I haven't been around much lately--mostly because I'm tearing my hair out trying to find an agent for Kingmaker--but I just wanted to give people the heads up about a great contest that's going on right now. It's open to anyone who has a completed urban fantasy or paranormal romance novel:
http://www.guidetoliteraryagents.com/blog/Sixth+Dear+Lucky+Agent+Contest+Paranormal+Romance+Urban+Fantasy.aspx
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Procrastination Post
Okay, I'm back after disappearing from the Web-sphere for a few months. Grad school started up again and took over my life; plus, I was lazy.
After about two months of avoiding even looking at it, I've begun another, possibly final, revision of Kingmaker. I've workshopped a few chapters with other writers and gotten some helpful comments and feel that I really know what major plot changes I need to make. As a result, I've decided to participate in Nanorevismo--the editor's counterpart to Nanowrimo (National Novel Writing Month). My plan is to finish this revision of my novel by the end of November, give it another once-over for language, and then step back and decide whether it's ready to submit.
I was saddened to decide that I didn't have time to do Nanowrimo as well; I actually began a new project for it before deciding that I just couldn't do both. That project, which is young adult science fiction, will probably be my next novel. More on it later.
After about two months of avoiding even looking at it, I've begun another, possibly final, revision of Kingmaker. I've workshopped a few chapters with other writers and gotten some helpful comments and feel that I really know what major plot changes I need to make. As a result, I've decided to participate in Nanorevismo--the editor's counterpart to Nanowrimo (National Novel Writing Month). My plan is to finish this revision of my novel by the end of November, give it another once-over for language, and then step back and decide whether it's ready to submit.
I was saddened to decide that I didn't have time to do Nanowrimo as well; I actually began a new project for it before deciding that I just couldn't do both. That project, which is young adult science fiction, will probably be my next novel. More on it later.
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Happy Birthday to Me!
It's a beautiful summer day and I am no longer quite as young as I used to be. My parents and I celebrated (because my friends are lame and unavailable on the weekends) by going to see, of all movies, G-Force, which was surprisingly good, and playing pool at the local billiards hall (I'm getting better!). Next week, in honor of my birthday and my parents' anniversary, we're going to a local casino and playing in a Texas Hold 'em tournament, which should be a fun, if short-lived, outing. We're going for Mexican tonight with my grandparents, and then there will be cake. Ice cream cake. Ice cream cake from Coldstone Creamery.
*dies of happiness*
In other news, I finished the Great POV Conversion yesterday. I'm going to spend the next few days doing another close edit before sending Kingmakers off for my beta readers to take another look. I also made the mistake of posting my query on the AW Share Your Work forum, which is significantly more brutal than http://www.openquery.blogspot.com/, and now I'm feeling all sorts of insecure about my query, which is too bad because I was starting to think it was pretty good. Alas.
*dies of happiness*
In other news, I finished the Great POV Conversion yesterday. I'm going to spend the next few days doing another close edit before sending Kingmakers off for my beta readers to take another look. I also made the mistake of posting my query on the AW Share Your Work forum, which is significantly more brutal than http://www.openquery.blogspot.com/, and now I'm feeling all sorts of insecure about my query, which is too bad because I was starting to think it was pretty good. Alas.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Editing progress and 500 Days of Summer
I continue to slog my way through a painful and thorough edit of Kingmaker. (I'm almost certain now that that's going to be the title.) I'm nearing the climax of the novel and working on tweaking plot elements so that everything is tight. As well as, of course, continuing to convert everything from first to third person POV. Which is delightful.
I took a break from editing yesterday to hang out with my dad. He's teaching me to play pool at a local billiards hall, which is fun but also slow and occasionally aggravating. My goal is to become one of those people who saunters into a bar, walks up to the pool table, and puts a twenty on the edge to challenge anyone who dares face me. Okay, it would be nice to be able to sometimes hit the ball in the hole too! I also went swimming for the first time in ages yesterday--it's the only form of exercise I'm permitted as long as I have a very annoying stress fracture in my foot, so I guess I'll be going a lot more often in the coming months.
Finally, we also saw (500) Days of Summer yesterday. My feelings were mixed. Overall I enjoyed the movie. Joseph Gordon-Levitt was adorable at the beginning as Tom, the leading man, a greeting card writer with dreams of becoming an architect who's searching for true love. Zooey Deschanel (sister to Emily Deschanel, lead of the fantastic show Bones) does a fairly good job as Summer, the object of Tom's affection. Summer doesn't believe in love but enters into a romantic relationship with Tom (though she always refers to them as just "friends"), but eventually she decides they should break up and Tom spends the rest of the movie moping, trying to get her back, and eventually moving on.
There are a lot of cute elements to the movie, particularly in the early stages of Tom and Summer's relationship, but it becomes a bit whiny as time goes on. Most of the really good moments were in the trailer. It wasn't a long movie but it felt like it went on forever. A decent enough summer watch, but it's pretty depressing and not really encouraging to all of us out there in search of our own true loves.
