Posts tagged with “fiction”
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Over Weight, Abused, Lonely Nobody of a Girl Becomes Spectacular: Muriel’s Wedding

Muriel Dreams of a Better Life and Waits for it to Happen

Muriel dreams of a wonderful life with a fantastic wedding and a Prince Charming. She thinks having this will change her life for her. Muriel gets the wedding and the Prince but discovers those things were just dreams and her reality can be so much better when she stops waiting for her dreams to happen and goes after life herself.

Muriel is a modern Cinderella who makes it all come out right, for herself. You can be proud of Muriel because she starts on the bottom and pulls herself up again, twice. The second time even better than the first.

Muriel is a nobody girl living in Porpoise Spit, Australia. She doesn’t have a job, and spends most of her time listening to ABBA music in her room, dreaming of the life she wants. Her life has no direction, her Father makes her feel like nothing. All Muriel wants is a wedding. Her wedding.

She steals money from her Father and takes a tropical vacation, befriends Rhonda and returns home. But she doesn’t stay there. Rather than face her Father about the missing money Muriel strikes out on her own. She works in a video store and meets Tim. Rhonda is there too. You would think it would all just go along from there – but Muriel marries rich!

Muriel Gets her Dream Wedding

When Muriel does get her wedding and changes her life she discovers the life she thought she wanted so much is nothing like the life she could have on her own. She leaves her husband, an arranged marriage with a South African soccer player, finds her friend Rhonda (who is now wheel chair bound and living with her Mother back in Porpoise Spit) and together they leave for parts unknown – somewhere not Porpoise Spit, Australia.

One of the great things about this movie are the stories of the secondary characters. Muriel’s Mother (Betty) has the saddest story. Muriel’s Mother mistakenly wears shoes she did not pay for out of the shopping mall. She is arrested. The family attacks her, especially Muriel’s Father who is verbally abusive to everyone in the family and has a mistress on the side (which Betty chooses not to know). Betty, abused by all and even snubbed by Muriel at a time when she tried to connect with her, has an emotional breakdown and commits suicide.

The scene where the laundry is in rags and still left hanging on the drying rack outside – after Betty has died is one which sticks in my mind. This is Muriel’s visit home after the funeral. She realizes the life her Mother led, a quiet desperate and sad life. This is where Muriel changes her own life, again, and frees herself from her past and all those old dreams.

Muriel Doesn’t Make Changing your Life Look Easy but She Shows it can be Done

It is a wonderful movie. Without seeing it for yourself you can’t know how great it is and have that awesome feeling at the end as Muriel takes the taxi out of Porpoise Spit, Australia finally leaving her old sad life behind.

I like seeing “Muriel” in movies since 1994 when Muriel’s Wedding was made.. Of course, the actress (Toni Collette) went on to make more movies but she will always be Muriel in my mind. Muriel is too wonderful to ever be forgotten. Snort (you just have to watch the movie).

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The Great Campiness of the Fearless Vampire Killers

I've never understood the draw of scary movies. I can read about scary things, frightening and horror books are interesting when they have a real story behind them. There are very awful, frightening and horrifying things in the world. I guess having experienced my own personal, real horror, I don't want to see it illustrated with extra violence, blood and aggression in moving pictures. Besides, the books rely on your own imagination so you can use your own inner censor (or just skip a few paragraphs, pages or chapters even). When you watch a horror movie the best you can do is close your eyes and hum while you view someone's nightmare.

Is Horror like Culture Shock for you?

So, I don't enjoy horror on the screen. I did watch Fearless Vampire Killers on television last year, however. I liked the campy 70's feel to it. I liked the cleverly stupid humour. I liked that it was intended as a satire. So, even though there were some awful moments which I did cringe through, it was easier to consider them as part of the satire than to think of them as something more.

One odd thing about the movie was the sexuality. In these days, about 40 years later so much has changed. Yet this movie is pretty open about sexual relationships, specifically homosexuality. Watching it, I wondered if this is more open and somewhat perverted than would be accepted in our media/ movies now.

I loved the historical costumes and the costumes in general from Fearless Vampire Killers. One thing I do enjoy about vampire movies and TV shows are the costumes, the clothes and even the home style too when it's more than just bland background. Especially nice is the scene where they dance in their old fashioned ball gowns, suits, wigs and all. The castle is shown well too in several scenes. The rooftop still stand out in my memories of the movie.

Also, the surprise ending was pulled off well, even though I was expecting it. I was still surprised.

What do you think of horror movies? Do you watch the satires or must it be all out gore and dripping blood (no funny stuff) to please you?

Would rather read a book than see the movie... try one of these paranormal writers - my personal picks and among my favourites.

Betsy, Queen of the Vampires is the main character. MaryJanice Davidson is credited as the first to write paranormal fiction with humour. She is very prolific as a writer. It is easy to wind up spending the night reading in bed and realizing you have read through the night just because you could not find a place you wanted to stop reading and put down the book.

Gerry Bartlett writes about a plus sized vampire babe, Glory. I started reading the series just for that reason. But, the story drew me in and I have read all but the latest two. It is a shame the books don't come out in standard paperback here. I end up waiting to find them in secondhand bookstores. Which suits me fine but does mean there is a lot of waiting involved.

