I'm still jazzed about my video for Eternal Nights. I keep wanting to play it over and over, but I'm writing this from my laptop while I drink coffee and there's no way. I'd have to logoff before dial up could manage to download it. :-) But if you're on a high-speed connection, definitely check it out.

I love these book videos! No, they're not enough to make me buy a book unless it's by one of my must-buy authors, but if I find it intriguing, I will check out the author's website or Amazon and find out more and I think that's a big thing. But more than that, I'm more likely to remember the author's name. That's huge. Not all advertising is for a direct sale. Some is solely to build name recognition. That's kind of why when I hear people talking about how they never buy a book because of ______ (Fill in the blank), I think, well, yeah, but...

Usually, the argument arises when it comes to bookmarks. No, I don't believe a bookmarks lead to huge point of purchase sales, but I do believe they're good at gaining name recognition even if the person who sees it either a) doesn't pick it up or b) doesn't keep it long. For however many seconds it takes them to see the bookmark at the register or pick it up and throw it away, your name has been noticed. It's an impression. It takes something like 9 impressions before something registers with the consumer--or so I was told. To my mind, bookmarks are a cost-effective way to achieve this.

Of course, I could be wrong. If I was Coke or some other big corporation, I could undertake a study on the effect of my advertising on the target market, but few authors have the kind of money something like that entails. And even at the level where national television advertising is a no-brainer decision, no one's sure what works. One of the author's on a loop I'm part of says that only half of advertising works and no one's sure which half. I heard the same thing when I was in college learning advertising. So in the meantime, I muddle through, looking for cost per impression numbers and hoping that something sticks. And that people love my stories.

I had a video made for Eternal Nights and I think it turned out really cool! I was going to embed it here so y'all could see it, but then I remembered dial up. So, instead, I'll send you to my website. If you'd like to see the video, you can find it on the Eternal Nights' Page of my website toward the bottom.

I love my cable internet. OMG, it's amazing! After more than a week, I still can't believe it, but I've already reached a point when I have to use the dial up, that it seems ungodly slow. Since I want all my email on the laptop, and since I'm not networked, that means I'm facing this every day.

One of the coolest things about the high speed is how much time it cuts off for me in the morning. I have a set of sites I visit while I have coffee and it now takes me 5-10 minutes less than it did on dial up and I've added about half a dozen sites to my morning rounds. :-)

What I don't like? It's on my desktop computer. That poor thing is so old, it churns as it tries to keep up with the connection. But I saw Windows Vista was released and as soon as Service Pack 1 comes out to fix the problems in the initial release, I'm getting a new computer and getting networked so I can have high-speed when I use my laptop too.

I've said this before, I'll probably have a stroke when I get the cable bill, but right now I'm loving this. Do you know that I even found the Super Bowl Shuffle video from the 1985 Bears and was able to play it? I'm ready for the big game now. :-)

Michele Hauf posted the link to make yourself an M&M and I couldn't resist.

I have to be quick. I overslept and it's snowing, which means I should be logging off right this instant, not just beginning my blog.

This morning, I downloaded a picture for my desktop from Vietnam. It's a charming enough picture with palms and water and a boat, but what tipped it from being something I enjoyed glancing at to something I downloaded was the location. I never had all that much interest in Vietnam until Cai showed up in 2003. (Cai is the heroine from The Power of Two.) She and Jake have been gone since the summer of 2004, but I still think of them.

My characters are also the reason why I've developed an interest in a lot of things that I wouldn't have expected. Maia had me studying the inner workings of art museums, Deke had me learning about the LAPD and being a private investigator, and I have an anthropology book courtesy of Kendall.

In the end, a lot of it comes down to research, but I also find myself drawn to things that either remind me of my characters or represent them in some way. Sometimes it makes me wonder.

Off to battle snow and cold.

This adaptation of William Shakespeare's play stars Kevin Kline as Bottom the weaver, Michelle Pfeiffer as Titania, Rupert Everett as Oberon an Calista Flockhart has Helena.

The movie really features three separate story lines. There is the story involving Kevin Kline. He's part of a group of craftsmen rehearsing a play to perform for the grand duke's marriage celebration. There's the story of the fairies and an argument between Oberon and Titania over a young boy from India. And the third and final story is four young lovers, Helena, Hermia, Lysander and Demetrius. Demetrius is engaged to Hermia, but Hermia and Lysander are in love. They decide to run off together to prevent her marriage to the wrong man, but they confide in Helena. Helena is still in love with Demetrius, and hoping this will win his favor, she tells him of their plan.

Oberon enlists Puck to retrieve a flower that has an essence that, when rubbed on a person's eyes, makes them fall in love with the next person they see. He plans to use it on Titania to get his way about the boy. When he sees the poor way Demetrius treats Helena, he tells Puck to put some on the young Athenian's eyes. Puck, of course, mistakes the man and puts it on Lysander's eyes instead. He sees Helena when he first awakes and falls madly in love with her. Demetrius also gets a dose and likewise is in love with Helena. Both men chase her, spurning Hermia, who becomes angry. Helena thinks the men are mocking her.

Meanwhile, the group of craftsmen are rehearsing their play close to where the fairy queen sleeps and Puck gives Bottom the head of an ass--complete with big ears. Bottom wakes Titania who has also had the essence put on her eyes. She becomes enamored of him and dotes on this mortal who looks like a donkey.

I adore Shakespeare. I took a class when I was in college, and since then, I've read (or reread) his plays for fun. The man really was brilliant. I saw A Midsummer Night's Dream on stage when I was a freshman at the U of MN Morris and A&E has shown a taped version of the stage play on their channel a few times. I mention this so you know that I have some familiarity with this play and that it's one I like.

Overall, this version of the story wasn't bad, but unless I'm remembering everything horribly wrong, the film did my least favorite thing--they moved the play's setting to another time and place than Shakespeare intended. The Guthrie Theater does this all the time and I can't tell you how much I loathe it. For an example, I was watching Tartuffe by Moliere and enjoying the hell out of it--until the end when the actors (who up until that point had been in period costume) came out in 1930 gangster outfits complete with tommy guns and a car. This was a definite "Say what?" moment.

My memory of A Midsummer Night's Dream is that it takes place in Athens and before the 1800s. The names in the play--Lysander, Hermia, Theseus, etc., as well as some of the references to Athens--lead me to believe my memory is correct. Unfortunately, that means this movie was moved to Italy in the 1800s and that leaves me a very unhappy viewer.

