Tim Learn's Blog, page 16

One week to Chewy 3!!!!!

Chewy Noh and the March of Death is released in a week. Already review are pouring in. Check them out!!!!!

CHEWY NOH AND THE MARCH OF DEATH

PRE-ORDER NOW!!!!

What I learned from the horribleness of ‘Age of Adaline’

What I learned from the horribleness of ‘Age of Adaline’

It’s been a month now since I’ve seen this atrociously bad movie, and I can’t stop thinking about it. It’s one of those moves that gets bad, then worse, then super horrible, then, somehow, so bad that it sticks in your head. Few movies can pull that off so well.

The first awful element was introduced right away. Every scene was mainly there to point out that Adaline is super old and has lived a long time. Maybe the director thought we’d missed that with the horrible info dump in the beginning. Needless to say, he kept retreading this just to make sure. We see how Adaline knows many languages, how she has an old blind friend that believes their the same age, her knowledge of not only movies and music but also the surrounding city and its history. Then her dog dies and we see the pictures of like fifteen past dogs.

(Side Note: dogs live on average to be ten to thirteen years old, so if she had fifteen as the movie makes us believe, it would mean she was roughly 150 years old. The only problem is the info dump in the beginning told us Adaline was born around 1900. Clearly, someone’s bad at math.)

Besides the lack of true tension and plot—again most of which was in the info dump at the beginning—the movie is narrated. This choice confounds and shakes me to laughter. This is best exemplified in the end scene when Adaline has her second coincidental (cough!—Deus Ex Macchina) car accident. The narrator tells us she stops breathing. Then we see her breath in the chilly air disappear. Then he tells us that lightning struck her, filling her with electricity. Then we see lightning strike her and her body shake. Then he tells us she wakes up, and…I think you can guess what’s going to happen next. In a way, it was like having a condescending audience member lean over to whisper in my ear everything that was happening—you know, just in case I was too dumb to understand it.

I know my whole description here may sound bad. Well, it is. But this movie is a strangely horrible event like a real car accident. I think for that reason I in the most guttural, human sense enjoyed it. I was actually sad at the end. I was hoping it would get worse.

What I learned from ‘Miss Peregrine’s School for Peculiar Children’

What I learned from ‘Miss Peregrine’s School for Peculiar Children’

Even before finishing Ransom Riggs’ book, I was beginning to have a familiar feeling—one deep within that spread all over and throbbed in the back of my skull. I’ve been having this feeling more and more often nowadays, and only by reading his book, things came to a head. I’m afraid to say my tastes have skewed away from the mainstream. I thought his book was crap.

Now, it’s not all Mr. Riggs’ fault. Hollywood has helped a lot in allowing me to see this. At first, I didn’t even notice. Avengers came to the big screen and…seeing it, I wasn’t positive what all the hoopla was about. Frankly, I thought Samuel Jackson’s acting and lines in the movie were atrocious. Don’t get me wrong—I’m actually a fan of Joss Whendon, which made me feel it was maybe a fluke.

But then came Guardians of the Galaxy, and after that, Jurassic World. Within minutes of these movies starting, I knew I’d hate it. The characters were flat, and overall, there was no story. My disappointment only grew further this past Christmas having seen Star Wars. I held J. J. Abrams to much esteem, but seeing his rendition of a galaxy far, far away ruined my stock in him. Chase scene after chase scene after chase scene doesn’t make a story.

None of this was disheartening until I realized that everyone else loved all these movies. They found them fresh and unique and amazing. I was a little disturbed by this because if they all felt that way, then what did it say about my outlook on these films?

And then came along ‘Miss Peregrine’s School for Peculiar Children.’ Everywhere I read, people were applauding and recommending it. It couldn’t get enough praise, but as you’ve already seen, I hated it, and this is why it disturbs me: Crap movies are one thing; but for the longest time, I figured at least books would keep their downy glow and ability to touch and amaze. But now that’s gone as well.

As a writer, this scares me too. Most writers produce stuff they would like to read, but if what I like to read is what everyone else hates, then what hope does my writing have?

Two weeks to the next Chewy Noh!!!

In two weeks, Chewy Noh and the March of Death will come out. Until then, you can already reserve your copy by pre-ordering now! It’s an e-book first, so I guess the reservation might not be necessary, but pre-ordering wouldn’t hurt.

Check it out!!!!

CHEWY NOH AND THE MARCH OF DEATH

ON SALE JANUARY 29TH!!!!!

What I Learned from ‘The End of the Tour’

What I learned from ‘The End of the Tour’

    I recently watched the David Foster Wallace pic, called ‘The End of the Tour.’ It’s taken from the book by David Lipsky, detailing the end of Wallace’s Infinite Jest tour. Being a fan of Wallace, I was excited about seeing it, and not disappointed. Jason Segal does an amazing job recreating the feel of this tragic, literary character. For any of you who don’t know, Wallace killed himself back in 2008 after losing the battle with depression.

