I love A Wrinkle in Time. It's one of my all-time favorite books. Yet, I never thought "I so need this to be a movie." So when the news came out one was being made, I got more than a little nervous. Credit Because of the fan contract, I went to see it over the weekend with Bestie Danielle. People I knew who saw it loved it, but the reviews in general were not good. This didn't color my opinion either way. For the first time ever I went into a movie with no preconceived notions and was just along for the ride. The movie wasn't a total aberration but it wasn't really true to canon either. There's a reason why they say "based on" and not "exact replica." Instead of a true movie reviewer style write up, I'll break this down by what they got right and was they didn't. What Was Right Charles Wallace. OMG, I loved Charles Wallace. He was precocious and adorable and slightly off just like the book version. The actor delive...

Zombie Thur sdays is a weekly feature with guest blogger, Miranda. You can read more about her here . Hello! And welcome to another edition of Zombie Thursday! Today I want to profile another cool actor. He's not especially famous for playing a zombie, but he is incredibly famous. He's been in over 90 films and television shows, and even though you have most definitely seen him, you may not even know or realize who he is! Around my birthday back in February, I was watching the Disney Channel. I'm a huge Disney fan and watch it rather frequently. I'm not embarrassed by this fact. It just so happened that one of my favorite movies of all time was on, and one that features a zombie! A zombie in a Disney movie? On the Disney Channel? Not as strange or out of place as you might think (Disney has produced some f@*ked up movies... I love them! But they are messed up. Something Wicked this Way Comes, anyone? But I digress...) Anyway! The movie I'm referring to is Hocus Pocu...

Yep, that is a horrible pun for the fact we're approaching March* and I don't care. The last several months for yours truly has epically been made of suck and I'm looking forward to all the things that happen once March 1 arrives. I just need to make it through one extra day of February**. Since blogging at The Pie has been spastic and not terribly brilliant as of late, I want to share with you what I'm looking forward to. Movies Even though there's more hype about the Hunger Games movie, the one I'm more than ready to see comes out in a week and a half. John Carter stars Taylor Kitsch (Tim Riggins to most of you) which means a lot of ogling. I have no shame and am proud to admit it. Don't think I'm not looking forward to seeing Hunger Games because I am. There's talk about a movie date with Bestie Danielle and that alone is a good reason. Editing and Revision For something different, I'll be revising in March. This time it will be a...

Horrible movies. We've all seen them. Some people live for the craptacular*. The stilted dialogue and the horrible CGI make you giddy with glee. You've got your heckle down to a well-oiled machine. Hate or love them, bad movies do kinda rock. They rock even harder when you can learn from them. If you've followed The Pie for a while, you know that I've shared what you can learn about storyboarding by watching The Room . Did you can learn about tension by watching R Kelly's Trapped in the Closet? Yes, you can. Today we'll focus on the "read on prompt." For those in the Lurkdom who don't know what this means, it's when a scene or chapter ends in such a way that makes you want to read a bit more. The most common version of this is the cliffhanger. While R Kelly abuses the cliffhanger feature, he does the job of making you want to see what happens in the next scene. (That each scene grows a bit more ridiculous** is a totally different R Ke...

This weekend while we were supposed to be ravaged by Hurricane Tropical Storm A Lot of Wind Irene, I spent more time hammering out my latest WIP. I got tired of watching bad 90s television for background noise and decided I would see what entertainment On Demand had for me. Don't judge The first two movies in the Step Up franchise are among my guilty pleasures : awesome dance sequences, decent enough plots, and predictable love stories totally rock my world*. Step Up 3 (as my On Demand called it) is part of a series of loosely-linked movies. It's also one of the first dance films using 3D technology, the first (as far as I can tell) is StreetDance 3D , released a few months prior. Today I'll focus on both aspects and how this applies to writing. Whose story you're telling might change. You start your current WIP talking about Hunky Henry and his love of metal sporks, but somewhere in your drafting process you find out that Ginormous Jennifer is involved wit...