That said, Kevin Kline did a brilliant job as Bottom. Of course, I do love Kevin Kline, so again, I'm biased. I thought Michelle Pfeiffer also did well as did Rupert Everett. I didn't quite get why Oberon wanted the Indian boy and why Titania didn't want to give him up nor did I understand why she wasn't angry later when Oberon did get the Indian boy. It seems to me she would have tried to get the kid back since she'd promised his mother to watch over him, but she just kind of shrugged and all was well between her and Oberon again. I can't blame the movie for this, though.

All the actors and actresses did a credible job with the dialog IMO. Sometimes modern actors doing Shakespeare come across as stilted, like actors reciting Shakespeare rather than being their characters, but there wasn't one person in this movie that didn't do well.

The scenes/setting of the film were beautifully done and added to the authenticity of the time and place. No matter how briefly the setting appeared in the movie, it appeared as if all pains were taken to ensure it was well accomplished.

What didn't I like? The time and place used--as I mentioned above. I also didn't like the constant use of bicycles in the film. Even Puck, instead of using magic, rides a bike at various times. My other problem was that this is supposed to be a comedy, but there was very little that was staged to be funny until the end when Bottom and his group of craftsmen do their play.

If you enjoy Shakespeare, this might be worth watching, otherwise I'd rent Much Ado About Nothing.

My rating 3.5 stars.

I'm the guest blogger today at Magical Musings! I talked about creating characters, so if you're interested, head on over and check it out. Just an FYI, this blog is geared primarily toward writers and that's reflected in my post.

Last night, as I was putting the finishing touches on my guest blog piece, I watched the end of Men In Black 2. I've seen this movie before, probably around the time it first came out, and I remember not being all that impressed with it. When I watched yesterday, though, I thought the ending was pretty cool. Um, warning, I'm going to reveal spoilers, but the movie was released in 2002, so I'm guessing pretty much anyone who wanted to see it has seen it.

Okay, in MIB2, there are these tiny aliens who live inside a locker, and in the final scene, they're in Will Smith's MIB locker. Sorry, I can't remember if he was K or J. And Will Smith says to Tommy Lee Jones: "Shouldn't we let them out of the locker? There's a whole world out there." Or words to that effect. And Tommy Lee comments along the lines of Will still being a rookie. He then goes over and kicks a door open revealing that we're living in the locker of a larger alien species.

It reminded me of short story in an science fiction anthology that I read a long time ago. I can't remember the name of the book or the name of the story, but the idea stayed with me all these years. In it, this man or boy (I can't remember how old this character was supposed to be) gets a toy. He creates a planet, and when he gets mad at what's going on, he destroys it. He ends up regretting it and starts again, vowing not to wreck it again, no matter what the life forms on it do. The planet? Earth.

Both these ideas talk about our reality being based completely on our perspective. The philosophical questions raised are legion and this is exactly the kind of stuff that gets my brain swirling. I took a class in high school called Philosophy of the Western World and we did all kinds of reading that touched on this kind of question. All these philosophers trying to prove our world existed--heck, trying to prove we existed--and they couldn't do it. Everyone knows: I think therefore I am, but there were others who took that proof apart.

The end result of this class (at least for me) was that we can't know what reality is because we're limited by our perception. So I decided I'm not going to worry about it. :-) It doesn't matter if we are living in a locker of an alien species, this is our reality and what we have to work with. That said, however, this is a concept I'd love to play with some day in one of my stories. :-)

My original plan yesterday morning was to post about my dad and his computer use, but that was pushed off the front page by the crime news. For his birthday almost a year ago, my mom bought my dad a computer. He's secretary at his lodge and he spends a lot of time on the typewriter, getting his minutes prepared. I've tried in the past to show him what to do, but he can't even remember how to turn on the computer without my standing over his shoulder telling him what to push. Having someone else teach him is a much better idea. :-) So finally, on Wednesday, he went to a class.

When I called home that afternoon, I could hear how excited he was. Good, I thought, this is what he needs--to be excited about using the computer. Then he asked some questions about some box that had come up and why this and why that. I knew I'd need to look at it in person.

First thing I noticed was that he had the start menu up. I clicked that so it went away. The box that had shown up over his document? A formatting tool bar. I don't know what he'd clicked or hit to bring that up. Then I looked at his document. EEK!!!!

He was writing a letter for another group he's part of, and instead of going with a solid block style, he'd indented. Fine, that's still an acceptable style except that instead of using the tab key, he'd spaced. The left margin looked ragged and ugly. Then there was the really good part--he kept hitting the return key instead of letting the text wrap onto the next line. His right margin looked ugly too. I began to wonder what he'd learned in class.

I began fixing the letter. In the middle of it, he had a list of names and phone numbers. Again, he'd spaced instead of tabbing, although even tabbing might not look right. I created a table and cut and pasted the data into it. He's supposed to go back to class next week. I told him to ask the teacher about a few things because he clearly needs some basics he didn't get. He made a list. Now I can only hope he goes next Wednesday and that he remembers to ask for help on what I told him.

This story is funnier if you were there. Or maybe I would be able to write it funnier if I wasn't so exhausted. I have to send a revamped bio to my agent today and I was up late last night working on it. I loathe writing bios more than almost anything else. The last time I wrote a short one, it was for the back of my first book, and I've been using that ever since. I briefly thought about using it again, but decided it's time to update it and mention a few awards and whatnot. Torture. Absolute, total torture. It still needs some tweaking, but at least it's almost done now.

Update on the theft story from yesterday. Apparently, when they broke into the car a few houses down, they found the garage remote, opened the door and took stuff from inside.

I also found out yesterday that there were two armed robberies not that long ago less than a mile from my home in the little cluster of businesses there. Another eek moment since I knew nothing about this.

I always complain about how boring things are and that nothing exciting ever happens. Then, if something does, I usually comment about how boring isn't a bad thing. Well, here we go, boring isn't a bad thing. I'll start from my beginning.

Yesterday morning, I left for work around 5:30am like I do every day. As I'm pulling out of the driveway, I see this one tire track cutting through the snow between my driveway and the street. I'm like, huh, someone must have used my driveway to turn around and misjudged when to turn their steering wheel. When I arrived home from work, I took a closer look and was relieved to see there'd been enough snow piled up there to protect my sod. Hey, that stuff isn't cheap and I did endlessly haul hoses around last summer--I feel emotionally invested in this lawn.

