Hello,
Looks like today is my last day of vacation. It’s sad but I’ll take another week at the end of June and then hopefully another in mid July. Those will be better. It’ll be nice to spend time with the kids.
I’m going to enjoy my last day by spending time with my kids, playing videogames, and maybe I’ll take them to Walmart and check out the discount chocolate.
Later days,
Éric
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Hello Cinephiles,
Today we’re talking about the 2021 film Under Wraps.
This is a cute Halloween story. There are a lot of errors in Egyptian history and I’m not sure what the point of the 3-day pass for the movie was. It seemed odd and without any reason. That being said, I liked the jab at grave robbing.
Score: 0.5
Although the characters were awesome and I really appreciated the diversity, I found there was a lack of depth. They just felt very YA written by someone who’s only seen kids in movies.
Score: 0.5
There were a lot of great wisecracks and gags. I really liked the play on words with the word Mummy.
Score: 1
Excellent makeup and good acting combined with some genre savvy camera angles make this a fun movie to watch. It uses the practical effects well and limits the cheesy digital effects.
The music was okay, but I would have liked to hear more of Thriii’s “Calling all Monsters”.
Score: 0.5
This was a nice throwback to the kids monster movies of my youth. I liked the nod to Zombies (the Disney channel movie series) with the costumes in the background, and the awesome dancing. The whole family liked it and now the kids are pretending to be mummies and zombies, so yay?
If I have one gripe… Honey doesn’t work that way. Also it felt a little disjointed at times and I had a hard time not checking my phone,, which isn’t a good thing.
Score: 0.5
A fun if shallow Halloween movie. It has some great scenes and fun moments.
Final Score: 3 stars out of 5
How This Works – Read Other Reviews
Hello Cinephiles,
Today we’re talking about the 2022 film Secret Headquarters.
A very simple and effecient story that uses everything that it sets up. It’s not groundbreaking writing but it is solid and well thought out.
Score: 1
An impressive young cast that balances comedy, action, and drama extremely well. I really enjoyed the evolution of the soldier. I liked the pseudo villain being a rich dude with too much greed. Although the Kill a Minion to show I’m a Jerk trope was a little overdone.
Score: 0.5
The movie leaned heavily into comedy and has a lot of great lines. The comedy was balanced well with beleivability.
Score: 1
The special effects were amazing and the locations suitibly YA. I found the camera work excellent and it emullated other hero movies excellently.
The music was significantly better than I had expected.
Score: 1
Despite a few awkward moments the movie is fun from start to finish. Everyone in the family loved it and the kids forgot to ask for snacks.
Score: 1
A light YA movie that meshes the humour of 80’s kids movies with the action and special effects of modern superhero films. A lot of fun with some amazing kid actors.
Final Score: 4.5 Stars out of 5
Hello my Imaginary Friends,
It’s been an exciting six months and by that, I mean blarg. I still find it disturbing how much of the world is convinced the pandemic is over. Hopefully soon, we’ll see a vaccine for infants approved in Canada. Then I will feel much better, but I still am going to continue to be careful. It will be a while before I give up my mask.
Anyway, let’s see how I’m doing with my resolutions!
The hardest part about this year’s serial story is not writing ahead. Currently, as of this writing, dealing with carpal tunnel, that might not be a problem. Read from the beginning of the Aetherverse.
This went famously (haha). I loved writing this story and I’m glad that it’s now vacated that part of my brain that it’s been occupying for the past decade. Unfortunately, a spin-off series has decided to move in.
Pending health, I have no idea how this is going to go. Hopefully I’ll be able to finish it, but if not, I’m not going to risk injuring myself worse over it.
Unlike Copper Tarnish, this book starts from scratch/random jot notes, and won’t need heavy line-editing before I start, so I should be able to do this one with dictation software. I hope.
I created an entire ridiculously complex module for mixing components that was just way too much. So, I remade it in a simpler way and it seems to be working really well. I’m continuing to tweak and add more monsters as I go. Mostly, I’m just having fun with the system and my players.
