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Smashbomb (4687 KP) created a post in Smashbomb AMA

Mar 26, 2019 (Updated Mar 26, 2019)  
AMA: JOANNE HARRIS (AUTHOR)
ANSWERS
Award-winning author Joanne Harris, has answered YOUR questions in Smashbomb's first AMA.

 @Katie Loves Movies asked:
How many half-finished books do you have?
Currently, two, plus one draft that still needs editing. I always tend to work on more than one thing at a time.

How do you choose your character names?
It depends on the book. Sometimes I use the credits from old episodes of DR WHO and BLAKES7. Sometimes I use the names of ex-colleagues from my teaching days.

Do you have anything unusual on your desk?
A brass frog that my grandfather used to have on his desk: a stone from a sandcastle my daughter and I built when she was nine.

 @DaveySmithy asked:
What makes you roll your eyes every time you hear it?
People who say: "I'm going to write a book when I retire."

Do you think that aliens exist?
Statistically, yes. In practical terms, I doubt we'll ever see them.

What song hits you with a wave of nostalgia every time you hear it?
The Flowerpot Men's "Let's go to San Francisco."

Does anything worry you about the 'kids of today'?
The epidemic of mental health and anxiety issues inflicted on them by the previous generation.

 @Random47 asked:
Do you write with a pen or on a machine? If either, what type?
Mostly, I write on a Microsoft Surfacebook, or in Moleskine notebooks with a Rollerball.

Who are some of your biggest inspirations?
Angela Carter, Ray Bradbury, Amelia Earhart, Audrey Hepburn, my daughter.
 
What books are your guilty pleasure?
I don't feel guilty about pleasures.

When did you first start writing?
When I was nine. I wrote and hand-illustrated a sixteen-page book called "Flesh-Eating Warriors of the Forbidden City", and distributed copies around my class at school.

Where are some of your favourite places to write?
My shed; the garden; trains; the penthouse of the Four Seasons in Chicago; the first class lounge at Heathrow airport; the roof of the Duomo in Milan.

 @Drayton Kool asked:
Do you prefer to write in complete silence or whilst listening to music?
Silence - music interferes with the rhythms of my writing - although I do create playlists to get into the mood.

What makes you happier - chocolate or a few margaritas?
Margaritas, every time.

On your website FAQ you mention that you love spaghetti westerns. Which is your favourite and why?
A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS - it's bleak, classic and existentially funny.

Which fictional character would be the most boring to meet in real life?
Virtually any romantic hero.

On average, how long do you sleep each night?
8 hours: more, if I can get it.

 @Whatchareadin asked:
Where is your favourite place to read? To write?
I like to read in the bath, where I can't hear the phone and no-one disturbs me. When I'm at home I write in my shed, but I can write pretty much anywhere. Hotel rooms are great - there are no distractions, and you can get room service...

Which character in your books do you think you connect to most?
Loki. I was just like him when I was in my teens.

If you weren't an author, what would you be doing?
I was a teacher for fifteen years, and I was pretty good at it.

What is your favourite book of all time? Of right now?
Of all time? Probably Victor Hugo's LES MISERABLES. Right now, I'm rediscovering P.G. Wodehouse's THE INIMITABLE JEEVES, and it's sheer joy.

What are you reading now?
Christopher Fowler's THE LONELY HOUR: his Bryant & May books are so funny and deftly-written that it's easy to overlook their dark menace and the sheer gorgeous ingenuity of the plotting.


Thanks Joanne! We'd all love to see you on here again :)
   
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Whatchareadin (174 KP) Mar 26, 2019

Thanks Joanne for answering our questions! I always enjoy getting to know authors better.
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Lee (2222 KP) rated Men in Black International (2019) in Movies

Jun 16, 2019  
Men in Black International (2019)
Men in Black International (2019)
2019 | Action, Sci-Fi
5
5.7 (58 Ratings)
Movie Rating Watch
A complete waste of time
Aside from Avengers Endgame, 2019 is shaping up to be pretty disappointing when it comes to blockbuster movies. Godzilla received a bit of a panning from the critics (although I personally quite liked it), then Dark Phoenix took an even bigger hit in the reviews, which I completely agree with. And now we have a sequel that nobody asked for, to a movie which has already had a couple of fairly average sequels, which has also received a wave of early bad reviews this week. To be honest, the trailer for Men In Black International certainly looked a bit....meh. A bunch of random stuff happening, no real indication of any plot, some annoying looking CGI aliens and an attempt to just coast off the back of having Thor and Valkyrie reunited on screen. I still remember how memorable the original trailer for the 1997 MIB movie was when it featured in cinemas - the shades, the guns, the aliens, the massive flying saucer crash landing in front of a cool looking Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones. This trailer had none of that wow factor, but I went in, hopeful as always that the reviews were wrong.

The movie begins in 2016, with Agent H (Chris Hemsworth) and High T (Liam Neeson) as they ascend the Eiffel Tower, interrupting a man who is about to propose to his partner, before saving the world from an incoming alien race called The Hive. Then we jump back 20 years into the past to a family who are disturbed one night by a cute little alien in their back garden. As the young daughter, Molly, hides the alien in her bedroom, she looks out of her window to see her parents as they are neuralysed by a couple of Men in Black.

Back in present day, Molly (Tessa Thompson) is now all grown up, but hasn't forgotten that eventful night. While working in a call centre, she uses her computer to connect to satellite equipment in order to track alien landings and therefore try and gain access to the Men in Black, and hopefully get a job with them. Eventually finding her way into their headquarters, she is recruited by Agent O (Emma Thompson) and sent on her first mission, where she partners up with Agent H. The pair get caught up in a mission involving an assassinated alien VIP and some kind of super weapon. And, as the title of the movie suggests, plenty of international travel, as we switch between New York, London, Paris and Marrakesh.

The problem is, whereas the original Men in Black boasted a lot of humour, along with some great visual gags and action and a great double act, in the form of Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones, this movie does nothing to successfully recapture any of that. As much as I love Chris Hemsworth, I felt that he was the worst thing about this movie. Somebody simply thought they'd take the character of Thor and try to have that for the entire movie, but without making him funny, heroic or even that likeable in the process. As with Dark Phoenix recently, a great cast is let down by an awful script, with any attempts at humour or entertainment falling completely flat.

Elsewhere, the fun and wacky inventiveness behind the different alien species in the original movie is completely absent here. Apart from some interesting and formidable twin villains, there's a fairly wasted role for Rebecca Ferguson as a three armed ex lover of Agent H. Otherwise, the main alien throughout the movie is just an annoying little CGI character.

To be fair, there are a couple of fun action sequences and some nice visuals, but overall this is just a completely forgettable and unnecessary movie. Here's hoping that Toy Story 4 will finally bring us a worthy blockbuster when it opens later this week.