Insecure Writer’s Support Group, #IWSGPit, July Movie Preview, and New Releases

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 July 3 posting of the IWSG are Nicki Elson, Juneta Key, Tamara Narayan, and Patricia Lynne!

Today’s optional question - What are your ultimate writing goals, and how have they changed over time (if at all)?

Well, in the beginning I just wanted to write one book. When I realized I would be writing more, my goal was to finish the series. Then it was to write a story completely separate from that series. Now I’m back to working on that series. So I guess you could say my ultimate goal is always just the next book. One foot in front of the other…

And yes, I am writing. Working on Bassan’s story a little bit at a time.

I have been working on two upcoming events for the IWSG – the anthology contest (lining up judges) and #IWSGPit (sending out invites). And not we have over a thousand agents and publishers invited to watch the feed on July 19 for #IWSGPit!
So get those pitches ready. Over five thousand tweets last January and we were a trending topic – plus several authors have now found homes for their books. Don’t miss out!
Details at the IWSG site.

New Releases!

Boyfriend Material (The Man Catalog #2) by Megan Morgan
Need a date? Or a temporary boyfriend? How about a husband in a hurry? The professionals at SASS—Singles Arrangement Service Specialists—are here to help.
Find it on Evernight Publishing, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, iTunes, Smashwords, and Kobo

Book Two of the Family Relics Series by Tanya Miranda
Jasmyn blames herself for her baby sister's death, and she's confident her family blames her too. Instead of returning home, Jasmyn joins her coven to focus on developing her grandmother's magic.
Find it on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, iTunes, Google Play, Smahwords and Kobo

Heart Seeker - The Fire Heart Chronicles Book 1 by Juliana Haygert
"For over twenty years, I've been lied to--magic burns within my veins, and I'm unable to resist its call."
Find it on Amazon, and Goodreads

July Movie Preview

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

6 –

Ant-Man and the Wasp
As Scott Lang balances being both a Super Hero and a father, Hope van Dyne and Dr. Hank Pym present an urgent new mission that finds the Ant-Man fighting alongside The Wasp to uncover secrets from their past.
Director: Peyton Reed
Stars: Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Michael Peña, Walton Goggins
Supervillains beware – you’ll need both crawling and flying insect spray. Pest control is so pricy…

13 –

Skyscraper
FBI Hostage Rescue Team leader and U.S. war veteran Will Sawyer now assesses security for skyscrapers. On assignment in Hong Kong he finds the tallest, safest building in the world suddenly ablaze, and he's been framed for it. A wanted man on the run, Will must find those responsible, clear his name and somehow rescue his family who are trapped inside the building...above the fire line.
Director: Rawson Marshall Thurber
Stars: Dwayne Johnson, Neve Campbell, Pablo Schreiber, Noah Taylor
Just refer to the RiffTrax: Live slide from last week:

The Nun
A priest with a haunted past and a novitiate on the threshold of her final vows are sent by the Vatican to investigate the death of a young nun in Romania and confront a malevolent force in the form of a demonic nun.
Director: Corin Hardy
Stars: Bonnie Aarons, Taissa Farmiga, Charlotte Hope, Demián Bichir
A ghost nun? Our knuckles will never be safe again!

Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation 
Mavis surprises Dracula with a family voyage on a luxury Monster Cruise Ship so he can take a vacation from providing everyone else's vacation at the hotel. The rest of Drac's Pack cannot resist going along. But once they leave port, romance arises when Dracula meets the mysterious ship Captain, Ericka. Now it's Mavis' turn to play the overprotective parent, keeping her dad and Ericka apart. Little do they know that his "too good to be true" love interest is actually a descendant of Abraham Van Helsing, ancient nemesis to Dracula and all other monsters.
Director: Genndy Tartakovsky
Stars: Adam Sandler, Andy Samberg, Fran Drescher, Mel Brooks
Thank goodness they greenlit this – so many unanswered questions from the second film.

20 –

The Equalizer 2
Robert McCall serves an unflinching justice for the exploited and oppressed, but how far will he go when that is someone he loves?
Director: Antoine Fuqua
Stars: Denzel Washington, Pedro Pascal, Bill Pullman, Melissa Leo
Denzel is back playing…well, playing Denzel. But he does it so well…

27 –

Mission: Impossible - Fallout
Ethan Hunt and his IMF team, along with some familiar allies, race against time after a mission gone wrong.
Director: Christopher McQuarrie
Stars: Tom Cruise, Rebecca Ferguson, Henry Cavill, Vanessa Kirby
Cruise in a post-apocalyptic wasteland? Wait, don’t confuse this with Fallout the video game…

Have your writing goals changed over time? Participating in #IWSGPit? Picking up some new books? And what July movie catches your eye?

