- More billable hours as an official freelance writer for a cool non-profit.
- Maybe getting interviews for the dozen or so jobs I've applied to
- Teaching Confirmation class
- Really focusing on my new WIP (although my vacation meant I have about 5 hours of writing time to make up for my JoNoWriMo goals)
- Submitting stuff. I know I say that every month, but I mean it this time! I met an actual Agent, who seems like a doll and the perfect reader.
- Editing SoS. My editorial mentor will get it by the holidays, I swear.
- Sending SotW to the Delacorte YA contest.
- Apple picking!
- Matt Maher giving special performance
- Maybe Starfield in concert.
- Book festival in Providence!
- Book festival in Boston!
- Best Halloween EVER: most likely B.C. football game, Florida-Georgia game, trick-or-treating.

- Getting PAID for all that new freelance work. Since one company takes 45 days, I've had to put things on hold. Today is day 45. Now, because I faxed my invoice and the company doesn't confirm reception of paperwork, I'm slightly nervous something went wrong. And if you don't file an invoice within 30 days, they won't pay you. Since I'm waiting on a second check from this place in another 10-15 days, I'm going to go bonkers if I don't get paid. It's a month's rent! Hopefully my boss's fax system has electronic records of what was sent so I can complain. But the small project gets me an actual check today, and the other will come in a couple weeks from my dad's best friend. Granted it's probably coming from the Virgin Islands where you get one mail day a week, but at least you know I won't get screwed over by my dad's best bud. They were in the Marines together 40 years ago, for crying out loud.

- GATOR FOOTBALL!!!!!! This Saturday. 7 p.m. Can. Not. Wait.

- Book releases. Today is Catching Fire. Soon is The Magician's Elephant.

- Author signings. E. Lockhart in Brookline, and then according to my former roommate, Kate DiCamillo in Wellesley.

- Starting a big writing project. I'm actually living the dream - writing nonfiction material for middle- and high schoolers.

- Bonding with the new roommate. She's fabulous. Day 1 we played a word game, squealed over each other's DVD collections, and watched How I Met Your Mother together.

- Taking this course at a church. The idea is to get financially solvent before the loans come due in November.

- Finding a SCBWI writing group so that I can make professional connectiosnw ith people who will hopefully write me letters of recommendation for the BPL next year. Yes, I'm already thinking that far ahead.

- More of this delicious, crisp, slightly cool, sunshiny (but not in an obnoxious way), clear weather.

- Starting to teach Confirmation classes. On a related note, getting back to my Bible study group at the same church.

- Fall activities like apple picking, drinking warm tea and hot cocoa, and plotting peeping adventures.

- Going home. Sept. 23. Thank goodness for the Broward County School District giving all public employees the Jewish holidays off. I'm looking forward to a nice long weekend home with my family and then seeing friends in Orlando whom I haven't seen since New Year's.

- Using the trip home to finally do research for my middle-grade novel. I hope to write that one of things I look forward to in October is starting the revision based on my research. And then November I'll have submitting it to the editorial mentor.

Am I sad about not starting classes for the first time in my life? Classes? I don't need no stinking classes!

- Not having to pay rent until Aug. 1, meaning

- I get to stock up and spend a little on the  3(!) paychecks coming this week, an occurrence due to

- the nearly five full weeks that seem so long to get through but mean there's lots of hope for:
a. time to write (I have a fable idea AND a killer line that could be the first line of a new project or existing one)
b. time to get freelance work
c. time to be more sociable (I am flying to see a friend get married along with 4 other mutual friends. The way things are going, the airport lounge is the first place I'll see those ladies this summer. That is WRONG. How do I fix that?)
d. time to deepen things with new "Agent"
e. time to be called awesome yet again by my internship director

- Fourth of July on the Charles River: picnic, Sangria in water bottles, games, music, friends, and fireworks!

- the Summer Institute of Children's Literature at Simmons College: 4 days of my particular nerdiness, friends, learning, connections, and professional pants

- the free Beach Boys concert at the Hatch Shell. More chances to picnic. It's right after the Institute, so let's all hustle over!

and most of all:
- the visit of E!!!!!!! My bestest friend in the whole wide world is coming for 5 whole days! We may go to New York City. We're definitely drinking, laughing, and talking A LOT.