You may be sensing a theme, but depending on health issues, we may be dropping to four days a week, but not yet, and I don’t know. So we’ll see.
So far, so good. I might need to create a template to copy-paste to make my life easier.
Ottawa ComicCon is happening in September. This one will depend on how my health is. It’s not the highest priority; that will be roasting and packing ComicCon levels of coffee.
Other than books that I’ve written or that Jen wrote, I’m a little behind on this. As in, halfway through the first book. But for some reason, I forsee having more chances to read (if Jen will let me).
Honestly, I have no idea how I’m doing on this one. I do know that I’m a terrible injured/sick person. Feeling like I’m letting people down makes me grumpy.
I have developed tools to help me de-stress. Playing ukulele, reading, writing, playing video games, and cooking. The only one of those that I can currently do without hurting myself is reading. Let’s hope this dictation software works and doesn’t add to the stress.
My work is also irrationally pushing a return to the office and that’s still causing lots of stress with an unvaccinated toddler. HURRY THE F UP, HEALTH CANADA!
I was doing well with this. I even memorized the Spider-man theme on the bass and wrote a song for the ukulele. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to do this for a while.
The good news, I haven’t utterly failed at anything yet and I have a few Successes.
I’m going to take that as a positive and just do what I can for the rest of the year.
How are your resolutions going?
Éric
Hello My Imaginary Friends,
Last night, between Pegasus waking up several times (it’s been a while since he’s done that), insomnia, stress dream, and a couple of days of really bad allergies; I didn’t sleep well.
I’m a little grumpy today. Mumble mumble mumble. So I apologize for today’s disjointed post and possible incoherence.
Jen and I’s newest work in progess is going well. I love being able to plan and geek out about stuff with her as we write. Even if it means we don’t get to bed at anything related to a reasonable hour. I’m planning on writing a song for it and I’m terrified I’ll screw it up.
I read up on the plot, deaths, and story of the new Doctor Strange movie and I have to say it sounds pretty tedious. I loved WandaVision and from what I’ve read, it undoes a lot of the character progression of Wanda and falls into the “hysterical woman” trope that Marvel comics love so much. It’s a good thing Marvel releases so many movies because there are more and more of them that I don’t like.
I’m just waiting for a large bag of dirt that comes in on Friday and I’ll be able to plant my garden. Every year I say I won’t garden, and every year I do. I love the idea of growing my own food. Unfortunately, I only have a green thumb with the help of a marker.
Jen and I are prepping two manuscripts for submission and it’s a little stressful, but fun. Both are related to Assassins! Accidental Matchmakers (Pre-orders now open at your local bookstores for September 15th) and that makes it awkward for our publisher. They have to judge the quality, but also have to decide if it’s financially worth publishing a sequel and story collection without having any sales data. You could make their decision easier by pre-ordering it. 🙂
I’m not good at this whole publicity thing. I need to improve my ability to get people interested about my books. They are awesome, but if you don’t read them, how do you know you want to read them? Jen has all sorts of exciting ideas that are great.
I think I’ve rambled enough for today.
Stay safe and be kind,
Éric
Dear Readers,
Here’s a conversation my kids had yesterday. Reminder that Pegasus is two and Dragon is five.
Pegasus: I want a cupcake.
Me: *Clears throat agressively*
Dragon: What’s the magic key?
Pegasus: Magic key?
Me: She means say please.
Pegasus: Please can I have the magic key?
Me: No, say please for the cupcake.
Pegasus: Please for cupcake. *I give him a cupcake* Where’s magic key?
Me: She meant magic word, which is please.
Dragon: The magic key is please.
Pegasus: Can I have magic key please?
Me: There is no key, it’s a word.
Pegasus: What’s magic word?
Me: Please.
Pegasus: *Confused* Can I have magic key please?
Dragon: *Mimes handing him a key* Here you go.
Pegasus: Yay! Magic key!
Me: *Throws hands in the air* Eat your cupcake please.
