Sins, Sons, and Siren Songs - by Sarah Rodecker and Helena George: COVER REVEAL!!!

 Hello, again, dear readers!

Are you ready for a surprise? Today is the cover reveal for the second book in The Pirate Hunter Chronicles! I loved the first book Ships, Secrets, and Survivors and book 2 is almost here! It’s actually already a reality for me as I got to read it, but I won’t rub it in too much. Are you ready to see the epicness of Sins, Sons, and Siren Songs? Start scrolling!

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This is how I looked when I first saw this cover.

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The last cover reveal that I did on this blog was for the first book in the series so I’m pumped to be sharing this one with you guys, too!

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What is more fun than a book with pirates and SIRENS?? For me, it’s making people scroll. Just kidding, this book is so much more fun than any of you guys can imagine!

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All the same, imagine great things for this cover. You are going to be blown away.

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I’m not cruel. I’m sorry for all of the tantalizing things that I’ve told you. I will leave you with the greatest part now.

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*thunder rumbles and lightening flashes in the distance*

A song on the wind.

A broken crew to mend.

A family’s honor to be upheld.

Leading a crew is harder than Adi thought. Six months after she took up the mantle of captain, she finds herself facing more problems than she bargained for: a grieving crew and rumors of sirens attacking local ports. But the crew of the High Dragon might have finally found their match in the mythical people of the sea.

Ravin’s life was almost normal, until he finds an assassin lurking outside Master Jermaine’s shop and is forced to flee once more. But Treynair del Mankayl cannot be avoided forever and Ravin has to decide his fate: to run for the rest of his life or stand up and face his greatest nightmare by fighting his father. Only this time, he isn’t just trying to save his own life, but that of another as well.

When Adi and Ravin’s paths cross once more, they are thrown into a storm of myths, assassins, and consequences. But will they be able to weather it with the crew tearing at the seams?

Release date:

May 4th, 2021

Where to get it:

Signed paperback preorder

Ebook preorder

Check it out at:

Goodreads

Storygraph

About the authors:

Sarah Rodecker and Helena George have done countless crazy things together since they first met in 2005. One such thing was write Ships, Secrets, and Survivors on a dare. It went so well, they decided to expand it into a series and publish it together.

Sarah’s blog

Helena’s blog

The Order of the Pen Press

But wait, there are treats!

If you preorder then you can get goodies! Fill out the form for that HERE.

Physical (US only):

-A bookmark

-Justin’s shortbread recipe card

-A Siren sticker

-Tea

Virtual (open internationally):

-Kindred, a Pirate Hunter short story

-Justin’s shortbread recipe download

 

What do you guys think? I think this cover is awesome! If you haven’t read the first book then you should get your act together and do just that! It’s totally worth it. Now, go!

MovieCritic

Movie Review: Pot O' Gold (1941)

 Greetings, friends!

It is no secret that my favorite actor is James Stewart and I want to watch every movie he was in. It was May when I last reviewed one of his movies, Seventh Heaven (1937), so it’s high time to do it again! This is might be my least favorite of his films that I’ve seen so far (and I’ve seen 15), but there were redeeming factors. One of them is a certain person. Any guesses of who? Keep reading to see!

My guarantee: On ALL of my reviews there are NO spoilers unless I give you warning. This review is spoiler-free!


Pot O’ Gold (1941):

(Also known as The Golden Hour and Jimmy Steps Out.)
Based on: the TV show Pot O’ Gold (1939-1941), an idea created by Haydn Roth Evans & Robert Brilmayer.
When Jimmy Haskell has to close his music store he agrees to work for his uncle’s health foods corporation in the city. His uncle, C. J. Haskell, is always bothered by the musicians practicing outside of his building. He hates music! Jimmy accidentally falls in with these musicians, the McCorkles, by playing his harmonica. They don’t know who he is and he wants to keep it that way because there is quite a feud between the families. How can he hide his identity and keep jiving to music while his uncle doesn’t know?

Genre: Comedy. It doesn’t have enough music to call it a musical, but there are some tunes in here.
Length: approx. 85 minutes.
Script: 10. No bad words!
Crew: Directed by: George Marshall. Written by: Andrew Bennison, Walter De Leon, Monte Brice, Harry Tungend, Haydn Roth Evans & Robert Brilmayer. Produced by: James Roosevelt (yes, the son of FDR!).
Starring:
James Stewart as Jimmy Haskell.

Paulette Goddard as Molly McCorkle.

