Alphabet Remix - Couches and Casting Calls

These blogging prompts are brought to you by Nicole at The Madlab Post....

It’s time for The Alphabet Remix - A Writing Prompt Idea Engine Treating A to Z Blogging Avoidance Disorders

October is shaping up to be quite a busy month. I’m currently holding a casting call for the short film that I’ve been working on for several months now - AND - I am one of maybe a dozen or so hosts for Couch Fest Films, an annual film festival that screens short films in people’s houses and other alternative venues throughout many different countries including the United States, United Kingdom, Iceland, Sweden and India, to name a few.

On Saturday, November 10th, you are all welcome to attend a Couch Fest screening if there is one happening in your area. The one I’m hosting is located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania but there are several other places where screenings will be happening throughout the U.S. including Iowa, California, Ohio and New York. So today, C is for Couches and Casting. Here are some blogging prompts related to these two topics that you can write about during the Blogging from A to Z Challenge.

Casting Couch Claims

For those of you who are familiar with this term, it is often used to describe the exchange of sexual favors with famous directors who have the clout to help actors land a role or further their careers in some way. Write about a famous Hollywood actor or actress who has allegedly used the casting couch to further his/her career. More specifically, add your opinion on whether you believe the claims are true or false and why. You can also use this time to express why you think this particular actor or actress would benefit (or not) from utilizing the casting couch method of gaining roles, representation, contacts, contract negotiations, etc. in Hollywood.

Critique Casting Choices

Write about films that you think could have been better if they featured different cast members than ones originally cast for the film. You could also write about casting selections that were pleasantly surprising due to low expectations or a mere guess that the casting choice may have been misguided. For example, many fans of the film adaptations based on James Patterson books were not too happy when news broke that actor Morgan Freeman was not going to be in the upcoming Alex Cross movie -- and movie mogul Tyler Perry was cast in the lead role for this film, instead. Surprisingly, however, Perry has received positive reviews from movie critics and industry insiders who got a first-look at the film.

A Cast of Couples

List your favorite couples featured in a movie. They don’t have to be a couple in real life -- your blog post can be about couples who have the best on-screen chemistry or actors and actresses who played the most convincing couple in a particular film.

Now onto other news: The WINNER of Alphabet Soup - Cinematic C’s is....

Tina Downey at Life is Good

Tina correctly unscrambled three of the five cinematic terms that start with letter C. As a result, she has not only reclaimed her title of ALPHABET WIZARD but she also gets to pick the letter for the next Alphabet Soup game as well as the option to suggest a topic for an upcoming Monday Movie Meme over at The Madlab Post.

Congratulations Tina!

Here are the answers to the Cinematic C’s themed Alphabet Soup game:

1. iterapngmhyCoa is Cinematography.
2. ctsuCgnhoiCa is Casting Couch.
3. esdnigirlCsotC is Closing Credits.
4. Cyitnotuin is Continuity.
5. oiroCtls is Colorist.

Have a Fantastically Fun Friday Everyone!

Nicole

Find Me @MadlabPost on Twitter

Sign up for the Monday Movie Meme, a weekly group blogging series that inspires discussion about entertainment in a whole new light and provides recommendations for your DVD, on-demand or theater fix. New topics are posted every Monday at The Madlab Post!

What does your Bookshelf say about You?

As a little girl, I envied my father's bookshelves, which had pride of place in our tiny living room. They were never far from my eyes or my greasy fingers -- I was forever nicking books and reading them inside the covers of my Social Studies or General Science texts. I was caught reading Anna Karenina at 10, Nana at about 12; I was poring through the complete works of Bernard Shaw at 15, along with generous helpings of Chekov, Tolstoy, Ibsen, Hemingway, Flaubert, Rabindranath Tagore, Neruda and of course, Shakespeare. Then came Camus, Kafka, Schopenhauer (which I persisted in, with the aid of distractions from M & B romances, Erle Stanley Gardner, and Alistair MacLean from the local library.)

All through that time, I never wondered what my father's bookshelves said about him. He was a self-taught reader (English was his second language, as it is mine) -- and his books were filled with notes in our mother tongue, and a variety of underlines.

But obviously folks believe that you can tell a lot about the man/ woman by the books he/she reads. Here's an article that says exactly that:

Your bookshelf is an intimate physical representation of your accomplishments (titles as trophies earned), aspirations (that ever growing to-read pile), associations (that book your boss gave to each employee), personal development (those self-help titles that urged you to talk to strangers), guilty pleasures (50 shades of beach reads), escapes (sci-fi to some, travelogues to others), memories (meeting that author, visiting that indie shop on vacation), interests (the bigger the Star Wars fan, the more Star Wars books) and countless other tells that another reader would unconsciously and immediately compare against their own shelf. And that's just the ingredients – how you organise, arrange, and display these titles should impart even more insight as to a reader's personality.