It wasn't until later that I found out that my neighbor across the street and three houses down had things stolen out of her car. Then, if that weren't enough, I find out the neighbor across the street and one house down had his SUV stolen out of his driveway. =8-O

This neighbor said they think it happened between midnight and six in the morning, but I think the window was probably smaller than that. I was in my kitchen by 4:15, probably a little earlier than that, and the windows over my sink face their driveway. I would have seen any lights there and it was totally dark. The other reason I think it happened earlier was that tire track in my yard. I think it was the thieves. It makes sense. They needed to turn the vehicle around, I have a little jut-out in my driveway so that I can turn my SUV around. So I bet they pulled in, turned around, and in their rush to getaway with grand theft auto, they took the turn too tight.

This is incredible. My neighborhood is quiet. The last time we had the police here was like four years ago when the kid across the street had a huge party and it took six squad cars to break it up. Nothing happens here and that's the way I like it. Of course, I immediately flashed back to the night I forgot to shut my garage door last fall. I've been kind of paranoid since then, double checking it every night before I go to bed. Last night, I checked it a few times.

This didn't stop me from sleeping last night, and sleeping hard. :-) I'm too exhausted right now to stay up worrying about it. Besides, I figure rifling through vehicles in people's driveways--even stealing a car out of a driveway--is a big step below breaking into someone's house. And if I'm wrong, please don't tell me! I'm happier believing this.

Things can go back to boring any time now. I'd far prefer it.

My dad waited for the television repair guy yesterday while I was at the day job (EDJ). I've been having an issue with sound on all the channels except for the 4 local ones that the cable company left on their original station. My dad said the guy came first thing in the morning (yea!) and tested everything. He couldn't figure out what was wrong so he got on the phone to RCA, and for half an hour, they ran through all kinds of stuff. Nothing worked. Finally, the TV guy said he was going to try one more thing.

He unplugged the television, let it sit for a minute and plugged it back in.

It worked perfectly.

The guy told my dad that RCA is having problems with compatibility with some cable systems and that weird stuff like this happens because of it. He said if the sound goes out again, to do the unplug thing, and if that didn't work, that we should call again.

I just have to laugh. For more than 2 weeks, if I've wanted to watch television, I've had to do it in my bedroom. I've even watched the movies I reviewed here on my smaller TV. The cable company has been out. Now TV repair. And all this time, all I needed to do was unplug it and plug it back in again. Amazing. :-)

And also in the amazing column. I started to subscribe to Smithsonian Magazine (although I'm running into the problem I feared: no time to read it). They spelled my last name wrong, so I corrected that and sent it back. Yesterday, my next issue arrived with my last name spelled exactly right. The problem? My first name is wrong. It wasn't before. Just call me Oattu. Sigh.

At work yesterday, I told several of the guys about connecting my high-speed internet. And since I've never claimed to be mechanical or handy, I had no problem confessing that my biggest problem was turning the cable connector the wrong way. All of them--to a man--said the same thing: Don't you know right-y, tight-y, left-y, loose-y?

Um, no, I don't. I'd never heard that before, but in one day, I heard it multiple times. They were all former airplane mechanics and I couldn't help but wondering was that day one at A and P school? Okay, class, repeat after me. Right-y, tight-y. Left-y, loose-y. Maybe this is why I'm a writer--it takes so little for my imagination to go off on a tangent. You can be certain, though, that I will remember which way to turn things for at least a week. Maybe even two. ;-)

Today, the television repair guy comes to--hopefully--fix my TV. I've only been able to get sound on the 4 local stations that the cable company actually left on their original channel numbers. I figured it was cable since sound wasn't out on all the stations, but the cable guy tested it and that wasn't the case. Fortunately, my dad is going to wait for the TV guy and deal with this for me. No doubt he's going to blame it on cable, but we'll see. And likely he'll be taking my set away to be repaired. Sigh. It's not that big a deal since I have the second set and I don't watch much television anyway, but they never seem to be able to fix anything when they come out to the house. (and that TV is huge and heavy!)

I'm going to be all over the map on topics, I can see it already. First, I mentioned here that I received Midwest Fiction Writers' Rising Star Award. I finally have a picture of it to share with y'all. Please, bear with me. This is like one of the coolest things ever for me. :-)




I took a variety of angles and lighting to get the shot as clear as possible. The acrylic made it difficult because of the way light reflected off of it.

While I'm showing pictures, here's the picture of the hawk I saw while I was writing a couple of weekends ago. I love hawks; they're so majestic and focused.




This is the fence at the back of my house. He sat there for a really long time, I guess watching for rodents. That was the same day that I saw a herd of deer go through my backyard. Way cool day!

The big news from the weekend is that I have cable internet now! Yea! I finally joined the 21st century. I'll probably have a stroke when I get my cable bill, but for now, I'm loving the hell out of it. I was able to download updates for Windows in a flash and I found the Puma ninja commercials on You Tube! OMG! I was able to watch them on my computer!

After I had my haircut on Saturday, I swung by Circuit City and picked up the modem and the Comcast install kit. I had it hooked up pretty quick too. There were a couple of minor difficulties, like screwing the cable into the cable outlet. I was turning the thing the wrong way, but once I figured that out, it went faster. I think the longest time I spent on anything was on hold with the cable company to make sure I was activated. The guy at the store said to call, but the woman I talked to was like, huh? So that was an unnecessary step, I guess. But I'm up and running now. Yea! Yea! Yea!

I hooked the cable modem up to my desktop computer. Or should I refer to it as the relic? I've been talking about replacing it for at least a year, but I've been trying to wait for the new OS, Windows Vista, to be loaded on the computers and for the bugs to be worked out of it--most of them anyway--before buying one. However, the high speed internet connection makes the computer churn as it tries to keep up. So next step, I guess, is to cave in and buy the new system and then I need to network my house so that I can access the high speed connection on the laptop--which is what I use 99% of the time. I hate the chair in the computer room. It leaves me in pain if I sit in it too long, so I'm not having much opportunity to take advantage of the high speed connection.

And I found this image and had to close out with it. It's just too cute!


MySpace Comments Graphics

I've adored The Importance of Being Earnest since I saw it at the theater when I was in college, so when I saw it had been made into a movie in 2002, I added it to my Netflix queue. This version of the story stars Rupert Everett, Colin Firth, Frances O'Connor and Reese Witherspoon as the four main characters.

The basic story is that Jack Worthing (Colin Firth) has been telling everyone at his country estate that he is going to London to see his unfortunate brother, Ernest. While in London, he's been using the name Ernest. The woman he loves, Gwendolen (Frances O'Connor) has said she could only love a man named Ernest and so the charade continues. Poor Jack is trying to find a way to really take on that name, even going so far as to inquire about being baptized as such.

