Time for Miracles by Adam Lambert

This song, Time for Miracles sung by Adam Lambert for the new movie 2012 is amazing, especially the last section. He can certainly sing.

Quote - Junot Diaz

This quote is so perfect for writers that I had to post it here. Thank you to Kameron Hurley. I found it on her blog here.

"In my view a writer is a writer not because she writes well and easily, because she has amazing talent, because everything she does is golden. In my view a writer is a writer because even when there is no hope, even when nothing you do shows any sign... of promise, you keep writing anyway."-Junot Diaz

Movies I've seen recently

I have seen a whole bunch of movies recently. Too many to go into in depth so I will write a line or two about each, and you can decide which to watch.
1) Coco Avant Chanel - an intriguing story of her life before she was famous. We often take people for granted as being who they are as we know them and don't think of where they come from. This is a sharp reminder that dedication and passion mixed with a knob of talent win the day every time. What a great young actress Audrey Tautou is.
2) Cherie - A delightful look at the houses and fashions of the time. This is a surprisingly heart-wrenching love story between a young man and an older woman.


3) Young Victoria - Again, a great insight into the times with all the pomp and ceremony of being a part of the royal family. Victoria was a strong, wilful personality if the film is to be believed.


4) 500 Days of Summer - Great leads in a love story which isn't one, as it says at the beginning of the film. Seems light and fluffy on the surface but actually makes you think about the belief systems that we have and how they affect our relationships. There is some character growth by the end of the movie, which is always good to see.

5) Ugly Truth - Umm, not sure I would recommend this unless you want a romantic comedy without a lot of substance. It pretends there is, but I wasn't so sure.




6) The Taking of Pelham 123 - Fantastic actors - can't take away from that, and the story kept me glued to my seat but not loving some of the direction and out of focus, swooping filming that was supposed to indicate urgency and speed but just left me feeling nauseous.




7) Funny People - Yuck! Why do comedians think incessant talk about genitals and copulation is funny?







8) District 9 - Now we're talking. Very disorienting at the beginning but settles into a disturbing take on prejudice. It falters towards the end when Hollywood cinema takes over with the great heroic gesture, but overall great movie making. Not everyone will like this but I would recommend it so you can decide for yourselves.



9) Inglourious Basterds - I usually avoid World War I and II movies like the plague. They upset me too much, but I do make some exceptions and I always knew this would be one. As expected from Tarantino, there is graphic violence, but it is a great story of the revenge of a strong female character, which never wavers into melodrama. This is a must see.

10) Fame - I was so looking forward to this movie because I loved the first one way back in 1980. Well, if you're thinking of going to see it, don't bother. I have never been so disappointed by a movie. There were too many characters with no growth even though it spans several years. A couple of good dance and song scenes didn't make it worth the money. Stay away.


The last thing I want to say is that I have fallen in love with Rupert Friend. I have included his photo here. He has such great bone structure. He was in both Cherie and Young Victoria - that's how I "met" him. He has funny hair in both of them but ignore that and look at his face - perfection. Well, that's my opinion anyway.

I'm a R*by Award Winner!!

I have finally got around to blogging about my winning the R*by Award for Beneath the Surface in the Romantic Elements category at the Romance Writers of Australia conference last week. My other entry, Crash into Darkness, came second. As you probably know, both those books are e-pubbed and yet they won over all the other print published books so I am very proud of myself.

Not only did I not think I would win, I hadn't been told that the winner had to give a speech. I managed to splutter out something but I was in a daze for some time.

Here at the left is my award. It is very beautiful but was difficult to photograph.

The winners of the other three categories are:
Short and sexy: Trish Morey
Short and Sweet: Marion Lennox
Long Romance: Anne Gracie

I had a fantastic time at the conference over there last weekend and have just got home from the New Zealand Romance Writers conference here in Auckland this weekend. I am exhausted but happy at what I have learned and all the people I have met or caught up with.
Time to write, write, write to meet my commitments.

Peru - Machu Picchu

I'm sorry I haven't blogged before about Peru because I have been sick with the flu and I'm not going to write much today either for I have two writing conferences coming up on the next two weekends and I must prepare pitches for them etc.
However, I thought I would post one photo of my son, Dario, on top of a mountain he climbed with Machu Picchu in the background. Machu Picchu is even more amazing than expected. It was raining the day we were there - the only day it did rain on the trip - but it was still mind-blowing as it sat amongst the clouds with incredible steep mountains all about. This was taken the day before with brilliant sunshine. We woke the next morning to heavy rain. Can't win them all.
I will post more photos and tell you more when the conferences are over.

Movie Review - Transformers

I got deceived into watching this dreadful movie by the news that the box office sales had broken all records. I wish I had followed my instincts and stayed away.
This movie had no depth, no layers, no character arcs. The stakes were the destruction or not of the world. I didn't give a damn. I didn't give a damn if the hero lived or died. I didn't give a damn if the eye-candy heroine, who spent most of the movie running around trying to look scared, lived or died. I didn't care if the hero's freaky parents lived or died, and what they were doing being air-dropped into Egypt defies logic.
The machines were gigantic, and the humans were tiny with their tiny guns and tiny bullets yet they still won. I had to suspend belief so far it hurt.
The action scenes were ridiculous. It was impossible to know what was happening, and when machines fought machines, it was a junkyard tangle of monumental proportions. One was indistinguishable from the other. The relentlessness of the action scenes, and the confusion that reigned made me bored and sleepy while fire and brimstone reigned upon the Egyptian desert. Slow motion scenes of beautiful girl and heroic guy outrunning explosions were classics in their awfulness.
The only slight relief from the pain were a couple of comic situations and one or two good lines. But they could fill about three minutes in all. I considered leaving but I had paid my money and refused to conceded defeat. The best part might be in the last few minutes. It wasn't.

Travel Pages Live

Finally my travel pages on my website are up and running. We had some problems with getting all the images to show but my clever husband figured out the problem and now you can see photos from some of the many countries I have visited. You can click on any of them to make them bigger. They span many years so you will see me from 18 years old until now. A bit spooky to see so many decades all in a few clicks.