This is my first year participating in the Cherished Blogfest hosted by Dan Antion, Sharukh Bamboat, Damyanti Biswas, Mary Giese, Peter Nena, Cheryl Pennington and Kate Powell where a group of bloggers write a short post about something they cherish and why, picture included or not.
On my writing desk, I have a 4 cards my daughter made for me for Mother's Day during her years at college. A little background here, I have five sons older than my daughter. To say we are close is a vast understatement. We're not needy but sometimes it seems like we're of one mind. We share so many of the same interests and that includes numerous TV shows. Once she went away to college, we couldn't watch them together anymore but we would often call each other the next day and discuss plots and make predictions. For Mother's Day each year, she would pick our current favorite, copy a picture from the show for the front and then write very heart-felt words of her own inside. Doctor Who, The Musketeers, Once Upon a Time, and The 100 have all provided inspiration. Can't share the words, they're too private, but if you're a mother, I guarantee tears. I look at those cards and I see love.
Thanks for those hosting this blogfest. And don't forget to read some more inspiring and lovely posts on the constantly updated list.
What thing do you cherish?
Showing posts with label Once Upon a Time. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Once Upon a Time. Show all posts
Friday, July 29, 2016
Monday, May 23, 2016
Back in the Groove
What a great conference I attended this past weekend. I'll be telling you more about it in the coming weeks as I highlight some of the great workshops I experienced. I also have a few great guests lined up. Can't wait to tell you about them, but not today.
Weather is such a cliche conversation topic but if it doesn't stop raining every day in May, I'm going to ... I don't know what. Grow moldy, maybe.
Ankle is recovering. Ribs going a bit slower. Injuries sure healed quicker when I was younger.
A bad thing about writing conferences, I always come home with more books for my TBR pile. One of them was even free. I purchased the other two and got them signed. Both those writers on also on the future guests list. I surprised myself but getting quite a bit of writing done on my WIP at night after workshops and socializing was over. It helps when you can't sleep because of fricking broken ribs.
On the entertainment front, two of my favorite shows are done for the season. Once Upon a Time and The 100 both ended with terrific two part finales. One is a feel good fantasy about fairy tales come to life and the other is grim science fiction set in a post-apocalypse Earth. This summer, I looking forward the last season of Hell on Wheels and The Musketeers. Come on, BBC America, when are your bringing back those swaggering swordsmen with their cool hats?
The daughter is working from home for about four weeks until she leaves for Morocco for the rest of the summer. It's fun to have her around, especially when it comes to mowing the grass. If it ever stops raining.
Have you joined the IWSG twitter yet? Please stop by and give a shout out.
"Women with clean houses do not have finished books." Joy Held
So is your house clean this week or are you reading and writing a lot? Any thing entertaining on TV for you this summer? Get yourself over to Twitter and join us.
Weather is such a cliche conversation topic but if it doesn't stop raining every day in May, I'm going to ... I don't know what. Grow moldy, maybe.
Ankle is recovering. Ribs going a bit slower. Injuries sure healed quicker when I was younger.
A bad thing about writing conferences, I always come home with more books for my TBR pile. One of them was even free. I purchased the other two and got them signed. Both those writers on also on the future guests list. I surprised myself but getting quite a bit of writing done on my WIP at night after workshops and socializing was over. It helps when you can't sleep because of fricking broken ribs.
On the entertainment front, two of my favorite shows are done for the season. Once Upon a Time and The 100 both ended with terrific two part finales. One is a feel good fantasy about fairy tales come to life and the other is grim science fiction set in a post-apocalypse Earth. This summer, I looking forward the last season of Hell on Wheels and The Musketeers. Come on, BBC America, when are your bringing back those swaggering swordsmen with their cool hats?
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| The 100 |
The daughter is working from home for about four weeks until she leaves for Morocco for the rest of the summer. It's fun to have her around, especially when it comes to mowing the grass. If it ever stops raining.
