Coming Soon...

Yesterday, I could only take along one CD for a car ride. I chose a mix I burned a couple years ago with songs from all three *NSYNC albums. Really does take me back. And I've been checking into a lot of music I listened to 10 years ago. Back when I could describe my taste in music as "mainstream pop". Now, I can only call it bubblegum pop, a mixture between BSB, *NSYNC and Britney Spears.

But now that I'm actually starting to see the differences between the music of The Backstreet Boys and *NSYNC, that might be my next blog project. Should be very interesting :D

Finishing what I started... and much frustration

That's the main problem a lot of people have. I'm sure that every person has had this problem at one time or another. And all for a number of reasons.

Myself, I have trouble finishing reading books more often than not. Either I slowly lose interest, which can be compared to a slow, agonizing death, or something else comes up that is twice as interesting and I forget the other completely.

I'll try not to let that happen to "Wuthering Heights" just because its already pretty interesting. But with Twilight hysteria bigger than ever with the arrival of "New Moon," I'm becoming more interested in not only reading "Twilight" for probably the 7th time, but also going to be picking up "Breaking Dawn" for the first time since the first time I read it.
I had the same problem with "Interview with a Vampire," but we're comparing two different kinds of vampires here. A lot of die-hard vamp fans might have me burned at the stake for saying this, but I prefer my kind of vampires. The ones that seem just like regular teenagers, but with supernatural powers. I've tried two other series of vampires outside of Twilight & The House of Night, both have left me a bit disappointed so I'm not going to be picking up the sequals anytime soon.

The strangest thing is with some of the books I've picked up: they don't have many pages. I checked recently and found that "Twilight" nearly has 500 pages. The Harry Potter books range from 300-870 pages and I've read every single one of them. What is the difference between those and anything else I hadn't gotten around to finishing?

I'm a sucker for the fantasy genre. There's no other way about it.
Well, that's not completely true. I've read through "Angels & Demons" and "The DaVinci Code," both aren't fantasy, but have some sci-fi elements to them. And I found "The DaVinci Code" incredibly interesting. Unlike anything else I'd read before. It's 592 pages (just checked) and it wasn't all that hard to get through.

Last I checked, I have three books now that I have read at least half way through and haven't bothered to finish. "Memoirs of a Geisha" I'll now probably have to read from the beginning because I stopped more than halfway through when all other stuff started coming up. "Wuthering Heights" I'll have to get a move on, but I've got a lot more interests right now. When I'm done reading "Twilight" again,  I'll probably start back on "Wuthering Heights" which I'll bring to work with me. Then I'll read "Breaking Dawn" after the sun goes down at night for some reason, that was a habit I picked up when I read it the first time. But it was more of a concidence. I was so busy with classes during the day that I had no choice but to give it an hour or two every night. And that worked for me pretty well.

"Interview with a Vampire" I'll have to get through the next 200 pages at some point, but just don't have the feel for it right now.

All this Twilight hysteria has gotten me more interested in looking over something I wrote while I was getting off the high of reading that series. Bits and pieces are based on the world of Twilight.

The story begins when my heroine's dad dies in a car accident and she has no other choice but to live with her mom in Alaska. Her parents separated years ago when her mom, being the free-spirit she is, couldn't stay in the bonds of marriage any longer and spent the past several years living in different parts of the country. This particular move is more permanent.
For years my heroine has harbored something of a grudge towards her mom mostly on behalf of her dad, who never quite got over his first love.
Anyone who doesn't know Alaska is under the impression that its a desolete wasteland when it is growing more and more accustomed to the modern era. There's maybe one or two areas in my fictional version of the place where times are changing. The high school and the outdoor shopping center I called Nanook.
At the same time, I'm trying to work out somewhat of a love triangle between the heroine, her jock boyfriend back home (who is starting to remind me of Zoey Redbird's old boyfriend Heath in the House of Night series) and the somewhat mysterious Inuit youth she meets her first day at Nanook's resident Starbucks. I gave myself very little time at the end of the book to write the character of her soon-to-be ex Andrew and the break-up was a little too easy. I'm not sure if its even believable. It makes a reference to an Ibsen play, but it sounds almost cliche, an easy way out rather than there being a real conflict. The conflict I only make note of through the book when Hallie talks to Joey about Andrew. How she's a different person with the two different guys.
What separates this a little from what I did before is that the scenes between Hallie & Joey when they got more involved with one another are getting beyond PG and going into PG-13, maybe slightly beyond that at the very end. I'll just call it second-base. And I also make a couple Siberian huskies and a wolf secondary characters. They don't speak, but their expressions are described as if they were human. Ultimately, the wolf is the embodiment of Hallie's dad's spirit and shows up throughout the book to either save her life in the harsh Alaskan wilderness or just to help fill void within her that formed from her dad's death.

Mostly I wanted to read some parts again because another character, Trevor has become Hallie's "Jacob Black" but the two aren't involved romantically ever. She considers it briefly, but he ends up with her female friend, Alicia.
In some ways, though, Joey is a mixture of Edward & Jacob. He's got the mysterious thing going on, but because he's Inuit, he has strong feelings about his family and his roots. And he wants to stay true to his family's ways, not very into how times are changing in the world around him. Then in other ways, he's very close to my character, Jonas, one of my more beloved characters that I'd ever created. They have the mysterious thing going on, but Jonas is probably even more mysterious and a bit of an oddball in comparison. But anyone who's a reincarnated angel would be an oddball.

I started this entry with the following thing in mind:
I have trouble finishing what I start and it's not just reading books from start to finish.