One person knows the truth, Algernon (Rupert Everett) and he goes out to the country estate, introducing himself as Jack's brother, Ernest. There he meets Jack's ward, Cecily (Reese Witherspoon) who has been enamored of Ernest from the stories she's heard. She's even kept a diary of fictitious events between the two of them, including an engagement. Algy is smitten and proposes.

So two men, both claiming to be Ernest, engaged to women who don't know their real names. Then Gwendolen arrives at the country estate and things quickly careen out of the men's control.

My sum up of the plot probably leaves a lot to be desired, but it's complicated to explain, though it's not nearly as complicated to follow on screen. For a better summary, you might want to check out Wikipedia.

I enjoyed this movie a lot once I stopped comparing it to the theatrical version I'd seen. While there are many things that can be done on film that can't be accomplished in the theater, theater also has advantages. For one thing, there's more immediacy to it. And another plus is that it's an audience experience.

The story itself is clever. Oscar Wilde was a master at wittiness and he pokes fun at the societal mores of Victorian England in a way that's both entertaining and sharp. I thought the cast did a fine job with their characters, especially Dame Judi Dench who had a supporting role as Lady Bracknell.

One thing I didn't like was all the little flashbacks they did to events that had happened in the past. The vignettes weren't more than a few seconds here or there, but I felt it detracted from the story as it was occurring.

The other thing I didn't like was that they added bill collectors coming to the estate because of Ernest's bill at the Savoy. According to Wikipedia, that was a scene that Wilde had cut from the play before publication. As a writer, I'd shudder if someone did that to one of my stories. If I cut something, it's out for a reason. The last thing I'd want was some movie producer 100 years in the future finding the material and using it. Gah!

Overall, though, they did a fine job with Wilde's play. I enjoyed myself immensely.

My Rating: 4 Stars

Did I ever announce here that Shards of Crimson had been released? I suppose I could go back and look in the archives, but it's Saturday morning and I'm feeling way too lazy. :-) Anyway, Shards came out on January 2. Yea!

I've received some really nice comments from readers about Dark Awakening and that's so nice to hear! Normally, I try not to mention fan mail on the blog, but I was sweating bullets over writing such a short length for the very first time ever. It's nice to know it worked. I even heard from one reader who's picking up my backlist. Whew!

Anyway, there are four great stories set in Crimson City (the world Through a Crimson Veil was set in) by four of the authors from the original series: Liz Maverick, Carolyn Jewel, Jade Lee and me.

Dark Awakening is the story of Kimi and Nic, Mika's cousin and half-brother. Kimi has caught the attention of a twisted and evil Bak-Faru demon, and with Mika and Conor unavailable, she summons Nic. Nic's had a run-in before with the demon after Kimi and knows how dangerous he is, but Kimi is his vishtau mate and he'd do anything to protect her.

You can read an article where all four of us talk about our stories at Revision 14. There's a comment feature, too. You'll notice my information is much shorter than anyone else's. If you're thinking I finally learned the art of brevity, you'd be wrong. ;-) I thought that we were supposed to keep it short because it was part of a larger commentary by Liz. If I'd realized the format, well, I would have run on a lot longer. No one has ever accused me of writing short. ;-)

Anyway, I have to get going. I have an appointment to get my hair cut, and boy, does it need it! It's been annoying me for months and someone asked me the other day if I was growing it out. Nope, just too swamped to take the time to go to the salon. Today, I'm taking it, though.

One of my favorite things about being a writer is the opportunity to learn new stuff on each book. Not just craft things or structure or plotting or whatever. I mean actually learning about new topics. Research. :-)

I used to do it on my own. As an example, when I was in junior high, I had shark dreams all the time that left me terrified. I went to the library, checked out every book they had on sharks, read them all, and haven't had another scary shark dream since then.

It's tougher, though, to find the time when you're working full time and are tired when you get home. And when there are so many other things you need to do. Writing, though, is like giving yourself permission to take the time to learn. I've always had an eclectic set of interests, my college transcript will show you that, but I say it was all preparation for being an author. (Just an aside, I needed 180 credits to graduate. I had 240 credits--without a minor or second major.)

Some of things I've written about, I already had an interest in. Like the nanotechnology stuff in The Power of Two. I already had the basics when the idea for the story came to me, so it was just a matter of refreshing my memory and learning some more specific details. This book also had me researching the Maldives, wine and tropical fruit. :-) Anyone who's read the book and remembers the scene where I used the fruit will know why I'm smiling.

Sometimes, I only need to research a small detail. Sometimes, I have to do wider reading. It depends what I already know and how big a part it plays in the book. If it's just a small point, I try to quickly look it up and move on.

I have a research folder in my browser bookmarks that is "bulging" with websites. I have it broken down farther into categories and a lot of those have sub-categories. I collect URLs. :-) I have things bookmarked that I might never need to know, but I have the site saved anyway because it offered good information and it might come in handy some day. Like my latest find--a weather guide for sailors. I haven't had a character who's a sailor yet, but you never know.

I also have a folder under "Research" that I've labeled "Book Specific." It's stuff I looked up for a particular story that I can't see myself ever needing again. But. But you never know. If another question ever comes up on nanotechnology, I'll know to look in my TPOT folder because I almost never purge a bookmark. :-) Just in case.

Yesterday, the titles of the books I have to read for the Rita were listed on my contest page on the RWA website. There are six. I'm only getting one novella, the rest are all full stories. Gah! I was hoping for mostly novellas. Only one is an author I've read before. It's an interesting mix. Now if the books would only arrive so I could figure out how I'm going to manage to read them all before the deadline.

I've been listening to a book on tape while I've been at the day job (EDJ). It actually made me remember how much I liked to do that and that I should probably do it more since it makes the day go faster. Of course, I can only do it on projects where it doesn't matter if my attention is split like that. Right now, I have two things I'm working on. I can listen to the tape while I work on one, but not on the other.

The book is called The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell. It's abridged and read by the author, but I'm finding the information he's presenting fascinating. It's non-fiction, BTW, and deals with marketing. While the stories presented are holding my attention, (I might go into more depth this weekend when I don't have to get ready for the EDJ), so far there's been no way to really put it into use in the real world. The examples of products/things that reached a tipping point have all seemed to happen either accidentally or with massive advertising budgets. (Massive at least compared to my advertising budget.) I don't think this will help me much marketing my own work, but at least it's keeping me entertained while I'm stuck in my cube.

Now I'm thinking it might be time to see what else the library has on tape/CD. Usually, I chose unabridged novels when I used to do this all the time, but I returned too many of them unfinished--which is why I stopped checking them out. But if I can find non-fiction subjects that are shorter, that might work. I'm actually going to finish The Tipping Point today--nearly a full week before its due back.