Since my burst of creativity last update, I have not written any more fiction. I wish I had a legitimate excuse. Instead, I've been plugging away at my part-time job that either amuses or vexes me, sometimes both several times a shift. But it keeps me in my apartment and well fed, so I can't complain too much. I've also started researching and writing lesson plans for an environmental education non-profit unpaid internship. I love it, and once the cable TV gets stopped, I'll focus more on it. Both of these activities should be keeping me too busy or tired to create, but they do not. In my spare time, I've been dating, swing dancing, organizing a faith discussion group, attending friends' social functions, basically anything that's not writing.

Do they have writing therapists? I'd really like to explore the subconscious reasons I'm avoiding writing and ignoring kicks in the gut. Kick 1: I may be getting freelance copyediting work. I sent in my availability and so I guess I'm waiting on a project to come down the pipeline, but we're fast approaching the mark that would give me the last three weeks needed to complete it (in mid-July I have my bestest friend Erin coming to visit, and since I haven't seen her since New Year's, I'm not even going into my "real" job, let alone at-home stuff). Adding in the 40 hours weekly to do the project to my already exisiting two work projects, I will have n.o. time to write my own things. So, theoretically, I should get started now, right? N.o.p.e.

Kick 2: A year ago, I had one of those "It's a Small World" moments when up here in Boston I met the sister of a guy who'd been on retreat teams with me back in Fla. She has since moved back to Fla. She found me on Facebook and said she'd started writing children's materials and wanted to talk with me about the market and how to do what. Throughout our conversation, I was reminded of how much I do know about the business and a contract or an agent  or a contest is mine for the taking. If I just try! But every Sunday, instead of zipping off a story to publishers/agents, I dally around, take extra long getting groceries, call home, sometimes read, but basically, I don't do the business part of writing either. 

Lately, I've gotten trapped in my head by my imagination. I need to stop, but I can't! And it's not the good kind of imaging that makes for good stories. The thing is, I know how to try to recover the joy of writing: take small steps and writing a miniscule amount each day, slowly building it up; doing fun prompts that have NOTHING to do with my stories (to relieve any deep-seated pressure-related anxiety); or reading the loving praise previous writing has earned. But the pyschosis is baaaaaaad. I won't even do those steps.

Help.

 

First, sorry this is so late. But of course, since Shoshana is many things, not the least of which is forgiving, she will not care. Shoshana is also like sunshine after a week of rain: always so positive, hopeful, and cheery. Case in point: it literally has been a week without sunshine, so what does she do? She wishes all of us this: http://images.google.com/images?gbv=2&hl=en&sa=1&q=bright+sunny+day&btnG=Search+images&aq=f&oq=  She's very giving. In addition to being cheery, she's also a cheerleader. She's very selfless and always roots for you and your accomplishments. Shoshana's one of those incredible, amazing, intelligent, good-hearted (seriously, I've never heard her say a bad word about *anyone*) people that I think everyone should have in his/her life, and I'm so glad and thankful she's in mine.

So much better than the Pyramid of Screaming. And if you have no idea what I'm talking about, I've got a show you need to watch.

1. Reply to this post if you want me to tell you how cool you are!
2. Watch my journal over the next few days for a post just about you and why you rock my socks!
3. If you choose, post these instructions in your journal and give your friends a much needed dose of love and adoration.

I just learned from Flax that J.K. Rowling was 24 when she rode a train and got the idea for Harry Potter. I am 24. I rode a train and got an idea for a novel. Plus, I have two more, and a second developing idea. I'm right on track. :)

I missed this on the first:

- Hopefully getting the copyediting job for CP.
- Starting my internship for GEF writing lesson plans about gardening.
- At least two new "Agents"! Had one very enjoyable initial meeting last week; getting another this Saturday.
- Starting to get more involved/leadery with my young adult group at BC.
- Maybe getting a visitor. She's Casey/Kelsey/Kara in all my stories.
- Starting writing again. I got an idea on the train yesterday and just had to get it out. I used the back of a magazine, I was that desperate! I also had time to outline my BPL WIP, now just my own little WIP.
- Starting a tradition of Submission Sundays. I usually have this day free, so I will prepare all materials/e-mails for my ready projects, and they'll be the first things in someone's Inbox early Monday morning.
- Writing group meeting anew in my or Flax's lovely apartments.