Writing novels from start to finish are another thing completely on their own. 80% of the time, I finish one of my stories. The trick comes in the editing phase and I find that to be more difficult than anything else.
It's odd to say this, but when I write my stuff, it's like I'm writing about an event that happened to me personally. Something that actually happened to me. It can't embellish true events, just like I can't rewrite an old passage as if it happened that same day. I'm a different person now than I was when I wrote whatever it is I'm working on. It's impossible to write it in the same tone, the same voice as I did back then. And I'm having an even more difficult time trying to explain what that means.
When I write something from start to finish, I believe the story is finished and there's not much else I can do to it. Editing is something you have to do as a writer, but sometimes there just isn't anything else I dread more than having to edit something. I'll have an idea of what I can do, but I rarely follow through with it completely. I feel the need to work on something else and that's what's happening now. The only editing I can do with success is adding more dialogue or even writing a chapter completely over from scratch.

I consider "What if's" and "What could have been's" a lot. And my story about Jonas has one very big what-if. When I was writing one particular chapter, the power went out and I lost it completely. So when the power came back on, I had to write it all over again from the vision I had in my head. It wasn't exactly the same as what I had before the power outage. And I think I'd even written it all over again, yet again. The first time I printed it out and had someone read it, I found one chapter in particular to be difficult to understand. So I went back and rewrote it from scratch and it turned out better than I could have imagined.
Now I wonder what would have happened to that chapter if the power hadn't gone out.

It's great to have a lot of different things I've written. But I find a few problems with that all the time. One I'm starting to find is that a lot of my characters blend together. I write the same types of characters all the time. The male lead is mysterious and the best is brought out in them because of their love interest/girlfriend.

Then when I'm looking over my writing, I know for sure that I have a definite style that I've literally bred into myself. It's something I can't get rid of and sometimes my repeated phrases annoy the hell out of me because they span across all of the books I've written. The one main difference I did with my story in Alaska that I hadn't done anywhere is is description. In the settings and also in the ways my characters speak and relate to each other.

More than ever, I wish I had someone to talk to about this.

And I'm getting to thinking that there's no way I alone can edit my own works. Almost if I feel I have to hire someone to read my stories and tell me what works and doesn't. Someone who knows what they're doing. I suppose that's one of the things an agent does, but I've had little success with that as well. I think that none of my stories are good enough to publish because there's a lot of editing to be done. I wrote on my story on Jonas over six years ago and I've went through it and edited the whole story on two different occasions. The first time, I was sending it to Vantage Press and got rejected (I got a lucky break with that one because they'd been noted for counts of fraud). The second time, I sent it to publishamerica.com, only to find from prince.org of all places that that place is no good. Clearly I don't know what I'm looking for.

Then the only other thing I can think to do is shop around for an agent. If they look my story, they'll put in a good word for me with any of the publishers that are most likely to accept my manuscript. They say that if you want to publish, go with a company that has published stories that are close to yours. The ones that do that all require agents or "solicitied writers".
Perhaps the biggest problem I have is the fact I'm not writing a series of books. My characters are all independant of each other, with maybe two exceptions that share common destinies. The one thing they all have in common is that they're young adult fiction with elements of romance and fantasy.

I'd go shop around for an agent now if I had anything finished and that I think is good enough to put in book stores. I always that that my story on Jonas would be my first one, but I don't know if that's even ready to be shown around to agents. I'd written a lot of different things since then and I'm not that person anymore. There's little more I can do to it before it deviates completely from the original story.

The biggest challenge I have is writing a synopsis for it with a word/sentence limit. You're asking the wrong girl for that job, lol. That's why Twitter would be a huge mistake for me. I can't limit myself to 140 characters when I write, just not possible.

It's great that I have a large catalogue of work already, but the one problem with that is that I have a large catalogue of work. I can compare it to digging my own grave or bottomless pit that I can never climb out of with all the work I have to do. Or, I can be a purpleheaded geek and compare it to Prince's number of vaults with unreleased music. The way I write my stories can be compared to the songs he writes. He's in a particular state of mind with some of them and once that mood passes, that's it. He's onto the next thing and there's no such thing as second chances.

Perhaps the worst of it is that nobody has read my work. Ok, almost nobody. Some is published on various websites. Members of my family have seen some of my works. But none of it has reached anyone of substantial standing that can help me do anything with it.
Time I'm finding is my biggest enemy. Because I have a real job, there's not much time left for my writing. But I've mentioned this several times before.

I always have an itch to write something new, but to be realistic, I can't do that right now when I have so much in front of me. My number one problem for getting started is the money issue. Anything that's going to help me require I pay for a subscription. Because someone else sees and pays my credit card balance, its out of the question right now. That's the only downside from living at home with my parents, them providing the basic necessities. Sure, I'm legal and technically an adult, but I still have to follow the rules of the house. And getting such a subscription will only lead to a lecture. My dad seems to be the only person in my life who disapproves of me as a writer, thinking I have better things to do and that writing is just a hobby.

Now I ask: how can you say that writing 100-page stories is a hobby? It'd say that's something extremely serious and not to be taken lightly. Who writes something of that length in their spare time? Someone serious about writing. My seriousness can be critiqued a bit on the grounds that I'm no closer to being published than I was a year ago.

Nothing is in this world comes for free and that's a sentiment that nothing in this world sucks anymore than. Just doesn't. Even shopping for an agent requires a damn subscription fee.

This is starting to feel like being in show biz. You have to know somebody to get where you want to go.

OMG, I'm completely screwed, aren't I?
[resting head on computer desk with hands over head, groaning]

On a lighter night, I think I may be done with Musicology. The next thing I can do is watch Prince's performance on the NAACP awards when he received the Vanuguard award. Then it'll be 3121 for the next couple weeks. Oh boy, can't wait for that.

