Books I Would Love To See As Movies

I would like to first start off by saying that I am not a book-to-movie purist.  That means that I have never been one to say "well, the book was better", like a hipster.  No.  A book cannot be turned into a film at 100% accuracy, so I don't expect it.  As long as the general feeling is there and the same story comes across.  I really hate it when people get so caught up in inconsequential little things like, "her hair is not the right color in the movie because it was supposed to be blonde in the book".  Come on.  Get over yourself.  Congratulations.  We all now know you read the book.  Good for you.

With that said, I actually really love to see books turned into movies.  Books are a great source of story material (duh) and for that group of tremendously sad people who don't read (I'm looking at some of my brothers!), this is a way to expose them to some excellent stories.  I was so excited to see that The Maze Runner was going to film, and I have to say that I was very happy with it and I'm hoping to be able to see The Scorch Trials as well.  One book I have loved so much was Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz.  Fortunately this was made into a pretty good film.  Unfortunately, it was so muddled by legal woes that it never got wide release and the finished film floundered.  Lucky for you, Odd Thomas is available on Netflix and I would strongly recommend it.  So I wanted to compile of list books that I would love to see made into films if only to expose more people to some of these great works.  Here you go, in no specific order:

1:  A Spell for Chameleon:  This is a fantasy book by Piers Anthony, written in the 70's, but is one of my favorite fantasy series ever.  This was one of the first books I remember finishing as a kid and loving the story, which is still a great tale even by today's standards. It won the Best Novel of the Year Award back in 1977.  It's a tale about a land called Xanth where everyone is born with a magical talent, whether it is killing your enemy with a death curse or being able to turn a white rose into a red one.  Every once in a while someone is born without a talent and that person is then exiled when he/she comes of age.  Bink is such a person, who seems to have no identifiable talent and is on the verge of exile when a magician tells him that he has a wizard-caliber talent, something so powerful that he could use it to defeat an evil magician that held the land in fear, but if he can't find out what it is, then would soon be banished.  Chameleon is a great fantasy story unlike anything that you might have read and it spawned a large series of sequels to follow that are equally fun.  If I had to cast it, I would love to see Anton Yelchin as Bink.  He's got the youth and humor that would really bring out the eventual hero of the story.

2:  A Discovery of Witches:  A novel by Deborah Harkness, Discovery is a wonderful fantasy of a woman who happens to be a modern witch, raised with simple spells, who now studies old literature at the university.  In her attempt to uncover an ancient text to research for her studies, she inadvertently triggers a series of events that put her in danger.  She learns that the book had been bound by a spell to stay secret from other witches that want to learn its dangerous spells.  Discovery is a great and engrossing read.  The story is fun and there are two other books as part of the All Souls Trilogy.  This would be a fun adventure on film, and I would put Rachel McAdams or Scarlett Johanssen as the lead.

3:  Ready Player One:  Alright.  Anybody who loves this book knows that Steven Spielberg heard our pleas and is actually going to helm this project.  With that said, THANK HEAVENS.  Spielberg would be the perfect dude to head up this story.  For all of you who haven't enjoyed this book yet, I can try to give you a little taste.  In a dystopian future, a teen boy Wade Watts gets away from the daily problems in his horrible life by logging into a world-wide computer game named "The Oasis", which is like a virtual reality world that allows its players to be anyone and to travel endless worlds.  When the gazillionaire creator of the game world dies, his will offers his entire fortune up as a prize to anybody who can complete a complex treasure hunt within the game.  The hunt has been going on for years now and as Wade gets closer to understanding the difficult clues, he finds himself up against corporations who would do anything, in the game or in the real world, to make sure he doesn't win.  This is such a fun book, filled with lots of video game references from our atari and nintendo faves of the 80's.  If/when I see this in the theater, I would really love it if the video game world was not animated, but more of a TRON-esque landscape of characters and places.  But like I said, I am very happy that Spielberg is a part of this and I trust his excellent judgement.  After all, he has created some of my favorite films.

