Thumbs up for Guardians of the Galaxy II

GotG II was on in our lounge room not so long ago. I’m not a huge comic book fan – haven’t seen the Avengers movies, or many of the superhero things, but I quite enjoyed GotG I (especially the music – and Rocket and Groot) so what the hey?

Final verdict – I probably liked it better than the first movie. Except for the music. I’ve had the song “Brandy” playing in my head since I saw the movie. I always liked that song (yes, I know the words) but enough, already. It was probably the only song in the movie I actually knew – which shows I wasn’t a great pop music fan in the ‘80’s. Probably one of my classical phases. Verdi, anyone?

Anyway, back to the movie. It was fun seeing Kurt Russel in action as Quill’s father. I remember Russell from lots of SF type films. Escape from New York, and especially the original Stargate movie. And a cameo from Sylvester Stallone, with promise of things to come. It seems Hollywood’s Old Guard are seeing the value of the comic book genre. Baby Groot was an absolute delight, Rocket was his usual irascible self, getting everybody into trouble, Drax took everything literally, as always, and Quill and Gamora danced around each other. The baddies were a mix of pirates and sophisticates. The sophisticates turned out to be much nastier than I expected, and the pirates were – pirates. Not nice at all.

 That's not to say the movie was perfect. One particular scene between Quill, his father, and his mother's memory jarred for me. But for the rest, I could keep myself in suspension of belief pretty easily. 

What I really love about these movies is the SFX. Quill has armor tucked behind his ear (wow). Spacesuits are available at the press of a button - and although they look insubstantial, they do the job. Rocket puts the very wrecked spaceship back together by running a device over the shattered panels. One assumes the ship’s AI reconstructs the atoms the way they’re supposed to be. Quill’s dad (Ego) has some wonderful tech, including a ship that refines its shape as required.

The plot was the usual mix of fast action and derring-do as our band of warriors get each other out of trouble.  What holds it all together is that the action has a theme. It’s all about Family. What is family? What is it not? You might get a little misty-eyed here and there, and the teasers in the credits will have you hangin’ out for GotG III. I suspect it will be more interesting than this December’s new Star Wars. (Lord, I hope I’m wrong about that…)

Just one more small thing. Remember that song in the opening credits of the first movie?

 Back in the '80's some of us were bulk unimpressed with that mangling of this song.

 Time flies when you're having fun :)

Happy Beltane, Marvellous May & #GuardiansOfTheGalaxy2 #scifi #romance

Today marks Beltane, halfway between the spring equinox and the summer solstice, when the beginning of summer is marked by burning fires. While I don't believe in astrology, I'm a fire sign myself and certainly had an obsession with lighting fires as a child (though very carefully so I didn't become an arsonist, even accidentally!).

The elements of fire and water often show up in my writing too. In the Christmas story I wrote for Keir and Quin, Keir mentions a tradition of keeping a candle burning throughout the winter to encourage the sun to come back after the months of darkness, or homes decorated with fire symbols or red, yellow and orange ribbons to represent flames.

For me it marks another change in the year - the coming of summer, of longer days, and when I was a child the endless summer holiday between July and September where I would essentially run free for seven weeks in the fields behind our house or along the country lanes. Now it marks seven weeks of trying to find entertainment for my three monsters (though not so much for the older two now, in their teens or approaching them and with a social life way more complex and busy than mine), and hubs taking a couple of weeks off work to join us, and birthdays for myself and oldest. But until then, it's another point of expected change in the yearly calendar.

This May marks my fifth year as a published author and a fifth book anniversary for my debut novel Keir. It feels like a very long time but doesn't sound it so much, especially as not too long ago five years could be a mere blip in traditional publishing. I struck exceptionally lucky in only taking two years from completing my novel to its first publication, and with my debut too.

So this year I'm going to celebrate the landmark with a special giveaway in collaboration with Hoot and Luna. It'll open on the 7th of May and run until the end of the month. And what can you win? A pair of custom made dragonscale gloves, in Keir blue. :P To be notified of the contest opening, you could sign up to my email HERE, or for a bonus book you can enter my new Instafreebie giveaway HERE (which requires a sign up to my newsletter to enter).

There will also be two Instafreebie events in May, which will also be in my newsletter and posted here, plus a Solstice SFR Sale in June. That should give you lots of opportunities to stock up your ereaders with yummy SFR for your summer reads!

