I had rather high hopes for The Promise, but somehow deep down I knew that the reality would not live up to my expectations. First, I am still very happy that this movie shined some light on a very little talked about part of history, the Armenian genocide. The parts of the movie dealing with this atrocity to humankind are touching and heartbreaking. I am a big fan of Christian Bale as well, and I will say that his American journalist is one of the few likeable characters in the movie. The female lead, well she makes me a little sick and want things to not end happily for her. I guess that means the actress did a good job, as I really just found her character opportunistic and lacking true empathy. (If you have seen the movie, I am sure you can guess what scene I am talking about. After her lover talks about what happened to his wife. I mean come on!) Over all I think that the love triangle took too much from the movie, combined with unlikable characters, it made this a hit or miss movie. Go see it if you are bored and need a cold place for a couple hours this summer. But it's not what I had hoped for.
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So sorry, with work, health, and stress I have fallen a little behind on things lately, including blogging. That is why I am a little late getting my Bob's Burgers Cookbook burger review! Last week the husband and I made the Poutine on the Ritz Burger. It was made with brown gravy, cheese curds, and topped with Ritz crackers. First off I will have to say I'm not a huge fan of gravy, especially not on my burger. And for this dish I will say that it seemed to make everything kind of soggy. This was certainly not our favorite burger so far, sadly it is towards the bottom of the burgers we have cooked. Still, it was not too bad. My husband gave it a .75 thumbs up. I give it about a .60 thumbs up.
I know that I have been posting a lot of movie reviews and other things lately, but I have not been talking much about what is going on in my writing. But rest assured that I am still writing away.
First, I will have a steamy erotic tale coming out July 18 in the Summer Seduction box set! Look for more info coming soon! I have also been working on branching out in other genres. I have had one horror short story accepted for an anthology and have submitted three other horror and sci-fi stories that I am waiting to hear back on. I am writing and submitting at least one more story this month as well. Maybe 2 if I can finish them both. Five short stories in a month is not bad. It feels good to be exploring some of the other genres that I love, like horror and sci-fi. I'm actually hoping to get enough professional sales this year in horror markets to join the Horror Writers Association. A woman has to have goals right? But never fear, I am not leaving the romance genre behind. Next month I will be writing a sweet winter romance. And later this year I will have two more books in the Gods Behaving Badly series along with hopefully finally finishing the sequel to Quest for Redemption. I have some other projects already planned out, so it is going to be a busy rest of the year in writing for me! Stay tuned here for more info as releases come up and for more updates on what I am working on. If you have read some of my book reviews before, you know that I do love YA series in addition to all the other genres that I read. Recently I just completed the Miss Peregrines Peculiar Children series by Ransom Riggs. This is a very interesting series. I love how the author finds real life old and peculiar photographs and then creates characters and scenes from them. The fist two books in the series are fast paced and leave you wanting more and I loved both of them. The third and final book in the series Library of Souls, was a little slower and dragged in a few places, though it does end the series in a very satisfactory manner. Over all I give the whole series 4/5 stars, all three books are definitely worth a read for their uniqueness.
Link: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01FRBXROC/ Time for another movie review, this time for the Anne Hathaway film Colossal. I am not quite sure how to categorize this movie. Is it drama? Sci-fi? I just don't know and I think that tells you a lot about this movie. Did I like it? Some parts I loved. Some parts confused me. I really like the concept and some of the messages in the movie, but I also was lost in some parts. I will say that I went in thinking that this might be a rather light-hearted movie and that was not the case. This is much more serious and darker than the trailer leads you to believe. All in all I am not sure how to judge this movie. If you are up for a different sort of monster movie, something that will make you wonder what it was all about, then give this movie a chance. I am not disappointed I went, I just don't know how to describe the film and sometimes that can be a good thing. So my wonderful husband recently bought me the Jim Henson's Labyrinth game now that it was back in stock. Now I love Labyrinth the movie and was super excited to get this game and finally get to play it. And it was as fun as I had hoped! It is an easy game, with rules that are not hard to follow. Fast paced and gives you the feeling of being part of the movie! Let me say that it is better if you are very well acquainted with the movie, some cards you pull require you to know quotes from the movie, something I had no problem with. We played with two people, but I am looking forward to playing with five so that I can be Jareth! I want to be the baddy what can I say? With 2-4 players it is a cooperative game, all of you working to save Toby from the Goblin King in time. I might be biased because of my love of the movie, but I loved this game and recommend it to avid gamers and newbies alike! Sheer fun!
As I am a big fan of author Dawn Brower, I am not sure why it took me so long to start her Linked Across Time Series. Saved by my Blackguard is the first book in the series and after finishing it I can only say I am glad there are already more books in the series for me to read!
Paul is an overworked man in the 1980s when his doctor insisted he go on vacation for his health. Little did he know that a storm would somehow take him to another time and into the arms of a beautiful from another time. Evelyn is shipwrecked from the same storm. Forced together from circumstances, they find what each of them has been missing in life in each other. This is a fun and fast paced story, that shows love can flourish even in the strangest of circumstances. I give it 5/5 stars and look forward to the series. Link: http://a.co/3Xvs8Dy Time for another movie review! And this time it is another small release independent film, the animated My Entire High School Sinking Into the Sea. A friend at work told me that it looked weird and slightly disturbing, so you know that means I had to see it. Now it has a pretty good cast (even though I am NOT a Lena Dunham, I can over look that for this movie). The animation is trippy, so much so that there is a warning for those who suffer from seizures at the beginning of the film. (I do in fact suffer from seizures, but I was okay other than adverting my eyes a couple of times just to play it safe.) It is a short movie with some entertaining and funny moments. Not my favorite independent animation film of the year (that belongs to My Life as a Zucchini) but it is an entertaining way to spend a night. Not many people have heard of this film, so if it is playing it near you and you have some time to kill, why not give this movie a try?
