The Butterfly Effect III: Revelations
Director: Seth Grossman
Starring: Rachel Miner, Chris Carmack, Melissa Jones
Studio: Lionsgate
ASIN: B001P9N94E
Release Date: March 31, 2009
Running Time: 90 minutes
Rated R for graphic bloody violence, a strong sex scene including nudity, language, and some drug content


Sam Reide has the ability to travel back to any time or location within his own lifetime. His sheltered sister, Jenna, monitors him while he lies in a bathtub full of icy water. He first went back in time to save his sister from a fire when, but he ended up changing the timeline as his parents die in the fire.

Sam's girlfriend, Rebecca, was murdered a few years before and her sister, Elizabeth, believes that the killer is still out there, which means Rebecca's murderer, that is behind bars and is going to be executed within days, is innocent.

Sam goes back in time to the night of Rebecca's murder, just to see who the killer is, but then he tries to stop her death, only resulting in her being murdered in a different manor. When he returns back to the present, things have changed and he is now a murder suspect in not just Rebecca's death, but in a string of murders. Each time he goes back to find the murderer he changes his current timeline, and one by one his most trusted allies are being murdered.

I've enjoyed doing Tae Bo for about two years now and I was excited to buy the PT 24/7 from an eBay store seller last year, which I paid around $55 for it new. It came in a nice packaging box and in it was the two gloves, bands, velcro foot straps, a workout calendar, a diet guide book, and the 7 30 minute DVD workouts.

The workouts are:

Basics

Cardio

Combo Sculpt

Ripped Core

In book one of the Hollyweird series, fifteen-year-old Kris Golden works part time at Disco Diva's Diner. She spends her free time auditioning for parts that her agent lines up for her. It's Hollywood, where everyone wants to be a star. Her school life isn't the greatest as her Algebra grades aren't so well, plus she is like the only girl in her high school who doesn't have a boyfriend. Kris may seem like your regular California girl, but she has a secret.

Kris is a necromancer, she can raise the dead.

This may sound terrible because every other writer seems to come up with all of these  interesting people or situations which inspired them to write. That’s not really the case where I’m concerned. I just enjoy writing, simple as that. Although some stories may be inspired by certain situations in my life there is no one specific thing or person to mention.

I never even thought I'd ever be a writer. I tripped into the business, literally. I fell off of a train on the way to visit my future in laws. I broke my knee and ended up needing surgery and quite a few months healing up. At the time I was a professional firefighter. A broken knee in the fire service isn't going cut it.

Adopting Terror
Director: Micho Rutare
Starring: Sean Astin, Samaire Armstrong, Monet Mazur, Brendan Fehr, and Michael Gross
Studio: The ASYLUM Home Entertainment
ASIN: B008CLI45M
Release Date: September 11, 2012
Running Time: 90 minutes
Unrated

Adopting Terror aired on Lifetime earlier this year, in which I didn't watch it because I don't care for most of the channel's programming. The movie was made by Asylum Home Entertainment, whom I have reviewed a few DVDs for this year, and they nicely let me view an online screening of Adopting Terror through Fordela.

The movie stars Sean Astin and Samaire Armstrong as Tim and Cheryl Broadbent, who are proud parents of their newly adopted daughter, Mona. Just when they are adjusting to being a family, a stranger shows up at Mona's first birthday party. The stranger is Mona's birthfather, Kevin Anderson (played by Brendan Fehr), who was released from prison on a technicality.

Kevin follows Cheryl while she is grocery shopping, he shows up at their house, and he even shows up at their friend's home to mow the yard. The police can't help them as there is no real proof that he is stalking them. The social worker, Fay Hopkins (played Monet Mazur), tries to give them advice on the situation, but nothing seems to helps as Kevin is determined to take back his daughter.

The original Dallas series was a big hit on TV when I was young. The show’s protagonist was also one of the show’s villains. J.R. Ewing, billed as the man we love to hate. It was that appellation that first got me thinking about creating characters readers would both love and hate. J.K. Rowling did a masterful turn at this in creating Severus Snape. Even his name told us to hate him, and yet there was something alternately charming and redeeming about the man that over time drew readers to him.

In creating the Hollyweird series I had this idea in mind. I wanted to create characters that we may not like in the beginning (ala Snape) and yet in time, would grow to love them, or at least understand them. In writing my first YA, Never Slow Dance With A Zombie, I created a selfish protagonist in Margot Jean Johnson. I thought it would be fun for readers to see how she justified her mean and selfish actions before I set out to redeem her in the end. My editor at Tor warned me that readers might have difficulty identifying with Margot. But I wanted to write a flawed protagonist and did. While that first book sold well, the reviews were mixed. A LOT of young women hated Margot. Lesson learned.

I always strive to create characters that ring true, that readers actually come across in real life. Characters we might not like at first glance, but we recognize as people we know. In writing The Zombie Always Knocks Twice I made sure the characters we will eventually love to hate were not my protagonists. Anne Marie, Kris’ hateful older sister, and Talia Multisanto, Kris’ adventuresome, boozing best friend who has a knack for starting trouble, are peripheral characters in this first book. Still, my very first review on Goodreads had this to say about Talia: I don't see how Kris and Talia could ever be best friends when they're so different. And Talia is also a great piece of work, if I may add. What with the drinking, venting on people, acts of revenge etc.. She's gotta drive Kris crazy one of these days.