Sage Woman Chronicles

Books I’d Make into Movies

“I have often thought it was very arrogant to suppose you could make a film for anybody but yourself.” ~ Peter Greenway

“Books and movies are like apples and oranges. They are both fruit, but taste completely different.” ~ Stephen King

“The book is a film that takes place in the mind of the reader. That’s why we go to the movies and say, ‘Oh, the book is better.’” ~ Paulo Coelho

Maybe it’s because I’m a visual learner, but, in general, I like to see the movie first, then read the book after. Once I’ve seen the movie, I can use images from the film and translate them to the book. I know, most people will think I’m crazy.

Most of the time, descriptions of characters and environments in books are things that don’t create clear pictures in my head. I don’t dream in clear pictures, or color either. What I connect with are the emotions of the characters. If I’m not connected to the characters emotionally, I don’t continue to read the book, or watch the movie, or TV show.

Having written that, there are books I’ve read that I would love to see made into movies, or a series, because I want to SEE the countryside, or what someone else thinks the characters look like. It’s probably my many years doing theatre that makes me want to turn my favorite books into a visual representation.

Some years ago, I read a wonderful book titled, His Majesty’s Dragon by Naomi Novik. Novik is a historian, and the book, which is the first in a series, takes place during the Napoleonic Wars. Most of the events are historical with a little twist. The combatants each have an aerial corps made up of dragons, and the captains they choose to bond with.

In fact, that is what happens in the first pages of the first book. An unusual dragon egg has been confiscated from a French frigate by the British ship, Reliant. When it begins to hatch, the Captain, William Laurence, asks for a volunteer from among his officers to bond with the dragon. But, in inscrutable dragon fashion, the hatchling Temeraire, chooses Laurence as his companion and captain. This thrusts Laurence into a completely unfamiliar world. The aerial corps is not a particularly prestigious posting, nor do the airmen and women, like interlopers. Most of them have been part of the air corps most of their lives and some are part of long generational lines in the service. The dragons live very long lives and not only bond with a single person, but their captain’s children as well. Having been chosen, though, Laurence can not refuse and dragon and man begin a fascinating journey together.

His Majesty’s Dragon is the beginning of a nine book series. There are book series that I’ve started and after three or four books, I get bored, but I was hooked on these books. They are extremely well written, Laurence and Temeraire travel the world, betray Britain in order to save French Dragons from a plague, win their country’s trust back, begrudgingly, when it is discovered that Temeraire is a rare Imperial dragon from China. This later requires the Chinese Royal family to adopt Laurence as a Chinese prince since Temeraire will have no other companion. This does gain the Britain a valuable ally to help fight against Napoleon. In the end, Temeraire and Laurence play a major part in winning the war.

Another thing I love about the series is that Novik has elevated certain women to be part of the aerial corps. They are intelligent, strong, capable, and do not adhere to the standard roles other women were supposed to fill during the time period. In fact, the Admiral over all of Britain’s aerial corps is a strong woman who’s daughter is part of Laurence’s crew, and who has an intimate relationship with Laurence when they can manage to be on the same continent, or hemisphere.

Mostly, I’d love to see this series made for TV or movies because of the enduring relationship that develops between Temeraire and Laurence. Novik has created dragons who are intelligent, for the most part have extensive educations, and who have very distinct personalities. They help strategize for battles, and maneuver through difficult political situations. And, the British dragons at least, must also overcome fear and prejudice. I think these books would add to the interesting array of series like Game of Thrones, Outlander, Vikings, and the like.

I’d like to know what books you’d like to see turned into movies. I’m always interested in authors and books I’ve never heard of. My TBR list is very long, but I’m willing to add to it.

Thanks for reading, liking, and commenting. I appreciate it. Have a fun filled weekend.

Lucinda is the author of The Space Between Time, an award finalist in the “Fiction: Fantasy” category of the 2017 Best Book Awards. It’s a historical, time-travel, magical realism, women’s novel, and is available in all ebook formats at Smashwords, or you can find the ebook at iBooks or Barnes and Noble. If you prefer a physical copy, you can find a print-on-demand version at Amazon. To join her email list, click here. She will never sell the names on her list.

Roots: An Essential Story

An image of the Kunta Kinte Alex Haley Memorial in Annapolis.

“It is impossible to kill an enemy. You may end a man’s life, but his son become your new enemy. A warrior respects another warrior, even he is his enemy. A warrior kills only to protect his family, or to keep from becoming a slave. We believe not in death, but in life, and there is no object more valuable than a man’s life. The way of the Mandinka is not easy but it is best.” ~ Kintango to Kunte Kinte in Roots

“My fondest hope is that ‘Roots’ may start black, white, brown, red, yellow people digging back for their own roots. Man, that would make me feel 90 feet tall.” ~ Alex Haley

I vowed when I went to college that I was not going to watch any television because I was a TV addict. So there are lots of TV series that started during those years that I never watched, but I broke my vow when Roots was broadcast in 1977. It was a television event. Almost all the households in the nation were tuned into the series which was based on the book of the same name by Alex Haley. I vaguely remember lots of young women huddled around the TV in the dorm lounge. The series was the topic of lots of discussions in classrooms, the student union, and the commons at meal times. We needed that discussion then, and we need it now.

