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.
The awesome co-hosts for the August 7 posting of the IWSG are Feather Stone, Kim Lajevardi, Diedre Knight, C. Lee McKenzie, and Sarah - The Faux Fountain Pen!
August 7 question - Do you use AI in your writing and if so how? Do you use it for your posts? Incorporate it into your stories? Use it for research? Audio?
I have never used AI for anything that I know of. I do my own research. (So, I guess if Google is AI…?) I don’t use Grammarly. But ultimately, true AI doesn’t exist for the general public. The AI we have access to has restraints. It’s not true AI. (Real AI is a bit scary.)
We need two more co-hosts for September and then four co-hosts each month for the remainder of the year. Leave a comment or send me an email if you can help. If you have never co-hosted – it is a blast! Ask our regular co-hosts. You will get a ton of visitors and meet some new friends. Go ahead – give it a try!
And don’t take my word for it – this is what first-time co-host JS Pailly had to say last month:
I wanted to thank you for letting me co-host IWSG last week. I wasn't 100% sure what I was getting myself into, but it turned out to be way more fun than I expected.
Movie Review – Deadpool and Wolverine
It was a lot of fun to watch. I laughed a lot. Tons of funny lines, most of which I can’t remember now.
Tying it in with all the other Marvel properties was smart. And obviously the pairing of the two leads was brilliant. Wolverine is an A-list Marvel character and he really brought in the crowds to see the film.
The cameos and Easter eggs are overflowing.
Also the bloodiest Deadpool movie to date.
However, they broke the fourth wall so many times with references to 20th Century Fox, Disney, and Marvel that it kept reminding me it was just a movie and that pulled me out a lot. There might have been some plot holes as well. Nothing that ruined the movie though.
If you enjoyed the other two, you will enjoy this one.
New Releases!
Deep Curse: A Mermaid Romance (Cursed Waters Book 1) by Patricia Josephine
A thousand year curse.
A mythical creature of the deep.
Is true love enough to save a cursed mermaid?
Find it on Amazon
Because No One Noticed by C. Lee McKenzie
Five juniors at Las Animas High have a long history together. They love, dislike, or tolerate each other depending on the day. Occupied with class assignments, career choices, family disharmony, and the usual teen turbulence, none of them thinks seriously of the danger lurking in their near future or how fragile and temporary life is.
Find it on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Kobo
Laya’s Vacation by Jean Davis
Short-tempered from the summer heat, Laya takes a vacation in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, far away from her family and friends. She travels to Paradise, Whitefish Point, and Tahquamenon Falls to see what animals and sights exist beyond the chicken yard.
Find it on Amazon and Barnes and Noble
The Trespassers by Steven Arellano Rose, Jr.
After crash-landing on a desert planet, astronaut and forensic anthropologist Gav Torres becomes separated from the rest of his expedition. He soon enough reunites with everybody except one person: his fiancé, Shelley Wu. Gav’s persistence to find Shelley will soon reveal to him the alien terror from beyond death that may be responsible for her disappearance, the previous expeditions’ disappearances and the likely annihilation of himself and the rest of the current expedition.
Find it here
August Movie Preview
Here are the theatrical releases for August. Descriptions courtesy of the IMDB. Snark provided by me.
8 –
RiffTrax Live – Point Break
The guys are riffing Point Break, the early nineties flick starring Patrick Swayze and Keanu Reeves.
The only bummer is this isn’t actually live, as they have already recorded it and will broadcast it on August 8 and 13.
9 –
Borderlands
Director: Eli Roth
Stars: Jamie Lee Curtis, Haley Bennett, Gina Gershon
Based on the best-selling videogame, this all-star action-adventure follows a ragtag team of misfits on a mission to save a missing girl who holds the key to unimaginable power.
Do the video game to movie adaptations that suck also end up in the landfill with ET?
16 –
Alien: Romulus
Director: Fede Alverez
Stars: Isabela Merced, Cailee Spaeny, Archie Renaux
While scavenging the deep ends of a derelict space station, a group of young space colonizers come face to face with the most terrifying life form in the universe.
Stop me if you’ve heard this – a group of people go on a ship and encounter an alien…
23 –
The Crow
Director: Rupert Sanders
Stars: Bill Skarsgård, FKA twigs, Danny Huston
When soulmates Eric and Shelly are brutally murdered, Eric is given the chance to save his true love by sacrificing himself and sets out to seek revenge, traversing the worlds of the living and the dead to put the wrong things right.
This is a cash grab! Skip it and watch the original brilliant and haunting version with Brandon Lee.
Do you use AI? Have you seen Deadpool and Wolverine? Picking up some new books? What movies catch your eye for August? And can you co-host the IWSG any month this year?
