| Author |
Message |
    
Nancy M. Segovia
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, September 27, 2001 - 09:04 am: |   |
Hi C.E.
Rather discouraging isn't it, but you are not alone in
this. I've noticed that all the forums I visit regularly
are suffering from a significant lack of postings.
I wonder if people are spending more time with family,
friends, groups, etc. because of WTC instead of being
on the computer.
For me the computer is my link to the outside world,
I come here for news, adult conversation, information,
research, work, study, etc. since I live in an isolated
area. But, I know that it's not the same for everyone.
I dunno, just my thoughts on the lack of response in
forums for the past week or so.
Smiles and blessings, Nancy Marie |
C. E. Winterland - work
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, November 12, 2001 - 10:05 am: | |
Two fun little quotes from my Franklin Covey scheduler today...
"[Creativity] is like driving a car at night. You never see further than your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way."
E. L. Doctorow
"Whatever creativity is, it is in part a solution to a problem."
Brian Aldiss |
C. E. Winterland
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, November 17, 2001 - 02:04 am: | |
The Harry Potter & The Sorcerers' Stone review
Understanding that some of you may have issues with the Harry Potter phenomenon, I should like to say that if you have not read the Harry Potter books I think you are missing out on some truly fantastic storytelling. I very likely owe my own love of the gift of storytelling - or at least the inception of that love - to three people. The first being C. S. Lewis for the Chronicles of Narnia, which I used to skip recess to read in the third grade, and to Mr. Roald Dahl for his adventuresome stories, and finally to my fourth grade teacher, Mr. Lee, who read aloud every day to his class stories such as James and the Giant Peach... he even did the voices 
Anyhow, I digress (as usual). I wanted to mention Dahl though, because J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series captures a very similar cathartic sense to those tales that came alive for me at the end of every day in fourth grade.
But, my intention tonight is to talk about the movie...
Right off the bat I will tell you that it is looking up to be a damn good winter in movies.
I was excited enough about this one to brave the craziness of opening night. I bought my ticket in advance, and arrived about 15 minutes before the movie started - something I never do, but had to make the exception here. Well, 15 minutes before the trailers started I walked into a PACKED theatre. Luckily no one else was crazy enough to brave opening night with me, because alone I was able to get a good seat.
Alright... you've all seen the commercials for the movie, I'm sure, so I'll start right into casting. It's almost as if Rowling herself cast the bloody movie, though I did picture Dudley as a bit more nasty and fatter. Harry is adorable (and all of the young girls were talking about how they just "couldn't take my eyes off him..." after the movie (and thus a star is born). Ron is excellent. And Hermione is very cute, a little mussed, and I think purposely over-acted at times to give her that annoying quality which fits the book perfectly.
Unfortunately they opened the movie with an owl... and I have to admit that the CGI animation still has a way to go before it's truly believable in some cases. The owls failed in that regard a lot. Generally though, the CGI animation works so well that you never think of it - because everything in the whole move is so fantastical to start with.
Which brings us to scenery. I was continuously amazed at how well the scenes were portrayed. Generally when I go to see a movie based on a book I have read, I get bogged down with criticizing the director's whimsy when it comes to staying true to the details of the book. Here however, the scenes that I remembered so clearly simply seemed as though I were actually watching my own imaginings as I read the book. Think about that. I don't say it lightly and it really came to life that well.
This is my first attempt at being a movie critic, and I don't want to sound like a "yes" man, but the movie really did bowl me over.
What really gets you is the subtle flavors from the book, the humor, the drama, the fantastic imaginings are all there for you. I like humor in any story, and the Potter books are full of that. The movie brings it out, and going back to Ron Weasley, there are some added bits for the movie that come out brilliantly.
There are a few bits of the story that the time constraints of the movie just won't allow (and they tried, you can tell, it's about 2 hours and 45 minutes long - which I know only because I looked at my watch while leaving the theatre). But you hardly miss them unless you are really looking for them (as I was).
Will there be another Harry Potter movie? Oh yeah. They were true enough to the book that even the cliffhangers live on, just as written (as if there was ever any doubt that they'd make another one).
I purposefully did not do any research about this movie before I went to it, and was very pleasantly surprised that I am more than familiar with most of the cast. Again to the casting... excellent job there, right down to Nearly Headless Nick and Professor Snape.
I don't want to get too far into detail, but I think that things I would have thought difficult, like the Quiddich matches, were done so darn well that you have no trouble at all believing in them.
