Books to Movies Coming in 2010

In my house, we have February 12 on the calendar circled with a big, red pen. That's the day the first installment of Rick Riordan's* Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, THE LIGHTNING THIEF, hits the big screen. Usually I'm a little wary about well-loved books being turned into movies (because they seldom live up to the book) but the trailer for this one looks amazing. It's directed by Chris Columbus of Harry Potter fame and the casting is fantastic. I never hit any of the midnight openers for the Twilight movies, but if this one as a twelve o'clock screening, I'm so there.

March brings us HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON based on the book by Cressida Cowell. I haven't read it yet, but it sounds like a fun one, so I've added it to my (always growing) TBR pile.

In April, it's DIARY OF A WIMPY KID. It will be fun to see how they translate Jeff Kinney's cartoon-infused book. (Fun or tragic. I'm hoping for fun.)

ECLIPSE is coming in June. I have high hopes for this one since the NEW MOON movie was so much better than TWILIGHT. (Quielute boys. That is all.)

Edited to add: BEASTLY, based on the Alex Flinn book comes our way in July. Thanks, Julia.

I'm really crossing my fingers that they don't mess up Beverly Cleary's RAMONA AND BEEZUS, which will be released in August. One of my favorite little (not so little anymore) Disney actresses, Selena Gomez, is Beezus and that cute little Joey King is Ramona.

September has two book-related releases that I know of. FLIPPED by Wendelin Van Draanen and GUARDIANS OF GA'HOOLE by Kathryn Lasky. I read FLIPPED a long time ago, but I haven't read GUARDIANS OF GA'HOOLE. It has a cool trailer, though.

HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS opens in November... but only part one. Agh! We will have to wait another seven months for part two. (mumble, mumble, J.K. Rowling and her blasted long books!)

And finally, in December comes the next in the C.S. Lewis Chronicles of Narnia series, VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER. (On a totally off topic but kind of related note, my daughter and her friends met Prince Caspian (okay, just a really cute guy dressed as Prince Caspian) at Disney World last month. He actually kissed their hands. Cute guy, if you're reading this, you totally made their day.)

Did I miss any? What do you think about movies made from books? Do you have any faves? Least faves?

*Fans of Rick Riordan, check out his write up in (of all places) The Wall Street Journal - including a mini excerpt from his upcoming book, THE RED PYRAMID from his new Kane Chronicles series.

Tweet

Reading habits

First up I just wanted to say Happy New Year to everyone! I'm sending some lovely big (sunny) waves from New Zealand and I hope that 2010 has got off to a stellar start for everyone. Right, now that I've caused you all to hate me by reminding you that I'm in the middle of summer while a lot of you are buried in winter, let me turn my attention to the post at hand!

The topic this week is about movies, music or books and while half of me was tempted to blog about UP, which I finally saw yesterday, I finally decided that no good could come from letting the world know that I am a complete and utter cry baby. Yes people I pretty much bawled through the whole movie much to the amusement of my kids! So, anyway, since I'm not going to talk about that I thought I'd talk about books instead. Well, actually not books so much as reading habits.

Once upon a time when I was a younger girl I used to read three to four books a week and was often caught standing in the kitchen with my nose in a book and the dinner burning. But then I hit my thirties and not only did I have children but I finally got my first book contract and somewhere along the way my reading habit got severely dented, which was when I decided to keep track of what I read.

The first year I did it, I put the books on the sidebar of my blog and was horrified to discover that in one year I had only read 30 odd books. The next year I made a resolution to read a book a week (and I discovered Goodreads!!!!) and two years later I'm pleased to say that I'm still going strong. I don't know if I'll ever get back to reading three books a week like I did in my teens and twenties but I'm so pleased I made the conscious effort to re-find the time to indulge in my favorite habit. So I'm curious if this has happened to anyone else? Have you suddenly lost your reading time and if so what did you do to reclaim it?

Tweet

Beauty Schooled

The topic of the week here at TFC is schools, and I have had a peek into a very interesting school world lately through a friend's blog, Beauty Schooled. Said friend is a magazine writer who's attending Beauty School to learn the ins and outs of the beauty industry, and she's writing about it in a fascinating, weird, funny, insightful way.

