Archive for the 'Movie Queue' Category

June 17, 2008 | Calendar of Events, Life in General, Movie Queue, The 4-1-1 on Me, Weekend Wrap-Up

CLICK ON THE PHOTOS FOR A BIGGER VIEW

So my big weekend was being a vendor at the Girlfriend Getaway Conference held by TIPofaz. I drove up Friday afternoon and stayed overnight. I sold 8 copies of my books, so the price of the table (which I was supposed to share with another person) was worth it. I made back my half even though I had to foot the hotel room bill myself. I stayed at the Prescott Resort in Prescott, AZ.

Bucky’s Casino is connected to the place, too. I don’t gamble, but I wanted to check it out. Very smokey place. I thought the statue was pretty unique, but I’m not sure of the meaning behind it. My room was fantabulous:

The first two pictures are the sitting area when you first walk in and the couch is a pull-out. My bed was king-sized, wonderfully soft, with 250 thread count sheets. Sweet! And the view from my balcony wasn’t bad, either:

Should you ever want to get married here, they have the perfect venue in front of the hotel, in a quaint area hidden behind some trees in the parking lot:

The views from this site were great, too, and I even found a little Peter Rabbit:

And here are some of the vendors: (more…)

Technorati Tags: Girlfriend Getaway Conference, Prescott Resort

June 10, 2008 | Book One, Book Stuff, DA Series, Draven Atreides, Family Portrait, Life in General, Miss Snitch Mondays, Movie Queue, Revision Hell, The 4-1-1 on Me, Weekend Wrap-Up

My weekend was a little busy, but laid back. On Friday nite, the hubby and I went to 10 o’clock show at The Improv (a comedy club) to check out Craig Robinson. For those of you that have no idea who I’m talking about, he was the niteclub doorman in the movie Knocked Up and apparently was in 6 episodes of The Office. I never watched that show, but I heard it was funny. The thing is…he wasn’t. Funny, that is. It was like he used up all his material–if he had any to begin with–during his 8 o’clock show. Part of his act was playing the keyboard, which he did quite well. Then he played this “dating game” thing with a male member of the audience, bringing three single females up on stage. It was quite lame and I would’ve been highly disappointed if I’d paid to see him. But I didn’t. I’d won, like, 6 free tickets to this venue thru a raffle (thanks Mom and Dad). There are restrictions galore attached to these tickets, but we got lucky with this one–or unlucky, as the case may be. How sad is it that the guy who opened up for him was better than the main act? Sad, but true.

July 3-6, Michael Winslow (the dude from those Police Academy movies that makes those sound effects with his mouth) is coming and we’ve made plans with some other couples to check it out. I know I won’t be able to use my free tickets for this, but seeing this guy in action would be worth a paid ticket. I think seeing Michael would make up for Craig’s crappy performance.

Saturday night, me, the hubby, my sister, her husband, a co-worker and her husband and baby had dinner at King’s Fish House to celebrate my birthday. And then just four of us went to see Don’t Mess With The Zohan. I’ve never really been a big fan of Adam Sandler and I was once again reminded why after seeing this movie. It’s stupid funny, like Hot Shots! or those Loaded Weapon movies. Some parts were roll-your-eyes funny, some were cover-your-eyes-and-groan funny, and some were just downright funny. And he was in great shape, too. I think he had to be though because in some of those shots he was shirtless. And nude. But I think I like him in more comedy-drama roles like The Wedding Singer or Spanglish.

Sunday, I spent the majority of my time at my parents house. We’re planning our family reunion and had to nix the first venue due to outraegeous food prices: $60/pp for breakfast and $100/pp for dinner!! If your response is “Holy shit“, that was ours, too. We spent our time narrowing down our other options before finally choosing Grace Inn. Now we can concentrate on everything else.

Revision Hell Update: I don’t know why I keep calling it Revision Hell. I’m done with the writing part, as you know, but I’m still typing it up. You’ll be happy to know that I’m almost done. Just a couple more chapters. Hope you all are enjoying Chapter One so far. If you love it, and want to get a copy hot off the press next year, be sure to sign up for the Pre-Order Notification List at the end of each post.

