Horror Movie Review – Exhibit A

Title: Exhibit A

Genre: Thriller/Horror – Found Footage

Synopsis: The timely story of a normal family disintegrating under financial pressure, eventually driven to the unimaginable. We witness the terrifying events unfold through daughter Judith’s video camera, which subsequently becomes Exhibit A.

I watched this movie on the recommendation of Overthinking Horror Films. For some reason, I really enjoy “found footage” horror films and was looking for something that was found footage but wasn’t littered with profanity and super shaky cam. I mean, the jitter cam is fine, but when it’s 80 percent of the movie, it’s more annoying than atmospheric.

I’d seen Exhibit A in my travels through the websites that listed found footage, but never really paused to examine it more closely. First of all, it’s a British film and either I didn’t want to fight with the accents, or the description didn’t grab me. However, since I trust OHF’s taste in films, I took a chance and watched it.

I’ve seen reviews which poo-poo the film or say that it’s over the top. They’ll say the acting was terrible and how could the daughter film all through this. Let me just say this. The film got me by throat and didn’t let go until the end. I even gasped in some parts.

The basic premise is a regular old family of Mom and Dad, and two teens, a girl and a boy. I was a little annoyed when thirty seconds in , the girl filmed herself in the mirror so that we could see who she was. Ugh. However, I stuck with it and while I can’t say I was rewarded for my perseverance, I was served a good film.

The father’s performance was one that stuck with me the most. Early on, I could see something was amiss and the little things just kept piling up. The film became more painful to watch as it went on, not because the performances were bad, but you could see where the train was going. You just wondered where exactly it was going to wreck.

And wreck it did. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more harrowing to an ending in recent years. At one point, I had to look away from the screen to relieve the tension. I just didn’t want to bear witness to it any more. Yes, it’s a movie, but the actors sold the story and I was right there with them.

This is not a gleeful horror film. While it’s stylized up to a point, it’s a little too close to the bone to be laughed at.

Rating: B+ Recommended.

5 Ways of Self-Care for Writers

As an author, sitting is an unfortunate by-product of the profession. When I first began my writing career, I confess that I spent too much time at my desk, desperately typing, revising and editing, so much so that I ended up in the emergency room with a pinched nerve in my back. I’ve had three children and I have never experienced something so painful in my life. Even now, as I write about it, I cringe at the memory!

Needless to say, after recovering from that ordeal, I made definite changes to my writing routine. By doing so, it has not only improved me physically, but also kicked up my mental processes, making writing that much easier. My muse is so much happier and she shows it by letting the ideas flow!

There are five things that I worked into my writing routine that helped me improve the way I work.

Please take these tips and mold them to your needs. Good health is important.

As authors, we begin behind the eight-ball because we sit for such a large portion of our day.

Without further ado, here they are:

Drink plenty of water. It’s easy to slurp down coffee and soda and juice while sitting at the computer. The sugar and caffeine give us a quick rush of energy and keep us focused on the task at hand. However, overloading on such drinks can cause a late day crash, jitters, and dehydration. I have acquired a cute little water bottle and fill it with ice water with a touch of lemon juice. Mind you, I do not skip my morning coffee, and will go for a refill if the urge strikes me. Bu if I am going to have the coffee, I’ll make a conscious effort to finish the water bottle by noon, then go back for a refill on that too. Sipping water also keeps me from snacking too much. The addition of the lemon gives the boring water a spiffy taste and has the small benefit of Vitamin C.
Take a Break – Try not to become so focused on your writing that you don’t get up from the computer because you don’t want to “break the spell”. Create a break schedule. Set a timer for fifty, thirty or twenty minutes, then working on your writing and ONLY your writing. No checking social media or paring down your inbox. When the timer goes off, get up. Walk around, check the mail, do yoga stretches – anything but sit. This gives your body a break from sitting in a fixed position and gets the blood flowing to your brain. Don’t skip the break, as tempting as it may be to do so.
Exercise – Yes, you’ve heard it many times before. Your brain feeds on the oxygen-rich blood circulated by the heart. Before I sit down at the keyboard with my fragrant cup of coffee, I complete a brisk 15-20 minute walk that gets my blood pumping and my brain receptive for the muse. During these walks, I am often able to work out any issues that I might be having in my story. Getting away from the keyboard and out into the fresh air helps immensely.I also enjoy yoga. It’s calm, low-impact and I don’t have to get too dressed up for it! When the weather is poor or I simply don’t feel like going outside, ten to fifteen minutes of yoga poses can serve the same purpose.
Get Enough Sleep – Most of us wouldn’t stay up half the night and try to function at the job on four or five hours of sleep, would we? If you write full time like me, your writing is your job. Treat it like one. Get enough rest the night before. A full night’s sleep increases your mental sharpness, emotional balance, and creativity. Sitting in front of your computer screen bleary-eyed and fuzzy-headed can only lead to frustration and writer’s block. It’s all about putting yourself in the most optimum frame of mind possible.
Pay attention to Posture – Nothing will fatigue you more than terrible posture. We’ve all done it: shoulders hunched, wrists smashed against the laptop and feet in odd positions. There’s no problem in doing it, the problem is staying that way. Check your posture: are your shoulders back, feet flat on the floor and your wrists relaxed? Hunching over can put a great strain on the neck, as well as the shoulders and forearms. My weakness is that I lean to the right side, putting too much pressure on my right arm. About fifteen minutes of that and I have to shake it back awake! Stay cognizant of how you sit.

