Oracle

For a movie with no marketing, no hype, and with a nearly low budget (only 8.something million) it’s honestly not a terrible movie. I’m not saying it’s great, I’m not even saying it’s good, but it doesn’t suck, it had some decent moments, and I actually learned a thing or two.

I don’t really want to spoil a ton of things here so I’m going to be a bit careful with this review. Is this movie predictable? Yes it is. Doesn’t that ruin it for the watching? I don’t think so but I’ve also seen Candyman about 20 times so knowing what’s coming doesn’t bother me in the slightest.

There is something a little bit new and different here – touching on racism and a particular painful part of US history in a way that most movies aren’t wont to do and doing it in a way that while a little bit hamfisted isn’t actually insensitive or whitewashed.

There are some decent scares, some cheap jumps, and very predictable places where you might even groan loud enough to make the dog look at you funny (maybe that’s just my house). It isn’t revolutionary but it’s solid and short and fast paced.

Also: I was entirely unaware that the little kid’s rhyme and clapping song, Shortnin’ Bread, was maybe the most vile thing ever.

Is it worth watching, mostly yes. Does it have problems? Also yes. But so few horror movies out there don’t have a few of those, and certainly, so many of them fall apart in the light of day, post watch. In any case, if you like horror and aren’t too particular on your special effects and creature design (my biggest issue with the film) give it a go. Pretty sure we’ll be seeing the lead actress, Ryan Destiny, again – she’s got potential.

Oracle is currently streaming on HBO Max.

Wow, it’s been a minute!

Sorry about that. Those tireds I was having was borderline anemia paired with my chronic illnesses and apparently really out of whack vitamin levels. I’ve reached the portion of life where my body throws enormous temper tantrums when everything is not exactly right. The last year has been full of a bunch of medical stuff and sometimes it seemed like if I kept having new issues. New vitamins, slight meds adjustments, and a hysterectomy later and I do feel a bit more myself. I’ve been writing again, noodling at several projects, some fiction, some not but the nonfiction will not make an appearance here. That’s just a different thing.

I’ve been working away on my old lady saves the world book and I really do love it – I did strip out all of my first round edits as I didn’t like where that version was headed and started over from my zero draft. I do still need to add about 20k words to make it commercially viable but the story is solid. I’m pretty sure it actually managed to step over the fine line and land solidly in the horror genre. Which is what I wanted.

I’m also finally getting back to making soap and fun skin care and perfume. I did not realize how tired I really was most of last year. With that and the headaches and stuff, just getting through the day was enough.

Now, I’m a bit more mended and getting back to doing all the things. And that includes events. I won’t always have everything and I’m doing a couple of smaller ones and one that has the potential to be really really crowded. If you’re in the Ohio Valley, Hancock County Parks and Recreation are putting on a Folklore Festival October 1. The lineup looks pretty interesting (and don’t get me started on the food trucks!).

I’ll try to get on a posting schedule again and maybe now that things do seem settled, I’ll be able to stick to it!

Among Other Things

I may have written about these things before – if this is a repeat of previous words, I’m sorry, I’m still playing catch up apparently.

I found a book on my dining room table that I don’t remember. I know I read it as it’s an In Death book and I read those as soon as I get them every single time – it’s my favorite clear-the-cobwebs series – excellent escapism with great pacing and characters, even if they aren’t really mysteries. I didn’t realize how much of a year just didn’t get filed away in my brain. Thank goodness for doctors, bloodwork, and science.

At one point last year, I literally was forgetting entire conversations had just hours earlier. It scared the hell out of me. I wrote it off at first as fibro-fog or part of my rheumatoid arthritis (or a side effect of any of the medications I take for them) but I added it to my running list of questions for my next appointment. It probably didn’t get asked as soon as it should have been but I really hate being a bother. Rheumy assured me the kind of forgetting I was talking about wasn’t any part of those conditions or medications.

It wasn’t until I started getting the headaches – huge, painful, and pretty much on a schedule – that I brought any of it up with my regular doctor. I love her so much. MRIs, visits to the neurologist, visits to the vampire’s office. All of it down to serious vitamin deficiencies. I got those evened out and I haven’t had the memory issues since – but finding the evidence of just how much I have forgotten, how much I missed, is still disconcerting.

With those deficiencies out of the way, new issues have emerged. Technically they’re not new at all. Probably they’ve been a borderline problem since I was a teenager. It was only with the added stress on my system that they really got bad enough to be of issue.

In many ways, I feel like my body’s warranty expired in 2017 and now everything is clicking and clunking and falling apart. It was running fine until it suddenly wasn’t and now, as soon as I get one thing fixed, another thing screams for attention. (though this reminds me that I need to make an appointment to get my oil changed – on my car, not continuing my weird analogy)

I suppose this is all to say – I have a fun book to read today.

