Six Sentence Sunday

It's been awhile since we've done one of these, so we thought it would be ideal to do another Six Sentence Sunday blog. Enjoy!

He raised one hand. Her garter was dangling from his index finger. "I think I was supposed to remove this at the reception."

Chloe laughed. "And toss it to a group of single men."

"The same way I removed it here?"

Getting Lucky In Seven Different Ways

There's been a meme going around online for a little while now among bloggers. It's called the Lucky Seven Meme. The idea behind it is simple. You go to the seventy seventh page of your manuscript, and go down seven lines. Then you copy the next seven sentences of your manuscript. We thought we'd try this ourselves today, and so after counting pages and such, we found it. At least we think so. We do tend to get carried away with ourselves, you know. The following is a brief passage from Same Time Tomorrow. Enjoy it, and let us know what you think!

And now he was here, helping Chloe cope with her mother’s downturn. It had never occurred to him not to come. It was the right thing to do. She was holding up admirably, he had decided. Despite her fears and anxieties over her mothers’ health, she was still coping, still found some inner reserve of strength, had comforted him over his own loss as he had comforted her.

He had never met anyone like her. And now she was contending with the unthinkable.

An Astonishing View From The Top

We have our friend Eve Gaal to thank for originally setting us onto this place. Awhile back we got a slideshow of images from her about this outcrop, and we think it might be an ideal place to write into future works. Preikestolen is known in English as Pulpit Rock or Preacher's Rock. It's a massive cliff over the Lysefjorden in Norway, and each year, thousands of hikers make the trip up to the overhang to take in the view. It looks like a smashing place to be, and we think that it would be a fine place for our characters Chloe and Gabriel to visit in a future book. After all, part of our book Same Time Tomorrow actually starts in Norway, and it seems right to head back there. In the meantime, we thought we'd do a photoblog of the place. Just as long as you don't have a problem with heights....

A Return To Titanic: Somewhere Across The Sea

Titanic has been re-released in theatres for a limited time to commemorate the centennial of the sinking of the luxury liner. James Cameron's masterpiece has been glossed over into the 3D format, and so Scarlett and I thought we'd do a review of the film, in the way that only we can, of course....

When it comes to movies, we don't always agree, but there's one thing we both agree on: we hate 3D! I think far too many filmmakers have come to rely on special effects and 3D (George Lucas and James Cameron, I'm talking about you) instead of story and character. Titanic is, in my opinion, one of the best movies ever made. To reissue it in 3D is absurd. But following Titanic with Avatar was a harbinger of things to come from Cameron...

The film is told as a story in the present day. An elderly survivor of the disaster (Gloria Stuart) recounts her story to her granddaughter and a salvage crew led by an eager salvager (Bill Paxton) out at sea, above the site where the ship came to rest. The elderly Rose tells them how, as a young woman (Kate Winslet), while she was heading home to America, to an impending wedding to Cal (Billy Zane) a man she didn't love, she met another man, Jack Dawson (Leonardo DiCaprio), who changed her life.

I absolutely loved the love story between Jack and Rose! Poor boy meets rich girl-- all right, so it's not original, it still works. But then I'm a sucker for a good love story... as you well know, my love. I thought Kate Winslet was wonderful as the elegant but troubled Rose. She's been one of my favourite actresses ever since I first saw Titanic back in 1997.

She's certainly an exceptional talent. The story really is hers, the person she becomes through this all too brief voyage. Meeting this rough and tumble wanderer from the proverbial other side of the tracks changes every expectation about life she ever had. Jack sees the world in a very clear way.

As she says in the movie, he saved her in every way a woman could be saved. I liked that after he was gone, she went off to do all the things he told her she would do. He gave her courage... courage to walk away from her overbearing fiancee and her selfish, manipulative mother (Frances Fisher). Rose narrowly escaped drowning in more ways then one.

And the rest of the cast rounds out things. Billy Zane is dastardly and rotten as Cal, contrasting to Jack's basic goodness. And he's backed up by that contemptuous valet of his (David Warner), to make matters worse, not to mention, as you say it, that selfish and manipulative mother of hers...

The film consists of other good performances from character actors like Victor Garber, Bernard Hill, Jonathan Hyde, and many more. Beyond that, it's a spectacle, going into as much detail as possible about the ship, the class differences of the time, and ultimately the sinking itself. Cameron is definitely one who pays attention to the slightest thing, and it shows in the final product.

Darling, you pay attention to detail! You analyze every film we see. That's why you're such a good reviewer. I just go on my gut. If it evokes the right emotions from me, I'm good. I may be aware of these things on some level, but I want to be so caught up in the story and the characters that I forget it's just a movie. Like that scene in which Rose poses nude for Jack, wearing only that necklace... I got turned on just watching that!

Remember when we took a hint or two out of that scene and sketched each other nude?

You're actually quite a good artist, love. But then you've always been good with your hands.

I've had an inspiring model, goddess!

Well, the movie's out there again in theatres. If you can manage the 3D, go and see the epic love story played out against the sinking. We missed watching the sinking this time out. We ended up going down together... or getting off together... or going down on each other. Take your pick.