Meanwhile, in Rivendell . . .

The beautiful Ivy Miranda tagged me for this!  Thanks, Ivy. {Rules} - no lies allowed. if an answer is too shameful to expose you may substitute the answer with a gif/image of someone drinking tea. - there are optional bonus additions to questions but these are not for the faint of heart. - if you complete the tag having answered every question + the bonus additions (no gifs used), you are dubbed a certified tea chugger, and you deserve a badge to show the world that you are not afraid of a steaming hot cup of TRUTH. - tag at least one other person (a tea party with just one is not very fun. trust me.) untagged persons are more than welcome to fill it out as well (nothing cooler than crashing a tea party). {Questions} what is a 'bad' (generally disliked) movie that you actually love? The Phantom Menace , maybe?  I don't know if that one is generally disliked or just generally mocked (which, fair).  Either way, I enjoy it.  Some other candidates (except I won't conc...

My pal, my buddy, my main slice Katie  has passed me a Narnia-themed tag, because she's cool like that.  I have a Deep & Abiding love for this world that Clive created, so let's jump in! ⸻ Rules 1. Thank the person who nominated you 2. Rate your degree of “Narnia fanatic” (nostalgic, serious, maniacal) 3. Answer the questions below 4. Tag 5+ bloggers 5. Have fun! Scale of Fanaticism 1. Nostalgic Fanatic :  You read the book and/or watched the movies as a child and the word Narnia gives you a warm feeling. 2. Serious Fanatic :  You rediscovered the wonder of Narnia after you were older and have read the books and watched the movies. 3. Maniacal Fanatic :  You have lived Narnia from childhood, hid in closets on more occasions than is healthy, have read and watched all the movies including the BBC version. I read the books and watched both the BBC and the Warner Bros. movies as a child; the word Narnia gives me a warm feeling; and I constantly reread the books ...

Hi, all! Just dropping in to let you know that, if you're at all curious about what's been up with my writing life recently, you can head over to my other blog to find out!  And if you're not, why, just keep truckin' along with this blog and you'll see something else book- or movie-related sometime. 😉 ^^ inspiration from my storyboard

I've seen this floating around, and I was actually tagged by  Eva (thanks, friend!). Rules: 1. Link to and thank the blogger who tagged you. 2. Include the graphic somewhere in your post (or make your own!). 3. Answer the questions truthfully and honestly. 4. Tag 3 bloggers. Def not going to do that last one; I'm going to take the classic coward's way out and nominate anyone who WANTS to be nominated. 😁 Also, pics for this post will be from my Pinterest board for the Rhiannon/Alejandro/Ronan story I've been working on, in celebration of the fact that I just finished the first draft!!  [Also, Imma hereafter refer to it as A Harmless Chaos , since that's the working title and it's less clunky than "the Rhiannon/Alejandro/Ronan story". 😆] Never have I ever . . . . . . started a novel that I did not finish. Sweet child.  The purity of this suggestion. . . . written a story completely by hand. I have, actually.  Not a novel,...

[I'm going to say the word "Christian" a whole heckin' lot in this post.  I'm aware that my synonym game is not on-point today.] Many of us have been poking fun at Christian historical romance for quite some time.  Everyone knows about the stereotypical problems that (often) run wild in those books.  But lately, I've become more concerned by a newer wave of Christian literature: the Christian YA, the Christian contemporary, and the Christian fantasy. Christian romance, at the very least, is more or less self-aware, and it has a very specific goal and a reasonably specific demographic.  I get the feeling that neither the genre itself nor its devotees tend to take it all that seriously.  Not so, I find, these newer offerings. So let's talk about that. [Note: I could also address some of the issues with the Hot Mess that is the world of Christian film, but I don't want to make this post tediously long, so that will have to wait for another d...

This tag, which originated on Hamlette's blog , was passed on to me by Katie .  Thanks, ladies! ♥ "Cornelia Street" by Taylor Swift - Storybrooke + Once Upon a Time couples And baby, I get mystified by how this city screams your name. And baby, I'm so terrified of if you ever walk away; I'd never walk Cornelia Street again. I feel like this would be such a great fanvid song for Once Upon a Time .  It's about how a specific location can crystallize a romance in the mind, and since Storybrooke is such a focal point of the show, I think it'd be neat to combine those two concepts ⎼ love of city and love of another person ⎼ in a tribute to the different couples that add their touch of magic to the series.   (For the record, I think the first verse is for Robin & Regina, the second for Emma & Killian, and the third for David & Snow.) "Lingering" by Sheppard - Johnny & Penelope I'm not af...

Lately I've been immersing myself in Narnia quite a lot.  I recently re-read The Magician's Nephew , and I've been listening to my preferred audiobook version of The Horse and His Boy practically on loop while at work. It's reinforced for me what truly excellent examples they are of stellar storytelling.  And since Narnia is one of those passions that I don't spotlight as often as I could wish on this blog, here are some of the writing-related things the books have got me mulling over lately.  ⎼⎼⎼⎼⎼  Brevity & Focus ⎼⎼⎼⎼⎼ The Narnia books are not 400 pages each, and they don't have to be.  Lewis knows the story he's trying to tell, and he doesn't need to bulk it up with irrelevant, extraneous words just for additional length.  But that doesn't keep him from incorporating small, tangential subplots sparingly and tastefully .  Not every plot point that's brought up in the Chronicles is fully fleshed out, and (fro...

In celebration of a rather exciting milestone in its writing, I wanted to share some snippets of my Susan Pevensie story.  If snippets aren't your thing, don't give it a second thought, but if they are . . . read on, Lizzie. ;) (Pictures from my Pinterest inspiration board.) ____________________________________________________              Susan dropped her head again, recalled to the present.          Surely they deserve better, Aslan. Why can I not be as faithful as my siblings?           “Child.”           Susan looked up, and her spirit caught. He was there. Large and gentle and golden and radiant, standing a few yards away with eyes only for her. And those eyes. Oh, those eyes. ____________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________           Round a...