auctions for charities where authors and others involved in publishing give away books or critiques or other book or publishing related prizes to raise money. Fans and aspiring authors bid on the prizes. Those auctions are great, I think. Do they maybe increase the visibility of the people donating prizes? Perhaps. But the "publicity" involved seems minor to me compared to the money raised for the cause. And other than a tiny bit of publicity, the authors don't get anything in return. I have no qualms about being involved in one of those auctions.

On the other hand, mega-best-selling non-fiction author Tim Ferriss is running this thing right now where he's donating part of this royalties to charity if people help him sell/promote his new book. I'm not sure exactly how it all works, but what feels wrong about it isn't the donation part, it's the fact that he's claiming his books have been banned in order to entice people to participate/help him sell books which, yes, will peripherally mean that he donates more money to charity.

The reason this one has a squick factor for me isn't that he's giving away part of his royalties. No... it's that banned is a loaded word when it comes to books. And based on how that word is normally used in the book world, his books have not been "banned".

However, it is true that his publisher and therefore his book, have been boycotted by virtually every bookseller in North America...  And, um, Ferriss and I have the same publisher so I know how much that sucks... but I'd never try to convince people that my books have been banned. I think boycotted is a less-loaded word that describes the situation better. (And if you want to buy my book, I suggest you order it from an online retailer because the chances of finding it in a physical bookstore are slim to nil. See boycott.)

I also heard of another charity drive, recently, involving an author that also had a squick feeling for me, but I think that author's heart was in the right place... so I don't think I'll describe it here in detail.

And now I've been asked to be part of a charity program too. During the month of December, participating authors (including me) are partnering with Amazon Children's Publishing to give e-books to Worldreader. For every one of our books sold, an e-book will be donated to Worldreader. I won't be paid royalties for the donated books, but on the other hand, if the promotion surrounding the charity drive means I sell more books in December, I will get my normal royalties on the books sold...

That scheme feels okay to me. Yes, I'm getting some promotion for being involved, (at least I hope I will), but the books are being freely given to the charity by both me and my publisher. Am I rationalizing? Do I have a double standard?

FYI Here's some info on Worldreader.



Do you have clear lines when it comes to charitable giving? I'm clearly feeling ethically challenged these days.

Have you read DEVIANTS yet?

If the answer is no, go out and do yourself a favor and get it. Now. You will thank me.

Maureen has crafted an excellent book. There's just nothing she didn't do well in this book. The characters are wonderful and three-dimensional and conflicted. The dialogue is great. The world-building is simply freaking amazing. I have no idea how to come up with a world so complete and to present it on the page without ever resorting to boring exposition. We experience it all through Glory's eyes (and ear and nose and mouth and all those great senses). It's completely alive to me.

And the pacing! Holey Moley Guacamole! It's relentless. You will not be able to put it down. I couldn't.

The reviewers all agree with me. Four stars from RT, was it, Maureen? Mazel tov, my sweet. You earned it. Great job. Great book.

Who else has read it? Care to chime in with your opinion?

Happy American Thanksgiving

I was going go to blog about some of my frustrations with the publishing industry and what I see as a new disturbing trend in author expectations.

Then I remembered Thursday will be the American Thanksgiving and instead of griping I should be thankful for everything I have.

So petty jealousies and irritations aside here is my 2012 list:

1.      Family – it’s a given I know, but this year I’m especially thankful for them.

2.      My Cats – that’s right. I said it. My cats. Yes I’m a single woman who has cats and I like them. And they are friendly and cute and very comforting. So stick it to the stereotype.

3.      Writing Friends – If I didn’t get to talk about writing with other writers and the highs and lows and frustrations that come with it, I would probably lose my mind.

4.      Good Advice – I’ve gotten a lot of it lately. See writing friends above.

5.      Good Books – the kind that make me remember why I wanted to tell stories in the first place.

6.      Rediscovering 1995 Dean Cain – Yum.

7.      Stretchy Pants - that have allowed me to remain clothed even while my middle is expanding at some new warp speed.