Of course, I also have all these RWA workshops on my MP3 player that I could listen to. Two years worth from Reno and Atlanta. :-) But that doesn't seem appealing right now. I'd rather find something more removed from writing. I feel like exposing myself to more diverse subjects--at least for right now.

Are we movie
compatible?

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I've been thinking lately about wasted lives. No, not me, although sometimes I wonder since I'll finish a book, look up and a season will have passed. The heroine in the WIP has been marking time for years now, surviving, but not really living. She's not happy with her life, but she's made no effort to change anything either. There are times that irritates me and I want to shake her and say, hey! wake up and do something. :-)

Of course, I write about characters who grow and change in the ways necessary to have a happily-ever-after ending, so she will wake up. In fact, her world will be rocked on so many different levels that she'll be reeling for awhile. I can't wait!

(Remember my motto: Torture the characters before they torture me. (Although in this case, the characters have already been torturing me, but I digress.))

For right now, though, I'm having a hard time respecting Maia and I wonder how that's translating on the page. I like her--she's done some wonderful things over the years, especially for her sister. She's a nurturer, a caretaker, but she's never taken care of her own life. So if I have trouble respecting her because of how she's drifted, will a reader feel that way too? Will they wonder how the hell she could put up with her situation without doing something?

Change is hard, I do understand that and there are plenty of people who fight it for all they're worth. I don't know if Maia is quite that bad, but she seriously should have done something long before this point in time. She's frustrated, at times she's angry, but when her sister has pointed out she should look for a new job, Maia balks. And Ryne, who doesn't back down from much, has never pushed Maia hard enough. I think because of hero worship. Creed, though--Maia's hero--doesn't pull his punches. He's already told Maia once that she's embarrassed her family name, but he's struggling with his own issues, and his own world is pretty grim and bleak. And I wonder, too, how this is translating on the page. Will anyone like these two characters?

They're both wounded, they're both in need of change and they're both too damn stubborn. Creed's not has messed up as Maia, but he's focused solely on one thing--his job. Everything is about this for him and he bulldozes through anyone or anything that gets in his way. (His job, BTW, is to protect his people. He's a troubleshooter for a society of magic users--like Ryne was in the book I finished previous to this one.) Actually, the bulldozing isn't all bad because he bulldozes Maia into helping him and that's what starts her down the road to changing her life, but for right now, she's still wasting it.

Which brings me back to where I started this post. :-)

I saw pictures of Oklahoma, I believe, and this town that was just coated in ice. It was incredible and these people aren't going to have power for a while, not with all the trees down on the power lines. I'll definitely take the fluffy white stuff we got over freezing rain. Nothing is worse than freezing rain.

On one of my published author loops, they've been talking about receiving their RITA books. Since Friday. Of course, I still don't have mine yet and I could use all the time possible to squeeze in reading them. It sounds like everyone is getting 7 books. Gah! Seven. That is a hell of a lot of reading to do. I'm hoping I've got a lot of short entries. :-)

And one of the readers' boards I visit is discussing a book written in first person point of view (I really should add a glossary to the blog so I can just abbreviate to my heart's content) and the question came up about what kind of POVs they like. Now there's an idea about discussing why so many people don't like First Person.

You can add me to that camp. I've been known to turn the car around and go back to the bookstore to return books I accidentally bought that were written in first person. I don't mind it in mysteries, but just loathe it in romance. Of course, there are exceptions. I have enjoyed a few romances written in first, but generally I don't like it. I've tried to analyze why and I think part of the reason is that I want to be in both the hero's and the heroine's heads. Except I don't like first person even when it's done with alternating third person or alternating with the other's first person POV. Again, there are exceptions that I've read and enjoyed.

The other reason is first person seems so egocentric. Me. I. Mine. I've read first person where I was so sick of seeing the word I that I started to roll my eyes whenever I read it. Instead of bringing me deeper into the story, it's actually distancing me because of the world revolves around me thing.

Like I said, there are exceptions to this that sit on my keeper shelf. Most notably, my favorite werewolf book, Wolf In Waiting by Rebecca Flanders. WIW was told in alternating first person POV between the hero and heroine and it works beautifully and it was my favorite of the three book series.

And I have to run. Yikes!

It snowed last night. It's still snowing. The winds are supposed to be in the 20-30 mph range. I hate Minnesota.

I think I'll leave it here, although I could go on much longer. I keep trying to tell myself to cheer up, that at least it isn't freezing rain. It's not working. With freezing rain, I'd just take vacation days from work until the roads were clear. With 5 inches of snow, I have to drive to the EDJ.

I saw who won the playoff games this weekend and I have to say, your odds were better if I didn't like your team. :-/ The AFC match up is between two teams that I hate, so it'll be a lesser of two evils thing, and out of the NFC, one team I wanted to see win actually did. New Orleans--and they almost didn't win from what I heard on the recap. Anyway, my relatives in Chicago will be appalled that I was rooting against their beloved Bears, but I was. :-) Instead of giving me grief about that, they should probably thank me.

Anyway, if you discount the snow, it was a pretty nice weekend. My chapter meeting was a lot of fun and I received my Rising Star Award. My hero finally revealed valuable background information about himself, something he had been keeping secret from me. I saw a cable modem in the paper and it listed my ISP as one of the valid activation partners to get the rebates! That was part of what had me dragging my feet, I didn't want to change email addresses, but I didn't think it would be one of the places I could activate at the store. It was nice to find out I was wrong. Of course, I still have to get myself to the store, get the modem, manage to hook it up myself--which I can probably do if the instructions are halfway decent--and hope my computer doesn't move so slowly, it goes backward in time. I really need a new desktop unit.

I have to get going early today. Extra drive time in and all that. Sigh.

Where Angels Go, Trouble Follows is the sequel to the movie I reviewed last week, The Trouble with Angels. Rosalind Russell reprises her role as the reverend mother and many of the supporting nuns from the first picture also return for this movie. There's one new nun, Stella Stevens as Sister George, and a whole new cast of students.

Sister George is an activist, participating in protests and getting arrested time after time in the opening sequence. (This film was made in 1968.) The movie itself opens with the reverend mother having a conversation with the bishop. He's approved Sister George's request to take some students on a cross-country trip to an interfaith rally in California. The mother superior tries to get out of it, but the bishop is a "forward-thinking" man who outmaneuvers her and she finds herself forced to take this trip.

