Miracle Dangers

Lynda's book on Amazon

I got Lynda's book for Christmas and have been reading it day by day as the year unfolds. It's a great book. Wonderful reminders for living and perfect little sparks for posts. 

And we all need sparks for posts, right?

January 16th's devotional was on the dangers of relying on miracles. As Lynda says, "The miracles can become distractions from the original reason for our search."

I highlighted this one immediately for my next IWSG post. 

As writers, we are often looking for that moment-- you know the moment when you suddenly make it. The truth is, very few writers have the bragging rights to instant success. Most over-nighters have years and years of practice and rejection under their belts before they have their break-out moment. 

But once they are getting contracts and offers, suddenly they look like they have it easy. 

We might mistake their hard work for luck. 

Which can lead to resentment....frustration...insecurity. 

That's when it's important to remember that faith doesn't operate on miracles. If it takes a constant diet of wonder to keep the faith, you will starve. Faith is the committed belief that what you're doing is right. It's the acceptance that even if it takes hard work and dedication, you will stick with it...even when there is zero physical evidence that you are not just wasting your time.

Eventually, you may look back on all of this and realize the true miracle was that you made the journey at all. 

*For the record, I would like to say that I am 100% pro miracle. If there are any any celestial beings who would like to sprinkle a little luck, AKA blessings, my way, I will take them. 

February 1 Question: How has being a writer changed your experience as a reader?

Good stories make me feel inadequate. 

Bad stories make me feel like I don't know the right people. 

The awesome co-hosts for the February 1 posting of the IWSG will be Misha Gericke, LK Hill,Juneta Key, Christy and Joylene Buter!
Join Alex Cavanaugh and the IWSG for the monthly support group where writers can connect, vent fears, and/or whine when so moved. 

To celebrate the upcoming Hero Lost Anthology, I have asked book contributors to think like the Ninja Master and tell me...

First up is Renee Cheung, who somehow manages to get everything done with a baby on her lap!

1. What is the best movie you've ever seen?

I’ll cheat a little on this one. As part of my Masters degree, I took a film course where we were asked to analyse a film and we could pick any one. I picked Serenity, the movie sequel to Firefly. First, I adored Firefly. It is one of my favourite TV shows and one I watched over and over and over again. I even have this huge poster in the living room.

So naturally, I loved the movie. How could I tell? For the course, I watched the movie over and over again in the course of a week, 8 times to be exact. And I painstakingly analysed every scene, from camera angle to lighting to positioning of the characters. (If anyone is interested, the full analysis is still up here.) However, to this day, I will still watch the movie in a heartbeat.

In many ways, Malcom Reynolds, the main protagonist, is every bit a lost hero who had fought on the wrong side of a war. His spaceship crew is a collection of other lost souls, all looking for a home, and themselves in some way. And that really shows through the movie even while we follow a fairly action-driven plot, accompanied by witty dialogue. Serenity balances the character development of each crew member fairly well, taking what easily could be one-dimensional characters into fairly fleshed out individuals. And for a fan of the show, the movie gives some semblance of closure to a series cut too short.

Yups, like many other fellow-geeks, I’m a Browncoat at heart.

(Photo credit: http://www.allposters.com/-sp/Firefly-10th-Anniversary-You-Can-t-Take-the-Sky-from-Me-Posters_i9108683_.htm)

2. What is the worst movie you've ever seen?

On the opposite side of the same coin, the worst movie has got to be Napolean Dynamite. I barely got past it. It took me a few tries. I believe my mistake was that I watched it alone and sober.

I think it’s trying to be humourous but I have to profess that I simply did not understand the humour. To me, all the characters were painfully awkward and it was like watching a train wreck. Now I understand some train wrecks are so bad, they are good - it’s why people watch reality shows. Perhaps part of the problem is that it is meant to make the audience uncomfortable and it’s not something I enjoy when it is the movie’s sole purpose.

Part of it too was that the movie felt very slow and the storyline felt flat. If there was a climax, it was lost in all the cheesiness and awkwardness. (Don’t get me wrong, I usually enjoy good cheese. I even enjoyed the 2012 Hansel and Gretel.) So all in all, Napolean Dynamite, the 86 minutes of my life I’ll never get back.

Renee Cheung's story, Memoirs of a Forgotten Knight, will be included in the upcoming IWSG anthology, Hero Lost. You can check out all the stories and their authors on the Hero Lost website. 

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