10th Mar2008

Helping Another Author

by Aaron

Let me start this post by stating I have not read “My Sister’s Keeper”. I know this book has some crazy twist ending. I do not know this ending and I don’t want anyone to tell me, as I intend to read this book when my Kindle arrives. I urge anyone who feels they need to comment to please not say anything about this ending. Thank you.

Now… on Friday Jodi Picoult spoke at a local bookstore, as she always does this time of the year. My wife is huge fan and we saw her read from her new book and then she got her copy signed. At the end of the Q&A session, Jodi told everyone some good news and bad news:

The good news: Her book “My Sister’s Keeper” is being made into a movie.
The bad news: They’re changing the ending.

Now anyone who has read this book or knows anything about this book, knows the ending is integral to the story. While I don’t know the big twist, I don’t think it’s right to cut it from the movie. Jodi told everyone that she’s been going to bat for the movie but the producer has single-handedly made the choice to change the end.

Essentialy she’s been told readers don’t matter and the change is going to go forward. She’s taking action.

I’m passing on her request that the movie’s producer and top person at New Line Cinema be contacted and told that the correct ending must stay and they are making a mistake by changing it. She held up a huge poster for ten minutes with their contact information. Here it is:

Mark Johnson (Producer): Mark@granviaprod.com
toby Emmerich (Top person at New Line Cinema) Toby.Emmerich@newline.com

Feel free to contact these two individuals and let them know what you think about this change.

Category : Just me
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09th Mar2008

Lyrically Speaking for March 9

by Aaron

iTunes 7 Logo

For this week, I think we need to focus on inspiration. I know the whole point of this weekly post is to inspire, I think there are songs that do the job based on getting you into a writing mood but also there are some that do it based on the lyrics themselves.

The band Relient K is an interesting band that has punk-style music but also has inspiring lyrics. I wouldn’t categorize them as ‘Christian Rock’ but there are mentions of a being (not named) as helping them. I’m not religious by any means but these songs are good, while not shoving any beliefs down your throat. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

From the album Mmhmm, this is More Than Useless.

I feel like, I would like
To be somewhere else doing something that matters
And I’ll admit here, while I sit here
My mind wastes away and my doubts start to gather

Whats the purpose? It feels worthless
So unwanted like I’ve lost all my value
I can’t find it, not in the least bit
and I’m just scared, so scared that I’ll fail you

And sometimes I think that I’m not any good at all
And sometimes I wonder why, why I’m even here at all
But then you assure me

I’m a little more than useless
And when I think that I can’t do this
You promise me that I’ll get through this
And do something right
Do something right for once

So I say if I can’t, do something significant
I’ll opt to leave most opportunities wasted
And nothing trivial, that life could give me will
Measure up to what might have replaced it

Too late look, my date book
Is packed full of days that were empty and now gone
And I bet, that regret
Will prove to get me to improve in the long run

And sometimes I think that I’m not any good at all
And sometimes I wonder why, why I’m even here at all
But then you assure me

I’m a little more than useless
And when I think that I can’t do this
You promise me that I’ll get through this
And do something right
Do something right for once

I’m a little more than useless
And I never knew I knew this
Was gonna the day, gonna be the day
That I would do something right
Do something right for once

I notice, I know this
Week is a symbol of how I use my time
Resent it, I spent it
Convincing myself the world’s doing just fine
Without me
Doing anything of any consequence
Without me
Showing any sign of ever making sense
Of my time , it’s my life
And my right, to use it like I should
Like he would, for the good
Of everything that I would ever know

I’m a little more than useless
When I think that I can’t do this
You promise me that I’ll get through this
And do something right
Do something right for once

I’m a little more than useless
And I never knew I knew this
Was gonna the day, gonna be the day
That I would do something right
Do something right for once

Category : Ideas
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06th Mar2008

Thursday Thirteen #135

by Aaron

Happy Thursday to everyone out there! On this week’s Thursday Thirteen, we’re going to talk about words. There are certain words we all love to use and many we’ve never heard of. I think there are some that inspire and some that confuse. I also love how certain words sound when said. We can all benefit from expanding our vocabulary.

If you have great words you love to use, please let me know in the comments

Thursday 13
Thirteen words to learn by Aaron Crocco

1. Reverberate. –verb (used without object) A. to reecho or resound: Her singing reverberated through the house. B. Physics. to be reflected many times, as sound waves from the walls of a confined space.

2. Syncopation. –noun A. Music. a shifting of the normal accent, usually by stressing the normally unaccented beats. B. Something, as a rhythm or a passage of music, that is syncopated.

3. Elude. -verb A. To avoid or escape by speed, cleverness, trickery, etc.; evade: to elude capture. B. to escape the understanding, perception, or appreciation of

4. Alleviate. –verb (used with object), -at·ed, -at·ing. to make easier to endure; lessen; mitigate: to alleviate sorrow; to alleviate pain.

5. Reminisce. –verb (used without object), -nisced, -nisc·ing. to recall past experiences, events

6. Exude. –verb (used without object) A. to come out gradually in drops, as sweat, through pores or small openings; ooze out.
–verb (used with object) B. to send out, as sweat; emit through pores or small openings. C. to project or display conspicuously or abundantly; radiate: to exude cheerfulness.