In the movie Finding Forrester, Sean Connery's character tells the wunderkid young writer that to get started writing, he should try just typing anything, including merely re-typing the Salinger-esque deified writer guy's short story. So, to try to get writing my paper on how one solitary image in a picture book relates as a whole to the rest of the picture book, I will begin this short typing exercise. Also, on a related note, I am stronly reminded of Melinda's class's rant in Speak regarding analyzing literature. Analyzing whether JA or DW actually meant to draw that diagonal from the verso to the recto to specifically mean such-and-such-pictoral-emotional-concept or if JA's rough crayon lines really indicate Greater Meaning or you know, that's just the way he draws with crayon sounds a lot like trying to figure out if Hawthorne sat down with a nib, some paper and jotted notes under a heading: Symbolism! x= passion. y=shame.

Anyway:

stolen from Facebook

FOUR THINGS:This one is a bit different from the rest. Here are four things about me that you may or may not know, in no particular order... Some directions are at the end.

Four names that people call me:1.Brittany
2. Britt-britt
3. Tany
4. Britt

Four jobs I have had:
1. card-shop salesgirl/closer
2. children's department bookseller
3. puzzle store book buyer/boss' right hand
4. writing tutor

Four movies I would watch more than once:
1. Amelie
2. CInema Paradiso
3. Love Actually
4. Wall-E

Four places I have lived:
1. Plantation, FL
2. Boston, MA (the almost dodgy end)
3. Brookline, MA
4. Technically Sunrise, FL for the first 5 years of my life

Four places I have been:
1. Switzerland
2. Paris
3. London/Cambridge
4. Dublin

Four People who e-mail me (regularly):
1. A1
2. monster.com Job Search results
3. Facebook
4. Simmons College

Four of my favorite foods:
1. anything mint chocolate
2. Barilla multi-grain thin spaghetti with Newman's Own marinara
3. bruschetta sans fancy, pretentious cheeses
4. bacon-cheddar potato skins

Four places I'd rather be right now:
1. Safely sunning on a beach in the Keys, sans the influx of Burmese pythons now invading the region
2. The rose garden at the dog park with Leena, A1's dog
3. anywhere my besties are, sans their sometimes-dolts of boyfriends
4. an editor's good graces

Four friends I think will respond:
1. Flax
2. maybe Jo
3. I need
4. More Blog friends!

Four things I am looking forward to this year:
1. Graduating with my Master’s degree in May!
2. hopefully getting a job
3. hopefully getting an editor/agent
4. hopefully getting a contract (not the same as #3!)

Four TV shows that I watch:
1. Friday Night Lights. I cry every week.
2. Lost. I gasp every week.
3. How I Met Your Mother. I laugh every week.
4. Grey's Anatomy. I get grossed out every week. Seriously  - ghost sex, removal of faces, juvenile behavior from surgeons

That was fun. Now I have the inclination to...type more questionnaire answers!

Tell us who's who in your class of stroies! The rules are simple: copy and paste these suggested superlatives, or come up with your own, and award your characters the designations. Tell us their name (or initials, if you really want them to stay unique), the novel they're from (or, to protect juicy titles, the initials or some sort of identifier), and a little bit about why they merit this superlative.

Not only will this MeMe introduce us to your characters, it will tell us a little bit about who you are and what you write, and maybe even get you to know your own characters a little better.


- Character I'd want to be my best friend: Casey Smith of SotW, for many reasons, not the least of which b/c her handle is cay_sea. :P

- Character I most love to hate on: Coach M. of SotW. Yes, I can hear him yelling misogynistic epithets in my head, but it is pure fun.

