Category: Blog Chain

Saturday, I had the chance to post as part of a scary themed blog chain for Jim’s YA Yeah Yeah YA Contemporary Blog. My post focused on the scariness that occurs in contemp YA. There are no monsters or ghouls but evil just the same….

It’s Friday, and today it means Blog Chain! Today’s topic was brought to us by Michelle. She asks:

“There are so many book-to-movie adaptations out there. Which are your favorites? Which are your least favorites? Why? Do you make sure you’ve read a book before you go see the movie adaptation, or do you prefer to read it after, or not at all?”

When I hear of a book I like being made into a movie, my first emotion is excitement. Here is a book I feel intimately and now I get to see it play out on screen! Awesome! Then, I crash back down to reality. I have seen many book-t0-movie adaptations, and I think there are maybe three that I felt did the book justice. The rest slaughtered the story and characters. Many times I’ve thought, “Well, if I had never read the book this movie would have probably been decent.” But, I DID read the book, so….

Who do I think did it well? THE JOY LUCK CLUB. I adored that book, and got invested in the plot and characters. The movie did not leave out one important scene, and was so true to the book. Many times a director or author will say they are happy with the adaptation because while the movie strays from the book (in some instances A LOT), it stays true to the emotions. What does that mean?? Just because a movie keeps the darkness of an eerie novel doesn’t mean that saves the film. It’s like reading a book about cats but in the movie the main characters are dogs. Uh, I guess it works because it stays true to the animal motif??

Another that does it well is TWILIGHT. I did not like the first movie one bit because characters got meshed together into one and Edward looked nothing like I expected so it was very hard to get into the flick with this initial shock. However, part 2 did it right. In fact, I liked the movie more than the book. The movie fleshed out the characters and Bella’s visions of Edward in ways the book could not. And Jacob misplacing his shirt didn’t hurt…

I’m sure there were one or two more I thought did the adaptation well, but my brain can’t conjure these right now. I’ll edit if I think of more. The bad book-t0-movie adaptations, though, are dying to be written about. Maeve Binchy’s CIRCLE OF FRIENDS was a terrific book. In fact, I love all of her books. This book tackled friendship and betrayal, and when I heard there was going to be a movie, I was psyched. And, it had Chris O’Donnell, so win-win, right? WRONG. WRONG. WRONG. Not only was the storyline meh, but the movie changed the ending. Changed the ending!! In the book, the ending showed the heroine becoming stronger and standing her ground and walking away from the guy who broke her heart. In the movie, she takes him back. Just forgives him and calls it a day. What the heck?? I guess Hollywood wants submissive heroines? Blech.

Another book-t0-movie adaptation that stunk was The Firm. I had seen this movie a long time ago, and I do not remember much about it now, but I do remember that it had Tom Cruise and he was a lawyer, and he was running from bad guys. Other than that, the book and movie had no similarities. They should have just called it “The Scared Lawyer” or something. Another yukky adaptation? HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN and HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE. Both were confusing without having read the book, and I had to explain important parts to my husband. He’s a smart guy but there were little bits that were left out that maybe on their own would be no big deal but deleting all of them made me see the plot and go “huh?” Further, neither of the movies made us feel anything for Sirius or really understand his importance and bond with Harry. As a huge fan of Sirius, I felt gypped and felt bad for moviegoers who wouldn’t get to experience that relationship between Harry and Sirius on the same level as me.

This brings me to another huge, recent blockbuster: THE HUNGER GAMES. I admit that I was late getting aboard the Katniss train, but once I jumped onto that car, I was hooked. I read all three books in one weekend and finished them about a week after the movie came out. I heard amazing things about the movie from those who read the book and I was pumped. I do believe Katniss’s essence was captured and Peeta grew on me. I also loved seeing Cilla’s designs and President Snow and how they incorporated the ending with the berries and the games master. But I wanted more of Rue and her death. The eyes of the dogs at the end that were supposed to be the eyes of the dead contestants (at least in Katniss’s eyes) did not come through at all. I guess for me it’s the little things. And, like I said, I think I just got too attached. When the second movie comes out, more time will have passed between book and movie and I will probably enjoy the movie more.