As they prepare for the journey, Sister George is there, constantly criticizing every one of her fellow sisters for not doing things the way she'd do them. They're all behind the times and stuck in tradition. Clearly, she's the only sister who has her fingers on the pulse of today's world.

The group sets off and encounters problem after problem. They run out of gas (they have a new bus) and Sister George berates Sister Clarissa who's driving. Then a group of motorcycle thugs shows up and threatens two of the girls. Sister George steps in and saves the day by facing down one thug with a knife and talking to the leader of the gang. He gets them a can of gas and lets them go on their way.

The bus stalls out on railroad tracks, just as a train is coming. The doors are all stuck, both the front exit and the emergency exit in back. The girls are climbing out the windows at the reverend mother's orders, but not everyone can get out. Fortunately, the bus starts at the last minute and they're all safe.

The bus gets a flat tire in the desolate desert and Sister George rides a conveniently located donkey, complete with reins, to get help.

The group runs into a detour that takes them 125 miles out of their way. It was marked on the map, but Sister Clarissa didn't see it. This gives Sister George another opportunity to berate her fellow nun and tell the reverend mother that they should have hired a professional driver rather than allow the incompetent sister drive. Never mind that Sister Clarissa has been driving the bus for years. Never mind that she finds pleasure in performing this task for others. Never mind that anyone can make a mistake.

Somehow, the bus ends up attacked by Indians. Our intrepid travelers fight them off, only to find out they ended up in the middle of a film set. Okay. Sure. Actors are going to attack a school bus full of students and nuns when they're supposed to be attacking covered wagons. I almost buy that. Not.

Other events of lesser importance include the group stopping at another school to stay for the night and it turning out to be a Catholic boys' boarding school. The reverend mother asks the sister in charge of finding their accommodations why they're here, but Sister George speaks up. She arranged this. Of course, the reverend mother doesn't like the idea of her girls in a dorm with all these boys, but the priest (again, clearly a forward thinker, not like the stodgy nuns) and Sister George convince her it will be okay.

While they stay there, two of the students teach the boys how to make a bomb--just like Sister George showed them back at school. After the lab explodes and the window breaks, the boy runs out to catch the departing girls' group and pay the two students for the info. He honestly can't understand that he's going to get the girls in trouble. Sigh.

The girls are assigned to wash the bus as punishment. There's a truck wash there and they decide to run the bus through--and forget to close the windows. Every single window is open and all the group's things are on the bus. The one girl, Rosabelle, played by a young Susan St. James, is supposed to be a straight-A student. It didn't occur to her until too late to close those windows?

The movie ends with the concession that of course Sister George was right, they are too set in their ways. It's time to change. We close with all the nuns in short dresses and smaller head pieces so we can see their hair. Everyone is smiling and happy.

Sorry, I couldn't resist a little commentary along the way and I probably gave out some spoilers too, but I felt it necessary to show the full scope of the picture. I hadn't seen this movie since I was about 13 or 14 and it was better in my memory than it was in real life. I think I know why I was so enchanted as a young teenager--I liked the theme song and there was a part where a boy at the ranch (after the flat tire incident) falls for Rosabelle at first sight. Unfortunately, as an adult, neither thing was able to make up for the other issues I had.

First off, Sister George was so strident and so intolerant of anyone who didn't think the way she did--hardly the attitude I'd expect from someone who supposedly wants to do good. I have no clue what the church was like in this time, so I can't say whether or not the message of the movie was on target or not, but I will say that I felt banged over the head with it over and over and over again. I don't want to be hit like that with anyone's agenda.

Secondly, could one more thing have gone wrong with the bus? It runs out of gas, it gets a flat tire, it stalls on the railroad tracks, it breaks an axle. I thought it got ridiculous after a while and I had a hard time caring about what misadventure would befall them next. It's like the scriptwriter had a checklist of what could possibly go wrong with the bus and used each and every possibility.

That's not to say the movie was all bad. Rosalind Russell gave a fine performance, especially considering the script she had to work with. I still enjoyed the theme song, although I'm not about to download it onto my MP3 player anytime soon. And there were a few cute moments along the way. Overall, I don't think I'd recommend the movie, but it wasn't a totally awful way to spend a couple of hours.

My rating: 3 stars

It's funny how weather can affect my moods and energy level. In the summer when it's nice and warm, I can wake up and feel determined, industrious and ready to tackle mountains. In the winter when it's cold and/or snowy, I just want to sleep. It makes me wonder if once, long ago in the predawn times if humans hibernated. If this desire for extra sleep was simply limited to me, I'd say it's a personal quirk, but I know a lot of people who really spool down in the winter. When the vernal equinox rolls around, it's like people here in Minnesota come out of stasis.

Take my plans for today. I'm going to my chapter meeting and I really should wash some bedding and clean the house. I also need to write. Right now, though, what sounds good is a nap. :-)

I think the bears have it right. They go to sleep in fall and wake up when the weather warms. No dealing with temperatures in the negative numbers, no shoveling snow out of the cave--just wake me when it's spring. Sounds like a plan to me.

I'll go into my cave right after New Year's (the holidays make early winter seem okay, but by mid-January, I'm done with winter) and come out when I can wear my light jacket again.

What's bringing these thoughts on? Aside from the fact that I'm still really sleepy, of course. It's 1 degree here this morning. The wind chill takes us to -10. A few days ago it was in the mid 30s. I am so ready for spring!

My book on Polynesian mythology arrived yesterday. I only glanced through it real quickly since I'm not allowed to play with my new characters just yet. It looks like it's going to have exactly the kind of information I was looking for, and I was right--it is a textbook. It's so cool what some colleges have for class offerings. My university didn't have any of the really intriguing classes like the ones where they study television shows, but we had Intro to Theater where we were required to go to 3 plays and write reviews where we had to cover certain criteria. I didn't particularly enjoy 2 of the plays I saw, but I loved The Importance of Being Ernest.

I had a love for theater, though, long before I took that class. I can't really attribute it to my parents since I was always the one begging to go to a play. This is one of the truly great things about living in Minneapolis--our theater. Minneapolis has acting talent that easily rivals what I've seen on Broadway. Our Guthrie Theatre is nationally renown, maybe even world renown, and we have lots of big productions travel through town. We've even had shows destined for Broadway start here before going to NYC. It makes me one happy camper, although, I haven't had much time for the theater in a while now.

Musical theater, though, is probably my favorite, although anything by Shakespeare is a close second. (Favorite Shakespeare play is Much Ado About Nothing because I love the romance between Beatrice and Benedick.)

