Character Assassination: Tom Cruise as Jack Reacher.

Does anyone else feel betrayed when the main characters on a book cover in no way match the characters in the book? I do and it's such a glaring flaw for me that it takes something away from the enjoyment of the story. And that's a small, albeit grating, issue.
Casting someone in a movie who is so wholly out of place in the role of a character I love to read is an all together different kettle of fish. Stinky fish. Stinky bottom feeding fish. AARRGGHH.

I've read every Reacher novel, most of them more than once. (If you haven't dipped your toe into Lee Child's Reacher series, Bad Luck and Trouble is a great read.) I will NOT see One Shot with Tom Cruise as Reacher. That's like having Woody Allen direct The Shining; so blatantly wrong, it just becomes farcical.
Character should matter to a story-teller no matter what expression the story takes, in this instance a movie. Reacher is 6' 5", anywhere between 210 and 250 lbs, rugged and blond. Every story has his physical description as an element of who he is. Often, Reacher can't buy clothes that fit, and this is a problem since the only item Reacher carries with him as he wanders the country saving the day is a portable, folding tooth-brush. Always, always, always, Reacher uses his extreme physicality to annihilate one or more bad guys at a time. He is aware of his size all the time. Taking that away from Reacher indelibly changes his character.
Dolph Lundgren, the  wonderful actor Ray Stevenson, Liam Neeson, heck, even some-what shorter Sean Bean, would all have been better choices. On Lee Child's FB page this morning there were 949 comments commenting on the new book cover featuring Tom Cruise. Almost without exception fans of the books are disappointed to such an extent, not only will they not see the movie, some won't buy any more Reacher books. I will. I love Reacher. What I won't do is have the magic die by watching Tom Cruise mutilate a character I like to spend time with.

Perhaps Mr. Child genuinely likes this choice, but I doubt it. Thoughts?

ART IMITATES LIFE EVERY DAMNED TIME (Or: Art doesn’t exist without life to give it context.)

Has any life experience made you so angry you said to yourself, that’s going in a book? How about a joyous experience you couldn’t wait to journal about? Or, better yet, has something very real happened to you, no matter how small or inconsequential at the time, that made you want to change the world or at least your small part of it?
If the answer to any of these questions is yes and you then wrote about it, took a photograph or painted a picture, made up a song, a dirty limerick, or even the perfect FaceBook quip or Pinterest post, then I think you’ve experienced art imitating life. Oscar Wilde famously said: “Life imitates art far more than art imitates life.” This may seem chicken and eggish in the premise it sets out to prove, and to some extent it is, but I believe the distinction merits a look.
I make a lot of stuff up when I write. Gallery photographers use different lenses to generate and saturate color, to shadow and show effect. Painters experiment with light and shading. Musicians and poets play with meter and rhyme. What they and I can’t make up, and I believe this to be true of others as well, is the emotional content. Artists of every stripe, even mimes and sidewalk shell-game artists, have to draw on and connect with emotion, or their art falls flat.
I used my grandmother’s name in the second book I wrote for a character who otherwise was a compilation of women I admired as well as the product of my imagination. When it came time for that character to die, the emotion was very real. That scene rings true. I cry every time I read it because I let a piece of my life bleed into my art. The character wasn’t real, not wholly anyway. The emotion was.
That same story has part of its genesis in a visit I made to a long term care and rehabilitation facility. My client, an elderly woman with no family and a large estate, was recovering from a hip injury. She was also being billed $6,000 a month to share a room and drink Ensure. She didn’t even have a walker that worked. Needless to say, I was a little pissed off. I got her out of there, but not before she was billed $12,000  for a  60 day stay. That little adventure spurred the creation of Potter’s Woods, a wholistic healthcare facility. I made it up. I created a way to pay for it in my story – it helps to have a spare billionaire – and I felt better. Now, Mr. Wilde will be right if said billionaire reads my story and Potter’s Woods becomes a reality.
I can only hope.
My point is that artists, paid, unpaid, known and unknown, universally pour their life experience and the emotion that imbeds itself on the psyche as a result, into their art, even if all that comes out on the canvas is the representation of a soup can. It resonates with some people. It leaves others cold. Yet, the emotion is real whether it paints a rich and textured picture or it wounds with its starkness.
That’s life, baby. And it creates art.
So, my friends, does life’s emotion influence the way you create or the way you enjoy art? I bring my own experience to my reading and often I read a great story a little differently than friends who read the same words. How does your life experience influence your reading, your art, your enjoyment of others' art? I can’t wait to hear from you.
My your life always be filled with art that adds to it and emotion that nurtures it.
Leigh Morgan
http://bardintraining.com/
http://www.facebook.com/leigh.morgan.5817

Slainte (to-your-health) and Cheers to the August Chaos.