 
 Perhaps my father's collection showed a well-rounded and insatiably curious reader. I'll have to take a look at the shelves for any deeper insights when I visit him next.

My living room has no bookshelf. All of the shelves are in my study, where they cover two walls, and spur me on or distract me as I write, depending on my level of concentration for the day. They probably show I'm a random reader, with no defined taste, who would read almost anything, depending on her mood on any given day. The pic here is part of the only bookshelf that I could click without bending my back out of shape.

Where are your bookshelves placed, and what do you think they show about you? If you mail us pictures of your bookshelves (you can try me at atozstories at gmail dot com), along with your blog links, may be we could do a blog post series based on bookshelves and their owners.
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This post was brought to you by Damyanti from Amlokiblogs.

To every Author out there. . This post is for you.

Good morning wonderful A-to-Zers!  It is so wonderful to be posting here again.  

Today I am here to capture the attention of every published (or soon to be) author in the world!  (Okay, honestly that would take a lot of work and I really don't have the room for all of you. But you get the point). 

You see, last year I held  this wonderful event on my blog.  Let me tell you about it. 

Last year I did The Twelve Books for Christmas.  I interview 12 authors (per blog, there were three blogs signed up). And each author gave away a book or two or three or twelve.  :)  And we did this for the twelve days leading up to Christmas.  It was a TON of fun and even though it was short notice last year, it got a LOT of attention.

So why am I telling you about this in September?  Well here is why:

Last year I posted the "Are you an author" post on November 30th and it was incredibly difficult to get everything set up and even with my handy-dandy best friend, we still struggled getting everything ready on time.

SO, I am telling you this because I am hoping to get more than *36 authors signed up for The Twelve Days of Christmas.  :)  Want to know more? Interested in signing up?  Want to read the rules?  Everything can be found HERE on this form!

There is a slight mistake in the form.  It does say that Interview Questions will be sent out within the next week.  This is not true.  I will slowly be e-mailing out interview questions as it gets closer to the actual event! But knowing which authors are signing up ahead of time will make it easier to build up some hype!

Oh and if you're worried about participating because you are Indie, don't!  Want to know why? CLICK HERE! 

If you're worried about signing up because you are Traditionally published, don't!  Want to know why? CLICK HERE.

If you have questions, comments, or suggestions, please look at the form first and then feel free to comment or e-mail me!

Okay, now go fill out (or at least look at) the Sign up Form!

*We now have room for more than 100 authors for the Twelve Books for Christmas. 

Alright, so if you're a YA (or middle grade. And Adult by request) Author,  SIGN UP! Seriously, what do you have to lose??  

If you're NOT an (Published) Author,  go tell all your friends who are about this post!  Spread the word!  Because, hey, that means more books for you to win right?

~Konstanz

nothoughts2small.blogspot.com       ~     thewriterace.blogspot.com

It's October and I am in a A to Z Challenge PANIC!!

Hail to the King, Baby!

Yes, we behind the scenes of have been [A to Z Team] working on our plans for the "A to Z Challenge 2013" and it makes me wonder what the heck I am going to do for 26 Letters... in 26 Days. There are many things going on in my life as I am sure you all have something happening... I want you all you start you game plan, is there going to be a theme... or are you going to wing it?

-So how do you prepare for something that is so far away and yet.. so close?

-What will inspire you, how do you know?

-Who is thinking about it, right now?

-Are you thinking about right now, cause I brought it up?

Good I am glad I am not the only one, see it is a little early to start the panic.. but at least you are thinking about it...



In the meantime can I recommend a few things:

Retro-Zombie's: 500 Followers "Giveaway"

                            Spray Blood "Giveaway" [Ends Today]
Dave Wrote This "The Nineties Blogfest" [Oct 15th]
Ciara and Alex's "Did I Notice Your Book Blogfest" [Oct 17th]
 

Yeah, I know it feels like a set up, doesn't it... it really is not. I am truly in panic to think of what I am going to post this coming April. Do you have something that will help keep your mind occupied until then or are some really cool people thinking they are ready? See I didn't even mention my "NEATORAMA'S T-SHIRT" store, wait I just did... sorry I could not help myself.

I even put a photo of my cat "Gizmo" she is real relaxed...
alas she doesn't have to think about the challenge!
Jeremy Hawkins
[Retro-Zombie]

Special Challenge Participant Feature - Author Cherie Reich!

Today’s Special Challenge Participant is author, Cherie Reich! She is the author of the Gravity and Foxwick series, and one of the sweetest people I know. Her theme for the Challenge this year was twenty-six flash fiction pieces from the Foxwick Kingdom. The result was her book, A to Z Flashes of Foxwick.

What made you decide to do flash fiction for the Challenge?

I’ve participated in #fridayflash off and on since July 2010, so I decided flash fiction would be the way to go. It’s generally short (I think my longest pieces was 600+ words, but most were in the 200-300 word range), and I thought it was a great way to showcase my writing.

