Stephanie Abbott's Blog, page 23

Movie Mention: Hugo

Hugo is one of those I-don't-know-how-I-missed-it movies. I saw the preview and loved the film's look, its steampunk sensibility.  Add Martin Scorsese, Ben Kingsley and Sacha Baron Cohen, and I have no clue why I didn't see this in the theater.

Anyhow, Hugo is a charming and gorgeous film.  Set in early 1930s Paris, it tells the story of an orphan who lives in a train station, stealing food to survive and always staying one step ahead of the station master (Sacha Baron Cohen, who steals every scene.)

Hugo runs afoul of a toy maker (Ben Kingsley) while stealing parts to repair his late father's final project — the Automaton, a clockwork-driven mechanical man.  As Hugo and the toy maker come to an accord, Hugo realizes the old man is more than he seems.  And together, they may help each other resume their purpose in a vast, mechanized, lonely world.

 

Filed under: Movies, Steampunk Tagged: automaton, ben kingsley, clockwork, hugo, martin scorsese, sacha baron cohen, Steampunk

"Death From Above" – Tshukudu Game Reserve, South Africa – Graham King – Featured Photographer

Reblogged from PhotoBotos.com:

. . "Death From Above" – Tshukudu Game Reserve, South Africa – Graham King – Featured Photographer Okay, maybe I am a bit dramatic with the title, but I think it is fitting when you have a 100 pound leopard over your head.    You can only imagine what this leopard sees and that is the fun of it.  Gazelle?  Zebra? One of Graham's friends? No matter who is on the lunch menu, the beauty and agility of this big cat is well represented in Graham's photograph. So please read the story below then …

My cats play "death from above" …. but they are not quite as impressive…



Filed under: cats Tagged: big cats, cats, nature photography, photobotos, professional photography

Giveaway of Past Lives #1: Rachel (The Past Lives Series) by Stephanie Abbott

Reblogged from Ritesh Kala's Book Reviews:

I have the most amazing giveaway for you! This book is right up my alley with a mix of fantasy, reincarnation, mystery and mind boggling powers. Does this get you intrigued? Interested? Well then, here's your chance to win one of THREE ebooks of this amazing book! The giveaway is open till March 15, 2012. About Past Lives #1: Rachel (The Past Lives Series) Genre – Science Fiction & Fantasy / Mystery How many times can you die for love? A near-fatal car crash unlocks memories from Rachel MacReady's …

Filed under: Stephanie Abbott

Rachel MacReady on GOALS

… my lead character Rachel MacReady speaks in a series of essays.  This one is in response to the question, "What are your long-term and short-term goals?"

Okay, confession time.  I suck at questions like this.  My cousin and best friend, Brannon, wrote my university entrance essay because mine was such a joke.  So I turned to her for some help and here's what she told me to say:

Short-term goals: graduate university with honors, pay off Mazda, find a part-time job in the art world while arranging for my first gallery showing.  Long-term goals: gain serious recognition for my art, marry a man who respects my career and have happy, healthy children.

After Brannon wrote that, she got some graph paper and constructed a timeline.  I'm penciled in for marriage at twenty-five.  It's the same age she scheduled me to earn an NEA grant to fund my painting, so I guess I'm in for a busy year.  Seriously, though, Brannon's schedule was so perfectly her and so totally not me, I stayed up till three am writing my own.  Here goes:

Short-term goal: find out how I died in 1870.  Long-term goal: keep from dying the same way in this life.

Okay, I'll admit that's a little sparse.  But my life is changing so fast, and things are moving so rapidly, it seems best to mentally travel light.  Before the car crash that unlocked my past life memories, not to mention my telepathy, I thought I had things figured out.  And yeah, my imaginary future looked a lot like Brannon's plan.  But the crash did more than show me who I used to be – Cassandra Masters, part of the Order, a steampunk secret society that controlled Victorian Britain.  It reunited me with key players from that lifetime.  Brannon was once a pyrokinetic named Lucy.  Josh Strickland, a bit of a slacker in the present day, had been a pyrokinetic, too, and one tough hombre.  Zach Miller, handsome, smart and sexy in the present day, had once been Dominic, Cassandra's handsome, smart and sexy 1870s boyfriend, or "beau."  And Hayden Cross, driver of the silver Porsche that collided head-on with my Mazda, had once been Ted Harrington – badass telekinetic, accused murderer and a man Cassandra found at least as attractive as Dominic.  The details are still hazy, but I know for sure that the five of us banded together to stand up to corruption within the Order.  Banded together and died – if not in the rebellion, soon after.

Revised short-term goal: find out if I had some role in the deaths of my friends in 1870.  Revised long term goal: make damn sure I don't get us all killed in this life.

Hopefully my life will go back to normal someday.  But it's hard for me to worry about future gallery showings and domestic bliss when a new version of the Order seems to be rising again.  It might sound like an ego trip, but I have the strangest feeling that I'm back, reborn in this day and age, to stop it from rebuilding.  So there's my goal in a nutshell: stop the Order.

Filed under: Past Lives Series, Stephanie Abbott, The Order Tagged: brannon murray, goals, Past Lives #1: Rachel, Past Lives Series, rachel macready, reincarnation

Rachel MacReady on TRADITION

Rachel, the lead character of my book Past Lives #1: Rachel, speaks to you in a series of essays.  The first:

"What are your thoughts on tradition?"

