A Writer's Humility

How many of you have read a book and thought “Wow, great story, but I could have written it SOOOO much better”? I know I have. It might actually be one of the pushes that made me want to become a writer.

On the other hand, I’ve also read books that were so completely amazing, that they encouraged me to believe, “I want to do THAT. I can do THAT.”

Right now, I’m reading a book that has me thinking “I will never be THAT good”. It’s almost depressing how wonderful this novel is. Strange isn’t it? The best I can hope for is to learn a little something from the amazing writing and story-weaving this author has accomplished.

If you haven’t read it yet, and you don’t mind feeling a little humility about your writing, check out Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett.

There is also a movie based on the book, if anyone has seen the movie and read the book I’d love to know your take on how the movie measures up.

Have any other writers here read a book that shamed them a little?

Whole Lotta Stuff!

Happy Birthday to Me! That cup to the left was a prezzie from my BFF - Does she know me or what?

I'll have a caffe mocha vodka valium latte to go please

In case you can't read it, it says "I'll have a caffe mocha vodka valium latte to go please"


This weekend was my birthday weekend. Yes I said birthday WEEKEND. We don’t do this birthday stuff half-assed in my family, well we didn’t use to anyways. The last few years have been a little stressed in the celebration department for obvious reasons. (Those who don’t see the obvious, just peek over at my profile and some older posts.)

My birthday was on the 31st, which for those who are calendar-challenged, was Sunday. But since it was my Birthday WEEKEND we begin our story on Friday. My dear sweet sister came from Toronto to the small town of Cobourg to take me for a day at the spa. A few hours, laughs, and a new cut and color later, we emerged as fresh women! See there below, that’s me with my new ‘do.

Nina' new 'do

After the spa, we all went to the city of Oshawa to indulge at the Mandarin. There were eight of us all together, and we had a blast. All you can eat crab legs, shrimp and salads, nomnomnom. There is Chinese food there too, since it is a Chinese food buffet and all, but who cares about that stuff when there is seafood on the menu? My loved ones embarrassed me 3 times by loudly singing Happy Birthday, twice in English, once in French and then once, which I am not counting, in a vain attempt at singing it in Chinese. (My BFF who was sitting beside me got a fortune cookie that explained how to say Happy Birthday in Chinese, hence the attempt). No photos of that fun time because my niece hasn’t posted them yet, she’s having a busy summer.

Saturday required lots of rest and didn’t see much in the way of Birthday celebrations. Sunday I went to lunch with my mommy who made me a fabulous new purse. She’s a genius when it comes to sewing. Between my mom, my niece and my brother-in-law I am more than topped off with enough gift certificates to load my bookshelves, but more on that later.

It’s a long weekend here in Canada, which adds an extra day to my birthday weekend. How cool is that? My honey and I decided to venture out to a far away Indian Reserve to buy our cheapy cigarettes. It just so happens that the Sandbanks Provincial Park is right near the reserve, so off we went. For those of you who don’t know what the Sandbanks are, allow me to explain. To steal from their website: “Giant sand dunes and golden beaches form two of the largest freshwater baymouth sandbars in the world here, on the shores of Lake Ontario.” What does that actually mean? You can walk for miles in the lake and still be only waste deep in water. The shifts in the sand cause constant flowing foaming waves. The sand gives the feeling of walking on shifting golden silk and stays that way far into the water. Here’s a couple of pictures to give you the idea, but doesn’t even begin to capture the glory of this place.

Sandbanks Provincial Park 1

Sandbanks Provincial Park 2

If you look closely at the 2nd picture, you can see to people in the lake, they are only up to their calves in water.



And now finally… on to the books. Ya know, because this is a site about writing and such.

So here’s what I bought with my lovely gift certificates!

Electronic versions:

I got The Great Lenore by JM Tohline

and Between by Cyndi Tefft.


I’m super stoked about reading each book, especially because both authors are in my social network.

As for the hard copy books, I got:




For these four, I'll have to wait until they arrive in the mail...

Have you read any of these? Any comments before I begin? Here’s hoping your weekend was as fun as mine!

Books to Movies, Novels to Films Part 1

Books to Film - Novels to Movies

This post was originally a 2 part article for Ezines, but I got sick of waiting for it to be published so I deleted it from there, to serve it here.
We've all seen it happen; we've all grunted and groaned when a favorite novel has been blasphemously skewered into a film. I personally almost cried when my most beloved novel Bless the Child was made into a b-movie that followed none of the characteristics of the book I had grown to love and honor.
But there is this little thing inside, this little spark of need, of want, of desire, to see if the images that floated across our minds while we read the tales woven on page, match up with the visuals of what others decide goes on our screens. It seems to be that, now more than ever, the films are living up to the books delivery.
My first novel-to-film happy moment was with the movie "The Green Mile
" I enjoyed it as much as the book. Then came the "Twilight" series. Yes I am a fan of the books, they pulled me in. I also loved the movies. A note on this though, I loved the movies because I knew the books. I watched the movies with people who had not read the books and they were not nearly as impressed. Interesting is it not? I feel the same way about the Harry Potter movies and books. I read the first Harry Potter, and enjoyed the first movie to no end, because I knew what was going on in the heads of the characters. The later movies, the ones whose books I did not read, I found far less entertaining. In fact, I found myself thoroughly confused during the last few films.
I can't compare "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy because I never read the books, but I know the die-hard fans were pretty much 50/50 when it came to their appreciation of the films. But again, I watched these movies with people who had read the books, and they were completely stoked about scenes I didn't quite get. They would say things like "Oh, I wonder how they are gonna do this part?" or "Wow, wait til you see what's coming up next!" only to find myself slightly moved by the scene they spoke of.
Let's move on a little to a favorite book series and TV series that is near and dear to me: "True Blood". The Sookie Stackhouse Series by Charlaine Harris is fantastic. It's fast-paced and moves along nicely. The characters are fresh, three-dimensional people that easily invite the reader to love or hate them, sometimes both. But to be honest, I enjoy the HBO show based on the books so much more. I did watch the show before I found the series.

Though the quality and interpretation of the novel to the filmmakers is an obvious necessity in deciding which is better, what I think it comes down to in the end is; which came first to YOU, the movie or the book?
Which books to movies moved you or betrayed you?
Part two to this post will appear tomorrow, discussing up-coming books to film.