Well, I could ramble on about it forever I suppose (or have I already...?) but I would definitely like to say this... If every movie based on a book were this good, this true to the story, fiction writers could just go straight into screenwriting. I am so impressed by how well they stuck to the story, portrayed the fantastic, and kept even the bits of humor that make Harry Potter what it is, that my already high hopes for The Lord of the Rings have been broadened by this experience.
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone is a great movie, even epic in a way that reminded me of movies like 'The Green Mile', and the Indiana Jones series. And like with The Green Mile, you won't even feel those 3 hours (unless you have a small bladder hehehe).
I promise, it's a really good movie
CEW |
Marie
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, November 18, 2001 - 05:19 pm: | |
CEW -
Hey, thanks for the movie review! My husband and kid have been planning to see it for over a year, and I'm about fed up with hearing about it in my house...HOWEVER, I did enjoy a review by a trusted writer friend much more than a review by "whoever" in a newspaper. I do plan on seeing the movie - on video - while my hubby and chitlin can go stand in line with everyone else if they choose. They plan on going on Thanksgiving day after turkey, because they are assuming there won't be a line by then. I'm sure they are wrong about that, though.
Thanks again.
Marie |
Gloria Marlow
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, November 28, 2001 - 11:12 am: | |
Does anyone know an old saying or poem or something that starts with "yesterday's dreams". I really thought there was one, but for the life of me I can't remember it. I think this is going to be the title of the book I'm currently writing, but again, for the life of me, I don't know why I think that it fits. Maybe if I just knew the rest of the sentence I would understand.
Thanks for any help! If you can't think of something, feel free to make something up.  I'm desperate here. |
C. E. Winterland - work
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, November 28, 2001 - 01:17 pm: | |
"Yesterday's Dreams Tomorrow's Promises"?
It is already a book title if that's what you're thinkin of...
Also there is "Yesterday's Dreams... today's reality..."
Do I just magically know all kinds of quotables? Nah... go to http://www.dogpile.com and search for "yesterday's dreams" (use the quotes)... you will find all kinds of stuff.
CEW |
C. E. Winterland - work
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, November 28, 2001 - 01:18 pm: | |
I also found this poem
Yesterday's Dreams
I would always dream
of enchanted things,
of Lords and Ladies,
Kings and Queens.
Of dragons to be slain,
Damsels to be saved,
And Knights who were blessed
because of the dangers they braved.
I was a child back then
expecting more out of life,
trying to escape reality
and all it's pain and strife.
In my dreams I was a Damsel
trapped within the tower.
And Knight would slay my dragons,
For he was never a coward.
He'd sweep me away,
in yesterdays dreams,
to beautiful garden paths
and warm sunbeams.
And as the sun sets
on the pool of irridescent water,
My Knight and I would live,
happily ever after...
By Dream Dancer
http://www.geocities.com/SouthBeach/Boardwalk/7257/dream.html
CEW |
gloriam8
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, November 28, 2001 - 04:14 pm: | |
Thank you, C.E., I knew someone here would know something. I like the poem. Well, actually, yes, I was thinking of a title, but maybe not. Just thinking still and it came to me. I hate the title for my book that is being published now and thought I should give this one more thought. |
C. E. Winterland
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, December 22, 2001 - 03:43 pm: | |
After all the "negative review" information being discussed over on the PA board, I decided to check out "Awareness" reviews today, and found this one posted on B&N yesterday...
- Kris, December 21, 2001,
To potential readers & the author him self.
I wanted to write a review right after reading the book, though for 6 months I was unable to so, here goes. In short, the book is several hundred pages long, and it only took me a few days to read. I couldn't put it down. The book was recommended to me by a friend; I inturn, recommend the book to you. If you like fantasy books at all this book will hold your interest the entire time. This is one of those books you're sorry to finish because it means the characters have to go away. The way Awareness written, you get 'attached' to each of the characters in a unique way. You really feel like your on the 'adventures' with them.... Please forgive the somewhat vagueness of the review, but I wish not to disclose any of the books contents. C.E. Winderland - I thank you. You have opened my heart to a wonderful new world of thinking. (There's just something about that ending...) I still haven't forgotten a single detail of the book. Maybe some day our paths will cross again....-Niadara J.
I thought it was neat. No clue who this might be - why would I, I suppose...
CEW |
Claudia Turner VanLydegraf
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, December 22, 2001 - 06:04 pm: | |
CE,
That is a wonderful review. See, you thought that you had to revise your book so much, maybe you really didn't. I sincerely hope that you didn't chop the best parts of Awareness to please a crit group or person. Sometimes, you think that more has to be done and chopped and revied to please those other (reviewers), and in the doing of that you might just lose the essence and very body of what you were trying to do...... You submitted Awareness in the state that it was in at the time PA published it for you and someone thought you had a really good book. Congrats..... And HAPPY CHRISTMAS AND MERRY NEW YEAR to you.......
