This and That

Happy Easter every one!  Hope you are all having a good day, enjoying friends and family, and the ever-present ham dinner.  Did you ever wonder why 'ham' is almost pre-determined to be THE meat for Easter dinner?  It seems so prosaic to have the same thing every single year.  But guess what, in my family "prosaic" is the name of the game.  One year I had roast lamb for Easter, and I've never heard the end of it.  Oh yes, we're having ham this year, only not today.  With the family's medical professions all over the place, Sundays don't seem to be a day we can all get together, so this Friday evening is our...ham...Easter dinner.  sigh...

I just began reading Donald Maass' Writing the Breakout Novel.  Yes, I know, I'm probably years behind everyone else else, but nobody ever said I was the first one out of the gate.  Anyway, it seems to be a great book.  Of course, my ICL instructor may not think so when she gets my latest assignment.  I had hardly finished reading the second chapter when I got this "wonderful"  what if  idea.  You know how we're always supposed to ask what if such and such a thing happened?  Well, this particular what if  will throw the entire first part of my novel out...given that my instructor likes it.  Oh...what if she doesn't but I do?  Umm...I just thought of it, so I'm not really that invested in it...it would mean a HUGE rewrite...but...in the long run, it might make the novel better.  But I guess I'll just wait until I get the assignment back and see what she says.

Last night we watched The Blind Side.  What a great movie!  No sex, no violence, no profanity, no horror, no vampires, no werewolves, no outlandish fantasy.  Oh my gosh!  How did Hollywood goof up and actually make a movie that didn't have at least one, and preferably all, of those elements in it?  It will probably be at least another 10 years or so before they make that mistake again!  What made is so great, though, was that someone thought enough of this boy to write his story and then try to get a movie made of it.  That's what made it totally AWESOME.