Charles Winninger as C.J. Haskell.
Horace Heidt as himself.
Mary Gordon as Ma McCorkle.
Dick Hogan as Willie McCorkle.
Donna Wood as Donna McCorkle.
Frank Melton as Jasper.
Jed Prouty as Mr. Louderman.
Charlie Arnt as Parks.
James Burke as Lt. Grady.
Costumes: 7. They are all fine. In one scene I thought they were a little weird and random, but that’s just me. Nothing bad!
Cinematography: 6. I don’t remember anything stunning about it being new and different, but it was okay.

inematography by: Hal Mohr.
Music: 8. We get the amazing few seconds of Jimmy Stewart singing, so of course I’m a little biased. I really liked his involvement in all of the musical endeavors though they were small. I wasn’t crazy about the rest of the songs because it was without him. Yeah, I can’t really be trusted on this matter.
Music by: Louis Forbes.
Notes: I didn’t know this until I started doing research for this review, but this was inspired by the success of the TV program called Pot O’ Gold which gave away money the same way it does in this film! That straightens things out for me because I was confused why it was called this for the whole time watching the film.

Quotability: 7. I got one line out of it in my notes, but I haven’t quoted it in my daily life since I saw it.

‘“And I told him when he opened this place he’d never make a go of it!”

“Well, he kept it failing successfully for 25 years. That’s not bad.”’

Content: 9. I can’t think of anything that I could take away points for this category. I guess there are some people who are slightly intoxicated at one point, but that’s it.
Originality: 7. I’m not singing it’s praises for being the most creative film in the century, but it was cute enough. It reminds me of Herbie Rides Again (1974) in a few ways, but of course that came later.

Good For: Fans of the actors especially Jimmy Stewart, anyone who wants a cute little movie.
Age Range: It’s perfectly fine for all ages. I feel like a younger audience would like the carefree attitude the most, but it’s good for anyone who just wants a jolly break with their movies.
Overall Score: 7.5.
Worth watching?: Yes, for one reason that is a great excuse for so many things: Jimmy Stewart! I’m so used to seeing him play more dramatic roles that this looks like it was a fun role for him to just be able to play with. It was the first time that I’ve seen him where the character’s name is his own which kept making me laugh.

Will I watch again?: I’m not quite sure. There’s potential that I would for Jimmy, but Paulette Goddard sometimes annoys me. Maybe one day!
Bonus thoughts:
Something that I didn’t like and that really confused me was this extravagant dance routine which was being recorded for the radio. Why did they go through so much work if people wouldn’t see the visual? Especially because the head actress/singer didn’t really do any singing, she just strutted around. It was funny in an annoying way. I know that other people were watching it live, but it just seemed over the top. It’s interesting to think about radio now because it isn’t used as often with all of our newer technology.

I liked that the musicians looked like they were hanging out and relaxing at a jam session so it felt natural. Charles Winninger was very amusing and a lot of my favorite parts revolved around him! There were a few cringy moments, but overall I’m glad that I watched this to cross off another on my list of James Stewart movies!


There you have it! Have any of you seen this? Tell me your favorite James Stewart movie! Are you guilty of watching things just because they have your favorite actor or actress? How’s your Easter season going?

MovieCritic

What's My Line?: Doris Day

 Hi, everybody!

Today is Holy Saturday and while I talked about a religious movie in my last post, I’m sliding in before Easter to write about something else. Do you know what I love to celebrate on this blog? Birthdays. Today, April 3rd, Doris Day would’ve been 99 years old! That’s pretty incredible, and a lot of people think so because Michaela at Love Letters to Old Hollywood is hosting her Fifth Annual Doris Day Blogathon!

For my entry I will be talking about her appearances on the game show What’s My Line?. 

The rundown:

First of all, what is this game show? What's My Line? was a 30 minute game show that ran from 1950-1975.

This is how it worked:

A panel of four judges try to guess contestants' "lines" (jobs) by asking yes or no questions. The host/panel moderator, John Charles Daly, guided them and helped rework questions to fit the correct format. Each member of the panel would guess until they received a solid "no", a card is flipped, the contestant earns five dollars, and the next person on the panel begins to guess. When all ten cards are flipped the contestant wins! If the panel guess what their line is, then they still get however much money that they won in "nos".

L to R: The three regular panelists, Arlene Francis, Bennett Cerf, and Dorothy Kilgallen, & the panel moderator, John Daly.

Now, this might sound boring, but I assure you that it isn't! The occupations are so unique, the panel has a hard time. Sometimes their guesses are so off, that it's a hoot! Plus, the highlight is that after two contestants there is the mystery guest! This guest is a celebrity and would be recognizable, so the judges wear blindfolds and get to ask one yes or no question before moving onto the next panel member and they have to guess who it is.

Blindfolds ready, panel?

For ages I would always just skip to the mystery person, but once I started watching full episodes I realized how much I was missing. The celebrity is how I'm connecting it back to my blog. The plan for this series is to talk about all of certain celebrity's appearances. To me, I think that you can tell a lot about a person based on the way they acted here. Some where shy, some were funny, some were bold, you get the idea!

If I were to review it like I do movies, I would say:

Length: 30 minutes.