Claudia |
Barbie
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, December 24, 2001 - 06:46 am: | |
C.E.:
Congratulations on your 'mysterious' terrific review. You are reaching for your star!
Just wanted to stop by to say hello and to wish all a Merry Christmas. |
C. E. Winterland
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, December 27, 2001 - 03:22 am: | |
So I thought I'd share a nightmare that happened to me tonight that I know you will all appreciate...
I'm in the process of upgrading one of my computers and swapping some of the components to another. About a week ago I transferred all of my books to a different harddrive, along with all the files for this website, my maps et al... and tonight I moved that drive to the swap computer.
Well, due to a teensie weensie little pin in the wrong configuration on what was to be the main hard drive in the swap computer, the machine thought that my drive with my books was the system drive, and proceeded to wipe it clean. All of my books, all of my maps, this entire website, and just about every other bit of important information was in that damn drive.
The last version of Awareness that I have on disc is pre-published PA submission - BEFORE the edit, actually, it's the version prior to the one I submitted to PA. And no maps.
I have 2 things to say, the first is
AAARRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!
and the second is
ALWAYS BACK UP YOUR FILES!!!!!!
Very sadly and horribly embarassed,
CE Winterland |
Kevin P. Grover
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, December 27, 2001 - 05:38 am: | |
C.E.,
I feel your pain. About 9 months ago, I took a fantasy-fiction that I had been writing and decided to re-vamp it. I took the twelve chapters that I had been working on and started from scratch, intending to have each of the first five chapters dedicated to each of the main characters. It was going wonderfully and I had taken twelve chapters and expanded them with a lot of feeling, descriptive, narrative, and everything else that one would enjoy.
Alas, when I moved, something got lost. I don't know how, or anything, but the entire manuscript was lost. I still have the original 12 chapters, but the rewrite flowed nicer, was a lot less choppy; well, you know what I mean.
The worst part is that I really liked what I had written. Hopefully I can work on getting it back out of my mind so that I can continue the story. |
C. E. Winterland
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, December 27, 2001 - 03:08 pm: | |
Well hello Kevin,
I knew folks would be able to identify with that one. Nice thing is - I lucked out. I have a dedicated fan who was also my publicist when Awareness was out with PA that I send everything to. So I've already received back from her the latest version of "Awareness" that I finished a few weeks ago (giant load off there). What a scary event it was though. I imagine I'll be discovering things that I'm missing for a long time to come yet...
By the way, nice to see you over here visiting, you have achieved a lot with your book, and its impressive and inspiring. I hope you're not one of the folks that things this forum is here only to bash PA, it really isn't that way at all.
Anyhow, thanks for sharing - I think HP or someone is soon to come out with a mind backup system to recover all those lost chapters hehehe.
CEW |
Kevin P. Grover
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, December 27, 2001 - 05:16 pm: | |
Thanks CE, for the welcome and for the words about the book. I just feel that I've been lucky is all. I met a couple of friends right off the bat and they gave me some tips which I have planted and been fortunate enough to have a tree grow from them.
Actually, it IS distressing when you lose something. Not only because of the loss, but because each of us grows as a writer the more that we write. I look back on Strike Hard now and can see a lot of things that I wish I could change. Perhaps in a few years I'll do like Ray Feist did with the Magician series and write a "definative" edition. (laughing)
But seriously, the more that you write, the better you get. It's the same with everything. "Practice makes perfect" goes the old saying, and with writing it certainly rings true. I don't know the difference between a preposition and a colliqulil (sp), but I do know that making a story flow without being choppy is important. I also know that the more a person writes, the better they are to tell the story. It seems as though you inadvertantly learn better prose as you write more.
No, I certainly don't think that this place bashes anyone. Just as I posted elsewhere here, I hope that people don't get the wrong idea about UAA. We don't try to tell people what not to say, but rather ask them to enforce a mature attitude about things. We have been lucky enough to have gathered a lot of very good people, a sentiment which Amanda mentioned to me shortly before she departed PA. We were talking and she asked who we had as members over there. When I read off a partial list of members, she mentioned that we were garnering the best-selling authors that PA had. I like to think that it's not our work that is any better than anyone else's, but rather our attitude toward the entire scheme of things. Sure, there are some issues that we may have with things, but we at UAA don't dwell on them. But rather, we look for ways to get around them and drive on. Many of our members have garnered book signings, television and radio interviews, and a plethora of other happenings that have directly resulted in gaining attention for their work and themselves as authors. Most of these opportunities have come about because of the information that is shared on our site.
