rejoicing plus some quickie movie reviews

This is going to be quick because I have not enough stuff to do and too much time. Wait. Strike that. Reverse it.

First, I read today that Fringe is coming back for a 5^th and final season! I am super excited. I’ve been a fan all along, and I’ve had this fear that they would cancel it without a conclusion. That would royally suck. It really is a very good story. It deserves an ending. Thank you, Fox!

Ok, so today I have three movies. I’m doing this superfast style because I have some print book formatting to work on.

Hugo

Description from IMDB: “Set in 1930s Paris, an orphan who lives in the walls of a train station is wrapped up in a mystery involving his late father and an automaton.”

Hugo is a children’s movie directed by Martin Scorcese.  The movie is very beautiful with a significant French influence (takes place in France), but the language is English, so subtitles are not present. It’s very emotional and heartwarming with a heavy emphasis on the first movies ever made.  Hugo gets an A.

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Journey 2: The Mysterious Island

Yup, another kids’ movie. We actually saw this in the movie theater. They have free showings of older movies on some weekends. Woo! Free!

Description from IMDB: “Sean Anderson partners with his mom's husband on a mission to find his grandfather, who is thought to be missing on a mythical island.”

Journey 2 is very exciting. It has great special effects, literary references all over the place, and Dwayne the Rock Johnson popping berries off his pecks. What’s not to like? B+

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Takers

Not a kids’ movie.

Description from IMDB: “A group of bank robbers find their multi-million dollar plan interrupted by a hard-boiled detective.”

It was a typical Paul Walker movie. Action, gun shooting, attractive people, some witty banter, it was decent. If you like the Fast and the Furious movies, you would probably dig this too. I did like Hayden Christensen as AJ. He really hasn’t been in much since Star Wars, has he? I didn’t recognize him at first.

The Takers was entertaining but kind of meh. C+

Thursday I Am Here

I took a really long walk today – 3.2 miles! I think with the proper shoes and conditions, I could have walked another mile or two. I really needed some quiet today. It seems like my life has this constant noise no matter where I am – home, work, noise. I didn’t even listen to music during my drive home or the walk. Quiet time is my friend.

Ok, I know this news is so February, but I just read about it today. Jackie Collins is self-publishing! Crazy! Actually, not crazy. I think when you hit a certain level of fame, do you really need a publisher? Like James Patterson. What does he need a publisher for, really? His books pretty much sell themselves these days. He has the financial resources to pay for things like professional editing and advertising and whatnot.

But me? I think I would like a publisher. I have one I’m sort of looking at. They’re new, but they seem to have their shiz together. I have a fear that they’re going to have too much on their plate by the time I have a project ready to submit. I plan to explore my options, though. Moving forward is a good thing.

Here is the link in case you want to read about Jackie Collins.

http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/jackie-collins-news_b47734

And now for a thing that has absolutely nothing to do with the rest of this post. I must share this commercial because I find it hilarious.

interviews and such

Happy Wednesday! I'm sitting here listening to thunder and lightning outside. The laptop is running on the battery in case of power surge.

I have two, yes two, interviews up at separate places today. I hope that you will take the time to read them.

This first one is at the Great Minds Think Aloud blog. It includes a really ginormous picture of me squinting in the sun. lol

http://greatmindsthinkaloud.blogspot.com/2012/04/interview-with-author-lea-ryan.html



The second one is up at Morgen Bailey's blog.

http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/2012/04/25/author-interview-no-350-with-fantasy-and-horror-writer-lea-ryan/

Be sure to check out Morgen's book Telling Tales at http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/telling-tales/
and here's a link to her books on Smashwords:
http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/morgenbailey

movie: Easy A

Easy A stars Emma Stone as Olive. She wants to impress her friend, so she lies about losing her virginity. The gossip spreads and takes on a life of its own. Before long, she is taking gift cards from boys so they can say they did things with her that didn't actually happen. Relationships suffer, yadda yadda.

