The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

I did it. I finished that epic. Parts of it were page turners. Other parts sounded like a rehash of The Firm only not as good. Some of it was repetitive. Some of it sensationalist and titillating. I got a feeling the author lost track of what he was writing at times and started writing the story over. The interesting part was discovering whether the girl Harriett had been murdered or not. I think the movie could be easily more fascinating than the novel in that much of the novel can be culled. I don’t think the author did a good job of parsing words or maybe it is the translator’s fault as it was originally written in Swedish. I’m glad I read it so I know what the hype is about, but I doubt I’ll go on to read the others.

Eclipse, Knight& Day, Tom Cruise & Cameron Diaz

I know I go to movies more than once a year. Yet it seems it is summertime when I stumble into the dark cines to marvel at how old actors never seem to age and young actors seem to possess the acting chops of old actors. Such it was this June when I darkened the threshold of the moviehouse twice within a week. First, I dragged my hsuband to see Knight & Day. He didn’t regret it. There’s enough action in it to suit any male. And there’s enough humor and potential romance to engage any woman. I know there are Cruise bashers and all that jazz but this guy can act and can make the unbelievable seem like mission possible. As to Cameron, well, I’ve liked her since The Mask. She is the type of gal that makes you want to smile. She is pretty but not intimidatingly so. Refreshing. The film is great and there are some take-away messages, too.
Now for Eclipse. I loved it. I loved the novel and the movie does it justice. Young gals sometimes have to choose which way their lives and guys will take them and different suitors mean different paths. Of course few of us have to choose between becoming the walking dead or having our man turn into a werewolf but …there are always choices a young hs grad has to make and sometimes they do involve young men and the directions they are going to take. Do you want to marry your soul mate who sits around listening to you or do you want to marry someone who is always zooming here or there with the military or his job, or his hobby or whatever? Worth seeing. And guys might like it too. Plenty of gore.

New Moon

I saw New Moon last night. I think the movie lived up to the hype and portrayed the novel accurately. In some sense, better. Jacob turning into a werewolf was spectatacular. Edward about to derobe to reveal to the world his glittering skin thus leading to doom was edge- of- the -seat suspense.
I reiterate: Steven King is just jealous when he criticizes Meyer. She uses comon words not high falutin ones and therein  lies the marvel that she can create such vivid images with an ordinary vocabulary.
On another subject, I want to put a plug in for my novel: Secrets, Lies, and Grace, which should be out spring 2010. It is being published by Comfort Publishing. It’s the story of a ne’er do well teen who saves his sister from a murderous boyfriend. The setting is the Piedmont of NC during the mid 1990′s.

Christmas cards in September, Tavern On the Green wedding, Writers Conference at Myrtle Beach

Rain, rain, rain… I guess we need it.  And it could be worse . Look at Georgia!  Today I did something I have never done before: I ordered and picked up my 2009 Christmas cards. Imagine being that far ahead of schedule?  But, I got to thinking. I ‘m going to be busy in November with a ball, Dad’s birthday bash, Christmas and all that entails, and maybe a trip.  Every year since ’81 I’ve sent a Xmas photo and the last few I’ve scribbled one of those dreadful/wonderful Xmas epistles and that all takes time!  So, why not start now?  In October, I have an out- of- state wedding to attend in NYC on Tavern on the Green, even though I hear the famed eatery’s going bankrupt.  I also am going to the South Carolina’s writers conference at Myrtle Beach!  Maybe  I’ll get some pointers how to market my novel— Secrets, Lies, and Grace which should be out in Of  course, there is always the mundane that takes time and can’t not be done so it seems like a good idea to get a jumpstart on addressing envelopes cause with a little luck everyone’s address has stayed the same!

9/14/09 thoughts, Emerald Isle, painters

Today was a picture perfect day in the Piedmont of NC.  It got a little hot – 90 degrees- later in the day yet the fall crispness is different from the dog days of summer no matter what the themometer reads.

We spent he weekend at Emerald Isle battling the waves and enjoying every minute of it. I had a first. I stepped on something squishy and before I cold determine what it was I felt its tail beating ferociously against my ankle.  In all my summers in the ocean I have never stopped on a fish– a live one no less.  Well, I jumped out of the water not to return for a few hours and then when I did, I stepped on another live fish!  What are the odds of that?  Well, maybe not so high if the water is swarming with them and the water did have a definite fishy odor to it!

I watched the footage of 9-11-01 the other day and the magnitude of what happened hit me as it hasn’t for several years now.  I saw a very young lookng George W. get the news in that kindergarten classroom. How his life changed after that!  I found the coverage very poignant and I recalled where I was when the towers fell– Vienna, Austria, and we couldn’t get back. I recall the machine gun toting milita in the streets outside our hotel.  Surreal.  The crowds at the airports and the chaos at the Miami Airport where we eventually landed that Friday.

Well, today was the last day the painters were to be here. Hallelujah!  They milked the job.  I guess that ‘s what happens when one pays by the hour.

I found out today that one of my pieces is a finalist for the Thin Threads Anthology.  I also learned today that my publisher is going with a book distributor called Music, Books ,and Business.  The novel should be in print in November and out to the public two months later.

Labor Day Weekend, Swine Flu, Carteret Writers

It’s so frustrating when you don’t know what you are doing! I just thought I posted this post but apparently not. or maybe I did and it’ll show up I have entered two posts almost identical except for this whine I am engaged in now.  What’s more this new computer skips letters and I have to go back and edit all. Sometimes what I have just written looks like mush. it’s a hob-glob of letters and indecipherable.  This keyboard would thwart a less determined writer.

