five things that make me happy meme

i haven't blogged since the last IWSG, so when i saw Donna Hole's meme on 5 things that make me happy, i thought i'd play along. i'm trying to put more positive in my life. (my daughter even put a note on the fridge that says, "Mom, be positive." it's right under the note she put up there months ago that says, "Mom - daily chocolate." what a girl!)

a lot of things make me happy, but i'll put up the 5 most current...

1. the phone call i got from my 17 year old son last night. he's been staying with his grandparents, helping with construction. it's the first time he's been away from home. one week down and two to go before we pick him up. i know he's missing home, and we're missing him, but he sounded cheerful. that alone made me smile. as did his lengthy conversations with his siblings.

2. a new Mary Connealy book to read, called A Bride for All Seasons. it's a collection of short stories, and also has a story in it by Robin Lee Hatcher, one of my other favorite authors.

3. the last book i read, called Stealing the Preacher by Karen Witemeyer. she's a new author in my favorites list. the writing was some of the best i've ever read.

4. watching a butterfly in my emerging wildflower garden. we don't see many butterflies up where i live and this one was a bright yellow swallowtail, one of my favorites. after i watered the flowers, it landed in the mud to get a drink. i watched it for several minutes.

5. the wild irises in my front yard. we have a small patch of aspens and the irises are growing among them. there must be a hundred of them, all showing off their whitish-purple blooms. just lovely.

this isn't one of those memes where you have to be tagged to play along, or at least i'm not doing it that way. if you have 5 happy things in your life and you want to post about them, let me know so i can read your happy list.

IWSG - a little help from my friends

even if it's a last minute post, i try to say something encouraging. today, as one of my friends says, "i got nuthin'." and that's ok. as a writer, sometimes we've got nuthin'. so on this fine IWSG  Wednesday, i'm going to ask for some help from my friends.

what is the most encouraging thing you've learned or heard about writing?

for more IWSG posts, follow the link to Alex's blog.

thanks, and have a great day. :)

the best and worst movie remakes

if it’s a blogfest about movies, i’m there... the latest from Alex and friends is The Best and Worst MovieRemakes.  

because i had no idea how many of the movies i’ve watched are remakes, i thought i’d look it up. i found this link: List of Film Remakes. it’s a longer list than i’d anticipated.

now, i know this is supposed to be a blog post about movies remade from other movies, but some i’ve listed here are based on tv shows, so i’ve split them up. and this is a long post...just to warn you. (we watch movies all the time around here.)

best movie remakes --

-- An Affair to Remember – remade from the 1939 Love Affair

-- The newest Batman trilogy – the Tim Burton series was fun, but i like the more realistic Batman that Christian Bale portrayed, and the more realistic storyline.

-- You’ve Got Mail – from The Shop Around the Corner – again, i thought this was a more realistic version of the story.

-- Magnificent Seven – from Seven Samurai

-- Rio Bravo – a sort of re-make of El Dorado – Angie Dickinson’s character (Feathers) really makes this one.

-- Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows – not really a remake so much as a re-do, kind of like Batman. i love Robert Downey, Jr. as Holmes, Jude Law as Watson, and Jarod Harris as Moriarty.

-- Incredible Hulk with Edward Norton

best movies based on tv shows –

-- A Team – as a kid, i watched the original series, but the movie’s storyline, plus the action, make the tv show seem kind of boring. still, you can’t beat Mr T in the tv show.

-- Serenity – oh yeah

-- Maverick – great twist at the end.

-- Pride and Prejudice with Keira Knightly, which is really based on a book, but i think of it as a re-do of the BBC version. i know – there are hundreds of fans of the BBC version, but i thought for a 2 hour version, this was good, especially when i don’t feel like slogging through 4 hours of Jane Austen. and i like Matthew McFayden’s portrayal of Mr. Darcy.

-- some of the Star Trek movies – especially Wrath of Khan and the newest series with Chris Pine and company.

