Karen S. Wiesner: Oldies But Goodies {Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Review: Fantastic Beasts Original Screenplays by J.K. Rowling

Oldies But Goodies

{Put This One on Your TBR List}

Book Review: Fantastic Beasts Original Screenplays by J.K. Rowling

by Karen S. Wiesner

Quite a few years ago, a trend started going around writing circles that was in direct opposition of everything I'd ever taught about going deep with characters. In this trend, writers were advised not to include more than basic information about main characters, allowing readers to fill in the blanks and make the characters whatever they want them to be. Can character development can be fluid enough to allow something like that without compromising everything vital in a story? In a word, no. Individual character choices directly influence outcomes. If a character isn't well defined, motives and purposes are constantly in question as well as in flux. Readers are more likely to say "Sucks for you" to characters they can't invest in, let alone care about enough to root for. Ultimately, characters that have little or no impact on readers make for a quickly forgotten story.

Personally, I want a good balance of character and plot development in any story I invest myself in. With most of the new stuff coming out, I'm not getting that. So I've been re-reading the books that have made it onto my keeper shelves in the past. To that end, here's another "oldies but goodies" review.

I'm taking a risk here, reviewing a wonderful book series that was literally destroyed by politics, misunderstandings on both sides, and shockingly vicious social media squabbles. My excuse for going ahead with it is: 1) I don't believe anyone or anything should be censored, particularly books, and 2) if I resigned myself to only enjoying art (in whatever form it comes in) created by artists I actually agree with the political opinions and private lives and actions of, I might as well give up art although. While I unfortunately absorbed some of the controversy surrounding this series because it was impossible to avoid it altogether in using the internet and to live in a world where the people around you have very strong opinions, for the most part I've managed to separate myself from it. I love the world of Harry Potter so much, there was no way I was going to let differing opinions on a topic that had nothing to do with the stories keep me from reading, watching, and playing the games designed around this magical world. Just in case anyone wonders: The screenplay format wasn't a deterrent either. While it's not as rich as a novel, it worked.

Fantastic Beasts actually takes place well in advance of the Harry Potter series. Here, the famous or infamous, depending on your point-of-view, Hogwarts Headmaster Albus Dumbledore is a middle-age man. We knew about Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them, the title of the first Fantastic Beasts screenplay and the movie that was made from it, because it was a textbook Harry and his classmates were using to study magical creatures. The author of the textbook was Magizoologist Newt Scamander, and that's the main character in the screenplays and films of the Fantastic Beasts series.

The first screenplay and movie took a little bit of time to grow on me because it was so drastically different. Set in the USA, New York, where the American division of wizards Magical Congress of the United States (MACUSA) is headquartered, the series includes a host of unlikely but compelling characters. Stories hinted at within Harry Potter come to life here--ones that I've always wanted to know more about--more than any, Dumbledore's history. Here, we get much more detail about his family life, his romantic liaison with infamous dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald (very tastefully done), the life changes that resulted from those experiences, and his role at Hogwarts.

Dumbledore, Credence, Newt, and his unlikely and initially reluctant sidekick, baker Jacob are strong, loveable characters with easy to emphasize with motivations and goals. Also of note is Queenie, a compelling secondary character with unique talents and a sweet, simple faith in love. Her sister Tina would have been another intriguing character, but her place in the story was upset after the first screenplay/movie--again, based on real-life politics that drastically and indelibly altered the series.

In the second installment, The Crimes of Grindelwald, we start to learn who Dumbledore's former boyfriend is, what he believes, and what motivates him to violently change the wizarding--and the No-Maj (non-magical) or Muggle world--forever. In the movie, Johnny Depp played the role of Grindelwald brilliantly. The third installment, The Secrets of Dumbledore, was written by Rowling with Steve Kloves, who wrote screenplays for seven of the Harry Potter films. The role of Grindelwald was later filled by another favorite actor of mine Mads Mikkelsen. {Damn you, social medium politics and controversy!}. In Secrets, Grindelwald's madness comes to a head. We learned a lot in the suspenseful, shocking story, some closure was provided, but not everything was tied up neatly in this screenplay/movie.

