It has been a really long time since my last mash-up, but I have one for you today!!
I Can’t Believe I Said That by Lisa Hall-Wilson – Lisa shares several stories of times where she stuck her foot in her mouth, usually because of her innocent misunderstanding. This is a very funny post and one that I related to a little too well.
Urban Word Wednesday: Five Alarm F*ck by Natalie Hartford – Once again, Natalie and her husband have a hilarious conversation out in public that teaches us new urban lingo. This post will have you in stitches.
Sometimes We Just Need a Break by Emma Burcart – Everyone should read this post. I know this is something we all struggle with from time to time and something that we can never be reminded of too much.
Don’t Eat the Butt #4 – Real Writers Never Struggle by Kristen Lamb – I know this post is a couple weeks old, but it is still worth a mention. Don’t let the word “Writers” in the title fool you – this post is for anyone and everyone. A great lesson that we all need to be reminded of.
I’m a Recovering Job Gypsy. What Are You? by Debra Kristi – This post hit home for me. Debra recounts the journey she has taken on her search to discover what job and career were the right fit.
And finally, here is my latest vlog all about ‘Movie Etiquette’.
Here is the last video from the archery series I did on Hypable.com. This video was released last Friday on the same day as The Hunger Games movie opening. Hope you like it! They were a blast to do. And please remember, I am in no way an expert, just a hobbiest having fun.
You may have noticed that today is Tuesday, not Monday…Oops. Due to some internet issues yesterday and a severe lack in available time, I was unable to get this post together and up on time. Better late than never, right? On to my review.
It is no secret to anyone who follows me that I have been awaiting the opening of The Hunger Games film with great anticipation. I bought my midnight tickets as soon as they went on sale and counted down the days. This past week it finally arrived and I was met with a movie that actually exceeded all of my expectations.
Going into the movie I had more than a few worries. Based on the trailers I thought it looked like the film was going to get the tone and intensity of the books, but I was worried about some of the actors. In particular, I was worried – more like terrified – about Josh Hutcherson as Peeta. I adore Peeta. So much. He is easily my favorite character of the series and I was so scared that Hutcherson would not capture the essence that makes Peeta, Peeta. I have never been so glad to be wrong.
As the film got underway and we got to see more of Peeta I could not believe how perfectly Hutcherson was able to capture him. For once, a movie franchise chose to go with an actor who could actually act the role rather than one who just looked the part and that decision did nothing but enhance the film. Bravo to the filmmakers for making this decision.
It was not just Hutcherson who pleased, though. Every single actor in the film felt perfect to me. Woody Harrelson as Haymitch was just more perfect than I could have ever imagined. It felt as though Haymitch had literally walked out of the pages of the book into the film. Brilliant acting. I was also very happy with Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss. She definitely made Katniss more likable than she was in the book, but I was okay with that. Most of my frustration with Katniss’ character came from her obtuseness with regards to Peeta and his feelings and, while that plot was certainly in the film, it was not the primary focus, which was a good thing. The film focused more on the emotions of living under the oppression of the Capitol and the inhumanity of the Games as opposed to the start of the love triangle, and Jennifer Lawrence did a great job capturing that part of Katniss.
One thing the film did differently from the book is it showed a lot of the behind the scenes happenings at the Capitol during the Games. I thought this was a very effective tool. It allowed the film to convey information we learn from Katniss’ narration in the book without feeling too expositional, such as when they explained what tracker jackers were, and it also helped show the depth of depravity in the people of the Capitol. Getting to actually see the game-makers discuss things like throwing fireballs at Katniss, follow through on it, and then seeing them coming at her…wow. It is one thing to understand that’s what is happening, but to actually see it – that just takes it to a whole new level. And the scene where the little boy gets a sword and chases his sister down like they are in the Games while the parents look on and laugh in delight shows better than anything else could have how the Games are a true source of entertainment in the Capitol and that they honestly don’t see what the big deal is. It is sickening.
There were several scenes from the book that I was looking forward to and none of them disappointed. The somber atmosphere of the Reaping and the enormity of Katniss volunteering in Prim’s place were spot on. The scene with Rue was absolutely perfect. It was incredibly touching and I am so glad they took the time to really do that part justice. I also thought they did a great job getting in all the emotion between Katniss and Peeta in the cave scenes without dragging that part on too long.
I really don’t have any complaints with this film. It was just as emotional and disturbing and touching as I hoped it would be. I am so relieved that they got it right and I can not wait to see what the next installments bring.
Did you get a chance to see The Hunger Games? What did you think? Did you like the actors or think they were lacking something? Did you feel the film captured the essence of the books? Let me know your thought in the comments.