-- the Avengers – i’m kind of getting off track here because this is based more on comic characters that have been in various tv shows, but my whole family thinks it’s great. Along with that, i’d have to include Ironman and Captain America.

 Not sure, because i didn’t see the original movie but I like these –

-- No Reservations – based on Mostly Martha

-- True Lies – based on La Totale!

-- What a Girl Wants – based on The Reluctant Debutante

(part of me thinks i could watch the originals to see which is better, but i like the remakes so much, i don’t want to ruin them.)

pretty good –

-- Total Recall (minus one scene that was totally unnecessary) – i really liked the storyline.

-- Freaky Friday – Jamie Lee Curtis portraying a teenager is great.

-- Karate Kid – the first will always be a classic, but this was good.

-- The Parent Trap – i like both versions

-- The Amazing Spiderman - i liked the first series with Toby Maguire (minus #3). this one was ok.

 worst –

-- Clash of the Titans – why mess with a classic like that?

-- True Grit – you just can’t re-do a John Wayne movie. As my kids would say, “that’s just wrongedy-wrong.”

-- Sabrina – i like Harrison Ford, but he can’t channel Humphrey Bogart, and Julia Ormond is not Audrey Hepburn.

now, when can we do a movie blogfest about best and worst movies based on books? or maybe that’s already been done. 

IWSG - facing the critics

i'll admit it right here. i'm a people pleaser. i wish i weren't, but that's how i've spent most of my life - worrying about what people think of me. one day i'll get over it, but for now, that's my Achilles' Heel.

when i write, it works its way in and keeps me from writing. "will the people who read Eldala like this one? will they be ok that i've changed my writing style? will they like this story? will they like it as much as the first one?" no wonder i get stuck. i'm trying to be perfect.

now, i should know that the people who really count (friends and family) are going to like it no matter what. but i still don't want to be writing it for them. and though i've faced hardly any criticism from people i don't know for the first one, i shouldn't be worrying about them. but i still do, a little.

now, i know some of you who have several books out there, and have a wider audience than i do, have faced critics. for you (and a little for me), i thought of these quotes today:

from Ratatouille - "In many ways, the work of a critic is easy. We risk very little yet enjoy a position over those who offer up their work and their selves to our judgment. We thrive on negative criticism, which is fun to write and to read. But the bitter truth we critics must face, is that in the grand scheme of things, the average piece of junk is probably more meaningful than our criticism designating it so."

and then i thought of the speech by Teddy Roosevelt about the Man in the Arena. when i looked it up, i found a couple of quotes that are more applicable to writing - 

"...the man who really counts in the world is the doer, not the mere critic - the man who actually does the work, even if roughly and imperfectly, not the man who only talks or writes about how it ought to be done." (1891)

"Criticism is necessary and useful; it is often indispensable; but it can never take the place of action, or be even a poor substitute for it. The function of the mere critic is of very subordinate usefulness. It is the doer of deeds who actually counts in the battle for life, and not the man who looks on and says how the fight ought to be fought, without himself sharing the stress and the danger." (1894)

for more insights from insecure writers, you can go to Alex's IWSG page.

answering my own questions

or where i interview myself...how narcissistic is that? anyway, a few weeks ago, i asked my blogging friends some questions and since i feel like posting today, i'll answer them for me.

1. If you’re a reader, what’s your favorite genre to read? historical romance, preferrably with a Christian theme.

2. If you could go anywhere in the world to visit, where would you go? Wales (to see the country i based Teleria on) and New Zealand to sort of visit Middle Earth.

3. What’s your favorite movie? that's hard since i like so many, but if i had to save one from my collection, it would be Ever After (the Cinderella story). if i could save more, they would be Avatar, Kate and Leopold, Open Range, and You've Got Mail.

4. Chocolate or vanilla? Or some other flavor? both, sometimes mixed, especially if we're talking vanilla ice cream with chocolate sauce. i'm pretty simple.

5. Coffee, tea, or neither? tea, but usually only when my daughter wants to drink it with me. coffee on very rare occaisions.

