Playing hookie

I took the day off of work today. I caught a cold this weekend while walking in the rain with my husband. It was a little romantic but there is nothing romantic about a stuffy nose and fever.

So I'm sitting at home, wrapped up in my favorite sweater and an embarrassingly comfortable pair of lounge pants. And I've got the best medicine.

No its not the tea and honey I'm drinking from my TARDIS coffee mug.

No its not my puppies curled up next to me.

Its the unreal eyes of James Mcavoy. Every time I get sick, I reach for two movies: The Last Station and Penelope. There is just something about his twinkling smile and humble nature that just soothes all the aches and pains in my head.

These two movies not only speak to my complete adoration of Scottish men (I'm not allowed to go to Scotland by myself- husband's orders), but also to my story teller. The Last Station documents the last months of the great writer Leo Tolstoy. More importantly, its about his relationship with his wife, which apparently wasn't all romantic walks in the rain. It is a sweet look at love and life through the teal eyes of James' character. Penelope is a modern fairy tale about a girl who needs to love herself before she can be loved. I'm a sucker for a fairy tale and James plays the piano in it.

Sometimes its the simple things that make you feel better. A sweet movie, a cup of tea with jam (they drink loads of it in The Last Station), a warm blanket and some quiet.

What makes you feel better when you're sick? When you've had a rough day at work?
Hopefully its reading about your favorite Supernatural authors.

So I'm going to go back to the couch and watch a movie. Hope that this post finds you all happy and healthy and looking forward to this Halloween season.

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Amanda Arista
Diaries of an Urban Panther
www.amandaarista.com

Red Riding Hood

I had great hopes for this haunting, dark version of the fairy tale, so I went to see it on Friday night.

While I thought the film was beautifully shot, the costuming lovely and the set gorgeous and dark and stark...I felt that the story didn't quite work.

The resolution wasn't what I hoped and/or expected, considering the seeds that were planted throughout. I'm trying to be careful about spoilers, but let's just say that there was an obvious person who was the Wolf...and I felt that that person should have been so. It made more sense than the final resolution, so much so that I felt not only misled, but also as if the writers changed the ending just to make it different.

Did anyone else see the movie? What did you think? Spoilers are okay in the comments section--just give a warning so readers can skip it if they want.

Now that the Red Riding Hood movie is out...what other fairy tale do you think would be fun to be done in such a dark, gothic and twisted setting?

Weigh in on your thoughts and be entered to win your choice of any of my books as Colleen Gleason, Colette Gale, or of course Joss Ware, including my upcoming release The Vampire Voss (coming at the end of March). I'll pick a winner tomorrow.

**Due to cost of postage, entrants are limited to those with a US or Canadian address.

in which i confess...

to being a complete chicken when it comes to
my film watching. i am very particular about what types
of movies i watch. i like indie and foreign. i'll watch
spy stuff like mission impossible and bourne identity.
and of course, the craig, i mean, bond franchise. but
i never liked visual violence and horror, and after
i had my bubs, i was rendered even more of a lump
of quivering tofu. it's sad.

i have one tragic tale in which i chose to watch
The Orphanage, drawn by the fact that it was
a foreign film. if any of you know the premise...
oh, what a mistake that was.

i had the "pleasure" of watching Black Swan
recently. i went in knowing it'd be a psychological
thriller--but i still had to cover my eyes at some
of the more gruesome moments. (yes, i am an
Eye Coverer! don't judge!!) and in the end, i
can't say quite honestly, if i enjoyed the film.
tho i did feel that the acting was superb.

this brings me to reading, and violence and
horror in books. for some reason, i can tolerate
reading the gruesome much more than the
visual onslaught of it. perhaps because i feel
i have more control over the imagery in my head?
or that i can simply close the book and read at my
own chosen pace instead of being subjected to it
during a movie watching experience?

as a writer, i had no issue with describing
a decapitation and other gruesome things. but
that's me as an author, and the horror and imagery
is coming from me, not played at me.

so what about you, undies? i'm sure many of you
are fans of the gruesome and horrific in your reading.
are you equally enamored of the same genres in
film watching? is there anyone who can be my
scaredy cat buddy? =)

SF&F movies: best and worst of 2010

io9, a website devoted to all things science fictional and fantastical, has listed its top 10 best and worst movies of 2010. The lists are notable for me because -- shocking though it seems for a sci-fi writer -- I have seen only one of the movies on the Best list (along with one of the honorable mentions). I've also seen half of one of the movies on the Worst list. I started watching it on a 15-hour flight and it was indeed too terrible to finish.

Looking down the Best list, I'm seeing a couple of movies that I don't want to see because no matter how good they supposedly are, I can't watch horror movies. I just don't have the fortitude to put scary images in my head that I can never get out. But several look really interesting and I can only blame an international move, a book deadline, and a new baby for my lack of movie-watching this year.

Take a look at the list and give me your recommendations! What did you think of these movies? Which ones should I check out on DVD?  Is the new Harry Potter movie really the best one so far? Does Predators deserve its spot at #4? How about Inception at #1? (I've heard mixed reviews of that one.)

For the record, the two movies that I did get around to seeing were both ostensibly children's movies and I enjoyed them both. Toy Story 3 was a lot of fun and had one of the most emotionally draining scenes I've seen in a very long time (although I can't quite get over the fact that the teddy was irredeemable). How to Train Your Dragon was the most cliche-ridden story you can hope to see, a step-by-step guide to writing the Hero's Journey... but somehow it worked.