Originally, the Fantastic Beasts screenplays/films were supposed to be a trilogy, but even before the release of the third film, that grew. The final two installments were to "consist of a sequence of events that occurred between the years of 1926 and 1945", according to Rowling. Political strife and media controversy on multiple fronts had a deep impact on the future of the screenplays and films. By late 2022, the movie company had reported it "was not actively planning to continue the film series or to develop any films related to the Wizarding World franchise". A year later, the director David Yates offered a half-hearted "...at some point, we'll be back." Rowling and the producer hadn't weighed in at that point. I imagine the author was terrified to open her mouth about anything at that point. Not long later, Yates confirmed the franchise had been parked, development discontinued. So fans will just have to be satisfied with the endings provided in the third screenplay/movie.

It makes me very sad that hate, prejudice, and intolerance can cause such devastation even in an imaginary world, tainting beyond redemption something that started out so good.

You'll see more of my reviews for Oldie But Goodies that you might also find worth another read in the future.

Karen Wiesner is an award-winning, multi-genre author of over 150 titles and 16 series.

Visit her website here: https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/

and https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/karens-quill-blog

Find out more about her books and see her art here: http://www.facebook.com/KarenWiesnerAuthor

Visit her publisher here: https://www.writers-exchange.com/Karen-Wiesner/

Karen S. Wiesner: Oldies But Goodies {Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Review: The Club Dumas by Arturo Pérez-Reverte

Oldies But Goodies

{Put This One on Your TBR List}

Book Review: The Club Dumas by Arturo Pérez-Reverte

by Karen S. Wiesner

Quite a few years ago, a trend started going around writing circles that was in direct opposition of everything I'd ever taught about going deep with characters. In this trend, writers were advised not to include more than basic information about main characters, allowing readers to fill in the blanks and make the characters whatever they want them to be. Can character development can be fluid enough to allow something like that without compromising everything vital in a story? In a word, no. Individual character choices directly influence outcomes. If a character isn't well defined, motives and purposes are constantly in question as well as in flux. Readers are more likely to say "Sucks for you" to characters they can't invest in, let alone care about enough to root for. Ultimately, characters that have little or no impact on readers make for a quickly forgotten story.

Personally, I want a good balance of character and plot development in any story I invest myself in. With most of the new stuff coming out, I'm not getting that. So I've been re-reading the books that have made it onto my keeper shelves in the past. To that end, here's another "oldies but goodies" review.

Most people know about this book under its other title in a very different format: In 1999, a highly recommended horror film directed and produced by Roman Polanski was released titled The Ninth Gate, starring Johnny Depp and Lena Olin, who both give brilliant performances. The 1993 novel was beautifully written by Arturo Pérez-Reverte, set in the world of antiquarian booksellers--a topic the author apparently hadn't gotten enough of in his 1990 work The Flanders Panel.

Hired to authenticate a rare manuscript Lucas Corso, a book dealer, soon finds himself led on a harrowing investigation in search of copies of a fictional rare book known (in English) as Of the Nine Doors of the Kingdom of Shadows. The author was burned at the stake, given that the book is said to contain instructions for summoning the devil. Corso is thwarted in his journey, as you might expect, by devil worshippers, obsessed bibliophiles, a horny femme fatale with an ulterior motive, and an obscure woman who actually seems to be helping him but may have an agenda of her own if she is what she suggests--a fallen angel who'd wandered for millennia looking for him. Corso finds multiple copies of the book, none of them exact matches. Some of the plates bear the initials "L.F." and those form a complete set of nine without duplications. Corso realizes that, together, the nine illustrations are the summoning ritual--however, one is a forgery. But which one?