- Best female love interest: Neve, a MC for Guardians. She's strong, sensitive underneath, feisty when she needs to be, but vulnerable at the same time. So, while she may get the startings of a romantic love in the end, the focus is more on the different kinds of loves she deserves to receive. She's also strikingly beautiful, at least in my head, and in the way that is interesting, but not meaning weird, so even though her story is not about getting together with a boy in the end, she's one to watch out for.

- Best male love interest: James K., a MC for Guardians. He's sweet, adorkable, smart, devoted, faithful, creative. But unlike certain other authors (*cough* Stephanie Meyers *cough*), I'm not passing off a fantasy about my dream guy as literature. He's just a piece of the puzzle, but a complex one at that.

- Character I'd take a bullet for: Maryelle C., MC for SoS. Don't anyone touch a scraggly hair on her remarkable little head. She and her thoughts and dreams and values SO need to be in this world.

- Most hilarious: Gloria Jean, MC for my new BPL project. For copyright purposes, I can't share the first line of her story, or her rules, but they're a riot.

- Most Improved: LH, SoS. Not only for his redemptive arc, but also b/c in writing he went from being creepy old man to de facto grandpa-type for Maryelle.

- Character with the most attitude: Jolie, MC of TR. She has the sharpest edges still, but the big emotional reckoning is coming.

- Character you don't know whether to hug or slap: B., impt. to TR. He's alternatively someone who you can collapse into and feel secure, but his constant presence can become overbearing and just altogether too intense.

- Teacher's Pet : Em., MC of Guardians. The girl color codes her folders and notebooks, but she means well.

- Snarkiest: D., MC of Guardians. She whips out like five zingers in the first two pages alone.

- Most Likely to Succeed: IV of SotW. Dude has got mad playing skills, takes calculus, and has a strong set of ethics.

- Most Likely to see the forest for the trees (eventually): Angela, MC of SotW. Probably why she's a journalist. :)

I had a whole letter, and it got erased. Here's it in a nutshell:

If you know anyone with a ticket to this game, tell them to honestly think if they're going to stand and yell for four hours. No sitting down. No politely applauding. I mean yelling so hard they cause a delay of game/waste of timeout. I mean raising their entire bodies and not complaining ONCE. Games can and will be lost on lack of fan appreciation. Case in point: Florida vs. South Carolina 2006. It was all the crowd, blue in the face, and partly Jarvis' Moss' hand.

If they are not such a fan, tell them about me: A Boston cutie who bleeds orange and blue and lives and dies by not just every Saturday, but every DOWN.

I do not have $1000 for a ticket. I do not even have $500. But if you or anyone you know can find it in your hearts to help her get a ticket from a Booster, faculty member, Scholarship fund member, press pass, radio giveaway, she will owe you forever and be your very best friend. And maybe a novel dedication out of it.

I will be in a house 24 minutes from the stadium. http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&tab=wl This chance comes along once in a lifetime. (No, it's not twice, because last time I was a student and it was in Phoenix, and flights alone were $500, not counting ticket - of which there were FIVE).

Please, if anyone out there has some answers for me...

I was always bad at math. Why I'm a writer. :P Day One of these things are always the easiest for me. I am gung ho and speedily typing. Find me in October.

Aaand I'm going to stop copying the post I made to JoNoWriMo. For some reason I can't copy and paste. Random tangent...does the title seem to say something like "Jo doesn't write anymore?" ;) 

Anyway, right now I'm at work, feeling very much like Pam from The Office whenever I answer the phone. I do have a boss as quirky as Michael, but in a different way. He's not here now, which is why I can post. :P Too bad there's no Jim to distract me.

So I'll let the cerebral/imaginative part do the trick. :) Last night I did Jo's exercise on what I love and hate about my main character, M. Well, after completing 7 chapters thus far since late August, I realized that the "song" of the title is heard only by M., and I was furious(!) that my girl refuses to let me hear the music. I need the song! Her future readers will need the song! So the rest of this week, I will open myself to her and the "fairies." 

Uh...any idea how to do that? Oooh...I could do one of Em's tricks and get into character...the Halloween stores may have M.'s defining features! I could listen to the regional music I found over and over again, and force myself to listen to the native language singing as opposed to just the animal noises while watching a slide show of the pictures I took the last time I was home.