"New Moon" review *Spoilers Included*

With this entry, I'm going to include my original assumptions about the movie and what lived up to what and what surpassed what.

In a nutshell, my expectations were completely surpassed in almost every area and I can't think of the area right now where it wasn't.

The critics didn't like this movie very much and I think it can all be summed up with a sentence.

THEY DIDN'T READ THE BOOK

Seriously, you can't understand the movie's context unless you've read the books. Let's just say that if I hadn't read the book (and it's been at least four times), I would have been miserable through the whole thing.
A lot of blame was put on Bella's character who was "painful to be around."
Read the book to get a clue, loser critics. You may know a thing or two about what makes a good movie, but you obviously don't know anything about how it works in the Twilight universe.
Several people on webook.com and a couple other places have nagged on Stephenie Meyer's writing. Saying that her work is hard to get through and very boring because nothing happens. These people are used to vampire fiction where vampires are killers instead of beings with human emotions. While I'm on the subject, there was a preview for a movie called "Daybreakers" that takes place in a world of vampires and their "blood supply" is running out with the slow decline of the human population. The concept looks great, but the way the true vampires are shown in the movie, I don't think I could still through it in the theater without running out screaming or even hyperventialing/vomiting at some point. I found the trailer hard to watch in some parts because it was just too intense.

I've gotten through the first 100 pages of "Interview with a Vampire" and stopped because I wanted to read about my kind of vampires. The ones Twilight introduced me to. So they're the Diet Coke or even Coke Zero of all vampires. That being the case, maybe Coke Zero because the Coke people are convinced that Coke Zero "stole their taste".
I've been contemplating writing my own vampire novel, but anything I come up with is going to be far too close to Twilight no matter how I bite or slice it. But now I'm starting to think more about rereading the story I wrote shortly after Twilight became part of my personal library. Especially later on because there's a character who becomes something of a Jacob Black. A little protective of my heroine and believes that my "Edward" is the reason for what happens to her.
This whole matter takes place at the aftermath of a dogsled race, so I doubt there was a way for Joey to keep an eye on Hallie while he was busy winning the race. Long story, I know. I'm disappointed that its not even 200 pages. I went through a lot of notebook paper writing it. For that matter, Stephenie said that she started writing Twilight from a dream and when she finished, it was the length of a book. I cannot even begin to fathom how she wrote a near 500-page novel when she hadn't written a thing in her life. I wish I could get past the 200 page mark.

Now onto the movie. I put a great bit of my overally positive reception on the new director. The way he shot it and showed the different character was exactly what I wanted from the book. What I think Twilight should have been when it made it to the big screen. And as I might have said at some point, Kirsten Stewart is brilliant at teen angst and if there was going to be a shining moment for her as an actress in the series, it would be this movie.

And she did the job I expected she would. ;)

I'm going to list all of my assumptions and in bold/italtics, I'll put what really happened and then some.

So the following are my predicted scenes/non-scenes that will appear in "New Moon."

1. There will be only two minutes to focus on Bella's birthday when she's at school (maybe not at all). The movie will probably start with chapter 1, with the dream and go right to the scene at the Cullens

The dream was somewhat different than what it was in the book. It takes place in Edward's meadow and slowly backs away until Bella "becomes" her grandmother at the end of the dream. And there are a good 7 minutes just on Bella's birthday, including a scene with Charlie, her human friends, and a bonus, Jacob Black with a dreamcatcher. Oddly, Edward makes a comment that Jacob can give Bella gifts but he can't... something that isn't said until the next book. Jasper's gift is exploited with the scene where Alice invites her over for a party, which is also a bonus and it makes up for what he doesn't do in the first book.

1. She and Edward will not be watching Romeo & Juliet and there won't be that scene where he is critical of Romeo (there is much to debate as to whether or not he will allude to killing himself or any such introduction of the Volturi)

They didn't watch it at her house as it was in the book. In fact, Charlie and Edward had no scenes together at all. If so it would have been extremely awkward. They are actually watching this in class and there is the discussion about souls, being damned, and the Volturi. The funny part is the teacher asks Edward to quote a line from the play to make sure he was paying attention. Which he did. I can't help but wonder if he knew that or he was reading the teacher's mind

1. The dramatic scene at the Cullens' house will be a quick climax. The only present shown is the airplane tickets (possibly, still don't know if that trip will be included in the next film). All will last only three minutes (adding two maybe for the confrontation between Edward and Jasper)

Takes a good couple of minutes and all of the gifts are mentioned except for the tickets because that's where the paper cut happens. The climax with Jasper was almost in the blink of an eye the way it was written in the book.

1. There won't be a scene on her getting stitches, but a return to Charlie's house with a loose explanation of the newfound injury [actually, I was completely wrong and the reverse is what happens, ending this scene with a goodbye kiss outside of the Swan residence.]
2. Only a minute or two will go by in montage before the scene where Edward takes Bella into the woods  [I was right about this, though barely can be considered a montage. None of the Cullens are in school the following day]

1. The "goodbye" in the woods will only last as long as the hospital scene between them in the first film

I was right about this and it was a good chunk of time. The break-up scene lasts five pages in the book (supposedly, according to Robert Pattinson in one interview) and it feels like it lasts that long. Throughout the whole movie, I was thinking that my heart was going to take a toll from beating so fast in anticipation and anxiety. This scene took a good amount of that because I knew what was inevitable and I waited in pain as Bella rushes through the woods to find Edward when he leaves. So true to the book and well done.

1. the last scene where Bella's awake will be Sam Uley and Charlie finding her in the woods

There's actually a large Quilette search party outside of the Bella house waiting for an update. Charlie tries to locate Carlisle and the Cullens and finds that they've completely left town. And Jacob is actually part of the search party. Again, I was right about this.