From start to finish, this one is a thrill-ride of suspense and fascination, from the details included for forging a 17-century text, to the unfathomable obsessions of book collectors and the lengths they're willing to go to to obtain their crown jewel, all the way to the unexpected life of a book dealer willing to go to hell (maybe literally) and back all on the quest of extraordinary literary discovery. You can't go wrong with this book or the movie. It might be a good time to give either a replay.

Next week, I'll review another Oldie But Goodie you might find worth another read, too.

Karen Wiesner is an award-winning, multi-genre author of over 150 titles and 16 series.

Visit her website here: https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/

and https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/karens-quill-blog

Find out more about her books and see her art here: http://www.facebook.com/KarenWiesnerAuthor

Visit her publisher here: https://www.writers-exchange.com/Karen-Wiesner/

Karen S. Wiesner: Oldies But Goodies {Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Review: A Stir of Echoes by Richard Matheson

Oldies But Goodies

{Put This One on Your TBR List}

Book Review: A Stir of Echoes by Richard Matheson

by Karen S. Wiesner

Quite a few years ago, a trend started going around writing circles that was in direct opposition of everything I'd ever taught about going deep with characters. In this trend, writers were advised not to include more than basic information about main characters, allowing readers to fill in the blanks and make the characters whatever they want them to be. Can character development can be fluid enough to allow something like that without compromising everything vital in a story? In a word, no. Individual character choices directly influence outcomes. If a character isn't well defined, motives and purposes are constantly in question as well as in flux. Readers are more likely to say "Sucks for you" to characters they can't invest in, let alone care about enough to root for. Ultimately, characters that have no impact on readers make for a quickly forgotten story.

Personally, I want a good balance of character and plot development the any story I invest myself in. With most of the new stuff coming out, I'm not getting that. So I've been re-reading the books that have made it onto my keeper shelves in the past. To that end, here's another "oldies but goodies" review.

A Stir of Echoes by Richard Matheson was published in 1958. It's hard to imagine this amazing supernatural horror is actually that old. Matheson probably needs no introduction to most readers. He's a legendary author and screenwriter of fantasy, horror, and science fiction, best known for I Am Legend, a personal favorite of mine.

In A Stir of Echoes, Tom Wallace's life is about as ordinary as it gets. I vividly remember reading it the first time and marveling at 1950s blasé parenting when Tom and his wife leave their new baby alone in the house and go across the street to party with the neighbors. Back then, baby monitors weren't really a thing. I suppose it wasn't a big deal back then. Everyone felt so safe. Not a world I can really imagine.

In any case, Tom is an ordinary man with an ordinary life until something weird happens to him and latent physic abilities are awakened inside him. Suddenly he's hearing what's going on in the minds of everyone, living and dead, around him. He finds himself the unwilling recipient of a message from beyond the grave.

I love one of the reviews of Matheson himself as the author (San Jose Mercury News): "Matheson is the master of paranoia--pitting a single man against unknown horrors, and examining his every slow twist in the wind." So accurate when it comes to the brilliance of this author.

The 1999 film adaptation with the name "Stir of Echoes" was fantastic, starring Kevin Bacon and providing the jump-out-at-you visuals that best serve this better-than-average ghost story. One of the other nice things I like so much about this story is that it's short. These days, everything you read is either really short or really long, almost no in-between. Sometimes you just want a streamlined, yet fully fleshed out story with vibrant characters that gives the reader no more and no less what's actually needed to tell a gripping tale. I highly recommend this classic, and the good news is you can probably immerse yourself in it and be out within a couple days.

Next week, I'll review another Oldie But Goodie you might find worth another read, too.

Karen Wiesner is an award-winning, multi-genre author of over 150 titles and 16 series.

