Red Wolf's Room

This is one of my favorite episodes, mainly because it diverts from the usual Quantum Leap story line of Sam Beckett changing someone's life or several people's lives in order for himself to leap home.  For those of you who have not seen this episode, do NOT read on because there are spoilers.  And you do not want this episode spoiled!  ***Spoilers Ahead*** I never realized all the clues that pointed to Al not being Al.  In fact, on my first viewing, I only noticed one of the clues and thought it was a goof.  Boy, was I kicking myself at the end!  Having watched so many episodes, I should have noticed the clues.  At the end, Sam mentions a few of the clues, but I want to provide a more complete list: Sound: when Sam is with the Sheriff after Tully's death, "Al" speaks off-camera and instead of the usual background chords that play when he appears, there is haunting music Visual: The Sheriff and Mary can sense "Al's" presence throughout ...

Maps are fun.  They give us a way of seeing a place and all its details before beginning our exploration.  The book I reviewed in my previous post, "Paris was the Place" , talks about maps and the narrator-protagonist describes Paris and how its streets are laid out.  Here is Paris's subway map: Image source: https://about-france.com/paris-metro-map.pdf Subway maps are also interesting, especially those of Paris and Japan.  I haven't traveled very much, so when I was playing the video games Nancy Drew: Danger by Design and Shadow at the Water's Edge , the maps were a bit daunting.  There are just so many stops! Nancy Drew Paris Subway Map I'm a writer, so why am I going on about maps?  Well, because maps are useful for writing; you can map out your story or create a map to help you visualize the world you're creating.  Sometimes, the ideas won't come to me or I struggle to write a scene with the right words, so I turn to design ...

*This post contains spoilers I enjoy listening to TED talks. I find them informative and the speakers captivate my attention by using a creative way to deliver their speeches. One such TED talk was "The power of story" by the writer/poet Susan Conley. A few days after listening to Conley’s talk, I was checking out the “Bargain Books” section at Indigo and picked up a book that had an interesting title: Paris was the Place. It was only after reading the story’s description on the book’s jacket that I decided to buy it. Then my eyes caught the author’s name and I laughed at the coincidence. I always search for books by certain authors; never have the books found me.    "Paris was the Place" is full of life.  It's 1989 and the protagonist, Willow Pears, teaches poetry at an academy as well as at an immigration center for girls.  She becomes involved in one of the girls' lives at the center which leads to the question of where the l...

The Girl on the Train movie will be coming out soon .  For those of you who have yet to read the book, I encourage you to do so.  I prefer fantasy, science fiction and classic mysteries, but this book does have mysterious aspects and twists that you may never see coming.  I'll begin from the beginning. **In case you didn’t see it the first time: Spoilers Ahead (and the Culprit is Revealed) ! The Girl on the Train has three women narrating: Rachel, Megan and Anna. Rachel - The main narrator and the girl on the train. She rides the train into town on her way to work everyday and passes her old house and street. Rachel notices a man and a woman a couple of doors down from her old house and imagines their perfect life together. Later, Rachel finds out about the woman’s disappearance and because of the fiction she created in her head, she feels obligated to figure out what happened. She was also in the neighborhood the day the woman disappea...

I found this interview with Paul McGann on YouTube (posted by Morgan Creed) and enjoyed the conversation because McGann discusses quality writing and how so many stories on television focus on "crash-bang-wallop" and CGI effects instead of characters.  It got me thinking about how children don't notice the bad visual and audio effects older shows had until they see them again as teenagers or adults.  This allows children to get more enjoyment out of stories.  On the other hand, it's good that we lose that belief when it comes to the scarier (and sometimes gory) elements of stories.  I remember when my parents were watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer .  I was in grade school and I would shield my eyes from the television screen when I had to cross the room because the creatures were horrific.  A decade or so later, I see them and they are laughable because I can see the actor beneath the make-up and rubber.    Although McGann is an actor, he br...

Today, I did an interview with Katrina to find out why she is passionate about writing: So, what got you into writing? My secondary-one English teacher was a huge influence for me. The Harry Potter series was another. But I first realized I enjoyed telling stories in elementary school, when our fourth grade class was forced to participate in a storytelling competition. I hated public speaking, but I remember feeling on top of the world when my classmates told me I was actually funny, and voted me to the next round. I refused, of course.   What is it about script-writing that attracted you to it?     I think at first it was the fact that TV is dialogue-driven. Not always, of course, but when I was young I watched mostly family sitcoms; so for me, it was the laugh track that sold me. I wanted to be responsible for making a whole audience laugh—and maybe teach a lesson or two in the process. What is your favorite medium of writing?...

 For those new to The Goblin Tunnels series, click here . IN MEMORY OF DAVID BOWIE: 1947-2016 The Goblin Tunnels: Hail to the King (and His Final Moments)             He watched his followers invade the other world.  He waited for the last of them to exit the atrium before he withdrew into the Goblin Tunnels.                The Goblin King meandered ponderously into the hallway.  His feet were silent against the cold cement floor.  After delivering his speech, his blood was beginning to cool, the heat soaked up by the architecture around him.                Wires were a major decoration of the Goblin Tunnels.  They snaked the floors, ready to catch the clumsiest of creatures.  In some of the smaller hallways, such as this one, there ...