(Minimal spoilers — I’ll be describing the basic plot premise, the characters, and a scene that occurs about a third of the way through the movie without giving the particulars.) Every genre of writing is tough in its own special ways, and mystery writing is no exception. I’ve discussed some…
Whoa-oa, we’re halfway there! Whoa-oa, 50% through 2017! April through June contains both my most and least stressful times of year. End of semester = ton of marking (imagine a Looney-Toons style billion-ton anvil dropping from the sky). May is full of wrap-up-the-term work meetings, half of which I missed…
I didn’t expect Wonder Woman to make me cry. I have mixed feelings about the movie in general, because (tl;dr for the rest of this entry) I recognize that though specific parts gave me something really important, there are other marginalized folks it doesn’t do right by. I don’t think…
I didn’t understand the way my boyfriend liked the new Star Trek movies until we saw the new Ghostbusters. As I’ve posted about before, Star Trek, especially the original-series movies, was a formative part of my childhood. I know it not wisely but too well. Contrariwise, as a kid, I…
When the animated film Home (Dreamworks, 2015) first came out, I was excited to see it. I’d enjoyed the book on which it’s based, Adam Rex’s The True Meaning of Smekday (2007).* Although I missed its initial run in theatres, I was pleased to discover Netflix had acquired the streaming…
(But first, apologies: between a week’s vacation at the family cottage and novel revisions, I’m afraid I’ve let this blog lie fallow two Mondays in a row!) As I’ve stated before on this blog, I believe the author is dead. That is: the intentions of the creator of a narrative…
Labour Day is fast approaching, and with it the crisp weather and colourful foliage of fall. If, like me, you work in academia or education, the more intense part of your job is on the horizon (or already here, depending on whether, like me, you left all your planning for the end…
(To make my point, I’m going to explain the first fifteen minutes of Disney’s Frozen. If this would spoil you, do not read ahead.)
Books YA/MG fiction The Whispering Mountain (**** – liked) Shades of Milk and Honey (**** – liked) The Boneshaker (*** – enjoyed) Ashfall (**** – liked) Adult fiction Heart-Shaped Box (**** – liked) A Single Shot (*** – enjoyed) The Penelopiad: The Myth of Penelope and Odysseus (**** – liked)…
I’m over sacrifice. In fiction, that is. I’m not quite as excited as I used to be about climaxes where Mr. Spock gasps out his last words on the other side of the radioactivity-shielding glass or Harry Potter whips off his Invisibility Cloak in the middle of a Death Eater…