Film Review: An Unexpected Journey, Part 1

Now that we've finished with the Lord of the Rings films, I think it's time to move back in time for Peter Jackson's second venture into Middle-earth. We're watching the Extended Edition of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. I've broken it up into five parts and then we'll move onto The Desolation of Smaug (hopefully Santa will bring me the final film in the trilogy so I can go onto that afterwards).

In this section Bilbo will take us back in time sixty years to a time where his peaceful existence in the Shire was shattered by the arrival of a familiar old wizard and a gang of Dwarves.

1. Are you sitting comfortably? Time to begin. I remember the thrill of seeing this in the cinema. In 3D. Like I was looking through a window into Middle-earth.

2. I love that it's Ian Holm who opens the film. So perfect. It links it in nicely for the people who fell in love with the Lord of the Rings films.

3. It also sounds as though this is Bilbo coming clean with Frodo, rather than the 'original' story about the Ring being a birthday present.

4. Dale looks like a cool place to live. Kind of like a nicer version of Bree what with the multicultural thing they have going on there.

5. Don't really fancy Erebor, personally. I'm not good with heights and they don't have nearly enough handrails for my liking.

6. I like that the Dwarves mining helmets are basically helmets with a candle stuck on the side. Not the safest thing to wear in a mine.

7. That Dwarf is all 'you can't have the shinies, neh neh neh neh neh'.

8. Moral of this story: Don't be greedy or a dragon will get you.

9. When I first saw this in the cinema I saw that dragon kite and my immediate thought was 'oh no, the dragon doesn't look very good'.

10. It wasn't until I watched the commentary that I realised you never really see the dragon at this bit. You see little glimpses but never the whole thing. It's quite clever.

11. And there's the Peter Jackson cameo. A tricky one because he's barely recognisable in his Dwarf-gear.

12. "And he never forgave. And he never forgot." Love it.

13. And there's Katie Jackson. How she's changed since the last Hobbit party she attended.

14. I love baby Bilbo. It's such a simple scene but it explains Gandalf's comment about Bilbo being an adventurer in his youth.

15. "In a hole in the ground there lived a Hobbit..." So glad they got that line in.

16. And there's Frodo. Looking a little bit older since the last time we saw him.

17. In fact, a lot older since the last time I saw him, since last week I watch Back To The Future II and he was just an ickle thing in that.

18. I'd love to watch all of these films with the scenes edited into order, because there's some nice Fellowship of the Ring foreshadowing here.

19. I still say that sign looks like it says 'No admittance except on farty business'.

20. And Frodo's off to the beginning of The Fellowship of the Ring. We'll stick with Bilbo for an Unexpected Journey.

21. Clever transition into the past, no?

22. Martin Freeman is an awesome Bilbo.

23. And yay for Gandalf quoting lines exactly as they are in the book. Ever since the first Lord of the Rings film, I've imagined Ian McKellen when I've read Gandalf's bits in the book.

24. Which reminds me, I really must squeeze in a Hobbit reread before the end of the year.

25. Was selling buttons door-to-door ever really a thing? Did they have much cause for that in the Shire?

26. I like that Gandalf seems to have picked Bilbo because he used to want adventure, then decides to use him anyway to spite him. Gandalf's so sneaky.

27. Creepy wizard eye! That made me jump in the cinema. I don't know what I was expecting. A black rider perhaps?

28. I love this added scene as well. Anything to see a little more of the Shire. I want to go there so much.

29. I like to think that the Hobbit guy who looks a little like Sam, bouncing the small child on his knee is Hamfast Gamgee, and the small Hobbit-child will grow up to be Sam or one of his brothers.

30. There's the Sackville-Bagginses!

31. Oh I love Dwalin. In fact, I love all of this. It's not the way I imagine it in the book, but I think it's very well done. I mean, they have a lot of characters to introduce in a very short space of time!