Today I am happy to host the lovely and talented Jessica Bayliss! She is releasing her short Breathless today! Squee! So excited for her!
A brush with death brings Leah closer to the ghosts she longs to find and throws her into the arms of the troubled scuba instructor who saves her.
Dale, an Operation Enduring Freedom Veteran, is haunted by his own restless spirits. He's on a hunt for forgiveness, and the Caribbean Sea is his hunting ground. The peace they search for lies in the bond they never suspected they shared. BREATHLESS BUY LINKS: Amazon (Kindle) B&N (Nook) iBooks (Apple) Kobo RELEASE TOUR GIVEAWAY INFO:
Excerpt:
I exhale and watch bubbles float off into the churning blue above me. I draw another breath, except this time, there is no air. My lungs, in all their twenty-seven years of finding no resistance to their whims, of drawing in sweet gulps, huffs, and puffs, meet a wall of stainless steel. With the next try, that wall slams into my diaphragm. My left hand grasps the air pressure gauge as it bobs and snakes down by my hip. The dial’s needle hovers at a thick black line highlighted in red. Zero pounds per square inch. I’m seventy feet below the Caribbean Sea, and I’m out of air. Heavy nausea grabs hold of my gut and throat. I almost spit out the regulator mouthpiece, but reason kicks in. I stop myself just in time. Don’t panic. Stay calm. But it’s so hard to follow my own instructions. The warm water cradling my body has no mercy for this tiny, helpless human, and it turns to ice around me, needling my skin with cold until I’m numb. I hold my final breath. Everything in me screams out the wrongness of this. The world on the other side of my mask fuzzes out. My mind will soon follow if I don’t do something. Now. Remember the training. Just find another diver. Thank God, one of the instructors is less than ten yards away. My finned feet power me to Dale’s side with five hard kicks. He’s tucking something into a waist bag, and when I thrust my air pressure gauge into his face, at first he jerks away from it. Then his eyes widen as realization hits. I expect him to immediately reach for his spare regulator, the savior of rubber and metal, my sole hope if I want any fate other than drowning. Instead, he brings his large, strong hands to my face. The honey-gold flecks within his irises glint and flash in what filmy light breaches the yards of water between the surface and my airless lungs. There’s no warmth down here, and I’m out of time. Dale is my only hope. I let him capture my face between his palms and hold me with his anchor eyes. My heart beats a fluttery, jerky rhythm, and I count--One. Two-three. Four. Five-six-seven--and wait as though I’m not moments from my death. As though I have all the time in the world. But whatever he’s doing, it’s working. I’m calmer. For the first time since I found nothing behind my inhale, my heart beats steady and true. He gives me a firm nod, and I return the gesture. It’s then, only then, that he unhooks the spare regulator from his dive vest. His other hand comes to the mouthpiece I still clench in my teeth. He brushes his fingers against my lips as he pulls the device free, and I give it up reluctantly even though it’s totally useless. A small, salty flow of water hits my tongue, and I swallow it down—the first of what could turn out to be a whole ocean’s worth if we mess up this maneuver.
BIO:
They say write what you know, so Jessica Bayliss did. Her story, BREATHLESS, was inspired by her own experience running out of air on a scuba dive—except without all the steamy romance and eerie paranormal happenings. Alas, real life. Obviously, she survived. Her genre-bending fiction holds a little something for everyone. A lover of ghost tales and horror since her days scanning VHS rental shelves—admittedly with eyes half-averted from the gory covers—a touch of the mysterious always finds a home in Jessica’s work. Romance with a dash of supernatural. Horror with a bit of humor. You get the gist. Jessica also writes across age groups and is a firm believer in the motto: there is a new reader born every day, whether young or not-so-young. Look for her upcoming releases: TEN PAST CLOSING, a YA contemporary thriller (Sky Pony Press, Spring 2018), and BROKEN CHORDS, a YA horror novella (Leap Books, October 2017). You can find her story “Care of the Undead Dog” in ZOMBIE CHUNKS, which came out earlier this year. Read about all of Jessica’s books and stories here. Connect with Jessica online: Website Goodreads Now I am not an avid video gamer by any means, but I do indeed enjoy some relaxing gaming from time to time. Sure, I tend to only have an hour or so to play at a time, but I have fun. But having less time for gaming means that I am pretty picky about which games I play. Luckily for me I happen to have a great video game informed friend at work who seems to get me and recommends the best games for me! His latest recommendation certainly was a very Sheri game, Little Nightmares! It is so weird and creepy, it seriously is like being inside a Tim Burton movie meets Coraline or something! Dark, weird, and just a whole lot of fun! I love it! I give it 9/10, the only reason it is not 10/10 is because it is a sort of short game and even I am almost done with it. Not that I won't play it again, but I wish it was longer as this is right up there with Horizon for me as being one of my favorite games all time!
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AuthorAuthor, artist, jewelry maker and all around creative person. I write in many genres and have a lot of fun doing so. Please take a look around and enjoy! Archives
January 2022
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