What can we do?

The world is in distress. I'm not going to get into the horrible details, I just want to say I hope it gets better in so many ways.

It's been hard to watch and taking all my motivation to write "entertaining stories" that seem meaningless in comparison...

I will say, after I watch a bit of news, I've been glancing at tik-tok and feel comforted with most of the thoughtful commentaries in my feed. It feels like most of the country is united against violence and wants to work on solving the root problems.

How is it affecting you?

As it is IWSG day, I'm going to complain a little. Then I'm going to give myself a few suggestions... and welcome anything you'd like to add.

Lately, I feel helpless and useless. I wish I could do something for those who are hurting. All my emotions are tied up. I feel selfish when I try to do other things to take my mind off it all while so many are suffering. What can little ol' me do to help?

Here are a few things I thought of to do. It isn't much, but it's something...

• Positive Posts. I don't get political - that is immediately divisive. I always try to encourage and say positive things about life and writing. And I will continue to do that, as much as I can.
• Tweet No More. Twitter has become a haven of trolls. I can't take all the negative. I'm very close to eliminating Twitter from my life. There are other ways to communicate with my friends, and it doesn't seem to do much good for my writing career anyway... Once I set up a new way to meetup with my writing friends, I'm outta there.
• Donate. As soon as things calm down--and they will, they have to!--I plan to donate to small business funds for rebuilding their livelihoods. I don't have a lot, but I want to contribute, maybe donate some time this summer too.
• Pray. Been praying a lot. Praying for peace. Praying for those who are hurting. Praying for the ones causing hurt to have a change of heart.
• Take a break. It's so intense and frustrating. But I really need to take a break from watching the coverage. I feel guilty that I have the ability to just turn off the TV, but I'm not doing my own family any good by being in a bad mood and snapping at them because I'm upset about the world.

If you have anything to vent or add, I'd love to hear it.

And I'm ending on a positive note...

IWSG is carrying on with its annual anthology contest and it's OPEN!

Guidelines and rules:

Word count: 4500-6000

Genre: Science Fiction

Theme: Dark Matter

Submissions accepted: May 6 - September 2, 2020

How to enter: Send your polished, formatted (double-spaced, no footers or headers), previously unpublished story to admin @ insecurewriterssupportgroup.com before the deadline passes. Please include your full contact details, your social links, and if you are part of the Blogging, Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter IWSG group.

Images immediately came to mind when I heard the theme! I'm adding it to my list of projects for the summer - an excellent distraction to work on.

How are you dealing with life these days? 

I hope you and your loved ones are staying safe in these troubled times.

What do you think the future hold for us?

Some are predicting zombies or aliens... sounds about right for 2020!

Tara Tyler Talks about #StarWars (spoilers!)

Happy New Year - bla bla bla

But seriously IWSG-ers, I hope you have a great 2020. If things are going badly, I hope you find a way to turn them around. If things are going well, keep up the good work!

January is a time of reflection. I want to raise the level of my blog from a once-a-month series of IWSG entries to more frequent and more substantial posts. I want to be more engaging!

And so, I give you my first post for 2020--

Let's go to the Movies??

Consider STAR WARS. (NOTE - Spoiler Alert! Plenty of annoying spoilers ahead)

There's nothing like the opening burst...

There's also nothing like the original trilogy. Sure, special effects are better now, CGI is amazing, and meeting new characters is always fun. BUT, just like the last season of Game of Thrones was rushed and lacking, this latest Star Wars trilogy was full of spontaneous, easily foiled threats and not much substance or explanation. I'm sorry to say, True Star Wars fans have been let down.

The Rise of Skywalker was a great action-adventure sci-fi movie, no doubt. My hub even liked it, and he's not a big SW fan. But my closet-nerd son and I felt a disturbance in the Force. So many story lines were severely under-developed and conveniently explained away with a glib comment for us all to accept. It was full of miraculous, impossible saves; instant armies, easy escapes, and predictable rebellious behavior... I felt like I was watching a teenager's spoof seeing what he could get away with--wouldn't it be cool if this happened!

Most egregious irritations:

• Poor Fin - so much potential wasted--they made this guy do nothing but annoy everyone, "Rey!" 
• And the Planet-Destroying Cannons upgrade on a surprise fleet of Star Destroyers--where did they come from? Santa? But the placement of the cannons gave me a chuckle. It was like they all got a kick in the crotch... that magically destroys the whole ship **eye roll**

There was No build up. No anticipation. No time to wonder what might happen, we know what's going to happen. As a writer, you know what I'm talking about.

I had more complaints, but I won't torture you further. And there were some good moments.

• I really liked the new female characters, but there wasn't enough time to expand on them. I would've been happier if they'd split it into two films just to give us some backstory and character development.
• Palpatine was a great twist. But what were all those zombie fans??
• Funny thing, I liked Kylo Ren's character arc (Frankly, I would've chosen him over Rey as a true Skywalker.
• It's just a good thing Chewy didn't die! (Told you there'd be spoilers!)

One saving grace for Star Wars fans: The Mandalorian is fantastic! It has everything the new movies don't, plus awesome LOL scenes and Baby Yoda!


Movies in general lately are lacking in quality and depth. Sequels, Spinoffs, and Remakes are the currency of the day. Over the holidays, I also saw JUMANJI 2 which was pretty terrific, better than expected, but still a sequel, with a teaser of another is in the works. And here are the previews we saw:

>>Scooby Doo origins              >>Mulan live-action              >> Dr. Dolittle upgrade

>> Black Widow spinoff              >>"new and improved" Ghostbusters sequel

Absolutely nothing original.
Money is the biggest motivator which is understandable since it is a business. But the industry isn't taking chances on anything new...

So I call on YOU, fellow writers!
Keep writing. Keep improving. And try a Screenplay! Submit to contests. Put your awesome works out there for these sheltered producers living in their Hollywood Bubble. They need us! (I just submitted JOLISSA to an animated screenplay contest!)

Okay, I think I've talked enough.

Oh, yeah. One last thing -- I'm putting together a team!

Disney/Pixar's Onward is coming out soon (you may remember me mentioning how they "stole" my Beast World concept) So I'm starting Phase 2 of my Taking Back Beast World campaign. I re-published BROKEN BRANCH FALLS!! And CRADLE ROCK is soon to follow.

If you're up for helping me promote the ORIGINAL Fantasy Creatures in High School, here's the new FORM
Thanks for your support!

And don't forget to join us for the #WedWrant Twitter chat tonight at 7:30 PM EST - be sure to use the hashtag!

Blessings a-plenty in 20-20!