Visit her website here: https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/

and https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/karens-quill-blog

Find out more about her books and see her art here: http://www.facebook.com/KarenWiesnerAuthor

Visit her publisher here: https://www.writers-exchange.com/Karen-Wiesner/

Karen S. Wiesner: Oldies But Goodies {Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Review: Before I Go to Sleep by S.J. Watson

Oldies But Goodies

{Put This One on Your TBR List}

Book Review: Before I Go to Sleep by S.J. Watson

by Karen S. Wiesner

After I finished my last writing reference, I'd started to hear about a trend going around writing circles. In direct opposition of everything I'd ever taught about going deep with characters, writers were told not to include more than basic information about main characters, allowing readers to fill in the blanks with their own details and thereby making the characters whatever they want them to be.

I don't believe character development can be fluid enough to allow something like that without compromising everything vital in a story. Individual character choices directly influence outcomes. If a character isn't well defined, motives and purposes are constantly in question as well as in flux. Ultimately, characters that have no impact on readers make for a quickly forgotten story.

Personally, I want a good balance of character and plot development the stories I'm willing to invest myself in, and I'm not getting it with most of the new stuff coming out. So I've been re-reading the books that have made it onto my keeper shelves in the past. To that end, here's another "oldies but goodies" review.

Before I Go To Sleep, published in 2011, was written by a then brand new author, S. J. (Steven Johnson) Watson, an audiologist for National Health Service, where he wrote the novel between shifts. The psychological thriller shot to the top of the bestseller lists and was made into a film in 2014 by Ridley Scott.

Of a technicality, there's nothing supernatural about this book enough to warrant it being reviewed on the Alien Romances Blog where the focus is "science fiction romance, futuristic, or paranormal romances in which at least one protagonist is an alien or of alien ancestry". However, there's something distinctly eerie about this tale--namely, the condition the main character Christine Lucas's is suffering from. Anterograde amnesia is absolutely chilling to me. It's very much as if an alien comes each night while the victim goes to sleep and steals everything he or she knows, feels, has experienced, and lived. I can't imagine anything else that could be worse. Good and bad memories, the myriad emotions associated with them, our areas of individual expertise and passions, and the experiences that make up the tapestry of our lives are vital to who and what we are. Without them, we're little more than lost--to everyone and everything. Imagine not knowing who you are, who you love, who loves you, what you've done, whether you're a good person, a bad, or something in-between. That, to me, is the very definition of horror.

In this novel, Christine wakes up every day of her life a blank slate and has to reconstruct her own identity--either through the one who tells her he's her husband, her son, her journal, or the doctor who's secretly helping her recover her memory. What makes this story so tense and alarming is that, in a situation like this, a person is forced to trust evidence that can so easily be manufactured as well as relying on the ones around them--despite the uncertainty that's constantly in the back of the mind. Do these individuals really know me, care about me, have my best interests at heart? Should I trust anything they say or do?

The first time I read this book long years ago, I gulped it like I was so hungry, I couldn't get enough. I'd never encountered anything like this before, didn't know the first thing about anterograde amnesia, and it was hard to imagine that it was something that could actually happen to someone. Frankly, it blew my mind. I also watched the movie, which was a close rendition of the story in the book, but I actually enjoyed it more, I think, because Nicole Kidman put in such a good performance as a frail but determined woman who's walking a short tightrope from one day to the next.

The second read recently wasn't quite as positively radical. This time around, I noticed that I found the writing style annoying and, cruel as it seems, it was very hard to actually like the heroine. Compassion, given her situation, was a given, but she acted in a way that set me on edge. The best way to say this is, I just would not have acted the way she did, if I was in that situation. Or at least I don't think I would. I hope to never know for sure. In any case, this story is a nail-biter and a page-turner that's very unique even in a sea of other psychologic thrillers. It's definitely worth a read, or a re-read.

Next week, I'll review another Oldie But Goodie you might find worth another read, too.

Karen Wiesner is an award-winning, multi-genre author of over 150 titles and 16 series.