Is anyone else out there wondering, where did the summer go? I've got I-want-summer-to-stay syndrome...badly.
So far this August, I've tried to squeeze in the state fair, the Bristol Renaissance Faire, and a whirl-wind trip to Door County, WI before my daughter goes back to college and my son back to school. Oh and guess what, tomorrow the world's largest Celtic Festival, Irish Fest, begins at the Milwaukee Summerfest grounds! Yeah!!!
My family and I look forward to Irish Fest all year. We are in the parade, daily. We usually sponsor a team for the run/walk for arthritis research the Saturday of the Fest. This year we're sponsoring two teams: Team East-West Connection Martial Arts and Wellness studio and Team Macski's Highland Haggis. So much fun and so much, well, time.
I registered my son for school today, decided on haggis shirts and logo for the Labor Day Highland Games, waited for my husband's EKG and blood work results (he's having out-patient surgery in September) and then had an Oh Shi* moment when I realized, at 2:05pm, that it's the third Wednesday of the month and my day to blog.
So here I am, blogging.
I really thought when I gave up going to court every day that my days would be less hectic and I'd get more done. They are. And, I do, for the most part. And then there's August...sigh. The month where everything gets squeezed in as we try, or at least I try, to eek out every minute of family togetherness before my daughter gets all wrapped up in school and labs and the chaos every bright, overly stressed, college student experiences.
There's also the desire to live every minute of daylight August has to offer and enjoy the cooling nights while their softness lasts. So, friends, my blog today is about that welcome chaos the end of summer brings. I love this time of year where festivals and being outside are ends in themselves, where we reap the early harvest from our gardens or the local farmer's market, where I am reminded more particularly than any other time of year besides winter break and the Christmas season, of the importance of being with my family in every moment.
I've been to Irish Fest every year since it's creation in 1981. First with my parents. Then with my husband and my parents. Then with my husband, my children and my parents. Sadly, my parents can no longer negotiate the expansive and crowded grounds, so now it's my family and me. Some day, in the not so distant future, I will be going with my husband, our children and our grandchildren. Hopefully by then we will be living at least part of the year in Argyll and part of the year in New Mexico. No matter where we end up, for four days every August I will live with my family at Irish Fest.
Summer is important for many reasons, but the most important is the added time with my family. August in particular, because these are the days when family bonding is clear and immediate. These are the days memories are not only made, but solidified. It's a time to reap the seeds we've sown from early days sent enjoying time together. I've enjoyed the early summer calm and even the late summer chaos. I hope I'll be enjoying that chaos every August for the rest of my life, with my family around me.
So I raise a proverbial glass to you and whatever makes you revel in joy this August as I say: Slainte! (to your health).
My Scottish Blessing to you: In every moment of chaos may you be blessed with loving family...may the chaos flee quickly and the loving remain...may you live every day with a festival in your heart, music in your soul and a dance in your step.
What does August and the ending of summer bring to you? What summer traditions fill you with quiet pleasure or jolts of joy?

How do you escape when you have traveling feet and nowhere to go?