Kimberly Raye is no longer writing this series. A huge shame because I loved the characters in her books. The heroine, Lil could be a fashionable shoe diva type (which I am not) but she was so much more and she did not let her shoes keep her from adventure, even if it meant getting dirty. The male characters are not just cardboard cut outs either. I liked that Lil's men could be grumpy, could even be jerks but still feel like a guy you wanted to notice you, in a good way.

These are three paranormal writers who write about vampires with humour, fun and the occasional blood letting for those who must have some element of the traditional horror in their vampire tales. I am involved in reading each of the series of books below. However, Kimberley Raye's Dead End Dating series ran aground and it doesn't seem to be continuing.

I would be glad to have suggestions for more paranormal books with humour in the comments. There are a few others I have read but these are my favourites, so far.

I strongly recommend Kim Harrison too, especially if you love adventure more than satire or humour.

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Have you Read Frankenstein?

I'm reading Frankenstein.

I picked an edition which includes a lot of extras, mostly about Mary Shelley, the author and her life. Did you know her Mother wrote a classic book about women and women's rights long before it became a popular issue? Mary was a liberated woman herself. Yet, these ideals must have been given to her from her Father (William Godwin) because she never met her Mother. Mary Wollstonecraft died just after giving birth to her daughter. How did that form Mary and what did it add to her story about creating life, death and regret?

I picked Frankenstein as my classic fiction book to read this year because I do find the theory of reanimating life, animals able to grow back body parts and cloning interesting. Modern science is doing the same sort of research still. I don't think we really do hear about all that goes on in various laboratories around the world. Likely, there are still horror stories being written in the name of science (fame and fortune too).

Did you Know Frankenstein Will be 200 Years Old in 2018?

Frankenstein, the book, is almost 200 years old. The original story was published in 1818, a third edition came out in 1831. This was the final edition, with all her rewrites and additions to the story.

As I read Frankenstein, I am enjoying a glimpse of the past and the old style of writing. It really is more like prose, lines of poetry, than our style of plainer writing these days. I wonder if people also spoke that way or was the writing just that bit more formal.

My nephew, Zack, read Frankenstein for school and said he hated it. I think he just didn't like the style of writing, the prose which goes on and on about scenery and emotions rather than pressing on to move the story ahead or dwell on gruesome details. We are used to such a different way of telling a story these days - this does make it harder to read a book written 200 years ago.

Still I am enjoying the read, the adventure back in history and the idea of recreating life from something dead and how that could work out if I were to write my own story of Frankenstein.

Frankenstein: Read it or Watch it

In the later editions of Mary Shelley's book publishers had her revise the story, make it less shocking for people of the day. You can still find copies of the book, the original story from 1818. However, in the edition I'm reading the actual process of creating the monster is not written about in anything near to the detail which it has been given in the Frankenstein movies.

Also, it's interesting that the books consider the monster to be named Frankenstein. If people refer to Frankenstein they usually mean the monster created by Victor Frankenstein. Actually, in the mind of Victor Frankenstein himself he thinks he is the monster for creating this creature, or daemon has he refers to it more than once in the book.

Frankenstein in Film 1910 and Onwards.

From 1910 to the current I, Frankenstein movie trailer, you can find many versions of Frankenstein to watch. But, read the book at some point. It's the original and the inspiration for all the versions of Frankenstein which have come along since Mary Shelley published her story.

Life Without Soul was the second movie made from Frankenstein but there are no known copies of it surviving.

There had been a theatre production in 1826.

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Fairy Tales and Sub Genres

This is a great list. I haven't heard of all of these, most of them, but not all. As a reader do you like to pin down your style of fiction or does it matter more when you are writing it?

  • Cyberpunk
  • Dystopian
  • Erotica
  • Spy Thriller
  • Southern Gothic
  • Satire
  • Urban Fantasy
  • Space Horror
  • Space Opera
  • Young Adult Contemporary
  • "Grimdark" Fantasy
  • Psychological Horror
  • Hard Sci-Fi
  • Slasher Film
  • Ecothriller
  • Sword & Sorcery
  • Lovecraftian
  • Zombie Apocalypse
  • Superhero
  • Detective

via Flash Fiction Challenge: Fairy Tales, Remixed « terribleminds: chuck wendig.

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Paranormal and Urban Fantasy Authors I Have Liked

This post is a place to share the books and authors I really have enjoyed. I follow most of these writers on Twitter as well. I like to see how their writing routine works - when they're actually writing and not just talking to hopeful writers. I also hear about what they are working on and what's coming next in the series. Plus, they announce contests on Twitter and their websites too.

My favourite books in the paranormal/ urban fantasy genre have humour along with vampires, dragons, werewolves, witches, ghosts, and all the rest. The humour brings a story and especially a character, to life for me. Without humour they seem kind of flat on the page. Even a villain can have a wicked sense of humour.

I don't like a lot of sex either. It just gets boring pretty fast. I write my own erotica and romance so it could be I'm just taking it for granted or smothered in the stuff when it comes to reading it. When it comes to sex in books I usually skip it. If a book has a lot of sex scenes and I'm turning a page, then another page and still another couple of pages after that, I lose interest. Too much mucking around with sex and the action and the storyline suffer for it.

The Paranormal and Urban Fantasy Writers I have Liked (So Far)

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