Hunger Games

Here's the thing about me: I don't usually watch movies until they're on Netflix or TV, so all the movies I've seen are usually a zillion years old (hence all the 80s movies on my blog).  My awesome friend Candice recently introduced me to an app called Show Box, though, and I've used it to watch ALL KINDS OF MOVIES!!! I'm super in love with it, so thanks, Candice.  I watched The Hunger Games on TV a while back, so when I saw the rest of them on Show Box I watched them all right away... except for the last one, which wasn't out until Tuesday.  I'm on vacation this week, so I waited until everyone else went to bed and watched it on my phone Tuesday night and man, was it worth it!

North American first edition cover

I don't have a lot of reading time, but I try to do what I can, like I read Mayhem, the sequel to Madness by Derek Dykes (you can read about that here) on the plane Saturday.  The best compromise I've found is audiobooks.  They're free from the library and I can listen to them while I drive.  The book versions of these are, as usual, better than the movies.  I'm only on the second one but I'm really enjoying it. Suzanne Collins is definitely a new favorite of mine and I hope to read a lot more from her.   She also has a five-part series called The Underland Chronicles so I'm trying those at some point, for sure.

So the movies are great, as I probably don't need to tell you.  I'm surely the last one to see them.  I really just love Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson in those movies, and Julianne Moore's hair was wonderful!  It was nice to see Phillip Seymour Hoffman again and he was brilliant as ever.  What a great actor he was.  I'm obviously in love with Lenny Kravitz just like everyone else, and I'd have loved to see more of him.  His character is actually way more important in the books, so if you haven't read them and you liked Cinna you'll like the books too.  Anyway, I just really always suggest reading.  Reading is FUNdamental, ya know!  Get to it.

Saturday Spotlight: Derek E Dykes

This post may be short since I'm writing it on my cell phone. Yikes. I'm a pro at putting things off, and this is where it's gotten me. So, first of all, I'll have to start out with a little background info on myself. When I read a book, even if the story is amazing, I can't enjoy it unless the author's voice is one I can relate to. Because of that, I hate... I mean DESPISE... buying books directly from the author. At cons, you often meet authors, they're often nice people, and they're usually selling their books (you know, doing their job). When I pick a book in a bookstore, I read passages at random to determine how I think I'd like the book. I'm terribly picky and I most often put the book back. Since I can't even IMAGINE doing that with the person who wrote the book staring me down, I tend to pick one book for con weekends almost at random and just hope for the best. 

Last year I hit the jackpot! An author in a panel for writers mentioned a plot detail and I decided to buy that book. It's called Madness and it's by Derek E Dykes.  Set in the future, it involves mental illness, murder, future tech and pure evil. In the beginning of the book the main character, who's an FBI agent, happens upon a decades-old crime scene.  The victim's DNA shows that she's a positive match for our heroine's maternal grandmother, who died not decades ago but only a year ago.  I don't want to give too much away, but it's really intense and at one point I literally had to put the book down to hyperventilate. 

I actually ran into him at the con today and he very graciously posed for a picture with me.  I was a little disappointed that he didn't have any books with him but not to worry.  He'll have some tomorrow, and you can bet your bottom dollar I'll be there to get the next book; I'll get as many books as there are in this series.  (Two.  There are two more books in this series.  I was being dramatic.  But I am buying both of the other two.) 

I think he actually did the cover art as well

Nice work Derek Dykes, you beautiful twisted freak.

CoastCon

There's no spotlight this weekend, folks.  Just some good old nerdy fun!  Two years ago, I attended my first con, CoastCon in Biloxi, MS.  I didn't know what to expect, but when I got there I found MY PEOPLE.  I don't exactly know how to describe the people there, but if you've ever been to a con... that.  It was them.  They were me.  My focus that first year was learning about professional writing and about the sci-fi and fantasy genres.  I sat in panels by authors Kelly Armstrong (you know her from Bitten, which is now a Syfy show) and Derek Dykes, who you'll read more about next Saturday.  I also met John de Lancie (Q from Star Trek: TNG) and I had a blast!

Last year, my focus was more on cosplay and learning about techniques and getting ideas.  I'm absolutely not putting any of what I learned to use this year, as my life is becoming very hectic but my husband built me a costume last year that honestly should've won something in my opinion.  It looked just as good as (almost) anything else there, but it was definitely not as technologically advanced or as labor intensive, and that was my downfall.  I realize I'm biased, because my husband is hands-down a genius in my eyes, but still.  It was cool.  Here, look.

See? The coolest.  I even found out later that someone had written about me on her blog.  I was pretty excited.  Even though the guys in the Transformers cosplay legitimately were much cooler than me.  They worked in an auto body shop for a living and used real car body parts. 

  

This year, I'm focusing on Role Playing Games.  I would really like to try them out and see if I like them or not.  I have a friend who recommended I try a few online games but I'd rather start out with people around who can help me in person.  I'm in my mid-thirties, after all.  I'm too old for all this online tech support business!  Just kidding, but for real.  I'm hoping to have a lot of fun this year.  I guess you'll find out in a couple of weeks when I write about it. 

Until then, let me know which games you think I should try, either table top or online. Thanks in advance for the advice.  And don't forget to hit subscribe and check out my other posts.