I was going to write about the Declaration of Independence and what it meant for a fledgling nation to declare war against the superpower of the time, an important and timely topic to be sure. Bella wrote about freedom beautifully on the 4th. If any of you missed her post, it's worth a look. It's beautifully written and I find I have little to add to her fine work.
So this July what's of import? Lot's I suspect. The height of summer is upon us and there's lots to celebrate just being alive. I live in south-eastern Wisconsin, where I've lived in various small towns my entire life. Here there are Memorial Day parades down main street followed by 4th of July parades down main street, County fairs just off main street and Labor Day picnics and barbecues. It's pedestrian and, well, nice. I'm thirty five minutes from Milwaukee's lovely lakefront and ninety minutes from Chicago's. So nestled in all this small town-ness is the opportunity to live large in the city. It's pretty ordinary really, the every-day-ness of it eclipsing at times the specialness of time and place. Sometime appreciating what we have requires distance. This July I'm hoping to appreciate it while being present. I'm finding the task harder perhaps than it should be.
Usually this is the month my family and I go on vacation. Sometimes to the Rockies. Sometimes to Ontario. Sometimes to New Mexico, specifically Santa Fe. This year things are different. Jobs are different. Children are different; older, more independent, with their own lives that have little to do with me or their father. We're busy with a new business and sticking closer to home.
So what does one do in a small town where streets can be comforting or claustrophobic on any given day? Well, for one who travels to expand my soul and my spirit, I have to admit I'm feeling a bit stifled. I shouldn't, but there it is. So what's a girl to do when she's stuck at home longing for new sights? Journey inward is always a good choice. Books, books, and more books. I'm reading more and writing more and trying to adjust to having more time to do what I want with fewer resources than I had a year ago. Weird, all the way around.
So what opportunities does this new life bring?  Well, this July I've been to the largest Renaissance Faire in the U.S. twice so far (It's been open only 2 weekends and I've been both). I've been going since I was a little girl since it's in the small town where I grew up, Bristol, Wisconsin. Summerfest, the world's largest music festival is held at Milwaukee's lakefront ten days at the end of June and beginning of July. I spent more days there this summer than ever before. Irish Fest, the world's largest Celtic festival is coming up in August. I sponsor a team for Arthritis research every year for the run/walk to Irish Fest at Milwaukee's lakefront. This year I'm sponsoring two. One for my dojo. One for our new haggis business. As much as I love it, it is something I've done every year for many years. (And now I sound so whiny I'd like to slap myself...I need a vacation!)
So why are my feet itchy beneath me? I need to change my routine. I need to see new places and do new things. It's a need imprinted in every cell of my body. Traveling gives a new perspective and it makes me more thankful for what I have in my own backyard. It also clears the cobwebs from my psyche, especially when I visit the mountains. Something about their grandeur and my being present in it makes life more clear and more basic. I will be going to the Rockies for a few days in September and my palms are itchy just thinking about it. The visit is for business, not pleasure, but I'm pretty sure I'll find pleasure in the journey.
And that's ultimately the goal, I think. To find pleasure in the journey whether it's just to my backyard or 3000 miles away. Both are significant if we attach significance to them. Some of the best books I've read involve small places and the everyday life that occurs there. The magic happens in small moments of appreciation and often in small towns or small environments. The magic is in everyday, I think, if we're open to it. So how do you open to it when time or circumstance don't allow for travel? I read. I water my flowers and try to absorb their beauty because I dread the long and very cold winter that blankets life here for five months of the year. And I dream of mountains and the Highlands and the magical places in Britain and I plan the next trip. After each trip I'm so happy to be home.
So, my fellow travelers, help a girl out. What do you do when you can't get away. Does reading and dreaming do it for you? What are your favorite reads of the summer? How do you escape?

Myth, Magic, and finding Midsummer Joy

Today is Litha, the Summer Solstice. It is that time of year when the sun reaches its zenith, the longest day of the year. It is a celebration of light, fecundity and the abundance of summer. I look forward to these long days of light all year and when they are here celebrate!
This past weekend my husband and I attended the Scottish Highland Games in Chicago. This was our second games of the year, something we celebrate together every year with our extended Scottish family. Since it was so close to Father’s Day, that was just an added bonus. We saw a World Record set in the weight toss for height (56lb. weight tossed with one hand over a bar 18ft 11inches high). Truly an amazing feat of athleticism. Pure masculine power, raw and beautiful to behold.

How does any of this tie into a Father’s Day theme? Well, you’ll have to bear with me as I tie it up. Today, Midsummer, is very special. It is associated with the sun, male energy and all that is bright and beautiful about the male aspect. So I say thanks to all the males in my life. Fathers, brothers, sons, and most importantly those we call lover and husband. I am thankful for the many men in my life who make it better every day with their strength, their love and their masculine grace. I am blessed to watch the honorable path the men I love, both living and those who have gone before, have blazed through their lives. Further, I am happy to travel it with them. So instead of saying Happy Father’s Day, I will say: here’s a cheer for the best in men everywhere.
Midsummer is a time full of myth and magic and joyous celebration of the earth and her gifts. We celebrate the sun, the masculine, and also the feminine as the sun enters Cancer – a water sign. I love this part. Today is a day for water magic. It is a time to celebrate holy streams and sacred wells, giving offerings of coins or pins in Celtic mysticism. Chalice well is located in Glastonbury and has been a sacred place for Christians and Pagans for more than a millenia. Joseph of Arimathea was said to have traveled there. Its sacred springs are associated with the grail legend and are said to be healing in nature.