This movie is pretty funny. It's geared toward a young adult audience, so it's kind of cutesy. The two best characters are probably her parents as played by Stanley Tucci and Patricia Clarkson. Their banter with each other and their kids is pretty hilarious. Amanda Bynes plays a self-righteous snobby girl – also very funny.

I found the fictional school's lax dress code kind of interesting. Olive is flouncing around in bustiers-as-shirts for like 90% of the movie and the faculty seems ok with that. That…would not happen in the Midwest.

So, bottom line? Not genius, but entertaining. There is a minor romantic chick flick vibe, but it’s not too obnoxious. Easy A gets a B-.

Guess what! I just noticed that tomorrow is going to be my 500^th post! Crazy, right?

edit: tomorrow is not actually the 500th post. awwww...the counter thingy was counting drafts that I never published. I'm only on like 495 or something like that.

gratuitous moo and an awesome link

I took this picture of my fur baby, Max (aka Moo), the other day. I love it so I'm sharing. His paw has a pink spot because his new hobby is trying to lick off all his fur. He also has a bald spot near the front of his tail, which he is very sensitive about. He gets anxious and he also has seasonal allergies, so I'm pretty sure he is licking for one of these reasons. He's still my old baby. my old, bald butt baby.

The link below may be my new addiction. It's for the CG society. They have a mindblowingly amazing gallery of digital illustrations, 3D and such. They make me really want to step up my art game, for reals. It's like I'm over here scribbling with crayons. lol

http://www.cgsociety.org/

thoughts on blog touring

I’ve only got a couple of stops left on the blog tour. There are two stops left next week, and that will be it. I had a lot of fun.

I think that blog touring shouldn’t just be a one-shot deal. In order to really be effective, guest posting needs to be a thing I do on a semi-regular basis. So, I’ll probably be around even after the Wyrm tour is “over”.  I like doing it anyway, so why stop?

I also had a great idea that I’m angry with myself for not coming up with sooner. Usually at the bottom of a guest post, there are links to buy the book and to my blog, etc. I decided to start including a Goodreads link so people can add it to their shelves for possible reading later. I might add the Goodreads links to my website too, while I’m at it.

movie: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)

This is a quick one because I have stuff to do.

Description from IMDB: “Journalist Mikael Blomkvist is aided in his search for a woman who has been missing for forty years by Lisbeth Salander, a young computer hacker.”

The opening credit sequence was intense. It reminded me a lot of a Tool video, just these crazy images of people and tires and black flowing substances, wicked cool.

The pacing of the story was a little slow at first, but it picked up. The violence was gruesome in parts.

The movie had a lot of quiet tension, some nice action. The scenery was desolate. Lisbeth’s makeup, hair, and wardrobe were all very dark. She’s like the ultimate goth-punk. Loved it.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo gets an A-

wednesday stuff

Wednesday! Friday is the day after tomorrow. I think I can make it.
What is going on? I’m still working on the Pestilence rough draft. I’m at about a third of the way through it (if all goes as planned) at a little over 34000 words.

I’m trying to focus on that until it’s finished because I’m on a bit of a deadline with it, so blog attendance might be sporadic for the next month or so. Most brain power is being diverted to slapping words on pages.

I do, however, have these two awesome pictures from San Antonio that I didn’t post previously. The first picture is a road thing that goes through a Mexican market with some colorful flags. The second photo is from the front of an amazing Mexican restaurant called Mi Tierra. LOVED. IT. If it was close to my house, I’d weigh 300 pounds, for realz.

movie: Source Code

Source Code! Jake Gyllenhaal! What else is there to know? He’s so darned pretty.

Description from IMDB: “An action thriller centered on a soldier who wakes up in the body of an unknown man and discovers he's part of a mission to find the bomber of a Chicago commuter train.”