There will be a lot of debate about how we get from mid-September to mid-January. Perhaps a montage will take place where Bella's catatonic. Then several dream sequences where she wakes up screaming, with Charlie rushing in to check on her less and less. My best guess is that the scene where she wakes up and gets into a huge fight with Charlie, who wants to send her off to Florida. Charlie told Alice later in the book about her throwing a tantrum (as well as clothes) all over her bedroom... I get the feeling that that scene won't take place so late in the film since we're not going exclusively from Bella's POV.

Just as I thought: a montage. I doubt there was a better way to do it, but I can't think of anything better. The names of the months are on the screen and it shows Bella looking out her bedroom window, sitting completely still and catontic as the seasons change outside. After a while, I'm thinking, almost saying out loud: "I'm getting dizzy" because the room was just spun around in circles very slowly as the seasons change and Bella doesn't.
Charlie gives his two cents to Bella, telling her at her truck before she goes to school that he wants to send her down to Jacksonville, but she doesn't want to. She's very subtle in her responses. Then there's some funny dialogue when she says she's going shopping with Jess and Charlie's awkward because he's not in his element with girls and shopping. And I was right about the times where Bella's screaming in her sleep and Charlie comes in. I would be more than willing to see this movie more times if not for those scenes because I find them scary. I could see myself in her place all too easily. I feel that pain. Which is why I found the book hard to read the first time. I was miserable right along with her.
And another interesting thing they did. Bella's narration in the book was shown in emails she sent to Alice, though they're all returned "Unknown Sender". It's a good way to get through the pain.

1. Bella asks Jessica to go to Port Angeles with her when she returns to school for the next scene and it will be brief (if it is shown at all) [true, though the invitation takes place over a phone call]
2. The scene at Port Angeles will be of very good length, including flashbacks from the previous film and a shadow of Edward will appear, telling her not to get mixed up with the mysterious men. [true, true, though Bella takes a ride on the back of a stranger's motorcycle and that doesn't happen in the book. And Jessica is actually as she is in the book.]
3. Several scenes will show Bella with her arm around her chest, trying to hold herself together and keep the hole from getting bigger [a few scenes, but present]
4. How she obtains the motorcycles will be shown very differently in the movie, may be very brief [Just going off to La Push with the motorcycles, randomly, no mention of how she got them]

1. There will be a short scene with her and Jake when she brings the motorcycles to his house in La Push. [Actually, its a very decent scene/montage. Great length and relationship building. And Quil and Embry show up to rag on Jake, something I wasn't expecting them to keep in the movie. Even better, they kept the whole "age contest" in the movie, though they didn't quite make a conclusion about who was the oldest based on their crazy little system that only they understand]

1. The scene on the actual motorcycle, on the other hand, will be a lot longer and will probably take place over several montages with Edward's face passing her as she rides by. Judging from one of the trailers, Jessica finds out about it and she asks if Bella's an adrenaline junkie now  [No montage, there's only one scene with the motorcycle and after Bella crashes, Jake tells her never again. And Jess makes that comment after she takes the ride from the stranger on the motorcycle... never did see Jake's completed Rabbit]
2. Bella will see some of the La Push kids cliff-diving and freak out and Jake explains it to her, as well as there being a brief introduction to Sam Uley's "gang" [yes, yes]
3. The "date" with Mike and Jake won't be taking place most likely [actually scene was added at the last minute].  Bella tries to call Jake and can't get a hold of him for several days. One scene will have her talking with Charlie, trying to see what's going on... might be a mention of the virus going around, but not 100% sure

According to Mike when Bella returns to their lunch table, "Bella's back." He asks her to the movies and she agrees if they see "Face Punch". She then makes it a group date. Of course everyone else bails because of the flu going around. Another thing, Eric & Angela are still together whereas Angela is dating Ben now instead of Eric. This scene was definitely one of the best in the entire movie because the rivalry between Mike & Jake is hilarious :D They include a scene where Jake tries to confront Bella about what Edward did to her. Ends with both of them feeling sick and/or burning up. This is followed by a montage of phone messages Bella leaves Jake. Around this point, Bella wakes up screaming from a nightmare and Charlie makes a comment that Jake has helped keep the dreams away (unlike the dream catcher he gave her for her birthday)

1. Bella next sees Jake at his house in La Push with Embry, Jared, Paul and Sam. They're secretive, whispering to each other and Jake gives her the downlow "we can't be friends anymore." She throws a fit, which Charlie sees, but doesn't make the call to Billy.

Dramatically this break-up scene takes place in the rain, but it does in the book. Just been Jake and Bella and the other werewolves are in the distance waiting for him. This scene, I was mostly mourning the loss of Jake's long locks of shiny black hair. It's a wig, true, but it made him work for me.

1. When Jake comes into Bella's bedroom to explain himself, it will be a decent sized scene, soon to follow with the dream where Edward and Jake go after each other.

It is what happens, though the dream isn't quite what I was expecting. It wasn't the confrontation they show in the commercials. They show a scene with Jake & Edward, following with narration from Jake about the story he told Bella in the last book

1. It's hard to tell when the scene at the Meadow will take place. Somewhere before Jake comes into her bedroom and tells her they can't be friends. There will also be a couple of mentions of giant bears or wolves attacking hikers (mostly from Charlie)

Takes place after Jake "breaks up" with Bella. Eric and Angela are having a bet about whether she was right about the "bears" in the woods and Bella says Charlie has gotten reports about them. It's a good sized scene right out of the book and the confrontation of Laurent and Bella is really good. The werewolves go after him and Jake's wolf looks at Bella before he runs with the rest of the pack. The scene ends with her talking to Charlie and Harry, saying that she saw the "bears" and that they're giant wolves.