4:  The Farm:  The book by Emily McKay has spawned sequels as well.  It's a tale set in yet another dystopian future, where the world has been over run by blood sucking mutant humans called Ticks.  The survivors have built barricaded shelters around the globe where the youth of the world are rounded up and quarantined.  These shelters, termed Farms by the kids that live there, use the kids to produce blood to keep the Ticks at bay.  Lily and her autistic sister Mel live in such a Farm and the conditions there are becoming too dangerous.  Mel has uncanny abilities that help her see things that others can't see, like a portion of the electric fence that gets turned off every night.  Lily devises a plan to escape with Mel, which becomes more complicated when a new guy shows up at the Farm, a kid that Lily once knew before everything went to Hell.  He learns of their plan, but Lily must decide if he is trustworthy enough to help them on the outside if they can ever leave the Farm.  Dark and compelling, I really have loved reading these books.  The world is dark and very apocalyptic (Walking Dead-esque), which I totally enjoy.  This is like a vampire story, if the vampires were also like zombies.  This would be such an exciting story for film, and I would cast Brit Robertson as Lily and maybe Alex Pettyfer as Carter, the guy that shows up at the Farm.

5:  Storm Front:  Okay.  I know that The Dresden Files (TV show that ran for a short while on SciFi) already gave this a go, but it kind of failed miserably, and I think that that was because it wasn't true enough to the source material.  So I would like to see it again, maybe silver screen this time.  The first book in the Dresden series by Jim Butcher tells the story of Harry Dresden, a wizard that lives in modern day Chicago, who occasionally consults with the Chicago PD on any of those cases that don't quite make logical sense.  In Storm Front, he is asked to consult on a grisly double murder that seems to have black magical tracings.  The stories of Harry Dresden are both fantasy and mystery with a modern noir twist.  Dresden is quirky, and the many characters that surround him are equally as fun.  Like Bob, for example.  This is where the TV show really got it wrong.  Bob is an ancient spirit trapped in a skull who gives Harry advice when needed.  That sounds scary, until you realize that Bob is quiet obnoxious and the best payment for his advice is to provide him with steamy romance novels.  He really likes that.  In the TV show, Bob was just some boring dude that helped Harry every once in a while.  If done right, these stories would make for really fun films.  I don't know why, but I often think of Harry portrayed as James Roday, probably because of his comedic wise-crack timing but also a little ruggedly handsome.

There's a brief list of some of my favorites.  But this is not all inclusive, by no means.  If you have any others I would love to hear about them.  Maybe someone out there will heed our desires (I'm looking at you, Joss Whedon or Guillermo Del Toro)!!!

Until next time,
The pen is mightier than the sword.

Tales to Love and Hate

I love books.  There.  I said it.  But it's really no surprise now, right?  And I will also admit that I really love mainstream books (as opposed to literary fiction, for example).  I'm not one for non-fiction either, although I have a few that I really like.  But I love to focus on those mainstream stories, which also translates to what I love to watch as well.  So fault me for loving big blockbusters and exciting tales.  I read and go to the movies and watch the TV that takes me away from the ordinary.  That's what it's there for, right?

Anyone who knows me will also know that I really hate romantic comedies, most war movies, and high drama.  Why?  Well let me tell you . . . .

(Before I begin, please note that I understand that there are some exceptions to the things that I will be pointing out -- "but what about such and such movie with so and so in it . . . that one was different" -- blah, blah, blah.  I know, okay.  But stereotypes are out there for a reason, and that is what I'm talking about.)


Romantic comedies:  These movies are a dime-a-dozen.  They all have the same plot, more or less.  One of the things that I hate the most about these movies, though, are they way the women, especially the love-interest, are portrayed.  The female star is usually some obnoxious, overly-talkative, overly-neurotic female that is somehow "tamed" by the male star.  These types of films, no matter what genre, are especially annoying to me.  I often just get mad by the end of the film and wonder, "what does he see in her, really? She is the most irritating person on the planet and for some reason he is totally in love with her.  Oh yeah, she's got a face for movies and a nice rack.  That must be why."  The characters are usually so one-dimensional except for the one very interesting person (usually the female or male star's best friend) that is so overlooked, but I would honestly rather see a movie about them.  Romantic comedies are such a cliche that Saturday Night Live now has a recurring character on Weekend Update dedicated to such characters, entitled The One-dimensional Female Character in a Male-driven Comedy:
Weekend Update: One Dimensional Female | Saturday Night Live - Yahoo Screen

Exception:  Adam Sandler has an uncanny knack for making a good romantic comedy.  He is funny as hell, and is able to disguise many of his films as ROMCOM.  These are the few romcoms that girls may be able to get guys to see, such as The Wedding Singer and Just Go With It (may I also point out that these films veer away from the quirky, neurotic female lead character).