For example:

Her tests are way different from high school's. (The Makeup Practical)

She highlights a news story about a Milwaukee first-grade teacher who cut off one of 7-year-old LMya Cammon’s braids when the little girl wouldn’t stop twirling them in class.

Making friends over sparkly blush and mascara wands.

She does Ingredient Watches (the latest is on Parabens and there was the one about Placenta...).

Borrowing her tagline, it's "An investigation of the price we pay for pretty." And it's awesome.

I've always wondered about Beauty School, and Drama School... and Flight School (though I'm too scared for that). What types of schools intrigue you?

Tweet

My Mortifying Teenage Dating Moment

What better way to start a new year (happy 2010, everyone!) than by sharing a tale of teenage embarrassment?

Well, I'd actually meant to share this earlier in the week, but my life has been kind of chaotic (sick cats. They are on the mend, but it's been stressful) and I honestly couldn't think of an embarrassing moment to share. I was such a naturally awkward kid, you know, geeky, didn't really fit in, mocked for my clothes, that I did my best to avoid all embarrassing moments that I would read in the Oops! or some such column in YM (omg, does YM even exist? When did it stop existing? Am I really showing my age) or Seventeen-- the kinds of incident that usually involved mishaps with your period or accidentally flashing people. I never would have been brave enough to show off in front of a guy the way Wendy did. I crushed on guys quietly, secretly. Only my very best friend would know who I liked and we wrote all our notes in code, giving the boys numbers instead of names so as not to risk an accidental reveal of our crushes. Then it hit me, I *did* have an embarrassing boy moment! I must have been blocking it out! (And I'm sure I'm blocking out many other embarrassing moments, so I hope this doesn't bring them all back or I might need therapy.)

It was actually the kind of moment that could have been made into a sitcom episode. It's the moment that they always show teenage girls dreading on TV... when your parents go, "Oh, you're dating someone?" And you go, "Um, we don't use the words, like, dating. I'm sort of kind of seeing someone...." But that doesn't really help matters, nor does your request for an extended curfew and your parents go, "Well, we need to meet him before you can go out with him."

Yeah, the first boyfriend situation. It happened fall of my sophomore year of high school. Like my character Kara from Ballads of Suburbia, I didn't really get a social life until then. I only had one or two friends, but then I suddenly started meeting people and hanging out at this park called Scoville (yeah, I know it sounds familiar but I swear Ballads isn't just a fictionalized version of my life. Kara and I went through different kinds of drama.) And my best friend met this guy in her history class, for privacy's sake we will call him Bryan, and when she introduced us he really liked me and his friend (who we'll call Sam) really liked my friend and it seemed like something straight out of a TV show, perfect, like finally my life was really happening. Oh and Sam had a car. It was awesome.

But then I told my parents about it. And they insisted that if I was going to go out with boys in a car and stay out later than usual, they needed to meet the boys. I was mortified. I finally was making friends, cool friends that I wanted to keep, and I had a boyfriend, a guy that had pursued me rather than me quietly lusting over him for months the way all my crushes had worked in the past. And now I had to tell them that before we could go anywhere they had to come in and meet my lame lame lame parents????

Like I said, embarrassing in the way that many teen girls get embarrassed in books, movies and TVs all the time. It's almost a rite of passage. But was more embarrassing was the guys' reaction. I tried to be all cool about it and they didn't seem to care about having to come in and meet the fam. But instead of us all standing around awkwardly like it tends to go on TV, Bryan and Sam started chasing my thirteen year old brother around the living room, making ape noises and pretending to pick lice off of him and of each other!!!!! WHAT???? I don't know *why* my parents let me go out with them after that. I didn't know who to be more embarrassed for my parents, the guys, my brother or myself. *Sigh* Seriously, this could only happen to me. Only I would have my first date with a guy who would chase my little brother around acting like a monkey. I'm sure you're not surprised to hear that the relationship only lasted three weeks....

What about you? How was your very first introduce boyfriend/girlfriend to parents moment? Normal weird? Or pretend-lice-eating-monkey weird? Can you top my story?

Tweet

How Embarrassing!

This week's topic is Embarrassing Moments. Or at least I think it is. My husband tossed out my December calendar where I'd written the topic and so I guess if I'm wrong, I can just add this to my long list of embarrassments.


My mom is here visiting and she suggested I write about what she considers my most embarrassing moment so here goes ...


