MONDAY'S MUSINGS: FAVORITE GENRE AND MY GUILTY SECRETS

I love to be entertained. I appreciate creative spirits that provide my entertainment for me, whether it’s a book, movie, music, or just an enjoyable evening over a well cooked dinner and good conversation afterward.

The problem with choosing a specific genre in anything is difficult because I’m eclectic in my choices (especially music) depending upon the mood I’m in. 

ALEX CAVANAUGH BLOGFEST
List of partcipants

I write predominately sub-genres of romance. No apologies offered for that, it’s something I enjoy. One would assume that my favorite movie genre would be the same. While I will say there is always an element of romance in the movies I enjoy, my favorite movies are adventure/action. I’m more apt to choose movies along the lines of The Fast and The Furious (what’s not to love about Vin diesel—see romantic interest, right?), Die Hard, Independence Day, Terminator 2 Judgment Day, Gladiator (loved it 5 times), Xmen movies, and Cap’n America and The Avengers. And anything StarTrek.

Before you rip away my girl card, I did love True Lies, Lake House, 50 First Dates, Under The Tuscan Sun, Pearl Harbor, Man From Snowy River, Miss Congeniality, and Princess Bride—does that count? Romancing the Stone—see, that’s a romance, right? I loved the Leetle Mule.  To be honest with you? I guess my guilty pleasure would be love of action/adventure stuff.

Book genre: Romance, although I’m not into mushy or sappy, I do like happy endings and hate endings that are ambiguous.  Blame that on being raised with seven brothers. Some of my favorite authors include much of what I love in movies—lots of danger and kick ass action. Probably why I like paranormal—it has romance and danger. I love Christine Feehan (especially her Ghostwalker series and I’ve read every book she’s written in all her series), Donna Grant—yep warriors, Anita Cleny, Sara Humphries, Lisa Renee-Jones—more warriors. Loved anything written by Anne McCaffrey—read all her books too. My next favorite, or rather equally favorite genre is thrillers—preferably political. Or romantic suspense. Oh. Um, that would be more kick-ass danger stuff, wouldn’t it? Okay, I liked Gone with The Wind and Historicals by Catherine Coulter, Jayne Anne Krenz, Julie Garwood—now there’s romance for you.

Music? I can’t pick one. Really. I can’t.

It all depends upon my mood at the moment. I can enjoy Pappa Roach, Nickel Back, and Breaking Benjamin equally with Windham music, Ottmar Liebert (I love Spanish guitar and back before my hands blew I played classical guitar), and David Arkenstone.  I enjoy instrumental jazz, most Celtic music; love the richness of Pavarotti and Placido, and 40’s torch singers. Country is something I like but more when I’m traveling and I can sing along—I grew up on it and sang in a country band in my 20’s.

Although I do have a guilty pleasure—Enrique Inglesias and he’s helped me set the mood for a few love scenes. He knows how to play sexy and generate heat in much of his music, but particularly this piece—Heartbeat 

While I enjoy movies, if I had to choose two it would have to be books and music. Choose only one? Books. I can make music.

I’ll leave you with a favorite scene of mine from a movie that has a bit of all—adventure, action, romance, and thrilling moments. This scene never fails to raise goose bumps on me.  Jim’s Ride. Man From Snowy River. 

Ps.

1. I apologize that I can't actually embed these two links here. For whatever reason, it won't let me anymore.
2. Monday is now my longest workday. I'll try to pop in and read everyone's as I can between calls.  

Weekend Musings: IN NEED OF HEROES

FYI: I will be taking vacation days the first week of July. 

We can’t deny that our economic situation is precarious to say the least. There are so many things out of our power to control in today’s world. The truth of the matter is we don’t like the feeling of being powerless. 

My husband and I were discussing some of the movies we’ve watched over the past year. What drew us to those particular movies? Those who know me also know I love kick-ass movies. While I do watch some romantic comedies, or drama, I prefer action adventure. 

• Captain America, which was a blend of old fashion values of a bygone age and a hero who could beat the odds. Win the day. A hero you liked and could respect.

• Fast Five because while this crew was considered criminals they had heart and values. Plus they outsmarted a really nasty bad guy. That I loved. It highlighted the point that a family isn’t always blood but can be comrades. Plus Vin Diesel and the Rock weren’t bad to look at. I loved the precision driving, hot cars, and danger.