Did you write it all in advance or as the Challenge progressed?

If I remember correctly, I wrote them all in March, but I had my critique partners look over them, so I didn’t get them all scheduled in advance until after the first week of April. I like to plan ahead.

Which one was the most challenging?

It’s a tossup between “Merrilea’s Music” and “Tyre and Thay.” For “Merrilea’s Music,” the piece wanted to be much longer than a flash fiction piece, so it was a hard idea to translate into flash fiction form. For “Tyre and Thay,” I wanted at least one drabble (100-word exactly flash piece), and I kept going under and lower before hitting it just right.

Which was your favorite piece and why?

Such a hard decision. Hmm, I’ll have to go with “Yonder Yew” because I amused myself with the pun on “Yew” and “you.”

What are the Shadowlands? (And what is a Foxwick?)

The Shadowlands is where souls go to live after they part from their bodies (i.e. die). I came up with the name of Shadowlands from my favorite quote from Sophocles’s Ajax, “For I see the true state of all us that live – We are dim shapes, no more, and weightless shadow.” Thus, we end up in the Shadowlands. As for what is a Foxwick, I’m not sure. I can’t even really remember how I came up with the name. It was either a Fantasy Place Name Generator or something else. I first used Foxwick as a setting in October 2010 for “Lady Death.” I thought perhaps it might be the founder’s name, but the more I play in Foxwick’s realm, I don’t think that’s true. So far, it hasn’t given up that secret, but I will keep searching.

Where do you get the names for your fantasy characters and places?

Various places. I’ve used a fantasy name generator. I think that’s how I got the names for Lochhollow and Merrilea Sea. I studied a lot of history in college since I majored in Classics, so some of the names come from there, like Vesta. I also do baby name searches. That’s how I came up with Eirwyn, Attor, and Kona. And the A to Z Challenge gave me a few names, such as Quaylin.

Now that the Challenge has ended, how can people read A to Z Flashes of Foxwick?

I self-published A to Z Flashes of Foxwick on April 16, and it’s a free read on Smashwords, Amazon, Kobo, and iTunes. Of course, people can read it on my blog for free or purchase a copy for $0.99 on Nook and various Amazon affiliates who would not price-match to free.

What are your plans for the Challenge next year? More Foxwick?

My original plan was to write a YA Fantasy Foxwick story featuring Eirwyn (Princess of Wintermill at the time) called The Loveless Princess, but I soon realized my idea was too large for the A to Z Challenge, although I still plan to write it in 2013. Now I plan to find 26 random prompts HERE and try to craft a short story from them for 26 blog posts. I’m not yet sure what genre the story will be in, but I’ll figure it out once I find the prompts. I plan to collect the prompts in December and begin working on the story then. Yes, I really do like to plan ahead.

Thanks, Cherie - you rock!

Co-host Ninja Captain Alex is the author of CassaStar and CassaFire and his blog can be found HERE

Announcing The Nineties Blogfest with David Black

Please join me in welcoming Ninja Captain Alex's friend, David Black. Alex participated in David's  previous blogfest celebrating the years 2000 to 2009 (The Noughties...tee hee) and recommends that we join David's next party. I for sure am in! Sounds like lots of fun, and remember, you always meet new people when you join a party!  

Nostalgia is a funny thing. We look back and time concertinas so that objects in your rear view mirror appear closer than they are. We are all a product of our past and sometimes popular culture is the only tie that bind. Last year I ran The Noughties Blogfest. I had written Review-Of-The-Year type posts of my favourite Films/TV/Music/Books/Comics etc from the years 2009 to 2000 and invited people to suggest their own favourite things from each year of the decade.

Now I've almost finished writing about the Nineties as well. So I would like to take this opportunity to invite you all to join in with The Nineties Blogfest on the 15th of October.

Choose one thing from each year from 1990 to 1999, be it a film, a TV show, a radio show, a particular episode of a TV or radio show, a piece of theatre, a book, a comic, a song, an album, a gig, a piece of artwork, something online or something else entirely, and then tell us what you love about it.

Now head on over to his house and sign up!  Tell 'em Tina and Alex sent you.

When Africa met Asia: Rohini Chowdhury and Zukiswa Wanner

Two years ago, in the London Book Fair, two acclaimed authors, Rohini Chowdhury from India, and Zukiswa Wanner from South Africa met up, and over lunches, and dinners and reading each others' work, bonded, and discovered common ground.

Their association led to Behind the Shadows, a collection they edited, 21 short stories from Asia and Africa which include Penguin-shortlisted author Isabella Morris; Caine Prize-shortlisted writer Lauri Kubuitsile; Singaporean Young Artist Award recipient, Felix Cheong; and emerging Indian writers Rumjhum Biswas, Monideepa Sahu, and Sucharita Dutta-Asane.

