My Weekly Updates – The Thrill of it All Blogfest

Published on by Sydney Aaliyah Michelle21 Comments

love & sci fi blogfest 2Tara & Heather created this blogfest to celebrate some milestone in the publishing process of their upcoming releases, Pop Travel and Maguire’s Corner.

I decided to share one of my favorite thrills:

He held my hand tight as he pulled me closer. Our faces were inches away from each other.  He hesitated and I panicked. I turned and started to walk away, but he still have a strong grip on my hand.  When I turned back to tell him to let go, I didn’t have a chance to get the words out. His lips were on mine, no hesitation this time.
 
My surprise prevented me from kissing him back at first. He started to pull away and I panicked again, but this time from fear he would stop. I kissed him back.
 
I was keenly away of the the way his lips tasted, all smooth and wet and with a hint of peppermint. The power of suggestion had been working over time in my imagination and I laughed. This time he succeeded in pull away.
 
“What’s so funny?”
 
“I thought you would taste like peppermint and you do.”
 
He smiled and kissed me again, letting go of my hand to wrap his arms around my waist.
*From my JuNoWriMo Novel.
 

There is nothing more thrilling than a first kiss. What do you find thrilling? 

Click on the badge to visit the other Thrill of it All! Blogfest participants.

Addicted to New Adult

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Agent Suzie Townsend invites you to join her in a discussion on New Adult from June 24th to July 16th on her blog, Confessions.

I am currently querying a New Adult Romance and writing another. The characters I write never seem to quite fit in full on adult, now they have a spot in the literary world.

Coolest Things

Miami Heat wins the 2013 NBA Championship. Not a fan of either team in the game, but Game 6 reminded why basketball can be an exciting game.  It was awesome. Game 7 had to end the way it did.  Plus, Tim Duncan and 5 rings doesn’t sound right.

It was a movie full weekend.

Man of Steel
Fast & Furious 6
Gangster Squad
World War Z
The Impossible

One awesome, one amazing, one great, one inspiring and one failed to meet expectations. Which movie was what?  

Sad Things

imagesJames Gandolfini died last week at the age of 51. I loved The Sopranos, but I’ve still only seen season 3-6. I was late to the party. People have said that Tony Soprano ruined him for other rolls, but I disagree. I think it was the complexity of Tony Soprano and the way Mr. Gandolfini played him made other roles he played compelling because they were simple.  See The Mexican (compassion and a little funny) and True Romance (pure violence). Also, Gandolfini is such a great name.

Check out The Many Faces of James Gandolfini at My Film Views.

What was your favorite James Gandolfini Role? 

Post to Ponder

Do you write your chapters to long?Are you stuck in the old days? by Caleb Pirtle III – It’s the James Patterson formula. Each chapter is a miniature book.

Do Romance Novels set Unrealistic Expectations? by Melissa Cutler on Tameri Etherton’s Blog – I think if guys read romance, they’d fair so much better. The instructions are right there, they just need to use them.

Over Thinking Your First Draft by Sarah Foster on The Faux Fountain Pen – If you understand the purpose of the first draft, it should be the most fun step in the process.

#JuNoWriMo Post to Ponder

Camila Kyndesen: #JuNoWriMo Interview at The Peasant Revolt

Amanda Fanger: #JuNoWriMo Interview at The Peasant Revolt

The Editwock Will Steal Your JuNoWriMo by Courtney Cantrell

The Wonderful Team Member Readership Award

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The Wonderful Team Member Readership Award

Camilla Kyndesan gave me this really cool award.  The badge is really cool and I’m honored, Thanks Camilla.

Final week of #JuNoWriMo. Good luck everyone and have a great week everyone.  

SQM – Immortals

Published on by Sydney Aaliyah Michelle11 Comments

immortals-poster07The New Superman before he was Superman

I watched this movie a few weeks ago because I really liked Henry Cavill in The Tudors and in anticipation of the Man of Steel movie.  I thought the movie was going to be like 300 (brilliant), Troy (amazing) and Clash of the Titans (a great story).

It saddens me to report, the only good thing about this movie was the poster and Henry Cavill’s chest and abs.  Allow me to guide you through the good, corny and down right bad movie that is Immortals.

Good
Henry Cavill’s body, Some visually stunning fight scenes and the gods.
Let me show you the God.
 

This scene is long, but really good. The God’s were beautiful.

Corny – The movie made me laugh out loud on more then one occasion and it wasn’t a comedy.

“Let me enlighten you priest.” Then Mickey Rourke’s character set him on fire.

“At least I’ll be spared a slow death. Indecision is not their style.” And then he’s set on fire which is a slow agonizing and painful death. 

“We have a war to fight.” Well, duh Theisus. It’s not very motivating to say we have a war to loose.

“It takes more then lighting candles to make babies.” I guess this women is not so easily woo’ed by romantic gestures.

“Personally I’d rather fight with a mad man then against him.” Only a mad man would say that. 