I liked this movie. The story consists of Colter Steven’s character bouncing back and forth between what looks like a wrecked fighter plane cockpit and a commuter train scene that keeps repeating. It starts out the same every time, but it changes as it goes on and he chooses different courses of action.

Most of the plot was pretty predictable, I thought. It also moved a bit slowly at first.

Despite the flaws, it was well executed. The movie had a Lost (tv show) vibe to it, the unanswered questions and Colton’s interaction with the science lab types, all very Dharma.

Source Code wasn’t the greatest movie ever, but it wasn’t bad either. It gets a B.

some Texas pictures

Ok, here are some Texas pictures! Woo! I recently went there on vacation. These are not in the right order, but Blogger is fighting me and I have stuff to do, so they're just going to have to be that way.

The husband and I recently went to Texas WITHOUT children. Crazy, right? It was fun. We hung out in the Dallas-Fort Worth area for a while and then headed over to the San Antonio neck of the woods to hang out with my aunt and uncle.

This first picture is of the River Walk in San Antonio. It is really beautiful. There are cafes and fountains everywhere. It's sort of like the White River canal in Indy, only way cooler.










We went on a boat ride that took us around the River Walk. We saw many interesting things like this mosaic on a theatre.

And here we jump to the Alamo. They really don't want you to touch the walls at the Alamo. Seriously do NOT touch the walls. There's a sign like every ten feet. But then in a fenced-off section, there was a lady who was scraping stuff off the wall, so...that was kind of weird. The building towering over the back of the Alamo is a hotel.

The bird above is a Great-tailed Grackle. They were everywhere and made a variety of seriously noisy noises, one of which sounded like a creaky door.

Next up, we ave the Fort Worth Stock Yards. The streets were lined with shops and bars and restaurants. Every day at 11:30, they walk the longhorns down the street to a fenced in area.

The picture below is from the Japanese Tea Garden in San Antonio. It was a beautiful place with freakishly huge goldfish.

Now we bounce quickly to part of my aunt's back yard. We stayed with them for a couple of nights and were very spoiled. She lives on a large hill mountain thingy. Her back yard slopes into a canyon. This is a picture from the first ledge down into the canyon. I would have liked to get farther down there to see it. Maybe next time.

 

Someone told me that the above building  is an opera house. I have not

confirmed that information, but it does look the part. Note the giant angels on the

of the building.

Another shot of the Japanese Tea Garden

a pile o books and a guest post link

Guess what I have! Do it! Guess! But don’t look at the picture below. What, you already looked? Darnit.

It’s a pile of books. Two of them are for the Goodreads drawing winners. The other three are for deeply insidious purposes. Muahahahaha  < ----- evil laugh

Today I’m over at Mason Canyon’s Thoughts in Progress blog with a Lair post. Be sure to stop in, comment if you like. Bloggers appreciate that sort of thing.

http://www.masoncanyon.blogspot.com/2012/04/author-lea-ryan-fixing-flawed-story.html

movie: Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Hey there! The movie post has returned from a week-long hiatus. I loved Rise of the Planet of the Apes, so I hate to give it the quickie review treatment, but mama’s got a big to-do list.

Synopsis from IMDB: “Eight years of being raised by humans and now left behind in an abusive sanctuary, a hyper-intelligent chimpanzee will lead a revolution of apes towards freedom from man's torturous exploitation.”

What I loved about this movie, first and foremost, was that it wasn’t some cheap, ride-on-the-popularity-of-the-original-movie cheesefest. This movie could easily stand on its own. The bond between Caesar (the chimp) and Will (played by James Franco) is believable as an interspecies father-son relationship. Intellectually, Caesar is more human than ape, however he still has animal problems - instincts and such that get him into trouble.

The aspect of this movie that I really remember them pushing when it came out in the movie theater was the special effects. They were pretty darn awesome. The facial expressions of the apes, Caesar in particular, were very human. If I remember correctly, they used actors with some sort of motion capture technology. In this movie, it came off as quite realistic.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes = A for awesome.