Sigh. It's fun research, but it always reminds me that M. and I have the same amassing of doubts. My mentor LOVED the first two chapters, with minute reservations. I've tweaked the outline and plot progression so that things and characters make more sense, and M. saves the day in the end. I had fun with the pig scene, too. But I'm just worried she won't LOVE the rest, and I'll have to trash my pages. Mentors, as lovely as they are for providing us students with this awesome service and opportunity, sometimes have made their writers go back to square 1 with the same page count and say NONE of it is publishable. After hearing the description of the scenario, I personally think one mentor (not mine, thank goodness!) blurred the definitions of "publishable" and "marketable." Plus (and sorry for the rant, I haven't been able to let my feelings out after being at the school's colloquium and heard what this person had done to a second writer I knew), I'm scared MY mentor will think I need to stop what I'm doing and...experiment. I want the ellipses to convey how much that word causes a visceral reaction. Rather than spend a semester making my  writing being a series of "alternate perspective" scenes or changing the gender and even relation of the other characters to M., I want to write a full draft and have it critiqued and work on line edits and pretend it's like the experience of having a real draft looked over for real by a real editor. This running draft is the story M. is telling me, so why should I spend chunks of time on exploring avenues that feel forced right now?  

- Do I think having a dead mother could add different/interesting things? Yes, but right now mama serves a purpose. And there ain't no way in hell I'm killing off daddy.
- Do I think Tommy should become Tawny and age down two years? Ok, but then what would happen to Anna and the foil/conflict she provides for M.? Having a sibling do what Anna does takes away the external component crucial to the theme of the story. Plus, Tommy serves as a pure antagonist to M.'s goal.
- What's LH's purpose again? As I think on it, LH was pretty sympathetic and cool about the whole "fairies" deal, but now he's disappeared when M. needed to share information. I guess his being at Mike's with the brown paper bag alludes to how he can't fully be trusted. BUT...he does redeem himself. He's at the development meeting. I guess I could explore M.'s redemptive effect on him in the next chapter.

Aha! See...this rambling on here DOES help. I wasn't sure how I was gonna get  a whole chapter after the hubub of the meeting, but now I can.

All smiles now. Off to file...puzzles and games. Not paper! But watching all four seasons of The Office in one month has given me newfound  respect for the sales people of the small companies I call to re-order stuff from. From now on, I'll remind myself they're probably sitting next to a Dwight, and be cheery.

Progress report on the JoNo page ater (much, much later) tonight.

...THANK YOU!! You saw me tapping away at my laptop. You noticed the title of the open document from your aisle seat. You were so genuinely interested in my writing and really enthusiastic about me just even TRYING to write stories for these collections books. You said you wished me the best and that you would pray for me. What I didn't tell you was that I am Catholic and a strong believer in prayer, and your prayers would and kind words mean the world to me.

What I can tell you, and I wish I could find you personally, is that they helped. I sent three stories, one for each book. All three books have the same coordinator. She just informed me today that two of the stories will definitely be published in the books, to come out in November. I feel so blessed, and you should feel so good that in whatever small way, you helped me take one small step toward my dream. God bless you, young man on GMG bus.

For all of you abuzz with questions, the details:
I wrote three stories: one about the growing pains for the middle school collection, one about first loves and the lack of other firsts for the high school book, and one about just what was important in considering schools for the college edition.  All summer long, I kept getting the permission request forms to fax back. These were the three possibilities I was so excited about but didn't want to jinc that I referred to in my "numbers" post. Finally, after sending one a couple weeks ago (for the high school story, I believe), I got notice today that "Sweater Girl", the story for middle school, and "It's a Sure Bet", the story for college, were accepted. They are small stories, probably no more than 2 pages. I have no idea how they'll edit them yet, if at all. I got paid a modest sum for each, but compared to the modest sums for magazines, these one-time payments make me feel very rich indeed. My words, the thoughts in my head translated to paper, will be in print. These books are sent everywhere. A chain bookstore in my grandma's small town of Waterloo, IA, could potentially order one of them, and somewhere in the middle of the book will be my simple story. 