This has been one of those weeks where I have been so busy that I have barely had time to think. Between my regular job, a deadline for a new writing gig I have landed (I will share details on that later), and the midnight premiere of The Hunger Games, I never had time to prepare a mash-up for today. I was going to find time to put one together and just post it much later when I received a message that I had been tagged by Lisa Hall-Wilson over at the blog she shares with Marcy Kennedy, Girls with Pens. Curious, I went to check it out and found that Lisa had tagged me in something called Lucky 7 Meme. Here are the rules:
- Go to page 77 of your current MS or WIP
- Go to line 7
- Copy down the next 7 lines, sentences, or paragraphs, and post them as they are written
- Tag 7 new authors
This sounded like fun, so I pulled out my WIP. Here is the excerpt I found on page 77 of my fantasy novel, A Pristine Heart.
Rhoswen smiled back at her. “Now that you are assured your friend is unharmed,” she said turning to Reeve, “would you mind dressing the wound you gave me?”
Reeve immediately set to work. While he was working Kaelyn tried to sort through the foggy events of Rhoswen’s attack. There was something she felt sure had caught her attention during the time she was waking up, but it remained elusive. Suddenly she remembered.
“Do you two know each other?”
Reeve’s back stiffened at her words and his head snapped to look at her.
“Yes,” Rhoswen answered first. “We Galdors know all the –”
“Hunters,” Reeve finished, interrupting her; Rhoswen looked at him in surprise, but did not say anything else. “What made you ask that?”
“Just something I remembered from when I was waking up.”
There you go. I hope that you enjoyed that small excerpt. It is now my turn to tag 7 others, so here goes.
Join me in Part 2 of the video series I did through Hypable.com looking at archery and how it relates to The Hunger Games. In this video I look more at the recurve bow and the different parts of the arrow.
A couple of weeks ago I began a new series of posts, this time looking at the different characters who will be in the movie The Avengers. I opened the series by looking at Thor and guessing how the events of his own movie would affect him when he has to act as part of a team. It is now time to look at another one of the superheroes who makes up the Avengers team.
The Hulk
After the dismal reception of the film Hulk, which starred Eric Bana, the franchise attempted a reboot. The Incredible Hulk starred Edward Norton and, interestingly, was not an origin story. The film opened with a montage of footage that established the new back-story for the gigantic, green superhero. In this canon, Bruce Banner is an ingenious scientist who believes he has found a technology that will create some kind of “super soldier” through the use of Gamma radiation.
With the help of his girlfriend Betty and her father, General Ross, he experiments with the technology on himself. Something goes wrong with the experiment and the Hulk is created. He completely rips apart the lab and ends up injuring Betty and the General. Horrified by what has happened and not wanting the General to be able to use him in his dream of creating a super soldier, Bruce runs. (As a fun side note, during this montage there are several shots of official documents and the words Stark Enterprises as well as Nick Fury are sprinkled throughout.)
Once the origin of the Hulk is established, the film then follows Bruce, who has been hiding in Brazil, as he attempts to learn how to suppress the Hulk and searches for a cure. He is soon discovered by the General and forced to flee, eventually returning home.
Bruce Banner is a fascinating character. He is very mild mannered (not to be confused with Clark Kent) and, in many ways, a broken man. He hates what has happened to him and what it turns him into. We get to see him become the Hulk on several occasions in the film and it is fairly clear from the beginning that Bruce has very little control over what he does when he is in that state. He is ruled by the anger that elicited the Hulk in the first place and his behavior is very impulsive. With his huge size and skin so tough it is pretty much bullet-proof, he is a near indestructible force that can cause irreparable damage to the environment and people around him.
That is, until he comes in contact with Betty.
Even in the deepest throws of one of his Hulk rages, the Bruce underneath is able to recognize Betty and control his actions so that he protects her. Bruce is slow to accept the knowledge that he can learn to control the Hulk because he is still holding out for a cure, but eventually he does recognize that it is possible. The film ends with him fleeing once more to escape being used by the General. He takes up residence in British Columbia and, in one of the final shots of the film (the final shot is Stark showing up to tell the General of a team he is assembling), we see that he is working on developing control over the Hulk.
The Hulk is the one instance in The Avengers where they were forced to get a different actor. Bruce Banner will be played by Mark Ruffalo instead of Norton and, I have to say, I am excited to see what Ruffalo does with the character. I think that will be able to do a great job capturing the reserved manner that Bruce has. I am curious to learn how much control Bruce has developed during whatever period of time has elapsed. Before the end of his own film he had only been able to control the Hulk with the influence of Betty, has he learned control it without her? It should be really interesting to see.
I am also excited to see how this character, who has been forced to learn how to live in a state of constant control, will interact and survive in the midst of a group of egotistical hotheads. We haven’t seen a whole lot of Bruce in the trailers, but the little we have seen leads me to believe that there will be some fairly humorous interactions between him and the others, especially Stark.
For whatever reason, people have not responded to films about the Hulk in the same way as they have other superhero movies and it makes me a little sad. I really like the tortured character of Bruce. Everything about him and his green companion comes from a deep place of emotion and humanity. I am very much looking forward to seeing him on the big screen in May.
