Weekly Goals 14-8-23

 The film festival finished last night so my writing break is now over.  This week I want to get back into editing Guide Us. I think as a first step I need to read through what I've done to make sure it works, and then I may be able to figure out what needs to happen in those two extra chapters I have to write.  Hopefully, anyway...

So what were the last few days of the Festival like?  Great, actually!  

Subject: A fascinating documentary about documentary subjects.  The film focused on three or four people from relatively well known docos, diving into their experiences of making the films and the aftermath of having being a part of them.  At the same time the film dove into some questions of ethics and responsibility regarding the subjects.  It was really interesting and made me realise just how many docos I've seen over the years - there were only about three o four referenced in the film I hadn't seen!

Are You There God, It's Me, Margaret:  My colleague and I both grew up on Judy Blume books and when we saw that this was going to screen as part of the Festival, we jumped at the chance to see it.  Very sweet, very wholesome and very close to the original book.  Judy Blue even has a sneaky cameo as one of Margaret's New Jersey neighbours.  Enjoyed it very much. It was interesting to contrast this with Tiger Stripes that I saw earlier in the week.  Both about pubescent girls dealing with their changing bodies.  Both coming to the conclusion twelve-year-old girls are diabolical...

Theatre Camp: My inner high school theatre geek rose to the surface seeing this one.  It's a rockumentary about a summer camp for talented theatre kids.  When the camp founder winds up in a coma after an unfortunate school musical related accident, her son is forced to take on running the camp.  With no experience, this narcissistic, self proclaimed business entrepreneur looks set to run the camp into the ground.  But the loyal team who teach there, and the kids themselves, might just manage to save it.  Funny, sweet and so true to every theatre programme I've ever been to (and there were many... so, so many) I loved this one.

Fallen Leaves: A Finnish film from one of my favourite directors, Aki Kurismaki.  Like most of his films, the characters are largely deadpan and entirely understated as they navigate the often bleak world in which they live.  Yet somehow, amongst the job losses, poverty, heavy drinking and scrambling just to make ends meet, two characters find each other and fall in love.  The perfect way to end the festival!

Back to usual programming from here.  And now I'll finally be able to go and see Barbie and Oppenheimer (and Asteroid City).

Celebrate the Small Things 11-8-23

 

It's the end of the week, so it's time to Celebrate the Small things...

What am I celebrating this week?

It's the weekend!

And boy do I need it!  It has been a crazy week (again).  I should probably stop saying that since I think it's going to be nuts from now until the big Arts Festival finishes in mid-March next year.  

The Film Festival finishes this weekend and I have four films left to go to, all of which I am very much looking forward to.  Verdict to come on Monday...

And what have I seen this week?

Actually, not a whole lot.  As I mentioned, work has been very busy and I've had a couple of functions I've had to work on instead of going to films.  But I have seen two.

Kim's Video: A doco about an iconic video store in New York that closed when streaming took over.  This was no ordinary video store - its collection was huge and filled with stuff you couldn't find anywhere else.  So the owner wanted to find somewhere for the collection live and continue to be enjoyed.  There were a few options, but the best seemed to be a small town in Sicily that was looking to reinvent itself in the wake of an earthquake.  But when the filmmakers headed to Salerni to see what had become of the collection, things got weird.  And then even more weird.  This is exactly the kind of doco I love - a story so strange, it can only be true!

Tiger Stripes: A horror movie from Malaysia in which a pubescent girl basically turns into a demon when she gets her period.  Very enjoyable even if the premise is more truth than metaphor.  I mean, what teenage girl doesn't turn into a demon?  At least for a few months/years.

As I do every year, I'm going to miss the Festival, but it will be nice to get a few more of my evenings back to do other things.  I may even get back to work on revising Guide Us.  No, I will get back to revising Guide Us.

What are you celebrating this week?

Books I've Read: Forget me Not

This was a sweet book.  I picked it up because of the Eternal Sunshine reference in the description.

Stevie and Nora are madly in love.  That kind of do or die love that only seems to happen when you're a teeneager.  They live in a small town where they don't feel like they can live their love out loud.  So as soon as graduation is behind them, they're planning to blow town and start their real lives in California.

But then Stevie has a fall and wakes up with no memory of the past two years.  She doesn't even know who Nora is, other than the girl who found her and got her to the hospital. 

