What I'm Reading (1)

Since last summer I've been trying to read one book every week. My life gets very busy, but I feel like if I'm going to be a working writer, I need to read just as much as I write. Every Monday I will post here what I'm currently reading, and I'll add the reviews once they become available as well.

This week's book...

I've become a huge John Green over the course of this year, having read Looking for Alaska and The Fault in Our Stars. I can't wait to read the rest of his work. Which books of Green's have you all read? What's your favorite?

Book Review: Pauline Kael: A Life in the Dark

In 1993, when I was eight years old, two events shaped the way I would forever look at movies: seeing Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park opening weekend with my dad, and receiving a CD-ROM entitled Microsoft Cinemania ’94, a disc jam-packed with info, pictures, video, and reviews of every movie made from the dawn of cinema to the (at-that-time) present. I was a super geek at the time—well, you could argue I still am—and for years I spent my nights perusing my Cinemania. (I now have the ability to recite the release year of almost every movie ever made, and I think it stems from the time I spent with the CD-ROM program.) Cinemania was my introduction to two film critics I would follow my entire life—even today, even this morning—Leonard Maltin and Roger Ebert. On one magical day at the Sundance Film Festival 2005, I got to meet both critics and tell them how much their writing had meant to a film lover like myself. Maltin’s reviews were short and to the point, and Ebert’s reviews were more like long, thoughtful essays.

Microsoft Cinemania was a favorite tool from my childhood, but the one element of it I didn’t fully appreciate at the time was the reviews written by Pauline Kael, the third and final critic whose writing was featured on the software program. While there was a structure to Maltin and Ebert’s reviews, Kael’s was less so, more rambling and personal, with big block paragraphs and long-winded sentences. I remember at the time always skipping her review in favor of what Maltin or Ebert had to say about the movie in question. But her last name has always stuck out in my mind over the years, and when I saw that her very first biography had been penned, I knew I wanted to snatch up the first copy I could find. And I’m sure glad I did.

Pauline Kael: A Life in the Dark is a fascinating look at a female film critic who flourished in the late 60’s and early 70’s at The New Yorker, during a time of true artistry in the film industry, when directors were raw and ambitious and uncompromising in their visions, without much producer and studio interference. Just as Roger Ebert did, Kael got her start professionally reviewing films during this time and got to be at the forefront of a film revolution. I love to read about the history of films, especially in regards to awards and criticism, and Pauline Kael: A Life in the Dark gave me the same kind of joy that similarly-themed books like Easy Riders, Raging Bulls and Pictures at a Revolution gave me. While I wasn’t alive during that exciting, constantly changing shift in the culture, I love reading about it, and Kellow does a fantastic job in this biography interweaving Kael’s life in with the larger picture of what movies were becoming and where they were headed.

Kael’s life may not have been the most mesmerizing, but what interested me about her was that she was a woman growing up during the Great Depression and becoming an adult during the 40’s and 50’s, a time when so many women accepted a life at home with their children and their kitchens—but she refused to settle, and she instead focused on a writing career that didn’t fully take off until she was nearing age fifty. Kael is a fascinating subject because in a time of such politeness, of such political correctness, she broke out of the mold and patented an exciting, original voice in the film commentary scene. She didn’t just give the reader of her reviews the facts and her generic thoughts on a movie—she delivered her experience of watching the movie to her readers. It was often asked of her why she only watched movies once, and she said that the truest reaction one has to a movie comes during that first viewing, that to watch a movie again and again would deplete its freshness.

Kael’s takes on movies sometimes went against the universal opinion—movies she didn’t worship like everyone else included It’s a Wonderful Life, West Side Story, Lawrence of Arabia, A Clockwork Orange, and Network, to name a few. She hated Clint Eastwood, loathed most musicals, and abhorred the work of Alfred Hitchcock (!). She was a constant center of controversy, what with her arguing that Orson Welles wasn’t the true author of Citizen Kane, or her tendency to champion certain directors’ films more than others (ie, Robert Altman and Sam Peckinpah), and her decision in the late 70’s to embark on a producing career in Hollywood. She also disagreed with the great Village Voice film critic Andrew Sarris (who passed away this week) about the auteur theory—unlike Sarris, she believed that a director shouldn’t necessarily put his stamp on every motion picture he creates.

Reading about her life was an exhilarating experience, one that Brian Kellow has researched and put together in sublime fashion. It’s a fascinating read not just for those who knew about and wanted to read more about Kael, but also for those who have an appreciation for film history. It may not be the most exciting look at a life, but there’s still some meaty stuff in the pages. If there’s anything about Kael’s personal life that hangs over the entire book, it’s her relationship with her one and only child Geena, who Kael kept physically close but emotionally closed off from throughout the majority of her life. It’s a sad element in the book, one that’s not glossed over too much, but rightfully so; not dwelling on it time and time again actually makes the story of their unusual relationship more indelible to the reader.

