Last night in a desperate plea to not sleep, you asked me if the Easter Bunny hid the easter stuff or if I did. Here’s how that conversation played out:
Papa: What do you think?
Dragon: I think you do it. Am I right?
P: Why do you think that?
D: Because it would be a very long way for him to go all the way here and all the way back.
P (Trying not to laugh): Where do you think the Easter Bunny comes from?
D (With all the confidence of a 5yo): Very far away.
P: So why can Santa do it and not the Easter Bunny?
D (No hesitation at all): Because Santa has a magic sleigh and the Easter Bunny doesn’t. So am I right?
This is the point where I panicked and worried that I might say something that would cause you to stop believing in the Easter Bunny and/or Santa.
I told you that it was really well thought out and we’d talk about it the next day. That’s today as I write this letter. Then I said goodnight and ran away despite you still asking.
It only occured to me later that you seemed to firmly believe the Easter Bunny existed but that he can’t deliver all the stuff. I wonder if you think that he ships it to us?
As I write this, I need to go wake you, your brother, and your mother. I hope a good night’s sleep will make you forget the questions.
Today we’re talking about the 2022 film Turning Red.
Story
This was a coming of age movie done extremely well. I loved the supportive friends and the music obsession. The family trauma was well done. I’m also amazed that with no real villain they managed to have a marvel-worthy boss fight at the end.
Score: 1
Characters
The kids in the movie were all stereotypes I remember from my high school. They are, however, well nuanced despite the little amount of screentime.
The overbearing mom with the soft-spoken dad is a dynamic I’ve seen in real life and is nice to see a move away from the idiot/useless father figures.
The aunties gave me flashbacks and made me giggle.
At the heart of it, Mei was both cringingly 13 but extremely relatable.
Score: 1
Dialogue
It was odd watching a Pixar-Disney movie with Canadian accents and expressions; odd but comforting.
A lot of information was given as worldbuilding and came back as important to the plot. The dialogue was fast, frantic and well crafted. I’ll need a rewatch to appreciate the full scope.
Score: 1
Music and Visuals
The songs are perfectly crafted to match the time period and the style of music. It reminded me of sitting in my cousin’s room listening to TLC, Destiny’s Child, Backstreet Boys, N’Sync, and 98 Degrees. Meanwhile the score was absolutely epic.
The animation is spectacular, as expected for Pixar. The backgrounds and details are wonderful and the character design was spot on.
Score: 1
Fun
The movie’s pace and energy is so perfectly reminiscent of being an early teen that it took me a little time to acclimate. It was great to step into that feeling and world again. I also thought it was fun spotting all the Canadianisms and things that are purely Toronto.
My kids liked it, although the 2 year old found the big panda scary and my 5 year old writhed in secondary embarrassment for most of it.
The most unrealistic thing was that they could get their concert tickets that close to the show and be on the floor.
I can’t wait to rewatch it and see all the little details I missed in the animation and storytelling.
Score: 1
Overall
This movie throws you into the life of a teen and drags you at the breakneck speed of youth. It’s exciting, heartwarming, and extremely poignant. It continues the excellent storytelling that Pixar is known for.
See this movie with an open mind and heart and it’ll transport you to the exotic land of Toronto and remind you what it means to be a young teen.
Final Score: 5 Stars out of 5*
*A 5 star review doesn’t mean the movie was perfect nor that it is perfect for everyone but it is a movie I believe is as close to perfect as possible.
I played today. Started with my songs, tried to play the How to Train your Dragon songs but my back decided to start acting up.
So I switched to playing songs I know in my song apps, but haven’t played since November (because Christmas).
And omg.
I can play them so much better now?
Like, my rhythms are better?
And I can switch between chords faster?
I was feeling like I wasn’t improving, but wow! What a difference!
I’m very proud of myself.
Oh, and I played for over an hour.
Jan 5: In a groove
I played my songs today. I really love them.
I also tried to play the last book I was given for Christmas; Songs of the 2000s. This book is MASSIVE. Like… My music stand cannot handle its size. (Insert innuendo?) So I decided that I would not play it today.
I just didn’t have the spoons.
I’ll try again tomorrow.
I played more songs from my app.
I really need to learn how to do a bar. My fingers just don’t want to, and so many chords require it.
Oh, I thought you might like to see my capo.
Isn’t it awesome??
Jan 6: Bars will have to wait
I played my songs again today and made way fewer mistakes.
Isn’t it funny that I can make mistakes on the songs that I wrote?
Maybe funny isn’t the right word for it.
Frustrating?
Anyways…
I also played the challenges for the week in my music app. I did very well on the melody one, not so great on the chord one. It just sounded like a bunch of noise to me. 🤷🏼♀️
I didn’t play from a book today. Instead I looked for songs in my apps that had a bar in them.
I think I need a teacher to explain in person how they work, because I just could not get it.
Thank you very much to the person who commented on my last post about pulling back with the arm, but if my finger can’t straighten out over the fret board, what’s the point?
