Kong: Skull Island Review, Barn Cats and God’s Gift, IWSG on Goodreads, Kill Command Review, Ninja News, and Movie Trivia Answers

Kong: Skull Island Review

It’s pretty much what you’d expect from a movie with soldiers trapped on an island with monsters. Lots of attacks, shooting, and running.

The visuals were impressive, especially in 3D. The first encounter scene is breath taking and incredible to watch. They did an excellent job on Kong.

The acting was decent, especially considering the cast, but everyone was a supporting actor to Kong.

This is the perfect popcorn film and an enjoyable ride. However, it did seem to lack something that would raise it to epic. Still not sure what, just that it missed the mark. I think the best Kong film is still Peter Jackson’s King Kong from 2005.

That said, it’s still a lot of fun and a great monster film. Recommended.

He Gave Me Barn Cats

Hi Alex! Thank you for allowing me to guest post on your blog. Here’s my answer to your question:

Talk about the spiritual connection we have with animals and how God uses them to help us cope and understand.

All of nature cries out for us to be closer to God – but we must allow it. When there’s an amazing sunset, we can miss it if we don’t pay attention, or we can give it quick glance – or we can fully appreciate it and say “Thank You.”

However, I do believe that animals are a special gift to us from God, because God intends for animals to help us. We know this, because God says so in the Bible’s book of Job, chapter 12, verse 7: “Ask the beasts, and they will teach you; and the birds of the air, and they will tell you.”

Some people feel that animals were our gift when we needed them for chores. Most of us don’t plow gardens using animals these days, but we still need their help – perhaps even more than ever now, since many of us aren’t outdoors enjoying that sunset! We need animals, both domestic and wild ones, to give us relief from stress and sadness and to provide joy and actual healing. There are medical studies reporting that people who live with animals are healthier in various ways, such as lower blood pressure.

When God tells us to “ask the beasts” so they can teach us, He doesn’t want us to learn plowing lessons from them. He wants us to know Him by learning from animals about trusting Him to meet our needs. When we get really good at this, the animals will speak to us – and so will God. Maybe God will even use an animal to speak to us. Maybe it’ll be a deer. Maybe it’ll be a sparrow. Maybe it’ll be a barn cat.

He Gave Me Barn Cats by Maria Santomasso-Hyde
Published by Dancing Lemur Press, L.L.C.
Available March 14, 2017

Inspired by true events...
Maria has cared for her very ill mother for many years. Her burdens are heavy, causing a sadness bordering on darkness. When she discovers her historic barn is now home to a mother cat and kittens, she feels lighter than she has in years. As the kittens grow, they teach her as only animals can do.
Then tragedy strikes. As Maria loses her family, the darkness envelopes her like the heavy fog that blankets her Blue Ridge Mountain home each morning. She creates a scorecard: God: 9, Maria: 0. Her questions turn into anger at God. She searches to find answers as to why her loving God would take away so much in such a short time.
How will she learn to trust again? Can the kittens in her barn help her heal?

Find Maria – Website and Facebook
Find her book here - Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Books a Million, iTunes, Kobo, Kindle, Nook, Dancing Lemur Press, and Goodreads
Follow MC Book Tours for your chance to win a free copy of He Gave Me Barn Cats!

Movie Review – Kill Command

Caught this on NetFlix. Soldiers are sent to an island to test the latest AI killer robot prototypes. They are successful at first, and then the tables turn and it’s a fight to stay alive.
This movie is a nod to Terminator and robots-run-amok flicks.
While it doesn’t offer anything really new, the film is suspenseful with great pacing and tense scenes.
The robots are also impressive, especially digital vision of the mechanically enhanced company woman sent along to analyze. This film had a tiny, tiny budget and they made the most of it and then some.
For those a fan of science fiction, robots, soldiers, or any combination of those elements, this is a really good effort and enjoyable film. Recommended.

Monday’s Music Moves Me

Hosted by X-Mas Dolly, today’s them is "Band/Artist name or Song title with the word “Air.”

Challenging but not impossible! I had several choices and went with one I am Jonesing on now – Astronoid – Air:

IWSG Goodreads Book Club

Now open – the IWSG Goodreads Group! Dedicated to the writing craft, this group is made for writers.

Not on Goodreads? The IWSG book club is a good reason to join.

Don’t do much on Goodreads? This is an excellent way to dip your toes in a little more.

Not enough time in your day? We read one book every two months.

OUR GOAL: The Insecure Writer's Support Group (Book Club) is for writers to read/learn about the writing craft. In this book club, we will swap back and forth between non-fiction writing books and fiction books that demonstrate how to do certain aspects of storytelling. No promo. No review or beta reader requests. Just writers reading books and discussing those books with other writers.

**The first book will be announced on April 1st.**

**The discussion will start on May 17th.**

For more details and to join: IWSG Goodreads Book Club

Ninja News

C. Lee McKenzie’s book, Sliding Edge, is free right now at Snashwords and Amazon.

New release!
Incense and Peppermints by Cathrina Constantine
Find it on Amazon

Movie Trivia Answers

Here’s the answers to last week’s superhero trivia – Director/Year – name the movie:

1 – Richard Lester, 1980 Superman
2 – Alex Proyas, 1994 The Crow
3 – Guillermo del Toro, 2004 Hellboy
4 – Sam Raimi, 1990 Darkman
5 – Bryan Singer, 2014 X-Men: Days of Future Past
6 – Mark AZ Dippe, 1997 Spawn
7 – Russell Mulchany, 1994 The Shadow

Anyone else go see Skull Island? Do you think animals are a gift from God? Seen Kill Command? Every heard of the band Astronoid? Get any of the trivia right? (No one got a perfect score last week, but a couple were really close.) And who is ready to join the IWSG Goodreads Group?