A Look Toward Retirement: Round up of my vacation

Counting weekends, I've been away from my day job for ten days and I have enjoyed every minute of it. I have actually be able to not check my work e-mail or my voice mail messages and haven't even wanted to. This vacation has given me a look into what retirement may be like for me. I'm not quite old enough to retire yet, but in a little less than five years, I'm eligible to retire from my government job. Now, whether I can afford to retire at that time will be the question. But, this week has told me that I won't go crazy sitting at home all the time and that I am disciplined enough to not just sit on the couch and eat all day. I wrote this week and wrote a lot. Oh, I did take the occasional break to watch a cooking show now and then, but hey I get breaks at my day job too. After I submitted my finished manuscript to the publisher on Tuesday and attended my writers group on Wednesday, I took the rest of the week off. Well, except for Thursday.

On Thursday, I had a table at the Jeffersonville (Indiana) Public Library's Authors Fair for National Library Week. Once the writing is finished, you have to push your wares. I had a great time, meet some wonderful people, and putting some faces to some online friends I had never met in person. There were 36 authors in attendance, included Karen Robards, NY Times Best Selling romance author. She was probably the most popular author there and I was in awe of her. I'm really looking forward to attending again next year.

This week was probably one of the best vacations that I've ever had and it has convinced me that I can survive retirement....someday.

Carol

50 to 1: A Movie Review

First, a disclaimer, my favorite actor, Christian Kane stars in this movie, so I'm just a teeny bit bias in my review, but even if he wasn't in this movie it was still great. I saw 50 to 1 the movie today and was highly impressed. What a wonderful movie that anyone can go see. I laughed, I sang, and I cried. Who doesn't like an underdog or a long-shot. This movie tells the story of the 2009 Kentucky Derby winner Mind that Bird and the journey of the owners and trainer to winning the fastest two-minutes in sports. It starts Skeet Ulrich, Christian Kane, Maddie Duetch, William Devane, and real Mind That Bird jockey Calvin Borel. Famed horse trainer, Bob Baffert also made several cameo appearances. I think of everyone in the movie, Calvin Borel stole the show. Playing himself, he was a wonderful actor. He's always been my favorite jockey and I loved that he was able to be in the movie.
Most of the filming was done in New Mexico, but the cast and crew invaded Churchill Downs for two weeks of filming.
During their cross-country tour, the cast kept calling this a feel-good movie. It wasn't till I watched it that I realized what that meant. You leave the theater with such a great feeling of the little guy getting it over on the buy guy. No one at the Derby gave them a chance and especially no respect. At least that the way the movie depicted it. I wonder if Baffert really did say those horrible things about Bird and his crew. If so, I've lost all respect for that man.

The acting was superb! Each and every one of that actors gave their all and you can tell. Christian Kane, as owner Mark Allen, was spot on. Not to mention Kane had two of his songs that played in the background during a scene in a bar. Kane has always been a favorite actor of mine, and his acting here was not disappointing.
The only distracting part of the movie was in a scene with Ulrich and Duetch where Ulrich's earlobe had two piercing holes in it. I couldn't keep my eye off his ear, but none of the movie was bad at all.
I'm hoping to go see the movie again and can't wait for the DVD to come out.
I tip my black cowboy hat to all the actors, writers, director, and producers for taking a wonderful story and bring life to it again.

Review - "Confederate Moon"

Confederate Moon by Kayelle McClive
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I purchased this book at an Authors Fair because the book takes place near where I live. I don't normally like werewolf or vampire books, but I was pleasantly surprised reading this book. It was fantastic and not at all what I expected. The author is an excellent writer and I didn't want to put the book down. She did a wonderful job of being able to visualize what was happening. Her description of the love scenes was perfect.

This book is also written in first-person. I wasn't sure how I was going to like that either, but it worked. I can't imagine it being written any other way.

Kudos to Ms. McClive and I am so looking forward to the next book in the series. I highly recommend this book.

View all my reviews

Upcoming Book Signing

Mark you calendar, I will be at the Jeffersonville Township Public Library, 211 E. Court Ave, Jeffersonville, Indiana this Thursday signing my books.

In celebration of National Library Week, the Jeffersonville Township Public Library will be hosting an Author Fair on Thursday, April 17, from 3-7 p.m. There will be over 25 authors participating in this event. The list of bestselling authors coming to the library includes Nancy Jensen, Alanna Nash, and Karen Robards. A few locally known names including Barry Bernson, John Boel, Bob Hill, and Dale Moss will be present as well.

Below is a video made by fellow author and aquaintance, Parnell Hall. He has several funny videos like this on YouTube. I hope to see you at the Authors Fair because I don't want to feel like Parnell does in his video. Thanks.

Carol