Anyway, before I run through and review all the plays I can remember seeing in my life, I suppose I should logoff and take a shower. The nap sounds better, though.

I saw on the news yesterday that some soccer team in Los Angeles is paying an obscene amount of money to Beckham, a British player married to one of the Spice Girls. I think it's Posh Spice. I can't help but think that this is a desperate attempt to encourage Americans to watch professional soccer. Is it going to work? I have my doubts since previous desperate attempts to get Americans interested in the sport have failed miserably. We've had a couple generations of kids grow up playing soccer now and even they don't watch it as adults.

I'll confess, I think soccer is incredibly boring. When I was a teenager, I went to a few games with my friends, but we didn't find the game interesting at all. We kept going, though, because there were guys in shorts. Now, of course, I can appreciate athletic men in tight pants (baseball and football) just as easily.

Two jokes I've heard immediately came to mind last night when I saw this story. 1. Why do X million of American kids play soccer? Answer: So they don't have to watch it. 2. Soccer is something like hockey--without all that annoying scoring.

Despite Major League Soccer's attempt to round up some interest in their sport, I have a hard time imagining it's going to work. I have this feeling that Americans are going to be much more interested in Beckham's off-field life than they will be in the game. I was thinking about that yesterday and wondering how they'd deal with the paparazzi when I realized that the press he faced in England will probably be six billion times worse than anything he'll see in the US. He'll be a novelty here, a fad, but very few people care about the game.

That's what kind of blows me away, that so many people get so rabid about a sport where no one scores that they riot. Huh? Maybe if the score wasn't nil to nil, the fans might be more interested in the game than fighting each other or setting the stadium on fire.

Okay, sorry, I'm trying to be funny at soccer's expense and humor isn't my forte. Let's just say I don't get it and leave it at that.

I keep thinking, though, of how much good all that money could do if it were given to charity or invested in improving Los Angeles schools or a lot of other worthwhile endeavors. I know, American athletes in sports people do care about are overpaid too. The Chicago Cubs just went out and spent a fortune on players, and while the money makes me cringe, I'm excited about the upcoming season because they should be a vastly better team in 2007.

And it's time for me to logoff and get ready for the EDJ. Sigh. At least it's Friday.

Edits are on their way to NYC. Yea! I ran out on lunch yesterday and mailed them. The temperature was supposed to be warm, but there was a wicked wind blowing hard enough to push the SUV around on the road. That definitely made me wish I could have stayed inside and warm.

I had to download a large file yesterday, and while I was waiting (I hate dial-up!), I added a couple of buttons to the blog. They're down below the blog roll links. One is to subscribe to the blog through Bloglines and the other with Google Reader. I have both, mainly because some site I visited called Google Reader one of the best new web things of 2006. Frankly, I prefer Bloglines because it's faster and I like the set up better, but it's all personal preference so I added both options.

I love blog readers (RSS readers). Without it, I'd hardly be able to read anyone's blog posts because of time. It's so much quicker to have everything on one site. Of course, I have to visit the blog to comment, and since I rarely do that even with the best of intentions, it saves me even more time. :-) I'm slow writer even for things like email and blog stuff. The reader also lets me follow baseball news for my favorite teams. The MLB website has links to each team's feed and I love it. Next year, I won't be sitting there going "What happened to so and so?"

I've tried a few home pages that rely on RSS feeds, but they haven't worked out for me. I don't know why I don't like them since there's no reason why I shouldn't. With some of the modules, my problem is you have to click through to see the information--like comics or horoscopes or something like that. I don't mind just having the news headlines because then I can decide whether or not I want to read more. Does anyone have a home page they really like? I'm open to trying more because I really don't like the one I'm using now real well either, but it's better than anything I've attempted to replace it with. I also need something that loads fairly fast because I have dial up. :-(

I'm working on going to high speed. Kind of. Okay, I made the decision, but now I'm waffling on whether I go with my cable provider or my ISP who offers service through my cable provider. There are too many decisions to make!

Edits are done! Hurrah! And all bundled up and ready to go to Fed Ex on lunch today. I was right, I ran out of time to do a spreadsheet, darn it. You know, it's funny. One of my engineers (or I guess I should say one of my former engineers since she's in a different department now) is getting married in the fall and she's using spreadsheets. I've been giving her crap about that, but I suddenly went, Oops! Guess I like my spreadsheets too. Of course, I'm not going to tell her that, and I'll keep teasing her, because that's what I do with engineers. :-)

Since I didn't have time to type up everything the way I wanted, I settled for hitting the highlights. I marked some of them with post-it notes, and if it was something that I disagreed with the copy editor about, I did a quick table in my word processing program and answered the query, explaining why I didn't make any changes. Like when the query for page 88 or something like that said, "tell us earlier how long he's been trapped." I replied, it says on page 53 and quoted it. There wasn't too much. I mostly just went okay and fixed it. :-)

Unfortunately, I didn't finish until after 9pm, and as I was making a last email check, I hear this really loud bang out on my deck. Of course, I immediately became wide awake and try to decide which phone to make a run for if someone is trying to break in. And I remind myself, make sure to unplug the phone cord from the laptop to disconnect before you run. There was no other noise and I finally worked up enough courage to flip on the outside light and actually check it out. Nothing.

I wasn't quite brave enough, though, to check out the basement, and when I went to bed, I was pretty tense, thinking a criminal was lying in wait for me to sleep, then he'd spring. Yes, writers have overactive imaginations. It helps when we're telling our stories, but it absolutely makes real life an adventure at times--even if it's only in our own minds. :-) Anyway, I'm darn tired today after 3 nights without enough sleep and no matter what, I'm going to bed early tonight.

I had some horrible news in email this morning--my Waldenbooks store is closing! NO!!!! This store has always been fabulous, not only to me as an author, but as a book buyer too. I can't believe they're closing this store again. They closed them once before back in the mid-90s and then reopened them again. Which means the only two bookstores I have in my area now are a huge Borders and a huge Barnes & Noble. I like my smaller Waldenbooks so much more. If you have a favorite bookstore, a place where people know your name when you come in, imagine them closing it. I'm heartbroken.

Last night was a Writerspace chat for January books from Leisure/Love Spell. The entire Crimson City team showed up. Yea! And so did many other authors. It was fun, but I have dial up and I think that's why I'd have no messages for a while and then I'd get like almost a full screen full. So then I'd be scrolling madly, trying to read the comments before another batch of messages came in and pushed the other ones off the screen and trying to answer notes. :-) I think I probably missed some stuff I wanted to answer.

