NaNoWriMo Conclusion

November is over and I can climb back out from under the constant word count pressure. For those of you who are new to the blog, or simply missed my previous post about National Novel Writing Month, let me reiterate it's awesomeness...

National Novel Writing Month is a program put on by the insanely cool people from the Office of Letters and Light. It is a non-profit program geared toward spreading the light of writing and literacy. Nano itself gives would-be writers that little push over the edge (yes. it goes to 11) to get started on a novel of their own. This was my 2nd WriMo and my second win! I crossed the 50,000 word finish line late in the day on November 29th!

For those of you curious what the result of "30 days and nights of literary abandon" looks like, here is my finished 50,000 word manuscript. The writing is insanely bad, but well, there's a reason why I program computers and not write books for a living!

Francis Fletcher - Finder of Lost Keys

For those of you who didn't participate in NaNoWriMo 2010 but wished you did... join me in April 2011 for ScriptFrenzy! (write a 100 page screenplay in a month)

The Warrior's Way, cowboys and ninjas! :)

The Warrior's Way written and directed by Sngmoo Lee stars Dong-gun Jang, Kate Bosworth and Danny Houston. While the love story aspect of the film ran a little cold for me the over all movie was quite enjoyable. Ninjas and Cowboys fighting it out? Oh yes please! :)

Warrior assassin Yang (Dong-gun) can not kill the final living member of a rival clan, A newborn baby girl, So he goes rogue and has to hide out from his fellow clan members. His new path leads him to America where he sets out to find a new life. Can he be anything else when killing is all he knows?

The whole movie is basically done with a green screen background. While I usually hate when that's done in movies, it worked well with the whole overall feel this film. Visually-stunning. I mean of course ninjas don't just leap out of the water 10 feet in the air. duh. Still, a fun movie and the kind of action you expect to see in a super cheese film. Let me tell you, the cheese kept coming.

Traveling to a city in the wild west our assassin ends up hiding out in a dead-end-run-down town. Circus Freaks? Awesome! Enter sexy town girl.....annnnnd start icing any possible chemistry. (some men have no game when it comes to the ladies) I get that the guy's a ninja and that's all he knows, but if the movie is trying to tack on the whole love part then they need to deliver that. You can't try and sell us on things that just aren't there. Oh wait Hollywood CAN and DOES. Silly me I forgot. :P

Bloody and violent, so if cheese and gory films are not your thing you will want to pass on this one. BUT if you're like me and you love some cheese with a big helping of ninja, then go see this film. :)

KD

Getting 4 ninja sheep! waaaaa-baaaaaa

We Love Gini Contest Winner!

We had 6 entries in this contest, so I spoke to the committee about debating the winner in a single round. Now, I knew that for any one person to get more than 10 of the 20 votes, it would need to be nearly a unanimous decision... which is really hard to get! The Committee of 20 decided to take on the challenge and locked themselves in the committee chambers to debate.

I stuck around to watch the first vote and to me, it seemed like It was going to be Gertrud... as she had an early lead:

Gertrud : 6
Amber Scott : 4
McPig : 3
Kelly M : 3
Buckeye Girl : 2
Stephanie : 2

I left the Committee to its work. In the meanwhile I ran across Chuck the Woodchuck! He wanted to apologize for all of the mischief that he had caused in the previous contests and wanted to help out with this one. He seemed sincere enough, so I agreed.

A few hours later, I checked back in with the Committee, expecting things to have been decided... but no... they were about 30 rounds into the debate with no clear winner in sight!

Amber Scott : 5
Buckeye Girl : 4
Kelly M : 4
McPig : 3
Stephanie : 2
Gertrud : 2

Still a very close contest. I went off to go find some lunch for the committee members. They collectively eat tons of Rice Crispy Treats.... Returning with food, the voting was around round 50.

