A Legacy of Spies by John le Carre

     John le Carre is a British author of espionage novels. After more than 25 years he's brought his spymaster, George Smiley, back to the pages of his newest book. In stores September 5th, it's something to be on the lookout for.

     "Peter Guillam, staunch colleague and disciple of George Smiley of the British Secret Service, is living out his old age on the family farmstead on the south coast of Brittany when a letter from his old service summons him to London."

New Job

Wow, some days I still just can't believe that I've been a published author for a few years now, but I've always known that it wouldn't be enough, at least not in the beginning. So I've always had a 'day job' as well as working on my writing. 

Today is an incredible day, after working just one year at my current location, I'm now starting as a supervisor. This is great for me. It means more money, more benefits (like health insurance!), and times to come will be a lot more stable. 

So that's good. At least for me. My writing however, will more than likely take the hit. Sadly there are only so many hours in a day. 

Who know's though. This might be what I need to refocus myself. I do have that massive list of things I need to write and I'm getting more ideas every day, so I will have to get myself focused on that. But perhaps writing will go back to being something I really enjoy and can get myself into more so. Books have always been an escape from the outside world for me. My own included.

Wonder Woman Review

    So yesterday I went for the second time to see Wonder Woman, and I still stand by my original thoughts. To put it simply, this isn’t a revolutionary movie, it isn’t perfect, but it is a damn good one. It’s also very empowering to a lot of little girls, and some older ones too. That seems like a win win to me. I promise I will not give any spoilers in this review. I’m going to look at a few key elements. Things like what I personally liked, and didn’t. The quality of the animation and story. As well as a few other key points that I feel like they are worth mentioning.

     Let’s just start off with the bad and get all that muck out of the way. I overall really enjoyed the movie, again it wasn’t flawless and I’m not claiming it was the greatest movie ever. By far DC studios greatest, but that’s not the main focus here. There was one part that really killed the entire vibe for me, as a story teller mostly. Again, I won’t give away spoilers, but I am going to describe the situation and why it bothered me so much. There was a part near the end that was a turning point for the entire movie, maybe just within the last fifteen minutes. So as a story teller, I’m expecting things to wrap up. Our main characters have their final moment, and it’s done in such a tasteful way I love it. It left things open for personal interpretation. After all, what is art supposed to do! Anyway, the film moved on from that moment only to return and repeat it. The entire scene. But wait! It didn’t just flashback to something that happened only a few moments ago, it forced something down the viewers throats. Again, prior to this each viewer could take it however they wanted to. As DC however, showed it again, with ‘new’ information to the viewer, we were then forced to all make the same conclusion. That moment, killed it all for me. We are in the biggest fight of the movie (that’s not a spoiler, it’s a super hero movie, you knew it was going to be there) and they decide to stuff character development down our throats.

     Other than that, I can’t really say that anything else ‘broke’ the movie for me. After seeing DC’s prior films, I really had some low expectations. Did it have a bit too much CG effects? Oh yeah. Did they look cheesy? Sure did. But again, this is a super hero movie. She’s an amazon running around with a shield and glowing lasso of truth. I didn’t expect it to look hyper realistic. It actually became a feature that I enjoyed. It seemed to pull her out of the world and bring back fond memories of what super hero’s meant to me when I was younger. The only other small thing that bothered me to any extent, and it bothered my girlfriend more so than me, was the sound clips. They must have spent their budget on other things because some of the sound effects were just so ‘basic horse sound #1’ kinda vibe. However, I think DC could have done far worse on this one. They at least didn’t use monster roars for wolves. Looking at you Disney. (If you haven’t seen the new remake of Beauty and the Beast, I don’t recommend you do so, just watch the original.)

     Alright, now that all that mess is out of the way let me get down to some of my personal likes from this movie. While the story was reminiscence of “Captain America” from Marvel, I only could see that in the fact that it took place during WWI. And there was a motorcycle in one scene. It didn’t feel however, like I was watching Captain America. I honestly thought that movie was beyond boring. Not bad, just not my taste, I’m also not fond of him as a character either. Princess Diana. She on the other hand rang of strength and faults. I love a character with faults. Her actress Gal Gadot played the part beautifully.

     Gal Gadot for those of you who do not know, is an Isralle actress and model. She has been in The Fast and the Furious franchise before taking up her roll as Wonder Woman.

     I also really enjoyed all the trow backs and nods to the old TV series and comics. Even some of her classic music has been updated to fit this new, wonderful, Wonder Woman. As far as the actual story line goes, there are a few moments that left me having a ‘what the heck?’ kind of moment. But those feelings normally didn’t last too long as the action kept me moving forward. The camera shots. OH MY GODS! Let me just take a moment and tip my hat to the director who made some amazing choices. Blending speeds and angles to get some really awesome kick ass scenes. Oh it made my heart melt. They did an amazing job mixing things up and really bringing you to where the action was, even if it was a little comic type extreme at times.