As always, after something moves me like this film did, I did some research to find out more. In the process, I unearthed an article from Rolling Stone interviewing David Lipsky about the book, Wallace’s death, and his own experience interviewing Wallace. The one thing I found very interesting was a quote Lipsky provided, saying roughly that depression was merely the opposite of curiosity. At first, I dismissed it, digging on to other insights to the author and his work, but over the following days, these words came back to me, and they rang with a strange truth.

How is curiosity the opposite of depression? This was the first question I asked myself. And it began to come clear. If curiosity is the interest in the world around you, an exacting interest to dissect everything down to its roots to see how it ticks, then I one hundred percent see what the quote means, because that’s exactly what depression is, but instead of thrusting it upon the outside world, the depressed individual casts it inward upon themselves. It is a magnifying glass in either direction, the intensity of which can awe when directed outward, or undermine the essence of being when done oppositely.

In this way, I really began to understand the character of Wallace more—though true, it’s only based on the fictional portrayal in the movie. Having read Wallace’s works—both fiction and non-fiction—I cannot determine what mental state he was ever actually in. Only bad poetry shows the author’s true inner feelings. Good writing doesn’t.

    Now, after having seen it a week ago, the movie still bothers me. The man was brilliant, but I wonder would he have been just as sparkling an author were he not so intense with his self-examination?

The Fine Line of Adults in Middle Grade and YA

The Fine Line of Adults in Middle Grade and YA

This is probably not the first time you’ve heard someone raise this issue. I’ve seen a large number of other writers/reviewers comment on the same—the seemingly lack of parental presence in many novels aimed at younger readers. They find it outrageous and are rather unforgiving about it. At first, I didn’t pay much attention to it, but—after receiving a review with a similar comment toward one of my books—I now feel I have to speak.

First of all, yes, in some novels, the parents aren’t as prominent as some readers would like. However, I feel there is a strong reason for that. If they were constantly present, nothing in the novel would probably happen. Kids do things, many times, for the very reason that adults aren’t around to stop them. This is something any parent knows perfectly well, but that doesn’t mean, for the sake of story-telling, we can’t display children getting away with things that they wouldn’t ordinarily get away with.

At other times, this disconnect I think is based partly on personal background. Everyone is raised by a different set of parents or parent. I had only one for the later half of my upbringing. The times my brothers and I were left alone, unattended, were enough for us to get into mischief. Single-parent homes unfortunately happen. Meanwhile, many others had both parents—sometimes overly attentive ones. This paints an entirely different view from which you might believe a household should or could be.

On top of that, some of the ones filing complaints come from different countries. Family presence and culture are extremely varied, especially when you consider the more hands-off approach of many Americans to the heavily involved mindset of many Asian families. That’s not to say some American kids don’t come from helicopter parents. They do, and the opposite can be said for many Asian families. But the point is certain areas of the world do place more value on family obedience compared to others.

Finally, it appears some of their complaints are just ill founded. I saw one reviewer complain about there being not enough parents in Holly Black’s Doll Bones. After reading it, I highly disagreed. In fact, I found the parent-child relationship to be the core issue of the book. What was even more remarkable was the same reviewer that toted adult supervision seemingly had no issues with Harry Potter where Harry, Ron, and Hermione gallivant around Hogwarts with little notion or impediment by the adults nearby, nor even cared a damn about the Narnia kids disappearing off into unknown lands without parental guidance. In both case, it seemed the illusion of an adult presence was enough, which astounds me when they find complaints in others.

I don’t have qualms with that. However, in the end, reading a story has always been suspending disbelief, and as a reviewer myself, I know that can be hard. After all, having a belief of what a story should be is the essence of being a reviewer, and reviewing is a form of subjective expression in the first place. Keeping an open mind can help, too.

Reviews!

With Chewy Noh and the March of Death being rejected by Kindle Scout, that just means I will be on sale soon. In fact, I will release it on January 29th–a little over two weeks!

That being said, if anyone wants to review it, that would be awesome. Just contact me through my e-mail or leave a message below, and I can send any format you want–whether it be mobi, pdf, epub, doc, or even hard copy (that means a real book.)

Hope to hear from some of you soon!

Thanks,

Tim

Pre-order!!!!!! January 29th Release!!!!

Chewy Noh and the March of Death–the third Chewy Noh book–will be released January 29th!!!

Anyone who wants a copy and pre-order now!!!

CHEWY NOH AND THE MARCH OF DEATH

Kindle Scout Update

Unfortunately…Chewy’s third book did not get accepted by Amazon’s Kindle Scout. Oh, well! I wanted to have another experience with the process and I did notice somethings had improved, but overall, I found myself not really enjoying Amazon’s new experiment in finding new works. I thought their old ABNA (Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award) was a much better program.

I guess I’ll just have to go with ‘better luck next time.’

Thanks to all who voted!—Tim Learn

Chewy Noh and the Phantasm of Winter feature!!

Chewy’s been featured on the blog collection called A Different Kind of Read. Check it out along with Barbara’s work highlighting books with unique characters. Thanks!

 

http://www.adifferentkindofread.com/index.php/2015/11/28/chewy-noh-and-the-phantasm-of-winter-tim-learn/