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Sunday, October 11, 2009

Impressive

J.K. Rowling
Age: 43
Net Worth: $1 billion
Industry: Media/Entertainment

Sometimes sheer talent and persistence is enough. As a single mother on welfare in Scotland, Rowling began writing the first Harry Potter novel in Edinburgh cafés whenever she could get her infant daughter to sleep. After being rejected by 12 publishing houses, Bloomsbury, a small publisher in London, offered an advance of 1,500 pounds (about $2,400) -- even while one its editors, Barry Cunningham, advised Rowling to get a day job. Good thing she didn't listen: The following year, U.S. publishing rights to the first Potter book sold for $105,000. Rowling has since sold nearly 400 million copies worldwide, and is the only author on the Forbes list of the richest people in the world.


I can't hear this enough. One of the most beautiful true -life stories I've ever heard.

Courtesy of Forbes.com

Hypothetical Ponderings on The Brady Bunch

Wonder if after Carol and Mike married, Carol only displayed pictures of Marsha, Jan and Cindy. No pictures of Greg, Peter or Bobby adorned their wood paneled walls. Would anyone notice? Would anyone say anything?

Okay, now wonder if the children are all grown and living on their own. Greg and Peter are married (no, not to each other) and they have children. Bobby is divorced and has one child that doesn't live with him. Jan and Cindy are married and have children. Marsha never married and has no children.

They all gather at Mike and Carol's home for holiday gatherings. Greg's children notice that there are no pictures of them or of their father or their uncles or their uncle's children. Only pictures of Marsha, Jan and Cindy and their children. How do you explain that? What would Greg say to his children? He doesn't even know why and no one talks about it.

What could Carol be thinking to only display pictures of her children and her children's children? What could Mike be thinking to let this happen?
How would Mike's kids feel?
How was it to grow up in a home like this?

Just curious. Thanks for playing.

Forever Haunted,
Suzie

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Movies

Zombieland!!

Watched Zombieland today and give it two thumbs up. I highly recommend it. If you like your Zombie movies filled with humor, awesome gore, lots of action and a very sweet story about love and finding a place to fit in then this is it. Really, I'm serious about the sweet story. I don't recall ever seeing a movie quite like this. I don't want to give anything away. But Woody Harrelson is fantastic and so are the others.

I like this movie so much it's going on my favorite movie list and I will purchase the DVD when it comes out.

Enjoy!

Thanks for giving a shit.

Forever Haunted,
Suzie B.

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Suburbia Texas Style

Tonight is National Night Out. A night for neighbors to leave their homes, stand in front yards, meet and talk with each other. Really get to know your neighbors.

So I'm trying to decide who I really want to engage in conversation.

Option 1:
The neighbors to my left who are in a gang. Really, they are in a gang. Two brothers, early twenties. They live with their mother who I rarely see. Now one of the brothers is doing time for murder. I'm not making this up. The brother who still resides in the house now wants to be a sheriff. When he speaks to you he never looks you in the eye.

Option 2:
The lonely Asian man that lives directly across the street. We only see him when he is out mowing his lawn or when one of my children accidentally hit his garage door with a basketball and he runs out to see what the noise was (this makes me giggle a little). One morning I saw a tall Asian woman wearing very high platform shoes and a fur coat leave his house and walk down the street. Hmmmm, he lives alone. I won't speculate but it was summer and we're in Houston, Texas. Enough said.

Option 3:
The teacher (at my kids junior high by the way) that teaches by day and becomes a nosey, drunkard by night. I do enjoy her alcohol laden breath and her incoherent rantings. Okay, she's definitely on my list.

Option 4:
Then actually my favorite neighbors who I would love to engage in lengthy conversations but....About two months ago someone painted a large red X on their front door. The man of the house thought we did it because he trimmed our trees that hung over onto his property. He told me this, confessed if you will, and in response I looked at the trees which I hadn't even noticed had been trimmed and asked if he could do the others in our yard. I told him I appreciate him trimming the trees as we are lazy homeowners.

Sadly, someone continues to paint red X's on his property and leave raw chicken (we can't figure this one out) in his potted plants and on the trunk of his cars. The last straw for them was this someone painted a red X on a small white T-shirt and left it in their driveway. The police have been called numerous times with no help. He has two small children. One of which just started Kindergarten. To make things worse they are Pakistani...who knows what this red X painter, raw chicken leaver has in mind. They have now put their house up for sale and I feel sad and guilty for some reason. We have nothing to do with this but I feel guilty nonetheless. I think they may still suspect us for whatever reason. I hope they don't. Like I told him; if they did something to piss us off we would have said something. We're not really the passive-aggressive type.

To End:
And here I am, a horror writer put slap dab in the middle of these wonderful cast of characters! How about that? I guess I will go out tonight after all. Maybe tell them all thanks for making suburbia so interesting.

Have a good one. Get out. Meet your cast of characters. Who knows? Might spark an idea.

Forever Haunted,
Suzie

Saturday, October 3, 2009

My Opinion about Books I've Read

This is not a professional review. Just ramblings of one who reads a lot and writes a lot. My opinion. I just finished Edward Lee's "Flesh Gothic". I'm a girl who doesn't mind some gritty, brutal, torturous, satanic ritual, sado-masochistic stories. With that said, I did enjoy this story. Great and interesting characters. The story was suspenseful, unique in plot and at times a little hold your breath please don't go in that room scary. Not a I need to sleep with the lights on scary, just a little every once in a while. I loved the hero and the ending was very fitting. It ended how it should have ended. I was satisfied.

Now if you think it's going to be a you can barely read the whole book because you heard it was really graphic. I disagree. There was some unique torturing going on. Don't get me wrong. That's exactly what I heard about it and in comparison to J.F. Gonzalez's "Survivor" or Wrath James White's "Succulent Prey" or even Jack Ketchum's "The Girl Next Door, it was pretty tame. For the nastiest of nasty, try any one of those. Which I also liked but will not read again due to being traumatized. I'm pretty sure I suffer from PTSD because of those stories. "Flesh Gothic" left me reasonably whole and sane.

Thanks for giving a shit.

Suzie B.

Friday, October 2, 2009

I am grateful today because a lovely storm brought cooler weather. I am grateful today because it's Friday!

I am Grateful Today because

My headache is gone! My brother-in-law made a wonderful accomplishment. My writer friends rock, big time! My husband made dinner and it was yummy!