“It was designed to be impenetrable.  Have you ever know of a gate to be designed to be anything but.” Again, Mr. Obvious rears it’s ugly head.

“I have faith in you Thesius.” All powerful, omnipotent Zeus has faith in his son.

“In peace son bury their fathers. In wars fathers bury their sons.” Ok, I actually like this quote. Sad, but true.

“He bears the olive branch of peace.” But, let’s end it with another cliche for good measure.

Down Right Bad

Boris the Animal helmets – see my post on Boris from Men In Black 3.

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Shield bashing drum cadence speech.

Cliche to the point it hurt to watch.  I thought they were about to break out in a synchronized dance.

It’s just a really bad movie.

Have you seen Immortals, what did you think?

 

My Weekly Update – Happy Father’s Day

Published on by Sydney Aaliyah Michelle3 Comments

Happy Father’s Day to my father and all the other men who play the role of father in anyone’s life.

Coolest Things

One of my favorite golfers Justin Rose won the U.S. Open.

My top five favorite golfers; (5) Ricky Fowler, (4) Adam Scott, (3) Justin Leonard, (2) Luke Donald and (1) Tiger Woods.

During the NBA playoffs, I saw the Magna Carta commercial and had to share it with you.

Jay Z, Timberland, Rick Rubin, Swizz Beats and Pharrell.  So much brilliance on one album; I’m trippin. Can’t wait for July 4th.

Post to Ponder

Do You Need an Antagonist? by Sarah Foster of The Faux Fountain Pen – Antagonist doesn’t have to be an actual character.

5 Tips for Busy Writers by Jemi Fraser – #2 Eliminate Quirks. There is no real reason I have to have an empty inbox in order to start writing.

Is Not Reading Any Novels While Writing Your Own Novel a Good Idea or a Bad Idea? by Gus Sanchez – I tend to read in my genre, but most importantly in my POV when I write. It helps keep my mind focused on POV.  Now I am writing and reading in 1st person.  I admit, I can’t read anything to deep when I’m first drafting it.

JuNoWriMo Post to Ponder

Margaret McNellis: #JuNoWriMo Interview by Fel Scotzig of The Peasants Revolt – I love lime seltzer, too.

Surviving the First Draft by Stina Lindenblatt – What stops your first draft progress?

Vicki Trask: #JuNoWriMo Interview by Fel Scotzig of The Peasants Revolt – I love serial killers. That’s sounds bad.

New Followers
Natasha Harmer of Films and Things
RA Odum
Crystal Collier
Tanya Keen Reimer
Constance
Sania Heba
 
Next Weeks Schedule
Wednesday – Interview on The Peasant Revolt
Friday – SQM
*Check out my Daily #JuNoWriMo Updates

Today is Movie Day, I’ll let you know which one’s I check out next week. 

 

The 5 Obstructions Blogathon – Obstruction 1

Published on by Sydney Aaliyah Michelle10 Comments

Obstruction1

Silver Linings Playbook

Necessary disclaimer:  This is harder then I thought, but it made me look at the movie from a different perspective. I guess that is the point. Here is my negative review of Silver Linings Playbook, a movie that I loved.

Typical when you have a film with such a great cast, the movie doesn’t have to do a lot to be considered good. The good cast can carry a not so good movie.  When you have a good movie, the cast of characters can be a distractions.

That almost happened with Silver Linings Playbook.  They created an amazing story with compelling, touching and sad, but hopeful characters with real life problems, but the choice of cast pulled you out again and again from what could have been a perfect movie.

Bradley Cooper played Pat, a guy who suffered from bi-polar.  He was fixated on getting his life back after he returns from a stint in a mental institution.  Bradley Cooper is gorgeous, sexy as hell, his voice has a melody to it.  He can be the playboy, he can be the sweet sensitive type. He can be the hero, and the villain,  but he doesn’t get anywhere near crazy.  He never quite got there for me and it was hard to believe him in that role.  He needed to go all the way and unfortunately, he feel a little short.  He may have tried to act crazy, but he was still to attractive to be believable.

Jennifer Lawrence played Tiffany, a recent widow with her own issues of mental stability.  I admit she had issues, but come on, real issues are choosing to replace your younger sister from competing in a ‘to the death’ survival game in order to return hope and morale to your home town.  Now that girl had problems.  I don’t mean to sound flip, but when I saw the movie, I keep thinking Katniss, you have enough to deal without taking on Tiffany’s problems.

Finally, you have Robert DeNiro as Pat’s father.  Robert DeNiro is one of our all time greatest actors. He has stared in, carried and played so many characters. To see him relegated to such a supporting role was hard to see.  DeNiro isn’t a small actor and this role needed subtle that a great actor like him couldn’t settle into.  He stoled every scene an I don’t think he was supposed to.

Don’t get me wrong, some times a great movie needs great actors (see The Avengers), but for the tone of this movie, it would have benefits from letting the characters, and not the cast, speak for themselves.

Related Post:
SQM-Silver Linings Playbook