Visit her website here: https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/

and https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/karens-quill-blog

Find out more about her books and see her art here: http://www.facebook.com/KarenWiesnerAuthor

Visit her publisher here: https://www.writers-exchange.com/Karen-Wiesner/

Karen S. Wiesner: Oldies But Goodies {Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Review: The Ghost Prison by Joseph Delaney

Oldies But Goodies

{Put This One on Your TBR List}

Book Review: The Ghost Prison by Joseph Delaney

by Karen S. Wiesner

After I finished my last writing reference, I'd started to hear about a trend going around writing circles. In direct opposition of everything I'd ever taught in my writing series about the crucial need to go deep with characters, writers were being told that it's best not to include more than basic information about main characters, not even providing last names for them--this supposedly allows readers to fill in the blanks with their own details, making the characters whatever they want them to be.

In my mind, this is a big mistake. How can character development be fluid enough to allow something like that without compromising everything vital in a story? Individual character choices directly influence outcomes. If a character isn't well defined, motives and purposes are constantly in question as well as in flux. Ultimately, characters that have no impact on readers make for a quickly forgotten story.

I want a good balance of character and plot development in the stories I'm willing to invest myself in, and I'm not getting it with most of the new stuff coming out. So I've been re-reading the books that have made it onto my keeper shelves in the past. To that end, here's another "oldies but goodies" review.

The Ghost Prison by Joseph Delaney is said to be a tangential installment of his wonderful The Last Apprentice Series (reviewed here: 

https://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/search?q=The+Last+Apprentice), and it's clear by the language that it's set in the same world. Billy Calder may well have become an apprentice of the Spook John Gregory in another life, but in this story he's simply a 15-year old orphan boy who seizes the opportunity to gain independence from the Home for Unfortunate Boys by taking a job as a castle prison guard. He's given almost no training. After waking up late for his first shift, he rushes to the prison from the orphanage. His supervisor isn't pleased. Beyond that, night in the prison is anything but boring, given the number of supernatural prisoners that have to be tended to. An illness removes his boss and leaves Billy in charge, forced to take over horrifying duties he doesn't have the experience or skills to handle.

This short tale published just before Halloween in 2013 is intended for 4-7th graders, but don't let that stop you. Why should they have all the fun? This story is one that anyone who loves a good chiller will enjoy just as much as I did. Billy is a plucky Pip-like kid who doesn't give up or give in easily, even when it might be wise to just run for his life and not look back. Scott M. Fischer's black and white sketches all through the book are perfect accompaniments to the fun, suspenseful text. This is a story filled with a well-developed, brilliant personality that allows you to share directly in Billy's conflicts and root for him to triumph.

Next week, I'll review another Oldie But Goodie you might find worth another read, too.

Karen Wiesner is an award-winning, multi-genre author of over 150 titles and 16 series.

Visit her website here: https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/

and https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/karens-quill-blog

Find out more about her books and see her art here: http://www.facebook.com/KarenWiesnerAuthor

Visit her publisher here: https://www.writers-exchange.com/Karen-Wiesner/

Karen S. Wiesner: Oldies But Goodies {Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Review: The Host by Stephenie Meyer

Oldies But Goodies

{Put This One on Your TBR List}

Book Review: The Host by Stephenie Meyer

by Karen S. Wiesner

After I finished my last writing reference, I'd started to hear about what I thought was a "flavor of the day" trend going around writing circles. In direct opposition of everything I'd ever taught about the crucial need to go deep with characters, writers were being told that it's best not to include more than basic information about main characters, not even providing last names for them--this supposedly allows readers to fill in the blanks with their own details, making the characters whatever they wanted them to be.

I can't impart to you just how much I disliked that idea then, and how much I hate it now. First, my characters don't belong to readers. They belong to me. And, since they're mine, I choose who they are and what they stand for, what choices they make. It's inconceivable to me that any writer would surrender proprietary rights of character development to readers, that author's don't care enough about every aspect of their stories and craft to protect them from poking and prodding, breaches and violations. Beyond that, how can character development be fluid enough to allow something like that without compromising everything vital in a story? There can be no solid ground in that situation.