When I was in Jr. High, I had a major crush on a guy who lived at the bottom of our cul-de-sac. His name was Keith and we're guessing he was a good 8 years my senior. He had dark skin, hair about the same deep-tan color, light eyes, and a great body. One day, which happened to be the day before we were heading to Rocky Mountain National Park for a family reunion, I noticed that he was washing his red Jeep Wrangler with his shirt off. (Think Jacob in New Moon, haha!) Word was, he was heading off to college. Now, I've always been the show-off type around boys, trying to get their attention by being athletic and daring and crazy. So I hopped on my dad's VERY old bike, my sister sat on the back, and I whizzed up and down the street as fast as I could. We were having a great time. Until the bike started shaking and my sister flew off the back. I was trying to stop but the brakes wouldn't work and I turned around to see if she was okay and crashed RIGHT IN FRONT OF KEITH. This wasn't just any ol' bike crash. I think I left a good 1/3 of my skin on the road. My sister had escaped all injury, thankfully, but I was a bloody mess. I tried not to cry as Keith asked me over and over if I was okay. I brushed myself off, leaving the bike in the street, and hobbled up to my house. I didn't realize how badly I was bleeding until I walked into my house, where all my family (including aunts, uncles, grandparents, and cousins) came rushing over to me, talking about whether or not I needed to go to the E.R. (I did.) After holding it in for so long, I just started bawling. "Oh my God, I'm so embarrassed!" I wailed. "I just fell off Dad's bike in front of KEITH!"


I have major scars all over my body from that fall. And as for Keith, though I'm sure he did notice me that day, I'm afraid he didn't fall in love with me or anything romantic like that. In fact, while he was away at college his family moved away and I never saw him again.



Did you ever do anything crazy or dangerous to get the attention of a certain person? I'd love to hear about it!

Tweet

Friends

This week is all about friends, and how fitting as it's a holiday week and a lot of us get together with friends and family. We live in New Zealand and most of our family is still in the UK. But lucky for us we have some good friends over here who we can have fun with and today was no exception.

As has become our annual ritual, on December 26th we have a BBQ with my very good friend, and amazing author, Amanda Ashby and her family (and one of my brothers who also lives in NZ). I haven't laughed so much in ages, especially as the men decided to drink as many beers from different places around the world as they could (my husband manages to 'collect' them). This was made even funnier when we had the annual mince pie tasting by Amanda's husband - who is a mince pie guru, and knowing how every year something goes wrong with mine, it's usually a scary moment. Today was no exception, especially when he turned it over and could see how the underneath wasn't cooked properly and all the mincemeat was oozing out..... their saving grace was the amount of whiskey I'd added to the mincemeat!!!

But I was redeemed by the chocolate biscuit cake..... phew!!!

So did you celebrate with friends? And how was it?

Tweet

Top Books of the Decade

This week at TFC, we're talking about what's in the news. There's the Climate Change Summit in Copenhagen, the ongoing Olympic torch relay toward the Vancouver Olympic stadium, and for those of us in the US, the winter storm on the east coast and the weekend Senate vote on the health care bill.

And there are lists. Lots of lists.

Since we're reaching the end of the decade, all sorts of lists have popped up in the news. The best of this, the worst of that. Top news stories, most watched you-tube videos, worst celebrity moments. My personal favorites are the book lists. Here's a list from Good Reads of readers' favorites. I pulled the top picks from this decade (including more than the top ten because Stephanie Meyer and J.K. Rowling take up half that list!) Here we go...

The Best YA Books of the Decade

Twilight - Stephanie Meyer (2005)
The Graveyard Book - Neil Gaiman (2008)
Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows - J.K. Rowling (2006)
Holes - Louis Sachar (2000)
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2003)
Eclipse - Stephanie Meyer (2007)
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - J.K. Rowling (2000)
The Book Thief - Markus Zusak (2005)
Uglies - Scott Westerfield (2005)
The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins (2008)
Eragon - Christopher Paolini (2005)
City of Ember - Jeanne DuPrau (2004)
Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants - Ann Brashares (2001)
Great and Terrible Beauty - Libba Bray (2003)
Looking for Alaska - John Green (2005)

How many of these books have you read? Which ones did you love? What would you add to the list?