I write about sacred springs, myth and magic in Fighting Fate, my latest stand a lone romance in the Dojo Chronicles. I love Glastonbury Tor. The land there and the sacred waters, sing with energy. It truly is a magical place I wanted to celebrate. So, I fictionalized it and put it in a romance that celebrates not only strong femininity, but also the fierce loving heart of a man sworn to protect it. I love Fighting Fate, and I hope you will too.

Shakespeare wrote about Midsummer magic in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, That Scottish Play, and in The Tempest. The themes of magic and celebrating all the abundance summer has to offer are not new. They are eternal. So here’s to summer. Here’s to the festivals, the music, the plants and to all you hold sacred. Here’s to celebrating the masculine aspect of nature as we enjoy the longest day of the year. And here’s to holding the magic of summer in your heart.

Happy Midsummer!

Leigh Morgan

http://www.amazon.com/Fighting-Fate-Dojo-Chronicles-ebook/dp/B008B8PXFA/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1340196821&sr=8-3&keywords=leigh+morgan

Characters: the good, the bad and the beautiful

There are times in life when the road becomes clear although stepping onto it requires never going back. Scary, scary, scary. And yet, once the choice is made there is more relief than fear. I've found this to be true each time I've stretched into a new business or jumped into the unknown.

It's true with people and characters too. The characters we love to read about and, as authors the ones we create, who we take into our hearts and our lives who nurture us and comfort us in good times and in bad, when we need them most, can change our perspective, add to our lives or simply entertain us while we live in their world a while. Those who don't add to our lives are easily discarded.

With people, it's a little more complicated. But the same principal applies, I think. Villains are great in stories. They act as a foil for the hero, shining a light on the hero's best qualities, while making them stronger. Villains are even helpful in life when they help us achieve something wonderful we didn't think we were otherwise capable of achieving. They are not useful when they offer nothing of value, serve only to hurt, and cannot be redeemed no matter how much goodwill we may offer. Sometimes villains have to die.

Sometimes when situations or people serve only the negative they need to go. So, having jumped into that unknown place, I do so without regret and with much releif. Good-bye villain. Time to start a new story without you. Hello all of you characters who add to this story in positive ways.

Spring seems to bring the need for cleaning house, physically, mentally and spiritually. Part of that is re-evaluating how our time and energy is spent. Here's to making tomorrow more productive and healthy by leaving all that no longer serves behind today.Here's to welcoming the beautiful world of possibility and leaving the land of doom-on-you.

So my friends, what would you lose if you could and what would you most like see walk into your life?

Moving forward always,

Leigh

What would you do if you knew: Anything-Can-Happen?

Well my friends, it's the first week of Anything-Can-Happen month and I'm feeling the drive. The drive to write. The drive to create. The drive to (goddess help me) clean and paint and otherwise tidy my nest.

The up side? I've tried a couple of left-over cases. I've re-written some chapters in my current work in progress and I've written some new from whole cloth. Those re-written are better than what came before and I'm experientially optimistic about the new. I'm also wondering how my life got so...so...life-like.

I'm still straddling two worlds trying to figure out how to get paid for doing something I love and I believe in. It isn't as polarizing for me now as it was eight short weeks ago. Now there's more balance, more ease.

Wow that sounds weird. So does this whole blogging thing if you think about it. I'm not that interested in describing my favorite band or color or Packer for public consumption. But, I do enjoy sharing those bits of insight I think are meaningful with my rather limited, and by and large unsolicited, audience. Sometimes life just matters in the moment and that should be celebrated, however quietly.

So I'm off on this new adventure of where the fu** do I go from here and I'm trying not only to have fun on the ride but to have something meaningful and lasting come from it. I guess we'll see. How many books of quality can I create in a year? How many organic farmers can I learn from and emulate? How many amendments can I suggest to the constitution? How many times can I have my parents, my in-laws and my children to breakfast? How many windows can I afford to replace in my house?

Some small questions. Some big. What will you choose as your questions for the next nine months of 2012? My life is shifting so quickly and yet so easily into areas of interest I wouldn't have contemplated a year ago. I hope yours is too, so long as that shift is moving in a positive direction for you.

Here's to your wishes, your dreams, your goals, large and small; may they guide you toward your best self and a life of balance. I know I'm still juggling. Peace.

Leigh