War Movies:  Sorry, guys.  I understand that you love these movies a lot, but I just don't.  It probably ties back to the same reason I hate High Drama (see the next paragraph), because most of these films are about the horrible-ness of war.  But if that is all you've got, then I frankly find it not entertaining because war is not entertaining to me.  It's awful and I don't need to see it portrayed on screen.  I appreciate those who have participated in real war, too much to watch it as entertainment.
Exception:  Historical war portrayals are fascinating, mostly because we as the viewer are so far removed from it.  I'm loving Vikings, Gladiator, Braveheart.


High Drama:  I know this sounds vague, but these are the movies, TV shows, and books that about nothing except FEELINGS.  These movies are the worst of anything.  You know what I'm talking about.  These are the tales about grief, loss, lost-love, longing, hate, desire, blah blah blah.  When the moral of the tale is to explore a feeling, I'm so done!  These stories are so boring that I can't stay entertained.  I know that many of you really like these films (Oscars, I'm looking at you), but I go to the movies and read books to be entertained.  If nothing happens then I am not entertained.  And I'm not talking about the character-finally-comes-to-a-realization kind of something-happening.  That doesn't count.  That is still so utterly boring.  I have a saying:  If the story is "moving/touching, I don't want to be moved/touched."  For example, I love George Clooney (Ocean's Eleven, Oh Brother Where Art Thou:  awesome), but The Descendants was SO boring.  Up in the Air = boring.

I go to the movies, read books, and watch TV to be entertained.  Entertainment, in my opinion, is something that can bring me out of the ordinary and place me in something that is not the mundane, everyday life.  War Movies and especially High Drama are very mundane things that I don't find entertaining but they are too close to real life.  This is why I don't like reality shows!!  (I bet you guys that are trying to defend your love of High Drama are thinking, "but I really like Amish Mafia and Hard Core Pawn", LOL).
Exceptions:  Sorry.  Can't think of any.  I simply hate High Drama and why I don't really read literary fiction.

So what do I love?  Zombies.  Lots of Zombies.  Oh, and aliens, werewolves, vampires, robots, huge explosions, car chases (boat chases fit in this same category), heists, and other shenanigans.  Yes, The Walking Dead has a lot of drama.  That's pretty much the story.  But there are also Zombies.  Lots and Lots of Zombies (sorry.  Lots of Walkers).  Harry Potter is full of coming-of-age drama, but it's also about his magical world and something so very un-ordinary.

If the story you want me to read/watch is a War Movie, I want to see a war between Jedis and The Empire or Vampires and Werewolves.  If it is High Drama, I want it portrayed by Lego people.  If it is a romantic comedy, I would rather see it about a guy who is in love with a zombie girl, because she is so quirky and neurotic (hmm, maybe I should write that story . . .)




Until next time,
"Fear is the path to the dark side.  Fear leads to Anger.  Anger leads to Hate.  Hate leads to suffering." --Yoda

Adventures in Comic Con

The Emerald City Comic Con has now come and gone, with good times and great memories.  The organizers announced that it is now the 3rd largest Comic Con in the country.  Thousands of people converged on Washington State Convention Center to enjoy everything that the ECCC had to offer in books, games, movies and TV.  If you have never been to one, I highly recommend it!

Of course, the highlights for me would be seeing Gina Torres and Jewel Staite of Firefly come together for a panel with questions posted to them from Nathan Fillion.  It was funny and the time went by too fast with their memories from their days on Firefly.

I also got to see Clark Gregg (Agent Coleson of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.,  Avengers, Iron Man, Thor, etc).  That guy is surprisingly hilarious.  And the always awesome, Orlando Jones, from Sleepy Hollow and Evolution (one of my all-time favorite movies).
















The cosplay is always an entertaining part of Comic Con.  Some people put hours of thought and preparation into some amazing costumes and I love appreciating them for it!  I wanted to take so many pictures, but alas, I can only do so much . . . .

One of the best aspects of the Con was the Lego display, brought to the ECCC by the Lego company and their crew of "Master Builders".  This was some truly amazing stuff.

I got to meet Kieron Gillen and Matt Wilson, some of the creators for The Wicked + The Divine comics.  Super awesome guys and very appreciative of their fans.

Great artists and some great prints!

So much fun in 3 days.  I need to lie down now.  I'm exhausted!

Until next time,
You're a scruffy looking Nerf Herder!

Emerald City ComicCon

Well, it has been a little over a week since my last posting.  I am now ready to commence with the Emerald City ComicCon (ECCC) in Seattle, starting today and lasting through the weekend.  Or as I call it, Nerdvana.

If you aren't really sure what a ComicCon is, well, it is a convention that honors/appreciates the realm of scifi/fantasy/horror in comics/books/films/television as well as role-playing games, cosplay, video games, and other related games .  It's a Star Trek Convention on steroids.  Of course, Nerd Mecca would be the San Diego International ComicCon, which is the original and longest running comic convention.

