Movie Review; Die Hard 5

Die Hard 5, or A Good Day to Die Hard is a high action film where John McClane comes back, but this time its his son, John Jr.or Jack, who is in the heart of the action. McClane goes to Moscow to find his son who happens to be there on assignment. McClane is dragged into a world of spies and crooked Russian politicians. If you like car chases, major crashes and bombs exploding this might be the movie for you. If you like a good plot? Eh.

There were a few weak points in plotting that had me questioning things from the start. I don't want to give away the plot here but in one assassination attempt a man walks in and is fairly close to the subject and tags the guy in the shoulder? Really? So right away we knew there was something off here.The movie maker may have thought he was setting up a twist, but this action was so blatantly staged we were waiting for reveal instead of being surprised when it happened.

During the scene when father and son first encounter each other, Jr. simply drives away leaving Daddy in the street. What was weird about this scene is that Jr. was being chased by bad guys so he was really leaving  Daddy in the line of fire.

Jr. shows dislike for this father throughout but its never really explained why he feels this way. In one scene John Sr. says something to someone else about working too much and not being there for his kids but never do we hear Jr explain why he's being such a jerk to his father. I thought this was a weak plot point. If you're going to put this in the story, we need Jr's reason from Jr. Not some two minute remark from Dad to another person. Without Jr's point of view he comes across as a jerk. Main characters should be someone we connect with, not someone we think is being a jerk.

Car chases and fight scenes: although action filled with flipping cars, mega crashes, high powered gun fights and fist fights, these weren't filmed from the best angles and sometimes it was hard to keep track of where everyone was in the scene. Some of the explosions had father and son falling from the top floor of a building, crashing through scaffolding and walking away almost unscathed. Kinda unbelievable. In all the other Die Hard's the injuries kinda matched the accidents. Here the disbelief factor was high, another detractor to the movie.

Good point throughout the movie; Explosions were big and lit up the whole screen. There were times during the movie where I cringed, closed my eyes, and almost jumped out of my seat. There was a major twist at the end that really made the movie and did kinda surprise me.

In spite of the weak plotting points this movie was a pretty good action film. It had all the right ingredients but when I left the theater I felt it could have been better. As we walked out I wasn't left with that feeling you get from a really great film. The one where the characters stay with you for a while and you don't want to let the go.

The film has the potential to be great so what happened? I didn't get one Yippie Ki Yay.

I give it 3 and a half stars out of 5. Sorry Bruce.

Writing as an Indie Author

Writing consumes me. I write much better now that I'm unemployed. It doesn't have much to do with the job factor but more for the fact that the job I had clouded my mind. To be able to write, I need to be ...content? Happy? Not spend every day absolutely aggravated?

But I'm drifting here. My point is writing, writing tools, reading about writers is how I spend a lot of time when I'm not actually writing. I work on 4 blogs and send an occasional article to Patch.com. Oh yeah, and that job search thing. (If only I could make my job writing = Dream job!)

But look what I found this morning! There is an Alliance of Independent Authors. A place where Indie's support each other and share information. The site looks good, but since I only have one Indie book, and it's more of  a novella, I'm not sure I'm eligible to join yet. I understand they have standards I might not meet yet but this is a site I'm going to watch. I think there's going to be lots of valuable information here. The membership fee is $99 for the year. Not too bad a fee, right? I've paid more for other writer organizations.
They also have a blog.

Would you join something like this? Do you know of any other Indie organizations?

Book Review: Moon Dance by J.R. Rain

I just finished Moon Dance by J.R.Rain and I'm gonna give it 5 stars. This book kept me engaged and cheering for our main character, Samantha Moon, who is a mom, private investigator and a vampire. The story follows her investigation of an attempted murder while trying to balance everyday mom things. Clues are artfully dropped along the way as to how she became a vampire and what she's done to blend in with her old life. A skin disease explains why she avoids sunlight and her husband helped manage the blood issue. The story takes us through her struggles to earn a living, trying to save her marriage and manage her vampire cravings. Best of all -- I never guessed who did it. Clues were dropped, Samantha moved smoothly though the investigation and kept me guessing all the way.

From a writing stand point I'd say this is very well crafted and executed story. Characters are well fleshed out and believable, scenes are vivid and the story flows so well you forget reality and get sucked right into the world of Samantha Moon.

I don't seek out vampire stories and I'm not sure how this ended up on my Kindle. I am a bit of an impulse buyer so I often find surprises in my menu. However this was an excellent story. I loved the writing and I loved Samantha Moon. I would often find myself rooting for her and then feeling her pain as she realizes the life she once loved can never be hers again.

If you're looking for a good read check out Moon Dance. For more great reads by J.R. Rain click on his name to find his author's page on Amazon. I'm going back for the next book in this series!