Today, Behind the Shadows is being released worldwide on Amazon, and the editors are here in an interview, to talk about how a random meeting led to mutual respect, a long association, a beautiful friendship, and a roller-coaster ride which led up to this collection.

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1. What inspired you to conceive of and edit Behind the Shadows?

 

ZW: Rohini and I first met at LBF 2010 through a Britsh Council organised meeting matching a South African writer to a writer to an English writer. Then they sent us an email introducing us and I thought, hold on, Rohini doesn't even minutely sound like blue-eyed, blonde-haired Anglo-Saxon but I figured if Mandela could have admired Gandhi, I'd probably have  fun with Chowdhury. So we met at the hotel where I was staying. And she went away with one of my novels to read. And then I went to her house for lunch and left with a few of her books. We both admired each other's literary style. And really liked each other as people and we had so many similar experiences despite our different backgrounds. We decided we were the Gandhi and Mandela of literature but we had to collaborate in order to make it work (I mention Gandhi and Mandela for absolutely no reason at all than to increase e-book sales).

RC: It was one of those mornings when the world seems perfect, so when I received an email asking if I would be happy to buddy a South African writer for the forthcoming London Book Fair, I agreed! Later, of course, I had the shivers, and spent a sleepless night wondering who would show up! So when I received Zukiswa's email id, I wrote a very polite, very formal email to her. I was blown away by her reply, which was the most cheerful, bubbly, friendly email I had ever received from a stranger. And so began a wonderful friendship. We thought of collaborating on a novel, maybe write different sections, because our styles would complement each other beautifully, we thought of putting together a collection of our own short stories, and then one day it came to us - we'll do an anthology that would bring Africa and Asia together!

As to the theme, both of us have a strong sense of right and wrong and we have both seen suffering and injustice up close and sometimes personal. We have seen it affect people all over the world, regardless of class or color or creed. What's more, we felt it was particularly relevant for Africa and Asia, who share a history of colonial misrule, and who are, despite economic development, still suffering the fallout. 

2. What has your experience been like, while editing the collection? Any interesting tid-bits you'd like to share?

ZW: The experience has been phenomenal.  If I ever have to do another collaboration on anything literary again, it would have to be with Ro or someone like her (her daughters for instance. They are like her). We respect each other enough as writers and editors so we would discuss our selection without arguing and generally we both enjoyed more or less the same stories when we were selecting. We had a few interesting experiences with established writers who had submitted mediocre work and when we rejected their short stories, they were very miffed and wanted to know 'what exactly did you not like about my story' and what our criteria for selection was, and didn't we know who they were...blah blah blah.

RC: Yes, those were some of the aggravating moments, when writers whose stories were rejected attacked us with email after email. I remember having to deal with some very persistent ones. Thankfully, it was Zuki by my side, with her ready humor and her ability to laugh at all the foolishness. I tend to get hassled, but Zuki would always restore perspective. I have worked - or tried to work - on other collaborative projects. But I have to say that working with Zuki has been the best. Mutual respect, and an intuitive understanding of each  other went a long way in making this such a happy experience. During this project, there were times when one of us would become extremely busy. The other picked up the slack easily and naturally. Zuki is right, if I ever do another collaboration, it would have to be with Zuki (there isn't another like her!)

3. What is your advice to new writers hoping to get their work published?

ZW: Read well to write well. Whether it's a short story or a novel, a new writer who reads more generally tends to be a better writer that one who does not and one can tell from their stories.

RC: Be very demanding of yourself. Criticize your own work ruthlessly, and never hesitate to rewrite. Be open to constructive criticism. Also, a trick that works for me - show your story to someone you trust before you go live with it. This may not work for every writer, though. I am just very, very lucky that I have two brilliant editors in my daughters who read everything I write before ever a professional editor sees my work. They don't hesitate to tell me what sucks, and what is even better, they give me strategies to fix it. :)

4. Did you find a personal resonance with any of the stories in the collection? A scene or description that reminded you of something similar in your own lives?

ZW: I liked all the short stories (that is why I co-selected them for the collection). The title story made both Ro and I cry. I remember chatting with her after reading and she had just finished reading it too and we were both sobbing. Rain's Lime Green Push Up Bra and call Centre addressed prejudices very well but without being preachy. Remember the Wormhole was very innovative in its story telling as Wiki page. I think as Rohini said before, the beauty of the collection was that in reading them we experienced a shared humanity.

RC: Yes, I remember that evening too. We were in tears after that story, but ended the conversation on a high note because we had found such a lovely piece for the collection. For me, Pishi's Room was very evocative of my childhood in Calcutta. Cape Farm No 432 brought back dark memories  - gangs of lepers who used to sometimes roam the streets of Calcutta, ringing a bell to warn people off, and begging for food and money. I used to be frightened of them as a child; with Cape Farm I saw their heartbreak. 