So there you have it, my magical formula for staying alert and healthy while pounding out the word count. While I don’t always do every single thing on this list, I strive to ensure that I’m in the best mind frame possible when I sit down at the computer. It’s not easy sticking to this routine, and I have been guilty of hunching over the computer for an hour straight. However, as long as that remains an anomaly and not a regular practice, I’m looking forward to many happy, healthy years as an author with a happy, healthy, giving muse and no more ER visits!

1Love

Dahlia

Tip Tuesday – Make it Work with One Notebook

For those of you who’ve seen me flitting about on social media, especially Instagram, then you know how much I love my journals and notebooks. It is truly an affliction. I can’t resist the call of a beautiful looking journal, knowing I can fill its blank pages with my genius thoughts.

Once I get the journal home, it’s another story. The pages are so pretty and pristine, I am reluctant to sully them with my less than important. So, I put the date on the journal and place it on the shelf. It still looks pretty, but it’s unused.

What happens next? Well, I get into an organizing frenzy. Since I see so many journals on the shelf, I pick one for story ideas, one for daily to do lists and one for note taking. Since they’re so disparate, I do need the three journals, right? After about a week, that plan, as brilliant as I thought it was, is all shot to hell.

Enter 2018 and yet another renewed effort for organization. My daughter encouraged me to purchase yet another journal, because 1) she wanted one and 2) they were on sale for 4 dollars each with a coupon and 3) they were so pretty I couldn’t resist. Not only did I end up purchasing more journal-ly meth, I also drew my daughter into the dangerous world of stationery addictions.

When I got home, I determined that this HAD TO STOP! There was no way I could go on with piles of beautiful but blank journals. That’s not what they were made for. I needed to use them for their intended purpose.

And then, I watched a rerun of Breaking Bad. Hank is investigating the death of someone and it winds up they kept meth recipes, titration diagrams and vegan brownie recipes…in the same notebook. While this may seem minor, it was a true epiphany for me. I could use my journal in a multipurpose way.

Which notes do I write in this journal, you may ask?

No. I did not organize it. No, I didn’t do anything cute like those nifty bullet journals. As Dirty Harry said, “A man’s got to know his limitations.” I scribble book snippets that occur to me at odd times, partial grocery lists, passwords and story ideas. And guess what?

IT WORKS!

Not only am I keeping up with it after a full seven days (a record), I am saving so much time. Yes, I do have to flip through a few pages to find what I’m looking for, but that’s what stick flags are for. The point is, I KNOW the information is there because I KNOW I wrote it down. For a disorganized kinda gal like me, this is just so…..liberating!

Oh, yes, the tip for Tuesday? Try a one notebook approach!

Shout out to Breaking Bad for the breakthrough! (See what I did there?)

How are you handling organization? Are you a journal person? A phone person? Let me know in the comments.

1Love
Dahlia

5 Favorite Fun Christmas Songs

It’s getting closer!

Our tree is up and I have most of the presents I need to give. Of course, I’ve got a ton of cooking to do, but, hey, I’ve got Saturday and Sunday. No cooking, except for the turkey, I think, will be done on Christmas. (Famous last words, right?)

I wanted to take this time to wish everyone a happy holiday and a restful one, too. Having fun is part of the season, don’t let the mundane things drag you down.

Oh, yes, my list of my fun Christmas songs. These are the songs that really pep me up – it’s not “officially” Christmas unless I can hear at least three out of these five songs. Let’s begin, shall we?

If you missed my list of classic Christmas songs, do click here.

5. Santa Claus is Coming to Town – Bruce Springsteen

I have to admit that this song makes me laugh every time I hear it. It’s so ridiculous, with Bruce yelling at the crowd and his band…honestly, he sounds as if he had a little too much “Christmas cheer”, but it’s definitely a fun song to listen to.

4. All I Want for Christmas is You – Mariah Carey

I love Mariah. She just doesn’t give a f*ck. Diva was able to put a price on her time by getting a settlement from that millionaire fiance of hers. Yes, she is a little loopy but I love her just the same. This is such a fun, bouncy, song that’s about loooooooove at Christmas. It does a cold heart really good!

3. Christmas Rap – The Waitresses

I am a child of the 80s, ’tis true. I didn’t really appreciate the song when it first came out – I thought it was kind of stupid. But, as the years went by, it has grown on me and now I look forward to hearing it. Remember, they did the theme song for Square Pegs?