The Breakfast Club. Sixteen Candles. Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Weird Science. Pretty in Pink. Who hasn't watched any of these movies and go "damn, that's me"? Image courtesy of 123nonstop . Don't You Forget About Me is a documentary about John Hughes' impact on teens worldwide. The documentary follows four directors as they road trip in search of John Hughes. Throughout we get bits of interviews with people who Hughes' influence has touched. This includes the actors he had worked with during the making of these films plus directors of today. What I liked best was the interviews they did with kids who were currently in school. Every one interviewed spoke to how the "teen films" that Hughes wrote spoke to them more than the current teen films today. This is because movies like the ones I mentioned on top tackle things we all went through without glamorizing it. (How many teen flicks have the perfect boy and/or girl driving the lates...

Zombie Thursdays is a weekly feature with guest blogger, Miranda. You can read more about her here . " And the sea gave up the dead that were in it; and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works." Revelation 20:13 Recently, I have heard news reports about a group of people (led by an organization called Family Radio) who believe that "Judgement Day" will be on May 21, 2011. It is also their belief that this day will be followed by five months of torture for those on Earth and will culminate with the end of the world on October 21, 2011. During these five months, according to the book of Revelation, men will be plagued by locusts, fire, and the dead rising from their graves. "When there's no more room left in Hell, the dead will walk the Earth..." Okay... so that last quote isn't from the Bible, although many people seem to think that it is. As most horror fans will know, it actually ...

Every Wednesday, YA Highway asks their readership a simple question to answer on your blog. Once you answer, you link your blog in the comments for other readers to hop on board. This is Road Trip Wednesday. The ladies at YA Highway changed it up this week. Today we ask the questions and you give the answers in the comments. Exciting, right? RIGHT! So, today's question: What book do you want to see as a movie or TV series? Since my Dark Tower prayers have been answered, I get to pick something else. And since it's my blog, I get to pick two. Book to TV Series Megan McCafferty's Sloppy Firsts. I think it would work best on the CW. Book to Movie Stephen King's Eyes of the Dragon made as an anime. Did you like this question? Then hop over to YA Highway and see what the other road trippers are saying! Don't forget to enter our race to 150 contest ! (And spread the word for extra entries.) _____ Last.fm hit of the day : No Good by Vermillion L...

Zombie Thur sdays is a weekly feature with guest blogger, Miranda. You can read more about her here . First off, I have to begin today's Zombie Thursday with a very special HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ALICIA! That's right, today is the birthday of the woman who is the brains behind the whole 'Pie' operation! So in her honor, I would like to share this with everyone (found on the "MonkeyMinion" Etsy shop, available for purchase)-- Yay! Happy Birthday! As soon as I discover where a post office is in Chicago (no, I really haven't figured this one out yet), her real birthday present will be in the mail! I still remember one birthday involving a hotel pool and an inflatable sheep... but I'll let her tell that story someday. I have been watching a lot of movies lately. I'm not sure why, but I've just been in a horror movie watching kick. Good, bad, funny, horribly awful-- I've been watching them all. I've even had time to squeeze in some zombie film...

Zombie Thur sdays is a weekly feature with guest blogger, Miranda. You can read more about her here . Very recently I re-watched a great zombie film, one that I had kind of forgotten about. Peter Jackson's 1992 film Dead Alive (as it was released in America, or Braindead in its home country of New Zealand) is often called the goriest film ever made! Even if you're not a fan of horror films or zombie movies, most reader's will know Peter Jackson as the mastermind behind the Lord of the Rings films. And knowing Jackson as the man who brought Tolkien to the screen, it is hard to imagine that he is also the creator of something like Dead Alive. That's not to say Dead Alive is a bad film, by any means. Low budget by today's standards (made for three million), it's very much a "90's film." I remember being young and going to the video store (when people still went to video stores) and although my parents would never actually let me rent one, I...