7. Devastation. –noun A. the act of devastating; destruction. B. devastated state; desolation.

8. Synchronize. –verb (used with object) 1. to cause to indicate the same time, as one timepiece with another: Synchronize your watches. B. to cause to go on, move, operate, work, etc., at the same rate and exactly together: They synchronized their steps and walked on together.

9. Correlate. adjective, noun –verb (used with object) A. to place in or bring into mutual or reciprocal relation; establish in orderly connection: to correlate expenses and income. –verb (used without object) B. to have a mutual or reciprocal relation; stand in correlation: The results of the two tests correlate to a high degree. –adjective C. mutually or reciprocally related. –noun D. either of two related things, esp. when one implies the other.

10. Condition. –noun A. a particular mode of being of a person or thing; existing state; situation with respect to circumstances.
B. state of health: He was reported to be in critical condition.
C. fit or requisite state: to be out of condition; to be in no condition to run. D. social position: in a lowly condition. E. a restricting, limiting, or modifying circumstance: It can happen only under certain conditions. F.a circumstance indispensable to some result; prerequisite; that on which something else is contingent: conditions of acceptance.

11. Causality. –noun, plural -ties. The relation of cause and effect: The result is the same, however differently the causality is interpreted.

12. Timeline. –noun A linear representation of important events in the order in which they occurred.

13. Interconnected. To connect reciprocally

-All definitions from dictionary.com

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

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05th Mar2008

The Roadmap to Reading

by Aaron

Kindle

So my Amazon Kindle is still churning around in Amazon’s ordering system on back-order. Today is day 16 of waiting and I’m really not a patient person. I’ve already scoped out the eBay scene and checked out the Sony eBook Reader. It ends up the Sony is PC-only so that’s a deal-breaker for me as I use a Mac. The markup on eBay is about $40 – $70 more than Amazon’s price but I used a $100 gift card + $100 birthday gift towards the purchase, so it’s a big premium I’d be paying to get this. I’m going on a trip on April 17th, so that’s my goal-date. If I get this thing any time before then, I’ll be alright.

So the entire reason of getting this thing is to help energize me to get back into reading. There’s a few books I’d like to read and I can also subscribe to the amazing Reader’s Digest and have it automatically delivered to my Kindle each month. So far there are two books I’m looking to start with:

-Angels & Demons by Dan Brown

-The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid by bill Bryson

I like books by Dan Brown and his style of writing makes you get into his stories really quick. The Bryson book is something I found while scouring Amazon a year ago and never got a chance to read. It looks interesting though.

So these are the next two books I’m going to read. I’m hoping that I get into these enough so that the Kindle ‘fades away’ and I’m just left with a great book. We’ll see what happens.

Category : Just me
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03rd Mar2008

Slice & Dice

by Aaron

Swiss Army Knife

My second round of editing my Robert book has gone well so far. I’m not calling it the Robert story any more because I feel it’s more than a story. It’s a novel. I need to be in the right mind-set. Anyhow… I’ve expanded the book more with this round where I’m focusing more on structure and flow. I’m addressing all the sub-plots, chapter placements, etc. I have taken inventory of where certain sub-plots fall in the book and moved the around accordingly. I want to make sure they’re evenly spaced out and they fit.

My last round of editing on Friday brought me to a sub-plot that I didn’t know what to do with. I ended up cutting a lot of it out because it just didn’t fit. I did salvage some of it by modifying it and making it work better so it’s more of a small trait of Robert and not an entire plot-line.

I don’t have much more to go, so we’ll see what happens. I’m going to need to put my beta readers on alert that their services will be needed soon. I’m estimating I’ll be done in a week or two.

Category : Untitled Story
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02nd Mar2008

Lyrically Speaking for March 2

by Aaron

iTunes 7 Logo

Last week’s Lyrically Speaking was skipped because I couldn’t find a song to fit my mood. There are many songs I turn to for inspiration and the ones I post here are the songs I’m listening to a lot when trying to write.

Since the Super Bowl a month ago, I’ve been on a Tom Petty kick. He performed during half-time and reminded me how awesome he is. He’s one of those rockers that has survived the ‘music machine’ and is still a viable artist. His abstract lyrics are always great to listen to.

This is one of my all-time favorite Petty songs and I think you’ll all enjoy it too. I don’t have iTunes on the computer I’m posting from but just search for “Runnin’ Down A Dream” on the iTunes Store and you’ll be able to get it.

From Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, this is Runnin’ Down a Dream:

It was a beautiful day, the sun beat down
I had the radio on, I was drivin
The trees went by, me and del were singin
Little runaway, I was flyin

Yeah runnin down a dream
That never would come to me
Workin on a mystery, goin wherever it leads
Im runnin down a dream

I felt so good, like anything was possible
I hit cruise control and rubbed eyes
The last three days the rain was unstoppabl e
It was always cold, no sun shine

Yeah runnin down a dream
That never would come to me
Workin on a mystery, goin wherever it leads
Im runnin down a dream

I rolled on as the sky grew dark
I put the pedal down to make some time
Theres something good waitin down this road
Im pickin up whatever is mine

Yeah runnin down a dream
That never would come to me
Workin on a mystery, goin wherever it leads
Im runnin down a dream

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