I recently began sending out press releases to newspapers and such, in an attempt to gain more outside interest in UAA. We feel that in this way, we can gain promotion for our material without worrying about overhead for advertising.
Many people know that the UAA has been instrumental lately during the wave of attacks against PA authors on Amazon. While we look after our own, a full 50% of the ones that were attacked were not UAA members. Yet we took them under the UAA umbrella when we reported the incident. Not because we wanted to show off, but because we figured that an effort from an organized community of international members would garner a little more clout than a bunch of people writing in on their own. Our efforts were rewarded during the last round, when Amazon agreed with our request to begin seriously monitoring to stop these posts from even showing up.
The concentrated effort at UAA is this: we want to see at least ONE person make it big. It matters not who, as long as one person gets the BIG break. We all have a single feeling that if that happens, then we ALL have succeeded.
Well, that's enough wind from me tonight. Have a Happy New Year everyone!
Kevin P. Grover
Manager, UAA |
Nancy Mehl
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, December 27, 2001 - 05:26 pm: | |
CE,
How awful about your files. I can't imagine what I'd do if that happened to me!
You'll overcome - and the next version of Awareness will be the best!!!
Nancy |
C. E. Winterland
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, December 27, 2001 - 08:54 pm: | |
Kevin,
What is the webaddress for UAA? I'll put a link up in the "Writers" link section of the link portal. I think we are 2 sites on the same path, really, though this is merely an area for discussion rather than an organization like the UAA. And congrats on the Amazon issue - it's good to see.
Patrick,
What got me on the path of writing fantasy? Well, without going too far into the details of my childhood hehehe, I read fantasy, I really enjoy it - that may be some strange mutation of the brain, I don't know. I've wondered why I chose to be so interested in fantasy as well, but it just is, I guess. Science Fiction has a lot of similar elements as fantasy, so in a way I suppose that's why the two are lumped together in every bookstore.
To get into the technical bits, I am a stundent of English Literature, particularly early English (Brittish) literature and very early American Lit. Fantasy has its moments where some of that can come out (because it's a dead style, really, though it has some merits, in my opinion). I'm intrigued really by the development of the language itself - for example, how and why and by what path did words such as "ain't" get canonized into the language... I am also a student of philosophy, and language and philosophy are irrevocably tied together (at least once you get past the basics of logic).
Much of what I write is an exercise for me at first - toying with words, phrases, puns, meanings, etymologies and the like. It just so happens that fantasy fiction is a blank canvas, there are really no rules except those you choose to put upon yourself. When sitting down to write a fantasy story, there are certain formulas that you might employ (such as the traditional "Tolkienesque" races that kicked it all off, for example), or you could go off on a complete tangent from the typical fantasy tale, which is what your readers are going to want, in a way. Of course, if you choose to completely remake the world, your task is then to spend as little time as possible in describing in authorials what, how, when, why, who and historicals about the world you intend, while filling the reader in through narrative about where they are, how it is, and the like. Not really a simple task, that. If you do it poorly, it reads like a history lesson - case in point, David Eddings' "Rivan Codex", released by Del Rey a few years ago. It was actually Eddings' notes to himself, his "outline" of the world he used in his Belgariad and Malorean series.
Science fiction is similar, in a way, but you have there the rules of science to some extent. Though there too without the element of the fantastic, or realistically unachievable (for current time, anyway) the story stops where current science does.
I tend to view "Westerns" in the same kind of vein as Fantasy these days, the whole 'good' vs 'evil' thing creates a lot of similarity in character types - at least on the surface.
It's been said that Sci-Fi and Fantasy (and likely westerns) are the "Easiest" and less artistic of all the genres out there. I suppose one might take that stance, but their book probably wouldn't do well if they wrote it with an idea in mind that you can skimp on the characters and their lives while dazzling the reader with 'special effects'. In truth these genres are like any other, and like mainstream or general fiction as well. The best of them have the most vivid characters with lives that jump out at you, or affect you, as the reader.
As for series writing... well, for me it's kind of a personal deal. I tend to read more serial fantasy that non-serial. Perhaps there is a soap opera lover in me sneaking out that way... but I like the continuation of the tale. Really though, for serial fantasy a lot of what is going on is world building, history building, societal building to complete the picture. It's why so many fantasy stories are 1000+ pages - there's a lot to tell, unless you can leave stuff out by using convention. If you want to write a fantasy where nothing conventional exists, it will never get told, because if you have to call an oak tree a "feeblebrot" or something, you then have to describe and oak tree to it's fullest extent, all the while explaining that it's really a "feeblebrot". Silliness.
