Month: May 2013

Secondary Character Bloghop

Published on by Sydney Aaliyah Michelle22 Comments

bloghop3Hosted by this generous group: Theresa Paolo, Kelley Lynn, Jessica Salyer, Jenny Morris and Suzi Retzlaff. They are giving away stuff, so sign up.

In Movies:  Jack Nicholson as Colonel Nathan Jesup in A Few Good Men kept popping in my head when I thought about a secondary character who stole every scene.

Thanks to Aaron Sorkin for writing the words.  Scene always gives me chills.

I did a little more research and realized Jack is a 4 time award nominated and 2 time award winning secondary character.

See Easy Rider, Reds, Terms of Endearment & A Few Good Men.

In Books: My favorite secondary character is actually the narrator of my new favorite book, Nick Carraway in The Great Gatsby.  I just love Nick’s consistent sense of hopefulness in Jay Gatsby.  Nick wanted to believe in Jay so bad every step of the way.  This one of my favorite scenes that demonstrate this:

“By the way, Mr. Gatsby, I understand you’re an Oxford man.” 
“Not exactly.” 
“Oh, yes, I understand you went to Oxford.” 
“Yes —- I went there.” 
A pause. Then Tom’s voice incredulous and insulting:  
“You must have gone there about the time Biloxi went to New Haven.” 
—
“I told you I went there.” said Gatsby.
“I heard you, but I ‘d like to know when.” 
“It was in nineteen-nineteen. I only stayed for five months.  That’s why I can’t really call myself an Oxford man.” 
Tom glanced around to see if we mirrored his unbelief.  But we were all looking at Gatsby. 
“It was an opportunity they gave to some of the officers after the Armistice,”  he continued.  “We could go to any of the universities in England and France.” 
I wanted to get up and slap him on the back. I had one of those renewals of complete faith in him that I’d experienced before.  
Daisy rose, smiling faintly, and went to the table.
 
Again, must give credit to Mr. F. Scott Fitzgerald for the written words.

I haven’t seen the movie, yet. I’m a little skeptical whether Tobey MacGuire is able to do Mr. Nick Carraway justice.

What are some of your favorite secondary characters?  Make sure to visit the other bloghop participants and discover other great secondary characters.

My Weekly Update – I’m Bloglovin

Published on by Sydney Aaliyah Michelle13 Comments

A heads up to all the amazing blogs I follow. I have unsubscribed to you all . . . and have begun to follow you on Bloglovin.  You will notice the cool little Bloglovin button to your right where can easily follow me.  I needed to consolidate to read blog and I love this option, especially the app which allows me to keep track of blogs in one neat and organized space that sync’s with all my devices.  Modern technology is great.

Anyone else use Bloglovin?  How do you like it? 

Post to Ponder

DFW Writer’s Conference – Memorable Moments by Tameri Etherton – more cool memories from the conference.
Virgin Atlantic Has Restored My Faith in Customer Service by Elise Fallson – I love this airline for the exact same reason.
Does Good News Make You Worry? by Jami Gold – I suffer from, to much good news means bad news is right around the corner.  Irrational, I know.
10 Questions Writers Must Ask Before Quitting Their Day Job by Jeff Yeager – I am not ready to ask the questions just yet, but soon.

Coolest Things

Saw the Musical FELA produced by Jay Z, Will & Jada Smith.  I thought it was just a musical with cool African dancing, but it was an amazing and touching story.  Read more about Fela Kuti a Nigerian singer and creator of Afro Beats.

 
New Followers
A.J. Sefton
Sreejit Poole
Joseph Henry Gaines – cool name
Renea Mason
Patinspire
Hunter’s Writing
Zany Zach
 
Next Week’s Schedule
Tuesday – Secondary Characters Blog Hop
Wednesday – SQM – Iron Man 3 – the many sides of Tony Stark (kind of forgot to post this from last week)
Friday – Flash Fiction – I need more practice

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Best and Worst Movie Remakes Blogfest

Published on by Sydney Aaliyah Michelle30 Comments

Best and Worst Movie Remakes Blogfest

Hosted by Alex Cavanaugh, Stephen Tremp, Livia Peterson, and Al Diaz.

What a cool line up!

Best Movie Remake – Total Recall

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The original was good, but let’s face it, it was an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie.