6. Dessert person? If so, favorite dessert. of course dessert. cheesecake of any kind and strawberry shortcake

7. What was your first job? i was 18 when i took a job as a secretary/go-fer for a real estate office. that job lasted 2 years and helped me pay for junior college.

8. Why did you start blogging? to have a place to express myself. then it turned into a place to share my nanowrimo word count (2005) for Eldala. i called it Life in the Midst of Writing.

9. Do you have any hobbies? What are they? paper arts, doodling, photography. i'd like to go back to making scrapbooks.

10. What’s the best time of the day for you? middle of the day. i've told my husband that if we ever owned a bed and breakfast, it would have to be a bed and lunch.

11. Do you like crowds or being with just a small group of people? i'm better with small groups of people, but even a small group can make me tired. i really prefer talking to people one on one.

when the writing brain turns to mush

IWSG - what the heck happened to March?

because if i knew, i would have put up a post yesterday. but i completely forgot. and since life is a little crazy, i'll recycle an older one for my new visitors. (excuse me for a moment while i go searching...) well, that was not helpful. seems i keep saying the same thing over, but in different ways. guess i'll have to write something new. of course, my editing mind wants it to be brilliant. and i'm a little chagrined that i forgot, when i'm usually pretty punctual about this. but i'm going to let all of that go and just be me. i'm not here to impress you. just encourage you. life wouldn't be life without mistakes.

so here are some words of advice about writing, and i've been writing since 2005. you probably know some of these already, but here they are anyway.

-- write like a first grader. you can always polish it later, but if you don't write anything, you have nothing to edit later. i should take that advice from myself again now that i'm stuck, again.

-- find someone to bounce ideas off of.

-- be yourself.

-- don't be so hard on yourself. you're going to make mistakes. get up. dust yourself off. i should listen to that one too. perfectionism is a hard taskmaster.

-- your worth is not measured in how many people like your book, how many sales you make, how many book signings you schedule, or how many rejection letters you get. you have value because you exist. you have a uniqueness and beauty all your own.

-- help someone else along the way with a kind word.

-- your story is important. write it. when it gets hard, take a break. take a walk. plant a flower. help a neighbor. don't obsess.

-- now go eat some chocolate.

Liebster blogging award

For those of you who frequent this blog, please pardon the capital letters, but I wrote this in Word and I use the auto-caps feature. So much easier than having to capitalize every sentence. Anything to save my fingers when I write. For those of you who are new, I don’t capitalize anything on this blog, also due to the fact that I use auto-caps and have gotten out of the habit. Plus it helps deflate the grammar snob in me.  

Also, this is a long post, but it couldn't be helped...

Lisa Yarde, dear writer friend and fellow self-published author, gifted me with the Liebster Award. (Thank you, Lisa. I have fun with these...) It appears to have been around for a while, so I looked it up. All I could find was that it started in Germany, that Liebster means “dear” or “dearest” in German, and that you pass it on to 3 – 11 bloggers who have anywhere from less than 200 followers to less than 3000 followers. Talk about things evolving on the internet...

As part of the more recent round of Liebster Awards in the blogging world, you have to tell 11 random things about yourself, answer 11 questions from the blogger who gave you the award, make up your own 11 questions, and pass the award on to 11 bloggers who have less than 200 followers. I’m not sure I know that many bloggers with less than 200, but I’ll try. I’m not even sure I know that many bloggers anymore since I’ve been pretty scarce around here in the last few months.

 Here are the answers to what Lisa called “those questions for my fellow writers victims:”

 1.   Who is your favorite writer and why? My very favorite writer is Mary Connealy. Just looking at my library will confirm that. She writes what she calls “Romantic Comedy with Cowboys.” I call it Hysterical Historicals. I think I have nearly every historical romance she’s written since I found Petticoat Ranch. I love her humorous writing style, her sassy heroines, her noble (if sometimes misguided) heroes, and her happy endings.  A close second would have to be Robin Lee Hatcher. I love her historical romances too.