Spiderman: Homecoming Review, Princess Breeze, Upcoming Super Hero Films, IWSG News & New Admin, and New Releases

Spiderman: Homecoming Movie Review

A couple months after his involvement with the Avengers, Peter tries to find his place in life as both high school student and superhero while battling The Vulture and his gang of alien artifact weapons dealers.
In a nutshell, incredibly entertaining!
This is the first film to capture the essence of the real Spiderman from the comics. He’s a loveable, dorky, awkward teen trying to work out his new powers.
The action set pieces are really good, even the small ones.
Tom Holland is great as the lead. He’s the perfect gangly teen.
Michael Keaton is a decent villain, although the villain isn’t the strongest part of the film. He does come with a wicked twist though.
Peter Parker’s best friend is hilarious!
The love story was really toned down and I appreciated that. It was more like infatuation and what awkward teen love is really like.
It’s not my favorite but it’s a worthy piece of the Marvel puzzle that you can watch over and over again.
Highly recommended!

A Cinderella Tale

Do you ever imagine your book as a movie? That would be fun, wouldn’t it? In thinking what type of movie my latest novel, Princess Breeze, would be like I came up with one of my favorite fairy tales, Cinderella. My story is a Cinderella story with a happy family, instead of a hateful one, like in the fairy tale.

Where Cinderella lived with a wicked stepmother and two stepsisters that were mean to her, Breeze lives with her father, mother, and siblings that love her, even though they may have disagreements at times. What family doesn’t?

In Cinderella’s story, all the young girls in the kingdom received an invitation to a royal ball at the palace. The prince was looking for a bride. But the wicked stepmother would not allow Cinderella to attend the ball. Here, Breeze’s story differs. When she receives an invitation to visit Prince Cam at his home on the tropical island of Isla del Fuego, not only does Breeze go, but her whole family and two best friends go with her. Also, Cam, the boy she met at school a few months earlier, heir to the kingdom, was not looking for a bride. They’re only fourteen.

There is a bad guy, of course, who is determined that he will one day be king of the island, and who is determined to get rid of the prince and Breeze, as well. No fairy godmother saves them. Instead, Breeze and Cam use a legend of the island to help them fight the would-be king.

So, Princess Breeze and Cinderella are both stories of a commoner girl meeting a prince and hopefully living happily ever after. Fairy tales do come true.

As part of the celebration you can enter the tour-wide giveaway (courtesy of the author) for one of two paperback copies of the book (U.S. only) being given away. Please visit the Rafflecopter to enter.

Princess Breeze by Beverly Stowe McClure
For months, Breeze Brannigan has heard nothing from Cam, the prince she met at school and who disappeared one night, without telling her goodbye.
Find Princess Breeze at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and 4RV Publishing

Most of the time, you’ll find Award-Winning Author Beverly Stowe McClure at her computer, typing stories young voices whisper in her ears. When she’s not writing, she’s snapping pictures of wildlife, flowers, and clouds. She’s affectionately known as the “Bug Lady.” She’s not telling why. To relax she plays the piano. Her fur babies don’t appreciate good music and hide when she tickles the ivories.
Beverly is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. She also teaches a women’s Sunday school class at her church.
Find Beverly at blog, website, Twitter, Facebook, and Goodreads

Insecure Writer’s Support Group

The IWSG would like to welcome Christine Rains to the admin team! We are excited to have her on board. Please stop by and welcome her.

Christopher Votey is our guest this week at the Insecure Writer’s Support Group. He has an excellent article on world building, so check it out.

The IWSG Guide to Writing for Profit is open for submissions until the end of the month! What have you found that makes a profit? What have you found that doesn’t? Please share your experience! Guidelines here

The IWSG’s first Twitter pitch party,#IWSGPit, is July 27! We have a great list of publishers and agents who will be watching the hashtag with many more checking in. If you have something ready to submit, you don’t want to miss this.
And if you can help spread the word, we appreciate that as well! You can also retweet the pinned Tweet at our Twitter - @TheIWSG.

New Releases

Hunter's Exiled Lady: Survivors of the Apocalypse # 1 by Susan Kelley/Gourley
In a dystopian future, a fierce, frontier survivor and a cultured, vulnerable city lady battle humanity’s extinction as well as their personal ill-advised attraction and mistrust…
Find it on Amazon

Strangely Funny IV anthology, with a story by C.D. Gallent-King
Edited by Sarah E. Glenn and published by Mystery and Horror, LLC.
Find it on Amazon

Star-Crossed by Megan Morgan

Super Hero News

While the super hero film trend annoys some, this childhood comic book fan is loving it! I was a DC fan, but I’ll take Marvel and whoever else wants to make a good super hero movie. And we do have a lot coming up on the horizon…

November 3 – Thor: Ragnarok
November 17 – Justice League (Yes, I am so stoked for this one!)
February 16, 2018 – Black Panther
April 13 – X-Men: The New Mutants
May 4 – Avengers: Infinity War
June 1 – Deadpool II
June 15 – The Incredibles II
July 6 – Ant-Man and the Wasp
November 2 – X-Men: Dark Phoenix
December 21 – Aquaman

Yes, it’s a super hero fan’s paradise!

Anyone else see Spiderman: Homecoming? Ever imagined your book as a movie? Submitting to the IWSG anthology or participating in #IWSGPit? Picking up some new books? And what super hero film do you want to see most?

And Dragon of the Stars is the current audio book giveaway from my publisher! Re-Tweet THIS TWEET to enter and to spread the news. Thanks! 

