BBC May Reading Challenge

This month was a busy month, but I managed to squeeze in a poem by Oscar Wilde. Now I never been a very big fan of his, since I’ve only read one of his plays.  However reading this second play was really fun, and now I have a few more plays I’ve found that I’ll read over the coming months.

Here is the goodreads synopsis: Written originally in French in 1892, Wilde’s one-act tragedy Salomé was translated into English by Lord Alfred Douglas, inspired some of Aubrey Beardsley’s finest illustrations (long available in a Dover edition), and served as the text (in abridged form) for Strauss’ renowned opera of the same name. The play’s haunting poetic imagery, biblical cadences, and febrile atmosphere have earned it a reputation as a masterpiece of the Aesthetic movement of fin de siècle England. The present volume reprints the complete text of the first English edition (1894), including “A Note on Salomé” by Robert Ross. It will be welcomed by students and lovers of literature and drama, and any admirer of the incomparable Oscar Wilde

I think it’s interesting that “Salome” is classified as a tragedy, when really the whole play was overly dramatic and comedic. I wonder if this is just me?
When I first started to read the play I was unsure if I should be taking his character’s seriously. “Salome’ starts with a few soldiers talking, mooning over Salome and being annoyed with the Jews. From there the story only gets more ridiculous. I laughed the entire play, which was short (around 30 pages). Herod was my favorite of the characters, possibly because he gets some of the most lines. But also because of his child-like willfulness, one minute he is happy, the next is he is sad and needs to be entertained. His favorite thing seemed to be to do the opposite of what his wife, Herodias wants. Which was very amusing.

All in all I thought it was a fabulous little play, and I would give 5 stars.   Don’t forget to add me on Goodreads if you want to keep up with what I’m reading, or even better so that you can suggest some new books to me! https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/3027524-abi

Also don’t forget my poetry book giveaway, please, please hop on down there, tell people about it.  I’ll give you lots of cookies if you do. 😉 a Rafflecopter giveaway

Awesome, well do tell how your reading this month went. What was your favorite book? Anything you think I should read? 

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May Writing Goal: Last Short Story Update

Wow, here we are. The end of May already.  Yesterday I stopped myself and wondered what my writing goal for May was, I had completely forgotten!  And then I remembered, and I also remembered that I finished my goal days before schedule.  Needless to say that made me very happy.  My writing this year has improved so much, thanks to my goals. I’m also writing so much more than I usually do.  Making monthly goals for myself is definitely something I will continue to do.

While this month’s short stories (four in total) are finished first drafts, they are far from being perfect. I had considered showing you all some snippets at this time, but then decided I didn’t really like any of them at this moment. These stories are going in the waiting pile for a long time.

I hope everyone else had a great month! How did your writing go?

Freedom of April Book Giveaway

Yay!! *Rounds of applause* *confetti*

The publication of my poetry book is almost here. The first week of June, hopefully June first if all goes well, is the date! In honor of this very momentous day in my writing life I am hosting a giveaway for three free copies of my book. That’s right, I will be sending my book to three people. 😀

For those of who don’t know I’ve finished a poetry book titled “The Freedom of April”, it’s divided into three parts, written in free verse and has a few different themes.  Daily life, love, freedom in small things are just a few of the topics I’ve written about.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

So here you are! I hope you all enter, and share this with your friends. I’m really excited to finally be able to share my book with you. This giveaway is not international. Sorry guys, I’m too poor for that at the moment.

Have a great day everyone!

Edit: Sorry guys, I totally forgot about posting the pictures of my cover! Here they are as promised.  I got my proof copy on the 26th. After seeing it I a) Fell in love with the look, and b) Decided that I wanted the book to be smaller. The size was 8 by 11, but now it will be 5 by 8.  Also the giveaway ends on June 16th. 

Work [wurk] Or What I’m Feeling

The sand sinks in around my legs, as I work to move from dune to dune. The sun beats down upon my back and head. My mouth is dry and I crack sand in my teeth.

noun

1.

exertion or effort directed to produce or accomplish something; labor;toil.