If there’s any regret I have about Pauline Kael, is that, unlike Leonard Maltin and Roger Ebert, I never got to meet her. I wish I could have enjoyed a chat over coffee with her in the late 90’s when she was still alive (Kael died in 2001), talking about movies, directors, our passions for film reviewing and film going. Pauline Kael was a neat lady, absolutely worthy of a 350-plus page biography, and Brian Kellow has written a great one.

Movie Review: Wreck-It Ralph

Some movies you see to be challenged, to witness great acting, to inspire thought-provoking discussion after the end credits roll. But then there are movies you see just for the pure old-fashioned entertainment value. Wreck-It Ralph is one of those movies.

All the Disney non-Pixar movies were suffering in quality for years and years, starting with 2001's Atlantis and ending with 2008's Bolt. For these seven years, we animation buffs turned to the Pixar movies for quality entertainment, to movies like Finding Nemo and Ratatouille. Yet somehow, only recently, the shift in quality has changed. Last year's Cars 2 was a disgrace, and next year's Monsters University is another Pixar sequel (or prequel) nobody asked for. The Princess and the Frog, on the other hand, was solid, Tangled was an enchanting delight, and now we have Wreck-It Ralph, a smart, funny, and touching animated film that takes the lives of video game characters. Video game enthusiasts will go nuts for this movie, and the rest of us will cheer for the full-fledged return of Disney Animation.

While it's a notch or two below the best of the Pixar movies (Toy Story 1-3, Finding Nemo, Up), Wreck-It Ralph is a ton of fun, and a real crowd pleaser. John C. Reilly, perfectly cast, voices Ralph, the "villain" of an arcade game who has spent thirty years destroying a tall apartment complex, only to be tossed off the top of the building when the "heroes" save the day. He has no friends, he sleeps on bricks, and he's never given his due for what he adds to the game. Therefore, he makes his way not just to therapy, but to the video game universe's central station, where he straps on a uniform and tries his hand at different games, in different modes of play and graphics. He ultimately finds himself in a whimsical racing game, where he befriends a pixie girl Venellope (Sarah Silverman) who has become a glitch in the game and needs his help to reclaim the character who was once hers.

The first half of Wreck-It Ralph is the most effective. I don't know how it took until 2012 for a film to go into the lives of video game characters, but it was well worth the wait. The screenplay is similar to Toy Story in that the characters do what they're supposed to all day on the arcade screen, but as soon as the kids go home and the lights go out, the characters breathe lives of their own and interact with each other, even with characters from different games. We see Ralph interact with Qbert, Bowser, Pac-Man's nemesis, and more. It's these more loose, faster paced scenes, filled with the building of this amazing world, where the movie really shines. I loved Ralph's character development, how he wants to be loved but doesn't know how to be, how he expresses his feelings in a support group for villainous characters, and the game he's tied to has quite the setback when he doesn't return to fulfill his role. His entry into a heavily intense game of war and violence is well-realized, too, with a female warrior character voiced to perfection by Jane Lynch.

The second half of the movie works great too; it's just more standard fare. I was secretly hoping Ralph would jump around to different games, certainly more than just two. For the last forty-five minutes or so, he stays put in a racing game, and the film focuses its attention on building the relationship between Ralph and Venellope. It's sweet and charming, and the rousing conclusion is fantastic, but it doesn't offer as many surprises as the film does in its opening hour.

Overall I had a lot of fun at Wreck-It Ralph, and I know you will, too. So many adults especially blow off animated films, like they're just for kids and not worth per suing, but a good story is a good story, and Wreck It Ralph tells a great story. It's the kind of movie you need to drag your boyfriend or husband or cousin or best friend to see, even if you're twenty-one and up, even if you don't have any kids. It's a blast, and it's proof that Disney Animation, which seemed to be losing its way for a few years, is back in grand style.

And one more reason you have to see this movie? For the animated short that plays before it. Paperman, directed by John Kahrs, is one of the most charming pieces of perfection I've ever seen. Hand-drawn, black and white, with a simple nail-biter of a love story that nearly brought me to tears, Paperman is a joy. Don't miss it.

Book Review: Looking for Alaska

I have been writing YA fiction exclusively since last summer, and earlier this year I realized while I was spending every day writing and working on new YA projects, I wasn’t reading as much YA fiction as I should have been. I checked out The Hunger Games trilogy of course, and I’ve been a lifelong fan of the Harry Potter series, but my knowledge of the genre was (and definitely still is) somewhat lacking.