Individual character choices directly influence outcomes. That's a no brainer. Logically, if a character isn't well defined, motives and purposes are constantly in question as well as in flux. Additionally, if readers can't understand where the characters are coming from, then how can the story make any kind of sense? 

Ultimately, how can readers root for characters and want them to succeed? They can't. Readers not emotionally invested enough to, frankly my dear, give a damn what happens move on, unimpressed. Don't kid yourself: A story without impact is quickly forgotten.

Unfortunately, what I thought was a trend that would come and go quickly ended up becoming the norm in the last few years. So many of the books I read these days, the films and TV shows I watch have characters that just make no impact on me whatsoever. Even if I'm captured by a plot, the imbalance of bad things happening to unformed lumps of clay that haven't bothered trying to convince me to care…well, what can I say? I'm not moved. There's more of an eh, so what? response while I move on and I don't look back.

This really came home to me recently. I watched the science fiction suspense movie called I.S.S. and, later, someone asked me how it was. My response? "It was good with a compelling plot, but I never learned much of anything about the characters involved in the conflict. Bits here and there." At the end of the movie, the survivors had a short conversation, to the effect of:

#1: "Where are we going?"

#2: "I don't know."

My brain reacted to this with a sum up with, Who cares?

I was barely curious about what might happen next, though normally I hate stories that end on a cliffhanger.

I can't help feeling about this and other stories like it, what a waste. This film could have been so much better, so much more memorable if only the writers cared enough to make us care. Another forgettable installment that'll fall by the wayside instead of resonating with people for longer than the one hour and thirty-five minutes it took to watch it.

For at least the past year, I've found myself much less interested than usual in reading anything new because it's such a rare thing now to find something with a good balance of character and plot development. In my mind, both are required if I'm going to invest myself emotionally, physically, and financially. So I've been re-reading books from my huge personal library that I liked enough to put on my keeper shelves in the past. Over the next month or two, I thought I'd revisit a few of these oldies but goodies with reviews.

The Host was the first new work by Stephenie Meyer after the Twilight Saga reached its pinnacle. Published in 2008, the romantic science fiction tells the tale of Earth being invaded by an enemy species in a post-apocalyptic time. A "Soul" from this parasitic alien race is implanted into a human host body. In the process, the original owner loses all memories, knowledge, even the awareness that any other consciousness ever existed. However, one Soul, called Wanderer (or Wanda), quickly realizes its original host won't be so easily subdued. Melanie Stryder is alive and well and begins communicating with Wanda. Like it or not, Wanda begins to sympathize and realize the violation her species has visited upon humans. The movie adaptation in 2013 was faithful to the story told in the book.

It's never easy for an author that reached the heights of fame Stephenie Meyer did when Twilight fever swept the world to move past such an epoch. The Guardian reviewer Keith Brooke, unfairly I think, said of The Host, "The novel works well, and will appeal to fans of…Twilight…but it is little more than a half-decent doorstep-sized chunk of light entertainment." The Host was well-written and interesting, a solid balance between fully fleshed out characters and conflicts. I enjoyed it. Its only real flaw was falling in the shadow of its dazzlingly bright predecessor.

The author has said she'd like to make this book into a trilogy, and in February 2011, she reported she'd completed outlines for them, even done some writing. Thirteen years later, the only non-Twilight related work from the author has been The Chemist, released in late 2016, a suspense story with no connection to her previous books. Sometimes it's hard to return to things you've been away from for so long, they no longer feel like your own. Maybe that's the case here, and if it is, luckily the story contained in The Host is satisfying without requiring anything more to tie up loose threads.

Next week, I'll review another Oldie But Goodie you might find worth another read, too.

Karen Wiesner is an award-winning, multi-genre author of over 150 titles and 16 series.

Visit her website here: https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/

and https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/karens-quill-blog

Find out more about her books and see her art here: http://www.facebook.com/KarenWiesnerAuthor

Visit her publisher here: https://www.writers-exchange.com/Karen-Wiesner/