32. Balin is one of my favourite characters in this trilogy which makes the Moria scene in The Fellowship of the Ring so much sadder now.

33. "It's riddled with mould." Hehe.

34. "I am sorry." "Apology accepted." I just love all of this bit.

35. I feel I should apologise now. I do have rather a crush on Kili. Also Thorin (when he's not ebil and gold-obsessed). I'll try not to drool too much.

36. Isn't Bilbo's dressing gown gorgeous? I only ever wear a dressing gown for hospital stuff but I feel a strange need for patchwork dressing gown.

37. It's very clever how they made all the Dwarves unique in their own well, with their hair styles, beards and accessories (or should that be axe-cessories in the case of Bifur?) It was something that I worried about considering in the book most of the Dwarves are fairly interchangeable.

38. If you think about it, the Dwarves are really doing Bilbo a favour. He's about to go away for a year on an adventure and they didn't want all his food to go off.

39. Anyone notice how Ori manages to jump from one end of the table to the other between scenes? He's sitting next to Kili one second and then when he burps he's somewhere else.

40. I love that they included this song! I know all the words!

41. I do feel tempted to have a go at doing this whenever I help wash up. Don't think it would end well.

Looks like someone else is about to join the party. Next week we'll get our introduction to Thorin, set out on this unexpected journey and come up against our first stumbling block.

Chapter-by-Chapter: New Moon, Chapter 3 (Part 2)

I started this chapter last week but it was going on forever so I decided to chop it in half. Small mercies, at least it was shorter than the actual chapter in New Moon.

In the first part of this chapter very little happened, other than Bella and Edward having an obvious distance growing between them. Oh, and at one point Bella did play with the camera her dad got her and started to think about filling in the scrapbook she got from her mum.

So let's get on with Chapter Three: The End.

What Happens?

Edward announces that he and Bella must talk. It's one of those talks. After he leaves Bella just wanders around in the forest until she is found. Oh and Edward has sort of deleted himself from her life.

Thoughts as I read:

Are you enjoying this chapter? I'm still waiting for it to start. I can't get over how dull it is. In short, Edward is distant and Bella is depressed about it. This kind of reminds me of how I write during NaNo when I know there's a scene I want to get to but don't know just how to get there so I keep writing and writing stuff to keep the words coming until I figure out a way to tie it all together.

At last we reach a point, after twelve pages no less, when Edward and Bella agree to talk. Bella quickly figures out that this is a talk with a capital T. After all those pages without anything happening, what comes next happens very quickly. Edward announces he's leaving. I can't help but cheer a little when I read this.

Edward is basically breaking up with Bella. He and his family are going and she can't go with him. I'm guessing they're all going to Denali then. She's really desperate for him not to go, but I can't help but read this as Edward trying to gently dump the girl, whilst grasping the opportunity to escape with both hands.

"Bella, I don't want you to come with me." He spoke the words slowly and precisely, his cold eyes on my face, watching as I absorbed what he was really saying.

He even tells her that he doesn't want her. She takes it surprisingly well. Meanwhile Edward's still telling her that he wants to just be who he is, rather than trying to be something he's not. This is a very good thing to do. Stop pretending to be someone else. Be yourself. Tell Bella what you really think of her and then get out of town.

Edward's still being very nice to her through all this. If you really wanted to break up with her properly, you should tell her exactly what you think of her. She definitely wouldn't follow you then, nor would she do whatever 'reckless' thing you're thinking she might try. All the same, he does promise never to see her again. Well, I know that's one promise he's not going to keep. Oh Edward, you just keep on letting me down!

I am slightly sad about the fact that Edward promises Bella won't see Alice again either, since they're all going away. Although I know they're going to come back again, I still think Alice is the most interesting character in these books and we don't see nearly enough of her. Even if she does have some weird thing going on with Charlie.

He gives her a kiss goodbye and then he's gone. Yay!

Bella does not share my enthusiasm. If only we could get rid of her as well, this book would be perfect.

