Elizabeth George – Anjuelle Floyd

Of Colombiana, Contagion, and Miracles…

“If you are interested in something, you will focus on it, and if you focus attention on anything, it is likely that you will become interested in it.
Many of the things we find interesting are not so by nature, but because we took the trouble of paying attention to them.”
— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

I saw two movies this weekend. Contagion, for the first time, and Colombiana for the 2nd.

Viewing a movie for the second time, much like reading a book, allows the opportunity to evaluate and inspect what either makes the story work, or remain vibrant in your mind, or the memories of its plot and characters, if you can recall them, slink into the recesses of the forgotten.

I was not excited at the thought of seeing Colombiana a second time.

Yet now as I write, I realize my hesitation came not from the quality of the movie itself, but quite the opposite.

The story of a young woman, who in losing her parents to a villainous killing at the age of 9, then seeking revenge, Colombiana is clearly a character driven story.

Contagion on the other hand, involves many characters whose roles work to tell the story of not a person, but rather display the effect of

Of Colombiana, Contagion, and Miracles… Read More »

Of Terry Brooks, Magic, and The Writer vs. The Author…

“There are writers and there are authors. Writers seek to write, and they seek to write better and better with every book. Authors seek only to be published, and they seek advances to match their egos.”

–Elizabeth George in Sometimes the Magic Works: Lessons from a Writing Life by Terry Brooks.

Elizabeth George offers this word of advice on the third page of the Introduction in Terry Brooks’ book on the craft of writing. That is what Brooks focuses upon in the tightly written book of 197 pages Sometimes the Magic Works: Lessons from a Writing Life. Clearly his words have left an impression on me. This is my third blog on his book and I’ve yet to finish it.