November always manages to kick my ass. Nanowrimo and the holidays combine and call upon the force of seasonal depression to kick my ass. And every year I learn new things to help keep the winter feels away. I’ve embraced Hygge, focused on meditation, started taking a D vitamin and an antidepressant prescribed by my doctor. All those things totally help. But, I’m always learning and always growing. And today I’m sharing six things I’m doing to keep my life and mind in a good place this winter. And, really, all year round.

The Alistair method

I just found this new way to do a weekly spread in my bullet journal from this BohoBerry video. If you haven’t heard of this, check out the video. I can’t tell you how much better this makes me feel. Instead of looking at a whole week’s worth of activities, I can see just what I need to do each day. It also allows me to write things I need to do as they come to my brain, and still prioritize my actions by day. I’m also able to realize if I’m heaping way too much on one day. Which I have a bad habit of doing.

So many plants!

Last winter, I bought a cactus. Then, I bought a few more. Now I have basil, lavender, three aloes, my original cactus, and a pot of something that I didn’t mean to grow, but I’ll be damned if I’ll kill it now. I also have some moss on a rock that just seemed to want to come home with me. I’m hoping to grow peppermint and sage soon.

Bringing green life into my house is something I’ve struggled with. Focusing on plants that seem to not want to, you know, die at the slightest provocation, has helped.

Learning new things

I mean, I’m always learning new things. But it helps me in the winter to have something new and shiny to put in my brain. On the worst day, I have something to look forward to. I’ve been learning about reading tarot, that’s been fun. I’m also taking a ton of classes on Futurelearn. Always, learning, always growing. That’s the secret to being excited about every day. Well, that and coffee.

Chore charts

Yeah, that’s right. A chore chart. Just like when you were a kid. I’ve developed a chore chart based heavily on what I learned about myself and my needs while going through the Flylady’s 30-day course. I know what I need to do to keep control of my house, and what I’m capable of doing every day.

Why is this important? It’s not because I’m someone who requires a clean and orderly house to rest my weary head. It’s because once my house gets to a certain level of insanity, I become like a deer in the headlights. I can’t move, can’t think of what to do. I also can’t relax or even make a cup of tea in peace. Spending fifteen to thirty minutes a day to keep my house in order helps keep me sane.

And for those of you rebelling, that it doesn’t matter what your house looks like, listen. I deserve to have a clean home for me. You do too. It’s not for your mom, your roommate, your spouse. It is for you.

Focusing on therapeutic yoga in the morning

My upper back’s been killing me recently. Not sure why yet. Probably that I’ve been sitting at desks too often and I’m getting to an age where my body’s just not down for that. But, whatever it is, I’ve been doing this yoga sequence to help. And let me tell you, it has. It has.

No matter how busy I am in the morning, I fit in this yoga sequence. Because pain is the teacher the Universe resorts to if you won’t listen to any other. If you’re not in any overall pain, start taking measures to keep it that way right now. Don’t let yourself get to a place where you’re in tears just sitting at your desk at work.

Cooking things from scratch

I didn’t grow up in a family that did a lot of cooking from scratch. About the only thing we ever made that didn’t include a box or can of something pre-made were chocolate chip cookies. And even for that, we used the instructions on the back of the chocolate chip bag.

But I’ve started getting into this. I’ve become one of those people that have both baking soda and baking powder in my house and using each regularly. I’ve learned to make scones, several kinds of cookies, Irish soda bread, beef wellington, and a ton of other things. As I’ve gotten into this, I can see how it’s an art form that I can use to perk myself up. On a cold grey day that discourages me from going outside, I can whip up a loaf of bread or some scones. I can make some rice pudding if I’m really needing some self-love.

So that’s it. I’m hoping that this will be a great winter with these new tools at my disposal. But I’m always looking for new ways to grow. What do you do to keep the winter blues away? Let us know in the comments below.

It’s that time again. Today is November first, which means Nanowrimo, and the start of the holiday season. Well, as far as I’m concerned the holiday season never really ends. There’s always something to celebrate.

I understand that for some of you, that’s a terrifying theory. That’s because a lot of people take the holidays way too seriously.

Every year I write a blog post about this and I swear I’m going to do it every single year. #Sorrynotsorry because everyone needs to hear this over and over again until we all internalize it and believe it.

I know I do.

The holidays, all of them, are only what we make of them. They are as flexible and fluid as you allow them to be. There should be absolutely no pressure on your shoulders whatsoever to have the perfect holiday. Because what the perfect holiday looks like is a different thing to everyone!

