Luckylyn

The YouTube channel Be Kind Rewind did a great video covering Deborah Kerr’s career. It’s a great channel with several videos about various actresses.

I’m reading the nonfiction book The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America’s Shinning Women by Kate Moore. When radium was first discovered it was treated as this wonder product and used in various things from treating cancer to painting watch dials so they would light up in the dark. The book is about the girls and women who painted watch dials with paint that included radium and how they were poisoned by it. I have heard of this horrible wrong done to those women but the book really showcases the callousness of the people in charge. It’s so heartbreaking to read about the deterioration of their health which was incurable.

I am in the middle of reading The Hunter and The Mage by Kaitlyn Davis which is second in her Raven and Dove trilogy. I find the world the characters inhabit fascinating. The world is divided between those who live on lands in the sky who have wings and people below. The world above is ignorant of the one below. The world below is in dire straits and they have a ruthless King who believes in doing whatever is necessary to save both worlds which he believes are in danger becoming of a prophecy. We also have romance, spies, and betrayal. I really am invested in the characters’ storylines.

The book’s a standalone. Even though it’s part 3 of a series you don’t have to read the previous books to jump into it. I do recommend the whole series because they’ve been a good read for me.

I am reading When A Scot Ties the Knot by Tessa Dare which is book 3 in her Castles Ever After series. Suffering from severe anxiety, Madeline makes up a fake Scottish fiancee to avoid being forced to into society. To sell the lie, she sends letters to a made up name in a made up regiment. But there’s a real Logan Mackenzie who shows up years later holding her letters and insistent they get married for his own reasons. I do enjoy the characters in this series. There’s a lot of humor and vibrant personalities.

I hate that Thanksgiving just gets skipped. There are family plots that could be done set around Thanksgiving that could make good movies. They used to try to do one Thanksgiving movie but they just dropped the holiday altogether.

I just can’t with Hallmark starting Christmas programming in October. I love Christmas and yet I don’t like that Christmas programming starts so early.

Some characters have an expiration date and become less compelling the longer they are forced into the narrative like Sylar in Heroes. Better to have a character gone leaving the audience wanting more.

The Most Difficult Shot in Movie History (And Why It Matters)

Every Fall Hallmark Movie

That’s a rough episode. Very dark.

Is that the Farscape episode where they go back in time to a wonderful historical moment and they accidentally ruin it because that episode made me so sad. Or is that the one where John travels to different timelines.

That time the makers of South Park accidentally found out about the Tweak/Craig ship online and responded by actually writing it into the show. Show runners can sometimes be so intensely dismissive towards fans of ships the show runners didn’t intend. It’s nice to see a show embrace a ship that wasn’t part of the plan. It definitely helped Tweak be less one note of a character.

So far I’m finding Hayley’s family dynamics and how her success affected it fascinating. Also the impact Disney had on her career by forcing her to turn down certain roles was interesting. On audible she’s doing the narration herself which is really lovely to hear.

So the plot with Fiona and Trixie reminded me of a tv movie No Higher Love staring Katey Sagal and Annabeth Gish. Katey becomes close friends with nurse Annabeth when Katey gives birth at her hospital. Eventually Katey discovers she has cancer. When she realizes she’s dying she asks her husband to give romance with Annabeth a chance when he’s ready to start dating again. The husband and Annabeth go on an extremely awkward date after his wife’s death where they mostly just talk about Katey and acknowledge they are only there because Katey asked them to before she died. They decide they’ve honored their obligation to his wife on their horrible date and decide just to be friends. Over time they eventually fall in love. There’s a lovely moment when Katey’s daughter calls Annabeth “Mom” for the first time and she’s overwhelmed with emotion and says she loved her friend Katey and is going to make sure that their little girl grows up knowing about Katey. The movie was very bitter sweet because you’re sad about Katey but happy for Annabeth, the husband, and their children finding some happiness eventually. So I’m firmly convinced hot grieving Dad and Trixie will meet again. They had tons of chemistry and there’s story potential there.