8.      Cool Ranch Doritos -  as a comfort food. See stretchy pants above.

9.      HBO shows that feature hot naked men. See single cat lady above – I need my eye candy.

10.   The desire to write  - even when everything else is falling apart and I wondered if I could still write a book  - turns out I can. Thanks Mark and JoJo for pulling me through.

Writing Opening Lines

It's so hard to craft good opening lines. (Most of the time.) Sometimes they just come out of the ether. Those lines are miracles. But most of the time the ether fails us and the lines take some work to get right.

I can obsess about an opening line for weeks or months, so it meant a lot to me when I had a compliment paid to me this week on the Adventures in YA & Children's Publishing Blog about my opening for Deviants. That, and a discussion Molly, Sinead and I had on the weekend got me thinking about openings and opening lines again....

The aforementioned blog has some great thoughts about openings and here are some of mine:

A good opening line should be intriguing or catchy in some way.

It should raise questions that make the reader want to keep reading.

It should be easy to read--that is, tricky phrasing the reader shouldn't have to stumble over. ;-)

Along that same line... it should be well written without being overwritten. In unpublished contests, I find opening lines often fit into one of two groups: dull or overwritten. You don't need to, (and shouldn't try to), fit six metaphors and every big word you know into the opening paragraph. Another overwriting problem can come out of trying so hard to describe a complicated visual image that the reader has to stop and think about it so for so long it stops making sense.

A good opening should set the mood and/or tone for the novel. That is:  a funny book should have a funny opening, a scary book should have a scary opening etc.

There are other opening line "rules" one hears like, don't start with setting, don't start with a character waking up, don't start with a dream, don't start in a car... But like anything with writing you can break those rules if you do it well and/or do the other things mentioned above. (I started Deviants with setting...)

Great opening lines stick in your head. They're memorable. They make you want to keep reading.

Here's one of my favorite lines from the past year.

"This was not how Tara Jean Sweet imagined her engagement. Perched on the edge of her eighty-nine-year-old fiance's wheelchair wearing a skirt so short there was a good chance the photographer was getting a shot of her uterus.  -- Can't Buy Me Love, by Molly O'Keefe

Share your favorite(s) in the comments! :)

CAGE MATCH: Cloud Atlas Part II

Here are a few other things that I like about the Cloud Atlas movie as opposed to the book:

• In the far future, everyone wears ponchos!!!! This is totally awesome. I love ponchos. What's more, I love crocheting ponchos. In the credits of the movie they listed a knitter and a knitter/crocheter. It never occurred to me that I could quit my job and crochet ponchos for the movies as a living. I'm now SERIOUSLY considering it.

• Several of the stories made more sense to me in the movie than they did in the book. Most notably the one about the young composer between the wars. The ending of that story made no sense to me in the book. It made more sense in the movie.

• Sonmi's story was much more moving as it was portrayed in film. Her mode of speech was very flat and had little affect. In the book, there was nothing to contrast with that flatness. In the movie, the dichotomy between the flatness of her speech and the emotions on her face as we saw her story unfold made me really connect with her in a way that I hadn't in the book.

• The way the movie moved more fluidly between the stories allowed me to see the echoes between the stories more clearly.

I'm sure there are more things. I'll post them as I remember them.

So, Molly, was there anything in the book as awesome as everyone in the future wearing ponchos? I don't think so!

Cage Match: Cloud Atlas The Movie

One of my favorite books of the last few years was Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell. Another one was David Mitchell's The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, which I actually liked better, but that's a different cage match.

So when it was announced that they would make a movie of Cloud Atlas, the friend that so feverishly pressed Cloud Atlas into my hands and I made a date to go see it. I understood why Hollywood would want to get it's hands on this book - each story is steeped in an exciting visual world; A reluctant voyager crossing the Pacific in 1850; a disinherited composer blagging a precarious livelihood in between-the-wars Belgium; a high-minded journalist in Governor Reagan’s California; a vanity publisher fleeing his gangland creditors; a genetically modified “dinery server” on death-row; and Zachry, a young Pacific Islander witnessing the nightfall of science and civilization.

