Thursday, 9 July 2015

Movie Madness: The Other Woman



Welcome back to Movie Madness!

This week's film is a bit of a departure from my usual genre - it's a light rom-com called The Other Woman. Once again this isn't a new film, but it was a film I watched when I was on my own one Saturday night, and I was pleasantly surprised by it. It tells the story of Carly, who finds out her new seemingly perfect boyfriend is actually married. She becomes (through no fault of her own) best friends with her ex-boyfriend's wife, Kate, and together they team up with his second mistress, Amber, to plot his downfall.


You'd be right if you were thinking that this film is basically a load of brain-fluff. It is. But it's funny brain-fluff, so I didn't mind too much.

Cameron Diaz, Leslie Mann and Kate Upton work really well together, and I firmly believed in their somewhat unusual friendship. Considering the circumstances, you'd think they'd end up hating each other, but this is one of those films where friends are placed firmly above men. I especially loved Leslie Mann, and she played the slightly-weird, kooky wife perfectly - I really felt for her situation. If I found out my husband had not one mistress but several on the go at once, there's no way I would've handled the situation as well as she did.

It's a fairly straight forward plot that you don't have to think about, but the jokes were good and the chemistry between the three main actresses was fantastic. The scene where Cameron Diaz and Leslie Mann run along the beach and end up fighting actually had me laughing out loud.

I also loved Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (who's also Jaime Lannister from GoT) who plays Mark in this film too - he's slick, sophisticated and does a great job of playing the nice guy when he's actually a huge douche. In some parts even I was confused about whether to feel sorry for him or not, because he did such a good job of covering his tracks and showing remorse over his serial womanising! Luckily, his true colours where eventually unveiled. The only thing I didn't like about this film is when Mark completely lost his rag at the end - I get that it's a lot to take in when your web of lies comes crashing down, but he'd been such a slick character up to that point, it seemed completely out of character for him to lose his temper. But then again, I guess he never was a nice guy!

Overall, if you're looking for something to watch when you have the girls over, or you want a light film for a Sunday night, then I'd definitely recommend this!

Have you seen The Other Woman? What did you think of it? Do you like 'light' chick-flick films or something with a bit more edge to it?


*

It's also day 4 of the Synthetica blog tour - don't forgot to check out today's tour hosts: The Bibliophile Chronicles and Words I Write Crazy!

Wednesday, 8 July 2015

Synthetica book tour - Character Spotlight: Dalla

Morning all!

Today is Day 3 of the Synthetica blog tour: I'm over at The Phantom Paragrapher and Travel with Books and Coffee - thanks for having me!

Continuing with the theme of spotlighting all of Synthetica's main characters during the blog tour, today on my blog we're going to be getting more of an in-depth look at Dalla Goddard, Anais' best friend and a girl with a heart of gold.

This is how I imagine Dalla - minus all the weird flowers in her hair...


Name: Dalla Goddard
Age: 17
Lives: Imperial City
Occupation: Intern at Civitas

Quickfire Interview:

What are you up to right now?
I'm just chillin' at home, listening to music on my RetCom and messaging my BBF, Anais. Oh, and talking to you, obviously!

Favourite place?
I love my bedroom! In fact, my whole flat is pretty awesome. And I love going to the park at sunset. It's my favourite time of day.

Favourite meal?
Street noodles! There's this awesome place down by the market that does the best noodles - they're my favourite snack, especially after a night out!

Favourite subject at school?
Programming! Closely followed by Computer Coding. And Advanced Maths was always pretty fun too. Don't you just love subjects that make sense?? Like, there's only ever really one answer - I just love logical things like that.

Night in or night out?
Night out!

Ice cream or chocolate?
Oh gosh that's a hard one...chocolate, probably.

Tea or coffee?
Herbal tea for me!

Flora or Fauna?
Flora!

Ideal career?
Program Developer at Civitas! How cool would it be to actually create new technology? Like, you actually take a brand new idea and turn it into something real. That would be amazing!

Three things you couldn't live without:
Just three?? That's harsh. Hmm I guess I'd have to say my RetCom, chocolate and my BFF. Anais is such a doll!

What's your ultimate dream?
I'd love to travel the world one day. Sipping cocktails on an exotic beach while watching the sun going down - sounds like my idea of heaven!


I hope you all enjoyed finding out a little bit more about Dalla. She was one of my favourite characters to write - she's such a bubbly, friendly person that I just had a blast writing her scenes - no wonder Anais loves having her as her best friend!

If you'd like to find out more about Dalla's world, you can view a description of Synthetica on my blog. You can also download Synthetica from:

Amazon
Smashwords
Kobo

We'll be taking a short break from the world of Synthetica tomorrow, but I will be posting up my latest Movie Madness review, so stay tuned!