That’s it, that’s all! You don’t owe your family a Currier and Ives Christmas. You owe them a happy you. And you owe that to yourself, too. Now, all that being said, I do love holiday. I celebrate a lot in December, including Christmas, Yule, my beloved husband’s birthday, anNew Year. I do this by following one very simple rule, ruthlessly.

I only do things for the holidays that my family and I actually want to do. 

I love decorating the house, but by that, I mean putting up like four decorations, including my Charlie Brown replica tree.

I love baking, but everyone in the house is either diabetic or has cholesterol issues, so I save that for the specific holidays. We don’t have a cookie platter.

I love buying gifts, but I love making them more. 

Of course, what I love best about the holidays is enjoying a glass of mulled wine while I read A Christmas Carol. My family and I love best watching movies, so we’ve got a whole list of our favorites to get through. I love special teas and holiday coffees. I love seeing good friends and exchanging gifts on Yule. 

The trick is, I don’t do have to’s. I don’t have anything that I have to do. I have things that I want to do. I want to get up early to write. I want to go to work so I can pay my bills and buy ice cream for my dog. I want to do everything I do in a day, even if I don’t enjoy it. I don’t love cleaning the cat box, or sweeping off the back porch or going to work. I do love having a healthy cat, a clean porch and, you know, food.

But I do love the holidays. I allow myself space and time to love them. Because life is too damn short not to.

Happy holidays. 

Very often adaptations of things we love suck! There are so many great books that have died terrible deaths on the silver or small screens. I have lists of criticism about the Harry Potter movies, the Spiderwick Chronicles movie was so bad I’m not surprised at all they didn’t continue with the series. And we’re not going to talk about The Giver movie. My heart just can’t take it.

And it’s not just books that get shitty treatment. You don’t want to hear how I felt about the Avitar The Last Airbender movie. And you don’t want to be anywhere near me if you played any part in that abortion. Awful casting, terrible special effects, misrepresentation of all the characters. It was humiliating to our species.

All that being said, sometimes adaptations don’t make me want to put a pickax in my temple. Some of them are pretty good. You might have heard me talk about some of these before, but I don’t think I’ve gotten to all of them. So here are the seven adaptations that I really love.

Series of Unfortunate Events And I specifically mean the Netflix series, not the train wreck of a movie.

This show was fantastic! While I would love a straight-up line by line adaptation, I’m realistic enough to know that if that’s all you accomplish, that’s not much to accomplish. Why not just leave the source material alone?

Well, this show was the perfect combination of those two situations. There are great long pieces that are just word for word from the book, and I love that. Then, some additions just couldn’t have been created in book form. Like Neil Patrick Harris singing. That man makes me feel things. The casting was good, the set was wonderful. I loved everyone on this. And it was beautifully true to the book.

Good Omens

This show on Amazon was phenomenal. I know I did a whole review of it, so I won’t go into too much detail here. But I will say it’s always a good idea to get the creator of the source material in on a project if you can. Gaiman, as always, did himself proud. Some additions made a lot of sense, especially near the end. Honestly, I think it improved it.

Limetown

I’m being cautiously optimistic adding Limetown to this list. As of the writing of this post, I’ve only seen the first two episodes. And, if you’ll recall my blog post from last week, I had mixed feelings about it. But the thing is, Limetown has more source material than most. There are two seasons of the podcast, sure. But there’s also the prequel book to take into consideration. Much to my joy, they seem to be weaving in both. And that’s pretty cool.

Lore

I love love love Lore. I look forward to every episode, I haven’t heard one yet I didn’t learn something cool from. I love it every time Aaron Manke says, “I like it when people say hi.”

The show is everything it should be. It’s beautifully filmed, I love the stories it tells. It really is like an episode of the podcast, with actors. I adore it.

The Stand

This is an older one, I know, but I kind of love the book The Stand. I’ve read the original, and the author’s extended edition. And I’ve watched the mini-series about four times.

I can’t read the book without hearing Don’t Fear The Reaper. I can’t help but see the actors in place of the characters in my mind. It all just blends so well together, the book and the show. Yes, there are some changes. For some reason, people who write tv shows and movies just love to shove characters together to make one person out of two.

But I digress.

It’s a little older now, and it might be hard to find. But it’s worth it to hunt down the mini-series if you’ve never seen it.

10th Kingdom

If you’ve never heard of 10th Kingdom, it’s amazing. It’s a twisted fairytale story about a young woman from New York who meets a big bad wolf and falls into a world where our fairy tales come from. They have to save a prince who’s been turned into a dog. It’s wonderful.