I just started her biography. I was such a fan when I was a little girl. My favorites were “The Trouble with Angels”, “The Parent Trap”, and “Summer Magic”. I even watched the sequels to The Parent trap made in the 80s where adult Hayley Mills reprises her role as the twins and they each get a romance. I think there were two or three sequels. I remember one of the twins became the step mother of triplet teens.

I’m in the middle if Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell and I find I really connect to the lead character Cath. I’m not as introverted as her but I also find change and connecting with new people to be a challenge. In the novel Cath is starting college and has to adapt on her own because her twin sister is forging her own identity separate from Cath although they attend the same school. Cath is a fanfic writer with a following big enough that online she’s a mini celebrity but in real life but she struggles to make connections with people. Interestingly when I read Carry On by the same author I found out the character Simon Snow was first developed for Fangirl because Cath’s favorite fandom surrounds the character Simon. The snippets of Simon’s story included in Fangirl inspired Rowell to actually write novels about Simon Snow.

I like the Nanny Express but despise the bratty daughter in that movie.

I liked Vanessa Marcil in The Convenient Groom. I remember when she was on General Hospital when I still loved that show. She was once in this horrible movie I can’t remember the name of. Her husband was pressuring her to have a baby and she didn’t want to at that time. Then she runs into her old boyfriend and has an affair. Then she gets pregnant because her husband tampered with her birth control to force her to have baby but she’s uncertain who the father is because of the cheating. It turns out the ex-boyfriend was sterile. She decides to go through the pregnancy and work things out with her jerk husband. I don’t condone her cheating because she just should have left her husband since she was unhappy but tampering with her birth control was unforgivable. I am horrified they thought staying with her husband who violated her that way was somehow a happy ending. The Magic of Ordinary Days is the only time I’ve like Skeet Ulrich. In other roles he always has a creep vibe but in TMOOD I completely root for him as a romantic lead. I remember when Hallmark Hall Of Fame were the best tv movies of the year. I would look forward to them. There was variety in storylines. It might be romance, drama, memoir, etc…. The best Hall of Fame movies were when it aired on network tv. The quality dropped once it moved to Hallmark Channel. Now they just are generic movies similar to what they air every weekend just with a better budget.

I’m in the middle of reading The Awakening by Nora Roberts which is the first in the Dragon Heart Legacy fantasy series. Breen discovers a secret her mother kept from her which leads her to an unknown heritage in Ireland and beyond. I like the way the character is growing more independent and strong as she asserts herself. I understand somewhat why the Mom did what she did but there were things the Mom said and did that came off as emotionally abusive. She had Breen so beaten down. I am curious what will happen next now that Breen knows her true family history.

Mickey’s story really showcases that talent alone isn’t enough for success. He took the pill and wrote a fantastic script. Still, he doesn’t have the access and resources to get his work out there on his own. Because of class, he’s still treated as an expendable flunky even though he took the genius pills. It reflects in society how some talented people are blocked from success because they are disadvantaged in other ways. Money and/or who you know can trump talent.

I’m reading the romance The Princess Trap by Talia Hibbert. Cherry is shocked when the paparazzi interrupted her passionate kiss with a man who turns out to be a prince. A fake engagement is decided to be the solution to the potential scandal. I really like Hibbert’s romances. This one is entertaining but I like her Ravenswood and Brown Sister’s books more.

I really liked the cast for Sweet Pecan Summer but found the movie overall boring. I don’t think the leads had much chemistry. Also just once when there’s a “sell the family business “ plot I want the sale to actually go through.

Can mentorship get confused with grooming? Can an adult and a minor be friends in a big sister/big brother way? I feel like it can be hard to see the difference between someone who’s grooming a minor and someone who is offering mentorship depending on the situation. I could see a minor getting tricked by a predator under the guise of mentorship but could also see someone whose intentions are good get mistaken for grooming a minor. I say this as someone who side eyes the Sia and Maddie Zeigler friendship/business relationship.