The ComicCon scene is one that is often thought of more as an underground cult, but in recent years has become a much larger entity.  I attribute this largely with the popularization of many Marvel comics into movies.  With the huge success of Avengers (and all their contributing films), Guardians of the Galaxy, Spiderman, and X-men, the ComicCon scene has really grown. 

Your comics of today are not the same as your grandfather's comics, either.  Things have changed so much in just the last few years, especially with the evolution of the Graphic Novel (which is basically a comic book aimed at adults, and I will use them interchangeably from here out).  You've got your traditional Marvel and DC comics, but now I would like to introduce you to one of my other favorite comic companies that you may not have heard of before:  Image Comics.  

Image Comics is the company that I am keeping a close eye on right now.  You may know about the company from the "Spawn" series, but they are looking excellent for new and exciting upcoming novels.  They are revealing some really great new graphics lately, particularly "The Wicked + The Divine", "Lazarus", and "Wytches".  Of course, I am looking forward to meeting the creators/artists/inkers/etc. of these great novels at the ECCC this weekend.  

If I can teach anything from this entry today, it would be that the comic/graphic novel is a great source of story and adventure.  It not only has to be an intriguing tale, but the art must be consistent and satisfying to the reader.  I praise the creators of these books and look forward to reading more that they have to offer.

So, off to ECCC and stay tuned for videos, photos and more from the convention this year.  

Am I really Evil?

Many people ask me, "Why Dr. Evil?"

I thought it was obvious, but I guess not.  There is, of course, the movie Austin Powers, with the character Dr. Evil, who is so wonderful that words cannot express it.  But he has a line in the first film that is quite iconic and has become something of a mantra for me.

Dr. Evil is attending a counselling meeting with his son, and the therapist addresses him as Mr. Evil.  He then states, "It's Doctor Evil.  I didn't go through seven years of evil medical school to be called Mister, thank you very much."  This line says so much to me!

I am often asked about how much schooling I went through to get to this point in my life.  Well, after high school I did four years of college to acquire my undergraduate degree, a bachelor of science in zoology. I did a year of graduate work and then attended medical school for four years.  I then trained for a year in internship and then four years of residency before becoming a full-fledged physician who can practice on her own.

If you're doing your math, that's 14 years after high school.  That is a lot of work.

I admit it:  I don't look like a doctor.  I am often told that I look too young to be a doctor. And when you are not in the medical field, you may not realize that patients will tell certain things to doctors and certain things to nurses, but not to both.  So when I walk into a room, even after I introduce myself, a patient may still hold out on me waiting for the "doctor" to come into the room.  Frustrating, yes.  But I have learned to live with it.

Nevertheless, I have still earned my way into this realm and it was 14 years of hard work.  So, I didn't go through "seven" years of evil medical school to be called Miss, thank you very much. Every once in a while, it wouldn't hurt if some people can realize how much work it takes to get here.  But the moment you're here, it doesn't get much easier. Especially as a female in this business, there is still a lot of work to do.

I rely a lot on my writing to help me through those difficult times.  It's a great escape, but there are also times when I might bring just a touch of that real world into my stories.  I don't like to write medical dramas because I don't like to read them (and don't get me started on TV medical dramas.  I hope Greys Anatomy dies soon!).  But just a bit of that knowledge can add just enough reality into a story to give it the right amount of depth. To those of you who may read some of my stuff, if I put medical "stuff" in that story, you can rest assured that it is real.  I have heard the sounds those machines make, and smelled the things in some of those rooms.  And you can thank me later for not adding "too much detail", because the average person probably couldn't handle that detail.

As to the Evil part:  who's to say?  Maybe I am Evil.  I really like Pantera, so who knows.

Until next time,

"I want one million dollars!"

Creating an epic tale: Exercise 1

I want to introduce you to one of my favorite writing exercises.  It's something I created as a way to "warm up" just before writing or when I'm in the process of starting a new story.  I have also discovered that it is great in groups just for the hell of it!  You will have so much fun doing this exercise.

I call it:  The Body in the Bathtub
(cue the creepy music . . . .)

First, I tell you that there is a Body in the Bathtub.  Now it's your turn to take it from there.  But here are a few steps to organize your thinking until we come up with an awesome story.  I want you to engage with the scene that unfolds in your brain when you hear that there is a body in the bathtub.  The image conjured is different for everyone, that's what makes this so fun to do in groups.  So, we need to answer the 6 main questions:  Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How.  For a great story, the reader may not know the answer to all these questions right away.  It's the job of the writer to know everything, though, even if the reader never knows the answers.