All in all, it was a great birthday week/weekend. The hubby got me a $25 GC to Barnes and Noble, a $15 Starbucks GC, and slice of Cream Cheese Pie from Marie Callender’s. Isn’t he just faboo? I love their pie! And I got a $25 AMC GC from the parental unit. Normally, they give me money and I was hoping to get that this time. But I can use it this weekend when the hubby and I go see The Incredible Hulk.

So, how was your weekend?

Technorati Tags: The Improv, Craig Robinson, Knocked Up, The Office, Michael Winslow, Police Academy, King’s Fish House, Don’t Mess With The Zohan, Adam Sandler, Hot Shots, Loaded Weapon , The Wedding Singer, Spanglish., Grace Inn, Barnes and Noble, Starbucks, Cream Cheese Pie, Marie Callender’s, The Incredible Hulk

May 19, 2008 | Book One, Book Stuff, DA Series, Draven Atreides, Life in General, Movie Queue, The 4-1-1 on Me, Writing Movements

Saturday morning, I had a business breakfast with my BF (she also happens to be my business partner as well). We’re trying to come up with ideas for the book release party next year. She’s a great marketing person because she makes me think. What’s the purpose? Who’s your target audience? What’s the draw? Why are these teens going to come and see you? Basically, I have to get out there more. She’s been telling me this forever and I keep saying, “Yeah, I know.” In my rose-colored world, I would just write the books and have someone else promote them. Radio interview? Let me know what time. Book signing? Tell me where to go. Simple. Talk in front of an auditorium full of people? Ahem. Yeah. Uh. I’ll get back to you on that.

But it’s not that simple. Unfortunately.

I’ve got some research to do but she came up with great ideas, though.

After breakfast, we parted ways and I went to see Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian.

If you’ve seen the trailers for this then you know they’ve been saying “it’s better than the first.” Rarely are sequels better than the first, but for once I have to agree with the critics. It’s been only a year for Lucy, Susan, Edmund and Peter, but it’s been 1300 for Narnia. A lot has changed since the first movie. The children have grown up—literally and figuratively—and Narnia is now in the tight-fisted clutches of an evil ruler, Miraz. The young Prince Caspian is next in line to rule…until his uncle’s wife bears a son. Caspian is forced to flee to the forest, but not before his tutor gives him a special horn, who instructs him to use it only when he’s in “dire straits”.

It seems like these children are always fighting for something—mostly Narnia, sometimes Aslan—and it’s not the rinky-dink bike-racks-at-3pm kind of fights, either. They’re serious battles. These children are leading armies and fighting armies, wielding swords and slinging arrows (except Lucy, of course) like they were born to it. Peter shows major balls by challenging Miraz to a fight to the death. To the death, people. This is a boy of 15? 16? fighting a full-grown man, in full armor, with sword, to the death. How brave is that? In the first movie, they ruled Narnia for a while. We saw them become adults…until they found the wardrobe again and became children. Again. When Prince Caspian realized who he summoned when he blew the horn, he said “I thought you’d be…older.” I couldn’t help but think the same thing. I don’t understand they didn’t become older when they arrived in Narnia.

Besides the whole Davy and Goliath analogy going on this movie, I liked the message they were sending out even more: kids can change the world. They’re braver and stronger than people realize and if they want it bad enough, they can be the change they want to see in the world. When I was younger, and I was reading this series, it was pure entertainment for me. Seeing the movie adaptation of the books is still pure entertainment for me.

From a writer’s perspective, I’m more aware now of underlying themes, but I’m reminded yet again why I love to write: pure entertainment. And if you pick up anything else along the way, that’s cool, too.

(more…)

Technorati Tags: Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

May 12, 2008 | Book One, Book Stuff, DA Series, Draven Atreides, Family Portrait, Life in General, Movie Queue, Revision Hell, The 4-1-1 on Me, Weekend Wrap-Up, Writing Movements

I hope you all had a great Mother’s Day. Both mothers and non-mothers alike. Friday night, I went with my parents to see my niece’s 5 minute Film Shorts Festival. 100 scripts had been submitted, they’d narrowed it down to 20, and hers had won first place! I’m so proud of her and she did such a great job. As a writer, we’re constantly asked of any similarities between us and our characters. I can honestly say that when her play, “Don’t Quit Your Day Job”, was being acted out, I could picture her saying some of those lines:

“I said sip it, not inhale it.”

