Tag: movies

Busy Week, Lots of Inspiration

by eileentroemel, posted in Life, Writing

It’s been an interesting week.  I use a scooter to get around.  Last Friday my scooter didn’t want to work.  This meant I had to struggle to get into work.  I had help.  The people in my building are wonderful and willing to give aid.

My husband came and worked on my scooter so I could get out of work without causing more pain.  However, the damage was already done.  My legs hurt – the scale of 1 to 10 didn’t touch how much my legs hurt.  I spent the weekend in the recliner in the hopes my legs would feel better.

Recently I was diagnosed with Vitamin D deficiency.  This means I hurt everywhere and I’m tired all the time.  I’m on massive doses of Vitamin D for the next month.  I guess this is the penalty I get for the sun hating me.  I’m also probably going to have to take the vitamin for the rest of my life.

All of this led to a somewhat lazy weekend.  Saturday I slept.  I slept on and off a lot.  Ken and I ran errands.  We mailed out the books to the winners of my Goodreads giveaway and did a couple other things.  We weren’t gone for more than an hour but by the time I got back, I was done.  I curled up on the couch and tried to sleep.  Unfortunately, I was unsuccessful because I started sneezing and couldn’t stop.  However, by mid afternoon I put my head down and slept.

Sunday I wrote for a while.  I’m working on a new novel.  I don’t know how I feel about it yet.  I like parts of it but I’m always hyper critical until after I’ve done edits.  Ken and I watched tv (nothing new there) and I finished the scarf I was working on and a second one.  Now I need to work on the skirt I need to get done.

In my head, I’m starting to make a mental list of all the things I want to get done and I’m thinking I need a second me.  I’ve discovered something about myself though.  I reach a point where I’m doing all these things  – writing, crocheting, editing, publishing, family… and so on – and I reach a point where I need to be quiet.  Maybe it’s just watching a program and not having my hands busy or maybe it’s curling up with a good book.  If I take this time, steal it from all my tasks, I let my brain rest, and come back to the quiet place where all the good things come about.  I’ve had a couple of these days where I let everything slip away and allow my mind to wander.

On Memorial day Ken and I watched a western and two war movies.  I got ideas for my books.  I’ve been watching Criminal Minds.  I got more ideas for my books.  It almost makes me laugh as I’m curled up not thinking and suddenly something will strike me and my brain snaps into focus of – huh if I used something similar in this book / novel, it would make an interesting story line.

Not plagiarism because I’m not writing a western or even sticking to the same story line.  It’s usually line or something small which grabs my attention.  Then my imagination grabs hold of it and twists and turns it until it isn’t recognizable as coming from whatever it originally came from.

No Shortage of Tasks

by eileentroemel, posted in Crochet and crafting, Life, Writing

The last two weeks have been rough for me with pain.  The weather is causing my arthritis to grumble (or scream).  Yet I don’t have time to wallow (well maybe a little).

May 2 I started a new novel.  I couldn’t get the words on the page fast enough.  By May 11, I’d finished the novel.  I love it when the inspiration hits hard and fast like this.  At the same time, I went back to add in a few more scenes for Wayfarer 11.  It’s on my need to be edited list.

I have a wedding shower to go to next Saturday and am working on the gift for that.  I have it about a third of the way done.  I’ll be spending some time this weekend watching movies and crocheting.  In addition to the shower gift, I finished off a gift for a friend.  I made her a bunch of dish towels, hand towels, and dish cloths.  Those went in the mail to her this week.

The day is gray and grumpy looking this morning but I have been at my computer since before 8 am working on different tasks.  I’ve paid bills, updated my spreadsheets, did a tiny bit of marketing, submitted three articles to paying publications.  I posted an preview for one of my books on Goodreads.  I need to figure out which scenes from each of my books and post them.

As is normal, my list is never ending for tasks I need to get done.  Shortly, I’ll be going to run errands.  Fortunately I only have a couple today.  I also need to clip coupons, check the apps for rebates, and write up the grocery list.  All so Ken will be able to do the grocery shopping tomorrow.

Last night I watched Age of Adeline which was quite good.  I also watched The Gambler which was depressing and annoying.  I got several inches done on the shower gift.  I’m hoping to finish this project this weekend.  I have several others I want to get done in a short period of time.  This means I’m letting my writing rest for a few days.