Now, this one is a bit different from the other’s on the list, because it was the mini-series that came before the book. And I swear, when you read the book you can see the show in front of your eyes. I remember watching this show every week with my aunt as a child. It was an experience, and probably the birth of my love of fairy tale retellings. Reading the book brings that back to me every time.

Charlie Brown

Let me be clear here. What I’m talking about is not the recent travesty of a movie that kind of made my childhood die.

No, I’m talking about the holiday specials that they used to play on ABC and now I had to buy on DVD because I can’t always find them.

They are perfect. They are the purest representation of a comic character coming to life that I have ever seen. I don’t know what a whole series of dashes should sound like, but it’s exactly right when Woodstock starts chirping. Snoopy transitions so well onto the screen that it’s uncanny. Not an ounce of his sass is lost. And good old Charlie Brown is the same good-hearted, optimistic wishy-washy kid he is in the comics. And I will forever treasure both the comic and the specials, no matter how old I get. I imagine that as I grow older, they’ll mean even more to me.

So, those are seven adaptations that were as good as or better than their source material. But I want to know what you think? What’s your favorite adaptation? Let us know in the comments below.

I, like millions of other people, love the astounding podcast, Limetown. I listened to every episode twice, once by myself and once with the husband so I could watch him experience it. Does anyone else do that? Watch or listen to something you’ve already experienced with someone else just so you can watch them? Is that just me? Oh well.

Anyway, as we’ve been waiting for season three to come out, we were treated with the news that it’s now following the path of other great podcasts like Lore, and becoming a tv show. Damn, do I like Lore, by the way. But that’s another story for another day. (Can I write off my Amazon Prime membership fees on my taxes if I watch Lore for book inspiration? Tax lawyers, let me know.)

As the news came in about the Limetown show, I grew more and more split on my feelings about it. Yes, they got Stanley Tutchi to play Emil Haddock. That’s great, he’s great. But then it was going to be on Facebook Watch which makes me nervous. Anywhere I can’t see how a company is making money from me, I assume I’m the thing they’re making the money from. Which is, you know, not great. But then it’s been so fun watching all of these new fans learning about Limetown and making predictions on social media about what happened to the missing people. Look, I’ve listened to every episode, and read the prequel book. I know what happened, and I’m not telling anybody. But some of these predictions were exactly word for word my predictions. So that was a great moment. There are so many more people in the fan club now. We have pins!

I couldn’t help but get super excited. I couldn’t wait to see Lia dig into the mysteries of Limetown. I couldn’t wait to watch as she talks to Max and The Preacher. I was stoked!

I watched the first two episodes on Wednesday when they came out. And, since I’m sure you’re here for an actual review, not to hear me fangirl, let’s get to that.

I still don’t know what I think.

There was obvious influence from the novel

Just in case you’re not aware, the prequel novel, titled Limetown, was written by Cote Smith. The original podcast authors, Zack Akers and Skip Bronkle. And it’s an essential read if you want to understand Lia and Emil. It was different. Lia’s a teenager, obviously not the strong fearless woman she eventually turns into. She’s kind of a pain in the ass, totally incapable of having any sort of feelings for literally anyone. Emil, on the other hand, was a great guy trapped in a lot of terrible situations. He was a great uncle. Overall, Emil is someone desperately looking for someone, anyone, to love.

All of this had an obvious influence on the show. It feels like the novel was woven through the series flawlessly, as though it was always part of the story. And I love that.

Lia’s character is a pain in the ass

I mean, for the most part, including parts of the prequel novel was a great idea and I loved it. Except for one thing.

In the podcast, Lia’s a bad-ass reporter. She’s fearless, no-nonsense. She cares about nothing more than finding the story. Now, she’s not perfect. She is all absorbed by the story, and more than willing to put herself in danger and ignore the rules put in place for her safety. All that matters to her, literally the only thing, is finding out what happened in Limetown.

In the show, Lia sounds more like the teenage version of herself. She’s taking advantage of the girl she’s seeing, seeking physical intimacy because she doesn’t have any room in her for actual love. She misses her uncle to the point of obsession, which is weird because in the podcast she was pretty clear that she barely knew her uncle. The fact that Emil was in Limetown was less than an afterthought to her. And she didn’t harbor all of this pain and resentment towards her mom. Not that there wasn’t a reason for her to be angry at her mom. She did abandon her family. But that was something that Lia had put behind her. There was none of this foolish ignoring her mother’s calls or leaving sad voice mails for her dad.

