Lightning and Harry Potter…

…which may sound connected but they’re not, at least not in this post.

A few things on a Monday:

1. Fantastic electrical storm last night, plus hail, plus ongoing pouring rain. Meanwhile, Son2 is at woodsman camp on a nearby island…. Lucky him.
2. I slept through the phone ringing early this morning — it was the staffing office asking if I could work today. So, I lost a potential day of work and the very helpful paycheque that goes along with it, but I gained a day to devote to writing. (Bills, schmills… I’d always rather write than head to the day-job!)
3. I did a word-count check on the novel I’m revising and… ta da!… I’ve now added more than I originally cut. Not that I’m hung up on word counts, but it does seem to be a bit of a milestone.
4. I switched my ISP a few weeks ago, despite the new ISP’s VERY persistent sales agents that totally annoyed me in the weeks leading up to my choosing to switch (it was purely a $ thing for me). And now, I’ve decided that the new ISP sucks with great amounts of suckage, despite being a large, popular company. I will likely switch again…. Sigh.
5. I have managed to turn Son3 into a total HP fan. He’s done nothing but read today (a good thing to do during the aforementioned pouring rain). He’s currently 1/3 through HP and the Half-Blood Prince. (He knows I won’t take him to see it in the theatre, though, at least not without me seeing it first. I think the Inferi and the Dementors may be a bit much for him on the big screen!) As for me, I’m totally stoked to see the movie!

That’s all for now. Have a great week!

Peace….

Happy endings

I love happy endings. In my work at a hospital, I’ve seen a few not-so-happy ones lately, and they suck. I suppose on some philosophical or spiritual level, what I call a sad ending may not truly be one. But mostly, I think real life has way too many sad endings. That’s probably why I like happy ones in movies and books. Not necessarily fairy-tale happily-ever-after endings (actually, preferably not those kind). Just hopeful ones. Ones that either whisper or shout that, despite appearances, despite hardships, despite messy loose ends, there’s hope. Those kinds of endings in fiction may even give me a more hopeful outlook on the less-than-perfect endings in real life.

What about you? Do you prefer happy endings in stories? And do the stories you read/watch impact your outlook on real life? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Peace….

Friday Five: HP, Zombies, and more

1. I was just thinking this morning how I hate that I have to wait until July for this:
   
2. …and then I read THIS ARTICLE and was reminded of how much hard – and at times dangerous – work goes into creating such movies. I only ever think about the finished product, really. (I guess it’s kinda like when you get pulled into an awesome novel and never pause for an instant to picture the poor author sweating over revisions and deadlines!) Anyway, the dangerous part has made an appearance for Daniel Radcliffe’s stunt double. Scary stuff. Sending prayers and good thoughts for his recovery….
3. And now for something completely different…. How about a combo-pack of Jane Austen and zombies? Now, I personally don’t love zombie books, but I know a lot of y’all do, so you might want to check this out — romance, fine literature, and zombie mayhem, all combined in one volume for your reading pleasure. The cover is oddly awesome (if a little disturbing).
4. On the non-zombie home-front, my printer is at this moment churning out pages and pages of my non-zombie YA manuscript so I can send it off to the hopefully non-zombie editor who requested it. It makes me happy that people are showing interest in this story. If zombies like it, that would be okay too.
5. And hey! Be sure to drop in on Monday when Courtney Summers will be here for the February edition of my 20 Questions YA Author Interview. Courtney’s debut novel, Cracked Up To Be, was released in December.
   

Have a great weekend!

Peace….

Friday Five: Of shopping (or not) and baking and a large-eared mouse

1. Kudos to all of you who are brave enough to head out shopping on this rainy (here, anyway) Black Friday. There’s not a chance in Wal-mart I’m going shopping today. (And yes, for me that is exactly the same as saying not a chance in hell. Can you tell I’m not a good shopper?)
2. THIS may be one of the reasons I’m staying away from the stores. Yikes. How awful. Even without tragedy, though, there’s no way I’m going to tackle this: or this:Way too scary for me. (Actually, there probably aren’t as many people in my town as there are in that crowd picture, but still, even small-town crowds are too big for me. I’m very much a wuss when it comes to large gatherings of any sort.)
3. Instead, I’m staying home to bake desserts for a potluck lunch date with some writer friends (old and new) tomorrow. I’m thinking cappuccino cheesecake may be in order. And maybe spice cookies. Mmmm….
4. It’s almost time to start Christmas baking, too. I love Christmas baking! And this year my work schedule actually allows plenty of time for Christmassy things, so yay for that.
5. And hey! Only three weeks until this:
   
   Son 3 and I can’t wait! Have you read the book? Kate DiCamillo is an amazing storyteller.