Script: 10, Iʼve never heard a bad word.

Content: 9, sometimes there are one or two suggestive comments, but itʼs rare.

Age Range: Iʼve been watching this for a long time, but as I said, I didnʼt used to be interested in the first 2/3. I would say that little kids would like to just watch the mystery guest if they knew who it was, just because they wouldnʼt get how funny the rest of it was (especially if they canʼt read).

It is time to start! Will you come in mystery challenger, and sign in please...

 

Source

Doris Day appeared on What’s My Line? on two different occasions. Here are the dates and who was on the panel for each time:

June 20th, 1954: PANEL: Bennett Cerf, Arlene Francis, Steve Allen, & Dorothy Killgallen.

September 8th, 1957: PANEL: Arlene Francis, Robert Young, Dorothy Killgallen, & Bennett Cerf.

These episodes were a ton of fun to watch. Doris was just so sweet and charming! A fun fact is that on her first appearance on What’s My Line? it was her first ever appearance on television! She enjoyed the show as much as I did, as she said in the second episode:
“Oh John, it’s my pleasure and I must say that this is one of my very favorite shows. I really love it.”

Doris Day was known for her easily recognizable singing voice so she tried to disguise it both times with squeaking “yes” or “no” in a very high voice. I naturally compare sounds to animals, so she sounds like a mouse here. Bennett could be sometimes deaf so he asked, “Would you make your ‘yes’s and your ‘no’s a bit more different?” I thought it was plenty different. When the panel was taking a long time but they knew she was a singer John joked that he career would be over soon using those high notes if they didn’t hurry up.

It’s fun to be able to connect it to a timeline even when I already know the date that it aired. For example, in Doris’s first episode she mentioned that she was going to start making Young at Heart (1954) with Frank Sinatra soon, and in her second one they mentioned the movie The Pajama Game (1957). In the end credits of one the announcer mentioned the TV show Gunsmoke which I watched frequently a few years ago.

Here are some of my favorite parts from both shows, but these are only a small portion so you should find the episodes on YouTube and watch for yourself! Doris Day will be abbreviated as DD.:

DD has been answering in a squeaky “uh huh” this whole time and John hasn’t done any talking then:
Dorothy Killgallen: “Might you be described as a ‘glamour girl’ instead of a terribly serious actress?
John C. Daly: *deep voice* “Uh huh!”
The audience laughed and DD gave John a hug!


Arlene Francis: “Is your name alliterative?”
Steve Allen: “Watch your language.”
John C. Daly: “I don’t think whether our guest went to school or not got’s anything to do with this!”
This playing on alliterative vs. illiterate really cracked me up!


Arlene Francis: “Do you, uh, apart from acting, do you sing or dance?”
DD squeaks a yes, twice because the first one was a little weak. Which causes people to laugh.
John C. Daly: “Mr. Young.”
Robert Young: “Uh, you have a little trouble singing.”



Want to find out what this is? Watch the first episode!

Did she win or were the panel successful? You’ll have to watch and see!


Thanks to Michaela for hosting! Be sure to check out the other entries HERE.

Thanks to all of you for reading! I hope that you have a happy Easter tomorrow! Happy birthday, Miss Day!

MovieCritic

Movie Review: Fatima (2020)

 Hello, everyone!

Today is Holy or Maundy Thursday, so the beginning of Holy Triduum. Because of that I thought I’d do a review of a religious movie! It would still be appropriate for people of non-Christian or non-Catholic faiths, too. Let’s go forth to it!

My guarantee: On ALL of my reviews there are NO spoilers unless I give you warning. This is spoiler free!


Fatima (2020):

Based on: As it says at the beginning, “Inspired by historical events and memories by Sister Lucia.”
In 1917 Lucia was visited by an angel and later, accompanied by her two cousins, saw the Holy Mother Mary herself. The Virgin Mary assigns them to be her messengers and to come back each month at the same time. Meanwhile they are to pray the rosary while  having to cope with the accusations made that they are making these stories up. Some believe and come from miles away while others try to stop what they think is ridiculous. With a war raging through the world is there some hope to hold on to?

“Professor, I can only give you my testimony. I don’t have answers for everything.”

Genres: Drama, Historical, Family, War.
Length: approx. 113 minutes.
Script: 9. There are no bad words! This doesn’t get a 10 because in one place a character says “seriously” under her breath and it did not fit the lingo at all and made me laugh. All of the accents were really impressive throughout.

‘“On the contrary, I’ve always been fascinated by opinions opposed to my own.”

“Well then, we do have something in common.”’

Crew: Directed by: Marco Pontecorvo.
Written by: Marco Pontecorvo, Valerio D’Annuzio, and Barbara Nicolosi.
Starring:
Stephanie Gil as young Lucia.
Sônia Braga as older Sister Lucia.