Tweet

Haiku Tributes to the Best Movies of 2009

My three favorite films that I saw in the theater this year were This is It, Inglorious Basterds and Up! Here, a tribute to each in haiku form:

THIS IS IT
1. MJ, gone too soon.
A talent like no other.
Make me wanna dance.

INGLORIOUS BASTERDS
2. Brad Pitt hunts Nazis.
History Revised for film.
Best since Pulp Fiction.

UP
3. A sad beginning
gives way to an uplifting
adventure of color.

Anyone want to add some favorite-film haikus? Go for it!

Tweet

Fame! I'm gonna watch it forever.

Being of the generation I am of, I have seen the Alan Parker movie Fame many times, watched the TV series as it originally aired (yes, all seasons), and saw the new feature film on opening day. The original movie is the best, hands down, but for me the TV show that ran all through the eighties has the most sentimental value. So when I was at the library a couple of weeks ago and saw that they had the complete first season on DVD, I grabbed it! I've been watching it and let me tell you. Like most TV shows from my childhood and adolescence, the memory of watching it doesn't quiiiiite match up with what I see when re-watching it.

For one, okay, the TV Coco can't sing. I mean it's not like listening to American Idol auditions or anything, and I like her acting, but she is no Irene Cara when it comes to the pipes. Also, TV Doris looks about nine years past high school, but maybe she's there so that TV Bruno (who is also Original Bruno) doesn't look old all by himself. But, it's all about Original/TV Leroy aka Gene Anthony Ray (may he rest in peace), always my favorite. And Debbie Allen is still fabulous, both dancing and acting. Child, you do not want Ms. Grant mad at you! Some of the musical numbers aren't half bad, like when the kids put on Othello despite the teacher strike, and even Danny dances.

All things considered, it's still awesome. Watching it again reminds me what I loved about it: The school and the sets and the clothes the students wear all look really real. They always seemed to me like normal kids (other than the fact that they were so old) in a grubby school like mine, hanging in the band room like I did, surrounded by water-stained soundproofing tiles, and of course wearing leg warmers. I loved Leroy and his relationships with Ms. Grant and Sherwood. I loved the music, even when it was bad, because I loved the idea of performing, and busting out into song at any moment to express the angst of growing up. In fact, in junior high I was known to jump up on the cafeteria table and start belting "Hard Knock Life" from Annie. That may be a post for another day.

I have tried to get into Glee. I have. But I'll take Fame any day of the week. I now have all the seasons in my Netflix queue, and can't wait for Janet Jackson and Nia Peeples to make their appearances in later seasons.

Jammin' in the lunch room!

Tweet

The DJ in Me

True story . . . in college I was a radio DJ. And I took gigs on the side spinning records (yes, those were the days of RECORDS) in very dirty, very rough clubs downtown. I loved it. My play list THEN would likely include . . . The Ramones, Lou Reed, Peter Gabriel, and some unheard of acts like EBN OZN. As well as the Smiths . . . the Clash. Oh, those were the DAYS.

So flash foward to three Christmases ago. Significant Other purchases me the (at the time) Rolls Royce of iPods--video, 160 GB of storage. I looked at said gift and did not speak the thought I had aloud. "What the HECK am I going to do with this thing?"

You see, I had an extensive CD collection. Do you mean to tell me I had to download ALL that music onto some little portable device? The idea was madness. Until . . . I started.

I now have the equivalent of enough music on my iPod to survive a nculear fallout without having to repeat songs. When my iPod is not up-to-date, I feel panic.

Sunday night, I did a major update. I erased all my old playlists and created new ones. I bought music (the Across the Universe Jim Sturgess Beatle remakes; songs from GLEE; old Rolling Stones plus a Fatboy Slim remix). I channeled my inner DJ.

What's on my iPod? Oh, all the names I listed from when I was a DJ. But lots and LOTS of new names: Ray LeMontagne, Jeff Buckley, Fatboy Slim, Modest Mouse, Bell 1X, Glenn Hansard, Kings of Leon . . .

So . . . anyone else channel their inner DJ? And what's on your iPod right this SECOND? Hit shuffle and tell me.

All right . . . shuffle . . . .

SHIP OF FOOLS by World Party!