• Abduction, because sometimes ordinary people become heroes in extraordinary circumstances, especially when their life is on the line (there are several movies I could add here that I've seen and fit that description).

• Sherlock Holmes harks back to an older time, which is part of the appeal, but a time on the edge of so many new technological advancements. It’s the feeling of optimism and hope that draws me as well as intellect. Naturally there is plenty of action to satisfy me. And Jude Law and Robert Downey are fine specimens of manhood, lol!

• Tower Heist gave me something to laugh over while and rooting for the little guy, the ones without a lot of power and influence. But they did have brains and used them to win. 

• The feel good movies: We Bought a Zoo, Friends With Benefits, Bridesmaids, Real Steel, and War Horse. 

• The safety valve and laughter movies: Bad Bosses, Bad Teacher, and The Hangover (Hubs and son and they also love horror movies).

Art by Joe Jusko

I look down my list and see a lot of heroes. I think in tough times people need heroes to save the day. It’s not surprising to find out that Batman (gotta love a guy named after a Scottish hero and inspired by Sherlock Holmes and The Shadow) and Superman (superhuman abilities and a strong moral values) were born in the 1930’s in the middle of the depression. The Phantom (one of my all time favorites) is another hero that was born in the 1930’s no superhero abilities but like Batman, a strong sense of justice, the ability to use intellect and strength to accomplish victory in their battles. Captain America was born at the beginning of WWII.

Heroes give us hope and something to cheer on to victory. They accomplish things we can’t but heroes like Sherlock Holmes, Batman (the dark knight), The Phantom (the gray knight) are very human. They merely use their brains and strength to effect changes in their world and win the day and that offers hope to a very human population. 

It tells us that individuals can make a difference if we stand for what’s right. We can win if we act.

zzzz

A few things:

Over Coffee will be on vacation the first week in July. I'll be rerunning some articles and I will do a Insecure Writers article. Hubs is off for training for a month starting the second week of July.

A few of my favorite heroes:

1 Those wondering when Anita Clenny is coming out with a new book--later this fall and it will be a new series, Guardians of Stone (you can read a brief excerpt) yay! And she will be releasing the third in current series, Unleash The Highland Warrior (hope to have a date for you soon). I've been missing her books.

Amazon, B&N, 

Amazon, B&N

• DONNA GRANT has a new book released in her Dark Warrior Series. The cool thing is, they're back to back releases. 
• Last month it was Midnight's Master (Logan) excerpt and just released, Midnight's Lover (Ian) excerpt.
• AND if that wasn't enough to look forward to she is also starting a new series, Dark Kings which will be released as a special ebook novellas July, August,and September. These two series will have overlap stories, which I think will be very cool.  

  

MONDAY MUSINGS: The Quiet Life—Except When Its Not

I'm in a hot spiced tea mode today :-)

My week is off to a good start. I had a quiet, house all to myself, Sunday. No TV going, which tends to drive me nuts. I could think and putter around doing various needed things. It was wonderful. I’m a person who loves my quiet time. It refreshes me.

To top it off, it was a beautiful sunny day. Mild temperatures that made me think of spring which is a good thing because I’m planning out my herb garden, a small corn field so we can be assured of corn without nasty GMOs and built in pesticides—I’ll take bugs, thank you very much. I’m also planning some vertical gardening with tomatoes near my climbing roses. I’m going to try planting my crookneck, acorn, and butternut squash vertically. Did you know that every part the squash plant may be eaten, including the leaves and tender shoots, which can be cooked in omelets or made into soup?

Planning involved new rabbit hutches going in, and where; I need to prepare the area where the lambs and beef steer will be, and make the chicken laying area better and safe from possums and pesky predator types.

What can I say? I lead a rather quiet life, lol! Oh, it has its spurts of excitements, like times when I have a house full of teens, or a weekend of them (such as this past one).  Friday afternoon to Sunday at 10 am. Friday night movies and about anything they can get their hands on to eat and it gets loud and boisterous with guitar hero contests (I’m stuck on medium), water rifle battles, in January no less, I passed on it. Catch me in April, guys.