New Baby in the House

And he is TINY. Our Fred has been a little sad and lonely since RedDog’s passing and we’d been talking about a little friend for him for a while. The baby we got is so small right now it makes me nervous. It’s going to be a long month or so but then I think he’ll be solid enough that all my maternal instincts aren’t screaming FRAGILE.

Sleeping Bruce

I’m a bit of a hovermom at the moment – the Fred is a giant by comparison (for now, Bruce will probably be bigger down the road) – but for the most part, Fred might be the most excited of us all. It does mean that getting stuff done might get a little more difficult for a couple of months while we go through all the puppy phases but, in the long run, it’ll be well worth it.

Peeking out at the new year

The first day of 2021 has come and gone and now it’s time to settle in to new routines. One of the things I’m planning on doing better is making time and hopefully interesting content for this here blog. The list of things I want to do this year, to accomplish is pretty long and getting longer but I’m not calling them goals this year. More like suggestions. I’ll be thrilled if I get them done but just fine if I don’t.

I’d like to get my granny hedgewitch book edited up and submitted to agents and/or publishers. I’d like to get my new serial’s (with all the details coming very soon) second section fleshed out and sent off to the publisher. The first section, parts 1-5, are already ready and submitted. I’d like to actually send submissions out this year – I didn’t do much of that last year. I’m really hoping to be able to do a few events – both with my books and with Crow’s Hollow. I have a long to-do list for Crow’s Hollow also but that’s not really writing related, though I do imagine some of those things will end up in books and stories – how can it not? I’d like to draft a new book this year also. Two if I go for NaNoWriMo again and hope this year cooperates better. Hopefully, with more words being created, that will also mean more words finding their way to publications but I’m not setting a target acceptance rate or submission numbers just yet. Just about anything is better than last year’s metrics though.

New shiny year, new shiny planner, and a less than new desire to be better at staying on target and at least moderately organized (in the writing, there’s zero chance of organization in most of the rest of my life – I’m a very disorganized sort).

I hope for you all many good things for the year to come – there’s never been a better time to do all the things.

Happy Halloween & Some News

It’s been a bit since I’ve posted – it’s been quite the odd year. I’ve been weirdly busy though. The biggest change to my daily existence has been never having an empty house. I never left my house much to begin with though.

Before the whole thing started, I was working on something big and I’ve more or less got it off the ground now – Crow’s Hollow Botanicals is my new little boutique herbal bath and body care business. Apparently, I really enjoy making soap.

I’ve been writing pretty steadily also, working on two books, one of which is out in the slush of submissions and the other is getting a solid rewrite, gearing up for this year’s NaNoWriMo which should be extra fun, and dealing with rereleasing a couple of books in my backlist – Hardwired Humanity is my science fiction short story collection and it’s now got two new stories and some new commentary from me and Guardian of the Gods, my space opera, has a brand new cover.

Hardwired Humanity – https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08KJNXVBG

Guardian of the Gods https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08M2FXYSD

Over this winter, I think I’m going to gather up all the short stories in the Acknivar universe that have been published and make them available and maybe rewrite the other novel I have in this universe as well. As I was editing this, I remembered how much I really enjoy these worlds, these gods, these people and I am definitely not done playing there yet.

I hope you are all doing well. Take care and stay safe and have a wonderful Halloween!

Holiday Wish Lists

One of my favorite things is sharing the art and the books and the artists and authors and musicians that I love with other people – especially during prime shopping time. If you’re looking for unusual and interesting holiday presents for that hard to shop for somebody this year, have I got the list for you! I love supporting small businesses and makers and I encourage everyone else to do so too.

Not Your Father’s Horseman by Valerie Griswold-Ford (also: Winter Secrets and Winter Storms – my favorite Christmas stories – very sweet)

Not a small press by any means but if you or the person you’re shopping for like Doctor Who, especially the Fourth Doctor, pick up Tom Baker’s book Scratchman – I LOVED it.

All the things by Amara at Conjure Arts
All of the things by Kaysha Siemens (I have a print of her Goblin King that I just adore)
The little sloth over at Meadowsweet and Broom
Steampunk Hats by Girl Gamer Gear

All the Makeup by Fyrinnae but most especially the lippies – I have Raven’s Wing and it’s amazing – great color, super long lasting.

Exit 000 skin care ‘s Lychee soap smells amazing (my oldest likes it a lot).

CNR Wood Burning – neat stuff and good people.

