Movie Madness

Happy Day After Giving Thanks! Hope you all had a phenomenal holiday and are now safely ensconced somewhere far away from crowded stores. Unless that’s something that you look forward, then I wish you all the greatest deals.

In case you are in any way the same type of crazy as me and have been counting the days until you can appropriately watch holiday themed movies without venturing into that scary “Christmas in July” territory, I’d like to present you with this year’s super nerdy – and borderline frightening – December movie schedule.

Hope you enjoy! But, really, mostly hope that you’ll forgive this display of mild insanity. After all, I did dedicate an evening just to movies staring members of the Saved By the Bell cast. That’s got to count for something, right?

The First of Many Thanks

Hello, all!

Sorry for the radio silence recently. Fundraisers and babies and weddings, oh my! I can not believe that the dinner auction is in less than two weeks and one of the weeks contains Thanksgiving. It’s a wonderful kind of insanity.

Also, having the holiday coincide with my preparations is fairly appropriate. I have a whole lot to be thankful for this year, not the least of which is the amazing generosity of all the people I’ve dealt with in this process. Since some of said lovely folks are reading this, a monumental thank you for the signed books, gift certificates, artwork, and other wonderful donations. This auction is going to be beyond anything I’d imagined when starting. The baskets are taking on an awesome life of their own.

And counting!

So, thank you! I can’t wait to fill you in on all the details after everything is said and done. 

Parade Magic

Twelve years ago, my sister and I stayed over a night in Manhattan to watch my not quite one-year-old cousin (he’s going to be thirteen next week – insaneo!), so that my aunt and uncle could have a night out on the anniversary. The next day we went for a walk through Central Park before heading back home. My aunt and uncle brought us to see where all the balloons were being blown up for the Thanksgiving Day Parade.

As I mentioned last year, the parade is sacrosanct to me. That being said, never once have I wanted to battle the crowds to see it in person. I like pajamas and a jump start on eating copious amounts of food and the knowledge that I do not have to stand for one second of the festivities. Cozy cushions were made for Thanksgiving morning.

The morning before Thanksgiving? Totally different. Somehow seeing all the effort that went into making the parade the basket full of awesome that it is did nothing to take away from the wonder of it all. (Not like when you find out how a particularly cool magic trick is just smoke and mirrors. Bummer.) Instead it only added to it all.

Interestingly, it inspired the same feeling as when I’m getting ready to revise a story. All the mechanical parts are there, but they appear to be just random, disconnected bits and bobs. Then you blow life into them and abracadabra. Suddenly what you have is something full of fun and whimsy. Something that’s going to make people excited and happy. Something that can be enjoyed whilst eating eggs and bacon and, maybe, a cinnamon roll. And really, isn’t that what we all want for our final product?

So, ever since then, when I’m writing, my goal is the Thanksgiving Day Parade. What do you write towards?

Audio Disconnect

As a kid there was very little I loved more than story time. Listening to someone relay tales of fascinating worlds and beloved characters was the epitome of magic. And as I've mentioned many a time I've pretty much always been a fan of out loud solo reading as well. Love hearing spoken dialogue. 

But something about audio books just throw me. I've listened to quite a few of them, and it's not exactly that I don't like them, I just don't feel the same connection to the story as when I'm reading. I get distracted by line delivery choices and the voices that the reader has decided to give each character. 

For instance, the other day I was road tripping it up and decided to slap the iPod on shuffle and let the music gods determine my travel soundtrack. This is something I highly recommend, especially for those of us who have some downloaded audio books. There's something oddly enjoyable about suddenly hearing one fifth of a random chapter in the middle of Ella Fitzgerald and B*Witched. 

Anyway, I've both listened to and read the book that I was getting tastes of, so I can say with confidence that I enjoy the story. But, during this I wasn't thinking, Man, I want to listen to this whole thing again. Instead I just kept wondering, Why do all the male characters have Batman voice? It's not like they were interrogating criminals. In the scene I got an excerpt from they were removing a roof. Impressive, sure. But not the sort of thing you generally need a secret identity for. Of course, maybe that's not it at all and they've all just been eating gravel during coffee breaks. Who can say?

The point is, the audio books I've tried thus far haven't given me quite the experience I look for. And I would like to change that, as occasionally my enthusiastic car ride scream singing gives me a bit of a rasp. And then I'm the one with Batman voice. 

To prevent any confusion in the streets of Gotham, it would be nice to break up my driving concerts with a good book. So, I'm coming to you. Suggestions for really well done audio books please! All genres welcome.