I walked and walked. Time made no sense as I pushed slowly through the thick undergrowth. It was hours passing, but also only seconds. Maybe it felt like time had frozen because the forest looked the same no matter how far I went. I started to worry that I was traveling in a circle, a very small circle at that, but I kept going. I stumbled often, and, as it grew darker and darker, I fell often, too.

She'd better hope that the hospital gets a new doctor soon because it sounds like Bella's going to need one.

We get the book title here as well. It's dark because it's a 'new moon'. It's some sort of subtle message that, isn't it. This is the dawning of a new phase in Bella's life, right?

She carries on lying out in the rain in the forest for hours, despite someone calling for her. Eventually some guy called Sam Uley finds her. There's been some search party out for her and we've still got another ten pages before this chapter ends! It's never ending!

Charlie takes over from Sam and gets Bella home. For some reason Charlie has trouble supporting Bella. I don't know why this bothers me, but it does. I guess it's because I'm so used to the Cullen Clan picking her up and carrying her around without any trouble. Sam seems to know something about the Cullens that no one else does because when he found her he asked 'Have you been hurt?' something that Bella doesn't catch on to until the doctor asks 'Are you hurt?' It's a subtle difference that suggests Sam knows about his vampire neighbours. Is Sam a werewolf as well? It would explain the snuffling sound Bella heard when she woke up.

It appears Sam probably is since Bella mentions the men who were helping to look for her were from the Quileute Indian reservation. Are all the people from there werewolves or just some of them? There are other people who were involved in the search as well, including the fathers of some of Bella's friends. Great way to make sure that everyone knows about your break up. Bella fobs them all off by telling them she got lost in the forest.

The news about the Cullens leaving has already spread. Apparently Carlisle got some fantastic offer and they took off immediately. I get the impression that Charlie has figured out just how Bella come to be wandering the woods at night. She snoozes while Charlie fields phone calls that are obviously from people who want to check up on how she's doing, until one of them isn't.

There's a fire some place. I was expecting it to be the Cullens burning their house down or something but instead it's nowhere near as dramatic. The kids at the reservation are lighting bonfires to celebrate the departure of the vampires. The conversation then turns to how Charlie knew where to look. Apparently Bella left a note for him. Interesting considering she never actually wrote one so Edward obviously suspected that she was going to do something stupid.

I actually kind of like this last bit, Bella runs upstairs to her room, having realised that in order for Edward to have forged a note from her he must have been in the house. In her bedroom the CD he made for her is missing, as is the photo of him from the scrapbook. Just like he promised, it's like he was never there.

How profound.

And yet, I'm just wondering whether he took the stereo out of her truck.

Enchanted Forest: Compass

I've not got much in the way of knitting stuff to share at the moment, so I think I'll show off my crazy colouring in skills instead.

This was easily one of  my favourite pages so far to colour in. I'd looked at what other people had done with this on Johanna Basford's gallery and I very quickly started picturing what I wanted this to look like in my book. It's not turned out exactly the way I was imagining it, but it's pretty close.

I decided that I wanted the plants around the compass to represent the changing seasons. So on the right side is autumn then winter, and then the left side is spring and summer. Spring also sees a cameo from the Very Hungry Caterpillar.

I wasn't sure about colouring in the inside of the compass, but in the end I just went with it. I coloured in a lot of the blue while I was on the phone to my Mum one evening. Looking at it now, I sort of wish I'd done all of the centre in the same colour, though I think it gives a sense of the different colours of the night sky which was the effect I was going for.

I'm slowly moving away from the green, red, orange and brown leaves as well. I've managed to use some blues in my winter section of the compass. I'm aiming to get some really fantastical coloured leaves before the end of this book!