 2. If you had to pick any one spot on a map and move there, where would you go and why? Is there somewhere on earth that looks like Rivendell from the Lord of the Rings movies? Ok. Since there’s not, I want a coastal view where I won’t get hurricanes. And add a forest to that. So maybe that’s the Redwood Forest in northern California?

 3. Who are your top real-life and fictional heroes / heroines? Real heroes -- my husband (the most loving, generous person I know), my kids (just because they’re cool), February Grace (my amazing friend who lives with grace and beauty despite the curves life throws her). The fictional heroes don’t even compare.

 4. How long does it take from first draft to published work? The first one, Eldala, took from November 2005 to August 2007. This one, the sequel… I started the first draft in 2009. In the midst of trying to write, we decided to move. We started the remodeling process. I had health and depression issues. We spent months trying to find our lost dog. We put our house up for sale. We moved out of the house and into a rental. We moved out of the rental and stayed with my parents for 2 weeks in northern Montana. We moved into a rental house in Butte, MT. We recovered from moving. I had more health and depression issues. In the last 7 years, I’ve written 8 or 9 drafts. I’m just now getting into the best draft. When will I publish? I have no idea.

 5. Among your own books, who's your favorite character and what's your favorite book? I have two books—Eldala and its in-progress sequel. Eldala is my favorite because it’s my first novel and it doesn’t have to be edited anymore. It’s a real book. Right now, I’m not too fond of my sequel.

My favorite character is Kieran. I related to him the most because he was an ordinary person who had to decide to do something extraordinary. I had to do the same when I wrote his story. And I absolutely adore the person who inspired him – Steven Waddington. Mr. Waddington is a fine actor, and from everything I’ve heard on his Facebook fan page, a fine person as well.

 6. Why do you write about certain characters, settings or in a particular genre? My genre is medieval fantasy with romance. I write romance because I love love. I write fantasy so I can make up my facts and add in magic. I use a medieval world because it fascinates me, but I sure wouldn’t have wanted to live in that time period. Since I write medieval fantasy, I can leave out whatever facts I want about the time period and make things up.

 7. Who knows you best in life? My husband. And he adores me.

 8. What's your earliest memory and why does it stick with you? I remember making pizzas with my mom and dad in our little house on McKinley Street. I was 3. When they were done, we used my red wagon to take them to another house because we didn’t have a big freezer to store them in.

 9. How did your first job impact what you do professionally today? My first job was working in a real estate office. I think it greatly improved my typing skills. Handy when you’re a writer. Sometimes my fingers move faster than my brain.

 10. What did you buy with the first royalty payment? It came from Lulu.com. I think I just put it in the bank. I’m sure I was excited to get paid as a writer, especially since I’d never expected to write a novel, ever. 

 11. If you weren't writing, what would you be doing instead? Reading. But I do that anyway.

Here are 11 random things about me and/or random things that popped into my head.

1.     I love to write fantasy. I usually don’t read it. My favorite genre to read is Christian Historical Romance.

2.     When I was in junior high, my friend and I found a lady across the street who had several roping horses. Somehow we ended up helping her take care of them, and she taught us to ride. I was in love.

3.     Now that I live on 25 acres, I want my own horses, but we have to wait.

4.     I’ve always wanted to live in the pines. Now I do.

5.     My favorite pines are the tall Ponderosas. We have those in Montana, just not where I live. I think it’s an altitude thing. Our property has Douglas fir. They’re shorter and fluffier.

6.     I love the smell of Christmas trees. Last year, I discovered that a Douglas fir does not smell like a Christmas tree after you bring it into the house.

7.     We’ve also decided that the idea of cutting a tree yourself, from your own property, sounds nice—until you have to drag it up the long, steep driveway and then cut 2 or 3 feet off the bottom of it to fit it in your house. It was easier last year, when we could just drag it to the truck and drive it to the rental house.