2.

productive or operative activity.

3.

employment, as in some form of industry, especially as a means ofearning one’s livelihood:

to look for work.

4.

one’s place of employment:

Don’t phone him at work.

5.

something on which exertion or labor is expended; a task orundertaking:

The students finished their work in class.

6.

materials, things, etc., on which one is working or is to work.

From: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/work

The Highs and Lows of Writing Life

This past week has been interesting, I’ve finished two really big projects I’ve been working on.  This has left me in a bit of a funk, what do you do when you don’t have lots of projects to do?

I’m weird in that when I’m not actively creating something I get depressed and mopey. I start to feel like a failure and that everything I do is crap.  Don’t ask me why I feel this way, I don’t know. lol It just happens.

This week has been a week of fighting off feeling horrible about writing and life in general.  One of my friends Rex gave me a good idea for a novel, and that has helped, and I started a new poetry book, which has also helped.  But both of these projects are slow going, and I have to work hard to remind myself that slow going is okay.

What about you? Do you get sad when you aren’t creating?

I Saw A Superhero Movie

I know. It’s shocking.  I actually went to see the second Avengers movie.

Grant wanted to see the movie, and it was our anniversary, so I was nice and went a long.  That and I’m a huge fan of the actor who did Ultron’s voice. 😀

I’ve been seeing reviews of this movie going around the internets…and I’m at a loss. Everyone seems to love it.

Why? Why? I don’t understand.

I didn’t hate this movie, I really didn’t (unlike Thor which I really hated),  my feelings were more like meh.  Sure there was some mildly funny parts.

 Alright fine this was freaking hilarious, though I was seemed to be the only one in the theater who thought so. 😀

The plot was just the same as all the other superhero movies.

Bad guys comes, bad and good fight each other, enter buildings collapsing, things blowing up, good guys win.   Oh, and the cliche, waaay over used “they are trying to turn us together but we are a team!”  The End.

*Sigh*  I was bored.  The plot wasn’t moving, I wasn’t engaged.  I mean we all knew no one important was going to die.

See this is one of my problems with the superhero movies that come out today.  There’s never a chance someone important might die, or a chance that the good guys might loose.  If I know they are going to win…then what’s the point? I don’t feel for them, I don’t care if they fight the bad guy.

Another one of my frustrations with this movie is the character development.  Which was hardly there! Gah.  I mean the two new people they brought in, sure they had a sob-story  (which wasn’t very convincing) but we didn’t really get to know their characters.

Marvel’s Avengers: Age Of Ultron
Quicksilver/Pietro Maximoff (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and Scarlet Witch/Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen)
Ph: Jay Maidment
©Marvel 2015

Sooo…they wanted Stark dead, but they didn’t really seem too angry about it? I’m getting mixed signals here guys.  And don’t get me started on the romances that appeared out of nowhere. Yes I have seen the first Avengers and a few others of the movies, how else would I decided I dislike superheros? Lol

There was one character that I did really like. And that was Ultron.  His character was well done, I mean I think it could have been done better, but he was a good character.  I almost wanted him to win.  Why?  Because he was a rounded character.  We knew what he wanted, he showed and told us what he wanted.  He was funny, I enjoyed that.

Stark: What’s the vibranium for?

Ultron: I’m glad you asked that, because I wanted to take this time to explain my evil plan.

He was a unique bad guy because he didn’t hate humanity.  He honestly didn’t, he was ”helping”.  Granted his helping was misguided, but I enjoyed that about his character. “I know you’re good people. I know you mean well. But you just didn’t think it through. There is only one path to peace… your extinction.”   At one point I even felt sorry for Ultron, the part when he was Black Widow and he says something to the effect of “I have no one else to talk too.”   I thought that was a really good line, especially since now the bad guy monologue makes more sense. 😀

I guess I’ll wrap up here, since this post is getting really long.   So yeah guys, I’m a lot of people are going to disagree with me.  I’m sorry.  I just don’t like superheros I guess.

 

edit: who else saw that Andy Serkis was in this movie?