I'm not crying tears of joy yet, but I think on around Nov. 4, when they said it should be out, when I'm in a store I convince to carry it, taking my picture and pointing to my words and name in print, well, I don't think Kleenex makes enough tissues.

I want to pass on the GMG gentleman's prayers on to all of those seeking publishing creds, or any kind of cred. I didn't truly believe I could have it, but here I am. You can do it! I believe in you!
 

Revised some of TR. And THEN wrote four new small sections. I feel so proud. What's strange though is that I was essentially ready to begin Ch. 10. But, I realized I needed a reaction to the huge moment in Ch. 9. So I added something on the fly. So, I still have Ch. 10 to write, and in that sense, I haven't made progress. But the spirit was just moving in me this week, and I wrote and wrote. And these additions I feel are necessary and reveal more. Talking to C., my new roomie, about page and word counts, I told him I was anxious that TR will be lucky to crack 30K after he said most YA are 40 to 50K. But he was encouraging and nice about saying to just write it and maybe a fresh set of eyes will see a new thread I can't see yet. Makes sense to me. But the newer sections are longer, so I feel like I'm gaining ground, and since the structure plays with timeline, what gets revealed later and in the past actually helps me add tiny details and lines and "foreshadowing" of the incidents in the flashbacks.

I loved writing the sections this week. I'm really having fun with these characters. Plus, the writing group, which I'm dubbing the Crickets, due to the noise on Skype when we call E., was giggling and laughing at all the right parts, and going ,"aw, B." at all the right points. These sections, I feel, had pathos. And bathos. And ethos!

In a completely unrelated note, I have been destroying my sleep habits by staying up to watch the Olympics. I love me some Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte (Go get a gold medal, you fellow Gator!)  The University of Florida should TOTALLY re-design the commercial to include that. :)

Which reminds me - the whole "Go write the great American novel" line has kind of been done by fellow Gator alum Kate DiCamillo. In my view, anyway. She has a new mg coming out in Fall '09. Being edited by the lovely AT, who visited Jo's class! I met that woman. I have her e-mail. She told us to send her stuff! And now she's working on Kate's! AND AT is mentoring one of my Simmons comrades. The connections are astounding. I am in awe of this community I'm being initiated into. But I cannot send her my regional mg. The very lovely A., at CB, is working with me. She's excited! I'm excited! You guys...I'm going to have a real, guided-edited pre-book by Christmas!

...the number of novels I'm playing with this last half of the year: 3.

...the number of novels I hope to have full drafts of by Labor Day: 2.

...the number of experience-building projects not counting work or school: 0. Eek! I can't let it be a full year...

...the number of potential...oh wait, I can't even say it here for fear of jinxing it, it's soo good: 3.

... the number of words in Guardians, halfway done: 19,461. That's okay for this point in a YA, right?

...the number of words in TR, also halfway done: 12,297. Egads! *whine* But that's as much as the story needs to be best told! *whine*

...the number of books Carter brought in 12 boxes that weighed 600 pounds: Not telling! It will be a party game (I hope) Aug. 16 when you all come meet us and see the library I get to live in.

I was never a math person. Do these numbers add up?

Someone take my hand, I'm gonna make it, I swear! I am on the path to being halfway done with Guardians by the end of this week! I am on the hardest chapters right now, and not just because I had to attempt a boys' locker room scene!  I have to get into the head of a character who is completely opposite of me - in that he has no faith whatsoever. No guidance. No belief in a comforting force or greater power or anything! Of all the arcs I'm tracking in this story, his may be the most rewarding in the end, though. Usually I can try to ascribe the personalities of my characters to myself a little. But with him, I just keep arguing how he's wrong. I have to maintain control somehow, and when I do write the scenes without a character launching into a diatribe, I get a little sad. It's hard to write a character who gets frustrated by the sight of crosses and all they represent when his creator has one hanging on her wall to the left of her desk. I'm not even at the meatiest part of his section, either! He is the only one not to be directly involved in the major plot incident of old. But he has feelings, too. And they're important.

Wish me luck!