My daughter came home from college with swine flu. Now a dilemma. I had planned on going to EI this weekend but then I feel sorry for her. Yet, I may need to leave and take Dad with me. I do not want to expose him although they say folks over 50 do not seem as susceptible.  She was supposed to participate in her house’s sorority rush but I guess she can’t mingle and “flirt’  with the new girls if she is spreading germs to them and can’t hold her head up to focus!  so…I   will go to the beach anyway. I want to join a writers’ group. I have never been in a critique group before and I think it is a valuable thing from what I have read. I think I’d like to join one that is not near my home if possible. Well, the sky is gorgeous. A nice Carolina  Day can’t be beat!

Min Pin,Emerald Isle, NC, Courtland Smith killing

Today I walked my son’s girlfriend’s min-pin up and down hills hoping to tire him out and shed a few pounds in the process.  Now I am tired, and he looks skinnier.  Have you ever seen these dogs?  They look like malnourished chihuhuas.  I spent the day doing a lot of writing today and submitting many articles. I didn’t mean to. It is just that I was waiting all day for a painter to show who didn’t.  So, I didn’t leave the house.  Uusally I have an obsession to write but today I actually wanted to do other things and couldn’t. Isn’t that always the way?

I did send a piece off to a contest about Emerald Isle, NC.  It was easy to write a glowing review. I love that place.  So much to do and have fun with there. I also mentioned the delicious pies one could buy en route there at Meadow restaurant in Meadow , NC off I- 40.  What a treasure trove that place is for gourmands like me!

The other thing I did today was spend a lot of time on the internet. I read a lot about that awful kidnapping crime and the release of the girl 18 years later. But just as unimaginable to me is the shooting death of the President of a frat at UNC.  He was killed by police.  The boy was drunk and sad  and called 911 for help. They sent two cops and for whatever reason they thought the kid had a gun and fired on him almost immediately after stopping him.  Horrible.  Why not Tazer? Why not shoot his leg if he scared them?  Here creeps like the kidnapper of that little girl still breathe, and this poor boy is shot dead in the prime of his life for nothing!  Maybe I’ll feel differently when I read more facts but right now I do not think it was suicide by cop; I think it was homicde by cop!

Twilight, New Moon and Stephenie Meyers

I am intrigued with this blog business and decided to try my hand at it again later this same day. When the newness wears off, it might seem like a chore but for now like any other “First” it seems exciting and full of promise. I learned from a fellow writer and experienced blogger that it is necessay to put some keywords in one’s blog so that it would get hits. What could be more popular now than the book titles of Meyers’ vampire series? Yet, I am not using the titles as a tease since I want to comment on them. I know that Steven King poo-pooed Stephenie Meyers’ writing abilities while he praised Rowling’s. My thoughts on that mattter are that King is a bit of a snob. True, Rowling’s vocabualry is extensive and very British and her imagaination is vast and fantasy -oriented as is KIng’s mind, but frankly I as a middle-aged adult prefer Meyers’ work. Her vampires are not so far out. Basically, her novels are love stories. In Twilight , we are reading the modern day story of Romeo and Juliet and the reason the love is forbidden is not that Romeo is from the wrong side of the tracks like Tony in West Side Story but that Romeo has a tragic flaw– he’s a blood sucker! So, the handsome but pale lover has his own Sylla and Charybdis to choose from. He wants to love the gal but he also wants to bite her and kill her. Ah, what to do? In the second book, he turns suicidal to save her. And she appears suicidal ( just like Juliet) Again, a dilemma as a reader wonders how a vampire can die but apparently there is a way. And we get to know Jacob better in New Moon. He is like Juliet’s Paris. He is an acceptable suitor for the girl but he also has a flaw- he turns into a werewolf that likes to attack vampires. Ah! Belle is also between a rock and a hard place. What I think is amazing is that Meyers can create such images and such three dimensional characters using a very unsophisticated vocabualry. I think this takes real writing skill!

It’s difficult to believe that summer has flown by, and the kids are back in school and soon more leaves will fall.  I always feel sad when autumn nears, but when the trees turn brilliant , it restores my feeling of well-being, and the hardwoods here in NC are magnificent.  This past weekend, my husband and I travelled to Emerald Isle, NC. The waves were huge due to Hurricane Danny up north, and redflags were posted every few feet. I so wanted to jump in . But, the news was full of the drowing of a young boy on  a surf board up at Corolla and two parasailers drowned down at Ocean Isle, so I resisted the urge to be a kid again and jump over the huge waves.  We did go out in the sound on  a friend’s boat trying to find flounder. I didn’t see them, but I saw a Spanish Mackeral curl in the ai,r and I saw  a huge five feet wing span ray shoot out of the water behind our boat. It was spotted.  A leopard ray, I think.  If I get the chance today, I will write up a story about the fishing experience.  Very few times in my life have I done the sport but I think I am more open to it now.  It still is hard for me to stick a hook in the head of a pin fish or minnow. I do empathize with the little fish gasping for air.

If this blog does find any readers, I will post some of the my writings or maybe some of the book to be published and ask for comments on it.  Or maybe I can use my readers to help me with my new book and tell me what’s a page turner and what’s a snore.  It’s rainy out today and I must make myself stay up and not fall into the beckoning bed syndrome.

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