I loved Lia in the podcast. The show Lia needs some Zoloft and a puppy.

Two great moments were scary as hell, and exactly what I wanted them to be

Fortunately selfishly moody Lia wasn’t enough to ruin the show for me. There were two moments, moments that made me jump out of my chair when I was originally listening to the podcast, that was just so spot on that I couldn’t believe how well they’d been done.

The first was that 911 call, oh that call. The one from the first episode, of a woman calling for help at Limetown. It was that call that got me, and so many others hooked to the story, right from the word go. Or, more appropriately, right from the words, “Hello, can you hear me?” This was played in the show perfectly, and gave me the same chills as the first time I heard it.

The second scene, the real stand out one that I think most people remember better, is the man banging his head on Lia’s hotel room door. Screaming her name. Screaming, “This is your warning.” That was amazing. We still don’t know what that was about. And that was done to perfection in the show. I jumped, even though I damn well knew it was coming.

Limetown looked just spot on perfect

Too often when I’m watching something based on a source material I’m familiar with (read: obsessed with) I tend to get a bit picky. You don’t want to watch the Harry Potter movies with me, for instance. The problem is, the deck is stacked against the creators of visual mediums. While it might seem that they have all of the advantages, they don’t. Because no matter how fantastic a scene looks, no matter how much we try to get it to match the picture we have in our heads, everyone has a different head. And everyone perceives things differently, pictures things. And so when I complain that I saw the Room of Requirements differently then it was ever depicted in the movies, that’s not a fair argument. Because maybe a lot of people did see it that way.

Case in point, Limetown was almost exactly what I pictured when I was listening to the podcast. Almost like Eureka, but darker. A place of light, and creativity, and beauty, but with a sickness hiding. A layer of rot under the skin of a perfect looking apple. And that was just spot on.

Winona was damn well perfect

Then there was Winona. Poor, broken Winona. She was probably the darkest story. And Kelly Jenrette, who plays Winona, did such a fantastic job. It’s not like it’s an easy thing to play a crazy person. And that’s exactly what she did. Her cadence and verbal idioms were right on point. I am obsessed with this woman. The character is eerie, the way she seems to have had a blank spot in her mind where her daughter should have been, got under my skin. And I can’t imagine I’m going to be able to exorcise that anytime soon.

Some interesting additions that need some more fleshing out before an opinion can be formed

One final thought I had about the show was the introduction of Lia’s assistant, Mark Green, who I’d consider her Jimmy Olson. Or, more specifically, her unwanted partner. Much like the ridiculous number of buddy cop movies where the grizzled old detective works alone. It’s a strange option, to give her a, what? An assistant? A partner? He was introduced, it seemed, just to be barked at and ignored for much of the first two episodes. At this time the character seems like a worthless addition. But we’ll have to wait to see. We just haven’t seen enough of him yet.

I’ll be watching the other episodes, of course, and give a final thought when the season is over. I do suggest checking it out on Facebook Watch. Generally, I hope that Lia’s character improves. And that now that this is off the ground, the creators can settle in and get season three of the podcast already.

American Horror Story is a cornerstone of my yearly tv watching. It’s a remarkable addition to the horror genre and a yearly test for the actors involved. In the interest of full disclosure, that’s where I’m coming from when writing this blog post. 

Sorry, this review is so late. I want to say I wanted to watch episode two to get a better idea of the season before I wrote it. But that’s a filthy lie. It’s late because I don’t often have time to sit down and watch something to review it. Normally when I watch something, I’m doing other things. Posting on social media, cleaning the house, crocheting, just about anything else. When I watch to review, I watch. I take notes and analyze them. It takes time, Man! But anyway, here’s what I took away from the first episode. What follows are my criticisms, notes, questions, and predictions after watching Episode One and while watching Episode Two.

This episode focuses on a slasher flick style, with a group of people heading to a camp to be counselors for the summer, only to find that there was a gristly murder there fourteen years before and that the owner of the camp is, in fact, a survivor of the murder. She’s reopened the camp as a way to exorcise her fear, as the only one to survive the twisted Mr. Jingles.

Some thoughts on the slasher flick genre, and how 1984 lives up to it.

The episode starts with a three-way between camp counselors, in the same cabin where children were sleeping. While that’s awful and gross, it pairs perfectly with the slasher flick genre. I mean, there wasn’t a single Freddy Kruger movie that didn’t have at least one sex scene.