I think the commentators on a certain S-site's "fray" of discussion boards covered it pretty well, but just in case you missed it, there is a terrible column on S-site regarding WALL-E, a truly beautiful film enjoyed by me, Em, and Sho, and an adorable 4-year-old girl in our row. This article has the nerve to call quite possibly the best film of the year so far (it makes you laugh, cry, think, hope, want to change the world, all with a simple love story) something discriminatory and hateful. Now, yes, people are entitled to their opinions. But generally, opinions should be based in facts. Allow me to give you the facts of this movie:
1. No one laughed at the "blob" people on the spaceship when something went wrong (in our theater anyway), and if there was chuckling, it was NOT the look-at-the-fat-person-how-lazy-i'm-so-superior-because-my-genes-are-awesome type. None of that.
2. The people on the ship did not cause the destruction of Earth due to their obesity. No, no. That, dear article writer, was explained as a progression of a huge corporate take-over of the world.
3. The people on the ship were not always blobs. Did the article writer not see the portraits of previous ship captains in which they were fit, healthy, and had appropriate bone structure? Did he not see how the same evil corporation that littered the world used brainwashing tactics and mind-control to lull -over 700 YEARS, btw - people into being unable to think for themselves. Once the people broke free of the technology, they did AWESOME things.
4. The movie explained how over the 700 YEARS, the lack of gravity caused people to lose muscle mass and bone density. Duh.

And wow, the article author has the nerve to think we're so stupid and judgmental that when moviegoers leave the film, we'll be so against "blob"-shaped people, we will be indolent and stupid enough to judge a person with a different body shape then our own. Are you fucking kidding me? I left that movie thinking how wonderful it would be to hold someone's hand with as much emotion and depth as WALL-E saw in the gesture. And the gorgeous dancing scene. And wondering where I could get that wonderful new song that played at the hopeful end. Oh, and also, hoping that we never get a president/"corporation" leader as ridiculous as that one guy, brilliantly played by that actor I can never name but always recognize as the bumbling fool. Oh, and feeling reaffirmed in my vow to keep walking to work, not want plastic bags and crap.  I mean seriously! To say that obese people are to blame when food consumption wasn't even the main problem! Duh, after 700 years, that stuff biodegrades. What WALL-E had to clean up was STUFF. And who uses STUFF? Everyone. So if I "scowl" at someone after seeing that movie, it will be the person who needs three bags to carry two items when a backpack will suffice. And the person who gives out tons and tons of trinkets for card-company-created holidays. But not someone of a different race, size, height, political affiliation, etc.

In conclusion, the article writer's indignation that Pixar would dare blame obese people for destroying the world is illogical and not factual based on the movie. The headline says it "sends the wrong message". Guess who started walking and saving the world? Those blobs who were blobs through no fault of their own. I'm sorry, but this latest Pixar outing sends EVERY right message.

Oh, and I know she won't see this, but to the woman and others like her who posted who  won't be letting their children see this movie or own it for their home libraries, I pity their children. Yes, I said it. WALL-E is not your average cartoon film. But it has a positive message of love, friendship, self-reliance and determination, overthrow of brain-sucking technology, and for when they're older, a great lesson in the craft of film, animation, and...I could just go on and on about the wonder this movie has and the awe it can inspire in viewers like me and certain others I know.

I am truly sorry the lone blogger the article writer managed to find to reference was upset to the point of crying. I am sorry she viewed the film this way and perhaps let other peoples' reactions (laughter when a "blob"-shaped person fell, for a hypothetical example) affect her enjoyment. They were ignorant for not seeing how the poor people were brainwashed into that state. That's what I think Pixar intended to show.

Please, don't make assumptions based on a columnist. I don't even want you to read that trash, so I am editing out obvious identifiers. See the movie and decide for yourself.

Entertainment Weekly's list of 100 Classic Movies of the past 25 years. Bold the ones you've seen, underline the ones you plan to, strike out the ones you HATE and refuse to watch ever again. I am going to add that I am italicizing the ones that I've seen part of but either don't remember fully or have never finished. 

I promise, writerly update below!

