Jeffrey Michael's Blog, page 2

I have a new favorite hobby!

Yes, I do have a new favorite hobby. I've always enjoyed dancing and had Ballroom dancing on my bucket list. Well one of my friends has graciously donated her time and toes to taking lessons with me. :) So far I've learned the basic steps to: waltz, tango, merenge, salsa, and cha cha. I did however warn my friend that when County Line dancing came up in the beginner's class rotation I wouldn't be attending. It's odd, but country is the only music genre that I really can't stand. I'm sure it stems from a childhood trauma but my days of self-analysis have long set sail for the horizon. I love the studio and instructors. They hold at least one beginner's dance per month except for December because there's so much else going on.

My advice ... DO IT! Yes there are times when I feel like I've got two left feet or get so lost in one of the steps that I wonder why I ever went after this particular bucket list item. But it's really worth it. I feel better because it's good exercise and I just have so much fun with the other students and instructors that it's cathardic from the hectic pace of my daytime job.

Enjoy your holidays and I'll chat with you later.

One week until The Hobbit

OK, if you're not a fan of J.R.R. Tolkien then read no further.

I'm so excited. The Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit prequel have been at the top of my favorite books list for nearly half a century. I've seen some lame attempts to transcribe them onto the big screen but they were, well, horrible at best. The Rankin/Bass animated production from the 70s or 80s (not sure when it was made) ranks near the top of my list of horrible failures. The latest attempt at putting it on the big screen exceeded my expectations. The local, special effects and actors combined to make a more than passable video portrail of my favorite books. Though I have to admit, it wasn't until the 'extended' version was released that I was truely happy. A lot of what hit the cutting room floor, IMHO, should have been left in the big screen version.

Now it's only a week until the final book of the series is presented to us at long last. It's funny but they put together the trilogy of the Rings and filmed the whole thing prior to going to production on the prequel. I could go into a whole diatribe on how it would have made more sense to produce the first book first and how, from an investment sense, it would have been like sticking your toe in the water to see if you should go ahead with producing the other 3. But what the heck, who can argue with success? :)

Yes, I will be going to see the movie. It's a birthday gift from my kids and we're all going to see the movie together. The anticipation is killing me, I want to go NOW! lol Well at least it's only a week away now instead of MONTHS away. I'll have to review the movie for you once I get out.

For those of you who follow my posts you'll remember that I suffer from prereadaphobia, the fear of reading the book before watching the movie. :) I've found that, for the most part, if I've read the book the big screen adaptation always seems to fall short. Case in point, The Hunger Games. I totally loved the books but felt that the movie fell far short of the book.

Well here's to hoping that The Hobbit is as good as the other 3 movies.

Holiday regards to all!

Reflection

I find Thanksgiving a time for reflection and appreciation and family. I love spending time with my family and friends and what better time than Thanksgiving where we can all over eat, visit and over dose on football and parades. The Thanksgiving tradition has always been one of sending time with family and of coming together. My brother and sisters (along with Mom) live a long ways away but I get to spend the day with my daughter, son and grandkids. Reflectino is part of the gathering and thankfulness for what I've got. I'm healthy, have a great family, a good job and a very healthy dose of procrastination. Yes, I made absolutely no progress on the two novels I have near completion even though very little was on the agenda for Black Friday or the day after. I was lazy, did very little around the house though I was very successful in holding the couch in place while playing on-line games with some of my family while the TV was on in the background.

I've got to finish the two books I have nearly done soon. I still am very passionate about the 'based on a true story' and my daughter and neighbors keep asking about the second volume of AS&M. Now to off-load a bit of that procrastination and load up on a bit more writing drive! Here's to getting them done before Christmas! :)

Yep, distracted by the weather

Well I didn't get much witing done over the summer months. My pool and bar were just too alluring to ignore. How can anything compete with a Scotch and cigar outside by the pool on a hot day? Even my dog Dean spent a lot of time cooling off in the pool with and without me. :) Needless to say, I'm behind on my personal schedule of completing the sequel to A New Age Begins (working title of Crossings). Naturally with that one behind schedule, I'm behind on "Not So Virgin Mary" as well, but never fear! Yes the pool is all buttoned up for the fall/winter/spring and it's getting too cold to sit anywhere but by the backyard bonfire where I can stay warm while I read.

The next step is to get back to writing again. I had to recreate my outline and character development process after, somehow, losing it electronically. But that's done and Crossings now should flow easily ... that is if I buckle down, set aside time to write and not go dancing, out to dinner, take advantage of one of the warm days to spend time in the sunshine, host a family cookout or any of a million other things the pop up in my time at home away from my day job.

I'll keep you posted a bit more regularly now that the summer is well over and fall is starting to impose it's weather patterns and chill in the air here in the New England area.

Time for writing?

