Fantasy Pictures

As a fantasy writer I'm expected to keep an open mind about certain things, so naturally there are a lot of creatures running around inside my head.  In order to remain focused, I keep a stash of pictures. 

I thought I'd share a few today.



                                      UNICORNS  (nothing says magic like
                                                                           a unicorn.)

                                       MOMMY, CAN I RIDE IT,HUH?




                                   I would love this costume for Halloween.

                                                   SEXY BADASS ANGEL.

                                                Pretty Fairy

                                                 DARK WIZARD




                                           another great costume.

Semi-nude warrior women.

AND MEN

Mommy can I...never mind.

This guy reminds me of He-Man.  I wanna ride that saber toothed cat.

OOhh, definitely wanna ride cool dragon.

 

Pretty Castle

(Usual setting for most fantasies.)

 

Get em elf girl.

(Her unicorn's been eating kibbles.)

I wouldn't want to meet him in a dark alley, or out in the open for that matter.

Cool alien girl.

(I wonder if she used aluminum foil for the costume.)

A story isn't complete without villains.

Have a great Tuesday and I hope everyone enjoyed the pics.  :)

ABOUT THE WORLD

I've been giving much thought to the upcoming Star Trek fest.  In truth, I can't seem to get the darn theme music out of my mind.  It's catchy, especially when I'm doing something that demands a lot of action. (da dadada dadada dadadadada da da dadada) See? (dadadada)  Okay, so the whole Star Trek thing brought up a few thoughts about world building, and then of course that just brought worlds in general into my head.  So let's start with something basic.

How many of us work around people?  I'm certain that although we are kind-hearted and friendly, there might just be someone out there that rubs us the wrong way.  There are a lot of inhabitants on this one planet, and we are so close, face to face, with each and every one of them that we lose sight of the bigger picture. 

BIGGER PICTURE:

 WE ARE INDIVIDUATIONS OF A WHOLE,

PARTICLES OF THE SAME STAR STUFF,

DIVIDED INTO TEENY WEENY PEOPLE,

PLACED ON A PLANET THAT IS ALSO

   FORMED OF THE SAME STUFF.

 It's funny the behaviors we learn or are taught as we grow older.  As kids, we start out life untarnished. But...



               
                                         WHAT IF THIS WERE YOU?

Happy untroubled little baby.

THEN YOU MET HIM.

Freakin cute baby alien.

  AND YOUR LIFE WAS NEVER THE SAME AGAIN.

But what if baby alien grows up and his society teaches him all the crap society teaches us?

I WOULD SO HATE TO BE ASSIMILATED.

How many of us would latch on to our petty differences if our entire planet were in peril?

Beautiful.  Isn't it?

I still roll my eyes when people tell me we're the only planet sustaining life.  Surely, in this vast universe, that is improbable.

So, having said all that and shown you pretty pictures, let's all take a moment to sing kumbaya, then go out into our planet on this fabulous Monday and appreciate our fellow man.  Have  a great day!

     ...^-^...

LIEBSTER BLOG

Good morning fellow blogger buddies!  Since today I will be at the Company Picnic all day, I thought it would be the perfect day to pass on this thing. 





I have been Liebsterized twice.  Once by L.G. Smith over at  Bards and Prophets and the second time by Nancy Thompson at  Nancy Thompson.  Thank you so much to both of you for giving me the opportunity to meet new bloggers and pass this on to a select few who have less than 200 followers.  Please keep the ball rolling.

The rules of the award are:


1. Thank the giver and link back to the blogger who gave it to you.
2. Reveal your top 5 picks and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog.
3. Copy and paste the award on your blog.
4. Have faith that your followers will spread the love to other bloggers.
5. And most of all - have bloggity-blog fun!

I nominate:

1. Botanist over at Views from the Bald Patch *

He is the toolman, knows everything there is to know about formatting...or he's really good at Poker. He also has a thousand pets, works too hard when left alone at home, likes the outdoors, and loves his Sci-Fi. Everyone can benefit from his expertise, and he does enjoy a good comment.

2. Carrie Butler at So You're a Writer *

she will single handed save the world. Care Bear Carrie holds a possitive view of society and is always willing to offer a helping hand. She's contantly coming up with cool ideas that could make the future of writing and publishing easier...if only publishing houses would listen.  (Yes, I already know you've been nominated, brat.) :)

3. Bethany at Ink-Splattered  *

she wowed with me her poetry and soothed me with her cool fantasy pics. I still don't know much about her. This is a call to Bethany to take a stand.