5. Who is the target audience for this collection, and what genre would the stories fall under?

ZW: The target audience, because of some profanities and some experiences, would be adults. I am not sure I would push it under a genre.

RC: Yes, I'd agree with Zukiswa here.

6. Why would you recommend that readers download Behind the Shadows?

ZW: Because its a really really awesome collection and I would buy it too if I had not edited it.

RC: Because the stories are powerful, compelling, touching and a great read.
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Behind the Shadows is now available on Amazon, so I'd urge you to grab a copy, because that would push it higher in the rankings, making it visible to a larger audience worldwide, an audience it richly deserves due to the depth of human emotion and variety of voices it carries in its pages.

 I have a story in the collection, but that's not the only reason for my requesting you guys to buy it. I'm reading the book now, and some of the stories are indeed moving enough that I have to put my Kindle down and breathe.

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Zukiswa Wanner is the author of three critically-acclaimed novels and her latest novel, Men of the South was shortlisted for Commonwealth Prize for Best Book Africa region. She is the co- author of the Mandela house biography 8115: A Prisoner’s House with award-winning photographer Alf Kumalo. She has also written widely for international and African newspapers, journals, and magazines.

Rohini Chowdhury writes for both children and adults, and has more than twenty books and several short stories to her credit. She is published in both Hindi and English, and her writing covers a wide spectrum of literary genres including translations, novels, short fiction, comics, and non-fiction. Her most recent publication for children is Gautam Buddha: The Lord of Wisdom, a biography of the Buddha, published by Puffin India. Her most recent translation is that of the widely-acclaimed Hindi novel Tyagpatra by Jainendra, into English, published by Penguin India earlier this year. Her literary interests include translation, mythology, folklore, mathematics and history.

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This interview brought to you by Damyanti @Amlokiblogs

Call for More Guest Posters!

Greetings fellow A-Zers! I'm just dropping in to remind you that you are welcome to guest post here at the A-Z blog! It can be a post about any topic that would be of interest to your fellow alphabet friends, or if you're feeling shy, I've written a questionnaire that you could answer as your post.

Last year, as we were gearing up for the challenge, each of the co-hosts answered a set of questions so that all of you could get to know us better. This idea is similar, but the questions are a bit different. It's in the vein of Alex's every other Wednesday featuring a participant. However, he interviews them each personally, and this would be something you do on your own.

Guest post go up on Mondays and Tuesdays since we have regular features the other days of the week. If you're interested, please email me (Tina) at tndowney (at) gmail (dot) com. The info@ email address is about to just bounce everything directly to me anyway as we make the transition to the 2013 info@ address.

Here are the questions you can use to base your post on, if you'd like some guidance:

1. When did you start blogging and why? Tell us a bit about the kind of blog you have.  Be sure to include the name of your blog and the link.
   
   
2. How did you find out about the challenges, and how many have you done? What was your favorite part of participating?
   
   
3. What suggestions would you have for visiting new blogs during the A to Z challenge?  What blog visiting strategy has worked for you during the challenge?
   
   
4. What topics or themes would you like to see other bloggers cover during the challenge? What types of content (poetry, short stories, writing tips, photos, reviews, etc.) would you enjoy reading during the A to Z Challenge?
   
   
5. Please tell us something unusual about yourself – don't be shy. Check out my revelation from last year here.
   
   
   
   
6. Are you joining the challenge in 2013? Are you doing a theme? Please share any plans you have. We promise not to steal your ideas.
   
   
   If you'd like to guest, leave a note in the comments AND email me. I'm hoping for a bunch of brave participants so that we can have all our Mondays and Tuesdays filled until 2013. It's always good to have goals...
   
   
   Tina

Alphabet Soup - Cinematic C's

This word puzzle is brought to you by Nicole at The Madlab Post...

As the current Alphabet Wizard, Caitlin at Happy Hootenany won the choice of the letter for Today's Alphabet Soup game. Since there hasn't been a selection at the time of this writing, however, I'm just going to work with the Letter C, as that is the initial of her name. C is for Cinema - Unscramble the following Cinematic terms that start with Letter C. The first commenter who correctly unscrambles all or most of these cinematic terms, at best, wins this week's Alphabet Soup game. Answers and the name of the winner will be posted here at the A to Z blog during next week's "Friday Fun Time - Alphabet Remix."

1. iterapngmhyCoa ________________

2. ctsuCgnhoiCa ________________

3. esdnigirlCsotC ________________

4. Cyitnotuin ________________

5. oiroCtl s________________

Have a Fantastically Fun Friday Everyone!

Nicole

Also @MadlabPost on Twitter

Sign up for the Monday Movie Meme, a weekly group blogging series that inspires discussion about entertainment in a whole new light and provides recommendations for your DVD, on-demand or theater fix. New topics are posted every Monday at The Madlab Post!

Do you Hate Google Word Verification as much as I do?