Last Tuesday , I talked about guilty pleasure music. If you haven't read it and are too lazy to click the link , I'll recap what defines a "guilty pleasure." A guilty pleasure has to be something that you're reluctant to admit to. It's that thing you get all excited about even though you know you shouldn't. For a movie, this isn't the hipster movie you like though you know you shouldn't because of it's awful acting, plot, writing, etc. If you like The Room, that's not a guilty pleasure. If you Google it, you'll find a lot of people who admit to liking it too. I'm a little less hesitant to share my movie guilty pleasures because it's not as big of a secret. I own the DVDs, but I still get all red when Hubby teases me. And you know what? I'm not even going to defend them*. I'll just show you movie posters. Lurkdom, help me out here. WHAT ARE YOUR MOVIE GUILTY PLEASURES? * Well, maybe I'll defend What a...

"If I just keep on going, everything will turn out fine." - Big Bird, Follow That Bird I loved this movie growing up. Big Bird is sent off to live with the Dodo family in Illinois and far away from Sesame Street, but he doesn't like it there. He's homesick. He takes it upon himself to go back to his real home. It's a simple premise, but it's old school Sesame Street and created for little kids, not us big ones. The best part of the movie are the songs. My favorite is the song with Waylon Jennings* and Big Bird called "Ain't No Road Too Long." If your firewall's blocking the video, go here for the lyrics. ** The song speaks a lot to anyone on the journey to publication. At first you know nothing about the journey and think it will be super fast, then someone with more knowledge tells you how long it really takes. You think, "Crap. It'll never happen." Then Waylon Jennings breaks into song. When he tells you "...

Zombie Thur sdays is a weekly feature with guest blogger, Miranda. You can read more about her here . Happy Thanksgiving to the Lurkdom! Last year I was very pleased to bring you all a blog about why a zombie would choose brains to eat. If you have just recently joined us, go check out last year's Thanksgiving Edition! Okay, now that you have caught up with me and have learned why brains are potentially the best diet for a zombie, let's chat about something that's been bothering me when it comes to the food of the undead. ***Warning, this post contains a few spoilers for the film Survival of the Dead . You have been warned.*** Zombies are terrifying. Horrifically so. I've challenged you all before to take a moment and try to imagine your life during the zombie apocalypse. Picture having the undead swarming around you or your home. You don't know where they have come from, why they are reanimated, how they're walking around... the one thing that you do kn...

Hey all, Miranda here! I'm hijacking Slice of the Blog Pie today to bring you a little horror goodness! I'm about to head to a twenty-four hour horror film festival that is held every year at the Music Box Theatre in Chicago. This year they are showing a great lineup of some classic horror films including the original silent Phantom of the Opera , The Raven, Pet Sematary, The Funhouse, Fright Night, and KILLER KLOWNS FROM OUTER SPACE! I'm very excited for this weekend, so I wanted to share with you the awesome trailer from Killer Klowns! Enjoy!

Zombie Thur sdays is a weekly feature with guest blogger, Miranda. You can read more about her here . Welcome to part two of the Robert Englund Zombie Sex-tacular! Before we get to the zombies, let me tell you a brief story of when I was first introduced to Mr. Englund's awesome greatness. I must have been about eight years old (maybe younger) and I was on a trip with my aunts. We were staying in a hotel and had the television on late at night. There was a show on, just at the very end. I don't think my aunts quite knew what the show was, or else they probably wouldn't have let me watch it (then again, I also have very distinct memories of watching Ghoulies 2 and Killer Klowns... at my aunts' house, so they probably didn't care all that much). On the show, there ended up being a girl who was ripped to shreds by a clawed hand as her mother and sister looked on. That clawed glove belonged to Freddy Krueger and the show was Freddy's Nightmares. I remembered...

Zombie Thur sdays is a weekly feature with guest blogger, Miranda. You can read more about her here . **Today's Zombie Thursday post contains adult content and language. Not that I could stop you, but please don't read if you are underage or are easily offended by things like nudity, sex, stripping, and zombies. You have been warned.** The only thing that's better than one item about zombie sex is TWO things involving zombie sex! That's right, friends, today the Zombie Sex-tacular is back! Last night on the Facebooks, I posed a "trivia" question of sorts to my friends. I asked to see if anyone could guess the celebrity crush I will be writing about today. Not only were there no correct guesses, but those who I thought would be most likely to guess either didn't guess at all or were wrong. But that's okay, no worries. I'll have to come up with a better contest of sorts. Until then, I will be talking about two movies (this week and next) that...