Peace, my friends. And don’t be afraid to just say no to shopping.

Into the Wild

I watched this movie last night, and now Eddie Vedder’s incredible voice is haunting me. Oh wait, no. My hubby is watching the movie again to find a couple quotes he liked, and the soundtrack is drifting upstairs to where I’m supposed to be working on revisions. But that voice. Wow.

I actually have made decent progress on revisions today, despite the haunting. But soon my writing time is up: kidlets shall arrive home, and chauffeur duty will commence. But perhaps I can swing by the bookstore and pick up Jon Krakauer’s book. (When there’s a movie based on a book, I like reading the book first. Too late this time, but I still want to read this one.) Might have to watch the movie again, too. And buy the soundtrack. And the haunting will continue….

A bibliophile rejoices

We have a bookstore! A brand spanking new bookstore in my little town (why is something new spanking?), and I am one happy girl. Not that I need more books. That’s never stopped me before, though, and now I can actually browse the shelves and see all the wonderful covers and smell the new paper and feel the pages between my fingers and…. Shopping at Amazon.ca just doesn’t compare. I get my books, sure, but I don’t get the multi-sensory experience of actually shopping for them! And now I can. Yay!

I pored over the YA section then had a nice chat with the owner. Maybe next time I’ll suggest a few potential additions to her YA collection (which was quite impressive for the small store, but still missing a few key authors, IMHO — like Sarah Dessen, one of my fave YA authors, whose books consistently offer realistic feels-like-you-know-them characters, in addition to their compelling storylines). I selected a couple books (how could I go in there all happy to discover the store and not support it?!) and headed home.

I hope our little store makes it. It should — the only competition is the grocery store’s poorly arranged aisle of books. There’s not a chance of a big box store coming in here to defeat it (a la You’ve Got Mail) so as long as people stay away from Amazon and support their new indie, it should be a success.

And now, for some strange reason, I’ve got the urge to watch something with Tom Hanks in it. Ah, but I see my new book sitting on the coffee table, and it’s calling me. Sorry, Tom, you’ll have to wait.

Mindless entertainment

It was still dark when I came home from work this morning at 6:20 a.m., and that made me sad. See, it felt all the more like summer was ending. Shorter days. And it’s raining today, too. So not summery. I’m hoping September will still be summer, like it often is here. I definitely need more beach weather before settling into the wet months ahead!

I watched Premonition the other night, and it was pretty good. I’ve realized, though, that I don’t like to have to think when I watch movies. I kept thinking about which day it must be (in the movie, I mean — I’m not THAT disconnected with reality) (okay, sometimes I am), and kept trying to figure out what was really happening and what was the “alternate reality” or whatever. And that sucked some of the enjoyment out of it. I don’t mind having to really think to figure out interesting books, or to work out real-life problems, but I’ve decided that movies should be straight entertainment. Mindless. But fun.

OTOH, it’s kinda cool that I’m still thinking about that movie. The themes, the message (what’s worth fighting for in your life?), and how the message managed to be conveyed in the story. And that’s a little like what I enjoy in books — how the writer manages to tell the story, weave in the themes, make a lasting impression, make me think. Maybe my need for mindless entertainment was more about my mood or energy level at the time, and maybe I actually do like using my brain. Go figure.

So… got any movie suggestions for me?

H.P. Spoilers

Or, “R.A.H.P.S. — Readers Against Harry Potter Spoilers”

Why oh why do people want to spoil the ending for those of us waiting to read HP and the Deathly Hallows? Just let me enjoy the book, for goodness’ sake! I’m starting to wonder if I’ll have to stay off-line until I read it. Maybe everything out there is just speculation or hoaxes (probably), but still, I just want to find out for myself how it all turns out. Don’t you? Or maybe you were hoping I was offering spoilers? No, I’m raging against them. Hence, my imaginary organization: RAHPS. (Oh, that’s so dumb… I think I’m sleep deprived.)