Having said that, I’ve gone back and added a prologue (possibly a new first chapter) to one story I’ve been working on.  I thought I had lost about 5000 words in the third Defenders novel.  I was cleaning my flashdrive and looked at a file I hadn’t looked at before.  It had the several scenes I thought I’d lost.  I was quite excited about this.  It saves me a lot of work in redoing.  Having found those scenes, I was able to write about another 1500 words in the story.

I’m hoping to finish both of these projects this summer.  With luck, I’ll have four books to publish over the next six months.  I also have several crochet patterns I’m going to work on publishing as well.  There is definitely no shortage of things for me to do.

Movie Day

by eileentroemel, posted in Life

San Andreas was a bit of a let down.  I LOVE a good disaster movie.  I got hooked when I was little with movies like Towering Inferno and Airport.  I know that disaster movies are based on highly improbable things occurring.  I know they bend the laws of physics and science to some degree.

The acting was good.  The story line believable except for one major problem.  The premise is that the big one has finally hit California and the San Andreas fault.  I found it intriguing.  I was looking forward to a tale of heroism and sacrifice because ultimately this is what is the best about disaster movies.  
My biggest problem with San Andreas – a 9.6 earthquake his San Francisco.  While trying to rescue his daughter, the main character (Dwayne Johnson) is on a boat trying to find her in the chaos surrounding the earthquake.  To me the natural secondary danger would have been the aftershocks, falling buildings, looters, and those types of things.  Instead they throw in a tsunami in San Francisco.  Someone didn’t check their science facts.  If the earthquake is in San Francisco, the tsunami is going to be across the ocean from it – like Hawaii, Japan, Philippines.  
The movie made me laugh and cry so overall it was good but I’m seriously disappointed with the makers of it for being so DUMB.
Jurassic World was better than I expected.  I went into this thinking it was going to be another stupid reboot.  I was surprised to find a good story line and believable characters – mostly (it is a dinosaur movie).  My biggest problem with the movie is there was really only one female lead character.  The rest of the characters were all male.  I just want to point out the female lead did all this running in a jungle setting (filmed in Hawaii) just like the males but she did it in high heels and a skirt.  
The story line was good.  The bad guys got eaten.  The right people got rescued and in the end, the guy got the girl – at least for now.  It was a good movie.  I didn’t compare it to the original until it was done.  It didn’t feel like a reboot of the franchise.  
On another note – has Hollywood run out of ideas?  Or have they become so commercial, they are unwilling to risk an original story?  It seems like the only movies coming out are remakes, reboots, or comic book stories.  It saddens me to see the same old same old from them.  Mostly, I’m just not going to the movies as much.  
Overall, it was a good day at the movies.  We had popcorn, soda, and two movies I didn’t feel we wasted money on.  Now I’m tempted to pull out some good disaster movies from my own collection and spend time watching them.  Armageddon, Day After Tomorrow, and Deep Impact come to mind.  

What a Week

by eileentroemel, posted in Writing

Pain on Thursday kept me home.  The weather turned cooler which is probably why my pain level went up.  This meant I stayed at work later on Friday to make up some of the hours.

It’s been a good week for writing.  I finished the second Wayfarer manuscript and did edits on two other stories.  This weekend I have five manuscripts on my couch waiting for me to edit them.  I’m hoping to finish the edits on the second Defenders book.  I’m also hoping to publish the first Defenders book in the next few days.

Last night I was grumbling at Vicki because I felt like I was behind schedule on the editing.  I have the five manuscripts which totals nearly a thousand pages.  I wasn’t even done with one.  I had to stop yesterday because I had a headache.  I felt this put me behind.  Vicki reminded me that I was grumbling about a self-imposed deadline and I needed to be more realistic.

She was right.  I worked on one of the longer manuscripts yesterday.  I have about 75 pages left, I think.  I’ll finish it today.  This will be the last edit on the manuscript before I start developing the production pieces I need for it.

I’ll probably pick up the next longest manuscript which will be more intense as it is a first edit.  There aren’t even chapters in this one so it will be a lot of work to go through the first edit.  One thing I decided was that I should go through and search out key words I tend to overuse when I write the rough draft.

Unfortunately, I woke with a headache several times in the night and this morning I still have one.  Yesterday I spent a lot of time working on business end of writing – updating spreadsheets for income and expenses.  I also submitted some paperwork to start blogging for Pagan Square.  I’ll have to start thinking about what I want my next post on there to be.