I am, however, thrilled that they didn’t keep the SD sepia tone throughout the whole show. That would have been a little much.

One big stylistic tone from slasher flicks is the music. It rings true with this show, for sure. The music reminds me deeply of the scores for Nightmare on Elm Street, and I love it. This is something that Stranger Things did well, too. I don’t wonder much if this season was inspired by the popularity of Stranger Things, because I think it totally was. 

I have to say that I love that this has so far held to the three rules of a horror movie. If you haven’t seen Scream five thousand times as I have, let me give you a refresher.

If you want to survive a horror movie don’t have sex, don’t drink or do drugs. And, most importantly, don’t ever say ‘I’ll be right back’. Ever, dude. 

Questions I have after watching this episode

I had a ton of questions after watching Episode One. Who is stalking Xavier? Why does that ring matter so much? How the hell does someone fill up a van with gas for only $10. Three of those questions were answered by the end of the episode.

How in the hell have none of these counselors never heard of the murders here before? Maybe some of these characters didn’t grow up around LA, but I imagine a few of them did. And even if they didn’t, wouldn’t this be nationwide news if a bunch of kids was murdered at a summer camp?

Also, why didn’t Ms. Booth introduce the counselors to Trevor earlier? When they arrived they were told they were the only counselors. Is this a plot hole, or is Trevor really there?

I also dearly want to know why Mr. Jingles is collecting keys. The first time we saw him it made sense to have keys because he worked there. But why did he take the janitor’s keys? Doesn’t he take ears as a trophy? 

Problems I have with this episode

I don’t think that any of the kills from Mr. Jingles were remotely realistic so far. How did no one in the damn cabin wake up while he was killing them? Did no one scream? Were they all such heavy sleepers? And the death of the orderly at the insane asylum was a problem for me. Generally, a human man wouldn’t have the strength to hold himself up by his neck and also strangle someone to the point that blood came out of his victim’s eyes. While this does feed one of my predictions (see below) it’s a huge issue for me if I’m wrong.

Thoughts on AHS as a series

Let me first say that I love Billie Lourd so much. She is amazing every year. Now that that’s out of the way, let’s get to the rest of it. 

Every year I’m astounded by the actors of AHS. The rich princess from Apocalypse became the crazy religious camp counselor this year. It’s astounding to me that they can fit into all of these different roles. 

Predictions I have for the rest of the season

I don’t think for one second that Ms. Booth reopened this camp for the reasons she’s saying. It doesn’t make logical sense that she only wanted to exorcise her demons and provide a safe place for children. I’m willing to bet that she’s sacrificing these people on purpose. 

I am totally sure that this current group of counselors is actually at very least the second group that Ms. Booth has hired. I’m willing to bet right now that there’s already a group buried on the property. 

As I mentioned earlier, I think that Mr. Jingles has some sort of magical powers to do all the wild killing he’s doing. At least I hope so. Because otherwise, all the shit he’s doing makes no damned sense.

I also predict that this damned camp is under the same sort of weird spell as the murder house in season one. I bet that’s why the counselor from the ’70s is still there. I’m willing to bet we’ll see a lot more people from that time.

Finally, one bold prediction I have is that by the end of the season, Ms. Booth will have a higher body count than Mr. Jingles. Now, right now the score is 2 to 0, but I’m staying by this one. She’s got death in her soul.

I’ll do a recap at the end of the season with my final thoughts and the followup of my predictions. 

What do you think? Do you have any predictions for the season? Do you think mine are totally off base or spot on? Let us know in the comments below.

And we’re up! Welcome to the new Paper Beats World. What do you think?

With the new look comes a new feel. Not a new me. I’m the same me I’ve always been. But a new focus. I’m writing for readers and fans of specualtive fiction in all forms. So we’re going to be doing a lot more reviews, a lot more stories about living the nerd life and hopefully more short fiction.

As you can see, there are some new pages. I’m opening up my calendar to some freelance work specifically for small businesses. So if you’re a small business owner who doesn’t have the time to write all of the content that requires, hit me up.

There is a link for a tip jar, but that one’s not ready yet. Coming soon.

Our new schedule is going to include a post every Friday, and a PBW Update every other Monday. If you want a little more swearing, a little more political talk, and bi-weekly tips for fitting more reading into your life, click here and sign up to get a free short story, Brennan Rising.

Comic books are a bit of an obsession with me. My favorite is X-Men. I love Marvel for the characters and DC for the storylines. 

All that being said, I am a little obsessed with anything superhero related. And, lucky me, there’s a lot of it.