Back to the blank canvas thing... Laugh if you will (I probably would) but I'm into metaphysics (Metaphysics and English Literature - I was destined to sit in a coffee shop blithering at people who don't give a wit about what I have to say, no?). In the fantasy setting, the belief systems can be in whatever phase or manifest themselves in whatever way you can dream up. To me, that is the perfect setting to put metaphysics into a form readable by anyone. I've read LOTS of metaphysical works, and take my word for it, they are dry - it's logic to the umpteenbillionth degree, because like the "Feeblebrot" the philosopher has to logically break down every single thought - if the logic is flawed then so is the premise - but in two or three hundred pages, it's quite a challenge to locate and identify a single flaw in pages upon pages of logical framework.
But to put it in fantasy fiction, you can spit it out, make it fact, then have the characters and the reader deduce if it is feasible. I don't want to ruffle any feathers, but the bible would not stand up to most methods of metaphysical analysis... why? because it's a story, in story format, and isn't meant to stand up to logic. Of course, if it could be logically analysed, there would be no question as to the existence of the Almighty, would there? One way or another, it would be known.
I don't really consider myself a fantasy or sci-fi writer exclusively though. With all of that literary training, there is definitely general fiction in me, but for now, while I am honing my writing craft, I like to have fun with my writing - and building a fantasy world and populating it is just fun to me. How long will the honing go on? Forever. The day I stop learning about it, or about the world, or anything else, is the day I will stop breathing.
Well, that's probably enough fuel for now. Light it up Patrick
CEW |
Kevin P. Grover
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, December 27, 2001 - 09:36 pm: | |
The link is:
http://communities.msn.com/unitedauthorsassociation
Drop on by!
Kevin |
C. E. Winterland
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, December 27, 2001 - 09:44 pm: | |
I corrected the link above.
Thanks Kevin.
CEW |
Patrick
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, December 28, 2001 - 01:01 pm: | |
One can get bogged in the incidental hang-ups that sooner or later befall all writers, of all skill. "Negative Reviews" are in the air and it appears an army has been mustered to attack the attackers. I picture a guy on a fresh horse, with lancer's spear in full alarm, leading a similarly-armed battalion, all headed up a pretty hill toward a defenseless and ambivalent windmill.
I suspect that there are various views about this, about the attention placed on reviews at all and about how best to beat them back. My feeling is that writers waste their time taking medicine to this inherent ill. Reviewers, like umpures and referees in sport, are part of the geography. To lay killing mines for reviewers is to off a necessary part of the game. Somebody famous once said something about there being no such thing as bad publicity. Well, here in this case you'd think a few authors had been raped or teased with creative rape and then - egads! - ignored. It's a stretch, I know, but, trust me, reviews are the least of your worries.
My father always said, about ladies, that trying to overcome a "bad" review (from a failed/lost/abused romance) was like trying to sing a French song in English. The translation lost too much. Reviewers are a unique breed, some outright literary failures. The nature of their jobs (experts on books!) has them between a rock and a hard tit. Publications are like beasts: they must be fed and fed and fed. To a reviewer, last week's "review" was just the latest in a long line of efforts. Try calling a reviewer a week or two after he's torched you and what you'll hear is: "Who is this, and what issue are you talking about?"
I speak of the employed professional reviewer, not the latest mutant, this hardly qualified Internet brand. It is against the venue that the anti-review army should lift their weapons.
If you look at it this way, you'll see what I mean: there is in this country a legion of employed sportswriters who work their trade week after week after week, covering events right and left, from boxing to skiing to football and basketball. You canfind their work in the NY Times, USA Today, Sports Illustrated and Boxing mag, etc., etc.
What would you think about some Nobody from Ohio showing up at a Tyson-Lennox Lewis heavyweight championship fight, watching it from the rafters, and then offering his analysis of the fight?
Not much, right?
You think either Tyson or Lewis would give a rat's ass? The thing is writers rarely bother with reviewers, unless something absurd is set to print or allowed on broadcast.And, even then, a stinkis not what the author is after. All he can demand is that the reviewer be fair and that the reviewer get his facts right about anything contained in a book's pages. Other than that, a review is ultimately an opinion. I'm baffled as to why these PA writers have decided to band against anything.
As the Filipino prostitute said to me a few years back in Manila, "Who's got time to bitch?" |
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