1. This all follows with Bella and Jake walking on La Push beach. Also brings Victoria back into the picture

Bella goes to Jake's house, finds Jake asleep and confronts Sam and the other werewolves when she next sees them. After slapping Jared, he transforms and Jake comes running out of the house and transforms to fight with him. Great CGI action here. I don't think this is how it happened in the book, but I don't even remember anymore. After going to Emily's for a short scene and Jared apologizes as if nothing happens, Jake and Bella walk down the beach to talk about Laurent and Victoria.

1. The next big scene will take place at Emily's house with all of the oversized La Push boys pigging out. Jared and Jake's fight may or may not take place beforehand, somewhat of a confrontation between Bella and Sam before the fight

As I said early, the fight does take place, but the scene at Emily's is barely a minute long. They accomplished all the important points (Emily's face, "you're the wolf/vampire girl", way for Jake to get around the rules and the shared mind)

The scenes that transpire between now and Alice's reapperance are anybody's guess. I can't remember what happens between then and there in the book. Alice returns the scene after Bella cliff-dives and is rescued. (with Edward's voice and face there, Victoria's red hair but not her face, and Edward's face is replaced by Jake's when he saves her)

Mostly a bunch of montages. Harry and Charlie are looking for the wolves in the woods and don't find anything. Victoria tries to come after Charlie, but Harry gets in her way. Charlie's unaware of this of course and she's the reason he has the heart attack and dies. We don't realy find out why he has the heart attack in the book, but this could be a good reason for it. Bella then chooses now to go cliff-diving and its a lengthy scene with her seeing Victoria coming after her, Jake rescuing her and taking her back home.

1. There will be no mention of Harry's death and if any, it will be very brief. Alice shows up in Bella's kitchen and tells Bella that Edward thinks she's dead and he's going to the Volturi to ask for them to kill him. She says (and/or Edward's voice is heard) "You don't provoke the Volturi unless you want to die"... not sure whether Charlie appears and talks to Alice

Very brief mention of Harry's death and that Charlie is over at the Clearwater's place. Jake tries to keep Bella out of the house when he senses Alice's prescene, but she refuses to listen to him. He doesn't seem happy at all to let her in the house. Alice asks her why she's still alive because she saw her jump off the cliff. Bella explains. Then Alice says that Edward is spending a lot of time on his own and only calls in once in a while. She then smells the werewolf on her and Jake comes in to make sure she's safe. The two have a very close moment that is ruined by Edward's phone call. When Bella asks him who it was, Alice races in, saying that Edward thinks Bella's dead. And as a bonus, they show Edward on the other side of the phone and him breaking it in his hand.

1. This quickly follows with a scene between Jake and Bella, him telling her not to go because Edward had hurt her before and there's no telling if he'll do it again. [true, true, and I definitely would have shoved him for what he did over the phone]
2. May or may not be a scene on the airplane where Alice is trying to see whether or not the Volturi accept Edward's offer. [just shows the plane flying and Alice tells her about the vision in the car]
3. The scene quickly accelerates to Alice racing through Rome in a yellow Porsche (for their sake, I hope they get the car right) and Bella running to stop Edward from exposing himself

Very lengthy scene. And they got the car right :D The race through Italy on foot feels like it takes forever, especially in the slow motion part when she runs into Edward to force him back into the darkness

1. "Carlisle was right" will be his first reaction to Bella knocking him down [they have a very touching reunion scene where they're kissing in each other's arms. Much longer than I thought it would be]
2. The Volturi quickly take the trio underground to the heads of their organization. [the tunnels don't look very old and they actually have an elevator. they don't get to them very quickly and actually give them a few moments of making out before breaking things up.]
3. The scene underground showing the powers of Jane, Aro and Caius will take a good part of the film, 10-15 at best. Big fight scene [yes and yes. Aro's character was exactly as he was in the book, couldn't have been done better. They all try to demonstrate their gifts on Bella with no success. Edward and Felix fight and Edward is about to be killed by him when Bella asks for them to kill her instead. Aro is very entertained with her and at seeing what Alice sees (very cheesy scene with Bella and Edward running through the woods in slow motion, sparkling in the sun)]
4. Once out of the headquarters, the next scene will be Edward and Bella reuniting with the Cullens at the airport. Rosalie being overgrateful will be a huge inclusion. [doesn't happen. The next scene is Bella having a nightmare after hearing the incoming tourists screaming and Felix coming after Edward, and Edward's there when she wakes up. This scene is very short where they are talking about where they stand or rather Edward talking about where they stand. Bella doesn't say it, but she seems to feel like she's afraid he's going to leave again. And I feel the same]
5. Edward carries Bella back inside with Charlie being extremely furious and wanting to throw him out. The two of them then have a good amount of time to talk in the bedroom (a little longer than the hospital scene but shorter than the "goodbye" scene) [neither are true. Though Charlie comes into her bedroom and says she's grounded for the rest of her life for leaving for three days without a word. No mention of the cliffdiving adventure or Edward going to kill himself.]
6. Bella and Edward may or may not go to the Cullens' mansion and have the vote on whether or not to make her one of them.