My rating: 2 1/2 stars
I took a break from editing yesterday to hang out with my dad. He's teaching me to play pool at a local billiards hall, which is fun but also slow and occasionally aggravating. My goal is to become one of those people who saunters into a bar, walks up to the pool table, and puts a twenty on the edge to challenge anyone who dares face me. Okay, it would be nice to be able to sometimes hit the ball in the hole too! I also went swimming for the first time in ages yesterday--it's the only form of exercise I'm permitted as long as I have a very annoying stress fracture in my foot, so I guess I'll be going a lot more often in the coming months.
Finally, we also saw (500) Days of Summer yesterday. My feelings were mixed. Overall I enjoyed the movie. Joseph Gordon-Levitt was adorable at the beginning as Tom, the leading man, a greeting card writer with dreams of becoming an architect who's searching for true love. Zooey Deschanel (sister to Emily Deschanel, lead of the fantastic show Bones) does a fairly good job as Summer, the object of Tom's affection. Summer doesn't believe in love but enters into a romantic relationship with Tom (though she always refers to them as just "friends"), but eventually she decides they should break up and Tom spends the rest of the movie moping, trying to get her back, and eventually moving on.
There are a lot of cute elements to the movie, particularly in the early stages of Tom and Summer's relationship, but it becomes a bit whiny as time goes on. Most of the really good moments were in the trailer. It wasn't a long movie but it felt like it went on forever. A decent enough summer watch, but it's pretty depressing and not really encouraging to all of us out there in search of our own true loves.
My rating: 2 1/2 stars
Monday, July 20, 2009
A new review of an old favorite
I don't think I've mentioned on this blog before how much of a movie addict I am. I'll see basically any movie that passes a certain threshold of intelligence (i.e. I don't see movies where one person plays five different people, all of them fat; I don't see movies where all of the humor is scatalogical; and, except for Stranger than Fiction, I don't see Will Ferell movies). I'm immensely proud of my DVD library, which is constantly growing.
I only brought a few of my DVDs home from New York for the summer, and last night, for probably the fifteenth time, I watched Victor/Victoria.
Everyone, and I mean everyone, must see this movie sometime in their lifetime. Haven't seen it? Netflix it now. This movie is brilliant, from start to finish.
The premise: Victoria Grant (the amazing, wonderful, stupendous Julie Andrews) is a soprano who finds herself down on her luck in 1934 Paris (to the point where she offers to sleep with her landlord if he'll give her a meatball). She meets Carroll Todd, "Toddy to everyone who knows [him]" (played by the superb Robert Preston only a year or two before his death), a gay night club performer who's just been fired. They become friends instantly and Toddy conceives of a wild plan: Victoria will transform into Victor--the greatest female impersonator in Europe.
Victoria has her reservations at first ("A woman pretending to be a man pretending to be a woman?!") but allows herself to be persuaded an in no time she becomes the toast of Paris. Her biggest fan is King Marshan (James Garner, of such fantastic films as Maverick and The Great Escape), a Chicago gangster (in Paris with his bodyguard and moll) who refuses to believe that Victor is a man. He snoops around and discovers Victoria's secret and they hook up. Their relationship is stifled, however, by the fact that she refuses to quit being Victor, and he doesn't want people thinking he's gay. Hijinks ensue.
Why this movie is so amazing: Well, there's the plot, of course, which is brilliant. The screenplay is also a work of art. The film brings together a lot of the talent from the Pink Panther movies (the originals, of course)--Blake Edwards as director, Henry Mancini as composer (there are five or six wonderful songs in the movie that Victoria and Toddy perform, especially "Le Jazz Hot"), and a couple of character actors with small but memorable parts.
A caveat to any who would rent the movie: Make sure you get the 1982 motion picture, not the 1995 recording of the stage production. The attempt to transform Victor/Victoria into an on-stage musical was mostly a failure; the additional songs aren't that great and the performances, even Julie Andrews' (she's in both), just can't compare to the original.
The movie's about 2 1/2 hours long, so make sure you set aside some time to watch it all in one sitting. You won't regret it.
My rating: 4 stars
I only brought a few of my DVDs home from New York for the summer, and last night, for probably the fifteenth time, I watched Victor/Victoria.
Everyone, and I mean everyone, must see this movie sometime in their lifetime. Haven't seen it? Netflix it now. This movie is brilliant, from start to finish.
The premise: Victoria Grant (the amazing, wonderful, stupendous Julie Andrews) is a soprano who finds herself down on her luck in 1934 Paris (to the point where she offers to sleep with her landlord if he'll give her a meatball). She meets Carroll Todd, "Toddy to everyone who knows [him]" (played by the superb Robert Preston only a year or two before his death), a gay night club performer who's just been fired. They become friends instantly and Toddy conceives of a wild plan: Victoria will transform into Victor--the greatest female impersonator in Europe.