So yeah, I’ll wait until I have a teacher and then I won’t have to unlearn more bad habits. (Because I’m sure I have tons.)
Also, hi new people! Glad you like my capo. Sorry if I’m boring. I won’t be offended if you leave. 😉
Jan 7: Short but painful
Today I played one song from my app and both my songs.
That’s it.
My right shoulder has been hurting and I didn’t want to aggravate it further.
I did try to keep my rhythms steady. Not sure I succeeded…
Jan 8: Music in books
I don’t remember if I’ve told you why I started playing guitar. Buckle up, because this is a ride in being extra.
I wrote a novella at the beginning of April 2021, about a boy named Tommy who went to a science camp over March Break, and while there, he discovered he was gay. Originally, I had him play a song on guitar to the boy he had a crush on. I don’t even remember which song it was. (I think it might have been Stand by Me?)
About a month after I finished writing that novella, I was searching for how to properly include lyrics in books and that led me to an article that explained that if any lyrics were included in a book, royalties would have to be paid.
Like, 4-5 digits.
Lol.
Yeah no.
So I removed the lyrics and just wrote around the music.
It worked.
And then….
Oh, and then!
My husband said, “Wouldn’t it be cool if you wrote a song?”
I dismissed it, of course. And then I started thinking, “It’s not like you found the perfect one when you were looking. But you could write one that would be perfect for them!”
At 3am, naturally.
And then it proceeded to write it for me, in about half an hour.
I repeated it over and over until I fell asleep and lo and behold! I remembered it the next morning (mostly) and wrote it down.
Then I changed the novella around to fit the new song.
And all was quiet for about a week. Then my husband made a comment like, “You know, you could write the music for your song.”
Ummm, what? The last time I played any music was when I picked up my flute like, a decade. And I don’t know how to write a song.
And then I thought about it for about two weeks, discussed learning the guitar with him for two days and asked to borrow my dad’s guitar.
A week after picking it up, I was hooked and went and bought my own guitar (¾ size rather than full). After about a month of learning, (during which the novella became an entire novel) I tried to write my song and I had zero idea what I was doing. So I asked for help from my music mentor.
Keep in mind, I had the melody set in my mind, so I sent him that file and he worked music around it. Chords I could play, too, with a little practice.
And poof! I had a song!
And that’s why I started playing guitar.
I played my songs today, once each.
Jan 9: Booster
I got my COVID booster yesterday. I thought I was fine, but I have a severe headache today, so I’m not going to play today.
I will look at my third song again today, though, and see if I still like it.
I’ve been writing serial stories yearly for 8 years, novels for 14, and short stories for as long as I can remember. However, in 2018, I started writing Elizabeth 4 and it broke me. I’m not sure what it was, but I just couldn’t write. I tried taking a break and writing something else and that got me a few chapters in an unfinished book.
By the time my son was born in June 2019, I had pretty much given up on the novel. It was complicated and emotional. I used plenty of excuses and spent more time daydreaming about other stories and feeling guilty.
Then the pandemic happened and everything seemed too dark.
When Dragon started school, Jen started reading, and editing, Elizabeth 4. To my surprise (because I truly thought it was crap) she loved it.
I started to painfully write it again, hoping not to break my streak of publishing a book a year.
She then asked to read A Copper Tarnish. I knew this one was good, but needed work (still needs an ending). She liked the part with two characters I’d borrowed from an old D&D game.
Several times I considered just giving up. Writing sessions that got me fifty words, but she kept encouraging me.
I had an idea for a novel starring those two characters and I told her. For what felt like a long time, but was probably a month max, I started working myself up to ask if she wanted to write it with me.
When I finally asked, she seemed enthusiastic. My writing for Elizabeth got easier.
We decided to write the book in January 2021 and talked about it for the next few months. When the time came, I put Elizabeth aside, again, and we furiously wrote a book in two and a half months.
The creativity and joy of sharing the story with her made writing seem easy. I still felt insecure about the quality of my writing, but the speed was there and at least we’d accomplished something. Now, with some distance, I’m fairly sure it’s one of the best books I’ve ever written.
Jen makes my writing better, both because of her support and because of her collaboration. There would be no Elizabeth 4 without her and it’s extremely possible there wouldn’t have been another novel by me for a while, if ever.
Thank you Jen. You are a talented, evocative, and exciting writer and I am extremely lucky and grateful to have her as a partner and a co-author. Love you!
The Aurora Awards are awards “for excellence in Science Fiction and Fantasy works and activities.” They are administered by the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association.
It’s a fan voted award in the vein of the Hugo’s, but with way more awesome people.
You’ll have to join the CSFFA for a pittance of $10 before you can nominate anyone. Once you’ve paid, you can nominate 5 works in each category. You can nominate works from now until May 18th.
The extra bonus of joining the CSFFA is you’ll get a voters package that includes most of the works that make the ballot. That’s 8-10 novels plus a bunch of other awesome stuff.
