Category Archives: media

books to movies

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Books being made into movies that I am excited for:

City of Bones by Cassandra Clare … I have to admit I was thrown off when I heard that Alex Pettyfer turned down the role of Jace Wayland, but Jamie Campbell Bower is growing on me day by day!

jace

Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta … this hasn’t begun filming yet, but I am FREAKING OUT about this one.  The book is 200% incredible, and the secrets in it will be harder to keep in a film version, but Marchetta herself seems to be pretty involved with the project, and I know her influence will keep things on track.

Ender’s Game by Scott Orson Card … this one is coming to theatres SO SOON.  Card was unwilling to sell the film rights to anyone who wouldn’t agree to make Ender 12 or younger, and it will be really interesting to see a film full of young stars (could be hit or miss!).

Magician’s Nephew by C.S. Lewis … the most important things to me in this movie are 1) Who will write the score?  (Remember, Aslan sings Narnia into creation) and 2) How will they show that Digory is Professor Kirke in the future?

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern … this is going to be INCREDIBLE, and it is being produced by David Heyman of Harry Potter fame!

Books I want to be made into movies:

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green … for goodness sakes, it was TIME’s #1 book of 2012!  There has to be a movie coming along, right?  Whoever they choose as Augustus Waters will probably be my new celebrity crush.

Finnikin of the Rock by Melina Marchetta … I keep picturing a young Natalie Portman for this one.  I would go crazy if this were to be made into a movie!

Peace Like a River by Leif Enger … I had lunch with him last spring (yes, for real!), and he said that someone had purchased the rights in the past and then changed the screenplay around so much that it wasn’t even the same story.  I’m glad that one fell through, but I’d like to see a true-to-the-story rendering of it someday!

The Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis … I keep freaking out because they are making the Narnia movies one by one, and I’m so nervous that they won’t get all the way to HHB.  This story lends itself to a movie!!  If I were in charge, I’d make Shasta and Aravis a little older and amp up the love story!  I wonder if Cor and Corrin would be played by the same actor or by twins.

Also, I wish desperately there was another Harry Potter movie on the horizon.  How about you?

this artsy life

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May I just say that I love living in the Twin Cities of Minnesota, which boast the nation’s second highest number of arts opportunities per capita (after New York City)?  Well, I do.

Here are my most recent adventures:

First, my friend Anna and I went to the Fitzgerald Theater, St. Paul’s oldest theater, to hear Erin Morgenstern, author of The Night Circus, be interviewed for Minnesota Public Radio and the Star Tribune’s “Talking Volumes” event.  You may remember that I posted earlier this year about The Night Circus, which blew my mind and was one of my favorite books I read this year.  It tells the story of two magicians in a competition who end up in love.  Morgenstern was so sweet and unassuming, and she seemed legitimately surprised that so many people would show up to hear her interview.  She talked about how the book is being made into a movie, and how the Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab is making a Night Circus line of perfume.  Some musicians at the event had written a song called “Morgenstern’s Circus in C Minor.”  It’s like fan fiction in different media!  Absolutely loved it.  Spin-off art!

I was very encouraged to hear Morgenstern speak because she was so real and told us that The Night Circus didn’t even have a plot when she first wrote it!  It reminds me so much of the writing of Lights All Around, when, day after day, I would just sit down and write whatever was on my mind, hoping it would all eventually be “book-shaped,” Morgenstern’s word for it.

The next night, I went with Eir to the Mixed Blood Theater in Minneapolis to watch the musical “Next to Normal.”  A musical about bipolar disorder … I wasn’t sure how it was going to be, but it was unbelievable!  The music was beautiful, and the story was heart-breaking.  I held in my tears for the whole two hours– but barely!  To show such a deep depression through the evocative power of music just rended my heart.  And for this obsessive-compulsive girl who has fought such similar battles, it struck so close to home!  The depression, the sadness, the way it hurts the people you love, all the pills and the therapists and grasping at straws.  If you ever have the opportunity to see this musical (which has been on Broadway in the past), please do.  It may very well change you.

