engrossing scenes, memorable characters and awesome review of Awesome Lavratt

I have to get right to the best news of all. For those who are still dragging your feet on social networking and thinking it has no real value for you and your career, read and weep -- then cheer. I met this reviewer because someone had an Ning group that they posted to their FaceBook wall. It was over at book blogs, so naturally, I checked it out. The reviewer posted responded to a post there. I checked out her site and found she reviewed Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy -- favorably, of course. So, I took her up on her offer to review my book. She read it the same day it arrived and gave me this glowing review of Awesome Lavratt at A Journey of Books. I didn't pay her for it, honest. ;0)

Here's a great post on amping up character tension by my writing friend, Becky Levine.

I sent out 8 stories in 8 days this month. How much writing did I get done? I finished a flash piece. :( Most of the stuff I sent off was reprints. And one piece that had just been rejected. I already have one rejection back from this latest batch. I should have popped that one back out last night, but last night was my catch up on sleep evening. Came home from work and crashed.

This isn't a SF flick, and it's not new, but I have to mention it. It's been a while since a movie has really made me think. You might recognize the victim as a character actor, but I didn't recognize anyone else. The movie is Stuck. It does come by its R rating honestly. I muted the intro because of the filthy rap music (luckily no dialog happened during it), for example, and there was some nudity. A young woman, high on pills and booze, drives home. She hits a homeless man crossing the street. He shoots through her windshield and is stuck halfway through. She drives to the ER, can't pull him out and is scared of being spotted so jumps back in the car and drives home. She locks the car in the garage with the man still there. She knows he's alive. She tells her boyfriend, but leaves out the part about him still being attached to her car. During most of the movie this poor guy who had already been experiencing the worst day of his life - before the accident - remains stuck in the windshield. Five people know he's there before the story is over, yet no one helps him.

The really creepy, incomprehensible thing is that she sees the man bleeding all over her car as an inconvenience and a threat to her looming promotion -- to head nurse's assistant! She's very gentle with the patients in the convalescent hospital where she works, but is ready to have this guy die rather than lose a measly promotion she will most likely never get anyway. The even trippier thing is that it's based on an actual event. !!!!! I said her behavior is incomprehensible, but the thing that got to me is knowing that there are people out there like that character.

And how do we apply this to writing? Now THAT'S an unforgettable character!

PS - Rob Sawyer has made the text of his novella, "Identity Theft", which is up for an Aurora Award, available online. There's also a film in the works.

vote it up!