50 Shades ... 5 Thoughts

Have you seen it?



Five Thoughts:
(I almost went with 50 thoughts and then, I thought, mmm, no.)

1. Sometimes the book is better than the movie, but in this case I can say the opposite. The movie steadily unfolds (and undresses) with close similarity to the original plot. Plus, the repetitive phrases that were littered throughout the book are mostly reduced to visual innuendo. And, there's lots to, uh "view" ... trust me.



2. As for the casting, my fellow movie-goer friend agreed that the actress for Anastasia Steele looked the part while the actor for Christian Grey wasn't quite as captivating (pun intended).
*On a side note, I don't know why his curly hair reminded me of David Hasselhoff from his Knight Rider days. When I told this to my movie-goer friend, she said I just ruined the whole movie for her.

    

3. Then, there were a few "strategic" nude scenes when I couldn't stop picturing Austin Powers  in front of a some prop while holding up two melons to cover the topless woman behind him.




4. I ate way too much buttered popcorn while viewing the movie.
(That's it. I needed a #4 and this is it. Get over it. #5 is really cool. Look.)

 

5. All this hype reminded me that I ran a fun post on the 50 Shades back when it was a red hot book.
If you need a good laugh and are a fan, it's a must-read! There's links at the bottom of the post of both Ellen DeGeneres and Gilbert Gottfried doing readings - hilarious!

Check it out:
Fifty Shades of Grey: What is it about this book?

So, what did you think of the movie? Comment here or on my Facebook Page!


     

Ira Glass and the "Gap"

Quick! What do do think of when I say, "Gap"?

Is it this?  

Or this toothy gap? 

How about this gap?  

Or even, yikes, "thigh gap"? (This blank space is the picture. The model's legs are to the left and right of your screen.)

I bet you never heard of this gap. (If you did, bonus points for you!) 

I made two major discoveries after happening upon this quote while scrolling through the newsfeed on Facebook.

Discovery #1 - Aha! I'm digging my way out of a gap.

When I started my first novel, I did it for fun and to see if I really could do it. Then, I wrote my second novel to see if I could do it better. Then, I realized if I  wanted to do this as a career, I better learn how to sell books. The entire task seemed like an uphill climb that I surely could manage with a steady pace of acquired knowledge. I hadn't anticipated what would follow. You see, an odd thing occured. The more I learned, the more the fog lifted on the incline above me until I realized I was standing in the valley of Everest wearing only running shoes and equipped with only a water bottle and a granola bar.

So, here I am in this valley or "gap" and I see this quote. It seems like just the advice I need. This guy seems like he knows a thing or two. And then, I wonder, "Who is Ira Glass?"
(I honestly never heard of him ... I'm sorry to say.)

Discovery #2 - Ira Glass, according to Wikipedia, is "an American public radio personality and the host and producer of the radio and television show This American Life."

And, as I researched him further, I landed upon a few more notable quotes, that seemed to follow up on the first one:

     

Hopefully, you found these quotes and thoughts inspiring and motivating, too! I'd love to hear your thoughts. Share here or on my Facebook page, Audry Fryer, Author.

And then, swing on over to my website, which has two novels and a short story that are in very "good taste"!

www.audryfryer.com

Five Friday Funnies: Awkward Valentines

It's time again for Five Friday Funnies. Woo hoo! In the spirit of this holiday of love and romance, I present you with these Valentine's Day cards that can't go wrong (well, on second thought, maybe they could go very, very wrong).  Enjoy! Some are funny. Some are pun-ny. And some are just plain awkward.

#1 If you want romance, you gotta go with Shakespeare, right?!?

#2 If you want to butter up your Valentine ...

#3 Pour a martini and add ...

#4 Nobody does romance like Pumba.

#5  Who needs heart shaped love letters when a Venn Diagram can get right to the point?

Happy Valentine's Day!!!! I love my readers!!!!

The Harper Lee Debate

So, here's the question, and I'd love to hear what you think: Is Harper Lee being manipulated into releasing the sequel to "To Kill a Mockingbird" or is she reportedly, "alive and kicking and happy as hell with the reactions to Watchman"? (source BBC News)

I, for one, hope that the second scenario is true ... I hope she is "happy as hell". As a writer, I can understand the tremendous amount of pressure she must have felt to have any other work measure up to the impossibly high standards of Mockingbird. So, I can see why she hid it for all these years (55 years!). Maybe age and with it, a new perspective, could have changed her mind about putting her work out there once more.

Still, I've lived on this planet long enough to be skeptical of the motivations of those people responsible for bringing her "lost novel" out of hiding and, most significantly, up for sale. For this reason, I am hesitant to purchase it once it's available in July of this year. (Of course, I'm only going as far to say "hesitant" to buy it and not "never, ever".)

So, which side of the debate do you believe? Manipulated or "happy as hell"? Share here or on my Facebook page!