1. Pulp Fiction (1994)
2. The Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001-03) (acutally, I would italicize #2 because I was coloring during that viewing)
3. Titanic (1997)
4. Blue Velvet (1986)
5. Toy Story (1995) (Yay!)
6. Saving Private Ryan (1998)
7. Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)
8. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
9. Die Hard (1988)
10. Moulin Rouge (2001)
11. This Is Spinal Tap (1984)
12. The Matrix (1999)
13. GoodFellas (1990)
14. Crumb (1995)
15. Edward Scissorhands (1990)
16. Boogie Nights (1997)
17. Jerry Maguire (1996)
18. Do the Right Thing (1989)
19. Casino Royale (2006)
20. The Lion King (1994)
21. Schindler's List (1993)
22. Rushmore (1998)
23. Memento (2001)
24. A Room With a View (1986)
25. Shrek (2001)
26. Hoop Dreams (1994)
27. Aliens (1986)
28. Wings of Desire
29. The Bourne Supremacy (2004)
30. When Harry Met Sally... (1989) (My favorite!)
31. Brokeback Mountain (2005) (I saw this with my dad - er...)
32. Fight Club (1999)
33. The Breakfast Club (1985)
34. Fargo (1996)
35. The Incredibles (2004)
36. Spider-Man 2 (2004)
37. Pretty Woman (1990)
38. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)  (Seriously? Spiderman-2 above this?)
39. The Sixth Sense (1999) (I figured it out during the first act in the restaurant)
40. Speed (1994)
41. Dazed and Confused (1993)
42. Clueless (1995)
43. Gladiator (2000) (What my dad compares everything to. Either this or A Clockwork orange. Gee, I wonder where that is?)
44. The Player (1992)
45. Rain Man (1988)
46. Children of Men (2006)
47. Men in Black (1997)
48. Scarface (1983) (In Spanish Class!)
49. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)
50. The Piano (1993)
51. There Will Be Blood (2007)
52. The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad (1988)
53. The Truman Show (1998)
54. Fatal Attraction (1987)
55. Risky Business (1983)
56. The Lives of Others (2006)
57. There’s Something About Mary (1998)
58. Ghostbusters (1984)
59. L.A. Confidential (1997)
60. Scream (1996)
61. Beverly Hills Cop (1984)
62. sex, lies and videotape (1989)
63. Big (1988)
64. No Country For Old Men (2007)
65. Dirty Dancing (1987)  ( I always get this confused with Footloose.)
66. Natural Born Killers (1994)
67. Donnie Brasco (1997)
68. Witness (1985)
69. All About My Mother (1999)
70. Broadcast News (1987)
71. Unforgiven (1992)
72. Thelma & Louise (1991)
73. Office Space (1999)
74. Drugstore Cowboy (1989)
75. Out of Africa (1985)
76. The Departed (2006)
77. Sid and Nancy (1986)
78. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
79. Waiting for Guffman (1996)
80. Michael Clayton (2007)
81. Moonstruck (1987)
82. Lost in Translation (2003)
83. Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn (1987)
84. Sideways (2004)
85. The 40 Year-Old Virgin (2005)
86. Y Tu Mamá También (2002)
87. Swingers (1996)
88. Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997)
89. Breaking the Waves (1996)
90. Napoleon Dynamite (2004) (I just don't get that humor. Maybe I need to be a guy.)
91. Back to the Future (1985)
92. Menace II Society (1993)
93. Ed Wood (1994)
94. Full Metal Jacket (1987)
95. In the Mood for Love (2001)
96. Far From Heaven (2002)
97. Glory (1989)
98. The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)
99. The Blair Witch Project (1999)
100. South Park: Bigger Longer & Uncut (1999) (HATE the show, so I will never see the movie. 

So, after reading this list, I think the AFI has some highly suspect choices and rankings. Austin Powers is a "classic"? 

Anyway - writerly news: I went somewhere to get notes for my NF PB,  examined every book in every gift shop and determined that my lovely story is wholly unique, well-written, and best of all, a story-line and information the organization can be proud to dispense. Because it's TRUE!  I'm expecting notes from some readers this week. Then I may send it to a trusted person for the "Is it Ready? I think it's ready..." read.