There are also many books I’ve read and adored, and while part of me wants to see the movies, another part is scared. THE TIME TRAVELER’S WIFE and LOVELY BONES are on that list, and I’ll probably never rent those now. But, I loved THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES and will probably give the movie a shot.

How about you? What’s your take on book-t0-movie adaptations? Yay or Nay? To see if any of your top picks are on this blog chain, start with Kate and then keep on reading. 🙂

 

It’s been a very long time since I have posted, and I did not know how to get back on track with blogging. Lucky for me, I was asked to be a part of this blog chain again! I will be posting for this chain every other Friday, but it has motivated me to post more regularly on other days too. So stay tuned!

 On to the chain….

 This blog chain was started by Kate and she asks:

 “What’s in a name? What if Harry Potter had been Larry Snotter? What if Edward was Jacob and Jacob was Edward? What favorite books had character names that you loved or hated? And how do you come up with your own character names?”

So much can be said about names. I have my own theory that my life would have turned out differently had I not been saddled with the name “Margaret” (nope, my parents did not give me a nickname; I gave myself one when I went to college, though). But, that’s another post. In regard to Harry Potter, I imagine if his last name were Snotter, I’d picture him as a geeky, sniveling, nuisance. And, re the Twilight series, well, I’m so accustomed to thinking of the characters with their given names, my whole world would be turned upside down if the names were flip-flopped! (Not really). Yet, I do imagine someone named Jacob as sexier than someone named Edward (that could be due to Taylor Lautner’s abs) so I am not sure how the switcheroo would work out.

When it comes to my own characters, I envision the faces and personalities, but don’t quite have the names until later usually. Often, I’ll just use a name I’m drawn to as a placeholder and then see if it grows on me or if I hate it as the book goes on. In the very first draft of INCONVENIENT, Alyssa was called Gabby. One of my writing teachers hated that name and said it made her seem peppy and chatty. I wasn’t married to the name, and Alyssa came to me. I ADORE the name Alyssa (ever since Alyssa Milano first became a household name during Who’s the Boss, I had SO wanted to be called Alyssa). Later, when I looked it up, I saw it meant “rational.” That was a plus as Alyssa must take care of her alcoholic mother, and she also is level-headed in other areas. Bonus!

In my second novel, PIECES OF US, the names appeared alongside the characters. I didn’t bother looking up meanings afterwards just because the names fit my characters so perfectly. Katie, for example, had always been one of my favorite names and I imagine the Katies of the world to be beautiful, happy, thin, and perfect. Obviously, they all aren’t, and they all have their own personalities, but–to me–that name is just such a golden name.

The current novel I’m working on is a dystopian, and I wanted names that were familiar but not generic (no Jane or Joe). I’m having a bit of a hard time, however. So many names seem so ordinary and others just seem too out there. For now, I have Mikah and Allastaire, and I think those will stick.

For more on the name game, read Amparo’s post if you haven’t yet, and then backtrack if you missed anyone else’s. And, don’t forget to go to Kate’s blog again on Monday, to check out the next blog chain topic.

 

Keeping in theme with the loveydoviness of this week, this round’s blog chain was started by Amparo. She asks,

“Since Valentine’s Day is around the corner, I think it’s only appropriate to pay homage to those we love. But instead of our better halves, family members, and friends, this blog chain will be all about loving the haters:write a love letter to your favorite literary villain/villain-ish character. It can be short, long, serious, funny. You can use song lyrics or poems instead. Choice is totally yours 🙂

I love the idea of writing to a villain, and here is a letter to one of my faves. Be sure to check out Tere’s before me and Jon’s next.

My dearest Gargamel,

As a child, my sister and I watched you every Saturday morning while you pondered and planned for yet a new way to destroy the smurfs. A part of you detested their jolly, smurfy demeanors (which I get; I mean how can things be smurfy all the time?), and another just wanted to eat them. It’s the latter emotion that confused me. Why? Why did you think they would be tasty? To each his own, of course, but then you had to get poor Azrael into it. I think your motives confounded her too. After all, why would a cat want to eat a smurf?!