Yes, I got the pool opened this past weekend and had time to spend with my kids on Father's Day. Now it's time to buckle down and get back to writng, right? Damn, I hope so but the temperatures are supposed to be soaring into the mid 90's in the next couple of days so I may be spendig more time in the water than at the laptop. But those deadlines are looming over me like a pregnant storm cloud ready to burst. With two projects going at the same time it's often hard to decide which one needs attention more even though the deadlines are about a month apart. It's that month that usually determines which to work on at themoment.

Of course I still need to promote the published book and so far I've really only run one ad campaign so sales are tepid. Which came first, the promotions or the sales? :)

Thanks to my friends and family, I've been prodded to get on with the sequel to the first book. They want to know what's happening with Tara or where did Glen go, inquiring minds want to know. lol

Yes working a full time job, taking care of my house, tending to my kids/grandkids, finding time to read and keep up with the latest movie releases (one of my favorite pasttimes) is more than enough for ordinary mortals but, (duh, duh, duh!) not for this superhero author!

Enjoy your summer and I'll be checking in again, soon.

Summer? What summer?

Well here in New England it appears we had a great summer last week because this week is definitely fall-like and I didn't even get my pool opened! Last week I was on vacation away from New England so I missed the great weather. Ah well, the cool weather forces me inside where it's warmer and in front of the laptop. Yes, I've made some progress on both of my in-process projects and if the summer keeps up like this then I'll be able to finish both of them ahead of schedule.

But then again, I've made plans with my grandchildren to take them to go see Madagascar 3 so there goes most of one day this weekend because I can't just take them to the movies afterall. There has to be a meal at Grandpa's house and some X-Box for my grandson along with an episode of The Seeker for my daughter and grandaughter.

Maybe if summer decides to grace us with its presence again I might get that pool opened again in the next week or so. With my luck, by the time summer comes back, it will be with a vengance and I'll be melting in the heat as I try to clean the pool.

In the summer time when the weather is fine ...

Yes, a great line from one of my favorite start of summer songs by Mungo Jerry. Yep, I'm showing my age but what the heck, no hiding that I've been around for a couple decades or more. :) Yes summer really seemed to be in full swing here in the New England area this past weekend. It was a great Mother's Day which I celebrated by spoiling my daughter and granddaughter. Another great day the kept me away from the computer and from working on the two projects I have in progress. I still plan to have A&SM: Crossings out by the end of August but with the call of the warm weather I'm finding is harder and harder to sit inside behind the computer to knuckle down and write. lol

Well once my pool and outdoor bar are open maybe I'll just move the laptop out there. That way I can enjoy the weather AND write. At least that's the plan for now and I'm sticking to that story, results to follow.

Summer is getting closer

Sorry about not having posted for so long but as the title says, summer is getting closer and like most of you I too have a touch of spring fever. The temperatures are climging to what I consider tolerable and spending time outside is now an option. Of course that also means yard work. I'm trying to work on the two projects I have in progress but it seems like everytime I think that maybe I'll have a bit of free time for them I get interupted.

On a writing note, I got some nice feedback from some of the signed books I sent out. It was nice to hear from some of you with regards to my writing. I also had a great research session for my upcoming book Not So Virgin Mary: Daughter, Sailor, Mother, Spy? The details of the book are falling together at a rapid pace now and I'm getting excited about the whole project. I think it may be one of my better works. We'll see when it's released if other feel the same way. I'm still on track for a late August/early September release.

Now get out there and enjoy the nice weather, unless it's pouring rain like it is here today! lol

And the winners are ...

I held an event for everybody on my friends list for a giveaway of 5 signed paperbacks. The drawing was held this morning and the winners of the drawing are:

Graeme Stokes
Katy Sozaeva
Penelope (I HEART BOOKS)
Zulma Gonzalez
Pancakemib

Congratulations to each of you and I'll be contacting you individually for mailing addresses and how you'd like your salutation. I hope to get all the books mailed off this weekend so you should be seeing the book sometime next week. Oh, yes. One other things, something that I added as a last minute thing, I'm including 2 book marks for each winner.

Again, congratulations to the 5 winners and I'll be in touch soon.

The Hunger Games - the movie

OK, if you've read the books like I have you're going to find some flaws in the on-screen version of The Hunger Games. To take it a step further, I don't think I'm going to see the sequels. While a fairly close adaptation of the books, they didn't do their job in character development (a must for any writer) to get the audience rooting for the heroine. The book did an excellent job of telling the background story of Katniss and getting us emotionally involved with the story. In that aspect, the movie fell flat. If they did have all that in the uncut version then whomever did the editing left the best parts on the cutting room floor. If it was never in there to begin with then they hired the wrong director. To have fallen in love with the books and then be let down so horribly by the movie had me leaving the theater leaning toward not going to see any sequel. Of course curiosity could get the better of me and I'd watch it when it's released to one of the movie networks (HBO, Showtime, etc.)