The remake stared Colin Farrell (love him) and Kate Beckinsale (love her) and included hot fight scenes between the two (love it).

The movie made me want to write science fiction. I wanted to build worlds and create technology and choreograph chase scenes through multi level, maze like hotels. The world created in this movie was inspiring.

Worst Movie Remake – Father of the Bride

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Steve Martin is a good actor, but he could not fill the shoes of Mr. Spencer Tracy in this classic role.

And, the original had Elizabeth Taylor as the bride.  I can’t even remember who played the bride in the remake.

Spencer Tracy is brilliant. He was nominated for an Oscar for best actor for this role and the movie and the screenplay were also nominated.

Have you seen the new Total Recall?  Have you seen the old Father of the Bride? What do you think are some of the best and worst remakes?  

Progressive Book Club – How to Write Good by John Vorhaus

Published on by Sydney Aaliyah Michelle13 Comments

mlswift.blogspot.com“These days I can’t wait to write.”

Aimagess I prep for JuNoWriMo, I found this quote from the book interesting.  This for me is the goal. That feeling you get when you can’t wait to sit down and write.

What concerns me is that I seem to forget this feeling as soon as WriMo is over.  I wrote three books last year during, June, August and November and during those WriMo months, I couldn’t wait to write every day.  I couldn’t wait to sit down and get into that groove, the feeling of pure bliss because you are doing what your supposed to do, what you were meant to do.

I can close my eyes now and imagine the feeling.

Why is this feeling so fleeting when I’m not in the habit of writing?  I’ll write every day in June. I will have a daily goal and most likely will exceed it every day.  I am comfortable in this setting, writing towards a monthly goal where others are paying attention to what I am doing.

How to Write Good by John Vorhaus is all about giving yourself permission to write with no fear and to get the words on the paper. He uses this word whimsy which I love. I picture fairies flying around sprinkling fairy dust on everything and it makes me smile.  That is the feeling I get when I write. I feel like a fairy sprinkling prose on the world and making them smile.

As writer’s we are supposed to write every day, so tell me, how many of you out there are doing it? How do you do it?

I will be helping the JuNoWriMo team this year conducting word sprints on twitter.  These writing sessions made the difference for me. If your looking for a super supportive writing experience, I highly recommend JuNoWriMo. Visit www.junowrimo.com for more information and if you’re joining us, let me know.

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My Weekly Update – It’s a New Day

Published on by Sydney Aaliyah Michelle3 Comments

I’ve been playing with my weekly line up and trying to create at schedule to include at least three weekly post consistently.  May still need a few more weeks to get organized, but I have some fun stuff planned for the future.

Flash 500

Flash 500 Cover

Nicole Pyles and Carrie K. Sorensen created this anthology based on their Wednesday Writer’s Blog Hop.  I took part in a few weeks and am happy to have four of my flash fiction pieces chosen for the anthology.  The blog hop happens every Wednesday and is a great way to get in some creative writing practice.  It also gave me a chance to try my hand at a few different genres.  Click on the cover to download the book for free and you can find my stories in the following weeks:

                        • Week of 5/9/2012
                        • Week of 5/16/2012
                        • Week of 5/23/2012
                        • Week of 6/6/2012

Post to Ponder

How to Use Your Logline, Tagline and Pitch to Create a Stronger Story by Marcy Kennedy a guest post on Jenny Hansen’s blog – I meet Jenny at #DFWcon and she was awesome.

How Does the Editing Process Work? by Tristi Pinkston, Editor – Interesting to hear how its done by a professional.

Jennifer Represents – cool agent blog (cool blog written by an agent) with great information.

Query Tip: Do Your Research by Ava Jae –

How to Write a Killer Pitch by Marcy Kennedy – Can you guess where I am at in this writing process?

Coolest Things – My chance to share with you some things I thought are pretty cool this week.

Iron Man 3 is finally available for our viewing and quoting pleasure. I loved it. I mentioned before Tony Stark is my favorite movie character of all times and he doesn’t disappoint. More on Tuesday when Sydney Quotes the Movies – Iron Man 3

Tiger Woods won The Player’s Championship yesterday.  His forth win this season.  He’s back.

Next Week’s Schedule
Tuesday – Sydney Quotes the Movies – Iron Man 3 – see the many sides of Tony Stark
Wednesday – Progressive Book Club – How to Write Good
Friday – Best & Worst Remake Blogfest