P.S. If anyone can draw/knows anyone who can draw anime, please let me know! I hate trawling the internet for drawings - I'd love to have my own originals :)

Tuesday, 7 July 2015

Synthetica book tour - Character Interview: Skye

Welcome to day 2 of the Synthetica blog tour! Today, I'm over at Donnie Darko Girl, Mythical Books and Nerdychampagne. Thanks for having me!

Today on my blog, I'm featuring one of the main characters in Synthetica: Skye Belaforte, Head of PR and one of the Directors for Civitas, the company at the centre of all the turmoil in Synthetica.

To mix it up a bit, I thought I'd interview Skye for you, instead of doing a straight forward character profile. Let's go!

Hi Skye! First of all, great hair. What made you choose sky blue? Was it because of your name haha?
Skye: [rolls eyes] How quaint. My name's Skye, so I must've chosen to have sky blue hair to match. Do you really think you're the first person to ask me that?

Um...no?
Of course not. And for your information, this is my natural hair colour. I pride myself on my appearance, but I don't feel the need to mess with my genetics. I'll stick with fashion over features, thank you very much. [smoothes down impeccably crisp shirt]

Right...so what made you decide to get into Public Relations?
I have a natural rapport with people.

*Coughs* Obviously. What made you decide to work for Civitas?
Why wouldn't I want to work for them? They're the largest technology company in the Imperial City, and the fifth fastest growing company in the world. The opportunities are limitless. Civitas prides itself on it's 'natural' ethos, and it's sense of community, which we endeavour to bring to all our products. In the last year alone, Civitas -

Alright, we get it. What do you make of all this trouble that Civitas is in at the moment?
[Sniffs] Civitas isn't in trouble, thank you very much. This is just a slight blip in our otherwise perfect record of bringing consumers the technology they want. The people speak, and we listen -

[Interrupting] Are you listening to what this 'Hacker' is saying? He thinks Civitas should be shut down, for good.
Forgive me if I don't take the word of a disillusioned man seriously. So one person doesn't like what we do, so what? If he doesn't like the services we provide, he's free to move elsewhere. Civitas isn't going to pay attention to the ravings of one man.

Right...and you think that's a sensible view to have?
Oh come on, how much damage can one man do? Civitas owns or has shares in roughly half of all the businesses in the Imperial City. He can't take us down that easily. Are you going to ask me any proper questions, or can I go? I've got a very busy schedule, you know.

We're almost done. What do you like to do on a weekend or on your time off from running a global corporation?
I don't understand the question.

Holidays! What do you do on your HOLIDAYS?
[thinks for a minute] I usually go into the office to make sure everything is running smoothly without me, or to catch up with a few little bits that I didn't get finished the previous day. Then while I'm there, I might try to schedule in a meeting or two, depending on if the other directors or managers are in, or visit the Research & Development department. By the time I've done all that, it's usually around 7pm, so I'll have some dinner then maybe work from home before going to bed.

[Pause] Okay...moving on...what items are on your bedside table right now?
Why on earth would you want to know that?

It's just a bit of - you know what, never mind. Do you have any secrets?
Is this a joke? Are you actually a real journalist? Even I did have anything to hide, which I don't, why would I share that highly personal information with you?

Let's make this our last question - Skye, what's your biggest fear?
That Civitas goes bankrupt, or ceases to be a company. Or I get fired.

Erm, that's great! Thanks for talking to us today, Skye! Have you enjoyed your time on my blog?
It's been an experience to say the least. No, don't get up, I'll see myself out.


So that's it! Thanks for tuning in to Skye's interview - I hope you enjoyed it!

If you fancy checking out any more of Skye's world, you can view a description of Synthetica on my blog. You can also download Synthetica from:

Amazon
Smashwords

Tomorrow on my blog, we'll be finding out more about another character from Synthetica, Dalla Goddard! See you tomorrow!

Monday, 6 July 2015

Synthetica blog tour kick-off!



Today's the day that the Synthetica blog tour finally kicks off! Hooray!

If you can't tell already by my tweets and this blog post, I'm just a tad excited. In honour of this occasion, over the next few weeks I'll also be popping up lots of Synthetica-related posts on this blog, including character profiles, character interviews and just general Synthetica related goodness. I'll also be tweeting random facts about the series, so if you'd like to join in on Twitter, or ask me any questions - and I hope you do! - I'll be using the hashtag #Synthetica.

