Friday, September 15, 2017

Celebrate the Small Things



It's Friday and I'm glad. No complaints about the impending loss of free time for the next two days, because I will happily turn into a short-order cook/laundress/maid in order to sleep in. Getting up at 5:15 or 5:45 Mon.-Fri. is killing me, y'all. Killing me!



Bed = Happiness

(Image: cupcakexoxo)


Let me interrupt my rant to thank the host and co-hosts of this weekly blog hop: Lexa Cain and L.G. Keltner and Tonja Drecker.

In addition to sleep, I'm celebrating the movie It. I saw It yesterday. It was going to be a busy day, so I had to get my exercise in early. What better way to celebrate "It Movie Day" than with a bike ride? I even passed by some honest-to-goodness balloons on my route. Thankfully they were white and green (and being used to advertise vacancies in an apartment complex) instead of red.



Red balloon plus sewer grate equals creeptastic photo. Thanks Blondinrikard Froberg!


The movie itself had a lot going for it. The actors fit their parts, the clown was terrifying, and the special effects were used wisely without going overboard. They tried to stuff as much information about the dark history of Derry into the film as time would allow. The most frightening part, for me, was the first ten minutes when Georgie Denbrough meets Pennywise for the first and last time. 


Image: Wikipedia


Despite all the things the film gets right, I still left the theatre a little bummed. There's so much in the book that just can not fit into a two hour film. I understand that. But I wish I could have seen the dam the Losers build across the Kenduskeag in the Barrens along with the underground chamber where they performed the Ritual of Chüd. Or the chapter where Bill and Ritchie encounter a werewolf, Stan's meeting with the dead boys in the Standpipe, Beverly's dash across town after her father goes insane, or Richie's encounter with the Paul Bunyon statue. 



Image: The actual Paul Bunyon statue in Bangor Maine. No wonder it gives the residents the creeps! The ax in his right hand is bad enough, but check out that tool in his left. Picture by Doug Folkerts.


All of those are key action sequences, but I also miss some of the small stuff. There's a beautifully written chapter about Ben staying late after school in the winter to help the librarian stack books and later his walk through the desolate frozen town (right before he meets the Mummy). I love that part, but it couldn't be in the movie. All the kids' first encounters with Pennywise had to occur around the same time in the summer, so major changes had to be made in the film. 





It makes me wish that the book had been turned into a series by HBO or Netflix and given the kind of attention to detail seen with Game of Thrones or 13 Reasons Why. Ditto The Dark Tower. The liberties they took to stuff a seven-book series into a single movie are cringeworthy.  Oh well. Maybe someone will make a series out of The Talisman someday.

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Lastly, I got notice from fellow blogger and author C. Lee McKenzie that her novel, Double Negative, is in a list for Readers Choice Awards for YA and Middle Grade books (page 12/16). If you'd like to vote for her book, here's the link: https://www.tckpublishing.com/readers-choice-voting

Voting ends on December 10. Here's what it's about:

Double Negative

Publisher: Evernight Teen, July 24, 2014 (Digital & Paperback)

Reviews: Evernight Teen - Amazon & Goodreads 

"My life was going, going, gone, and I hadn't been laid yet. I couldn't gointo the slammer before that happened." Hutch McQueen.

Sixteen-year-old Hutchinson McQueen is trapped between an abusive mother and an absentee father. Shackled by poor vision and poor reading skills, he squeaks through classes with his talent for eavesdropping and memorizing what he hears. After another suspension from school and suffering through one of his mother’s violent attacks, he escapes to a friend’s house that turns out to be a meth lab. The lab is raided and Hutch lands in juvenile detention. When the court sentences him to six months in a new juvenile program, he meets a teacher with Alzheimer’s who will change his life and hers.
Now Available at: 

Amazon Kindle • Amazon Paperback • Barnes & Noble • Smashwords

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What's the earliest you've gotten up in the morning for school or work? Have you seen the movie It or read the book? How about Double Negative





17 comments:

  1. I've not read the book, so the missing stuff didn't register. It was a lot better than the miniseries though.
    I get up about the same time and yes, it's awful.

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  2. When I was writing my dissertation, I would get up at 5. Now it is more like 6:30, sometimes 7. I haven't seen or read IT. Congratulations to Lee, the book sounds good and I hope it wins.

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  3. I quit my job recently and don't miss getting up at 530am for an 8 hour shift at all. =D

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  4. I had to get up around 4:30am for a previous job, but only once every other week. I naturally rise around 5:30-6am. General rule: if it's still dark, it's too early. If the suns up, I want to be up too. I haven't seen It, but I'm not surprised to hear it wasn't as good as the book. I've read lots of Stephen King, novels and see their film adaptions. The books are always better.

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  5. My alarm is set for 5.45, but I get up at 6.00 and leave home by about 6.45 - 7.00. I feel for you!

    You can't fit everything into a film, no, and I have to tell you that even a TV series can't always do it. The TV series of Kerry Greenwood's Phryne Fisher novels was beautifully presented and well cast, but they tried to cram an entire novel into each episode and as a result scrapped some of the best characters from the novels and completely changed relationships.

    Take One Of Three Girls: An Interview With Simmone Howell

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  6. I don't like horror, so I'll leave It to you...

    Earliest I've gotten up... I covered a zero period for a week, so I had to be at school by... 6:15, I think. (It's been a while. I've blanked it out.) So, up by 5ish. Too early, anyway.

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  7. 5:45 is my wake-up time. I'm not a horror fan and haven't seen or read IT. But I've been hearing many things about it.

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  8. I really liked the book 'It' also and will probably see the movie when it comes out on DVD. I grew up on a farm so I spent most summers and weekends getting up at 4 am. 5:45 when I was teaching. I sleep in until 7 now. I hate getting up early though I love mornings in the country.

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  9. Hi, sure hope you caught up on some much needed sleep. I always think of Paul Bunyan as part of NW culture, but guess he traveled out your way too. We have similar statues of him everywhere. Thanks for heads up on Lee's book. Cast my vote!

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  10. Glad to hear you enjoyed IT. I did not like the end the first time I saw it so I think I'll pass :)

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  11. I haven't read the book yet or seen the movie. I sound pretty lame admitting that!

    I would be done with getting up that early too. I so love to sleep!!

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  12. I'm an early riser even without an alarm clock from so many days of getting up early--5:30 or 6:00 for my daughter and work. Hope you get a few days to sleep it. Not seen this movie or read the book yet.

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  13. I haven't seen the movie or the book. I don't really think it's my kind of story, though. In the meantime, I hope you enjoyed your sleep-late week-ends. I'm an early riser, but I don't have to be anywhere except my computer, in my bathrobe, so that makes a big difference. I did vote of Lee McKinsey's Double Negative. I hope she wins.

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