Thor, Hounded, and the Wonderful World of Distractions!

So, I didn't make this Blog so I could do book or movie reviews. I used to think that I would make a pretty good Film Critic(Ego much?) and have toyed with the idea of doing Blog or Youtube reviews for fun, but that isn't my intention today by any means. Instead, I'm using this opportunity to share my opinions while simultaneously explaining WHY my "Current Progress" meter has been at a stand still. And no, that isn't an error, it's just me sucking.

So... Thor. I liked Thor. I thought the acting was really good in general, though there were quite a few "cheesy" moments that... I dunno. Lots of people like that stuff, and admittedly so did I at one point. But nowadays, it's just not my thing. I thought there were too few action sequences involving Thor as a hero on Earth, and in general, despite the fact that they were traveling across the galaxy, the whole movie felt... confined. In my opinion, the best part of this film was Tom Hiddleston as Loki. No idea who the dude is, but he blew my socks off. All in all, Thor was a decent distraction.

I've needed distractions lately. I got to a point with my book where things were at a grinding halt. Are still, kind of. I'll explain later. But anyway, because of this I've been sinking myself into movies and books to try and... inspire myself. So in everything I've seen and read over the past two weeks, I've tried to draw lessons and ideas. In Thor, I decided that I shouldn't smash the book full of quipping one-liners, which I hadn't at all yet but still... once you introduce a funny character, which I have plans to do, it becomes a risk and a worry.

Now let's talk about my other distraction... Hounded. This book was an awesome distraction. After just finishing it, I thought it was really good, but since then I've upgraded it to awesome, because a day hasn't passed since I finished it that I didn't think about it. It's nothing at all like my book, but it's 9 different levels of awesome. AND, strangely, it has a bit in common with the movie Thor. I'm not going to spoil the connections, but yeah. If you'd like to know more about the book, feel free to hop over to my GoodReads page and read my short review of it. Like I said, I'm no critic, no reviewer, but I felt a sort of kindred need to support this guy, Kevin Hearne. This is his first book published, and he's an excellent example for me to follow. Hopefully someday I can meet the guy in a Death Star, and have one of those "Now I am the master" moments.

If this seems disjointed at all, it's because I'm at work writing it, and work has been... well, busy. Really busy. BUT, they hired the new dispatcher and he's in here training as we speak. So my life is going to change very soon, and I'll finally be out of the quicksand. Once I'm working my new shift, I know in my heart of hearts that this book thing is going to be back on the move big time. My most motivated period of the day to write is when I wake up. My problem has been that WORK then KILLS my brain. Well, one of my problems anyway. I also decided today that there is a portion of my book that I want to re-write. See, I told myself that I should just jot down any new ideas and refrain from backtracking, because I would never finish. Well, I've discovered that while that idea is all well and good, once something is in my head, it blocks everything else unless I indulge it and get it out. This morning I decided to allow myself to start to work on the portion and the ideas I have for it, and everything started flowing again.

So I take this as a valuable lesson learned. I have been thinking about starting a side-project though, as suggested by my friend Rhianna, and so as a conclusion to this post I'd like to pose a bit of a poll of sorts to you peoples. In your opinions, what would be more cooler: A story that was basically Terminator Salvation meets Lord of the Rings (cybernetic Elves with laser bows) or a Dystopian Babes in Toyland (Present day teens dropped into a desolate Toyland run by the evil, electronic toys)? I've got ideas for both, but I'm curious to see what normal people think. Not that anyone who reads what I write is normal.

Take that as a compliment. Anyway, that's all for now. Until next time...


Dream Big,
Ian