It’s hard to talk about how deeply I was affected by that series. My heart was wrenched and broken during many of the episodes. I didn’t understand how whites could think it was okay to enslave blacks and treat them with such cruelty. And yet, through the seven generations of Kunte Kinte’s descendant’s story, there was hope, perseverance, and dignity in the face of the most horrific situations. One of the things I got out of both the book and the series was that freedom is a state of mind. Many of the characters in Haley’s story discover this. They pass this down through the generations of their family and in the end they are able to prosper.

I loved the series so much that I bought and read the 729 page paperback version of the book. Reading it was at times harder than watching the series because of the descriptions, especially the sections on the ship. How anyone could survive the lack of food, clean water, the filth and laying packed so tightly one prisoner to another in the hold with very little fresh air and exercise, comes down to the human will to survive. But the book is about human tragedy. It shows not only how slavery affected the slaves, but their masters too. The masters were not exempt from the tragedy of slavery because the book shows how their humanity was eroded as they ignored the worth of those they were torturing and enslaving.

Slavery and the way we continue to treat blacks, and people of ethnic groups other than white, is something we need to acknowledge and examine not once, but over and over again until we learn that every human being is worth being treated with dignity and respect. The 1977 version of the Roots series was one point in history when we faced a wound in our county’s history that needed to be healed. But after the hubbub died down, we forgot and went back to our comfortable corners. I was happy that another version of the series was produced in 2016 for a new generation and the self-examination started all over again.

Even though both series were great and generated lots of viewers and discussion, I think reading the book is a must. The way Alex Haley wrote it put me into the minds of the characters, particularly the black characters, and made me feel what they were experiencing. A book that can do that, changes the perspective of the reader. It certainly did mine. Years later I was teaching special ed. English, and I decided to read Roots to the students near the end of the school year. I wept again as I read the chapters that took place on the passage to America. The students were just as affected as I, and some even wept with me. That confirmed my conviction that anything that can help us see the world from someone else’s point of view is good.

If you haven’t read Roots, or seen either of the series, I suggest you do, because we’re at another one of those seminal moments in our country’s history, when we need to take a step back to do more self-examination and healing.

Thanks for reading. I appreciate your likes and comments.

Lucinda is the author of The Space Between Time, an award finalist in the “Fiction: Fantasy” category of the 2017 Best Book Awards. It’s a historical, time-travel, magical realism, women’s novel, and is available in all ebook formats at Smashwords, or you can find the ebook at iBooks or Barnes and Noble. I you prefer a physical copy, you can find a print-on-demand version at Amazon. To join her email list, click here. She will never sell the names on her list.

Will It Matter in a Hundred Years?

“Life is 10% of what happens to you and 90% how you react to it.” ~ Charles R. Swindoll

“Lighten up, just enjoy life, smile more, laugh more, and don’t get so worked up about things.” ~ Kenneth Branagh

I had no ideas about what to write today so I asked for help from the writing muses and what kept coming to mind was something my father used to say when I would get upset about something trivial. “Will it matter in a hundred years?”

It invariably happened when I was younger, I’d get caught up in some silly drama and I’d chew on it and make it my mantra. Now I’m not so prone to getting upset. If I do it takes me a much shorter time to get a better perspective. From what I read on social media, there are plenty of people who have not learned that lesson yet.

Yesterday I was looking at Facebook and there was a discussion on the TCM (Turner Classic Movies) group about whether or not The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, which was shown on the station, was a classic movie. It’s amazing how heated these discussions can get over something I consider to be trivial.

Sometimes arguments happen and insults are traded over things that are not so trivial. But here’s what I think my father was trying to get me to see. Our emotions have vibrations. When we get upset and lash out in anger, those feelings don’t stop with the person we’re attacking. Oh, no. They are like ripples in the water. They keep spreading out bashing into other people and affecting them. Have you ever walked into a room where two people have been fighting? Most likely, even if you’re not highly sensitive, you can feel the tension.

Another point my father was trying to make was that I needed to pick my battles. Some situations need to be challenged because in a hundred years we want that situation to have changed for the better.

When something happens that gets us all riled up, we have to take a good look and decide if getting angry, or standing up for ourselves will make a lasting difference or is of no consequence at all.