The thing is, dear Gargamel, your frustration amused me. There you would be trying to create one contraption after another, only to be foiled again. After a while I started to wonder if you were sabotaging yourself on purpose. Don’t feel bad. You wouldn’t be the first to fall for the prey. But what else could I think? Every time you’d catch smurf, you’d spend precious minutes muttering threats when you could have just eaten it there on the spot.

I hope you had a good Valentine’s Day, Gargamel. And don’t give up hope. One day you’ll get to taste the smurfy ones–that is if you really want to. If you want to know the truth, though, I think it’s all an act. They need an enemy; you happen to be it. You can let the idea go and just be friends with them. I won’t tell anyone. Promise.

Your friend,

Margie

I think it’s fantastic that K.M. Parr and K.C. Neal organized this blog chain against bullying. And when I heard about it, I wanted to take part as well. Please check out K.C.’s blog for a list of participators.

And now I wanted to share my story. When I was in high school, some boys thought it would be funny to call me a whore, slut, harlot (we were studying Chaucer and the 1200s that year)–I hadn’t even kissed anyone yet. I ignored it at first because I knew they were just being stupid. My friends thought it was funny because of my inexperience and told me I shouldn’t care. I didn’t. For a while. But one day, I just broke down crying because it was too much. They stopped, and I let the incidents pass. A few years later, I started college. I was excited to start fresh with new kids who didn’t know me or my small town. I met great people, went to some parties, kissed a few boys at said parties. Apparently, this last thing gave people new ammo. I heard from friends that people from back home had asked them if it was true that I had become easy and a slut. My friends found the whole thing amusing because “it isn’t true, so who cares?” They were only words, right? Why should it matter? But it did. Eventually, other things proved more exciting to gossip about, and eventually, I put all of that to the back of my mind.

In the last few years, however, with bullying–especially digital–on the rise, I thought about this stuff again. I thought about how lucky I was that this was 1990s and not 2011. How lucky I was that the words disappeared after they were uttered instead of living forever in cyberspace or people’s phones. Of traveling by phone or mouth from person to person, instead of to hundreds or more with just one click. That’s sobering, isn’t it? If I was a teen now, all of the above would have been much worse. There would not just be rumors of me kissing boys at parties, there would be photos as “proof” spreading like wildfire, posted on people’s FB pages.

My next novel is called PIECES OF US and will be published by Flux in March, and my experiences and those of other teens were the inspirations. In it, one of the main characters–Katie– is told to perform sexual acts or risk the release of another damning video. Bullies bank on victims’ fears, rely on the victims not telling, not fighting back. Victims think they can’t. They think they CAN’T tell anyone or say no. Or they think they are left without a choice–fight back or have a video/text/sexy pic exposed. It doesn’t have to be either or. There is another MC in the book–Alex. He is a misogynistic, crass, abuser. He is also Katie’s boyfriend. He is the type of guy who puts virgins on a pedestal, who defines worth by what a girl will or will not do. He abuses Katie and she keeps going back to him because she feels she deserves it. He was hard to write, and from what readers said, equally hard to read. So why did I do it? Because there ARE guys like that. I’ve known guys like that. Many women have known guys like that. It is important they don’t stay hidden. It is important people can recognize them and point them out. It is important they are fought.

It is a different world today than in the ’90s, but people are not all that different. Victims need support and need to know people will listen. That no amount of bullying is ok. That nothing is too small. If it hurts you, it’s not OK.

This blog chain snuck up on me (and I posted a day late). I love the topic, though. What speaks more to writers than feelings? Kate says:

“Post pictures, songs, movie clips, poems, or novel excerpts that make you feel. Feel what, you ask? Feel anything. Happy. Sad. Angry. Nostalgic. Hopeful. Hopeless. Jealous. Joyful.