Who:  Is it a woman?  A man?  Young?  Old?  What color is his/her hair?  Ethnicity?  You might think it's an attractive woman in her mid-thirties while your friend imagines an old man in his late seventies.  In addition, who discovered the body?  The cleaning lady? A relative?  The cops?  There may even be aspects of the Who that the reader will never know, but the author will always know.

What:  Is there anything in the room that accompanies this body?  A book, perhaps.  Or maybe a gun?  Maybe there is a cordless phone (or corded, depending on the When in this scenario) on the ground.  Is there a curtain around the bathtub, or is it one of those huge jetted tubs that fill a room the size of your average living room?

When:  Is this a modern room, with all the latest amenities?  Is this in the future, where there are monitors and screens everywhere to control the temperature of the bathwater and tell you the time of day or what is on television that can be viewed right from the mirror while the person bathes?  Is it the middle ages, when the bathtub is lined in iron and filled from a bucket heated over a fire?

Where: Is it someone's home?  Is it a hotel?  Maybe it's a cast-off, old, clawfooted bath tub lying in waste in a landfill somewhere (Oh!  didn't think of that one, right?)

Why:  Here is where the writer gets really creative.  There will always be a why, but the author may never tell you.  It may be something only he or she knows the answer to, but in order to set the scene and tell the story, the author must know everything about the scene, even if it's something the reader never knows.  This, of course, is why is there a body in the bathtub to begin with?  Murder?  Accident?  Suicide?  A hit?


How:  This will often link with the why, but again, may be something that the author never tells the reader.  A good mystery will often have the detective determine the How, such as in shows like Bones and Castle.  Mysteries thrive on the How.  But what about a good Fantasy?  Sometimes the How is the beginning of the story that triggers the quest.  Was it with a knife?  A gun?  A good case of Avada Kedavra (Cedric Diggory didn't kill himself!)?  Also, how was the body discovered?

Hopefully this will make for some deep thinking and maybe some good fun in your little group.  I find this writing prompt entertaining on long road trips.  Everyone joins in and it's really amazing to see how everybody comes up with something different.

Have fun!  Please share some of your exercises here. I would love to hear what you guys come up with.  And feel free to share this exercise on social media.  The more the merrier!

Until next time,

It was Colonel Mustard in the Bathroom with the Candlestick!

Music to my ears

What is my favorite music?  Metal, of course.

But there are so many kinds of Metal.  Heavy metal, Hair Metal, Death Metal, Thrash, Industrial, Speed . . . .

It doesn't matter.  I pretty much like them all.  But I also enjoy many other genres (except Country! Down with that crap!).  I find that my trends in music taste also fluctuate with my writing.  When I was writing my young adult adventure set in the American Old West, I often listened to old blues and American folk  music from the turn of the century mixed with a little Mark Knopfler.  Now, that is far from Metal.

As long as I have been writing, I have been using music as a form of outlining.  Many creative writing courses and papers have been written on the benefits of outlining the story, but I have never been one to write out your typical outline.  But what I love doing is making a "soundtrack" for my stories, as though it would be the background music for certain scenes or montages in a movie.  So all this time I was really an outliner. I just didn't realize it.

I have been working on a trilogy over the last year or so.  It's a modern urban horror/fantasy involving demons, angels, and us simple humans caught in the middle of an eternal battle.  For me, that music involves Industrial metal (Nine Inch Nails and Five Finger Death Punch helps a lot) as well as some simple piano ballads (this is where Piano Tribute Players really works).  And for any other writers out there, check out Epic Soundtracks.  There are so many albums to work with.  The best way to describe this stuff is to say it is movie music without a movie.  This music is so wonderful to write with that I don't know what I did without it.  It really helps to mold an action scene, especially.

When I think I might be going through a dry spell in my writing or a block, I listen to music.  Thank heavens for the iPod!  When I need more inspiration for my action scenes:  Epic Soundtracks.  Maybe add a little romance:  London Grammer, Birthday Massacre or Florence and the Machine.  Something light hearted:  I'm loving OK Go, Bastille, Imagine Dragons.

So if you hear me listening to something with a little more of a Celtic flair, just know that I will be working on a modern fantasy with a King Arthur twist.  No, my music tastes have not changed.  I'm just writing something new!

Until next time,

Bang your head!  Metal Health will drive you mad!