Who wouldn't want to take a crack at those worlds, the fact that each story has it's own climax that manages to encompass the very best of some kind of genre be it murder mystery, espionage, dark comedy prison break, futuristic sci-fi - makes it even more visually appealing. This book manages to incorporate every single genre in huge muscular and bold storytelling, while at the same time being deft and delicate. There are hints at reincarnation and all the stories are linked by the written or recorded history of the story before it.

It's not as mind-boggling as it seems. It's very cool and beautifully written.

So, I loved the book. I LOATHED the movie.

Eileen read the book and LIKED the movie. So, we're taking it to the cage match.

Here are the things I liked about the movie:

1. Tom Hanks. Honestly, it's hard not to like him. Particularly since he seemed like he was having so much fun.
2. The reincarnation bit was made more clear by the fact that many characters surface and play different parts in all the stories. Makes an appealing case for the idea that there are people we are bound to, no matter what.
3.The visual storytelling of some of these worlds was really satisfying. The sci-fi shoot outs and the 1970's espionage - all very cool.
4. Hugo Weaving is a great bad guy in any time or place...
5. The vanity publisher fleeing his gangland creditors was BRILLIANT!! It was filmed exactly as it was written and hats off to Hollywood for leaving it alone.

Things I hated:

1. The reincarnation bit got super heavy-handed with a set of star-crossed lovers that really didn't hold up for me. I think if I hadn't read the book, it might have really worked, but having read the book, it stretched things too far.

2. The stories take place in lots of different times and places - one of the big ones is future Korea and with all of the characters playing parts in all the stories they made a choice to make every one look Korean. And then they took the one Korean actress who played many roles and tried to make her look Caucasian in another story. It wasn't just distracting - it was ridiculous and offensive. It seemed like blackface to me, it was so bad. Be bold enough to let the actors just be the actors instead of giving them terrible makeup. This really really bothered me because it just tore me totally out of the story.

3. In standard Hollywood fashion they had to tie up a lot of the loose ends that the book leaves enticingly loose. They had to give Tom Hanks and Halle Berry an ASININE happy ending with them as grandparents. Tom Hanks even urges a kid to "Help old Grampy Up." So so so so so hamhanded. There was also another bookending on another story with the sailor in 1850 coming home to his wife (the Korean actress with terrible makeup) and then defying his father in law regarding a plantation contract. Both of those things were so jarring in their simplicity - it felt like some studio head popped their head in and said "make it happy folks!"

So - I say read the book. Skip the movie. Eileen?

Getting Back in the Saddle and Loving It

I haven't been doing a lot of writing lately. I had a switch in my day job and it's been taking a lot of time and attention. Add sending my youngest off to college and some health crises for my mother and, well, I haven't been able to get much done. I went through revisions and copy edits, but I didn't give it the attention I usually do. I'm down to page proofs now and, for some reason, I'm into it. I seriously don't have the time to dive this deep into this book, but I am loving it.

I'm not sure if my depression slowed down my work or not doing the work made me depressed, but I'm convinced they are inextricably linked. I'm pretty sure that feeling better and writing again are just as linked.

It's been painful, but I think I learned an important lesson. I thought I could give up writing. I was considering it pretty seriously. I don't think I can do it. I think it's too linked to who I am and who I want to be.

So here's to discovering my joy again and reconnecting to the person that I think I'm supposed to be. Is there something you have to do to feel like yourself? Something you can't live without?

I am Skipping School!!!

I'm taking the day off! And I mean really taking it off. Friday I hit send on the current manuscript. I'm not thinking about new ideas until next Sunday so I have a whole week of getting my life back together and enjoying some downtime. Today I am going to the movies. Cloud Atlas! That's right - the three hour+ adaptation of one of the best books I read last year. Can't wait.

And then I'm going to do some reading - non-genre. Susanna Kearsley, one of my favorites has a new book coming out. It's glowing in my ereader right now.

I need to catch up on Homeland, Breaking Bad and if I can find the first season I'm watching Vampire Diaries.

I might go through a closet or two - that's pretty low on the list though.

And yoga - lots and lots of yoga, because my body is not a wonderland.

That's my week - if you need me - I am absolutely NOT AROUND!!!