Movie Review – How to Train Your Dragon 2


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Hiccup, Toothless, and the gang are back for another great adventure!

The characters have grown and now face new challenges. This tale takes them far beyond the boundaries of home and really expands the world in which they live.

There’s a good balance of funny and serious. Be warned though that the serious is often dark, dealing with death, abandonment, and intense situations. This film is not for really young children.

Animation is stunning and awesome in 3D.

And no, Hiccup does not lose any more body parts!

Recommended

If I Wasn’t a Writer, I’d be Wonder Woman


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From the awesome Annalisa Crawford!

Thanks for inviting me to your blog today, Alex, it’s an honour to be here, and I’m very excited. I always wondered what it looked like from this side. It’s nice, especially the glitter ball!

When I was little, one of my favourite shows was Wonder Woman.

I’m just a rookie-geek when it comes to comic books and superheroes, and I wouldn’t dare hold a conversation with a real aficionado – I have never read a comic book, they’d probably spot that!

Everything I know about Woman Woman is what I knew when I was four – she’s got indestructible bracelets, a tiara that works as a weapon and a lasso (along with cool lasso skills).

And, really, what more does a girl need?

She was strong enough to lift cars, bend metal, and throw men across a room. I loved the way she spun around to get changed, and – as with all superheroes with secret identities – how she could disguise herself with just a pair of glasses!

There weren’t many women in my childhood that I could look up to. The boys tied their jackets around their neck to be Superman, they climbed up the slide to be Spiderman, and they growled to be the Hulk. The girls just got saved, a lot…

Until we discovered Wonder Woman, and span ourselves into a dizzy heap. But we looked cool while we did it, honest.

I am pretty ecstatic that she’s going to be making an appearance in the Batman vs Superman film – just a year or so to wait!

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Annalisa’s new mirror


Find Annalisa and Our Beautiful Child at Blog, Website, Amazon and Smashwords

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Ninja News


The talented Ella has had her artwork featured in many magazines. To gain more exposure, she needs your help – can you LIKE her work on the magazine’s Facebook page? Thanks!

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River Fairchild has released another tantalizing morsel of creepiness - Darkest Days, Blackest Nights: Tales of Lust, Greed, Vengeance, Death.

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Juliana Haygert’s latest book is out – Breaking Fences.

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Rachel Morgan’s book, The Faerie Guardian, is now part of this amazing boxed set, Girls on Fire.

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Decadent Kane’s Steele Your Soul came out last month and you find it at Breathless Press




And a cool blog if you haven’t found it yet is Sleepy Bison’s MEKANIKAL, which features futuristic stuff like Bitcoin, emerging cryptocurrencies, science/tech projects, and sometimes silly stuff.

Random Alex Stuff


The issues with Feedly last week meant I was relying on my sidebar to catch new blog posts. (My apologies to everyone I missed. Using the sidebar is time consuming and not always effective.) Since some of you were not listed in my sidebar, I made some adjustments. If you are a regular visitor here and you don’t see your blog listed, please let me know!

For the release of Annalisa’s A Beautiful Child, Rachel Schieffelbein asked about what she’d want named after her. Since both Annalisa and Rachel selected a food item, Iwent with the flow and picked a breakfast cereal:
Ninja Captain Choco-Bits!
What would pick?

All three of my books are on the Best Space Opera list at Goodreads. If you enjoyed them, please jump over and vote. CassaStar is still in the top five, but CassaFire and CassaStorm could use some love.

Quick Movie Reviews


Some DVD reviews since this was the weekend for movie sequels…

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Red 2

I’m not sure why the critics were so harsh on this film. It’s another fun instalment, full of action, wit, and humor. It’s a bit too long, but other than that, a really good film.

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Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2

The storyline is very simple but it works. This film is as fun as the first one, with many laugh out loud moments. It’s definitely aimed at kids but will keep adults amused.




Anyone else see Dragon 2 this weekend? Have you seen the other two films? Picking up some new books? Annoyed with Feedly last week? What food item do you want named after you? Can you help on Goodreads? And if not Wonder Woman, how would you decorate your mirror…?

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