It's a very good scene. The interaction between the characters is hilarious. Edward is acting as he does in the book, almost being a brat about the whole thing. Jasper's comment was funny "it would be great not wanting to kill you all the time" as was Emmett's "hell yeah". At Carlisle's answer, Edward looks ready to throw a tantrum, but doesn't. I actually wouldn't mind seeing that

1. The last scene will be Jake bringing the motorcycle to Charlie's house and Charlie yelling from the house. Jake and Edward have a short confrontation (but longer than their scene together at prom). The screen fades to black as Edward and Bella walk to the house to face the wrath of Charlie

They're in the woods again and the confrontation with Jake happens. The two don't seem very pleased with one another, though Edward is extremly grateful to Jake. Jake tells Edward that he'll violate the treaty if he changes Bella and he'd have to kill her with the treaty being null & void. She asks Edward to read his mind to see that he would never kill her. What I don't agree with is the fact Bella tells Jake she loves him when she doesn't come close to saying that until the next book. Then he transforms and Bella gets between them, saying that hurting each other would hurt her. At that, Jake runs off in wolf form. I could swore that this scene happens as a dream sequence, but apparently not. The movie then ends with Edward's ultimatum. He says his only condition for changing her into a vampire is that she marries him first. And like that, the screen goes blank. It couldn't have ended on a better note or we'd be hanging forever.

Overall film should be 10-15 minutes longer than the original. [7 minutes, actually]

Final grade: A- (drags on one or two points, and some scenes were hard to watch)

What plagues me about being a writer...

... too many things to name is my first reaction.

There are a lot of things that annoy me about being a writer, but there has to be some things you don't like about something you love.

Nobody can deny my work ethic, but when it comes to going to the "editing room" (there isn't a room but go with me on this), my work ethic is close to zero, maybe even less at some points.

All the time, I find myself trying to come up with brand new ideas and see where they'll take me. Then the inspiration stops coming and since my vision isn't as close as it was to begin with, the project is soon abandoned. I expect that my Word.doc approriately called "The Notebook" will have at least 100 pages soon, filled with ideas I never followed through. It's the best place I can think to put them because I delete them completely, I find myself wishing for them back to see what could have been.

One I recently came up with involves my character dating four guys over the course of one year at the suggestion of her two girlfriends (one might be a sister, but not sure).
What I should have done was make my character in her mid to late 30's instead of 25. It sounds like a better time to set up a scenario like that. It's almost like a midlife crisis type of thing where the girl's barely dated (or in my case, hasn't) and her friends try to set her up.
In the meantime, she finds one or two guys on her own. One is eventually going to be all wrong for her. Broodingly, devilishly handsome, but very selfish, quiet and self-motivated. It wouldn't be the first time I wrote a character based on Prince, but that one in particular might have turned out well. But motivation is a big issue.

Of course, I was in the middle of this when I was going that phase when I was hugely into Morris Day (The Time albums were in heavy rotation in my car). After seeing Purple Rain this last time, that "school girl" crush went away almost completely. The guy is a self-absorbed jerk that cares only about himself. He was acting a role, for sure, but it was a huge turn-off. And to think I was head over heels crazy about him especially when I saw him in 2 episodes of two shows he got cast in but never panned out past a season.
Truth be told, that man is a womanizer (at least the character he plays in his roles). What's to like about him?
Too many things that I care to admit now. And my plan was to make him the one guy that the two best friends recommend to my character. I can't even write for that character now because there's no attraction even with a guy as fine as he is.

With New Moon, the next Twilight film, soon to be upon us, I can't help thinking back to a year ago at that time. My school's animé club put together a trip to the theater to see the midnight showing of Twilight. Maybe 10 people including myself, the president and vice president of the club showed up. It was a helluva night with my friend Andrew. The two of us are hugely into animé (the same kinds), the Kingdom Hearts video games and silly dialogue that we repeat over and over (my friend Dave gets in the action sometimes and those two can really go to town with their back-and-forth).
So we had our Aquaculture class beforehand and went back to his apartment after. We went out in his car to town. At the nearby Circuit City, I made my final purchase with that franchise and it just happened to be "What Time is It?" That chain wasn't good for much else, but for that I am grateful to it. I haven't found it anywhere else and I'm glad I had the cash for it. Came dirt cheap too (because it is a lesser known The Time album to the public and it IS Circuit City on the verge of closing its doors).
Then we went to Cold Stone for a couple of Pepsis (no ice cream, lol) and chatted inside for a little over an hour. We talked so much that night and it was a blast before we even got to the movies.
When we got the movies, we were on edge just a little waiting for the president & vice-prez to show up with the tickets that they reserved with Fandango. We go in and I doubt there will be anything that can top that gathering.

The theater was almost completely packed with Twihards! People even more obsessed with the series than I am. It doesn't seem possible, but my roommate courtney's friend Danielle had read the books dozens of times and knows them backwards and forwards. She even wants to roadtrip it out to Forks to look for Edward.
I had never been in a theater where everyone reacted to everything on the screen for either laughs or cheers. When the vampires (and werewolf) made their first appearances on the screen, there were the loudest cheers I'd heard in my life. Talk about fangirls. Other than the fact we were sitting too close to the screen and had to lean back the entire time, it was an awesome experience I won't soon forget.
Now I just feel bad that I can't see the midnight showing of New Moon because I have to work the next day. I have to actualy wait until Sunday to see the movie, but it'll be well worth the wait.

Back to my writing...

Motivation is a big issue for me, especially when it comes to editing. Especially my least favorite parts of a particular work. A friend of mine who'd written many great fanfictions about my favorite boyband advised me that I don't have to go in chronological order when writing a novel. But it's something I have trouble not doing. Things might just go faster if I leave the boring scenes for when I have some motivation or inspiration for them.

Then there's the fear of writing something that's too close to something I'd read. I've contemplated writing about vampires, but am extremely sure it'll turn into Twilight at some point.

