At long last my writer’s block has gone away! I can always think of things I want to say, but I don’t always sit down put it down longhand and type it out. I got good book writing done this weekend at long last. I plan to keep it up this week. Halloween is a big time of year for me in terms of writing promotion when I travel, and I noticed I am behind schedule on this year’s books.
Sale! Sale! Sale!
A quick weekly reminder that my new book The Halloween Mystery of the Black Camera and Ruby Stone is on sale this week for $7.35 as a paperback and $1.99 on Kindle
https://www.amazon.com/Andrea-E-Menzies/e/B00K5ZUEU6/ref=dp_byline_cont_book_1
The Democrats Debates on CNN this summer have me reading environmental books, watching environmental documentaries, and articles. Clearly global warming is going to be more of an issue in the next election in comparison to other years. Oddly Netflix is no longer showing the documentary An Inconvenient True, and I have had to purchase a copy on Amazon to view it.
Noble has fronted dozens of bands over the years, but he is the current frontman for a band called “Black Mercy” after the character which battles Superman. His day job that pays the bills is working with computers, and Noble studied computer programming at UT Austin where he got his University degree. Noble is a fan of old school punk and pop punk, and one of his all time favorites is the Dead Kennedys. I know this because I borrowed his Frankenchrist album shirt once, and forgot to return it which he still bugs me about. I am the girl on Noble’s left in the first photo below. He got into music to promote his love of the vegan lifestyle, and animal rights causes. He is a very enthusiastic collector of comic books, and “Spawn” one of his favorite series. Noble started band work young, but still performs at shows to this day with updates posted to his Instagram and Facebook.
https://www.facebook.com/noble.brown
http://saveitforthebreakdown.podomatic.com/rss2.xml
“The things you own end up owning you.” ― Tyler Durden from the movie Fight Club
Tiny Houses, Environmental Footprints, RV Travel, and Living Off the Grid have for many years been buzz words of the online world. RV interest has become fashion on the Internet, and I am a person who likes to read about Recreational Vehicles. It has long been known that the wealthy in America used to buy large houses with huge energy wasting appliances, packed with witty fashion furniture they change every season, and fashion clothes they change every three months. The environmental impact has been a huge amount of global pollution from fossil fuel based energy, furnishing, and textile industries. This has created a rethink in the “Big is Better” housing attitude.
This has caused a rebirth in RV fascination. Wagons, Teepees, tents, and small dwellings were normal in many parts of human history. Who can forget the ornate Gypsy wagons that were a normal part of their culture? At first people looking at RV’s make the big mistake of only wanting the largest thing on the market. The dealers will try to push you into this choice. A huge room needs huge air conditioning to fill it. In addition the big RVs use a great deal of fuel when being moved around, and so you will not use them often. A small RV can be outfitted for solar power, and can let you live “Off the Grid” using sun power. This is just one of the topics addressed in the book I just read called RV Vacations for Dummies by Shirley Slater and Harry Basch. This is by far NOT the first RV book I have read. Like many books in the “For Dummies” series it is not actually made for dummies. Many subjects have good ideas and bad mistakes you can make, and the “dummies” books focus on helping you avoid the mistakes.
I highly recommend this book as a good way to start out learning about a complicated subject. There are many choices to consider. Why are Fifth-wheels not the same as Van campers? Two other great sections are in chapter 4 Planning your Budget: “How to deal with dealers, Where not to shop for an RV, and How to finance your purchase” are great topics to brush up on. The book’s writers are syndicated column writers for the Los Angeles Times, Bon Appetite, and Travel Weekly. In addition they had a 27 foot Winnebago Brave motorhome as they have logged 100,000 miles traveling all over the United states, Canada, and Mexico. They have a fun writing style, and packed the book with information.
The original inspiration for my online blogs was to have a space and time-constraint free online book club people would participate in with comments. I apologize for going off topic. I write books (available for sale at http://www.FH7publishing.com), read books, and review books online and my personal life does have impact on my book choices and review style.
I just read the ending of Miss Peregrine’s Home, the first book of the series that inspired a popular movie. I can say it is a great book, and outshines the movie. Strange how books and movies have nothing in common sometimes! This is a book of that type. Kids, a school, and magic are the only book portions making it to the screen. It was an obvious ploy to make Miss Peregrine’s Home a knock-off copy of Harry Potter, and seemed sort of like off-brand cereal at the grocery store. Do you like Fruit Loops why not try Fruity Puffs? Miss Peregrine’s Home deserves a better movie, and should not have been made to look so much like Harry Potter. It is far more about World War II, surviving trauma, and finding the urge to work and have meaning in life. A depressed older teenager with no work drive or friends refuses therapy medication and leaves and abusive therapist, gets friends, meaning, focus, and overcomes fear time traveling to World War II. There is no Voldemort or Hagrid in Peregrine’s Home.
The last time I saw this extreme disconnect was when I read True Blood books. NOTHING to do with the TV show in pretty much at all parts of the books. The sassy cook named Lafayette? On the TV show he had dialogue in every episode. In the books he was in there for about two sentences.
I am reading a few books on screen writing for movies and TV as I was first reading the Miss Peregrine’s Home series of books. I cannot help but see the books as a stunning commentary on book versus movie formatting. For movies and TV there is a constant push to make things light, filled with comedy, and packed with popular characters. In books you can contain much more information inside the character’s heads, and explain backstory. Readers also expect more depth and metaphor in their media, and do not just expect rich pretty people to have rich pretty problems. The moral to this story is to read the books when you can, and don’t just watch the movies.
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Frozen History 7 Publishing Book Review Podcast 