It was very funny and I laughed hysterically during one play titled “My Son Johnny.” And my throat got tight during another, “45th Infantry.” That one hit close to home because I’m sure there were some people in the audience that had family members over in Iraq. All of the plays were written by the students and directed by the students. During the time my niece went to this school, I made sure that I caught all of her performances and it never ceases to amaze me how talented these teens are. She’s graduating next month and plans to spend the summer in California with one of her father’s cousins, who makes commercials. Maybe something will come up and she’ll get a break. I may be biased, but my niece is super talented.

Saturday, I “stimulated” the economy by spending my half of the check we got back from the IRS. I bought a couple of sundresses on sale at Old Navy, bought Mother’s Day gifts for my Mom ($25 Bucca di Beppo GC), sister (Prosperity Pie by SARK…which it turns out she already has a copy.) and co-worker ($20 Old navy GC). Bought a birthday gift (drawing pad and colored pencils) for said co-worker’s 8 yr old daughter. She celebrated her birthday yesterday. Ate breakfast at my favorite place, The Original Pancake House, and went to see a movie (Speed Racer). I’ll get to the little movie review in a minute, but I also did some research for the DA Book One.

A local resort spa was the inspiration behind the spa in the current story and I’m at a certain point in my revisions where I needed a visual of a home that can be rented. A really pricey rental home. I called down there the day before to see if I could take a tour and was given permission. Needless to say, the pictures on the website didn’t do it justice. Seeing it in person was pretty cool. I’m so glad I was able to see it because it was just what I needed. Normally, I would’ve post the link and let you guys have a look-see, too, but that will come later. I’m going to have a website created for the series some time in August and when I give a little back story about each book, I plan to include the local places that inspired me: mostly links, but hopefully some pictures, too.

So, the whole Speed Racer thing… (more…)

Technorati Tags: Old Navy, Bucca di Beppo, Prosperity Pie, SARK, The Original Pancake House, Speed Racer

May 5, 2008 | Book One, Book Stuff, Calendar of Events, DA Series, Draven Atreides, Life in General, Miss Snitch Mondays, Movie Queue, The 4-1-1 on Me

HAPPY CINCO DE MAYO, everyone!

Friday night, the hubby and I went to see Iron Man.

I must say that Robert Downey, Jr looked in great shape. You’d never know the struggles he’s been through watching this movie. He’s quite the funny man (which I knew) and there were some funny moments. Even Gwenyth Paltrow offered up a few witty barbs. I never knew the history behind this comic book character. I’m not as familiar with this one as I am with, say, X-Men. But we really liked it and are not surprised it came in #1 opening weekend. The hubby found it interesting that they showed a DC comic trailer (The Dark Knight) alongside a Marvel trailer (The Incredible Hulk) right before showing another Marvel movie. Either way, I’m looking forward to seeing both of them. May is going to a fantastic month for movies this year, people. Hope you all will get a chance to see them as they are meant to be seen…in a movie theater. Speed Racer is coming out this Friday…in IMAX. I’m so there. Even at $8 a pop.

Saturday, I did the West Phoenix Boutique and got a chance to meet the principal of Premier High School. We got more traffic there than when I did the Spring Boutique, but no sales this time. I couldn’t afford to buy from any of the other vendors that were there, either, but I collected more cards. You never know…

Sunday, I figured it was time to do laundry seeing as how both of our baskets resembled the Leaning Tower of Dirty Clothes. Have I mentioned that I really hate to do laundry? I swear, sometimes I feel my husband should’ve married someone else. I hate to cook, I hate to clean, I hate to do laundry, I hate ironing…ugh! If I were rich…

Just one last reminder to let you all know that Miss Snitch Mondays start today. All this month you’ll be reading the Prologue. Feel free to leave comments, sign up for the list and get to know Draven by checking out her blog.

So, how was your weekend?

Technorati Tags: CINCO DE MAYO, Iron Man, Robert Downey, Jr, Gwenyth Paltrow, X-Men, The Dark Knight, The Incredible Hulk, Speed Racer, IMAX, West Phoenix Boutique, Premier High School, Miss Snitch Mondays