January next year, I would have blogged for 5 years at Amlokiblogs.

I'm not the most disciplined of bloggers, I post when the mood takes me, I return comments as much as I can, I browse through blogs I follow. I'm mostly content.

But recently, one thing has begun to get my goat: Google Word Verification.

I read a post that is intriguing, and I have something to say. It takes me a minute to type my comment, look at it again to ensure I haven't made any gaffes, and then I hit publish.

Which is when I see the blurry dancing letters of google verification, jostling each other as if in a mad rush to get on that last airship leaving the planet. Approaching middle age, my vision is trying to decide which way to go downhill. So I pore and squint, dance my head about for better perspective, and finally I think I've got it: the magic code, the mantra of numbers and words.

I type it in. No joy.

The word you typed in does not match..blah blah. 

Refresh, repeat, curse colorfully in all the languages I speak, tell myself to keep calm, persist.

By the time I leave the blog I want to curse Blogger, Word Verification, the poor blogger.

Why the hell can Google not make it a little easier on my poor eyes?
Why can the blogger not have Comment Moderation enabled instead of Word Verification?
Why should I be required to jump through hoops to post a measly comment?

When I hosted the A to Z Challenge last year, I posted a message the first time requesting the participant to remove WV. The next time, if they still had it on, I skipped the blog.

But as a visitor, I think it would be rude of me to do the 'pointing out' to a blogger I'm possibly visiting for the first time.

So. Deep Breath. Onward and forward I go, trying to prove I'm not a robot, making my eyes go blind that much faster.

Do any of you feel this way? Any words of advice?

Letter Play - N is for News

The following blog photo (alphabet letter only) is brought to you by Nicole Ayers at The Madlab Post....

First, I apologize for dropping the ball on our regularly scheduled Friday Fun Time program. This post comes a day late because I forgot to write one this week and didn't realize it until last night, as I was at an AMC movie theater in New York, watching "The Girl is In Trouble," starring actor Columbus Short and produced by independent film director, Spike Lee. You see, that's just it -- Letter N is for News today and I'm showing you guys one photo featuring a letter that describes one of the characteristics of news, whether it be on TV, radio or in print. That thing is: URGENCY!

Me with Short Film "Barbasol" Writer & Producer Kiara C. Jones 

More importantly, the urgency of me getting "Letter Play" up to date coincides with other writing duties -- duties related to my field of interest. Right now (read: this weekend), nothing is more Urgent than the 2012 Urbanworld Film Festival. Well, that AND me moving forward with the production of my short film due out later this Fall. So, I welcome you all to bear with me for the next week or so because things will be hectic but that still doesn't meant that I have forgotten about my A to Z Challenge peeps!





Here is a photo that you can use on your blog, if needed, for the Letter U during the A to Z Challenge in April:

Have A Great Weekend, Everybody!

Sign up for the Monday Movie Meme, a weekly group blogging series that inspires discussion about entertainment in a whole new light and provides recommendations for your DVD, on-demand or theater fix. New topics are posted every Monday at The Madlab Post!

NICOLE
Also @MadlabPost on Twitter

NASA: The Latest and Greatest

So what’s the latest and greatest regarding NASA? And why should I care, you ask? Hasn't the shuttling of the Space Shuttle Program and cutbacks in funding and lack of vision from our political leaders made this once awesome organization boring and irrelevant? Well, please allow me dispel these thoughts and take you on a tour of the NASA Web site. 

NASA: The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research. Since February 2006, NASA's mission statement has been to "pioneer the future in space exploration, scientific discovery, and aeronautics research.” 

You can check out the latest and greatest in news, missions, multimedia, apps, and other ways to connect with NASA. You can even plan a visit to some of their eighteen facilities across the United States. 

NASA For Students: Have kids? Are you a school teacher, home schooler, or know someone who is? Then the NASA for Educators, the NASA for Students, and the NASA Kids Club and are worth a navigating and Bookmark or save in your Favorites. 

NASA for Students is broken up into grade groups of: 

K-4 

5-8 

9-12 

Higher Education 

Each group has age appropriate links. Example, NASA is sponsoring the 2012 NASA Space Settlement Design Program for 6th through 12 graders and can join as individuals, groups, or entire classrooms. 

Design a space settlement! Space settlements are permanent communities in orbit, as opposed to being on the moon or other planets. Designing a space settlement involves physics, mathematics, space science, environmental science and many other disciplines. This contest is for 11-18-year-old students from anywhere in the world. Individuals or teams may enter. Grades 6-8, 9-10 and 11-12 are judged separately, except for the grand prize. Submissions must be received by March 15, 2012. Click the link for more details, contest prizes, and certificates. 

And check out the Current Opportunities for Kids link. NASA  also hosts youth ambassadors from around the globe for successful outreach programs. NASA’s Web site is a great site for kids to research homework and for author to research their novels. 

