The Irritable Owl Syndrome

image from JK Rowlings on Twitter

In case you haven't heard, there is a brand new Harry Potter book released TODAY, by it's author, JK Rowling.

Here is a link about the book from People Magazine.

I'll be getting mine whenever the new bookstore opens here in town. I'm a big Harry Potter fan. So much that I want to be 11 or 12 again and get on the train to Hogwarts. I've always lived in a fantasy world (in my head), and it's hard for me to live in the everyday struggles of life. Thus, I escape, either though reading or by writing. Writing has been my salvation from times in my life when I could not cope with family, and life. I escaped through pen and ink.

To all of you fantasy fans out there, I want to direct you to the fact that my book Spell of the Black Unicorn was written by me as a form of fan fiction (I guess that's what people call it these days). After reading a couple of the HP books, I wanted to find a book that had more adult themes in it, but similar to Harry Potter, with crazy characters, and the usual fantasy elements that are found in such books. This isn't to say that I copied anything from the Harry Potter series, this is all my own imagination and all characters are mine.

And here's what I do to people who give me bad reviews. Hermione hitting Draco

Thank you to ALL my fans!

The Series

I enjoy a good series to read. Some people would rather not become addicted to a series. But I seem to need that world where the characters come to life, and the memorable ones seem to jump off the page. Along with their world.

Harry Potter was my favorite series. The Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris is another example, and I've sort of followed Kim Harrison's Hollow series. I was following Stephanie Plum novels by Janet Evanovich--which are funny and off the wall, but I can't stand some of the characters, and I hate the setting. That's just me. Same with the ABC mysteries by Sue Grafton--I can't identify with her MC, who doesn't like nature, and seems a bit too wooden to me. But I do like the "Murder She Wrote" mysteries by Donald Bain (which is based on the TV series by the same name).

Well, I guess this is why I write, to create a world in which my characters can live and have adventures. I don't follow any set rules, since it's Urban Fantasy, Sabrina Strong's character is the type of female heroine I like, she's not too ditsy, not too bull-headed, or willing to go into most situations without either a weapon or people to back her. And by far, she's not perfect, which I think helps readers associate with her more readily.

Ascension, being the first book in series took me a couple of years to create, but after I got the second book in series written, Trill, I couldn't stop writing them. It became the alternate place, the fantasy place I wanted to take my character, Sabrina. I give her new dilemmas and dangers, new guys to ponder, and sometimes new worlds to visit. Like in my steampunk novel, Nocturne, where Sabrina goes to another world.

Or, in Caprice, she goes to another state to supposidly escape dangers, and there's more waiting for her in Colorado. Here's a little bit about that book at this link.

Oh, and here is the proposed new book cover for Caprice. What do you think?

Anyway, do you follow any series? Which ones, and why do you like them?

Potter More ~ Have you joined yet?

Back when the last movie in the Harry Potter series had come and gone, I found the site to sign up for "Potter More". I had no idea what it would be, and since I didn't want the series to go away, or to miss out on whatever Rowling had going there after, I signed up. And I waited...

Noting happened for many months (since I may have signed up back in July of 2011), and finally, I get an email today and had to go and join this site Pottermore.com if this link doesn't work here, it might work if you put it in search engines. (It came to me in email.) Anyway, it was the most pleasant experience as I've ever had in joining any site, and it asked if you are magical. By merely signing up, I've found out that I am magical... but I've always known that *snicker*.

J.K. Rowling must have had a team of people working on setting this all up. There is a shop and a blog as well. You will get regular emailings, and can buy the ebooks too, but I won't since I've got the actual books and have no desire to buy an ebook. But it's all fun, and there's a bit of the magic of the series found at these places. I know that this is geared more for the younger set, but I am young at heart and will forever be a Harry Potter/J.K. Rowling fan.

Now. Today is a beautiful day here, and I've finished all my housework, and plan on enjoying a gorgeous sunny day and go for a walk later. Hey! I lost 4 pounds this week after starting a diet. Good for me!

See you all later this week! Thanks for dropping by and leave a comment if you wish!

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!!!

I'm a Muggle and Proud of it!

Well, I am. Can't be helped. I do try and make traffic lights change green for me--by twitching my nose like Samantha Stevens, but more times than not, it doesn't really work.

But for a few hours I will be among other Muggles watching Harry Potter movie, the very last installment of these seven books, and I'll probably need a box of tissue the whole time.

The books have meant something very special to me, since I had approached the first one unable to believe what all the hoopla was about. I mean, I thought it was a book for kids. Really. So why were adults lining up and snatching them off the book shelves? Oh, and later on, into the fifth book, or so, Walmart had PALLETS of the books. And they went fast!