I'm an art major, so when I think of tradition, I think of the various schools of art: classical, romantic, photorealistic, etc. Some of those disciplines didn't appeal to me.  But my professors said you have to understand the past to go forward. Besides, in art, you're never straitjacketed; creativity and innovation are paramount. But when you ask me about tradition, I think you really mean, what do I think about the Order?  Do I feel bad that it collapsed, taking its rules and its bloodlines and its Great Houses with it, leaving telepaths and other psychics to shift for themselves?

The Order was the guiding hand behind Britain's age of Empire. Imagine it: three hundred white men, all telepaths, held sway over one-fifth of the world. They did it with new inventions – steam-powered ships, telegraphs, dynamite. They did it by remaining in the shadows, allowing England's nobility to believe they ruled in truth as well as name. And they did it by telepathically reinforcing societal rules that encouraged everyone to keep to their place. In other words, they taught the populace to emphasize and revere tradition. Not all traditions. Just the ones that kept them in power.

I can't claim to know the whole history of the Order. Before the car crash that brought back memories of my past life as Cassandra Masters, I didn't even know I was a telepath. I never dreamed I could read minds, force weaker people to obey me, even gather my psionic energy and throw it like a lightning bolt. And heaven knows uncovering the whole truth about the Order will take time. But I know telepaths first arose in ancient Greece. I know Queen Elizabeth I had telepaths for advisors and a telekinetic assassin. And I know that until about 1750, the Order was matriarchal.

Why matriarchal?  Because before DNA testing, no man could ever be sure a child was his. So each Great House was headed by a mother or grandmother. But then the bloodlines started to die off. Gradually there was a shift in power – a generation where more male telepaths survived to adulthood than female. As the Order transitioned to all-male rule, British society tightened like a noose. Especially around the necks of the women. By 1870 they were too tightly corseted to manage even a brisk walk and mentally corseted, too. In a world where a 22-year-old unmarried man had his whole life ahead of him and a 22-year-old unmarried female was a failure (an "old maid") the Order's ruling class felt secure. They weren't afraid the marginalized females in their midst would rise up to challenge them.

Except in 1870, one did. Cassandra Masters. I guess in those days I wasn't too blinded by tradition. And now that I've come back as Rachel MacReady, I feel very much the same.

Filed under: Past Lives Series, Steampunk, Stephanie Abbott, The Order Tagged: ebook, fiction, new fantasy, new fiction, new sci-fi, Past Lives #1: Rachel, Steampunk, victorian

PayPal Banning Certain E-Books. Really?

Reblogged from Lisa's Creative Space:

A few days ago, I found out that PayPal, a funds transfer business (keep this in mind, please) has decided what you can and cannot sell in your store or on your site. Or excuse me, what products THEY will approve of in order to use their services for money-exchanging between you (your business) and your customers. And, if you don't remove certain items from your site/store, they will close your account. What the hell? Does VISA or MC tell you what you can and cannot buy using their credit cards? Does your …

Here's more about PayPal's efforts with regard to indie ebooks…



Filed under: Writing Tagged: ebooks, paypal censorship, smashwords censorship

PayPal banning certain e-books. Really?

Reblogged from Lisa's Creative Space:

A few days ago, I found out that PayPal, a funds transfer business (keep this in mind, please) has decided what you can and cannot sell in your store or on your site. Or excuse me, what products THEY will approve of in order to use their services for money-exchanging between you (your business) and your customers. And, if you don't remove certain items from your site/store, they will close your account. What the hell? Does VISA or MC tell you what you can and cannot buy using their credit cards? Does your …

Here's more about PayPal's efforts with regard to indie ebooks…



Filed under: Writing Tagged: ebooks, paypal censorship, smashwords censorship

Head Over to Buggie4Books…

http://buggie4book.wordpress.com/

Read Mellisa's latest reviews and check out her March Author of the Month … me!

Thanks, Mellisa!

Filed under: Ice Blue, Lord and Lady Hetheridge Series, Past Lives Series, Protection, S.A. Reid, Something Different, Soulless Tagged: author of the month, buggie4books, emma jameson, Ice blue, mellisa neal, Past Lives #1: Rachel, protection, S.A. Reid, Something Different, Soulless, Stephanie Abbott

Quick Reaction: The Oscars

A pretty good show, I thought.  Christopher Plummer was all suave charm.  I really need to see Beginners.

Hugo is another highly honored one that looks right up my alley.  Can't believe I missed it, given all the steampunk imagery.

I enjoyed the short piece from Christopher Guest, et al., re: focus groups and The Wizard of Oz.  That is exactly like soliciting random comments on an unpublished novel.

I couldn't believe it when Brad Pitt's movie memory was about War of the Gargantuas!  As a kid I was obsessed with that movie!

Wish Gary Oldman had won Best Actor.  He's been overlooked too many times.

For Best Actress, there was an embarrassment of riches.  I don't begrudge Meryl the Oscar at all, but I thought Glenn Close looked fascinating in Albert Nobbs.  Gotta see that one.

And The Artist takes Best Picture.  Glad the producers brought Uggie the Dog onstage.

Filed under: Movies Tagged: albert nobbs, best actor, best actress, best picture, brad pitt, christopher plummer, gary oldman, glenn close, hugo, meryl streep, oscars, the artist, uggie, war of the gargantuas

Lucy Lawless/Greenpeace Protest

"We feel very much that what happens in the Arctic doesn't stay in the Arctic anymore," Lawless said. "An oil spill can never be cleaned up because of the remoteness and the freezing temperatures. We risk trashing whole ecosystems and poisoning them from plankton on up. It's absolutely unthinkable."

To read the article on CNN.com, go here.

Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: activism, arctic, greenpeace, lucy lawless