This isn’t a new story and the love interest feels forced. The development and details, however, are excellent. Nothing in his quick patter is ever just to make him seem smart; it also adds details and sometimes foreshadowing.
Score: 0.5
Characters
I like Flynn; he’s fun, smart and witty. I absolutely loved Judson and Charlene. The rest of the characters were bland and almost cardboard.
Score: 0.5
Dialogue
This is my favourite type of cheesy dialogue. It’s smart but never takes itself seriously. The love story dialogue is a little less fun.
Score: 0.5
Visuals and Music
The special effects are absolutely terrible. I was working in low quality video production at the time and I recognised the effects.
That being said, the camera angles were great and the non-special effect scenes were beautiful.
The music has a special place in my heart after having watched all three movies and seen the series several times.
Score: 0.5
Fun
The good guys win with style and smarts. What more could you want? Both kids were riveted and the 2yo actually asked questions that were relevant to what was happening.
Score: 1
Overall
This is a low budget archeology / magic movie that remembers to bring the fun and wit. It’s not perfect, but is a lot of fun.
I got a guitar strap and a shark capo for Christmas. They make me feel super cool, you have no idea!
I can play standing up!
Look at my daughter dancing. She’s so fast the motion capture couldn’t catch her hair or her hand.
I played my songs while standing today. I need to strengthen my back muscles (chronic injury) because I hurt now.
Ooooh and look at my cute shirt! It’s the title of my first solo book (fingers crossed the publisher accepts it!)
Dec 30: Ow
I played my two songs standing up today and my back pain went from a 2 to a 9.
To give you reference, normally when I’m playing guitar, it goes from a 2 to a 4 or 5. This is while sitting.
So … Ow.
Dec 31: Happy New Year
Someone told me that things we do on the 31st of December and the 1st of January set the stage and pace for the whole year.
Well, today I played my songs while standing and it didn’t hurt too badly, and then I played a bunch of Disney songs while sitting.
My kids sang and/or dancedalong.
It was fun. 🙂
I also plan on writing today and tomorrow, because I want that to continue in the new year.
Husband and I aren’t going to start our next book until our daughter’s virtual school restarts, so I’ve got another week to finish Tommy and Carter’s book 2, but I’m not stressing out about it too much.
Jan 1: First day
I played my songs today. And a bunch of Disney songs.
My parents arrived for new year’s day celebrations (within bubble) just before I started to play, so that added a level of anxiety.
I don’t know if I can play for an audience in the future. I’m going to need to play a lot more before then.
Jan 2: Ow again
I played my songs standing today. My pain increased a bit during the second song.
Then I played from the second Disney chord book I was given for Christmas.
This one:
There were lots of chords that I had to learn. Most of them were feasible, but I didn’t know them, which meant I had to spend a little of time bent over towards the music stand, trying to see what chord I needed to play.
So.
Ow.
I only played a couple songs before I had to give up.
I only have a few books left to try out before I’ve tried all of them.
And then, I think, my goal should be to focus on becoming more consistent with rhythms and memorizing more chords.
Because, you know, it’s hard to sight read if you don’t know the chords very well.
Jan 3: Friends
Picks and I are not friends, I have decided. I like the sound better without them, I keep my wrist looser, and I just find them annoying.
The Frozen 2 music book and I are not friends either. The chords are way too unnecessarily complicated. It will be a “once I’m better at this” book.
On a more positive note (ha! accidental pun), I wrote my third song yesterday night and tidied it up this afternoon. I’ll let it sit for a couple days/weeks and then put music to it.
It’s a ballad, a love story about the Phantom and the Wraith and how they met, except fictional. So my character is writing filk about two other characters.
Effectively, it’s a guide (and results) for parents to use films as a jumping off point for kindergarten education, each week a new film with activities and learning sheets designed around the film’s themes and content.
It was designed with the Ontario Curriculum in mind and to supplement our daughter’s 1 day a week of online school. It could easily be scaled up to be a full home school, or down to simply add some extras for parents who keep their kids home.
What she did over 10 months is spectacular, both as a tool for other parents, and as a journey with Dragon.
Please check out the blog and consider nominating it for the Aurora Awards in the category of Best Fan Related Work. Dragon is included as an author because her writing is included on the blog as part of the results. Nominations are open until March 26th.
What are the Aurora Awards?
The Aurora Awards are awards “for excellence in Science Fiction and Fantasy works and activities.” They are administered by the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association.
It’s a fan voted award in the vein of the Hugo’s, but with way more awesome people.
You’ll have to join the CSFFA for a pittance of $10 before you can nominate anyone. Once you’ve paid, you can nominate 5 works in each category. You can nominate works from now until May 18th.
The extra bonus of joining the CSFFA is you’ll get a voters package that includes most of the works that make the ballot. That’s 8-10 novels plus a bunch of other awesome stuff.