I also have a twisted side. No surprise, I’m sure some of you have read my books. So as soon as I saw an ad for The Boys on Amazon Prime, I realized I was going to need to see it.

It did not disappoint. Let me say it again; it did not disappoint.

Now, let me first give you a warning. This is a gory, bloody show with a ton of adult content. Not for little ones or those who are sensitive to such things. And the older I get, the more sensitive I get to such things. But this didn’t bother me too much at all. Well, the rather graphic sexual assault scene near the beginning is a bit much. Just as a fair warning. 

The story is about Hughie Campbell, who is a completely normal person in a world with superheroes. He’s beloved girlfriend is killed when the superhero, A-Train, literally runs through her. He’s left holding only her hands. He soon falls in with our anti-hero, Billy Butcher. (Has there ever been a more comic book name than that?) They intend to make the superheroes pay for what they did to Hughie’s girlfriend. And, as we later discover, Billy’s wife.

I love the twisted hero motif. The heroes that we all admire have a dark side. They’re not just like you and me; they’re far worse. Power corrupts, we all know this. And these heroes are the perfect example.

A lot of the show revolves around the character’s relationships. One relationship that made my skin crawl was the one between Homelander and Madelyn Stillwell, an executive at Vought, the company that controls the supers. His weird obsession with her is cringy. He wants all her attention, he wants her to like him. He wants her to love him. He’s straight-up jealous of her relationship with her infant son.

This show reminded me a little bit of the Amazon version of The Tick. The same sort of setup, but with a far darker feel of course.

I loved the main character, Hughie, played by Jack Quaid. He’s capable without seeming like he falls into stupid luck. He’s endearing, without being sappy. He makes some decisions I’m not comfortable, especially when he starts to fall for a superhero named Starlight. But he is, overall a good person trying to remain good during a bad time.

Billy Butcher is the poster child for an anti-hero. He’s angry, bitter, hurting. He does not give a damn about the well being of anyone, literally anyone. He will do whatever it takes to get vengeance on Homelander for what he did to Billy’s wife.

While Billy and Hughie are trying to take down the superheroes, a bright young woman named Starlight joins the superheroes. She’s wanted this her whole life. But, of course, she soon finds out that the company wants to use her for her appearance. Her heroes are molesters, drug addicts and cynical. Kind of a snoozefest. It’s an old story.

What’s a less than old story is Starlight struggling with her faith, as she sees more of the world and realized that the morals she was brought up with aren’t necessarily the ones she finds value in now. That was nice to see.

The most surprising thing about The Boys was the way characters developed. There was at least one character that I despised and wanted to die in a fire. By the end of the season, I felt so bad for them! It was a remarkable character development.

Overall, I’d say that The Boys is worth a watch. 

Have you seen The Boys? What did you think of it? Let us know in the comments below.

In Devon’s world, magical work is as common as turning a pot or fletching an arrow. What isn’t common is a man with thread magic. When Devon finds that he is a seer, weaving prophetic tapestries, his family tries to keep it a secret.
But the family can’t hide Devon’s visions after he predicts a devastating plague in the dragon lands of Coveline. He travels there to help the dragon queen save her people.
Meanwhile, Devon’s sister Lenore joins the Church of Singular Light. As Lenore learns to serve, and falls in love with her city, she discovers a dark underbelly to the church.
Lenore fights for her city, and Devon rushes to find a cure to the plague, while an unseen enemy raises an army to destroy Septa from within.

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Spoiler alert! If you haven’t seen Stranger Things Season 3, click away now because I’m going to ruin it for you. You’ve been warned, don’t yell at me in the comments.

I’m late to this party, but it seems like it’s still raging so whatever.

After rebelling against it for years, because I’m secretly a hipster and despise anything too popular, I finally sat down and watched all three seasons of Stranger Things. And I mean, I watched all three seasons in four days. Now, I’ve had this curse for years, that I’m usually able to predict most plot twists and endings long before they happen. I have been repeatedly punched while watching movies with friends for guessing the ending before the movie starts. I think it’s because I spend so much time reading and writing, nothing surprises me anymore.

Maybe I’m just magic. 

At any rate, having marathoned all three seasons, I’m ready to give my predictions for the next season. 

Prediction One, Will is going to snap crackle and pop.

Poor Will has been through a lot. He’s been trapped in the upside-down, coughed up a baby monster and had two of his best friends abandon him for girls.

