Blogging about blogging

Or rather, about not blogging because I haven’t been doing much of that. I haven’t been reading blogs either and it sucks. Look at my blog reel – these people are interesting and they’re writers and they travel to places I just don’t have time to go and write books I would never think to write.  The reason for all of this neglect is because there is a war going on at the city cottage – the router vs. the modem – but the only losers are those of us who live in the city cottage and want to access the internet. Why can’t a router and a modem just get along. 

In other news, I have a puppy now. 

I know he looks scary but he’s not so bad. He’s a little forgetful. A lot lazy. He’s the kind of guy who thinks that the reason he walked all the way to the park was to lie down for a nap (so my kind of guy). He’s finally learning about sleeping at night (party animal), and unfortunately is learning that the longer you know someone the more acceptable it is to bite them. But he can fetch a mini tennis ball (genius or instinct, I’m going to go with genius every time), and he understands that pooing inside is just gross, so you can’t really ask for much more. 

Writing and the Internet

To a person who writes because they just can’t help themselves, there are certain things that are really important. Like an Internet connection. Some of you might argue that the Internet slows down the writing. Too many distractions. Twitter and Pinterest and Facebook, oh my! But after a few weeks of spotty Internet access, I found that not having the Internet really slows me down. Because sometime my character's know things that I don’t. And asking my boyfriend to explain to me in depth what happens when Superman spins the earth backwards, didn’t get me anywhere. 

“I don’t know. I never read those comics. Ask me something different. Ask me about He Man.”* 

Some of you might argue that I should stop writing characters who know more than I do. But really, we’re all only as smart as our ability to filter through Google, am I right? 

How much to do you use the Google* when you write? 

*I added the part about He Man because I know for a fact that’s the super-human he knows most about.

**or Bing or Yahoo or...

What I've missed...

I haven't been blogging much. Opps. This is what happens when the Internet at the city cottage* stops working for days at a time and there are ten thousand deadlines at the day job, and I'm STILL revising my YA contemp.  When you're out of touch, you miss out on a lot of internet goodies. 

- Veronica Roth received her new book. Insurgent. The sequel to Divergent.  You may have heard of it.  

- They FINALLY found a replacement for John Galliano at Dior. 

- Lisa, of Lisa and Laura Roecker, encountered a mouse. This makes for hilarious blogging.  

- Lauren Oliver offers advice the best writing advice ever. 

- Peggy Eddleman talks about juggling blogs. Amen. 

- They discovered feathers on a T-Rex in China. Ever since they discovered the feathered velociraptor I have been very afraid they would discover a feathered T-Rex. And now they have. And yes, T-Rex is bottom heavy with tiny arms, and with feathers he basically looks like a giant chicken. It's very unfortunate. 

-  Sarah Enni reviews The Hunger Games--specifically movie Gale vs. book Gale and movie Peeta vs. book Peeta. 

Anything you'd like to add...?

*this is what I call the new house. It has a porch swing - which totally qualifies it as a cottage. 

The Hunger Games Movie Review

Warning: This post contains spoilers, both movie spoilers and spoilers regarding the whole entire series...

...because it's impossible to talk about the movie without talking about the books, and without talking about how things portrayed in the first movie are going to affect the series ending. 

I must admit, I have no idea if the movie was good. I mean, I think it was. I was impressed with the acting. I think. Since I was so emotionally invested in the book, I was naturally invested in the emotions of the movie - so I don't know if the actors can take credit for that. But I think they probably can. 

Proof to this was probably that in the movie, Seneca Crane was a sympathetic character. He tried really hard to impress Snow, was easily manipulated by Haymitch (things we didn't get in the book, really), and after Katniss and Peeta pulled the nightlock stunt he was the first punished.  It made me sad. Oh, and that beard was amazing times ten. 

I complained about the casting when it was first announced, but I was impressed. Not once during the movie did I think, you are not Peeta.  

Of course there were a few things I thought should have been different, a little truer to the book (the book, how I saw it, anyway). The consensus among my friends (all who were extremely invested too) was that the way she got the mockingjay pin shouldn't have been so different; Haymitch transformed from drunk to helpful without enough prompting; Katniss was supposed to be sicker the first time she kissed Peeta, so as to establish a bigger difference in the second kiss; and the mutts were supposed to have the tribute's eyes. 

I would love to know how someone viewed the movie without having read the book, and am really curious about how the movie translated to someone who didn't know how it would all go down in the end.  Because is it just me, or does knowing how the series ends make everything about the The Hunger Games more intense and well, much, much sadder?  


Gale's growing anger, Cinna's dedication, Peeta's unwavering hope - it was all made bittersweet knowing where this would take them. I couldn't even look at the mokingjay pin without thinking: that is what you will be forced to become and then you loose everything (almost) fighting for it. Or the nighlock berries. They were so careful not to eat them in the arena, but will have several moments where they want to eat them  in Mockingjay.  

And the real torture had to be all the shots of Gale and Prim together. Just broke my heart the entire movie. 

They left out a few things - I guess that happens a lot in book-to-movie situations - but I wonder what Mockingjay the movie will be like since The Hunger Games left out: the dandelions, the mutts with human's eyes, the blood poisoning, and the quote, "She has no idea. The effect she can have." (And probably other stuff too, that I just can't remember).


More than anything I'm curious. So way to go Hollywood, you sold me again. 

What did you all think?