I sort of lost my focus, but what I wanted to say about these books, as well as the films, is here in Rowling you have a writer with a very special talent who could create a character who practically popped out of the page and lived in your living room, or wherever, and even in your heart--as did all his friends, and the various different creatures that were likable. You saw the friendships grow, and remain stalwart right to the end, even when there were problems among them at times, they always simply found it again.

Also, J.K. Rowling allowed me to be a child again. This is wonderful. If it was just that, that would be enough. And it is, but it's more, since I'm also a writer. Her books inspired me to write fantasy. It was something I'd wanted to do for a long time, and just didn't have any ideas, or even a notion of how to write something that wasn't an epic. I needed something that was whimsical in a way, and yet more adult in content. And that's what Spell of the Black Unicorn became. My adult fantasy about a sorceress from another planet, stuck here on Earth, hiding from an evil sorcerer, which I self-published in '08.

I, of course, went on and wrote my vampire fantasy, Vampire Ascending. Something else I had wanted to write and publish, and was able to--finally!

So, I owe Harry Potter, and Ms. Rowling a debt of gratitude. Not that they would even know I exist, but I'm putting it out there. I think that's what these books were all about. To inspire in us the better human being and our creativity.

Here is to them and helping me keep the faith in my own writing.

Just To Get You All Excited for The BI-I-I-G NIGHT!

I know that a lot of you are going to go to the opening night of the very last (boo-hoo) Harry Potter film. Here is one of the posters from MuggleNet.

I'm waiting until the throng has been and gone and, along with all the other like-minded people who wait for the third or fourth week when we can have lots of elbow room at the theater and not have to sit next to someone's kids hopped up on too much sugar. I might be hopped up, but I can handle it. I've hung from chandeliers since a child and still can manage the sugar high--just joking. I've quit drinking pop (except for the occasional root beer float!)

So, since I know pretty much how it ends, I can wait.

Among things of a different sort, this morning as I was getting into the black beauty (F150) to go to work, Dennis looked down on the ground from the doorway after wishing me a good day and said "Ew! What's that?"

I powered down the window and saw the odd thing. Pink-sh and white. I couldn't make it out. I had to get out of the truck. Well, I could see it was the head of some animal, and the spine detached from the body--oh, and one paw. It was lying on it's back (although the back was no longer around anywhere).

I figured out quickly the animal which had been obviously eaten, and the prize head a token to head master of the house. It was an opossum. We have a semi-wild cat that roams the area, once in a while it will station itself under one of the trucks watching for little varments around the house to go after. Our little hunter. 

I remember the night my husband took out some milk for it. It ran off, but came back and drank the milk down. That was months ago. Well, I think Ms. Kitty (I named her, as she was a calico), merely returned the favor.

"She left you a token gift," I told him.

"There really wasn't much left to eat."Dennis joked.

"I said TOKEN gift," I reitterated. "She repayed you."

"D'you really think a cat could take down a 'possum?" he wondered.

"They're pretty slow."

"But it must have eaten the whole thing. That's pretty big for a cat to eat."

"Well, maybe she's hungry, or is eating for six or eight." I'd said it was likely she could be preggy, since our neighbors have a lot of cats.

So, as ishy as the head was, it was nice of Ms. Kitty to bring it around. Better than a skunk--which would have been quite nasty smelling.

Hope your week is going by smoothly.

(My spell check was not working in this, so I think I got all the misspellings, but if not, sorry)

Deathly Hallows Part I

My husband and I went to see the latest Harry Potter movie this afternoon. A number of people showed up for this (two theaters had showings today), and there were a number of middle-aged (like us), and older who came in pairs, and just a few were families, and then a couple of small groups of teens.

My husband had not seen the last movie, so he knew he would be lost, and so I had to whisper things to him so he understood what was happening. This was fine. He never made it through the first book, so the movies are all he ever knew of the Harry Potter series, and he said the movie was "excellent".

I also enjoyed the movie. Usually I would read the book first to renew my memory of what was to happen, and this time I didn't. I didn't want to try and compare the movie to the book--not that I do. I felt that every H.P. movie I've seen so far has taken the essence of the books, put in what needed to carry the whole story--because, let's face it, this is an on-going story--and from start to this point, I feel that the director, and the actors, and all that goes into the "magic" of making a movie, has done a great job in suspending our belief systems where we "believe" in magic and that witches can fly on bloom sticks and so forth.

What I'd like to say is this: When an author's work is sold to a production of a movie of the book, you, as the writer, are lucky that they actually take the book and use what was in it, and not do much dabbling of their own garbage. A number of authors either back out of a book/movie deal mainly for the reason that the producer wants to change a lot of the basic character of a book. For Rowling to have had the people behind her that she did, and they worked with her, and followed the books to keep the essence in tact is simply awesome.