Worse, his mom and brother have been being super overprotective. I don’t blame them if it was my kid he’d never be out of my sight again. But he’s going to crack right down the middle and do something cataclysmically stupid.

Prediction Two: El’s going to need her siblings to get her powers back.

I’d guess it’ll probably be Kali/Eight. But it might also be someone else. It would be a fun way to throw in a new character or guest star.

Prediction Three: Steve is still not going to get a girlfriend.

Not that he doesn’t really, really want one. That boy wants to be in love. But I think he’s going to figure out that that isn’t what he wants.

Prediction Four- El’s father is still alive. I am sure that he’s alive, and he’s probably still torturing little kids. I’m almost sure that she won’t be able to kill him, either. Not that she’s not capable. But that she emotionally can’t.

But Eight can.

Prediction Five- Maybe this is wishful thinking, but I don’t think it is. I don’t think for one second that Hopper is dead. I think he’s the American that was alluded to in the stinger at the end of the last episode.

Again, maybe I just really want this to be true. but I’m okay with that, I still think I’m right.

When Season 4 comes out I’ll revisit this list and see how many predictions came true. In the meantime, what predictions do you have for Season 4? Let us know in the comments below.

It’s Banned Books Week. I remember when this used to be a whole month, do you remember that? Maybe it’s just me. Anyway, I love Banned Books Week. Why? Because I hate banning books. Here’s the thing. No one who tries to ban a book has your best interest at heart. The only reason to ban a book is to limit the reach of information and stifle education. Basically, if you want to ban a book, I think you’re a dick.

Some of the best books ever written have been banned for some of the most ridiculous reasons. Some of my favorite books. So today, I wanted to share with you my favorite books that landed on the banned book list. And I want to hear from you! What’s your favorite banned book? Let us know in the comments below!

Harry Potter by JK Rowling

So, when I start a list off of favorite books and Harry Potter is at the bottom, I hope that tells you something about what I think of the other books. The excuse given for banning Harry Potter is always that it involves witchcraft. But lots of books have witches, and no one ever puts up a fuss. In my opinion, the real sin is getting kids to read. A kid who reads is a kid who thinks. And some people just can’t have that.

Bone by Jeff Smith

Bone is one of the most creative, beautifully drawn, entertaining comic books I’ve ever read. If you haven’t read it, take some time to sit down and enjoy it this week. It’s a wild ride that starts with getting lost in the woods and ends with a queen retaking her throne. 

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Look, I’m not one to like a classic for classic’s sake. But this book was damned entertaining. It dealt with some hard topics and emotions. And while I would say this one is a little more appropriate for teenagers than little kids, I’ll accept a not yet instead of a no.

Maus by Art Spiegelman

This one straight up upset me. I read this comic without fully realizing what it was going to entail. I was expecting a version of the Holocaust story for children and teens. Seeing as how it’s, you know, a comic book. But no, this is totally for adults. And it made me sob. And we need to never forget what happened there. Especially since, you know, Nazis are making a comeback. Do you remember when calling someone a nazi was the worst thing you could call someone online? I miss that.

Scary Stories by Alvin Schwartz

Has anyone seen this movie yet? I haven’t gotten a chance to, but I am so excited. And no, I don’t think there’s a child this book is bad for. It’s creepy, sure, but that’s kind of the point. Now the artwork, man the artwork made these books!

A Light In The Attic by Shel Silverstein

There’s a light on in the attic, and it’s me still reading this book as an adult. These poems were so funny, so sweet, so creative, so universally adored. I would consider any childhood that doesn’t include these books to be a poorer one. 

Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson

Okay, I know how this book ends. I know because I’ve read this book several times. And yes, it made me cry every single time. But here’s the thing. Kids die, and that’s about the worst thing I can imagine. But with the number of school shootings always on the rise, not to mention the hundreds of other little and large demons waiting to snatch away a child’s life, kids sometimes have to deal with the fact that their friend isn’t coming back to school, can’t come out and play, and is now gone forever. Wouldn’t it be nice if there were a book or two that talked about how heart-wrenching that is? How it feels like the pain will never stop, never get any better? And then, how loss doesn’t get lighter, but we get stronger and more able to carry it? Wouldn’t it be nice if a book like that was readily available?!

I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

Funny story, I read this book first because it was a banned book. I fell in love with it right away. The story is rich, deep. In some ways, it’s way out of my realm of understanding and experience. In other ways, it was as though she’d taken a part of my life and lived it herself. Or, as she’s older than me, it was as though I’d taken part of her life, and lived it again without realizing who I’d taken it from. Everyone and I mean everyone should read this book. It should be in every library, every home, every school, every store. It should come free with existence and be required reading to be part of the human race.