Partly Rowling and the publisher bring on the spoiler problem themselves, with all the hype and marketing, and maybe it’s all part of the big plan. Actually, it probably is part of the marketing plan, even though Rowling begs people not to leak spoilers. Anything that gets people talking about the book contributes to sales, right? But even though I love the Harry Potter books and movies, honestly I’m pretty sick of the hype. So I will stop right here and not contribute any more to the hype.

In other news… I worked at the “day job” (which is more accurately called a night job) like crazy this week and so got no writing done at all. Hopefully next week will be different. I’m anxious to get back into my story, even though I’m not sure what’s going to happen next in it (and I’ll never find out if I don’t sit down and WRITE it!).

And finally, happy summer everyone! As I write this, it is absolutely pouring outside. So not summery, yet I’m wearing capris and a tank-top — forever the optimist (either that, or I’m in complete denial). Wishing you some lazy, hazy, crazy days this summer, with plenty of time to create silly acronyms for imaginary organizations.

Peace….

My imaginary friends

I went on a bit of a Harry Potter kick this week. I’d been wanting to watch one of the movies for a while, so finally on Tuesday night I had the time. I picked Prisoner of Azkaban. I was thoroughly enjoying it, but I knew I had to get up early for work so with great self-discipline I stopped the movie and went to bed. Next day, as soon as I got home from my shift, I settled in to watch the end. Silly me — turns out, there were only ten minutes left. So since I’d been psyched for more Hogwarts adventures, I watched Goblet of Fire. So good! The next day, I watched Philosopher’s Stone (see what I mean about being on a bit of a kick?). The kick wanted to continue, but alas, I had no more HP movies to watch. I promptly ordered Chamber of Secrets online — the only HP movie I hadn’t bought before. It should be here in a few days. After that I’m going to read books five and six, which should hold me until the next movie comes out July 11. Then the finale…. Book 7, ordered quite some time ago, will arrive at the end of July. That gives me plenty of time to come up with a way to read it before my kids get their hands on it (although it’ll only take them a day or two each to read it). I guess I could be patient and wait for them to finish before I get my turn, but….

I’m actually not much into fantasy. Harry Potter is almost all the fantasy stuff I’ve read. Some members of my household, who shall remain nameless, have no interest in HP at all, and it just looks dumb to them. I can relate to that, because I know I’ve felt that way about different fantasy and science fiction stuff. But the Harry Potter is good for me, I think, because it makes me (allows me?) to put aside my usually kinda cynical self and just enjoy the story. It’s that whole suspension of disbelief thing.

Being a fiction writer, I spend lots of time with my imaginary friends. It’s all “realistic” in a way, though, because my imaginary friends tend to live in fairly realistic worlds. But I’m thinking I should let them have more fun sometimes; let them just go wild in a world without the usual boundaries. Maybe. Or I’ll just go on another HP kick and enjoy J.K. Rowling’s imaginary worlds.

“I hab a code”

(Translation: I have a cold.) It’s spring, the sun is shining, the air is warm, and I have a stupid cold. Blech. I know, could be worse. And I suppose I should look on the bright side — I’m getting a really great ab workout with all this major coughing I’m doing. I just get going and it’s a sight, I tell you. I almost expect a hairball to spew out. So not feminine. I’m mostly hibernating until this thing is gone.

Castaway is on TV tonight, and I think I’ll take my box of Kleenex and my cup of tea and watch it. I’ve seen it a couple times. I don’t think there’s any other actor who could pull off being the only character on-screen for so much of a movie. Tom Hanks is amazing. (DaVinci Code was a lousy movie, but it wasn’t due to the acting, imho. I loved Philadelphia, Apollo 13, Sleepless in Seattle, You’ve Got Mail, Big, and of course Castaway.) (Oh, and The Terminal and Catch Me If You Can. He’s done so many good ones!)

Maybe I’ll do a bit of editing while I watch so I have something ready for my writing group this week. And that will about take all my energy.

Have a great week, everyone, and stay healthy!