Writing Essays, Stories and More

Essay writing is a skill that can be honed like every other writing muscle. Whether you need an essay for school, a writing group or to use as a speech to honor someone. Essays written from the heart can inspire and move to action. They are found in magazines, newspapers and all over the Internet. Now that I'm taking classes in Journalism and Creative Writing I find myself writing lots of essays. Not my favorite but not something i struggle with at all. I think I've been writing essays all my life without knowing it. Here's what I learned along the way...


Is there a magic formula on how to write an essay? Yes and no. (Don't you love those kind of answers?)

Well, the answer depends for whom you're writing. College essays will be held to a higher level than an essay written for a newspaper. (I've heard newspapers are written on a 6th grade level. Is that true?) Essays to submit for publications in women's magazines will need to be directed at things held important by it's readership. Read and reread the magazine you're targeting so you get the rhythm of the writing.  Can't find the right venue for your essay, you might want to self publish a collection of essays on Amazon.

Segments of an Essay would include introduction, main point of the subject, and conclusion. 

Remember your audience. Are you writing a something for kids or will only adults be reading it? Are you targeting  certain age group? Does your audience have a work or hobby relationship that you're including in the article? I mention this because its easy to lose sight of your target audience and wander off your intended path. Including a personal story can help reach your audience as long as it doesn't distract from you main point.

One thing you must remember when writing your essay is to relax. Let the essay flow with a natural pace and write it all the way through. Once done go back and edit, edit, edit. Same as writing a book, short story or letter to mom, don't stress over the first draft. You'll have a chance to read through and correct later. Get all your information down on paper (or on the computer screen--save your work!) and then start rearranging your ideas. Editing can come later and will often make or break your essay.

And have fun! Essays are a creative way to express your views on subjects and you never know when you'll need a clip!
:)~
Do you know of any other venues for publishing essays? Do you write them on a regular basis? Advice?

The Evils of Punctuation

Commas confuse, Colons and Semi's introduce, Apostrophes are mine, Quotation marks are direct and indirect, periods put an end to it all. Dashes, parentheses and hyphens all have their places but the one that grinds my brain is the EXCLAMATION POINT!

I've been reading a short story magazine and one story that has exclamation points in every other sentence. I feel like I'm reading sentences that go like this, "He handed me ROSES!" and "I LIKED THEM!" "We went to DINNER!" "We came HOME!" "It was FUN!"
Honey, it you get that excited over the little stuff I fear for what will happen when something really exciting hits you.

Don't get me wrong. I used exclamation points, but only when the character is screaming. which isn't normal in every day conversation. Fore instance; "He's got a knife!" might earn one of those pesky points. Or even, "Help! The baby fell in the pool!"

It makes me wonder if the author of this short read her work out loud and how did she speak the exclamations!!!! Is she one of those over excited peppy individuals I'll never understand? Or did she write without realizing how excited this character would sound if you put an exclamation point in her mouth?

And why the heck did the editor not do something about this?

File this under pet peeve but too many exclamation points distract from the story. Unless you've got a caffeine hyper character who's been popping speed all day. Even then I might have the urge to shoot her.

Am I wrong?
So do you...! ?
What's your rule for the exclamation point?

Got Shorts? Where to put them?

I write a bunch of short stories. Maybe they morph into something longer, maybe they stay short. They are scattered within the doc file on my computer and now, dealing with lazy writer syndrome, I've been wandering through this stuff, looking for inspiration. This got me thinking I should do something with them, but what?

I believe my choices are hunt down mags that take shorts or look into that Amazon thing? I had a little trouble finding the information on Amazon for shorts. It looks like they sell for like 49 cents.

I write for the Trues (True Confession, True Story) and they pay about $150 a story depending on word count. These stories are easy to write and the response time to get accepted or rejected is fairly quick. And you can do it via email which I like.

So now I wonder if I can make more money on Amazon. My second issue is not everything I write is a fit for the Trues. Some is a bit darker. Trues are uplifting, happy stories. Murder and scary stuff don't fit.

So, tell me...what do you do with your shorts?

Block or Choice?

As I sit here on unemployment I have time to write. Scads of time. So much time that Jano (January's version of Nano run buy a group out of PA) should be a piece of cake. Yet I flounder.
I have all the laundry done and search the house for more. Should I take down the curtains? Wash the dog beds again? Maybe. Or not.
Why aren't I writing?

Perhaps if I leap, truly take the plunge and say I'm a 9 to 5 writer it will become my reality and then what do I do?

I'd have to produce published pieces, right? I'd have to be accepted into a world I've been half-heartedly banging my head against for years.

Success? Would that be an invasion of my privacy? Do I fear that? Having to go out into the world and smooosh with people? Frankly, I'm not much of a smooosher. I'd rather do the fly on the wall bit and watch people.

Or do I fear letting people down. Mostly myself. Admitting to the world and my own soul that writing really is just a hobby that will go nowhere. How sad is that?

I think I'll go lock myself in my home office now and just open my story (aptly named "No Apologies") and see what's there.

So fellow writers....do you fear the leap? Or just jump in?

PS: That's my foster dog Leena. She's up for adoption in New Jersey through Castle of Dreams Animal Rescue