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Probably one of the best book written of all time, To Kill a Mockingbird talks about the struggles of a time most of us never lived through. That some of us would like to forget ever happened at all. As a little girl, I saw myself as Scout. I guess maybe I still do. I’m aspiring to be like Atticus, standing up for what’s right and just no matter the hell I’ve got to walk through to do it. It’s a wonderful book, and one who’s messages and morals still echo today. I cannot imagine the soul who doesn’t think everyone should read this book. (Personal note, I might be biased. I love this book so much that I named my cat Harper, after the author. I wept when Mrs. Lee died, broke down into tears right at my day job.)

The Giver by Lois Lowry

I wrote a blog post recently about how I’ve literally read The Giver 20 times since I’ve read it on my birthday every year since I was thirteen. So I don’t think I need to tell you how significant I find this book, its lesson, and its continued need in our society. Because damned if I can’t see the seeds of this sort of life starting. I can see how people, scared and hungry, would give up their rights, their freedom of choice, their life, just to live. But that sort of life, without choice, without meaning, without love, it’s not any kind of life at all.

It’s just all the sad little bits of existence that we have to do to support the wild dreamy sweet and scary things that are really, truly, living. And that’s what that book taught me. That’s why I am who I am. And that’s why that book needs to be in the hands of everybody.

Point blank, it’s never a bad investment of money to buy a book. It’s never a bad investment of time to read a book.

It is always a bad, horrible, cruel, ignorant idea to ban a book.

We’re all aware I’m a liberal, right? Like a total left-wing liberal, worried about global warming, not a fan of guns, big fan of gays and women’s right to chose, follow AOC and Rashida Talib on social media voting for Bernie Sanders liberal. We know that, right?

Cool, now that we’ve got that out of the way, let me tell you what I thought of Showtime’s The Loudest Voice.

It’s a mini-series based on the book The Loudest Voice in the Room, by Gabriel Sherman. I haven’t read the book yet, but it’s on my list. But I did watch every episode of this mini-series.

It was difficult to watch, to put it mildly. I mean, first off it’s just hard to see Russell Crow looking that, well, disgusting. Here’s a picture of Crow looking like a hottie to make us all feel better.

But it was also difficult to watch because if even a tenth of this is true, then Roger Ailes was a monster who took advantage of and destroyed everyone he came in contact with.

Now, full disclosure, I don’t know and cannot confirm how much of this is true. That’s not my intention here. Just based on the way everything shook out there’s no way to know if any of the things discussed were true or not. I understood that going in. I advise you to keep it in mind as well.

I don’t know how much of it was true, but I know how much made my skin crawl. All of it. The answer is all of it. Every time Ailes rubbed his creepy hands on any woman, I just want to squirm. 

For those of you who don’t know, Roger Ailes was known for being more than handsy with his female employees. He’s known for expecting sexual favors from women for positions. He’s also known for being a completely crazy person who expected blind loyalty from everyone and would go into a blind rage if not obeyed.

Frequently when I watch one of these docudramas, I find some humanizing, compelling feature to the subject. There was none of that with Ailes. If anything, I hate him more. He was not a good husband, a good father or a good boss. He certainly wasn’t a good friend or neighbor. He seemed to exist only to do exactly as he pleased.

I have to say, I’m a bit of a news junkie. I don’t consume as much as some people, but probably more than most. And I’d never heard most of these stories. Like buying the newspaper in his town because he didn’t like the news they were putting out. 

After watching The Loudest Voice, I think I hate Fox News even more than I did before. I also dearly want to read the book.  If you watch The Loudest Voice, may I advise having something cute and cuddly to watch after? I’ve been watching Secret Life of the Zoo for like a week now, just as an emotional cleanse. Some things can only be cured by cheetah cubs. 

Have you seen The Loudest Voice? What did you think of it? Let us know in the comments below.

Station Central has been touted as the vacation destination in the stars. Its success and popularity as not only a great place to vacation, but a great place to live was the start of mankind moving off of Earth and into the stars.
Sennett, Godfrey and Liam head there in search of a much-needed vacation. Instead, they find a council at war with each other, a population starving and an accused murderer lurking in the shadows. Sennett and Godfrey fight to keep April safe as family secrets threaten to destroy them, even as the Hollow Suits come out of hiding and attack. Will they survive the fourth installment of Station 86?

Get it now on Amazon!