 

Picture from IMDb

Saturday, we (hubs and I) fixed popcorn and tea and watched Abduction (teens were in another room watching some scary flick). Very good movie. Good cast, great action, and probably a sequel will come to the screen. While I don’t watch a lot of movies this was one that sounded intriguing and would keep my interest and it did. I also want to see: Real Steel, with Hugh Jackman, Unknown, Liam Neeson.

And now you understand why I appreciated having a quiet Sunday.

I've finished up two great reads, The Avenger, a thriller by Jo Robertson, where a very smart serial killer has to be brought down.  Getaway (not yet released), another thriller, by Lisa Brackmann, set in Mexico involving an American who inadvertently gets caught up in a battle between good guys and bad guys set around the Mexican drug cartel trade. If she could only figure out which side really are the bad guys. Both are well written and kept me turning pages.  I also started a very good book, Cassa Fire, by Alex Cavanaugh (thankfully in print form as my Kindle has mysteriously disappeared). I can tell you, I’ll be reading more of his books. I love sci-fi set around space travel and exploration. This one is feeding that love. Contented sigh. Then again, I guess it’s not a big surprise, as I love Star Trek—all except Enterprise, which I couldn’t get into. So Alex’s story fits right in. 

Like I said, my life isn’t exactly the most exciting to most people but it suits me fine (Hey, I did my time living in cities, suburbia, and being on the go a lot).

Honestly, I love the country life and I enjoy peace and contentment that come with it.

• What about you? How was your weekend? 
• Any good books or movies you want to recommend?

  

MONDAY MUSINGS: Endings The Good And Ugly

Ever read a good book or see a good movie with good characters and the ending sucks?

My husband and I watched Country Strong. Good actors, conflict, music and then splat. I thought, oh, come on. You can’t be serious—after all that, someone is going to walk away from a contract like this? Right. Wait a minute, a comeback like this and she goes into her dressing room and does what? Please.  I don’t care how good the rest of the movie was the ending ruined it all for me. It made me mad because it could have been excellent. I couldn’t figure out why it bombed at the box office—until the ending and then I understood.

My husband and I had quite a discussion regarding endings.

There are some movies I watch because I like the actor/actresses and usually they don’t act in crappy movies. Until recently any Nicolas Gage movie was one I watched. Now, I’m a bit more careful to look at the storyline first because of the next two movies.

City of Angels. Great cast, love Meg Ryan and Nicolas Gage, which is why I decided to watch it to begin with. Good premise. After all the two of them went through, she dies? Really? Major suckage. Had it been a book I would have thrown it across the room in disgust.

Then there was Knowing. Trailers looked good, actors were good, and lots of action (my kinda movie) and then the movie went to hell the last ten minutes. I felt robbed.

There are certain books that do the same. Nicolas Spark’s books. The Notebook was reasonable given the history and time frame. I’m not saying he’s a bad writer but I don’t like his style of telling a story. I really tried to read his others but ugh—ditto with the movies, excellent though the cast was. His books are not only no, but hell no. (Yes, I’m sure there are those who just love stories like his.)

The way I see it, and this is my opinion and my preferences only, when I see a movie or read a book, I want the bad guys get their asses kicked and the good guys win the day. If one of the main cast of characters has to die, make it count. Give me a reason. Even ordinary people facing extraordinary circumstances can be heroic though they die. A good example of that, in my opinion, was the movie Independence Day. The Randy Quaid character died. Another one was Armageddon, Bruce Willis is a main character and he sacrifices himself for his daughter’s sweetheart. Okay, I would have preferred them to remain alive but their deaths were logical and in line with the sort of characters they were. Their deaths counted. The good guys still won.

Evil loses, good wins. Yes, I know it’s not always the reality in life, but if I want a heavy dose of reality, I’ll turn on the news or read a newspaper. And please, don’t give me an ambiguous ending—which happens in some movies and literary pieces I’ve read. I don’t mind drawing my conclusions but at least make the ending positive enough so I can at see the hero or heroine is on a better path after all they’ve gone through

For me, no matter how good the book or the movie if the ending doesn’t deliver and isn’t satisfying, why bother? No, it doesn't have to be all sunshine and butterflies, but I like a good finale. I don’t want it rushed and slapdash and I want it to fit the strengths of the characters the author/writer has created.

• What about you?  What are your thoughts on endings? What makes an ending good in your opinion?