Tweet

My Favorite Websites

This week the topic at TFC is blogs and websites. There are more blogs that I check out from time to time than I can count, but I don't dare try to make a list of those I like best, because no sooner would I press Publish Post than I'd see someone post a blog link on Twitter and then I'd think, "D'oh! How could I have forgotten X? I hope X doesn't see this post and then get hurt/annoyed at not being included!" Of course I could always edit the post, adding another link, but that would just start a chain of such editing/linking and I do have a few other things to do today - "General Hospital" is on in less than four hours!!! - so...

I'm just going to link my three favorite websites for writers and readers, two of which are forums, one of which is a weekly reader devoted to the love of books. These are the places that, in addition to checking in at Twitter and Facebook, are absolute musts for me.

Backspace is a discussion forum for writers at all stages of their careers, from those still trying to figure out what to write to NYT bestselling authors. With 1192 current members - and counting! - it's the best place I know for those dreaming of getting published to learn every aspect of the craft of writing and the business of publishing and for published authors to network and get support from others. I wish BKSP had been in existence when I first started out and am very glad to have it as part of my life now.

BookBalloon is my favorite forum for book lovers to discuss every sort of book imaginable. There are some threads for writers, but this is really a reader-centric site where in addition to talk about books and publishing news, there are monthly book discussions focusing on individual titles.

BiblioBuffet, subtitled "Writing Worth Reading, Reading Worth Writing About," posts several new literary-related essays every Sunday night. I have an every-other-week column there called "Writer-in-Residence," in which I write essays and reviews. I also recently launched a new semi-regularly feature there that I'm insanely happy about called "The Disrespectful Interviewer," in which I ask incredibly rude questions of prominent authors. The first one ran a week ago Sunday, Dissing Jon Clinch. I hope people will give it a look.

So how about you? What are your favorite websites? Or, if you're braver than I am, what are your favorite blogs?

Be well. Don't forget to write.

Tweet

My favorite foodie website

Since we are talking about websites and blogs this week on TFC, I thought I'd share my favorite recipe website. It's that time of year where people are doing a lot of cooking and baking after all. So my go-to site when I'm looking for something fun to make is Vegweb.com. As the name suggests, it is a vegan website and I'm sure not all of you are vegan, but don't let that scare you. Instead, I dare you to use it to try something new! Vegan food is very delicious and often very healthy. You'll probably find a lot of twists on old favorites.

I went vegetarian when I was 13 years old and vegan when I was 17 (though I did have a lapse in my early 20s where I started eating dairy again, but it really upsets my stomach so I went back). I was not a cook by any means when I started. The reason I didn't go vegan until 17 is because I was moving in with a vegan friend who knew how to cook, so she could teach me. My mom was kinda at a loss about vegan cooking. Pretty much pasta and salad was all she could figure out to make for me.

So I started cooking when I moved in with my friend Tai and I bought a couple vegan cookbooks over the years. But while I was in college, I really fell into the stirfry tofu with some vegetable and rice or eat a vegan frozen meal trap. I was busy and I was living with a guy who didn't cook with much flair or flavor (everything was too spicy for him). But after I kicked him out, Tai moved back in and I was inspired to have my old cooking buddy back. I've been a serious cook for about four years now. My prize wedding gifts were new cookware. No joke, I'm a total vegan cooking nerd!

I discovered Vegweb.com when I was doing revisions on my first book I WANNA BE YOUR JOEY RAMONE. I was working a 9 to 5 job and had to come home and get write to work on revisions, but I didn't want to sacrifice and go back to frozen meals. Conveniently Vegweb has a "Quick & Easy" category, so I printed out a ton of recipes from there. And then I was hooked. I have a writer's group that I cook for every other week so when I get bored with my cookbooks, I find a recipe on there and it has yet to fail me. The other girl who hosts our group consults Vegweb regularly too. Last week, it was her birthday and I decided I wanted to bake something for her. While I am a cook, I am not much of a baker, but it's something new I want to get into more. I decided I wanted to find some sort of red velvet cake recipe to try. Lo & behold, here is one on Vegweb! It was totally delicious, though I followed the frosting recipe from the person who included their frosting recipe in the comments instead because it looked better to me (and it was amazing!). That is what is super cool about Vegweb is that usually people leave comments about modifications they make to recipes and it helps you play around to get the perfect dish.

So yeah, check it out and let me know what you think. Are you much of a cook? Do you have any favorite foodie websites (of course I'm extra excited about vegetarian ones, but whatever floats your boat)?

Tweet