Mind Sieve 01/13/23

News/Musings	StoryOrigin Swap 1
Mini Movie/Show Reviews	Movie/TV Show Previews
StoryOrigin Swap 2	Just for Fun!
Putting the Science in Science Fiction Group Promo	New Year’s Fiction Group Promo
Strong Women – Strange Worlds

Greetings!

A shiny new year is here! Though so far, all I’ve seen is chaos, chaos, chaos! (And spending, spending, spending!) Eek! 😝

News/Musings

Minerva a german shepherd mix dog

Meet the newest member of the Oliver family. Her name is Minerva. She’s a German Shepherd mix and is just a little over one-year-old. She’s been the major source of the chaos that has ensued in these early days of 2023.

She is tall, smart, and has way too much energy. (My daughter was supposed to be looking at small dogs, yet her hubby fell in love with this giant!) She can reach the counters and has run off with all manner of things, including serving tongs and a butcher knife!

For some crazy reason, we thought our cats, who had been pals/tolerant of Serenity, our large American Bulldog, wouldn’t have super issues with Minerva. Sure, we expected an adjustment period, but not what we actually got! Boy, our big bully cat, went into sheer terror mode. He’s run away from home several times. The kids keep trying to introduce them to get him used to her, but it’s going to be a long battle. Whee!

Mellow, our drama queen, who I expected the most trouble from, has been the one taking things more in stride. She’s more than happy to take a swat at Minerva when she invades her space. She’s climbing from place to place though, getting on the floor as little as possible.

New pets mean new expenditures. But we also realized our fence needed to be replaced as Minerva found ways to get past loose slats! (Did I mention she’s a force of chaos?) After we shelled out for that, we found we have a pipe leak! (That’s not on her, but the timing was atrocious!)

This type of thing comes in threes. Not looking forward to what the third $$ eater will be. Eek! 😫

Sleep and energy have been in short supply around here. 🤣 (Remind me to tell you about the Writers’ Group Zoom Meeting debacle if you didn’t see it on FB.) 😱

How have your first weeks into 2023 been? Do tell!

Writing news

My red-headed stepchild of a novel is finally DONE! I reached the bittersweet point of getting to write ‘The End!’ Woot! The Secret Humankind, an urban fantasy thriller, is complete! I wasn’t sure I’d ever get there. (I had shunted it to the side for at least two other books.)

You can see that final bit in the image below. Now I just need to get the final chapters to the crit group, make the fixes, and send it off to the editor!

Last page of the WIP The Secret Humankind

I’m trying to be more organized for 2023 and I am shifting/compiling the order to get books written, polished, get the blurb, the cover, the editor edits, setup pre-orders, etc. Should be eye-opening to see what works and what doesn’t. 😎

After procrastinating about this for so long, I finally knuckled down and finished a new Book Trailer for Black Jade! I’d used someone from Fiverr to make the original, but with the new covers in 2022 and the new blurb for 2023, it was time to do a new one. 😊

Funky Trivia Time!

Trivia/Research Time! I’ve started poking around to work out what I will be doing for Book 3 of the Daiyu Wu Mysteries.

I ran across some weird factoids about the 1930 US census! It was the first time in the 20th Century that they changed racial classifications from what had been used previously. Most prevalent was the removal of the ‘mulatto’ classification (a person with one White and one Black parent). Regardless of how much White or Black ancestry the particular person had or how light or dark their skin was, they were to be marked down as Black. The same went for any other mixed White bloodlines, (for example White and American Indian), they were to automatically default to the non-White race. Also, for the first and only time, ‘Mexican’ was listed as a separate race. Scary/weird stuff, ya’ll!

Extra stuff I’ve shoved in here:

1) StoryOrigin Swap (Review Copy)

2) StoryOrigin Swap (Freebie!)

3) Putting the Science in Science Fiction Group Promo

4) New Year’s Fiction Group Promo

5) Strong Women Strange Worlds Rapid Fire Reading

More deets on all of these in their sections. 😊

StoryOrigin Swap 1 (Review Copy)

Woman of the Stone

What cost will she pay to keep her secret?