Alejandra Howard as Jacinta.
Jorge Lamelas as Francisco.
Lúcia Moniz as Maria Rosa.
Goran Visnjic as Artur de Oliveira Santos.
Joana Ribeiro as Virgin Mary.
Joaquim de Almeida as Father Ferreira.
Harvey Keitel as Professor Nichols.
Marco D'Almeida as António.
Ivone Fernandes-Jesus as Angel of Peace.
João Arrais as Manuel Santos.
João D'Ávila as Monsenhor Quaresma.

Costumes: 9. I liked the accuracy and small details that went into all of the wardrobes.
Cinematography: 9. I really liked the cinematography! My one complaint is that during a climactic point at the end it got confusing and I had no idea what was happening (I should’ve though, because it’s history). All of the visions were seamlessly executed. The atmosphere was convincing and I felt that I was actually in Fatima, Portugal.

Cinematography by: Vincenzo Carpineta.
Music: 8. Nothing too surprising, but I did like the credits songs.
Music by: Paolo Buonvino. Songs during the credits are performed by Andrea Bocelli.
Notes: I believe that there is a 1997 Italian movie that is also called Fatima about these same events. In addition to that there is one called The Miracle of Our Lady of Fatima from 1952. This is a popular topic, and for good reason.
Quotability: N/A, since I just watched this.

Content: 9. There are visions that include scenes of war including death and injuries, as well as visions of a demonic nature, but both are very tame. It gives you the gravity of the situation without being overly graphic.
Originality: 9. When books or movies are based on a true story I sometimes don’t rate them in this category because what happened, happened. Other times, it’s good to look at how well a book or film structured it, because or else you could just be watching a documentary. I liked the emphasis with Lucia’s connection to her family. Jacinta and Francisco are her cousins so she spends a lot of time with them. The story begins with her worrying about her brother, and it deeply looks at her relationship with her parents. It addresses how she has an earthly and a heavenly mother. The only thing that could’ve been expanded more or introduced better, I think, were her sisters. I didn’t even realize that she had older sisters until the movie was almost over!

Also, it switches back and forth between 1917, when the events happened, and 1989 where Sister Lucia is telling the story. To me, it didn’t wrap it up as well as it could have. Who was the guy she was talking to? According to the credits his name is Professor Nichols. Why had he decided to write a book about it? He was there to offer some common questions when people talk about what happened at Fatima, but it felt very last minute and thrown together. I couldn’t follow the train of thought with the conversation that was carried and it had a sudden end with them that didn’t tie in. Maybe when I watch it again I’ll understand that part better.
Good For: Christians and Catholics, especially, but people of other faiths, too. Families.
Age Range: This is rated PG-13, but that seems extreme. As I mentioned in the content section, things are very mild. Still, younger viewers might not understand what is happening, so it depends on each person. Lucia, Francisco, and Jacinta are 10, 8, and 7, so it can connect to people who are those ages

Overall Score: 9!
Worth watching?: Yes! I don’t know why I don’t know much about what happened at Fatima, so it was very educational to me. (Shout out to Megan Chappie who actually introduced it to me. She actually talks about this movie HERE, which she has quite brilliant thoughts so I recommend it. Spoilers for the movie are there, but then again, it is history).
Will I watch again?: Yes, I believe so. I think I want to watch it with both of my sisters eventually.

‘“I believe,”

“I believe,

“I hope,”

“I hope,”

“And I love God.”

“And I love God.”’

For the blogathon:
This is my entry in The Faith in Film Blogathon hosted by Pure Entertainment Preservation Society (PEPS). The Blogathon is going to run from the 2nd-4th of April, but since I'm taking a break from my computer tomorrow for Good Friday I'm posting it a day early. When Tiffany has the start of the Blogathon article up, the link will be HERE.

This Blogathon is about celebrating the representation of different religions in films, whether it is devoted to inspiring faith or if it just has a member of the clergy in it. Of course I wanted to join with my own religion!

This film has priests, nuns, bishops, you name it. With that, it looks at how beautiful faith and trust in the Lord are from a child’s point of view. I love it showed the struggle Lucia had with everything going on. It was interesting to see also how Francisco had a different experience while seeing the same things. My favorite was Jacinta, who was so pure, precious, and holy for being so young.

One of my favorite parts of the whole movie was when it flipped the prayer requests specific things into just asking to pray with someone. It was one of the most powerful parts of the film, to me.

I really like the cinematography, clothing choices, and overall aesthetic. It feels very authentic and reminds me of The Chosen, which makes sense because they are both faith related things, but there is more to it than that! Overall I really liked it and am very happy to have seen it.



Thanks to the Brannans at PEPS for hosting! Thanks to all of you for reading! What are your favorite films that represent someone having great faith? Have any of you seen this? Let’s talk about it! I wish a blessed Triduum to all of you.

MovieCritic