In March, Shaunta and I decided to start reading at least one young adult book a month, and now that we’ve started this blog, we’ll probably end up reading even more than one a month. And let me tell you this: if every YA book I read is half as good as John Green’s Looking for Alaska, I’m going to be in for some joyous reading experiences. A friend of Shaunta’s recommended the author John Green last February, and I soon checked him out on Amazon—I loved the concepts of his books, plus, of course, the sparkling reviews. I didn’t know which one to start with, so I decided to check out his debut novel, published back in 2005, and I’m glad I did. Looking for Alaska isn’t just the best book I’ve read so far in 2012; it’s one of the best books I’ve ever read.

What a touching, funny book this is, and never in an obvious way, either. John Green’s writing is engaging from beginning to end, with characters that feel real, from their dialogue to their behavior to their screw-ups to their worries and fears. Miles, aka Pudge, is an extremely flawed leading character but always earns our sympathies, and Alaska is written as a smart young woman with wit and sass, and not as merely a sexual object. The arc of her journey is magnificent. And then there’s Chip, aka The Colonel, who provides hilarious comic relief. A scene where he explains his relationship with his dad was so funny that I did something I’ve never done before: take a picture of a paragraph. The sentence about the paperback books made me crack up so much I thought I was going to die. Here it is below…

When I started reading the book, I thought I had the “before and after” device pegged from the get-go: I knew the “before” section was going to be the relationship between Miles and Alaska leading up to their first sexual encounter, and the “after” was going to be how their relationship progressed after the awkward, and potentially inebriated, evening spent together. Boy, was I wrong. The device turned out to be a surprise, and it certainly made the last third of the book an even richer and more emotional experience than the first two thirds.

John Green’s books have been praised to the high heavens, and rightfully so: his characters pop off the page, so much so that at times you feel like you’re literally standing amongst them, existing with them in their world. Looking for Alaska made me laugh and cry, and I don’t say that lightly; most books don’t make me do either, let alone both. I’m so happy I’ve discovered this man’s work—I just bought The Fault in Our Stars at Powell’s Books in Portland—and I’m ecstatic to have four more of his books to plow through at a date in the near future. Many of you know of this guy’s work, but if any of you don’t, I recommend you start with Looking for Alaska. This book is simply amazing!

Happy Halloween!! October Update!

Happy Halloween everyone! I hope you've had a great October!

I've been spending the month working on the perfect project, my third and final book in the Grisly High trilogy, THE MONSTER APOCALYPSE, which is coming this December! I'm working every day on the newest draft and am working ahead of schedule, and might have the book out as early as December 1st. The third book in the trilogy takes place in one single day and is almost non-stop in its intensity. This one's not for the faint hearted, but if you like your horror mean and fast and surprising, this book will be for you!

The novel OVER THE RAINBOW I wrote over the summer is still out to agents, and while October has been pretty quiet with responses, the book is still out to nearly 20 agents who I've yet to hear from, and I'm hopeful something great might happen with this project. I believe in it so much that I know, whatever happens, this YA fantasy book will find an audience one of these days. I hope to have more of an update for you on this book by the end of the year.

Finally, I wanted to announce that I'll be posting more book and movie reviews here on the blog! Look for more regular updates here starting in November.

Remember that THE VAMPIRE UNDERGROUND and THE ZOMBIE PLAYGROUND are available in eBook and Paperback versions on Amazon. I can't wait to see what you all think of the big finale coming very soon...

Have a happy and spooky Halloween!!

Movie Review: The Girl

Alfred Hitchcock is my all-time favorite director. He's a guy I've worshipped since I watched Psycho in the fifth grade, and ever since I've watched and re-watched most of his other fifty-three films. I own three of his DVD box sets and have read three biographies about his life (I'm about halfway through the nearly 1000 page tome Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light). From what I've been able to make over the years, he was the ultimate creative genius, a man who may have struggled talking to actors from time to time and had a crippling fear of authority figures, but who was a decent man, with a solid marriage and an undying love for cinema.

But then there was that period with Tippi Hedren. It's always the chapter in his biography books that reeks of Lifetime melodrama, and I'll never know what's true and what's not. Hitchcock is gone, most everyone who knew him is gone, and so most of the "truth" we're to gather is from Hedren herself, who claims Hitchcock was a pig who wanted to mold her into his own little sex toy, and when she denied his advances, he ruined her career and threw her out the back door like garbage. Fifty years had passed since this time period, and one has to admit that Hedren's recollections about this time period might be a little exaggerated and overblown. I believe that something inappropriate may have happened between them, that Hitchcock might have developed feelings for her over the course of these two films, but I've struggled believing all the gossip I've read, which is all mostly from Hedren's perspective.