I love my cities.  I never believed this smalltown farm girl would say something like that, but it’s so true!

I always think of Mpls as masculine and St. Paul as feminine. Is that weird?

literature, time, and other thoughts

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They were drawing me.  The books.

It was like my car was on autopilot– I thought I was headed to Dunn Bros, but when I drove past it, I wasn’t surprised.  Instead, I just let my car take me to Barnes and Noble.

It’s been a little while since I have been here.  Now that I have a membership and have free shipping, I’ve been buying most of my books online.  Today it wasn’t enough.  I had to be with them, surrounded by them, which is why I am drinking a banana chocolate smoothie, typing on my laptop alone, but feeling like I am in the company of friends– or future friends.

To be honest, I feel a little overwhelmed.  There are so many books I want to read, I don’t know when I’m going to find time to get to them all.  I perused the “Summer Reading” table and found more that intrigued me.  From where I sit, I can see the “New Fiction” shelves, and I wonder if I’ll ever have a book there.

I feel pulled so many ways.  I want to readreadREAD, but I am trying to balance that out with plenty of time for writing, which I love even more.  But my writing is informed and inspired by what I read, so I have to keep fueling that fire.  Those two activities alone could keep me busy until I die, I think, and yet– I have even more important things in my life than these.

People.  God.

I know everyone gets 24 hours a day, but I wish I could have more.  How am I supposed to be a loving, caring daughter and friend while working fulltime and writing a novel and feeding an obsessive reading habit– all while never neglecting my true love Jesus Christ and his church?

Praise God that OCD is no longer demanding so much of my attention.  How did I manage?  It feels like a different lifetime.

And yet, I have friends who do all this and take care of a spouse and children.  It boggles my mind.

I want my life to matter, want to leave a mark.  It seems difficult to do when my interests are so spread– I worry that my efforts in each area will be lacking because I didn’t have enough time invested into each one.

I think that one of the reasons I decided to keep a list of books I have read and reviewed (click THE READER tab above) was to try to organize at least one part of my life.  When I sit here in the bookstore, surrounded by all this brilliance, I know that there will be corners I never explore.  Somehow maybe this will help me keep better control of the labyrinth I’m in.

And what a beautiful labyrinth.

writing music

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For you writers out there, do you listen to music while you write?  What kind?  How loud?  Lyrics or no?  Do you make playlists based on what you’re writing?

My preferences have changed over time, but I find that now I like to write to music with no lyrics, usually background music from movies.  Right now I am loving Harry Gregson-Williams (the early Narnia albums), Carter Burwell (Where the Wild Things Are), Alexandre Desplat (Deathly Hallows and Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close), along with other Potter composers like Nicholas Hooper, John Williams, and Patrick Doyle.  So good.  Carter Burwell has a song called “Life Death Birth” (which is from the Breaking Dawn album, don’t judge me) that is just so wonderful to write to.

Sometimes I make playlists to get myself into a particular mood/attitude while I am working a particular scene.  I have a “sadness” playlist, a “you can do it!” playlist, a “falling in love” playlist, and a “confused” playlist.  My friend Caitlin thinks I am silly but endearing. Ha!

Would love to hear how music influences your writing!  Please comment!

is the book always better?

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I’m a reader and a writer, so it naturally follows that I would be more in favor of a book instead of its movie companion.  There are few exceptions to this rule for me, but they do exist.  Here are a few where the movie versions really held their own!!

Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix
Book: 870 pages of Harry being a moody 15-year-old.
Movie: a lovely condensed version of that angst, along with incredible cinematography.

Meet the Robinsons
Book: a silly but wonderful little children’s book
Movie: a brilliant expansion of the book, along with a clever twist

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
Book: perfection.
Movie: almost perfect– a very well-done interpretation!

What are some stories of which you’ve both read the book and seen the movie?  Which one was better?