Anyway, I was wound up by the time I left chat and I couldn't fall asleep, even though I had like almost no sleep on Sunday night. Right now, I'm working with my eyes slitted open and feeling gritty. I thought about taking a vacation day. I could sleep in and then get up again and work on packaging my edits, but no, I can't do that. The builder--or a representative of the builder--is coming out to fix the closet door my dad yanked off the pivots. Sigh. I should tell the story of us trying to fix the thing yesterday afternoon, but I'm too tired to do it justice. Suffice to say that we were both getting frustrated and were unable to successfully complete our mission.

Edits are done and marked up and now all I need to do is put the changes into my document and do my spreadsheet. The only thing is that I don't know if I'm going to have time to do the kind of spreadsheet I want to do with everything marked. (I know, I know, compulsive. I've learned to live with it.) Not if I want to get to bed early. And I really, really do. I guess I'll see how it goes and maybe only hit the highlights or something.

Oops! I gotta end here. It's nearly 5am and that means time to get ready for the EDJ.

Yesterday was a very productive day. I finished the writing part of my copy edits and began marking up the manuscript. The two scenes that I reworked ended up being a lot easier to take care of than I expected. I'd thought I was going to need to trash large portions and do massive writing, but it ended up that all I needed to do was change a few sentences here and there and it took care of things. Yea!

Markups are always time consuming, but even those were going along quite well. Of course, I'll include a spreadsheet of the changes I made. I'm a teensy bit compulsive--what can I say? And I'll probably type up a response to the copy edit query sheet even if it's just to say "okay." Besides, I want to explain why I didn't make a few of the changes.

Like toe-to-toe. That got changed to head-to-head. Well, first off, I don't like head-to-head. I don't know why, but I can't recall ever writing it and I don't know if I ever will. I never say never because the next thing you know, I'll have a character who uses that phrase, but right now, I wouldn't write it. Seeing it in my book grates on me. Again, I don't know why. It's a stupid reaction, but I also had it when one of my editors changed "butt" to "buttocks." I told him he could use any other word and I wouldn't object, but that I couldn't stand buttocks. :-)

The other reason I want to keep toe-to-toe is I meant toe-to-toe in most of the cases. Ryne, my heroine, literally gets in the hero's space when he gets her het up--and Deke riles her up a lot! In the spots where I didn't mean toe-to-toe, I reworded it to something else other than head-to-head. I think I used "squared off."

It's funny, there are some authors that will fight for every comma, that will be outraged if an editor changes a word in their story. I'm not like that. I don't think I've ever argued about punctuation (even when I'm right, although I will change it back to the way I had it. Like the comma comes before "and" in a clause, dang it. I cringe when I see that in my stories because I know better) and I rarely argue word changes unless it's changed my meaning or it's a word I don't like or wouldn't use.

And I finished The War of Art by Steven Pressfield yesterday and I can't recommend this book highly enough. I think there's something in there for everyone who wants to achieve a dream, but it's for sure good for anyone interested in something creative--especially writers. I honestly can't imagine any writer who wouldn't take away something to help them out of this book. I wish someone had told me about it the day it came out!

Anyway, I emailed the author and told him how much I loved his book. I never used to do this, BTW. Before I sold, I never even thought about it, and even if I had, I would have figured the author received so much fan mail that one more would be a burden. Or that they were so busy, a note would be a burden. I have to tell you, I found out differently. Fan mail is the best thing ever. It doesn't matter how busy I am or how swamped and overwhelmed I feel at that particular moment, answering fan mail is a joy. So I vowed that whenever I read a book I liked, I was going to let the author know about it. Of course, I haven't had time to read much in the last few years.

After I sent the note, my first thought was, OMG, I just emailed the bestselling author of The Legend of Bagger Vance; what was I thinking? He must get tons of fan mail. But you know what? Within a few hours, I had a fantastic note back from him. I read it a few times. I guess now I understand why readers are in awe when an author answers them because that's how I felt. :-)

I had to share the wonderful things I've experienced today. I've been working on edits all day, head down over the computer, but earlier, from the corner of my eye, I saw movement. I looked up and discovered I had about half a dozen deer in my backyard. I raced for the camera, but by the time I returned, they were gone.

Just a few minutes ago, I again caught motion in my peripheral vision and discovered a hawk atop the fence along my backyard. I'm not sure why, but I love hawks. He sat on the fence post, watching the field for a long time before he disappeared.

Sometimes when I'm working, I forget there's life outside my computer, but today, I've been reminded. Mother nature wanted to share some of her beauty with me.

It's movie review Sunday! This week it's The Trouble With Angels starring Rosalind Russell and Hayley Mills from 1966.

Hayley Mills plays Mary Clancy, a teenager sent to the St. Francis Academy for Girls by her uncle. Her parents were killed and he's her guardian. On the train up, she meets several other girls bound for the academy and convinces them all to lie about their names. Of course, the mother superior (played by Rosalind Russell) catches them out and two of the other three girls she talked into it quickly cave.

This event sets the tone for Mary's entire tenure at the school. She's the hellion, the troublemaker and she brings her best friend along for the ride. If there's trouble brewing, Mary is behind it. Leading other students on a tour of the nuns' quarters, which are off limits--Mary. Putting a plaster cast around another girl's head, one that won't come off--Mary. Sneaking away to smoke--Mary.

But while Mary and the reverend mother are constantly butting heads, Mary also sees things that make her wonder. The reverend mother comforts an old woman at a nursing home whose children promised to be there for Christmas and then didn't show up. She puts on a stoic face for her students, but privately mourns the death of another nun. And there are other things she says and does that Mary witnesses, raising her respect for the mother superior even though she continues to cause trouble. The story covers about three or four years and culminates with Mary's graduation.

I've seen this movie on TV more than once and I rented it to watch it uncut and without commercials because I like it. It's fun and sweet, and aside from the smoking, very innocent. Rosalind Russell and Hayley Mills are both believable in their roles as Mother Superior and student and their scenes together have some priceless moments.

Because of the year this movie was made, there are a few things that are a bit dated, but overall, it survives the test of time amazingly well. Also, because this movie is from 1966, it's pretty much safe for the entire family. (Take this with a grain of salt since I don't have children, but there was no sneaking off to have sex with boys, no drinking or drugs, and while the girls might be in trouble, it's always something relatively innocent. None of their pranks are ever mean-spirited.)

I found the film amusing, although I didn't think it was laugh out loud funny. (I did when I was a kid.) There were also a few moments that touched me and teared me up. Like when the old woman was crying on the reverend mother's shoulder about her children.

I enjoyed th