I have read in several different places that YA novelist John Green said of his latest novel, The Fault In Our Stars that he wants to make his readers “Feel All The Things.” I would love that someone could go through this blog chain and through what we all choose to post have that same Feel All The Things feeling.”

Before I post, I want to say I completely agree with Green. I would say most–if not all–writers do. I’ve had some issues (uh, like needer a thicker skin issues) with some reviews for PIECES OF US, my YA novel that’s coming out in March. Seems like those who like it, REALLY like it, and those who hate it, uh, they REALLY (and I mean REALLY) hate it. So after I penned yet another e-mail to two of my close friends about this, they both wrote back the same thing. “You want this. You’re making people react. You’re really making them feel.” And isn’t that what I wanted? It says something when people react.

Here are some pics that make me feel happy and maybe you.

How cute is this loris? It looks a little scared and makes me want to hold him.

This is my kid (4) dressed up as Wolverine and me dressed up as Batgirl. I love the pic of him because his imagination is awesome and he LOVES dressing up as superheroes, pirates, you name it. And the pic of me? Well, it makes me happy because it was fun doing it and the way my little guy looked at me (like I was all kinds of awesome and amazing) makes me want to wear this for him all the time.

The Breakfast Club is one of my favorite movies ever and the song from it rocks.

The Breakfast Club on YouTube

I loved the ’80s and nineties too. So here are some ’90s trends too. Ah, nostalgia.

The Nineties on YouTube

That’s all for now…. For more emotional stuff check out Tere’s post before mine and Jon’s post next.

Today’s blog chain was started by Jon. He asks:

“Imagine the home(s) where you grew up, and start drawing a floor plan. As you draw, memories will surface. Grab onto one of those memories and tell us a story.”

When I was in my late twenties, my parents sold the house I spent most of my life in and moved to another one in the same town. Shortly after, my husband and I bought a house in this town as well (my sis and her family live here too and I guess all of us can’t stay away from each other), and it’s a few blocks away from my childhood home. While I haven’t been inside it since my parents sold it, I pass it often on walks and show my son the outside of the house his mommy grew up in. The new owners changed the siding and put a garden in the back, and removed the rose bushes–one of my favorite things about this house–from the front, but I still think of it as mine. And while I’m sure there are changes inside as well, in my memory, it will always look as I remember it. Join me on a tour….

The backyard has a deck overlooking the grass, trees, and flowers. I practiced my cheerleading cartwheels on that grass. At my sweet sixteen, two of my friends shared their first kisses with boys they liked behind the trees on that grass. Beyond the fence surrounding the backyard is the bike path I used to walk on my way home from junior high and high school. On that bike path, I first learned to ride a two-wheeler. Past the bike path is my elementary school and the most amazing grassy hill. For years, we went sledding on that hill. Now, teens go snowboarding, and I took my now four year old on that double hill for his first sledding experience. He was much braver than me, moving his sled to every possible ramp and bump.

Ready to go back inside? The first floor has my older sister’s room. The wallpaper has stars, and the bed, while not the sturdiest one in the world always welcomed me whenever I was scared to sleep on my own. Upstairs, was my parents room, and the powder room. I was not into make-up, but that room was amazing. It had lights around the mirror like a movie star’s and I spent many hours twirling around on the spinny chair and checking out that mirror. No photos, please. 🙂 Attached to the powder room is my bedroom. It was an addition to the house, and I had my first sleepover (6th grade) there. The carpet was baby blue, and I had my own bathroom. And for my 18th birthday, one of my best friends stopped by while I was at work and left roses on my bed. He was the first boy to ever give me roses. Before we go back downstairs, take a look out the window to the trees outside. In the fall, the colors of the leaves look so pretty.

Let’s pass the kitchen on the way out. If my grandma is there, there is a plate of homemade sugar cinnamon cookies by the stove. Grab one or two or three. Come again, and don’t forget to check out the chalk drawings on the sidewalk outside. Today it’s a hopscotch board.

Thanks for joining me today. If you didn’t visit Tere’s house yet, please go there, and then take a tour of the rest of the chain if you missed it.