Insecure Writer’s Support Group Anthology Winners! Plus Knives Out and Frozen II Reviews, December Movie Preview, and Ninja News

It’s time for another group posting of the Insecure Writer’s Support Group! Time to release our fears to the world – or offer encouragement to those who are feeling neurotic. If you’d like to join us, click on the tab above and sign up. We post the first Wednesday of every month. I encourage everyone to visit at least a dozen new blogs and leave a comment. Your words might be the encouragement someone needs.


My awesome co-hosts today are Tonja Drecker, Beverly Stowe McClure, Nicki Elson, Fundy Blue, and Tyrean Martinson!

Please note – since the next first Wednesday falls on New Year’s Day, we will be posting for the IWSG on the following Wednesday, January 8!

December 4 question - Let's play a game. Imagine. Role-play. How would you describe your future writer self, your life and what it looks and feels like if you were living the dream? Or if you are already there, what does it look and feel like? Tell the rest of us. What would you change or improve?

Skipping the question today. But I do want to announce I finished the first draft of my story (currently dubbed CassaDark) last week! Now to the edits which will involve upping the word count.

Announcing the winners of the IWSG Anthology Contest!

Coming May 5, 2020 -

Voyagers: The Third Ghost

Middle grade historical/adventure
Featuring these stories and authors:
The Third Ghost – Yvonne Ventresca
Winter Days - Katharina Kolata
Feathered Fire – Roland Clarke
The Ghosts of Pompeii – Sherry Ellis
Dare Double Dare – Louise MacBeath Barbour
The Blind Ship – Bish Denham
A World of Trouble – Rebecca M. Douglass
The Orchard - Beth Anderson Schuck
Return to Cahokia – L.T. Ward
Simon Grey and the Yamamba - Charles Kowalski

We’d like to thank our amazing judges:
Elizabeth S. Craig, author and honorary judge
Dianne K. Salerni, author
Lynda Dietz, editor
S.A. Larsen, author
Rachna Chhabria, author
Lindsay Davis Auld, agent - Writers House
Tonja Drecker, author
David Powers King, author

And a big thanks to everyone who entered! There were some great stories.

Our previous IWSG anthologies -
Masquerade: Oddly Suited
Tick Tock: A Stitch in Crime
Hero Lost: The Mysteries of Death and Life
Parallels: Felix Was Here


Nominations for best writing website are now open at The Write Life!
Please go nominate the Insecure Writer’s Support Group.

The WEP Challenge for December – Footprints.

And the theme came from our very own IWSG Admin, Tyrean Martinson!

Footprints in the sand...Footprints in the snow...and they don't have to be human - alien, monster, unknown creatures...all up for grabs.

The next #IWSGPit will be in January 15, 2020, 8:00 am - 8:00 pm Eastern Standard Time.

Did you know the IWSG has a Goodreads Book Club? Why the heck not?
If you’re on Goodreads, join this group to learn and grow as a writer.

Ninja News

Got an early Christmas present – this year’s three RiffTrax Live events on DVD! Plus some other fun stuff.

Want some great gift ideas? Make it a Bookmas!

Visit Tui Snider or Patricia Lynne for a list of great books.

Your Words, Your Life Story: A Journal for Sharing Memories by J.Q. Rose
The story of your life, the struggles, the joys, the accomplishments, will be what the next generations understand. Your account will be a guide to help them through their own lives. Start now to put together the stories that make up your life story, a treasured family keepsake.
Find it on Amazon

Movie Reviews

Knives Out
An eccentric family unravels when the wealthy patriarch dies…or was he murdered? A famous detective is hired anonymously to investigate.
One word – entertaining!
This film is a classic whodunit, with Daniel Craig, sporting a Southern accent, chewing up scenery as the detective. Twists and turns abound as you see the truth, what the characters think is truth, and what they want the inspector to believe.
The ensemble cast brings it – Jamie Lee Curtis, Chris Evans, Michael Shannon, Don Johnson, Toni Collette, Christopher Plummer – even Frank Oz! Ana de Armas shines as Marta, the patriarch’s nurse.
If you’re looking for a movie for adults (while highly entertaining and funny, the pace would bore kids) then this is the film for you. You’ll be talking about it for hours afterwards.
Highly recommended!

Frozen II
One reviewer said this movie was like a snowflake – dissolves on contact. And that’s pretty accurate. As I’m writing this review a week after seeing the film, I’m struggling to remember it.
You’ll enjoy it while watching and of course kids will eat it up. Olaf has some hilarious lines. And the animation is stunning. But it’s a thin plot with way too many songs. (The one with Kristoff and Sven is cringe-worthy.) And slight spoiler – a fifth element? Haven’t we seen that movie already? I was waiting for Leeloo to show up with her multi-pass.
There are worse ways to blow two hours though.

December Movie Preview

Here are the upcoming theatrical releases for December! As always, descriptions courtesy of the IMDB. Snark provided by me.

13 –

Jumanji: The Next Level
In Jumanji: The Next Level, the gang is back but the game has changed. As they return to rescue one of their own, the players will have to brave parts unknown from arid deserts to snowy mountains, to escape the world's most dangerous game.
Director: Jake Kasdan
Stars: Dwayne Johnson, Jack Black, Kevin Hart, Karen Gillan
Two years since the first film and I’m still shocked how much I enjoyed it…

20 –

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
The surviving Resistance faces the First Order once more in the final chapter of the Skywalker saga.
Director: J.J. Abrams
Stars: Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, Billie Lourd, Lupita Nyong'o
Spoiler – Ewoks invade earth and attack all the whiny fan boys who hated the last film.

27 –

1917
Two young British privates during the First World War are given an impossible mission: deliver a message deep in enemy territory that will stop 1,600 men, and one of the soldier's brothers, from walking straight into a deadly trap.
Director: Sam Mendes
Stars: Andrew Scott, Benedict Cumberbatch, Richard Madden, Mark Strong
Not only the year of a world war but the year I graduated high school…

Excited to read Voyagers: The Third Ghost? Participating in WEP or #IWSGPit? See either Knives Out or Frozen II? And what movies are you seeing this month?

This will be my last post of this year, but I’ll poke in now and then during the next two weeks before Christmas.

Remember, the next IWSG post is January 8.

Have a blessed Christmas and a Happy New Year!