One problem I'm not having now is the fact I'm not reading enough. I have been. None are withstanding greats, but its good to keep my reading muscles in tune. My most recent acquistion was a vampire book called "Evernight," which is about a secret school full of vampires that had recently allowed human students back into the school. Then a romance takes place between a girl who's born between two vampires and a human who turns out to be part of a group of vampire hunters. None of this comes together until the later stages of the book. I found the chapters after the reveal of the girl being the vampire a little odd because the school was discussed in terms of being a vampire school, assuming off the bat that the reader would go with the flow and not question anything. Boy did I have questions. It's like saying "I'm a vampire" and the person being told this is automatically fine with it.
For the record, the Twilight film did that scene poorly when compared to the book. At least Bella had the time to contemplate the ideas and possibilities of it being true and even working to accept them rather than accepting them at the snap of a finger.
Something like this should either be introduced early or if done so later on, it should be worked up to with foreshadowing. Then the romance between the vampire & vampire hunter, I didn't find believable at all. Sure, neither are the seeds planted initially between Bella & Edward, but the book does a better job than the film. And maybe I didn't enjoy the concept quite as much because I read such a book last year. I got it from Comic-Con and had it signed by the author even though I hadn't heard of her or the series.
That book made me uncomfortable on several occasions because there were sex scenes with way too much imagery and description. Call me naive, but it was just a turn-off.

So far I'd only found one vampire series since Twilight where I'd invested in the sequels. All the same, The House of Night series isn't a complete piece of cake either. Each book except for the first one and fifth one had me begging to read more. Those two, I was perfectly fine with the ending and didn't long for a sequel because I found the ending unsatisfying.
The first problems took place in the second book when we find that one person isn't all they seem to be. Then the next one ends with one tragedy after another. Friends turn their back on friends and the emerging villian seems as unstoppable as ever. Then the next one was even more unbelivable because the motives for the villian are revealed and its completely out of the box.
Like there can't be one book series about a boarding school that doesn't end with "the heroes have to save the world from an evil being". It can't all be about school because school is boring on its own, right? That twist was too Harry Potter-esque for me. That series at least pulled it off well, but to see it repeated seemed unoriginal. Then I'll hear someone say "the Harry Potter plot wasn't original either."

The most recent book from the House of Night series was done really well because it was just plain exciting through most of it. The emerging idea of the Warrior's Oath especially. But the ending topped the 2nd book's ending in the depressing department. Someone dies at the end of the book and something happens to the heroine as a result. The problem: I dont' know what happened to her or what its going to mean for the rest of the series.
Speaking of which, how many books will there be in this series? I thought there'd only be a small number. Book 7 is coming up next year and maybe that'll be the last one, but then again, maybe not. As long as its not 50 something books long like the Animorphs series, I'll be in good shape. I'd rather not spend that much money on all these books.

Originality is a pretty interesting concept and its not exclusive to books either. I found recently that music can't all be original and some sounds and elements are shared between artists. My recent acquistions are "Silver Side Up" by Nickelback and Rob Thomas's "Cradlesongs." At this point, I find myself disappointed with Nickelback because the album lacks variety and strangely enough, it's too subtle for me and I thought a lot of their later works rocked too hard. Their most recent album probably has the best percentage of songs I like to listen vs. the ones I skip. There were only two songs I skipped and both were simply too vulgar.

That's probably my biggest issue with Nickelback with the songs I don't like as much, but so is rocking way too hard for my tastes. That was the problem with the album "All the right reasons." My favorite tracks are a mix of melodical, poetic and moralistic (if that even is a word). The reason I considered the group at all was for those particular reasons. There is also a sense of relatability with a couple of the singles. "Photograph" is very sentimental, which I can be a lot of the time. "If everyone cared" as well as "If today was your last day" make you think about how you live your life and how you could see things differently.
A lot of other songs I liked were melodical. "Savin' me" is probably the best example. I also love "Gotta be somebody" because the music is unlike anything I'd heard the group do before. Think of it doing what "Take me with U" does for Purple Rain (the film more prominently than the soundtrack). It's like a breath of the fresh air, takes you places outside of your everyday life.
The latter song in particular I'm finding very inspiring. I've listened to it and can picture an opening scene for a movie, particularly a romance. If the story of the four boyfriends over the one year were a movie, it would start with such a scene. The girl running through various settings. A quiet path at night with a street light and a lone park bench. A busy boardwalk. A busy NYC city street. And at the end of each, running towards the person associated with those particular places. What a scene that would make.

If I had any skill or creativity with a video camera, I'd shoot a short film for myself with music in the background.

The lone good thing that I love about my new Nickelback album is the song I got the album for. "How you remind me" is beyond description in some places, but basically I like it for the way the music fits along with the words and how finely melodical the music is. The way it flows from one note to the next resonates beautifully with me. There are some songs I love by all artists where the instruments in the melody fit perfectly together, flowing in and out in harmony. There's one song in the 90's called "If you could only see" by Tonic where there's a solo in between courses that's a perfect marriage between drums and guitar.

One thing that Prince has opened my eyes to in music just the ability to take all of the instruments that go into it into account. All have a part to play and some of them shine brighter than others. I find myself drawn to a lot of drum solos because they're done in a special way.

Rob Thomas on other hand already feels like the better investment of the two albums. I already love "Her Diamonds" because I made it my ringtone. But his lyrics have much to be said about them. He tells some interesting stories in his words and the words just roll off the tongue. Some of the bits and pieces of things that make up his songs remind me a lot of other artists I've listened to recently. Some things remind me of Richard Marx. On 7/7/07, I bought over $100 of music at FYE. Most of it was because of the "buy 3 used, get one free" deal. Basically I got Richard Marx's greatest hits for free because it was the cheapest. Deemed pretty much a "throwaway" at only $4.99. But now that I've gotten the chance to listen to it, its the best free investment I've made.