Link your favorite artists, crafters, and authors in the comments – Let’s support our amazing friends!

 

Adjustments

I am slowly adjusting to an emptier house. Slowly. My boy texts me pretty regularly which helps a lot. It’s weird to only have my younger son at home but he does keep things interesting! And I’ve got the dogs who seem more or less resigned to the oldest not being home (even if they do keep checking his room like he’s going to have miraculously shown up when they weren’t paying attention). The new normal is getting easier for us all.

I wasn’t really prepared for this part of motherhood. It took a long time to get used to the idea that my whole heart now lived outside my body. And then I had to send them to school where all the other people are. And I had to try not to let my issues with people become their issues (fortunately, they are both social butterfly types who seem to thrive on being around other people).  And now, they’re getting ready to see what they can really do. I am glad to have kids who want to be independent. Even if I miss them, worry about them, and want to pester them all the time, I really am glad. My husband and I have always felt that it was our job to give them a solid foundation and a bit of a security net, just in case, but not a tether or barricade. Our goal has always been an empty nest but in practice, I’m not a fan yet of even half empty.

I want my kids to be independent, awesome grown ups doing amazing things. I have every faith that both my boys will do just that. And somehow my heart will still feel whole, even when it’s divided up and hundreds, if not thousands, of miles away.

 

Happy New Year!

Happy 2019!

I can’t wait to see what stories this year has to tell! I hope they’re amazing and full of wonderful things. I know I tend to be overly prepared for the worst but that doesn’t mean I’m not an optimist at heart – silver linings and making the best of things are my jam. I hope this year fulfills its incredible potential.

Writer Wednesday: Interview With Emily Mims

Emily Mims

For today’s Writer Wednesday, I’ve got an interview for you. Fellow Boroughs author, Emily Mims, author of Noelle, has graciously agreed to be interviewed here.

S: What book made you want to be a writer and why?

EM: I wrote my first book on a dare. I threw a romance across the floor and said I could do a better job and my husband dared me to.

S: What does your process look like? Do you work from an outline or not? Do you have a favored writing implement? How long does it take you to write a book?

EM: I am a serious plotter. I write a detailed outline of the plot and write from that. The only thing I hand write is the outline on a tablet. Everything else is done at a keyboard, including editing and revisions. It takes me one or two weeks to write the plot and another couple of months to write the book. (I wrote 4 books last year, so I guess you could say three months total.)

S: What is your favorite part of the writing process? Least favorite part?

EM: My favorite part is polishing and editing. My least favorite part is trying to get the word out about my books.

S: Out of all the characters you’ve created, is there one who stands out as a personal favorite and why?

EM: Wow. Probably the one I am working on at that moment.

S: Does your location influence your stories or characters?

EM: Probably. I have a serious burr under my saddle about an author really knowing an area before he or she sets a book there, which limits me to Texas and Eastern Tennessee. I hate it when authors make careless errors about the region they are writing about.

S: What are three things you need to write?

EM: Quiet and my typed-up plot. I have to be awake but not tired, hence my afternoon writing schedule.

S:  What made you want to write your most recent story?

EM: My husband and I are avid community theater fans. Charles volunteers at the Woodlawn Theater here in San Antonio. I was coming to the end of the Smoky Blue series in Tennessee and was casting around for another juicy setting for a series of stories. We were on our way to the theater gala and it hit me what a wonderful backdrop the theater would be. I mentioned my idea at the gala and the theater crowd immediately volunteered to help! And they have, with entry to rehearsals, visits backstage during shows, interviews, etc.

S: All-time favorite movie?

EM: Close Encounters of the Third Kind

S: Best advice for new writers.

EM:  Two things. Don’t let your own doubts or those of others get in your way. If a Chemistry teacher from San Antonio can write 37+ novels, so can you! And the second tidbit-sit down and write. Don’t get so busy being caught up in the business of being a writer that you leave no time for your craft.

S: Describe your ideal outing.

EM: Playing tourist in a big, culturally rich city I’ve never visited before. We recently visited New England for the first time and spend two weeks doing nerdy stuff in Boston and the surrounding area. I was in heaven!

S: One moment. Give us one moment that defined who you are, not just as a writer, but as a human being.

EM: Do you want the moment I stood up and vowed to love Charles for the rest of my life, the first time I stepped in front of a classroom full of students, the moments I gave birth to my two sons, or the morning I got the phone call that my first book had sold? They probably all define me to some extent.

S: Favorite author dead and living.

EM: Emily Dickinson and Nora Roberts

You can find Emily Mims on her website, her books on Amazon, Goodreads. If you like romance and music (especially country/bluegrass) and ukeleles, you should definitely seek out her work.