Wordless Wednesday: Luck

Book 10 of Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecroft Shelley

Week six of the Reading Challenge I've been taking part in this year was a book written by an author under the age of thirty. I did consider picking a book off one of my bookshelves for this one, but I couldn't be bothered with the hassle of having to go through each book and calculating the age of the author when they wrote it. I did also briefly consider finding a book by an author who is still under thirty but quickly dismissed that as taking too long to figure out.

In the end I settled on Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, which I picked from a list of books written by authors under the age of thirty. It was one of the first ones that I found as a free download and it's also available on Project Gutenberg (therefore ticking the 'don't spend a fortune on books' box).

It's a pretty well known story, but for those of you who haven't read it, it tells the story of the titular scientist's monster which he creates. The story is complicated, following the narratives of three different characters; starting with Captain Walton writing to his sister about a man named Victor Frankenstein who his crew picked up on the journey; Frankenstein then takes over the story explain about his childhood and scientific pursuits prior to creating his monster, he goes on to explain how he created and rejected the monster; the monster also gets in on the narrating action, describing his time in the wild observing a poor family. All the monster really wants is to be wanted (and to get a girlfriend), unfortunately he's a little too murderous to get a happily ever after.

I am glad that I read this book, but I don't think it's ever going to be one of my favourites. I just couldn't get into it even though I kept on telling myself it was a classic and must have been classed as one for some reason. That said, it was a fairly quick ready (less than 130 pages). You could almost read it in one sitting; perfect for a Halloween reading session.

I was surprised at the fact that the monster didn't come into the story until about halfway through. In the past I've made the mistake of thinking the monster was named Frankenstein and assumed that it was going to be all about the creature. Instead a lot of the book is about Frankenstein before he even made the creature.

I also found it surprising at how articulate the monster became simply from spying on a family. He was able to tell all of his story perfectly for someone who had such limited human interaction. I know it's a really silly think to nitpick but it still really bugged me.

The different voices telling the story didn't really sound different to my ear, so I struggled to remember who it was that was speaking at any given time. I found them quite confusing and I think that was something else that pulled me out of the story and affected my enjoyment of it. I would've liked the voices to feel more individual. Perhaps if I was reading a print copy the different narration threads would have been formatted differently to make it appear more clear.

I also was expecting it to be a scary story and it wasn't really. It was more of a depressing story. I'm pleased I've read it, but I'm not going to go out of my way to revisit it again.

Book Review: Raining Embers by Jessica Dall (A 2012 NaNo Novel)

How's everyone faring during the second day of NaNo? Hopefully you're still buzzing with the thrill of your fast growing story (and maybe a fair amount of caffeine as well). If you're starting to flag, don't worry, focus on the end result. In twenty nine days you'll have a story. Don't believe me? Well, let's take a look at a book that's out tomorrow and was written during NaNoWriMo.

Raining Embers is the first book in the Order and Chaos series by Jessica Dall. It introduces us to Palmer Tash, a young acolyte who has a strange ability to hear things, and Brier, the daughter of a librarian who is often forced to take to her room with a mysterious illness. When they are both kidnapped one night they learn that they are not quite what they think they are; they are in fact reincarnations of Order and Chaos, and there are people who intend to use them for their own nefarious plot.

When Jessica asked me if I would be interested in reviewing Raining Embers I was thrilled. I love reading a good book and it's especially interesting to read one which was written during NaNo. I'm one of those NaNo participants who writes away diligently for a month, then puts the file away and rarely looks at it again (unless it's to provide some entertainment in the current NaNoisms thread on the forums). I'm in awe of those people who plug away at their work, tidy it up and turn it into something presentable.

There's something quite inspirational about it because you can't help but remember that your word vomit was probably quite similar at one point to all those published books out there. And it serves as a reminder that if you work at it, you can get your story published.

As you can see, this topic makes me rather philosophical.

I have to admit, I did kind of judge this book by its cover. I took a look at it and thought, 'that looks like something I'd pick up'. The premise intrigued me as well. I've read fantasy stories before where people suddenly find they have new powers but I don't remember reading one where the powers are due to characters being reincarnated deities.