Have you joined the IWSG twitter yet? Please stop by and give a shout out.
"Women with clean houses do not have finished books." Joy Held
So is your house clean this week or are you reading and writing a lot? Any thing entertaining on TV for you this summer? Get yourself over to Twitter and join us.
Friday, April 17, 2015
O: Once Upon a Time
I may have mentioned on this blog how much I enjoy the TV show, Once Upon a Time both as entertainment and for the amazing writing and plotting in the program. The characters are fairy tale characters ripped from their enchanted worlds where magic is common to our world where they try to cope with the histories they shared in that other world. The writers do an excellent job of creating terrible villains and then exploring what turned that character undo their evil path. And many times redeeming the bad guys. The fairy tales they explore are usually based more on the origin tales rather than the Disney animated interpretations. And no one is a perfect, sin-free hero either. Family
Lesson: People still enjoy the retelling of classic fairy tales. Those classics can be twisted and retold to make them fresh and interesting. Making villains complicated and sympathetic adds depth and emotion to stories. Don't make the heroes squeaking clean or too perfect.
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| Captain Hook Once Upon a Time |
"Magic always comes with a price." Everyone on Once Upon a Time at some point
"Careful, Mate. It's unwise to insult the size of a pirate's ship." Captain Hook
Do you believe that fairy tales still make popular reading material? Is there a TV show where the writing really impresses you? Can you name a good book or movie where the villain is redeemed?
Wednesday, August 27, 2014
Magic Comes With a Price.
Magic comes with a price is a common saying on one of my favorite TV shows, Once Upon a Time. As a parent, I believe I've seen magic at least and at best, prove of God's existence, four times in my life. All my children were born by C-section which means beautiful babies by any one's standards. No misshapen heads or abrasions from the trauma of birth. New parents worry about those fragile little bodies but the real worries come along when they get older. Once they walk out of that umbrella of 24/7 protection the parents learn the real measure of worry.
My Old Farmer's Almanac shared this stat for today as if they read my mind. Typically, A baby caused its parents to lose between 400 and 750 hours of sleep the first year. That's taking a year or so off those parents' lives. Last week the latest estimate of the cost of raising a child were released. According to this article in USA today, it cost $245, 340 dollars to raise a child to age 18. If you're like us and also help them through college, you're looking at some big bucks. But not a parent in the world would trade their little bundles of magic for that money.
As my children grow and go off on their own, I don't feel any loneliness in an 'empty nest' way. I worry that they're so far from my protection. They're smart, responsible people but that doesn't help me sleep at night. My youngest son is across the country in Colorado. The son with a heart condition. Early tomorrow morning my daughter leaves for a semester of study in Morocco. As she sat at the kitchen table with me practicing her Arabic, I felt my hair turning gray. Yes, it's a safe country, relatively. But it's way over there.
I remember giving my parents a needlepoint picture I made when I left home and moved hours away from them. It said the two most important things we can give our children are roots and wings. Tomorrow another one flies away.
Are you shocked at the price to raise a child today? Do you think the numbers of hours parents lose in that first year is accurate? Can you tell me something good about Morocco?
My Old Farmer's Almanac shared this stat for today as if they read my mind. Typically, A baby caused its parents to lose between 400 and 750 hours of sleep the first year. That's taking a year or so off those parents' lives. Last week the latest estimate of the cost of raising a child were released. According to this article in USA today, it cost $245, 340 dollars to raise a child to age 18. If you're like us and also help them through college, you're looking at some big bucks. But not a parent in the world would trade their little bundles of magic for that money.
As my children grow and go off on their own, I don't feel any loneliness in an 'empty nest' way. I worry that they're so far from my protection. They're smart, responsible people but that doesn't help me sleep at night. My youngest son is across the country in Colorado. The son with a heart condition. Early tomorrow morning my daughter leaves for a semester of study in Morocco. As she sat at the kitchen table with me practicing her Arabic, I felt my hair turning gray. Yes, it's a safe country, relatively. But it's way over there.