4. K. Taylore at Out of My Mind  *

she is too funny, a little too busy to post every day, but when she does it's a riot. Aside from the fact that she's a grandma, was a hot college girl, almost set her eyebrows on fire, and nearly peed in her cast, I don't know much about her. So step up Kt.

5. Shelly at The Life of a Novice Writer  *

she is a sweet lady who has my same taste in books and doesn't turn up her nose at my natural exuberance. I don't think I could ever shock her. She also has several tricks up her sleeve that will make us all better writers. It's a pleasure to know her.

 

Everyone have a wonderful day!

NOVEL FILMS BLOGFEST...last day.

LAST DAY...so here are a few mixed goodies.  Tomorrow I will pass on Liebster award.

1.    A Wrinkle in Time was my first taste of Fantasy.  I loved it.  The book was great.  The movie could have moved a little faster but still great.  Basically, there's a girl with three bothers, a boyfriend, and a mom.  The girl loses her dad who gets sucked up into another realm.  (I love realms!)  With the help of some peculiar friends she saves her dad and...happily ever after.

2.   What Dreams May Come is so rich it's just hard to explain.  A man and his wife are happy.  They have two wonderful kids.  The kids die.  The man dies.  The woman dies because she commits suicide.  The man crosses from Heaven to Hell to save his wife.  The afterlife is presented as a state of being rather than a place.  This is an awesome movie and book.  I love Robin Williams. 

3.   Stephen King baby.  I loved this movie because it's not really a horror and touches you in so many levels.  The story about the lives of guards on Death Row leading up to the execution of a black man accused of child murder and rape, who has the power of faith-healing.   I love Tom Hanks...great actor.

4. 
A young woman fakes her own death in an attempt to escape her nightmarish marriage, but discovers it is impossible to elude her controlling husband. Her husband is a real bastard, but the only reason he found her was because she flushed her wedding ring down the toilet...at least that's how it happened in the movie.

5. 
Stranded on an island, a group of schoolboys degenerate into savagery.  The movie was just as good as the book.  Rumor has it that if these had been girls, they would have acted more civilized.  :)

6.  I didn't mean the cartoon.  There is seriously a movie out there of the Jungle Book.  There's Mowgli and a cute girl, and all his animal friends.  It was really a cute story.

7.  Yes, they made a movie of this.  The book was better.  My husband reads James Patterson.  I don't particulary follow thrillers, but this had a nice romance in it and a touch of fantasy.  There's a girl with an imaginary friend.  They grow up, fall in love.  He becomes real.  Happily ever after follows.  :)

8.   Another one of King's babies.  This is every writer's nightmare.  A fan who just doesn't want the story to end, so they're willing to mame or kill you.  I loved them both.

9.   Who doesn't love this book/movie?  The kid gets to fly a spaceship with a cool alien/robot friend, and he collects a cute pet.  I lost count of how many times I watched it.

10.   This was a freakin awesome movie...and I do love my aliens.  The guy alien is carrying a baby.  The man winds up raising the baby as his own.  They start off hating each other and then bonded.  If you've never watched it/read it, it is really good.

Okay, that's enough for today.  So glad I could share these with all of you. 

Have a great day!

...^-^...

NOVEL FILMS BLOGFEST..day 2

Picks for Day 2.  I love a good romance, and this one rips at your heart strings.




The story begins with Noah, an 80-year-old man, reading to a woman in a nursing home.  He is reading the story of their meeting to his wife who is battling Alzheimers and doesn't recognize him.  Her only memory is sparked by his relating of the story, which he reads to her every day.  He explains that he is also ill, battling a third cancer, and suffering heart disease, kidney failure, and severe arthritis in his hands.  The story starts with a tempestuous romance and ends with their death, side by side on the hospital bed.  I've never cried so much during a movie.




Next:  Bridget Jones Diary.  It has humor, sexy guys, and a fabulous romance.




