Rosanne Cash, Eric Bibb, John Phillips and Scott McKenzie sing Hedy West : 500 Miles

February 6, 2017 by Frances Macaulay Forde

Always loved the song. Sang it sitting in a circle on our lawn when I was a teen with folky friends… Thanks for this in depth appreciation.

The Immortal Jukebox

‘We leave something of ourselves behind when we leave a place, we stay there, even though we go away. And there are things in us that we can find again only by going back there’ (Pascal Mercier)

‘The desire to go home that is a desire to be whole, to know where you are, to be a point of intersection of all the lines drawn though all the stars, to be the constellation- maker and the center of the world, that center called love.’ (Rebecca Solnit)

‘You can’t go home again.’ (Thomas Wolfe)

‘Lord, I’m one, Lord, I’m two, Lord, I’m three, Lord, I’m four,

Lord, I’m five hundred miles away from home.’ (Hedy West)

Much meaning can be expressed in so few letters of the alphabet

Just four will do.

Good. Evil. Luck. Fate. Time. Fear. Hope. Hate. Womb. Tomb. Life. Love.

And one four letter word might contain…

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“Small Great Things”

February 6, 2017 by Frances Macaulay Forde

Jodi Picoult’s Small Great Things to be adapted for film.

by Anastasia Hadjidemetri |February 6, 2017

Julia Roberts and Viola Davis are set to star alongside each other in the film adaptation of Jodi Picoult’s Small Great Things.

Marc Platt, whose work has included La La Land, is set to produce the film with Adam Siegel. A screenwriter has yet to be announced. READ MORE.

#SmallGreatThings #JodiPicoult #BookToFilm #AdaptedForScreen #ScreenNews

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Oscars 2017: Best Original Song

February 4, 2017 by Frances Macaulay Forde

Loved ‘La La Land” and all the music…

The Fluff Is Raging

As with almost every other category this year,La La Land is going to be the one to beat. While Justin Hurwitz is probably going to win a statue for Best Original Score, he faces a bit of a challenge in the Original Song category. He is in fact nominated twice for Best Original Song, so it’s possible that one might cancel out the other.

Among his contenders are some pretty big names: Sting, Justin Timberlake and Lin-Manuel Miranda, so at least the performances on Oscars night should be decent (we shall see how Ryan Gosling fares when he has to sing live).

Justin Hurwitz, “City of Stars”, La La Land

Justin Hurwitz, “Audition (The Fools Who Dream)”, La La Land

Justin Timberlake, Max Martin and Karl Johan Schuster, “Can’t Stop the Feeling”, Trolls

J. Ralph and Sting, “The Empty Chair”, Jim: The James…

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REVIEW: OUTBACK BLAZE BY RACHAEL JOHNS

February 3, 2017 by Frances Macaulay Forde

Love the characters Rachael creates, always a good read.

Write Note Reviews

OUTBACK BLAZE

Author: Rachael Johns
Harlequin MIRA Aus RRP $29.99
Review: Monique Mulligan

Rachael Johns is fast cementing her place as a romance writer to watch in Australia and I sense there are big things in store for her as she stretches her writing wings further. Outback Blaze, the second in her Bunyip Bay series, is an immensely likeable book and will win her many new fans, as well as keeping her established fan base crying out for more.

Readers of Outback Dreams would not have been surprised by the decision to focus on secondary characters Ruby and Drew this time around; Johns cleverly set that up in the first book, and the signs are there in Outback Blaze for the focus of the next romance in the upcoming Outback Ghost. It’s cleverly done, without being overt. Back to Ruby and Drew … here there are two characters hiding or recovering from events in…

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Oscars 2017: Hacksaw Ridge

February 2, 2017 by Frances Macaulay Forde

Have to see this.