Stuck in a world where she's living in memories of herself at fifteen, Stevie struggles to figure out who she'd become as she discovers she'd abandoned her long-time friends, become estranged from her parents and has a crush on the boy working at the diner.  None of this feels right to her, and the only person she's able to find comfort with is Nora, a stranger.

As Stevie struggles to reconcile her past and future selves, Nora has to face a world in which her true love has forgotten her and may never remember their love.  But as the pair spend more time together, the same spark ignites between them.  Will their love follow the same path this time?

I enjoyed this book because I'm fascinated by memory and its subjective nature and fragility. The idea of losing two years of life is terrifying, but also so intriguing.  Imagine being two years older, but having no idea what happened in those two years?

I enjoyed this, especially the way the two girls managed to reconnect, as if fate or some external force meant for them to be together.  And how differently they handled the relationship the second time around. 

So, I'd recommend this one.  It's not life changing, but it is certainly intriguing.

But don't just listen to me.  here's the blurb: 

Perfect for fans of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Five Feet Apart , this tender solo debut by the coauthor of New York Times bestseller She Gets the Girl is a romantic ode to the strength of love and the power of choosing each other, against odds and obstacles, again and again.

What would you do if you forgot the love of your life ever even existed?

Stevie and Nora had a love. A secret, epic, once-in-a-lifetime kind of love. They also had a to leave their small, ultra-conservative town and families behind after graduation and move to California, where they could finally stop hiding that love.

But then Stevie has a terrible fall. And when she comes to, she can remember nothing of the last two years—not California, not coming to terms with her sexuality, not even Nora. Suddenly, Stevie finds herself in a life she doesn’t quite understand, one where she’s estranged from her parents, drifting away from her friends, lying about the hours she works, dating a boy she can’t remember crushing on, and headed towards a future that isn’t at all what her fifteen-year-old self would have envisioned.

And Nora finds herself…forgotten. Can the two beat the odds a second time and find their way back together when “together” itself is just a lost memory?

Weekly Goals 7-8-23

 The film festival is still going for another week, so I'm not setting myself any writing goals - I know I won't meet them!

So what have I seen since we last met?

Bad Behaviour: A New Zealand film made by Alice Englort (Jane Campion's daughter) about a mother and daughter reconnecting and the absurdity of wellness retreats.  It's not the easiest film and tonally it's a little all over the place, but Alice is definitely a filmmaker to watch as this is a very ambitious and promising debut.  

The Delinquents: An Argentinian film about the lowest key bank robbery in history.  My Festival low-light at this point.  A very long, tedious 3 hours after the promising set up.  The film seemed to lose sight of what story it was telling and ended up being almost incomprehensible.  Especially a long, drawn out flashback section that re-told part of the story we'd already seen in a different way.  Don't recommend...

Detour: A classic film noir from 1945 featuring possibly the most manipulative and obnoxious femme fatale of all time.  I thought I may have seen this before, and I definitely had, but it was certainly worth another look.  I just wish it had been a little longer and the ending didn't feel so tacked on and perfunctory.

Ennio: A wonderful documentary about Ennio Morricone, the film composer whose prolific career saw him create memorable scores for over 500 films - not just those Serio Leone Westerns he's best known for.  Directed by Giuseppe Tonatore whose Cinema Paradiso was scored by Morricone, this film was engrossing from start to finish and gave me a whole new appreciation for the art of scoring films.  Not to mention telling me a lot about Morricone as a man as well as a composer.  Recommend!

I have a pretty light week ahead due to work commitments, but have a busy final weekend ahead.  Will report back.

What are your goals this week?

Cover Reveal - My Murder Year

 It's that time....

I have a new book coming out on 6 October and I can finally reveal the cover to you!

Pretty isn't it?

But what is My Murder Year about?

Seventeen-year-old Stas Nonu has nothing more to worry about than looking like an oversized pumpkin in the bridesmaid dress her mother picked out for her wedding to her long-time partner, Mama K.  Her father’s newfound religious beliefs are annoying and starting to cramp her style, but nothing to be really concerned about.  Besides, Zane, the new guy she met at that party is way more interesting.

When Stas finds her mother’s dead body in a pool of blood, and evidence points to her father as the murderer, she realizes how uncomplicated things were before. 

Especially when two aunts she’s never met fly from her mother’s native Russia and start talking about her coming to live with them.  Then her father’s brother shows up with his own reasons for why Stas should live with him.

