Troll And Seeing Romance Where It Isn’t Shown
Spoiler Alert – This post will talk about the Netflix movie Troll and it WILL contain spoilers. If you haven’t yet watched this fun and surprisingly good monster film, you might wish to skip this post.
The Dear Wonderful Hubby and I watched Troll on a lark. We saw Troll 2 had released and figured it must have been good or enjoyable enough to warrant a sequel.
My friends, it was both. It was fun and fantastical and emotionally deep in places. The characters were interesting and well developed. The expected army guy? He had depth and humor and was extremely likable.
It was also a Norwegian film, which made it even more fun, because characters switched between languages often and fluidly. (It had English subtitles.) And the scenery was gorgeous.
Did Troll have romance?
No. Not on the screen.
As a romance reader and writer, however, I saw how romantic relationships could form between certain characters and I was pairing (and more) characters up during the entire movie.
Troll will definitely inspire some future stories from me.
(smiles)
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Muse Food – The Presents We Give
Tis the season for giving and receiving presents or gifts.
(smiles)
The presents we give often say more about us than the presents we receive.
The Dear Wonderful Hubby, for example, loves to give food as presents because he loves feeding people. He loves taking care of his loved ones, ensuring they are okay at least food-wise. And he sees meals as a social event.
A protective hero, as another example, might give gifts that allow him to safeguard his loved ones. He’d give the car-free heroine limo vouchers so she never has to walk home in the dark. Or he’d give his warrior heroine a state-of-the-art shield to defend herself. Or he’d give his scientist heroine the best protective eyewear available.
What is your hero or heroine giving their loved ones?
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Deep Impact, Bad Parents And Flawed Heroines
Spoiler Alert – This post will talk about Deep Impact and it WILL contain spoilers. If you haven’t yet watched this awesome comet disaster movie from the previous century (1998 – grins), you might wish to skip this post.
Deep Impact is my favorite comet disaster movie. I really like that it has a news media/journalism angle to it and that it talks about how a government might cover up a possible world ending disaster.
(It stars Morgan Freeman as one of my favorite movie world leaders which is a huge plus.)
I also like that the characters are fully developed, including some seen-only-in-one-scene characters like the older gentleman reading his paper.
Jenny Lerner and her parents are especially nuanced. Jenny, as a high profile journalist, has a guaranteed spot in the humanity saving ‘arc.’
If she chooses, she can survive the disaster.
You and I suspect she won’t survive it because she’s the heroine, yes, but also because she has character traits that serve as flaws in any disaster situation.
She is soft-hearted and VERY easy to emotionally manipulate.
Her mom knows this.
Jenny’s mom doesn’t have a place in the ‘arc’ and she realizes her daughter won’t allow her to die alone. Jenny will, if given the choice, walk away from her place in the ‘arc’ and sacrifice her life to be with her mom during the comet strike.
So Jenny’s mom makes her own sacrifice and ensures Jenny doesn’t have that choice. She does everything left in her power to increase the odds her beloved daughter will survive.
That’s how much Jenny’s mom loves her.
Jenny’s dad also knows Jenny is easy to emotionally manipulate.
And he, being a selfish bastard, has no qualms about doing that to ensure HE doesn’t die alone. He, without hesitation or any hint of regret, emotionally blackmails his daughter, knowing it will result in her death.
I hated him for doing that.
But I LOVED that the writers built this nuance into the story.
The writers could have given Jenny solely the expected-in-an-action-movie heroic motivation of saving an innocent child and stopped there.
But they gave her a secondary motivation. She is manipulated by someone she loves.
Someone whose last act shows he doesn’t love her enough.
And that is great writing.
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Muse Food – A Safe Place To Land
During the summer, I’d often find butterflies (like this Monarch) and bees resting on the zinnia flowers. Those flowers are fairly large, they have plenty of smaller petals to burrow into or hold onto, they are in the sun, they have a lot of pollen (i.e. snacks) and they feel…safe.
Does the main character in your story have a safe place? WHY is that their safe place? And what would happen if that safe place was taken away from them?
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Muse Food – Ledaal, Norway And Introducing Characters
Our first sight of Ledaal, a magnificent historical Royal home in Stavanger, Norway took our breaths away.
The long pathway, the framing of the trees, the gates (not shown in the photo), all of it was carefully designed to do exactly that. It wasn’t accidental. It was orchestrated to relay awe and wonder.
We, writers, should be as deliberate and careful when we introduce heroes and heroines and other key characters in our stories. First impressions are lasting impressions. And this is as true on the page as it is in real life.
How do you want your characters to be perceived?
Ensure a reader’s first meeting with them reflects that.
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Muse Food – Blue Skies
This is the first week in a brand new year. I think of this time as a new beginning, a new start. Anything could happen. Anything is possible.
In business, we call this ‘blue sky.’ The skies are clear. We can go anywhere.
The characters in our stories often have blue sky moments. Maybe they have completed their big quest and are wondering what they’ll do next. Where will they go?
Their next action tells us their true nature. When anything is possible, what do they do?
***
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Grin And Bare Him
This cyborg will be the warrior his female requires.
Cyborgs are manufactured to fight.
Almost all of the half organic, half mechanical warriors enjoy battle. Tremendously.
Grin, a K model, is one of the rare exceptions. When he escaped his cruel creators, he set down his weapons and allocated his processors to less-violent pursuits. He projects he’s left his war-waging planet rotations behind him forever.
Then he meets his beautiful, beguiling female—the one being he’s destined to protect, claim, love for all eternity—and his plans for peace are completely decimated.
Mohini needs a ship.
She has a dangerous mission to complete, and the first step in that assignment is arranging transport to an enemy-controlled planet. The vessel she has set her sights on is guarded by the sexiest cyborg she’s ever seen.
To gain access to his ship, Mohini is prepared to kiss, caress, and seduce the muscular male. The mission is her focus. The pleasure she experiences will merely be a bonus.
A female has to do what a female has to do to save the universe.
Grin And Bare Him is a Fake-Mate Cyborg SciFi Romance set in a dark, gritty, sometimes-violent universe.
It features a humanoid female undertaking a dangerous mission, a cyborg intent on keeping her alive, and an enemy who has no idea what they will soon unleash.
Buy Now:
Amazon US:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09ZCWMSDV
Amazon UK:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B09ZCWMSDV
Amazon AUS:
https://www.amazon.com.au/gp/product/B09ZCWMSDV
Apple Books:
https://books.apple.com/us/book/grin-and-bare-him/id1622100495
B&N:
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/grin-and-bare-him-cynthia-sax/1141413965
Kobo:
https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/grin-and-bare-him
Smashwords:
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1145153
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