What about classrooms and partnering with other classrooms around the globe? 

Virtual Tours: Can't work out a visit to a NASA facility? Check out their interactive features such as their Interactive Features and Virtual Tours.

Connect with NASA: Yep. There's an app for that. Check out the various apps and social networks NASA has such as Facebook and Twitter. 

What's Next For NASA? NASA is conducting an unprecedented array of missions that will seek new knowledge and understanding of Earth, the solar system and the universe. NASA has observatories in Earth orbit and deep space, spacecraft visiting the moon and other planetary bodies, and robotic landers, rovers, and sample return missions. One example is designing and building the capabilities to send humans to explore the solar system and working toward a goal of landing humans on Mars. 

NASA has a payback on our hard-earned tax dollars, providing great paying jobs, supporting entire communities, and opening doors for incredible future opportunities such as planet colonization and mining asteroids (more on this in a future post).

Special Challenge Participant Feature - Rick Daley and Movies!

Today we welcome Rick Daley from My Daley Rant! His theme for the A to Z Challenge was movies, something we can all enjoy. He was willing to answer a few questions about films, remakes, and bad adaptations.

Your theme was movies – which I thought rocked – what made you decide to post about films?

Short answer: I thought it would be easy.

Long answer: I wanted to participate in the A-Z challenge because my blog is more neglected than a fact at a political rally. Posting every day for a month seemed like a great way to force myself into action…I am a world-class procrastinator (MOTTO: Never put off until tomorrow what you can put off until the day after tomorrow).

Before I pulled the trigger and signed up, I wanted to make sure I could finish the task. I needed a topic I could dive into, deep. I’m the kind of guy who knows a little bit about a lot of things—my wife calls me a “vessel of useless knowledge”—but one area in which my inventory of arcane knowledge runs deep is film. I made a list, A-Z, and quickly came up with at least one movie title per letter. It was time to email Alex…

It was an eclectic mix, so I have to ask – what’s your favorite genre?

That’s tough. I think I’ll have to go with Comedy. My favorite movie is Monty Python and the Holy Grail, so if that’s my favorite movie, it must be in my favorite genre, right? Besides, laughter is always good. Except maybe at a funeral. But then again, *Death at a Funeral is a damn funny movie.

I don’t know if there is a genre I don’t like. I love horror movies, too. And superhero movies, martial arts movies, action / suspense / thrillers, some dramas, even some RomComs have merit.

*Even though I have some choice words about remakes in general in response to the next question, the re-make of Death at a Funeral with Chris Rock is 100% hilarious.

Talk to us about your R post, Robocop and Ridiculous Remakes.

I went back and re-read that post… Now I have to rant for a minute. Studios are churning out remakes because they think it will net them a quick buck. Marketing can be cheaper when your name is already known. Properties ranging from 70s TV shows to board games have made it to the silver screen without any regard for quality. Many have sucked, while good, original stories deserving of the limelight go unnoticed. Not that I am bitter. It’s just that Remakes are the new Prequel. (Remember ten years ago, when Prequels were the new Sequel?)

Then you have movies like Prometheus, which was tied to Alien, one of the best horror / sci-fi / thrillers of all time, but tied to it in a new way, that supposedly stood on its own.

I was really excited to see Prometheus, and it ended up as the biggest letdown of my film-watching life. Here we have a fantastic tale of wasted potential: a movie with an excellent premise but stocked with characters so dumb you could create a satire like Airplane! without changing a single line in the script. It was lazy writing. The characters had no purpose being together in that story. Formulae was pinched from other properties, but the recycling didn’t work in Prometheus…In LOST, a group of disparate characters waking up and meeting each other for the first time worked because they were on a crashed commercial flight, but that made no sense on a trillion-dollar corporate investment to meet God. In Alien, a roughneck captain leading a crew in deep space worked because the ship was essentially a tractor-trailer; but that made no sense on a trillion-dollar corporate investment to meet God.

Some people argue about the film’s thematic implications of the origins of life, claiming the movie is interesting because of what it leaves unresolved. For me, the problem is not what the movie didn’t tell us; its flaw is what was actually on the screen. I could go on and on (and on), but there are other questions I need to address…

You talked about Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein and Quentin Tarantino. Any other favorite directors?

The Warchowskis did a fantastic job with The Matrix (I’m not a big fan of the 2nd and 3rd in the trilogy, but the original is a modern classic, truly groundbreaking).

Peter Jackson nailed it with LOTR, but I am very disappointed to hear he is breaking The Hobbit into three movies. I think he is giving himself too much license and I worry he will stray too far from the primary story. LOTR succeeded as three movies, but it was also three books.

Steven Spielberg is a director who has made countless exceptional films over the years, demonstrating success in multiple genres. Scorsese has, too.

And speaking as a kid who saw Star Wars at a drive-in when I was six, George Lucas played a large role in my childhood.