2. Christmas in Hollis – Run DMC

Oh, yeah, did I mention I was a child of the 80s? Here’s Run DMC’s version of a Christmas song. And yes, I’ll be cooking collard greens.

1. Santa Baby – Eartha Kitt

I grew up on Madonna and am so impressed at how long she was able to keep a career going, but her version is simply….not very good. This is the unique Eartha Kitt (the best Catwoman), in a cute and sexy version of the song.

There you have it folks!

Have a lovely holiday!

1Love

For Writers Only: Coping with Criticism

Writing is not a profession for the faint of heart. Sure, you wrote a paragraph or two about how the end of The Walking Dead should have been, or an alternate version of Breaking Bad’s nursing home scene (I’m still sick sick sick over that) , but when you REALLY take the plunge, you’ll know.

The Degraded Life of a Writer
Let’s look at the downward spiral you will take. First, you have to complete a story, a task in and of itself. Many different endings will present themselves to you, if you’re lucky to get that far. Otherwise, you’ll dilly dally around the middle, adding in a character, or three, perhaps a death or some kind of natural disaster to get you through the classic “center of story” slump. Or, you’ll shilly shally around the beginning, crafting that perfect first word, sentence, paragraph, chapter, over and over again. Whatever way you choose, you’re doomed. DOOMED. (Can you hear Hector Salamanca’s bell?)

Second, once the piece is finished (again, if you get that far), you either give it to a beta reader or an editor. Prepare to be humiliated. Not that your beta/editor is doing it on purpose (usually), far from it. They are there to help. But about your lovely golden-y words, your figures of speech and witty conversations between your perfect, perfect, characters? They’re going to be cut, slashed and twisted. Shall I tell you why? When you sit in front of a blank screen and fill it with words, you are the wittiest, smartest, creativest (not a real word) person in the world. In fact, I feel exactly that way now as I type this. No one can write a blog post like I can! Bwuahahahaha! Bow to my wit and abjectly funny sentences.

Two Types of Criticism
This is where we come to the criticism part. There are two types and sometimes, it’s hard to tell them apart. In the previous paragraph, I speak about a beta reader or editor cutting and slashing your words so they are more cohesive and make sense. If you’ve selected your partners in crime carefully, they have nothing except positive thoughts, daisy, and hearts in their souls for you. They want you to do well. And while you weep at your precious words and sentences writhing on the floor, deep in your trembling heart, you know it’s for the best.

That’s constructive criticism. And if you get someone who is willing to read your stuff and give you clear-eyed and on point critique? Tie them up in the basement and never let them go. Well, maybe not the basement. Add an extra bedroom. These people are precious, and will you tell you like it is. We writers CRAVE this.

Then, there’s the other kind of criticism. This type if from people who don’t really know your voice, don’t know/understand your background and either don’t want to “get” you or don’t care if you succeed or not. These are the people who will read your stuff, then want you to change the name of a character because “they don’t like it”. Or, they don’t like both characters being in the same profession. Note: If a person gives a valid REASON as to why these things rng hollow in your writing, then that’s a different story (see what I did there?).

Now, none of this is as obvious as “I don’t like your writing”. It’s a more insidious form of criticism. It’s designed to tear you and your choices down, under the guise of “critique”. You want to know if your story resonated with people, not if one being an elementary school teacher and the other being a professor raises someone hackles. If it doesn’t make a difference in the story, then what of it?

Even better when they say “this story reminds me of xxxx”. Well, NATCH! There’s only so many stories to write, so many plots to twist, so many character traits to combine. Though the idea may be similar, the story is YOUR story and YOUR story only.

Dealing with Criticism
So, after all this chitter chatter, how are you to deal with this?
Keep your emotions in check. After all, even with the meanest (in your eyes) criticism, something good may be lurking in the wings. Don’t take it personally.

Ignore it and find another beta/editor. Not all beta/editors are created alike. Find someone who walks a balance between understanding what’s “popular” and understanding your way of creating. Sometimes they dovetail, sometimes they don’t.

Ask questions. Nothing stops someone in their critique tracks than asking the reasons behind a particular criticism. Sometimes you get something you can use, sometimes….yeah, you guessed it, you don’t. If you hear “I don’t like so and so’s name”. You ask, “Why don’t you like it? What effect does that have on the story?” If they can’t answer the second question to your satisfaction, then shine that ish on.

Be respectful and thank them. Even if you think what they said was more fit for a farm field than your ears, listen calmly and thank them for their feedback (after you’ve asked some probing questions). This is where your acting skills come into play!

All it all, it’s not SO tough being a writer. You get to wear what you want and if you’re like me, use writing time as an excuse to write the movie and TV shows you wish someone would write. For reals, tho, right?

Keep your head up and pen to paper. Until next time.

1Love