I remember giving my parents a needlepoint picture I made when I left home and moved hours away from them. It said the two most important things we can give our children are roots and wings. Tomorrow another one flies away.
Are you shocked at the price to raise a child today? Do you think the numbers of hours parents lose in that first year is accurate? Can you tell me something good about Morocco?
Wednesday, October 9, 2013
Bad Guys Have Feelings Too
As I plow through the third draft of War Dragon, the second book in my Morbunda Saga, I'm making sure I add depth to my bad guys. My villains are sure they're the good guys. They're waging war to right a societal wrong.
As I weave more background into the novel, the reasoning of my villains makes more and more sense. They're still ruthless bad guys, but the reader will understand where they're coming from.
One of the things I love about writing fantasy novels is how fantasy readers expect to see into the heads and hearts of multiple characters. This current novel reveals the plot through the eyes of six different characters.
Another thing I'm enjoying is the redemption of one villain from the first book in the series, and the descent into evil by one of the heroes.
One of the reasons I enjoy the show Once Upon a Time, is the complexity of the characters as their back stories are revealed. Everyone makes mistakes and they do regretful things. But most of the characters also do good things or think they are working for good. Captain Hook is one of the characters I hope is redeemed and perhaps he'll find his happy ending. And not just because he's a cutie.
Do you sometimes like the villains as much or more than the heroes? Do you enjoy writing them? Who is the most interesting bad guy you watched in a movie or read about in a book?
As I weave more background into the novel, the reasoning of my villains makes more and more sense. They're still ruthless bad guys, but the reader will understand where they're coming from.
One of the things I love about writing fantasy novels is how fantasy readers expect to see into the heads and hearts of multiple characters. This current novel reveals the plot through the eyes of six different characters.
Another thing I'm enjoying is the redemption of one villain from the first book in the series, and the descent into evil by one of the heroes.
One of the reasons I enjoy the show Once Upon a Time, is the complexity of the characters as their back stories are revealed. Everyone makes mistakes and they do regretful things. But most of the characters also do good things or think they are working for good. Captain Hook is one of the characters I hope is redeemed and perhaps he'll find his happy ending. And not just because he's a cutie.
Do you sometimes like the villains as much or more than the heroes? Do you enjoy writing them? Who is the most interesting bad guy you watched in a movie or read about in a book?
Wednesday, August 28, 2013
A Happy Thought
Though I write romance as Susan Kelley, I make sure things are not smooth sailing for my protagonists. I can't claim to create storylines as diabolical as on Once Upon a Time where no one ever gets a happy ending but I like to make things tough on the good guys and gals.
I like my own life to be happy like most people and for my last post of August, I'd like to share some happy moments. Like my son working at the Broadmoor in Colorado and feeding the giraffes. He's one of those guys that children and animals love. Though maybe it was just the lettuce.
Tomorrow I'm taking my daughter back to Boston University, much to her delight and my loss of companionship. But I know she'll be happy. In the meantime, she sent this to me (from the living room to my office) and we both wondered why it can't be this way.
What was your happy thought this week? Ever feed a giraffe? Do you text or email members of your family when they're just in the other room? Ever have anyone buy you a drink in a coffee shop just to meet you?
I like my own life to be happy like most people and for my last post of August, I'd like to share some happy moments. Like my son working at the Broadmoor in Colorado and feeding the giraffes. He's one of those guys that children and animals love. Though maybe it was just the lettuce.
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| James at the Broadmoor Zoo |
Tomorrow I'm taking my daughter back to Boston University, much to her delight and my loss of companionship. But I know she'll be happy. In the meantime, she sent this to me (from the living room to my office) and we both wondered why it can't be this way.
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| From facebook |
What was your happy thought this week? Ever feed a giraffe? Do you text or email members of your family when they're just in the other room? Ever have anyone buy you a drink in a coffee shop just to meet you?
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