8.     This was the first year we needed a ladder to decorate the tree.

9.     Can you tell that Christmas is my favorite holiday?

10.  I never thought I’d be so happy to see Spring. Or think about Summer.

11.  In Arizona we had warm, warmer, “how the heck did it get this hot?”, and pizza oven. Despite the snow that lasts 5 months, I’m glad I’m in Montana now. (Although I was starting to get tired of the white stuff by March.)

 Questions for my blogging friends, and these are really random –

1.     If you’re a reader, what’s your favorite genre to read?

2.     If you could go anywhere in the world to visit, where would you go?

3.     What’s your favorite movie?

4.     Chocolate or vanilla? Or some other flavor?

5.     Coffee, tea, or neither?

6.     Dessert person? If so, favorite dessert.

7.     What was your first job?

8.     Why did you start blogging?

9.     Do you have any hobbies? What are they?

10.  What’s the best time of the day for you?

11.  Do you like crowds or being with just a small group of people?

In choosing these bloggers, I know I’m not keeping to the 200 followers thing, but I have almost 300 followers now (which still surprises me), so the rule has already been broken.

1.     February Grace 

2.     Christine Hardy 

3.     Lori Vliegen (Lori has 1500 followers, but you have to see her blog)

4.     Annalisa Crawford 

5.     Lindsay Ostrom 

6.     Wendy Brightbill (she has an amazing story)

7.     Mary Connealy (check out her books – no, Mary didn’t tell me to say that)

8.     ?? I’m sorry to say, since having less internet access, I’ve cut my blog reading list back quite a bit.

To my nominees, if you decide to play along, let me know so I can read your answers. Whether you do or not, you’re dear to me.

top ten movie blogfest

Alex is once again hosting a movie blogfest. this time it's ten instead of 12. (see, i knew i'd done this before.)  anyway...

as usual, i’m late again in participating. and again i ask, just ten?

 

 we have like a gazillion in our movie collection. the question “what are we going to watch tonight?” goes right along with “what’s for dinner?” i won’t go into how it started, but let’s just say, we’ve watched a movie almost every night for the last two years. so to pick my favorite is going to be difficult. i think, instead, i’ll pick my most recent favorites. these are in no particular order.

 1. The Legend of Bagger Vance – Will Smith and Matt Damon are great in this. we especially love Will Smith’s mystic character.

2. The Avengers – we watched this 3 times in the theater, and could hardly wait for it to come out on blu-ray. when it did, we must have watched it five times in two weeks. maybe more. i have the lines memorized now.

3. speaking of Joss Whedon… someone showed us Serenity a few years ago and i thought it was a little strange. but then we saw it on tv, rented it, loved it, and decided to buy it. and then we had to watch Firefly. yes, they were different, and i actually prefer watching Firefly (minus a few episodes that were just strange), whereas my boys prefer the movie. do i dare admit that my favorite character is Inara? Watt is a close second.

4. Inception – it took me about 3 times of watching this to figure out what was going on, but when i did, i liked it. and i love the music. Hans Zimmer is one of my favorite composers.

 5.  The Hobbit – in our small town, movies don’t last a long time, so although we’d planned to watch this a second time in the theater, we didn’t get the chance. we’re looking forward to the blu-ray release, and i’m sure we’ll watch it a few times in that first week.

 6. The Adjustment Bureau – not my kids’ favorite, but i like it because it helped me solidify a major part of the plot for my sequel. and i love the idea of two people fighting for forbidden love. J

 7. Robin Hood (with Russell Crowe) – despite the poor way they depict King Richard, i like this for the story and the medieval feel. i especially love the sweet way Robin treats Marian.

 8. Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows – who would have thought that Robert Downey, Jr. would play such a great Holmes? and Jarod Harris is superb as Moriarty. 

 9. the Jason Bourne series – as my boys watched these recently, i found i really liked the story. unexpected.

 10. Red – talk about unexpected. i keep telling myself i should not like a movie about retired assassins, but i just can’t help it. it’s funny. “wanna get pancakes?”