Are you excited to see the Hulk in The Avengers? How do you think the reserved Bruce Banner will interact with the other members of the Avengers team? Are you happy with the casting change from Norton to Ruffalo? Let me know in the comments.
Hey guys! Today I am hanging out at Marcy Kennedy’s blog where I am talking about the X-Men. We all know that eventually Magneto becomes a villain, but before that happens did he get something right? Come check out my post – ‘One Thing Magneto Got Right’ – to find out. I am going to wait to post the next piece in my series looking at the Avengers tomorrow, so that you can pop over to Marcy’s. See you there!
Last month I was once again astounded when two very fabulous bloggers honored me with a blog award. This time the award was the Kreativ Blogger Award and came from Jessica Salyer and Fabio Bueno. Both of these bloggers are absolutely incredible and to be recognized by them was more than I could have hoped for. I want to extend them both my heartfelt thanks. And if you have never been to their blogs go check them out now. That’s right, go. Now. This post will still be here when you get back.
Welcome back! Now for the fun part. When given this award you are supposed to:
1. Thank the person who gave it to you. (already done)
2. List 7-10 random facts about yourself. (I did that on this post and am not interesting enough to come up with 7 more.)
3. Pass the award on to 6 deserving bloggers and let them know about it.
4. Display the badge on your blog if you so choose.
There you have it! Now go check out their blogs. Also, in case you didn’t notice, I added a tab at the top of my blog called “Blog Awards”. It dawned on me one day that these posts where I pass on praise to my fellow bloggers quickly get lost in the constant stream of new posts. I decided that I needed a place where anyone could find links to these posts and the excellent bloggers included in them without too much trouble as well as show my thanks to the people who saw fit to honor me. If you have a minute, go browse the links. You will find lots of good stuff.
And my final order of business is to let you in on this week’s ATW Chat vlog, ‘Winter Is Coming’. Hope you enjoy it!
In anticipation of the upcoming The Hunger Games movie I have teamed up with Hypable to release a 3 part video series looking at archery and how it relates to Katniss. In the first part I show you some of the different types of bows there are and the kind that Katniss would be using. Check it out and let me know what you think!
Most people I know who have read The Hunger Games trilogy flew through all three books unable to put them down. If you have been following my blog, you know that I had to take breaks between them for my mental sanity since I get so into the reading experience. Several weeks ago I was finally ready to pick up the last book of the trilogy, Mockingjay, and fly through it. Oh. My. Goodness. Mere words can not even begin to describe the depth of feeling this book elicited in me. It is, hands down, my favorite of the trilogy. I absolutely LOVED it.
Mockingjay picks up right where Catching Fire left off, with Katniss’ world flipped completely upside down. Whether she intended to or not, she has set in motion a rebellion against the Capitol and it is time for her to figure out what her role in the events unfolding around her is going to be.
From the very start, this book was full of intense emotion. The devastation that has already taken root inside of Katniss and grows throughout the book was very difficult to read. Her pain is so acute, so real, I could feel it in the core of my own spirit. While there were still moments that she drove me crazy and made me want to reach through the pages to throttle her, those moments were much fewer. She had already been through so much and it only got worse as the pages were turned, there was no way that I could not sympathize with her. There could be a whole series of essays written on her character development over the course of the three books, but suffice it to say, that my opinion of the Katniss we meet at the beginning of The Hunger Games and the one we have at the end of Mockingjay is completely different. I just…I think about her now and my heart aches for all she has suffered.
Without spoiling anything, I have to say that one of my favorite – and most hated – aspects of the book was the plot surrounding Peeta. I mean, wow. It was absolute torture to read some of those scenes involving him, hence the hate, but the ways in which those events affected, not only his character, but Katniss and many others as well, was brilliant writing. Reading his story in this book was one of the most harrowing things I have ever read. It pulled at me even more deeply than all that Katniss faced. Peeta had been one of my favorite characters from the very beginning and what he went through physically hurt me. And that is a mark of good writing.
I have heard from many people, both online and in life, that they did not like the ending. While I can understand why people feel that way, I in no way share that opinion. I thought that the ending was perfect. I really don’t see how the book could have ended any differently with all of the things that these people, these teenagers, had been through. The ending felt organic to the story that had been told. It left me completely satisfied and resonated within me. Any other ending that attempted to be more saccharine would have felt false, forced. It would not have had the same impact that made this one of those stories that will stay with me forever.
There is so much more that I could say about this book, but it would probably just begin to be redundant, so I will stop here. With the first two books I knew that I had found something special, a series that I would love, but it wasn’t until Mockingjay that I understood just how much. Not since the Harry Potter series or Deerskinhas a book affected me so much. After I closed the cover I sat there thinking about the characters and story, and I cried for an hour. These characters are now a part of me. Their story is a part of me. Forever.
Have you read Mockingjay? What did you think of it? Were you satisfied with the ending? What parts did you like? Dislike? Let me know in the comments.