Guardians of the Galaxy 2
I didn't realize until I'd already seen it last Friday that the US isn't getting Guardians 2 until the 5th of May. I'm so sorry! But rest assured you won't get any spoilers from me. I can tell you that it is totally AWSOME! I wasn't expecting too much since sequels have a hard time being up to the standard of the first, but film 2 rocks. You will laugh. You will cry. You will be somewhat horrified and still laughing. You will die of the cute. And if you're lucky, you'll have a crowd like the one in my cinema, who cheered and applauded at the end like it was a party. Tip: watch the credits until the very, very end - I mean right up to the final logo! And don't just watch - read. There are all kinds of little treats all the way through. Take tissues. And don't feel bad at laughing at some of the horrifying bits. If taking kids under ten, be warned - though the violence and humour is about the same level as the first, there are a lot of body parts mentioned that you might not want your younger offspring repeating in the playground next day, and if they're particularly sensitive to death you might want to check the film beforehand to decide if they can handle it. And that's all I'm saying!

Status Update

I won Camp NaNo! Although I ended up having to include my revisions on Keir's Shadow to make up the word count, the edits on Reunion and Revived are complete. Well, ish. There's still some tweaking required but the bulk of them is done and they aren't due to my editor until June, so I still have time. However, I have a third novella that needs completing to get to my other editor by the same point in time, so there's no room for slacking!
I also completed the Tauriel cosplay, but I won't/can't be posting the details at my Tumblr blog as I still have a redesign to finish. So here's a piccie of it in its full glory.

This now means moving onto the Witch-King costume for my 12yo, including some complicated fake metalwork. Fun!
Here in the UK, it's a Bank Holiday today for May Day, so I'll be off out with my monsters. In the meantime, a few pics of our latest walk, through some bluebell woods. No chooks this week as the chilly weather has left them tucked away in their coop, sorry!

Guardians of the Galaxy 2 - When Trailers Disappoint #scifi

Last week the new Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 trailer premiered on Jimmy Krimmel Live. I didn't see it there being as I'm not in the US, but I caught it first thing Friday on my social media and watched it immediately. And...I was disappointed. Why?

Not because I don't love the film or the characters or because I'm not looking forward to the film (I so am!!). The problem with trailers is they usually show the best bits...sometimes the only good bits (as in the totally misnamed Epic - I found the film a complete let down compared to the trailer). So multiple trailers run the risk of re-showing those good bits and becoming repetitive, and/or having to reveal more. Now, to me this new trailer revealed a major spoiler (if you don't want to know or would rather find out for yourself, skip to the video at the bottom. 

We get to see Peter's dad. Much like How To Train Your Dragon 2 and Hiccup's mum, I feel that would have been so much better left as a reveal in the film itself. Did Marvel think putting it in the trailer was a better marketing idea? Or a way to beat any media outlet from getting to spring the secret? I don't know the thinking, but it disappointed me. I was going to see this film regardless but now I feel like a big spoiler was given away (plus I've seen the fight with the big space octopus multiple times now). Maybe they should just stop at ONE trailer..

Having said that, I loved the teaser trailers for the new Star Wars films. For one thing, they really did tease, hardly giving anything away. But maybe it was because I was so desperate to see every last snippet released, firstly because of the wait and secondly because, at the start, we had NO idea what Disney was going to do with them that I'd forgive anything. So I don't have any objection to those plus a main trailer. But can we keep surprises for the films? Pretty please?

Happenings
Later today I'm fulfilling one of my bucket list wishes (although I don't technically have a bucket list because I really don't like that term). I'll be meeting Warm Bodies author Isaac Marion. Squee! Excited doesn't quite cover it...
Spring is well and truly here. The frogs have been busy in the pond and the spring plants are blooming.

Status Update
Edits on Revived are progressing and revisions on Keir's Shadow are ongoing. KS has already grown 5K this year, and 5K last year, but the word count is now fluctuating as I cut things as well as adding. I'm only about 16% of the way through though. Revived is 94% done on edits.
In the meantime, the Tauriel cosplay is also progressing though I don't yet have the dress material.

Chook Update
We're now getting one or two eggs a day, and the girls are enjoying time back out in the garden, but the last few days have been a bit too wet for them to go out and so no photos this week.

See ya next week!