     DC really pushed a lot of lines with this movie. I was so happy to see many different cultures represented in this one. They night not have been massive or in depth, but they were there, each with their own skill set. I personally, like to think that it mattered. Even on the Amazon island, they had people of color and different races on their little home.

     Now one final thing I want to talk about is sex. We all know that sex sells and as a woman, I see it all the time in media. So much so that I have come to expect it. I shouldn’t, but I do. The list of the examples is way to long to even being, so I won’t. With this movie, I expected no less honestly, and I was oddly surprised. There wasn’t a single ‘money shot’. Now what could I mean by that. We all know it. That one shot that they take where it makes the female character look like a slut, an item, like nothing but eye candy. Again, we come to expect that. I was happily disappointed. They didn’t make Princess Diana sexy. She was beautiful don’t get me wrong. She was strong and powerful, and sexy, but for those reasons alone. Not because they made her. Even in some fights you could catch the ‘plush’ (I doubt it’s fat, but muscle isn’t known to move hence the term here) of her legs jiggle upon landing. In our society that’s never seen. Ever! They kept those female curves and weren’t afraid to show them. It gave a normal feel to it. It showed every little girl out there that curves are okay. Heck even as an adult I felt better about myself walking out of it.

     My final conclusion. Go see it. Give the movie a chance, it’s by far the best thing I’ve seen come from DC. It’s empowering. It’s a fun movie. Go see it, go take the kids. Let them see how strong women can be. Even if they aren’t Diana, princess of the Amazons, daughter of Hippolyta, they can be strong, they can make a difference. They too were molded from clay and brought to life by Zeus.   

Kong T.V. Series?

     While I was at my day job I stumbled across some interesting news. For any of you who follow Godzilla and its franchise you’ll know that the recent Kong: Skull Island is part of a 6+ movie series. I personally was overjoyed when I found out. I’m even more excited for the next one, Godzilla: King of Monsters. But that’s not the point of this. Anyway, I was reading that there is talk about a TV series that takes place after Kong: Skull Island that will bridge it to the next movie. That for sure is something to look forward to this fall. Much better than the Unicorn Frap from Starbucks.

The next book that I would like to read.

     I read a lot. Some would say way to much, but considering I could be doing meth instead, I think this is a pretty safe hobby. Anyway, I was out and about today and picked up a flyer of Indy novels that are going to be released this month. I thought that was very interesting and I haven't seen it before, so I grabbed a copy. 

     As I read through it, I was excited to see one book on there. "The Bear and the Nightingale: A Novel" By Katherine Arden. With the book came the price and the books description. 

"The Bear and the Nightingale is an enchanting mix of fairy tale, fanasy, and historical fiction set in medieval Russia. (That right there sucked me in!) Nestled between the northern wilderness and civilization is a village where old and new traditions live side by side. Vasya, the last daughter of Pyotr and Marina, is born on the howling winds of autumn. Different from the others in her village, she is destined to be like her grandmother and is gifted with powers by birthright. As time goes by, Vasya is tested. Caught in the conflict between the old spirits and the new religion, Vasya must do everything in her power to save her family and village. Arden's novel is the rich, mesmerizing fairy tale you've been waiting for!"

     I really hope to pick up a copy soon, it sounds like something interesting and right up my alley. If you get it before me, please tell me what you think about it!

~Skadia

New Year, New Goals

     So last year I did what I did. It wasn't a bad year for me and I am beyond proud of myself. (We all need a little self love sometimes.) I published a total of 5 shorts, and read a lot of books. My favorite this year, was Winterwood. A beautiful pirate novel where a woman has to find herself, by figuring out her past. I really enjoyed it, so go check it out if you're into female leads.

     I didn't do as much as I wanted to. I had high hopes for myself to release quite a few more shorts and even a novel or two. I just didn't get there this time. I also didn't finish my NaNoWriMo this year. I came close with around 40,000 words, but work bogged me down with the holidays. I'll perhaps try again next year.

      I learned a lot. I found myself in my writing and found what works of mine really sing, and what ones didn't. That was a surprise. I also found out that I could write a 40,000 word novel while working two jobs. That was also a surprise.

     My hopes for this year. To write. To keep writing. To pour my heart onto the pages for you all to enjoy, but mostly to just get the voices out of my head. I do plan on redoing this blog. I want to shift my focus from just updates to more of a free web series. I will be testing the waters on this project over the next few weeks.


     I wish you all a very happy and safe new year. May this one be the best so far.
~Skadia