I just read Earthsea: A Wizard of Earthsea the first in a series by Ursula Le Guin. (I’m giving you fair warning of a big spoiler here in case you haven’t read it yet.) In the book a young wizard, trying to impress a rival at his wizard school, unleashes a deadly dark shadow. He must find a way to vanquish it to save all of Earthsea. To do this he must name it so he can bind it and send it back where it belongs. In the end, after first running from the shadow, then chasing it, he confronts it and calls it by his own name which reunites him with his shadow. He emerges a much wiser young man.

We all have shadows. If we try to deny them, or get rid of them by spewing them all over other people, we help neither ourselves nor others.

This is what I’ve learned from all the lessons my father taught me, it may be difficult to do, but in the end it’s worth it to take a step back to examine whether or not some ripple in the current of our lives is important enough to swim against. Clearly there are situations where going against the stream will eventually change the flow of the water. But often an argument is not worth the effort and in a hundred years, or even next week, no on will remember what the fight was about, nor will it have made the world a better place.

Now I’ve got to go see Earthsea the mini-series so I can write about it in more detail. I will, of course be reading the rest of the series so more to come.

Thanks for reading, liking and commenting.

Lucinda is the author of The Space Between Time, an award finalist in the “Fiction: Fantasy” category of the 2017 Best Book Awards. It’s a historical, time-travel, magical realism, women’s novel, and is available in all ebook formats at Smashwords, or you can find the ebook at iBooks or Barnes and Noble. I you prefer a physical copy, you can find a print-on-demand version at Amazon. To join her email list, click here. She will never sell the names on her list.

I Want to be Like Pollyanna

“When you look for the bad in mankind, expecting to find it, you surely will.” Pollyanna reading a quote by Abraham Lincoln from her locket in Pollyanna

“We looked for the good in them, and we found it, didn’t we?” Reverend Paul Ford in Pollyanna

Since my play is finished and the semester is nearing an end, I want to resume my series on movie/book connections. I’m choosing an old movie from my childhood because it was only a few years ago that I read the book that the movie was based upon, and it’s sequel. I’m in love with Pollyanna’s outlook on life even more since reading the books.

The movie Pollyanna (1960) made by Disney, came out when I was a child. It takes place at the turn of the 20th century. I fell in love with Pollyanna and all the characters she encounters. In a way it was odd to watch Hayley Mill’s movies because lots of people told me that I looked like her. I didn’t believe them, but I liked being compared to her because I was a Disney fan.

In those days Disney movies were mostly about family situations, lab experiments gone wrong, and cars with minds of their own. Many of them seem outdated now but not Pollyanna. In fact, I think we need more Pollyanna’s now more than ever.

What I loved about the movie as a girl, was that even though Pollyanna’s parents had died, she carried on their teachings to find the good in every situation and to show kindness and respect to everyone she encountered. Those two principles, taught by my own parents, helped me through several moves, lots of challenging situations, and meeting lots of new people.

Some might say this Disney movie is dated too, but I disagree. When Pollyanna arrives at her aunt’s hometown, it’s a pretty dismal place. Her aunt is cold and not happy about being saddled with her niece. She’s the richest woman in town but she’s unhappy and everyone is affected by her need to control everything. By contrast, Pollyanna is poor. She wears hand-me-down clothes because her father was a missionary. She has no outward reason to be joyful, but it’s what she learned. We never see her grieving for her parents. That may be one fault of the movie, but perhaps her determination to see the good in every situation is her way of coping with their deaths. And she spreads her joy, love and positive outlook on life wherever she goes transforming the town and eventually her aunt.

I can’t remember what it was that made me pick up the first book a few years ago. It certainly wasn’t seeing the movie again. It’s rarely played anywhere any more. It may have popped up as a free book on one of my e-book apps. In any case, I was delighted to find that there are two books. I promptly read them both. As always some details of the movie script were changed from the book, but essentially the characters are the same. Pollyanna faces some tough challenges, like the accident that nearly takes the use of her legs, but she manages to face her fears and remain positive throughout the two books. In the end, she finds love and fulfillment by helping others change their outlook on life. And isn’t that what most of us would like, to leave a positive legacy?

These past weeks I’ve found it hard at times to maintain a positive attitude. Maybe that’s why memories of Pollyanna flitted through my mind as I was trying to decide what movie/book connection to write about next. I don’t know why I, and so many people I know, fall into negative thought patterns. It’s not a happy place to live and a hard habit to break. But it can be done one little rainbow maker, one moment appreciating the beauty all around us, and one attempt to help someone else at a time.

So many of the spiritual teachers I follow say that every minute of every day we get a chance to start over. That’s what Pollyanna says too. Find something to be glad about in every situation. Thank you Eleanor H. Porter for writing such a lovable character who reminds us that we are in control of one major thing, how we perceive the world. And that makes all the difference.