Victoria has her reservations at first ("A woman pretending to be a man pretending to be a woman?!") but allows herself to be persuaded an in no time she becomes the toast of Paris. Her biggest fan is King Marshan (James Garner, of such fantastic films as Maverick and The Great Escape), a Chicago gangster (in Paris with his bodyguard and moll) who refuses to believe that Victor is a man. He snoops around and discovers Victoria's secret and they hook up. Their relationship is stifled, however, by the fact that she refuses to quit being Victor, and he doesn't want people thinking he's gay. Hijinks ensue.
Why this movie is so amazing: Well, there's the plot, of course, which is brilliant. The screenplay is also a work of art. The film brings together a lot of the talent from the Pink Panther movies (the originals, of course)--Blake Edwards as director, Henry Mancini as composer (there are five or six wonderful songs in the movie that Victoria and Toddy perform, especially "Le Jazz Hot"), and a couple of character actors with small but memorable parts.
A caveat to any who would rent the movie: Make sure you get the 1982 motion picture, not the 1995 recording of the stage production. The attempt to transform Victor/Victoria into an on-stage musical was mostly a failure; the additional songs aren't that great and the performances, even Julie Andrews' (she's in both), just can't compare to the original.
The movie's about 2 1/2 hours long, so make sure you set aside some time to watch it all in one sitting. You won't regret it.
My rating: 4 stars
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Harry Potter movie
I saw the new Harry Potter movie today for the second time (once with my dad, once with my mom). It was so much better than the book...
1. Even though nothing actually happened until the last 15 minutes.
2. Even though I really don't like Michael Gambon as Dumbledore--he's dark and creepy where Dumbledore's supposed to be a constant beacon of hope even in the Wizarding World's darkest hour.
3. Even though they kept the whole Ron-and-Hermione-love-each-other thing (okay, okay, it's not like they could get rid of it) despite the fact that Ron's a total dweeb in the movies and Hermione has no chemistry with him.
4. Even though Harry and Ginny fall in love despite the fact that Ginny: a) looks exactly like his mother, b) has no character, c) was dumb enough to be possessed by a diary, and d) worshipped him from when she was a toddler.
5. Even though Harry and Hermione have on-screen chemistry and clearly are meant for each other (I never shipped them in the books, but on screen it's always their scenes that actually work for me).
6. Even though they blatantly disregarded a lot of rules that had been established in previous books/movies, like no doing magic outside of Hogwarts and it being impossible to apparate in Hogwarts.
7. Even though they kept the lame plot of Dumbledore showing Harry his memories instead of just telling him what they contain and teaching him to be a better wizard.
8. Even though they added a totally pointless action sequence at the Burrow.
9. Because Harry isn't a total moron in the movie like he is in the book; he doesn't ignore Dumbledore's one task (to get Slughorn's memory), and he's not shown to be hopeless at silent spellcasting.
10. Because I actually almost felt sorry for Malfoy, probably because the guy playing him is pretty hot (yes, I am lecherous).
11. Because the cinematography was good.
12. Because Jim Broadbent was well cast.
13. Because Dumbledore still died.
14. Because Ralph Fiennes' nephew played Young Voldemort and was nearly as creepy as his uncle.
15. Because there were no Dursleys.
My rating: 3 stars.
1. Even though nothing actually happened until the last 15 minutes.
2. Even though I really don't like Michael Gambon as Dumbledore--he's dark and creepy where Dumbledore's supposed to be a constant beacon of hope even in the Wizarding World's darkest hour.
3. Even though they kept the whole Ron-and-Hermione-love-each-other thing (okay, okay, it's not like they could get rid of it) despite the fact that Ron's a total dweeb in the movies and Hermione has no chemistry with him.
4. Even though Harry and Ginny fall in love despite the fact that Ginny: a) looks exactly like his mother, b) has no character, c) was dumb enough to be possessed by a diary, and d) worshipped him from when she was a toddler.
5. Even though Harry and Hermione have on-screen chemistry and clearly are meant for each other (I never shipped them in the books, but on screen it's always their scenes that actually work for me).
6. Even though they blatantly disregarded a lot of rules that had been established in previous books/movies, like no doing magic outside of Hogwarts and it being impossible to apparate in Hogwarts.
7. Even though they kept the lame plot of Dumbledore showing Harry his memories instead of just telling him what they contain and teaching him to be a better wizard.
8. Even though they added a totally pointless action sequence at the Burrow.
9. Because Harry isn't a total moron in the movie like he is in the book; he doesn't ignore Dumbledore's one task (to get Slughorn's memory), and he's not shown to be hopeless at silent spellcasting.
10. Because I actually almost felt sorry for Malfoy, probably because the guy playing him is pretty hot (yes, I am lecherous).
11. Because the cinematography was good.
12. Because Jim Broadbent was well cast.
13. Because Dumbledore still died.
14. Because Ralph Fiennes' nephew played Young Voldemort and was nearly as creepy as his uncle.
15. Because there were no Dursleys.
My rating: 3 stars.
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