Nearly everything on the album is a love song, but they take on different degrees of love. Some even tell stories that go beyond love.  The first song is about making it in Hollywood and its a unique specimen among the songs released in 1987. Of course there are a couple of tearjerkers along the way. Angelia and Right here waiting are the biggest candidates, especially the latter because who doesn't love that piano meldoy introduction.

Taylor Swift is one of my favorite artists as of late for a number of reasons. Now I've come to see that she's becoming a female version of what Jesse is to my music collection. She's an artist that plays songs I can picture myself in, feeling the same type of things, the relability factor that I find in so many of Jesse's songs. And her "Fearless" album has become my favorite companion when driving home from work in the darkness that comes with daylight savings time.

My biggest problem with being a writer along with motivation is finding that I have nothing to write about or want to write about. That's why I haven't written much on Prince lately. Nothing's peeking my interest.
Musicology is getting interesting, though. I find myself rediscovering a lot of the things I like about it as well as Prince. The only issue I have at some points with it is that it makes it him seem... well, old. Like an old fogey reminsicing about the good old days. Someone stuck in the past who doesn't want to talk about the possibilities of music for the future. Of course that's what 3121 ultimately becomes about, getting into future trends and setting up for the next several albums (Planet Earth and Lotusflow3r-the one disc, not all 3 in the album set).

Its a shame in some instances that songs he does on the album never have their likes seen again. "The Marrying Kind" and "If I was the man in ur life" are two such individuals that stand out. Nothing like them has been seen before in his catalogue and they haven't been repeated.

"A Million Days" is one of his most unique gems in all of his music. There are only verses, no chorus, unless the guitar heard between verses IS the chorus. Each guitar solo builds on the next. The two high points are what could be the chorus of the song, which is only heard once, where there's a build-up of strumming electric guitar.

"I'm contemplating pulling out my suitcase and packing everything I own..."
The admirers and supporters know the rest.

Then after the bridge where he sings "ur the perfect picture of what love should look like and I wanna be ur frame" (beautiful lyrics, btw), there's an amazing guitar solo. Where I can picture one scene fading into the next. He walks towards the screen, one foot after the other and the screen fades into him on a lone rotating pedestal playing a guitar for the solo.

"Cinnamon Girl" doesn't go over well with many people for some odd reason. It plagues me to this day because I simply don't understand the non-appeal. I love the storyline because it makes you think and the guitar is clearly the song's star. Although the tambourines play an integral role as well. I've noticed in some places where they're one of the few instruments playing, they progressively get louder and louder.

I also got to thinking while listening to "What do u want me to do?"... I hear a Linn-drum machine in the song that I don't think I've noticed before. Then something about it makes me think of "The Ballad of Dorothy Parker" but the circumstances are very different.

Taylor Swift and my music collection

This particular problem happens to a lot of people and it takes on many different forms.

You have a lot of something, but at the same time, feel like you have nothing to choose from.

For me, its music.
Two of my aunts have suggested that I invest in books on tape for my commute and I'm starting to think that maybe they had a point.

I have over 100 albums from at least 50 different artists (a lot from one) and I feel like I have nothing to listen to.
Just today I bought another Nickelback album and Rob Thomas's most recent (includes my ringtone "Her Diamonds"). The Nickelback album puts me over for three from the group that's probably the biggest surprise in my collection since the many Prince albums. The lead singer, Chad Kroeger has a very coarse voice that isn't very attractive but when it sings poetic, thoughtful lyrics, it does sound very nice. I only bought this album for one song, "How you remind me" but its one of my favorites of theirs.

I began investing in Taylor Swift's music since the day I first heard "Teardrops on my Guitar" on the radio. In fact she had me at the first line because I knew a guy named Drew that I had the biggest crush on my senior year of high school and I actually thought the same of the girl he was with as Taylor did of the girl her Drew was with.
The only difference in our stories is that her Drew didn't come out of the closet the following fall. Stranger things have happened, but even thought that is true, it remains that he inspired something I wrote. The fate of that work remains to be seen just because I might be going in another direction with it.

I bought her first album the same time as Jesse's "Departure" and have had more time to listen to it. And this week, I spent going through her second album, "Fearless." Much like with Maroon 5's 2nd album, it takes some of the ideas and musical signatures from the first album and takes them to another level. And there are a lot of new sounds to be heard.

The vibe I get from both albums is that Taylor is a country girl from a small town in the south. And she's had good relationships and bad ones. But there's a lot to be said about whether or not they are based in truth.

The strangest part of having Taylor in my collection is her being a country artist and I'm not into country very much. That's the reason why I sold Michelle Branch's second album. Some of her songs can be seen as pop songs as well.

I also went to Borders yesterday and got a couple of books. One is another vampire series that looks interesting. After reading the first book, ill know whether I should keep going with the series. The other is Wuthering Heights, which I only bought because it was Bella's favorite and I wanted to see what it was about and if Catherine & Heathcliff really are among the most reputable couples of all time. Edward didn't seem to think so, but he also didn't put much stock in Romeo either (but he changes his mind after the crazy events that ensue in New Moon).
Actually, Borders has started to repackage that book, Romeo & Juliet and Pride & Predjuice as the original romance novels. All of which I should read at some point in my life. Romeo & Juliet should be much easier to get through than Hamlet was (which is I believe the longest play Shakespeare has written).

I should brush up more on the classics for sure, but I need to finish reading some of the books I started first. One is Interview with a Vampire, which I got to page 100 and stopped cuz I was craving my favorite type of vampries, from Twilight and read through books 2 & 3 in the series.
The other Im making more progress in, the newest installment from "House of NIght" series. I'm just not looking forward to the moment when I finish and find out whether or not I have to wait for another book to come out.