Unable to face the tug of war between her relatives, or the devastating effect it’s having on her beloved Mama K, Stas turns to Zane for comfort. But their increasing closeness is not enough to allow Stas to escape the reality of her fractured family.

If Stas can’t figure out a way to prove Mama K is as much her mother as the woman who gave birth to her, she might find herself banished to Siberia.  Or somewhere even worse.

My Murder Year will be out on 6 October and is available for pre-order now!

Celebrate the Small Things 4-8-23

 

It's the end of the week, so it's time to Celebrate the Small things...

What am I celebrating this week?

It's the weekend!

It has been a really, really busy week at work, and I've had films to go to almost every night too.  

The Film Festival has been pretty good so far although I haven't seen anything absolutely life changing yet.  But there are still more films left!

So what have I seen since we last met?

I Like Movies: a really sweet Canadian film about a kid who really, really likes movies and what happens when he gets a job at the local video store.  I suspect I was a little bit like this kid myself as a teen...  

I Am Alfred Hitchcock: A doco about Hitch by Mark Cousins.  It purported to be in Hitchcock's own words, but obviously wasn't.  The guy whose voice narrated it was a little annoying and the whole film was a little too long for me, but it was an interesting way to look at the master's films across six themes.  The dude was prolific, that's for sure!  I thought I'd seen a lot of Hitchcock films, but there was stuff referenced there I'd never even heard of.

Perfect Days: My favourite film of the Festival so far.  A very quiet film by Wim Wenders (whose films I've loved for decades) about a toilet cleaner in Tokyo and the very small moment that make up his life.  I have a reverence for those little, everyday moments and this was an entire film made up of them as well as showing how even small changes to to routine can be major life events.

More on Monday. I'm seeing four more over the weekend.

What are you celebrating this week?

Oh!  And come back tomorrow.  I'll be revealing the cover of my new book!

IWSG August

 It's the first Wednesday of the month, so it's time for the Insecure Writers Support Group!

The awesome co-hosts for the August 2 posting of the IWSG are Kate Larkindale (that's me!!!), Diane Burton, Janet Alcorn, and Shannon Lawrence!

This month's question is a goodie!

Have you ever written something that afterwards you felt conflicted about? If so, did you let it stay how it was, take it out, or rewrite it?

This is something that often happens to me.  Because I don't plot my stories much, my characters lead the way as I write and they often do or say things that when I go back and read the book, maybe don't sit quite right with me for some reason.  For example, in Standing Too Close, my 17-year-old protagonist has a sexual relationship with a much older woman.  I didn't plan it that way, but as I wrote the story, it happened.  And it made me uncomfortable, especially since she was a teacher.

I thought about re-writing that section of the book to take that aspect out of the story, but it didn't really work.  As an abused kid, my MC has a lot of confused ideas about love and intimacy and what all those things mean, and a big part of his journey toward adulthood is learning the difference.  Without that section of the book, the rest of his growth as a character just didn't work. So I've left it in.  For now.  Who knows what might happen if this book ever gets picked up for publication...

I was conflicted about so many things when I wrote Stumped.  A book about teenage sex and disability? The entire concept is controversial and there was no way I could shy away from things that might make readers uncomfortable.  There's one scene in particular that's so outrageous I really wasn't sure I could keep it in the book without losing readers. But it was so in character for my protagonist, Ozzy, that I just had to leave it in! So I did.  And strangely, it's not the scene that most people comment on.

But there are other things I have taken out of books because I felt conflicted by them.  When I wrote An Unstill Life, my first few drafts had a very different family dynamic with a lot of the things that Livvie ended up doing herself being done by an older brother.  I loved him as a character, but his presence in the story was a barrier for the other characters, so I reluctantly wrote him out, even though I was conflicted about whether this was the right choice.  And the book is better for it.  I just wish I'd found another story for him because he really was a great character. Maybe someday...

Overall, I think there are always going to be things you write that you're conflicted about.  But as long as whatever they are, they're consistent with the characters you've written, I think you owe your character the right to do them.  Especially if they're important to the character's arc.  Even though Blue and Jude's relationship in Standing Too Close still makes me feel uncomfortable, I know it's a part of the man he becomes, and that without that, he wouldn't make some of the more mature decisions he makes later in the book.

How do you deal with things you write that make you feel conflicted?