Longs for more Golden Compass movies...

Just rewatched the movie on HBO. I have the special DVDs and my ears are always pealed for news on the sequels.

Last critique group it was suggested that I broaden my YA reading. I was told there was a world outside Harry Potter and Twilight. She said that because I always cite those books when comparing mine. I do that for familiarity. The truth is, I have read other books. I've read Darren Shan's Cirque Du Freak series, the Spiderwick Chronicles series(although that was practically a picture book), Watership Down, the Lord of the Rings trilogy, the Work and the Glory series, most of the Tinnishoes Among the Nephites series and I'm in the middle of the second Fablehaven book.

I've also read the His Dark Materials trilogy. I read all three of these before the movie came out. My daughter has read them, too and like me she loves them. I like Harry more, but I this the Dark Materials books better than the Twilight series. I like Lyra a lot better than Bella and just as much as I like Hermonie.

I enjoyed the movie and after rewatching it on HBO I did a web surf on the sequels. Still nothing. hisdarkmaterials.org is gone, Wikipedia and IMDB have nothing of real use in regard to new news on the sequels.

I long for them. I hunger. But alas, for so many different reasons, they are on hold. Dakota Blue Richards is getting older and before long it'll be too late.

Sigh.

You THINK it's a 70's education film.

Watch closely.

Twitter links

Hmm
Lot's of fake celebs on twitter...

http://twitter.pbwiki.com/Fakers

And here are some real ones...

http://twitter.pbwiki.com/MinorCelebrities

The TWILIGHT Before Christmas (HD)

Cut 20,000 words? "Kill" big bad at end?

The title of this post says my next big challenges in editing my novel. I found out it's Middle Grade and MG books run about 75,000 words. Mine is 92,000.
It's 92 because I cut the Kidnappers scene and the Festival scene. Both have been in since the rough draft but both can be safety removed.

I thought last night that besides the add on scene with Tom from book 2, there was nothing else I could cut. This morn while walking the dogs I thought of 2 others. If done right, I could cut both tavern scenes. This means editing the witch and final battle scenes so Dale never appears and that means a new beginning on book 2, but it would be worth it. After all, I need to get THIS book off the ground.

First I need to completely rewrite most of chap 31 (the final battle) and fake Dominic's death. The tools are already in place to set that up, just need to rework it. I'll do that, then if I need to cut the tavern scenes, all the better.

This is hard!

More details to follow.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince ABC Family Sneak Peek: The Story