Some days I feel like an extra in Who’s on First.
Hope that made you smile.
Stay safe and be kind,
Éric
Hello My imaginary Friends,
For the past 5 years, I’ve been creating books that you can’t read.
Don’t worry, they’re not fiction or that semi-autobiographical Dinosaur Road Trip. (I should work on that again… maybe.)
Every year I make photobooks of the Dragon and now of Pegasus.
It feels extra, but we take roughly 2500 photos of the kids a year and we rarely go look at the digital albums. It’s nice to go pull out the books. It’s like the old photo albums, but without the fading.
So every year I make a copy of the pictures and sort through them and eliminate them until I have 200-250 for each kid and I create a photobook through Costco. It takes a long time. Actually, every year I swear I’ll start earlier or maybe just let a software do it for me, but I can’t do that.
So I’m proud to say that my first two books of the year are printed and published. Yay!
Now to write a story that has been percolating for over 13 years. It started as a dream that Jen had and I came up with a basic plot. Over the years it’s changed a lot, but now it’s time to get it written, and since it was Jen’s dream, she’s going to help me.
We’ve planned and plotted and now I’m going to go write.
Stay safe and be kind,
Éric
Hello My Imaginary Friends,
This week has been tough but I managed to accomplish a lot and still took some time to rest. Heck, I even finished the book I’ve been reading.
Anyway, it’s late, so have some cute Dragon and Pegasus cuddling.
Stay safe and be kind,
Éric
Hello 2022! (Glances around nervously)
2021 was a surreal year, both because I finished writing 4 books and because it started to sink in that this whole pandemic is going to last longer than I expected.
Here’s to hoping 2022 is better.
My resolutions are not breakable promises, but goals that I hope to achieve.
It’s going to be my 9th year in a row doing this and I’m really excited for this year’s story. Get ready to see the beginning of the Aetherverse.
After over a decade of waiting, I’m finally going to write this one. Jen’s going to help me and I can’t wait. This will be a more complicated book for us than those we’ve written before because we don’t have an outline in advance.
I started this book in November 2016. It’s time to finish it and get the darned story out of my head.
This is super ambitious, but we managed it last year so I’m hoping.
I’m loving this system and I think it’s a few years (at the rate I’m going) before it’s ready to submit. I’d like to do a cleanup of the monster rules and maybe a reread of the spelling and grammar, but as long as I’m adding stuff, I’m good.
I’m going to do my best to keep our 5 day a week schedule. We’re in a nice little groove, so I think it’ll go okay. If things change, I’ll let you know.
I’ve managed it two years now and I think it’s feasible to do it again. People have told me they like the reviews, so I’ll continue.
In theory, Ottawa ComicCon is supposed to happen in September. I’m not sure what this or future variants will mean for events, but I need to get ready. I’d like to get these done and roast appropriately.
I failed miserably at this last year. I’ve lost my dedicated reading time and I need to find another. I love reading and I miss it.
Every year I get a little better and I’m trying really hard not to yell as much. Hopefully I can keep getting calmer and move more towards gentle parenting.
This will probably be a fail but I need to learn how to destress. I have minor depression and when I spiral I get very stressed, defensive, and insecure. It’s not fun and I need to learn when it happens and treat it like a health issue instead of noticing after I get snippy with my wife.
Beyond that, I also don’t react well physically when I get stressed and I need to learn how to destress for my health.
I got a beautiful Kala U-bass for Christmas and need to use it. I’m hoping for daily, but that won’t happen. I love making pretty noises and I know it helps me destress.
So after 4 years of slowly getting worse at my resolutions, I have made this ambitious list. Let’s hope I can do it and no matter what, I know I’ll have something to show at the end.
I wish for you all you need to complete your resolutions.
Stay safe and be kind,
Éric
Hello Readers,
I promised a picture of me and the kids in formal wear, so here it is.
Best wishes from our family to yours in the coming year. I hope this year is wonderful for you and for the world.
Éric