Buckeye Girl : 8
Amber Scott : 6
McPig : 2
Kelly M : 2
Gertrud : 2
Stephanie : 0

It looked like Buckeye Girl was in the lead this time! The Committee broke for lunch. The whole time they discussed and weighed the merits of each of the candidates. They take their job quite seriously!

After lunch voting continued... After 62 rounds of voting... here were the results:

Amber Scott : 12
Stephanie : 3
Buckeye Girl : 2
McPig : 1
Kelly M : 1
Gertrud : 1

So Congratulations, Amber!

On a side note, I saved the transcript of all 62 rounds of voting. If for some reason or another you have the morbid curiosity of how it went down, contact me and I'll send it to you!

Tangled, say what?

Disney's Tangled is in theaters now. It stars Mandy Moore as the voice of Rapunzel and Zachary Levi as Flynn Ryder. I was pretty excited to see this film, (I'm a fan of Disney. I love Ariel and Beauty and the Beast) so I grabbed my date and rushed out to the theater. I was...a little disappointed.

Plot:

After receiving the healing powers from a magical flower, the baby Princess Rapunzel is kidnapped from the palace in the middle of the night by Mother Gothel. Mother Gothel knows that the flower's magical powers are now growing within the golden hair of Rapunzel, and to stay young, she must lock Rapunzel in her hidden tower. Rapunzel is now a teenager and her hair has grown to a length of 70-feet. The beautiful Rapunzel has been in the tower her entire life, and she is curious of the outside world. One day, the bandit Flynn Ryder scales the tower and is taken captive by Rapunzel. Rapunzel strikes a deal with the charming thief to act as her guide to travel to the place where the floating lights come from that she has seen every year on her birthday. Rapunzel is about to have the most exciting and magnificent journey of her life.

Now with Mandy Moore playing the main character you can expect a few singing numbers. But man there just seemed to be a TON of singing. I love music (rocking out to Primus atm) but was this a musical or a movie? It was hard to tell. Aside from the constant singing, the movie is definitely geared toward the young girls. [3-11 age range] A little action thrown in for the boys but overall it's a chick flick. And to drive that point home my 4 and 1/2 year old date asked me two times "is it over yet?". lol

I need to also point out that while the movie gets a PG rating this was the first time I have EVER seen blood in a kids movie. It was like watching a prison yard shanking! It's a kids movie people! Do they need to see blood? I was just a little put off by that, I know Bambi was hard core sad. But you did NOT see all the blood of Bambi's Mom. Just saying be warned if you go with little ones. There was a lot of "mommy what is that?" in the theater when that happened.

Aside from all that, use good judgement with this one and decide for yourself and family before going. I had no heads up on this on. Had I known...I would have gone alone.

Getting 3 confused sheep. Baaaaa

KD

Interview with author Alexandra Ivy 12/7/2010

Vampires and Werewolf's oh my! :) Yes thats right ladies and gents.....we have the one and only Alexandra Ivy author of the fabulous Guardians of Eternity series! baaaaaaaaa! [sheep doing back flips]

Alexandra writes about one of my all time favorite characters along with some amazing immortals. :) Make sure to come back next week for all the details. Tuesday, December 7th 2010 don't miss it.

Today happens to be the release date for her latest book Devoured by Darkness. Tane (oh my my this man is hott!) and Laylah take front and center in the continued battle between good and evil. Make sure to grab yourself a copy!

We do a lot of giveaways here...and with the holidays coming up and money being tight...we are sorry--KIDDING!!! hahahaha Come back next week and make sure to leave a comment to be entered to win some really great prizes. Want to know what they are? OK! :)

Not only will you be getting a vampire Pez dispenser (awesome I know) we have thrown in a beautiful vampire fang necklace (I have one myself it rocks!) and Alexandra will be signing a copy of her latest book for you as well!

So make sure to come back next Tuesday for all the fun. Same baaat-time, same baaat-place!

Holiday Sheep Love,

Amber, Katie and Richard

"because Woodchucks can't be trusted"