I wasn't disappointed. I enjoyed the story and found it easy to read, despite the setting being different from what I was expecting. I'm used to fantasy stories which take place in a pseudo-medieval society, so the setting for this one being routed in Italy was a pleasant change, though it took me a while to get used to.

The characters were interesting. Palmer was easily my favourite. I felt sorry for him in the beginning, an orphan being pushed into a role he didn't particularly want. He's the classic reluctant hero. On the other hand Brier annoyed me at first, though I suspect that was intentional. She's a wealthy young woman used to a privileged lifestyle; once she was taken out of her comfort zone she really grew on me. There's a point in the book where she has to work in service to survive and her hands form callouses and at that point I realised I actually really liked her and felt for her.

I would've liked to know a little more about their mysterious illnesses/disabilities before they found out about their powers. Brier had to take to her rooms when 'the rot' struck her and I'm curious about how that affected the people around her. I also wanted to know more about the world in which the story was set because it felt as though it was very rich and well-planned but we only saw a tiny piece of it. I often complain about not seeing enough of a world, either because it's not visualised well enough, or because it is visualised well and I want more. In this case it was the latter; it was such a unique world that I wanted more.

I'm looking forward to the remaining books in the series being published so that I can find out more about what Brier and Palmer are going to have to deal with.

In the meantime, I spoke to Jessica about her experiences with NaNo.

1. You wrote this book during NaNo 2012, how did you come to do NaNo for the first time?

It was Sophomore year of college, and I was planning on going to a Halloween party with some friends. When I asked another friend if she wanted to come with us, she said something along the lines of, "Sure, but I'll need to leave by 11:30 to go to a NaNoKickoff party." That lead to my saying, "What's NaNo?" and being introduced to the craziness that is NaNoWriMo. I had written a novel in High School, and started a number of others since then, but I'd been jumping so much that I hadn't finished anything in a few years. I figured NaNo sounded like a great excuse to try to throw caution to the wind and actually finish something again, so November 1st I signed up, and I've been a die-hard WriMo ever since.

2. In your Acknowledgements you mention a trip to Italy for research, how did you prepare to write this book? Are you a 'planner' or a 'pantser'?

I'm definitely a pantser, as far as first drafts go. I might scribble down a few ideas/have some idea of where a story might go when I sit down, but I've always found over-planning kills that "rush" I get when writing. Instead, my motto(s) tend to be "write until it makes sense" and "you can fix it in editing." Of course, after I churned out a first draft during NaNo '12 I had a lot of work to do to make everything work. I was lucky enough to go on a family trip to Italy while I was working on edits, which allowed me to really soak in the architecture/history (I now have a hard drive full of pictures that I use for when I need to describe new places in the rest of the series). I also ended up doing a lot of research into the Renaissance in general. I was interested in getting out of the "medieval England" setting that's been so popular in historical fantasy, and all the change happening in the Renaissance has given me plenty to work with in my world building. 

3. You've continued to participate in, and win, NaNo each year since 2008, what is it that brings you back to NaNo year after year?

The first few years, I think I really needed the motivation to get things written and to seriously focus on my writing. Since then, it's entirely been the community. There are so many wonderful, encouraging people on the forums, and it is a great place to discusswriterly things when I start to feel bad about making non-writers (read: my husband 99% of the time) hear about plot and character ideas. 

4. Do you have any memorable stories to share from November the year your wrote Raining Embers? Any near disasters? Interesting NaNoisms? Moments when the plot went completely the opposite way to what you were expecting?