If you'd like to check out the tour, here's the blog schedule:


July 6th
Bookwormia  - http://clsmithbooks.blogspot.com/ - Promo Post
The Voluptuous Book Diva - http://voluptuousbookdiva.blogspot.Com - Promo Post
Nejoud Is currently reding  - http://nejoudiscurrentlyreading.blogspot.com - Review
Hope To Read  - Http://hopetoread.com - Promo Post

July 7th
Donnie Darko Girl  - http://donniedarkogirl.blogspot.com - Review
Mythical Books  - http://www.mythicalbooks.blogspot.ro/ - Promo Post
Nerdychampagne   -  https://nerdychampagne.wordpress.com/ - Review

July 8th
The Phantom Paragrapher  - www.thephantomparagrapher.blogspot.com - Review
Travel with Books and Coffee -  http://travelwithbooksandcoffee.blogspot.com - Promo Post

July 9th
The Bibliophile Chronicles - http://www.thebibliophilechronicles.com - Review
Words I Write Crazy -  http://writingcrazyme.blogspot.com/ - Review

July 10th
Sabrina Giles  -  https://sabrinagiles.wordpress.com/ - Promo Post
AM Station   - http://amstationreviews.blogspot.com - Promo Post

July 13th
Bibliobibuli Young Adult Book Blog -  http://bibliobibuliya.com/ - Review
Around the World in Books  - http://www.aroundtheworldinbooks.ca/ - Promo Post
Book Snacks  -  https://booksnacksblog.wordpress.com/ - Promo Post

July 14th
Worth Reading It?  -  http://www.worthreadingit.blogspot.com - Review
Books and Ashes  -  http://booksandashes.wordpress.com - Promo Post

July 15th
The Page Unbound  -  http://thepageunbound.com - Promo Post
The Word is   -  http://suzannefurness.blogspot.co.uk - Promo Post
Writing Pearls  - http://www.writingpearls.com - Review

July 16th
Just Us Book Blog  - http://justusbookblog.blogspot.com/ - Promo Post
Le&ndra Wallace  -  www.leandrajwallace.blogspot.com - Promo Post

July 17th
Random Redheaded Ramblings  -  http://redheatherduff.blogspot.com - Review
Samantha Writes - www.samanthawrites.ca - Review
Paperback Princess  -  http://princess-paperback.blogspot.com - Promo Post

A huge thanks goes to Nereyda over at YA Bound for organising everything, and also a huge thanks to all the bloggers who've signed up for the tour - this literally couldn't happen without you!

Also, in honour of the blog tour (and my KDP membership finally ending - woohoo!), Synthetica is now available for you to buy on Smashwords.

If it gets accepted into the Premium Catalog, then it'll also be available for you to download from iBooks, Kobo and Barnes & Noble and I'll make sure I post up those links as soon as I know it's been accepted :).

So that's it! Let the Synthetica book tour commence! *trumpets sound and confetti falls from the ceiling - wait, is this a book tour or the apocalypse...?*

Wednesday, 1 July 2015

IWSG July: Summer's in the air

Welcome to July's Insecure Writer's Support Group post! IWSG was set up by the amazing Alex J. Cavanaugh. It's a place where anyone can post their monthly writing insecurities - to find out more about this fantastic group, visit the official IWSG website.



A few weeks ago I decided to make a writing schedule for the rest of the year. I've never done anything like this before - normally I'll pencil a date in my diary when I want to finish key milestones by (e.g. first draft, final draft) but that's it. Also, I've only ever worked on one project at once before, so it wasn't like my writing schedule was exactly full (although, for a first time author, I still found it very demanding).

This year I've decided to set myself more of a challenge. Instead of just writing one book this year, I've decided to try and write four. Yup, that's right - it's my aim to complete four novels by the end of the year. Why would I put myself through this, I hear you cry? Well, as much as I loved taking my time writing Synthetica, the fact is that I'm not going to grow as an indie author if I don't write more books. I don't want to be an author that churns out a book every month (I doubt I could do that, even if writing was my full time job!), but I do want to start converting all those ideas that are in my head into actual books. I love writing so much, and eventually I want this to be my full time career, which means I'm going to have to start and get serious about how much I'm writing.

I'm actually already behind schedule if I'm honest. But luckily me and the Engineer are currently housesitting for a friend for a couple of weeks, so I'm hoping being in a new place without so many distractions will prove to be a positive (I think it'll also help because that house is the place where I wrote the bulk of Synthetica last summer. So I feel like this house has good vibes). Also, it's nearly the summer holidays (yippee!) which is when I'm planning on getting most of my writing done. I find that the long days and light nights (as well as the six week break from work, obviously!) really help to boost my writing confidence.

However, I'm trying not to get too discouraged by the fact that I'm already behind schedule, and the fact that I'm finding it a struggle to write about new characters and worlds that I haven't invested much time in yet. I know all my characters from Synthetica, and I know their world like the back of my hand (mostly). But I'm so scared that I don't have it in me to do it all over again, with a brand new set of characters in a brand new world. I think I've kinda forgotten how much effort goes into creating new worlds, that I'm daunted by the thought of starting all over again. But I guess we'll just have to see how it goes.

Do you think it's possible to write four novels in six months? Have you/would you ever attempt it? Do you find it hard to write multiple books at a time? Do you find it hard to switch from finishing one series to starting work on a brand new book?
 
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