Books to Movies: The Great and Intelligent Excision from The Lord of the Rings

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One of Jackson's most intelligent decisions was to not present the Scouring of the Shire. In the book, Saruman--let go through mercy by ...

What Makes a Good Hero?

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Below is a repost from 2011. * * * I first came up with a list of favorite heroes (main protagonists). I then used those heroes to create a...
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T.H. White and What Makes a King-to-Be

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In my novella, The Wolf Boy Returns from Space , my king-to-be is more a young Alexander the Great than, say, Harry Potter. That is, he has ...

Stop the Christie Murder: ABC Murders and More About Serial Killers and Profiling

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As I have mentioned elsewhere, serial killers are difficult to catch. Recent events have brought home to me that although human beings are g...

Books to Movies: Return of the King & The Mouth of Sauron

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In my review of The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies, I complain about the length of the battle.  My biggest complaint, however, is that t...

The Prison Trope in Mysteries

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A common trope in mysteries is that case that must be solved during a riot or lock-down takes over the prison.  It bores me only slightly le...

Characters That Don't Change: Verne's Adventurers

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It is a given in classical narration that the main characters will undergo some type of change. They will grow and develop and rejoice or de...
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Like It Anyway: Little Nikita

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Every few years, I check out Little Nikita with River Phoenix and Sidney Poitier. The movie has a 52-54% rating on both IMDB and Rotten Tom...

All the Ms: Magnan to Magras

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Pierre Magnan: The beginning of The Messengers of Death reminded me why I tell my students not to use the “generic” you. It’s one thing to...

Complaint Regarding Businesses & False Promises: USPS, Amazon Third Party Vendors, and a New Community College System

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Lately, I've gotten very fed up with businesses that lie.  Recently, USPS failed to deliver a package to me on the date the package was...

Why Jessica Fletcher is a Great Way to Write a Detective

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One of the problems with any detective is How do they encounter the mystery? Truth is, most of us don't encounter dead murdered bodies o...
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The Corrupt Bourgeois: Oh, Please Make The Archetype Go Away

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It is not uncommon for Hollywood and New York Times Bestseller lists to promote, as Updike does with Gertrude & Claudius, books in which...
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Laid-Back Hero: Justin of The Rats of Nimh

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Justin is the Captain of the Guard in Secret of Nimh (movie) and a main character in Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH (book). He greets Mrs...

Mysteries: Plan Versus Reality

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"Does anyone have a plan like ours?" Dr. Sloan doesn't pretend to be dumb. His intelligence is a given (doctors honestly aren...

I Act Dumb But I'm Smart: Columbo

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A common trope in mysteries is the smart detective who acts dumb.  Bones refers to this behavior quite directly when a few people point out...

Identity is More Than a Label

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I mention in the previous post that what what constitutes acceptable and unacceptable epithets can change. Likewise, identity can change, no...

When is a Bad Character Too Bad?

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Literature Devil points out that Stan Lee deliberately made Tony Stark someone his readers would dislike. Literature Devil discusses "C...