I mostly remember getting about halfway through and going "Oh no, I this book is going to be much too short" since I was reaching the point where they were going to end up in [the last place they are for the book] and I wasn't sure how much more story I really had after that point. The good thing, though, is that it was NaNo, so I figured I'd finish what I had and then go back and see what could be done. I ended up having way more than I planned, and that is now the last third or so of the book. The only other problem tied to NaNo was probably that I hadn't picked names for a lot of characters before started, and that meant that I ended up with two characters with rather similar names (one of the characters is still named Cerise and another, at one point, was named Cesare). When I got to editing, I realized just how terrible an idea that was since when trying to read you really had to focus on which was which (when they shared 5 out of 6 letters of their name in rather similar orders).

5. What are your top tips for someone participating in NaNo this year?

My top tip is probably just keep typing. NaNo is about not letting yourself second guess where your story is going or if you're writing "correctly." Editing fixes any multitude of writing sins, but it can't help an empty page. Other than that, I'd say take care of yourself. It's a lot to write 50,000 words in one month. If you find you aren't going to be able to do it because of a family emergency or some other issue, cut yourself some slack. You can always set your own goal, even if you don't hit the 50,000 mark, and really, any word count you have at the end of November is more than you started with, be that 5,000 words or 500,000. 


Raining Embers by Jessica Dall is released tomorrow by Red Adept Publishing.

Weekly Rundown: And so it begins...

Wherever possible I've started NaNo at midnight, staying up ridiculously late with copious amounts of sugar and a selection of films to keep me up (The Sound of Music and Tinkerbell among some of the recent years' viewing material). I've not done that this year, so I feel as though I'm behind, even though it's only just started and I'm not technically behind yet.

I'm used to having my target for the day down before bed, whereas today I had to hammer out as much as I could as soon as I woke up. It's a slightly different approach to before but I'm sure I'll make it work for me.

So far I'm at 1,768 words and I'm planning at least another hour of writing later on, possibly with a few word wars thrown in for good measure. I probably won't reach my 10,000 word target that I usually have on the first day of NaNo, but I'm okay with that. I'm going to take it slow and steady this year and help out the people I've signed up to mentor (you only get one first NaNo after all).

I've also not done as much concrete planning as I've done in the past. Normally I write pages and pages of notes before I get started, but this year I've not written down as much. I've been carrying around a lot of ideas with me and I have a whole bunch of scenes in my head.

Normally I'm a very linear writer but I have a funny feeling I might end up jumping around a bit from one scene to another. I'm using ywriter rather than Word which should help with that.

Aside from NaNo stuff, I've been doing most of my Christmas shopping this week. Last Sunday I went onto Amazon and ordered most of Mr Click's main presents (as well as something for my step-dad, which I think he'll appreciate), then during a drip to Glasgow I found a present for my Nan too. I'm very impressed as I seem to have gone from feeling completely disorganised to almost ready. I've got maybe three big presents left to get, then it's just small things and stocking fillers.

Yesterday we started our traditional movie countdown to Christmas. Halloween (or NaNoween as I like to think of it) is always the day when we watch The Nightmare Before Christmas, since it is set in Halloween Town. We'll be following this up during the week with some of our Not Quite Christmas films. In the past we've worked out a schedule for them, but this year we're doing a lucky dip, picking names out of a hat for the film we're going to watch that day. The first one out of the pot is Paddington. The only one excused from the lucky dip is Nightmare Before Christmas because Halloween.

Oh and on the subject of Halloween, I got dressed up for work on Friday.

Not too bad for £2 plus what I managed to drag out of my wardrobe.

I was going for a creepy doll look, but the mask didn't have a mouth hole, hence the face paint so I was still in-costume when I took it off to talk. I did get a toffee apple for my trouble.

We even had trick or treaters this year too. In the last four years no one has shown up, then we got a couple of our neighbours' kids come along. I was woefully unprepared and had to rifle through the kitchen cupboard to let them have a chocolate bar each. Next year I must make sure I have a good stash of sweets in.

Did you dress up for Halloween? Share your photos.

And are you NaNoing this year? Feel free to add me as a buddy on the site (I'm Caitak on there) and share your progress in the comments.