Still Me and Aging, Turkish CassaFire, New Movie Trailers, Pete’s Dragon Review, and Ninja News

It’s a pleasure to be participating in the Blog Tour for STILL ME … AFTER ALL THESE YEARS: 24 Authors Reflect on Aging by Karen Helene Walker through MC Book Tours.

Thank you, Alex, for letting me guest post today. So grateful for all you do for this amazing community of writers.

I’m here to talk about a subject no one wants to think or talk about. Aging.

“Does this mean I’m officially old?” That’s one of the titles in my anthology, “Still Me…After All These Years.” The writer just turned 74. When my parents were still alive, that was considered “old.” As that writer said in her essay, 74 can’t be middle aged because no one lives to be 148, so I must be old. So I think, if I’m older than 65 and on Medicare, then I must be old, right? Satchel Paige said aging is mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter. Well, I’m not sure I agree. It does matter. But it is a lot about how we think about it.

What does old mean anyway? Antiques are old. And they get more valuable the older they get. But not people. We finish older peoples’ sentences, help them out of the car when they haven’t asked for that and maybe don’t need it.We leave them out of conversations that flow too fast for them to follow. That reminds me. The other night my husband and I were both on a phone call with someone and I had to repeatedly ask, “What?” but my husband heard every word the other person said. I’d been deluding myself that I needed to go for a hearing test.

How can I be old, I ask myself, when I still love rock n’ roll? How can I be old when I can still dance the night away. Now I won’t tell you how my body feels after that happens, but that’s a whole other issue. How fair is it when the body cannot do what the mind still craves. Or can do it, but maybe shouldn’t.

Do you feel old yet? I only feel old when I look in the mirror and see a white-haired lady with some wrinkles and sags. Or when I try something at the gym and go home with a back ache. It still surprises me when I see a bunch of old people at a rock concert and wonder what they’re doing there, forgetting I’m one of them. I’ve decided I want to be old like Yoda. Don’t ya just love Yoda. Except I don’t think I want to get to be 900 years old. I don’t even want to be 100.

Want to know about aging? Within the pages of “Still Me…After All These Years,” you’ll find stories from folks ranging in age from 60 to 90, from all walks of life and professions, and hopefully, a kernel of wisdom to fortify you as you walk this journey of life towards aging.

STILL ME…AFTER ALL THESE YEARS: 24 Authors Reflect on Aging
By Karen Helene Walker
Publication Date: April 4, 2017
This is a charming, funny, and enlightening collection of essays about aging. In addition, Karen is offering a tour-wide giveaway featuring two (2) print copies (U.S. entries only) of STILL ME and two (2) eBook copies of STILL ME (International entries).
Find Still Me at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, iTunes, Kobo, and Goodreads.

CassaFire in Turkish!

I received my copy of CassaFire in Turkish last week.

Still just blows my mind my book is in another language.

Mini-Alex was rather proud of the book and had to pose with both.
(At my wife's insistence, of course.)

New Movie Trailers

In case you missed them…

The Deapool II trailer debuted with Logan. Looks just as funny and wrong as the first film:

Here’s the third trailer for Wonder Woman and shows more of her background:

Aardman and Nick Parks, the creators of Wallace and Gromit, are back with a new movie – Early Man:

And of course, the latest Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 trailer from a couple weeks ago, because it just doesn’t get old:

Movie Review

Pete’s Dragon
Caught this on NetFlix – live action remake of the cartoon classic. (Seems to be a Disney trend right now.)
The cast is good – Bryce Dallas Howard, Robert Redford, Karl Urban – and the special effects really good. The movie is of high quality and I had no problem with a fuzzy dragon who appears part cat.
Unfortunately, those are the only good things I can say about it – I really, really disliked this movie.
It’s way too dark for kids. The beginning sets the tone – Pete is in a terrifying car accident that kills his parents, then wolves threaten to kill him before Elliot the dragon intervenes. Cheery, right? Wait, it gets darker…
This film is so heavy, with very few light moments to bring it out of the pit of despair. There are abandonment issues, the dragon is hunted (and his capture very intense), environmental issues, social services gets involved… It’s just so intense and depressing. It’s like watching your pet die over and over and over…
And the message I got from the movie? If you love something, people will try to take it away from you and kill it.
Not recommended for kids, people who are depressed, those who love animals, or anyone who doesn’t want their day ruined by a downer film.

Ninja News

Into the Badlands, season two, kicked off on Sunday, March 19! Get the inside scoop at Blastr.

Faceoff still has a few more episodes left in this season’s all-star edition. Who will win? Cig and George or Emily and Tyler?

The A to Z Challenge theme reveal is today. See the site for participants.

Don’t forget to join the IWSG Goodreads Group and spread the word about the #IWSGPit! If you are a published author, please contact your publisher or agent and invite them to participate – and let us know, so we can add them to the growing list of publishers and agents on the site. And if you’re an author, you don’t want to miss the date –July 27.

What does old mean to you? Do you feel old? (Some days I don’t, some I do.) Enjoy the new movie trailers? Have the misfortune of seeing the Pete’s Dragon remake? Who’s going to win Faceoff? Ready for #IWSGPit? And are you ready for April…?