Thanks for reading, liking and commenting. Make today a happy one.

Lucinda is the author of The Space Between Time, an award finalist in the “Fiction: Fantasy” category of the 2017 Best Book Awards. It’s a historical, time-travel, magical realism, women’s novel, and is available in all ebook formats at Smashwords, or you can find the ebook at iBooks or Barnes and Noble. I you prefer a physical copy, you can find a print-on-demand version at Amazon. To join her email list, click here. She will never sell the names on her list.

The Value of the Arts

The Duke and Isabel from a production of Measure for Measure.

“Eleanor was right. She never looked nice. She looked like art, and art wasn’t supposed to look nice; it was supposed to make you feel something.” ~ Rainbow Rowell, Eleanor & Park

“A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.” ~ George Bernard Shaw

“Arts education is a big part of building a 21st century creative mind, and I think that we have let way too many kids lose their way by not drawing in their young minds with music, dance, painting and the other various ways we can express those things we do not have words for.” ~ Heather Watts

So a couple of things are happening in Arizona and to me personally this week that I’ve been doing lots of thinking about.

First, Arizona teachers started a walk out yesterday all over the state. I support them because I was a public school teacher and I know their frustrations not only about pay, but funding for supplies, books, technology, repairs to facilities, pay for support staff and the list goes on.

One of the first things to get cut when the state government decides they need to cut education funding, is the arts. I have always opposed this, but what can one do when the mentality is that other programs, like sports, are more important.

This week my theatre workshop class was doing dress rehearsals and performances for Measure for Measure, the play I’ve been directing. One night I had a rather nasty encounter with someone who said to me, “Your play is not that important compared to other things going on in the world.” Here’s what I have to say about just how wrong that person was.

People who are involved in the performing arts learn extremely important life skills that can help solve many of the world’s problems.

Discipline. To put together any kind of performance takes many, many hours of rehearsal. Everyone involved needs to put in the work required of them or the performance suffers.

Team work. I have always contended that the performing arts teach better team work skills than sports, because the end result is a win-win situation. The performing arts must use cooperation rather than competition to create their finished product. The actors, dancers, musicians win, and so does the audience. But, as I pointed out above, if some members of the team don’t hold up their end of the bargain, the performance suffers and both the audience and performers lose. You only have to be in a bad production, recital, or concert once to learn the importance of each member fulfilling their role.

Communication skills. Any kind of work requires good communication skills, but the arts require more than just communicating ideas. The point of the performing arts is to convey emotions to an audience. We want the audience to feel something. So, the performers must learn to listen closely to each other, and react or respond accordingly. Scientists have proven that what we witness, we feel as if it were happening to us and that makes any kind of performing art extremely important. The audience gets involved emotionally and that changes them.

Self-discovery. I’ve seen my students blossom as they do their acting scenes, or put a play together. The work is not easy because they are required to get in touch with their emotions so they can convey them to an audience. That puts them in a vulnerable position. Some students resist this, but those who don’t, become more open, accepting, and less judgmental. They get a chance to see the world through the eyes of their characters. Getting a new perspective on life is always a good thing.

Self-confidence. This one is linked to self-discovery. When we try something new and scary, we have the opportunity to exercise new skills and talents that we never knew we had. My approach to teaching acting is that anyone can be a good actor. In fact, we are acting all the time. Acting is a matter of listening to your scene partner and then thinking about how you might react or respond in real life. The more you practice these skills, the more confidence you gain about using them in real world situations.

Using imagination. All arts teach this. In terms of theatre, an actor must imagine why their character is doing and saying the things they do in the play or scene. Actors have to use their imagination to fill in the blanks that the playwright left because there wasn’t enough time to give the entire background of a character. Using our imaginations leads us back to number 4, self-discovery. If we imagine why someone is doing what they’re doing, in the book we’re reading, the entertainment we’re watching, or in real life, we have a chance to become more compassionate and less judgmental.

I don’t know about you, but I’m always looking for ways to be more accepting, compassionate, and less judgmental. So, after my confrontation with that person who questioned the validity of doing a play, I went back to all the things I’ve learned doing theatre. There was something going on with her that made her act the way she did, and I should give her the benefit of my understanding. We all go a little crazy at times. Though the attack hurt for a while, I’m fine and glad that our play is, in the end, a success.

Thanks for reading, liking, and commenting. Have a fantastic weekend.

Lucinda is the author of The Space Between Time, an award finalist in the “Fiction: Fantasy” category of the 2017 Best Book Awards. It’s a historical, time-travel, magical realism, women’s novel, and is available in all ebook formats at Smashwords, or you can find the ebook at iBooks or Barnes and Noble. I you prefer a physical copy, you can find a print-on-demand version at Amazon. To join her email list, click here. She will never sell the names on her list.