And now there's The Girl, the first of two films this fall bringing Alfred Hitchcock back to the screen. I've been looking forward to this ever since I saw the first thirty-second teaser. I was less excited for the controversial sexual advances plot and more excited to see my favorite scenes from The Birds and Marnie recreated. What did I think of The Girl? I was entertained from beginning to end, and Toby Jones and especially Sienna Miller give credible performances. Overall, though, I found it a missed opportunity. The recreations themselves are done on a very low-key level, allowing no time to ever meet the other cast members on either movie. And the film treats Hitchcock like such a monster from the word go, I was surprised nobody involved in the production had little interest in giving him a more sympathetic side.

The performances make up for a lot of what's lacking in the underwritten script, and the one that comes off the best, surprising enough, is Sienna Miller, who's enjoyed a rather middling career. She's got the right look for this 60's blonde bombshell, but she is given numerous opportunities to reflect on the atrocities happening to her, and her slow turn from "puddy in Hitchcock's hands" to a woman fearing for her mental state, is handled well. Her journey, no matter how fictionalized it may or may not be, has a great pay-off in that final scene, when she's done, when she's free. Toby Jones, one of our finest character actors, does a fine version of Hitchcock, especially with his slumped shoulders and spot-on voice. However, I must admit I was a little distracted by Jones' extremely tiny physique, which looks in no way like Hitchcock's. Imelda Staunton plays Hitchcock's wife Alma Reville as appropriately mousy, but she's given nothing to do, besides one brief and unsettling scene where she asks a friend, "What does this girl have that the other ones didn't?"

We'll never truly know what happened between Hitchcock and Hedren, if he tried to make out with her in a car, if he deliberately tried to hurt her over the course of five days' filming, if he told her he loved her, if he slammed a door and said that from now on she will be available to him for sexual favors for whenever he asks for them. These rumors make for an interesting film, but was Hitchcock truly this broken at this late point of his career? After Marnie he went on to make five more films but nothing that reached the height of his previous work. One could argue that Hedren's dismissal of Hitchcock robbed him of his creative powers, and sent him into a downward spiral for the rest of his career. I'm not against The Girl because it touches on the most questionable time of Hitchcock's fifty-year career. I'm against it because it doesn't dig deep at all into Hitchcock's psyche, and instead shows these so-called "true" events on a surface level, with no real probing of what may have caused him to do these unthinkable acts. The movie runs a lean 90 minutes, with little time for reflection, and I think a two-hour film, with a somewhat larger budget, and under the hands of a more thoughtful director, would have made The Girl much better.

But while I was a little disappointed in The Girl, I'm still very much excited for the second Hitchcock film coming this November / December, simply titled Hitchcock, starring Anthony Hopkins as Hitch and Helen Mirren as Alma Reville. This theatrically-released film looks to have a more lighter touch, recreating all the memorable moments of what for many is Hitchcock's most memorable film, Psycho. The Girl is the teaser for what's going to hopefully be the truly great look at Hitchcock this fall season.

September Update! The Monster Apocalypse is Coming!!

So in mid-August I started querying literary agents about my new YA fantasy novel OVER THE RAINBOW, and so far the response has been great. A month into the querying process my book is out to nearly twenty people! It's been really exciting, but I'm still very much in the waiting game, and I'm so thankful I've had a new project to work on while I wait to hear back on Over the Rainbow.

Nearly a year ago I started working on a new YA trilogy, and this week I complete the first draft of the third and final book, THE MONSTER APOCALYPSE! It's been a blast writing the Grisly Trilogy and truly have the best in store for all of you with the final installment, which is, by far, the most insane, action-packed, entertaining scarefest I've ever put down to paper. Unlike anything I've written, even the tension-filled, apocalyptic HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU, this one starts in the same second that THE ZOMBIE PLAYGROUND ends, and never stops moving for three hundred pages. I just started writing the final eight chapters tonight, and I'm ecstatic to bring this three-book story to a close.

I'm going to take a short one-week break next week (I'm headed to Washington DC for the first time ever and attending a wedding nearby!) and then will commence on the second draft soon after I get back. I'm bound and determined to get THE MONSTER APOCALYPSE out by mid-December, so I'll be working real hard on the second, third, and fourth drafts these next two months. I can't wait to see what you all think!

And remember, Halloween is just around the corner, so while you wait for the third book of my YA horror trilogy, be sure to check out the first two installments, both available on Amazon for the Kindle and in Paperback!

The Vampire Underground on Amazon

The Zombie Playground on Amazon

And then there's the finale! Vampires, zombies, werewolves, aliens, ghosts, demons, witches, and MORE!!!

The Monster Apocalypse... Coming This Christmas!!