Serious and haunted, Em protects orphans in her castle. Will the marauding, enemy clan who stole her virtue defeat her again? Or will the damage they’ve already done to her life cause her death at the gallows for an atrocity she didn’t commit? When she can no longer run in the dark, she must face her fear in the light of day.

S.V. Farnsworth’s novels gently address healing after a sexual assault.

Book 2 in the series is Monarch in the Flames.
Book 3 is coming soon in 2023.

Civilized Big Town.

Mini Movie/TV Reviews 🎥

★ – Why did I go see this? Why?!

★★ – Showed promise but on execution, crashed

★★★ – Enjoyable, just don’t look under the hood too closely

★★★★ – A great film, totally worth seeing!

★★★★★ – 🤯 Too fabulous for words!

Willow TV Series

When we first heard they were doing a TV series based on the world of the movie Willow, hubby and I were quite pumped about it. However, though the special effects and the nostalgia factor are high, we could not watch more than four episodes or so. Several of the characters were not likable, and a lot of the stories and situations were heavily contrived, making most of the characters seem to be total morons. 😭 Watch at your own risk!

Rating: ★★ out of 5 (Hubby’s Rating: Better on Cable)

Puss in Boots: Last Wish

Last Wish was a ton of fun! They make fun of everything! Lots of shameless in-jokes on any and all fairy tale stories and icons. It also has some serious and deep themes—love, death, friendship, family, and trust. What they did with Goldilocks and the three bears was a riot. Jack Horner and the Ethical Bug (AKA Jiminy Cricket) were hilarious!

Rating: ★★★★ out of 5 (Hubby’s Rating: Worth Full Price of Admission!)

So Help Me Todd (TV Series)

We’ve been having a lot of fun watching “So Help Me Todd” – a mom and son duo, dysfunctional family drama, mystery, and more. Margaret is a well-established lawyer who has fought for every inch of her career but is also a bit of a control freak at home. Suddenly, her husband disappears without a word—he’s run off to Greenland to get away from her and find himself. She hires her son, Todd, to help the firm with investigations, as his PI license was revoked when he became the fall guy for his corrupt girlfriend. Both are dealing with emotional damage, and while they seem as opposite as oil and water, they are more alike than either will ever admit. Throw in an ex-girlfriend, family secrets, and other oddities, and you end up with a quirky show that’s a lot of fun. They also dole out bits of info in each episode that build into later revelations of hidden/past/current family drama. The cases and side characters are a lot of fun as well.

Rating: ★★★★ out of 5 (Hubby’s Rating: Worth Full Price of Admission!)

Will Trent

We’ve only seen a couple of episodes of this one, but so far we’re hooked. How Will ends up with Becky (the dog) is rather hilarious. Currently, persona non grata with the Atlanta Police Department and the Atlanta Bureau of Investigations for getting a bunch of corrupt people ousted, he’s still trying to do his job while ignoring the animosity. He always wears a 3 piece suit and takes notes on a recording device—both things which he uses to hide things about himself. He is incredibly observant, which serves him well in his job. Lots of dark undercurrents. I definitely recommend checking it out.

Rating: ★★★★ out of 5 (Hubby’s Rating: Worth Full Price of Admission!)

Movie/TV Previews 🎥

Renfield Official Trailer – Modern day and looks to be a comedy. Looks like a lot of craziness shall ensue!

Jung_E Trailer (Netflix) – an SF action flick. Looks pretty cool!

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania Trailer – looking forward to it! Woot!

StoryOrigin Swap 2 (Freebie)

A Meeting of Terrors

The dead of Exmoor don’t always whisper, sometimes they scream!

After ten months of being alone on his moor, Lorne Turner receives a panicked call.

He needs to rescue some teenagers from an act of stupidity. Nice and simple. Fast rope down to a cave entrance, see if they are still alive, and get them out. Piece of carrot cake for an ex-operator.

When Ella Morgan is also ‘roped’ into helping, Lorne begins to understand the importance of friendship outside the military. The pair descend into the cave complex and that’s when Lorne realises the dead don’t always whisper.

Sometimes the dead scream!