Happy Halloween

Saw this clip and thought it was pretty funny. So I'm sharing. Don't watch if you can't take a woman calling Halloween the pedophile's Christmas.

Happy Halloween everyone :)

Grimm

With some trepidation after my bad experience with American Horror Story, I watched the pilot episode of the new NBC series Grimm.

The premise is, while investigating the grisly murder of a college student (who was killed as she ran in a wooded area while wearing a red hoodie), a detective discovers he is a descendant of the Grimm family, of fairy tale fame, and that he has the ability to see the true identities of the monsters and villains of the Grimm tales (e.g. the Big Bad Wolf), lurking beneath normal human exteriors in his midst. It seems they are not just fairy tales after all.

Although I found a couple of the key actors to be on the weak side, this episode totally hooked me with great pacing, genuine suspense, and the intriguing premise. I literally jumped in my seat several times, yet it was not too gory or scary, just creepy good. My favorite is a supporting character named Eddie Monroe, who puts a new twist on the Big Bad Wolf. He provided an unexpected dose of humor.

I don't know exactly where they are going ultimately with this, but I will be back for episode 2.

The Ultimate Showdowns

Had an interesting conversation about cage fighting tonight. As I thought about posting, I wanted to have a match up of great white shark vs gorilla or something. I am not going to the animal kingdom for this showdown though. So here are your match ups, cage fight style:

1) Cruella DeVille vs Professor Umbridge in a cage who walks out?
























2) Angry Birds vs Pikachu in a cage who bleeds first?
























And finally:
3) Thor vs Wolverine in a cage? (I'll admit to alterior motives on this match up;)

Once I Get To Know You Better

Have you ever read a book?
Really, you have?

I am so proud.

Have you ever read a book and once you finish it, you want to read it again?  Now that you know the characters better, do you want to go back and see all those character traits again?

Kind of like when you finished watching Sixth Sense and (spoiler alert) you find out he's been dead the whole time.  You want to go back and see how you missed that through the whole movie.

I just finished a book with four young men as the main characters (with a two girls as well).  They are all immature and wealthy.  (I am sure you can imagine where that leads to.)  Their interactions were so fun.  Towards the end  of the book I was laughing hysterically.  I had to stop reading because I was blinded by tears of joy.

Now I want to go back and re-read it.  Now that I see how they are, I want to see their interactions in the beginning, when I hadn't fully appreciated them.

When I write, sometimes I want to spill the beans completely.  "This man is bad!" "This girl is a heartless flirt!"  But sometimes the joy is in savoring the reveal.  Taking time to let us know the characters.

So may we write so that our readers want to reread our books.
 

Time Management

Like many of you, I often feel that I don't have enough time for the things I want to do. My responsibilities wreak havoc on my time and the things I really want to do get pushed to the bottom of the to-do list. My children are getting older and need me more for homework, chores, a shoulder to cry on and a ride to where ever it is they need to go, but the side effect is that I have to use a schedule and calendar more to manage what precious time I have. Happily, I think I'm making some headway in this arena.

In previous posts on this subject, you probably heard me whine and complain about how I can't manage my life and find time to write, too. Not the case today! I had about a dozen things needing my attention before noon today, writing included, and they all got done. Why? Because I was willing to schedule my time. I'm talking writing it on the calendar, setting alarms on my phone and making my family the number one priority.

None of us likes feeling like we're letting our loved ones down, me least of all. So the needs of my kids came first today. Preschool snacks were prepared, field trip lunches were made and rides to school were in order to allow my oldest a wee bit more time to work on that paper. My family taken care of, I turned my attention on what I needed. Today, I needed to go to the temple. For those of you who may not know what that is, think of it as focused meditation time combined with spiritual nourishment and an opportunity to make commitments with God. I hadn't been in a long time, so today I needed to carve out that time for my own health. My iPod blinked at me and I knew it was time to get there, no excuses. It was open when I got there, but only for cleaning. So what did I do? I helped cleaned the temple. :)

That done, I headed back to pick up my daughter from preschool with some time to spare. Enough time, in fact, to stop at Starbuck's for hot chocolate and a bagel and work on an article I'm writing for a magazine. I looked over my notes, settled in for a solid 25 minutes of writing and still got to the preschool on time. And then, to wrap it all up, we spent the next 45 minutes at the dentist.

Home at last, eating lunch with my preschooler, I'm happy to say that it's been a beautiful morning. Busy, but beautiful!

Family Time

Spending this weekend visiting my mom and one of my sisters, both of whom I haven't seen in over two years. Also get to see my brother, who I saw briefly this summer, and two of his kids. Always great to catch up with everyone.

Our families are like characters in a long-running book series. You're introduced to these folks and witness all their experiences over the course of life - the highs, the lows, the weird, the amusing. Some change dramatically over time, some are consistent, reliable.

I will admit that some of my characters have been inspired by family members (some heavily). Who can pass up such an intriguing cast that you know so well?

I'm curious to know what fictional families you think have been written well, either in literature, movies, or TV.

Psych Out

I love the TV show, Psych. In my opinion, hands down the best comedy currently on television. So, in honor of the new season that just started, I thought I'd blog my favorite Psych-isms.

5. You know that's right.

4. Wait for it...

3. Gus, don't be a... (fill in the blank. Could include "myopic chihuahua", "crazy hooligan", "rabid porcupine", or "incorrigible Eskimo pie with a caramel ribbon".

2. I'm a sympathetic crier.

1. I've heard it both ways.

If you read this list and it makes no sense, check out Psych when you get the chance.