Just to see your own book come to life must be thrilling for Joan Rowling. I don't know if I could get past the thrill of it. I would have passed out from the moment someone said they wanted to make a movie of something I'd written. It's an opportunity of a life time. I wouldn't know how to properly act. I'd have to be hidden away for the giddiness I'd be in. "Ms. Bell can't be interviewed--uh--because she's just gone to cloud 9 for a few--um, er--weeks?"

I wanted to say my favorite part of the movie was when Doby appeared at the home of Malfoy, and the whole bit there was a pivotal moment. Even as Doby was killed--that's what magnifies what the main character's ordeal is about, why they have to fight, why they have to go on, and the ending, where it shows evil Voldermort stealing the wand from Dumbledore's tomb. It shows that this villain will go to every nasty depth of depravity to get what he wants, and that's to kill the one person who stands in his way of taking over the world: Harry Potter.
So, the hero is placed at an even higher level than before, where danger is around every corner, and he can trust no one--almost--but his dearest, closest friends.

When we write, we need to take a page from this. We need to see just what J.K. Rowling did. She made boxes of notes before she even put pen to page. Why? Because, this is a complicated series. What was to pull every reader through all 7 books? Her masterful, wonderful story-telling, and the way she could pull it all together at the end was, in my opinion, nothing short of genius.

Thinking a plot through is one thing, deliberating how a 7-book series must go, had to have kept the woman up nights. I remember in her interview that she'd said she was on a definite schedule of books, and that the fourth one--Goblet of Fire--"nearly killed" her. That was a long book!

So, I'm inspired, of course, as always with the instalment of yet another Harry Potter movie.

And I hope all you Muggles out there sleep well tonight, for Harry Potter is still your champion.

Harry Potter: Deathly Hallows Part I

Alright all you Muggles, aka Harry Potter fans, the movie Deathly Hallows Part I was just released as of midnight, this Friday.

Who of you out there went to see it at midnight, or are going to later?

I usually wait until all the crazy hyped-up Harry Potter fans have gotten their fill, and then I go, and there's about 5 people in the whole place. I like seeing films when I'm nearly the only one there. Sort of spooky too, but I love to be scared in a huge movie theater.

Here are some facts I've dug up for you. The Harry Potter series is the highest -grossing film franchise of all time with 5 of 6 films in the top 25 films of all time, as far as the box office grosses. We're talking a projected $60 million for this Friday's opening day alone, and then the 3-day debut weekend could be in the range of $130 million plus. I dare to think what it will rake in after it's all said and done.

I'm going to just step out of the reporter's mode, here and get my writer's/fan cap on for the remainder of this post.

I recall when the first movie came out, I admit, I was totally clueless why people were clamoring to watch the film and stand in lines to buy the books—not only children, which the book and film were aimed for, but adults.

Then, curious, my husband bought the first book. Now, my husband is not a reader of fiction. He likes articles and real stories (however, he read my first fantasy book cover to cover and loved it). So, since he was “lost” in what was going on in the first Harry Potter book, I picked it up and began to read. And I really could not put the thing down. I don't remember how many times I read the first book, and the rest of them, over and over, but I fell in love with Harry Potter, his friends, and his world of magic from that moment on. I became a Harry Potter/J.K. Rowling fan. For life.

From that point on I knew that what I wanted to write was fantasy. Fantasy was easy for me, because I love magical things, I love mystical things, I love to make things up out of my head and because I could put vampires, witches, werewolves, ghosts—anything really—into the mix, I knew that was what I was going to write about from that point on, after having tried nearly everything in between.

When you know that something works, that it feels right, that's when you just do it. Rowling had no idea what she'd done when she began writing about little Harry Potter and his world. She really had no idea that this book—and her series—would become so huge. The world was Harry's to take and by golly, he took it. Now you can go to Harry Potter World down in Florida, if you need a real fix, after all the movies are done.

And that's the way of it, really, in the world of writing a novel. We, as writers, never know that perhaps some day something of ours might hit the big time.

Although I don't see how any writer could ever beat Harry Potter, either in book sales or in movie sales, and I recall that when the first movie came out they were comparing it to The Wizard of Oz. I said, “No. Harry Potter will be bigger. Much bigger.” It became a classic within the life-time of its creator. That's hard to beat.

Oh, and by the way, there is a Madam Rosmertas Cook Book with all the things that Harry Potter and company enjoy, like butterbeer sorbet and caldon cakes, if you want to see any of this and other muggle stuff here's the link.