Insecure Writer’s Support Group and IWSG Twitter Pitch! Plus March Movie Preview, New IWSG Swag, New Releases, 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 Tamara Narayan, Patsy Collins, M.J. Fifield, and Nicohle Christopherson!


March Question - Have you ever pulled out a really old story and reworked it? Did it work out?

That one’s easy – yes! I wrote a story as a young teen and it sat in a drawer for thirty years. When I found it again, I decided the characters and concept had merit so I completely rewrote it.
Did it work out? That story became my first published novel, CassaStar, and went on to become an Amazon best seller in science fiction, selling tens of thousands of copies.
So yeah, it worked out! Which is why I tell everyone not to give up on those old manuscripts.

Now for a couple big announcements:

The IWSG is proud to present the Insecure Writer’s Support Group Twitter Pitch Party!

Hashtag #IWSGPit

July 27, 2017, 8:00 am to 8:00 pm Eastern Time

All writers and authors are invited to participate in our very first Twitter Pitch. Create a Twitter-length pitch for your completed and polished manuscript and leave room for genre, age, and the hashtag. On July 27, Tweet your pitch. If your pitch receives a favorite/heart from a publisher/agent check their submission guidelines and send your requested query. Many writers have seen their books published from a Twitter pitch - it’s a quick and easy way to put your manuscript in front of publishers and agents.

We invite all of you to join us that day! Authors with a publisher or agent, please ask if they would like to participate or pass along their contact information to the IWSG. We intend for this to be a twice yearly event, July and January, giving our members a great opportunity for publication. Help us spread the word!

New Swag!

Check out the IWSG Swag page for some cool new stuff, including mugs and erasers.

The tiny profit we make from sales of IWSG swag goes to fund opportunities to make the IWSG better for everyone and extend our reach. We recently created our own business cards and have another amazing option that will provide benefits to our members as well.


Last but not least, we need co-hosts for April, May, and June. Co-hosting means a lot more visitors to your site that day and is even more fun that just posting. Please leave a comment if you can help.

Ninja News

Please support the next IWSG anthology, Hero Lost: Mysteries of Death and Life, by signing up for the Thunderclap campaign.
The anthology authors are working hard to market the book. They’ve also set up a Hero Lost website, covering everything from the theme and genre to the stories and authors.

LX Cain is giving away two audio books of her novel, Bloodwalker.
See her site for details.

New Releases:

Galactic Outlaws III: The Outlaw's Savior by Susan Kelley/Gourley
Find it at New Concepts Publishing

Monsters in Our Wake by JH Moncrieff
Find it on Amazon

White Witch Magic by Megan Morgan
Kentucky Haints #2
Find it at Amazon, iTunes, and Barnes and Noble

Adam's Apple and the Infinite Regress by LG Keltner
Read it for free at Smashwords and Wattpad

Dazzle Me by Juliana Haygert
Find it on Amazon

March Movie Preview

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

3 –

Logan
In the near future, a weary Logan cares for an ailing Professor X in a hide out on the Mexican border. But Logan's attempts to hide from the world and his legacy are up-ended when a young mutant arrives, being pursued by dark forces.
Director: James Mangold
Stars: Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Dafne Keen, Boyd Holbrook
Jackman’s last chance to be in a Wolverine film that doesn’t suck…

The Shack
A grieving man receives a mysterious, personal invitation to meet with God at a place called "The Shack."
Director: Stuart Hazeldine
Stars: Sam Worthington, Octavia Spencer, Tim McGraw, Radha Mitchell
A man goes to meet God at The Shack only to discover it’s Shaquille O'Neal.





10 –

Kong: Skull Island
A team of explorers and soldiers travel to an uncharted island in the Pacific, unaware that they are crossing into the domain of monsters, including the mythic Kong.
Director: Jordan Vogt-Roberts
Stars: Brie Larson, Tian Jing, Tom Hiddleston, Corey Hawkins
No snark, just excitement. Giant, furry ape excitement!





17 –

Beauty and the Beast
An adaptation of the Disney fairy tale about a monstrous-looking prince and a young woman who fall in love.
Director: Bill Condon
Stars: Dan Stevens, Emma Watson, Luke Evans, Ewan McGregor
The touching true story of Donald and Melania Trump.
(Got to throw Trump haters a bone now and then!)



24 –

Life 
An international space crew discovers life on Mars.
Director: Daniel Espinosa
Stars: Rebecca Ferguson, Jake Gyllenhaal, Ryan Reynolds, Hiroyuki Sanada
Looks like a great science fiction film with a solid cast. I guess you could say I am pro-Life.




31 –

Ghost in the Shell
A cyborg policewoman attempts to bring down a nefarious computer hacker.
Director: Rupert Sanders
Stars: Scarlett Johansson, Michael Pitt, Michael Wincott, Pilou Asbæk
Two hours of Johansson running around in skin tight outfit? Plot optional!

What are your insecurities today? Have you ever reworked an old manuscript? Joining us for our first Twitter pitch? Picking up some new swag? Picking up some new books? And what movies catch your attention this month?

Next Monday – MST3K returns!!