The Fluff Is Raging

The Film:Hacksaw Ridge

The Pitch:The Passion of the Sergeant York

Number of Nominations: 6

Which Categories? Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Editing, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing

Will it Win? Welcome Home, Mel Gibson … it’s been too long. Sure, you had a few problems, what with your drunken rants about Jews and the whole sugar-tits thing and your general air of awfulness and bigotry, but this is Hollywood, and we have a short memory, and we just love comeback stories, and you’ve been in the wilderness for so many years now, none of us can quite remember what you were doing there, and we hate to see your talents wasted in shitty B movies, and we love war movies and simplistic tales of heroism, and frankly, things are getting a little too diverse this year, if you know what I mean, so to keep things equal…

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REVIEW: THE WOMAN NEXT DOOR BY LIZ BYRSKI

January 31, 2017 by Frances Macaulay Forde

Another book I must add to my list… anything by Liz is worth your special time.

Write Note Reviews

Reviews on this site will now comprise a book blurb and a short response.

9781743534939

One thing I’ve always admired about Liz Byrski is the way she tackles themes like friendship and ageing in a realistic, but warm, manner. After hearing good things about The Woman Next Door, I welcomed the chance to read a friend’s copy.

Over the years, the residents of Emerald Street have become more than just neighbours, they have built lasting friendships over a drink and chat on their back verandahs.
Now a new chapter begins with the children having left home. Helen and Dennis have moved from their high maintenance family property to an apartment by the river with all the mod cons. For Joyce and Mac, the empty nest has Joyce craving a new challenge, while Mac fancies retirement on the south coast.
Meanwhile, Polly embarks on a surprising long-distance relationship. But she worries…

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Before You Forget

January 31, 2017 by Frances Macaulay Forde

Year Twelve is not off to a good start for Amelia. Art is her world, but her art teacher hates everything she does; her best friend has stopped talking to her; her mother and father may as well be …

Source: Before You Forget

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AUTHOR INSIGHT: MEET NORMAN JORGENSEN

January 30, 2017 by Frances Macaulay Forde

I wish there was a ‘LOVE’ button! Norm is the nicest man, an exciting storyteller and a clever conveyor of information to young minds. He does it so well it seems like a delicious secret only the reader has discovered and can savoir… Nice to meet you again, Norm.

Write Note Reviews

Norman Jorgensen was born in Broome, the eldest of four brothers, and has lived in several country towns since. At a young age he developed a love of books, especially historical novels like Treasure Island, and old movies. At age thirteen Norman learned to sail. These days he loves travelling and researching exotic places for his books. His latest book is The Smuggler’s Curse.

His books also include The Last Viking and The Last Viking Returns. The Last Viking won the 2012 Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators’ Crystal Kite Award, the 2012 WA Young Readers’ Hoffman Award and a 2012 Children’s Book Council of Australia Junior Judges Award. Jorgensen won CBCA picture book of the year for In Flanders Fields.

15380777_10154662087311877_1642728987053577956_n Monique: Your latest novel for children is The Smuggler’s Curse. Tell me a bit about it.

Norman: The story is set in 1896 and tells of…

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Warnock Awards…

January 27, 2017 by Frances Macaulay Forde

Congratulations Miley and Aaron – two screenwriters I have been quietly watching for the last couple of years.

Screenwest has selected Western Australian emerging writers Miley Tunnecliffe and Aaron Moss as the successful candidates of the 2017 Bill Warnock Writers Initiative following a highly competitive two-round assessment process. Read the full article from SCREENWEST.

#WarnockAwards #Screenwriting #MileyTunnercliffe #AaronMoss #Writing #AWG

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Mary Tyler Moore (1936-2017)

January 26, 2017 by Frances Macaulay Forde

R.I.P. Mary Tyler Moore.

Screenwriting from Iowa

“Today Mary Richards and her DNA can be found in nearly every major female character in primetime.”
Tina Fey on the character Mary Tyler Moore played in the TV show that lead to Moore winning four of her seven Primetime Emmy Awards

mtm3617
The day after I won a Regional Emmy for this blog in 2008 I drove the the Starbucks in Crystal, Minnesota where Diablo Cody wrote much of Juno, and I then drove to downtown Minneapolis and took this photo of the Mary Tyler Moore statue on the Nicollet Mall.

I’ve read the because of construction in that area the statue is temporarily “housed inside the Minneapolis Visitor Information Center at 505 Nicollet Mall, Suite 100.” And because of her death today flowers are being placed on the statue. Here’s the opening of The Mary Tyler Moore Showthat ended with the famous hat toss of a happy Mary Richards.

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