This is the story of a 30+ woman jotting down her personal journal.  She writes down everything about her life, her career, self-image, vices, family, friends, and romantic relationships.  Bridget not only obsesses about her love life, but also details her various daily struggles with her weight, her over-indulgence in alcohol and cigarettes, and her career. At the beginning of the novel she is employed in the publishing industry, but after her breakup with Daniel she quits and begins working, somewhat accidentally, as a journalist for a local television station. Bridget's friends and family are the supporting characters in her diary. Her best friends are Shazzer, a strident feminist; Jude, a highly successful business woman; and Tom, a gay man. These friends are there for her unconditionally throughout the novel; they give her advice about her relationships, and support when problems arise.  The story is funny and heartwarming.  I liked it so much I had to watch the movie.



That's it for today.  Tomorrow I'll toss in a couple fantasy movies into the equation.

Have a great day!

NOVEL FILMS BLOGFEST

I’m pretty sure I’m signed up for this.  At least, I went to the site, commented, and thought I did everything right. Regardless, since L.G. Smith has dubbed me the blogger who writes explicit romantic scenes,J, I’ve decided that my first two picks will be of a more risqué nature. 

Book 1 that was made into a movie: LOLITA—a tale of passionate despair and guilty carnality.  This book was originally written in Russian, and Vladimir Nabokov will shock you.

             

The story starts with a college professor named Humbert who means to spend the Summer in New Hampshire before he’s expected to begin teaching at Beardsley College.  He searches for a room to rent, and Charlotte Haze, a sexually frustrated widow, invites him to stay at her house. He declines until he sees her daughter, Dolores, affectionately called "Lolita." Lolita is a soda-pop drinking, gum-snapping, overtly flirtatious teenager with whom Humbert falls in love.  It’s an inner struggle.  Although we realize it’s wrong for this man to feel attracted to this young girl, the writer wields the story in such a way that we feel sympathetic of the main character.  Lolita is such a tease.

                                  

Pick 2 book that was made into a movie: LADY CHATTERLEY'S LOVER. 




Lady Chatterley is a woman who marries a nobleman, Clifford Chatterley. Constance (or, as she is known throughout the novel, Connie) assumes his title, becoming Lady Chatterley. Lady Chatterley's Lover chronicles Connie's maturation as a woman and as a sensual being. She comes to despise her weak, ineffectual husband, and to love Oliver Mellors, the gamekeeper on her husband's estate. In the process of leaving her husband and conceiving a child with Mellors, Lady Chatterley moves from the heartless, bloodless world of the intelligentsia and aristocracy into a vital and profound connection rooted in sensuality and sexual fulfillment.  Yes, it's terrible that she leaves her wheelchair ridden husband, and it makes the reader want to curse her.  And yet she feels so trapped.  The author connects with the reader in such a way that you'll find yourself cheering for this poor woman.



This is only one of the many remakes. 

That's it for today.  Only two pics so no one overlooks them.  ...^-^...

WHAT'S THE PURPOSE OF WRITING?

Remember this picture.  Do any of you watch the Twilight Zone? 


I watch the marathon the 31st of each December while sipping wine and eating pizza, and each time I do, I find myself in awe of the writers. 


It is the best Sci-Fi/Fantasy combo I've ever seen.  Before Star Trek, Star Wars, Babylon 5 came Twilight Zone.

The twists keep you at the edge of your seat.  What luscious imagination.  It moves me.  The belief that there is something out there aside from reality as we know it has always rendered me speechless...and that's hard to do.

This particular episode is one of my favorites.  "The Eye of the Beholder".  This poor girl is beside herself with grief because she looks nothing like the majority of the other inhabitants of her planet.  They're all ugly creatures with pig noses, so they send her off to a colony of gorgeous people to live in exile.  Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Another of my favorites is about a writer who brings characters to life just by writing.  They materialize before his eyes.  He's been married to a woman all his life...and he made her up.  Wouldn't that be totally awesome?!  I write, therefore I am...and so is he, and she, etc.

That's what I'd like to achieve in my writing, to make the story so real that the reader will get sucked in and not ever want to leave. 

Honestly, no one writes like the Twilight Zone any longer.  The main concern of each writer is with the market.  How can we get out books out there?  What do we have to change?  How many hoops do we have to leap through?  Is the market going to crash altogether and leave us using our manuscripts for wallpaper?  What happened to just write and darn good story?

So, any thoughts?  Any favorite episodes that spark your imagination?  Any bit of info you'd like to supply about anything?  Do you just want to chat?  It's been two days.  I'm jonesing.  :)

Have a great day everyone!