Finally, while we’re talking about directors, I must lament the passing of Tony Scott, who directed my T-movie and one of my all-time favorite films, True Romance.

You also mentioned books to movies. What are some of the worst adaptations?

The Sum of All Fears tops my list of bad adaptations…Harrison Ford declined the role of Jack Ryan in this film, and the studio fixed that problem by making the character of Jack Ryan a junior analyst instead of the senior agent who had Hunted for Red October, played the Patriot Games, survived the Clear and Present Danger, and rescued the Cardinal from the Kremlin. (NOTE: The lattermost title never made it to film, but the story has a huge role in the plausibility of Ryan’s actions in The Sum of All Fears).

By casting a young actor (Ben Afflek), the writers removed Ryan’s experience and zapped the film of the realism that makes Clancy’s books so damn good. The result is a brainless romp with a cheesy ending.

Do you consider yourself a real movie geek?

No, I only geek out about fake movies ;-)

Have you ever done an all-day, extended-version marathon of Lord of the Rings?

Not yet. I don’t have the extended editions of The Two Towers or Return of the King, so an extended-edition marathon is out of the picture (yeah, there’s a pun, take it or leave it). The real challenge is getting permission from my family to let me just sit on the couch for ten hours watching LOTR at volumes that shake the very foundation of my home, which I would gladly do if only they would let me.


If you do the Challenge again next year, what theme would you consider?

I’m also a musician, so next year I may go after bands and songs, another area where I have very eclectic taste.

Thanks, Rick! Music would be an awesome theme for next year.


Co-host Ninja Captain Alex is the author of CassaStar and CassaFire and his blog can be found HERE

Monstrous Monday Brought to You by Tim Brannan

            Today's guest is two time A to Z veteran Tim Brannan.  The podium is yours Tim.

My name is Tim Brannan and I blog over at The Other Side.  My blog is primarily a gaming blog; I write about Role-Playing Games, the original kind, with paper, pencils and dice.  I tend to focus primarily on games I have been involved with over the last 30+ years of playing, running and eventually, writing them.   So my blog, originally, began as a means of me improving on and showing off my game writing.   My particular interests though lie in horror games.  I worked on the Buffy the Vampire Slayer RPG and I wrote Ghosts of Albion.  So I wanted to expand out in to horror as well.


I came to the A to Z blogging challenge back in 2011.  I figure I was blogging everyday anyway, so the challenge for me was finding something to say that began with that day’s letter.  I checked over my regular schedule and I noticed that the letters corresponded well with my regular posts. I remember that Z fell on a Saturday that year and I post about the comic character Zatanna on Saturdays.  That clinched it for me! Last year I went REALLY overboard and all my posts on the Other Side had to fit my theme of reviewing a new RPG.  So I reviewed 26 games, in alphabetical order.  Because I am also a glutton for punishment, I participated over at my Atheism blog, The Freedom of Nonbelief, about the A to Z of Atheism.  

For 2013, I am thinking of adding a couple of blogs to the challenge, these are ones I co-author with others.


The A to Z Challenge was so much fun that I have been itching to do something like that on my own.  Some sort of blogging challenge that would play to my interests and maybe even give my little blog some attention.  We I finally came up with something in the form of MONSTROUS MONDAY.  There are five Mondays in October this year and I thought it would be great if I posted a monster every Monday.  These would be game stats, something you could use in a game.  But then I got to thinking, my audience is more than just gamers.  I decided to expand it to include any type of monster discussion.  I know a lot of authors too, so they can talk about the monster from their new book. Movie bloggers can join and talk about their favorite movie monster; I could go on for pages (and have) about Dracula for example.

So allow me to present the MONSTROUS MONDAY bloghop/blogfest (not sure what the difference is).  Just go to my blog, grab the code, sign up and Monday, October 29th post your monster.  I have information, banners/buttons and signup here: http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/p/bloghop.html


What I would love is to get a variety of blogs to participate.  Blogging is great, but we all tend to stay in our own circles.  Not that we all necessarily all agree with each other all the time, but there is a tendency for us all to talk about the same things.  A bloghop or a blogfest is a great way to expand your circles a bit, to see what other bloggers are doing, what sort of things excite them and so on.  I enjoy stepping outside the gaming circles because I get different perspectives.  I can talk about something like vampires or witches and get totally different responses from gamers, horror authors and horror movie fans.  I find that feedback essential to my growth as a blogger and as a game writer.   And if I can also get some people interested in this hobby of mine, then all the better!


So let’s see your monsters! The ones you love, the ones you hate and the ones that still send you hiding under the covers or behind the sofa!

          Thanks Tim!   I've signed up on Tossing It Out.  This is a great way to celebrate Halloween and I've always had a soft spot in my heart for monsters. How about you?  Do you like monsters?  Would you like to join us on Monday October 29th for this blog event?

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