Today Ken will watch football.  I will probably work.  I uncovered my crochet basket yesterday and saw a project that has just been sitting there waiting on me.  It isn’t screaming at me but it is tempting.  Perhaps if the editing is too hard on my head today, I’ll watch movies and crochet.

Pain is still a problem but it is daily so I’ll just cope because what else can I do.  A warm blanket and a good manuscript to edit should keep me from being in too much pain.

Movies Instead

by eileentroemel, posted in Life

No organizing got done which isn’t a big surprise.  Ken and I watched movies most of the day.  Elysium, True Grit, and Mud.

Elysium is very much my style of movie – post apocalyptic how has the world survived, Matt Damon – one of my favorites.  Unfortunately I was watching the clock on this one.  It was slow and when it picked up, I was not invested in them.  It was predictable as well.  All in all, I would have preferred organizing my office.

True Grit – the new one.  I’m a HUGE John Wayne fan so deliberately didn’t go see this one in the theaters.  John Wayne played that role amazingly and Jeff Bridges just didn’t do it justice.  Matt Damon was a better LeBoeuf character than Glen Campbell.  The story followed almost exactly what the original was and I’m sure some people enjoyed the new version.  I did not.  When we were done watching it, I wanted to go back and watch the John Wayne version.  It was a disappointment.

Mud with Matthew McConaughey.  Best part of the movie was when McConaughey decides to take off his lucky shirt and go without it.  It was a nice view.  The story line was predictable though somewhat touching.  The connection between the two boys and McConaughey’s character was interesting.  The dialogue was unbelievable.  The way the two boys talked seemed unrealistic.  I checked with Ken because we have girls and he said no as well.  I watched the clock on this one too.

All three of these had good parts to them.  We didn’t pay to see any of them so it was a horrible way to pass the afternoon but I watched a couple of old episodes of Adam 12 that I enjoyed more.

After Ken went to bed I worked on a story.  I had been uncertain what direction I wanted to take the story in and last night it just hit me.  I also pulled up another story to work on after I was done playing in the first one.  It’s a story I’ve been drawn back to numerous times.  I’m going to work on these two to see if I can finish them off – move them from the slush pile to the edit pile.  I also got the first Defenders novel into production and got some the front matter and back matter in place.

I kept thinking yesterday I had to be at work today and then remembering that no I didn’t.  Today will be a writing day I think.  It is gray and dreary which means my joints ache, a day in the recliner with a warm blanket seems to be the right course of action.

Playing on the teeter totter

by eileentroemel, posted in Life, Writing

Balance is important in life.  I know this but like most people I struggle with finding the time to do all the things that are important.  Like a teeter totter, balance is difficult to maintain.

It was a good day yesterday stepping out of writing mode and hanging with friends to do a double feature of movies and dinner.  I got a bit of everything yesterday.  I ran errands, worked on writing production, had fun with friends, and talked to my girls.

Last night while Ken watched football, I opened up a file of a story I’m trying to get finished.  I have two books done and am part way through the third.  The intention is to finish the story in the third book.  With all the tasks on these books, I get lost in the work and don’t make time to write.  Since I seem to be in a writing mood, I’ve started reading this series again to get back to telling the story.

I also took time out of writing mode to talk to my girls.  I video chatted with two of them and talked on the phone with the third one.

In my head, I know where I’m going but I just need to get it down on paper.  To do that I need to be less concerned with editing the second book and more concerned with finishing the third one.

Ken is working around the house today.  I’m going to work on the production of the next poetry book.  When I’m tired of that (or get stuck or my legs hurt too much) I”m going to switch to the recliner and either watch tv and crochet or work on the story.  I’ll see how the mood goes.

I’m trying to incorporate a little of what is needed in all aspects of my life.  Yesterday was a good day for balance.  I know that balance is a momentary thing.  With all that was scheduled, I managed to have some balance.  Who knows what today will bring.

The full moon is tonight and for the next three nights.  I’ll be trying to maintain some balance during this time.  I’ll also be thinking of what I need to let go of with the waning moon.  The waning moon decreases a little each night until the dark moon.  My question will be – what do I need to let go of by small (or large) increments during the harvest time?  I’m not sure I have an answer but as normally happens, I’m sure something will present itself.