March 4, 2016 by Lori L MacLaughlin

Celebrate the Small Things!

Celebrate the Small Things is a weekly celebration created by VikLit and now hosted by Lexa Cain to celebrate the happenings of the week, however small or large. You can learn all about it and sign up for it here. CelebrateSmallThings_Badge

I spent this morning helping set up for the Spring Book Fair at school. I enjoy checking out all the new books, and so do my kids. They can’t wait for the Fair to open on Monday. This week I’d like to celebrate:

Books! They can enrich your life in ways you never imagined.
Another snow day! Or maybe I should call it an ice day, since we had more ice than snow. The roads were so bad that even police cars parked on the side of the road at accident sites slid off into the ditch by themselves.
Going to the movies this weekend! My kids aren’t little anymore, but they’ve never outgrown Disney. (And I hope they never do.)
Next Tuesday, March 8^th, is National Pancake Day at IHOP! Free pancakes! Whoo, hoo! I am so there.

What other celebrations are going on out there?

April 21, 2015 by Lori L MacLaughlin

A to Z Challenge: More Fictional Favorites! Day 18: Rapunzel from Disney’s Tangled

R is for — Rapunzel from Disney’s Tangled

When Disney’s 50^th animated movie, Tangled, hit the theaters in 2010, I wasn’t sure what to expect. Since the early 1990s, their animated movies had been, in my opinion, less than impressive. I needn’t have worried this time, though. Tangled was delightfully funny with a lot of heart and great music. I laughed and cried. I loved it.

Rapunzel’s story may have strayed quite a bit from the original fairy tale, but I loved this Rapunzel’s personality — her wide-eyed innocence, her adventurous spirit, her inner strength and courage. She wields her hair almost like a weapon, swinging on it like Tarzan to escape pursuit. She swings a pretty mean frying pan, too.

One of my favorite scenes is in the beginning when Rapunzel is trying to figure out what to do with the unconscious Flynn Rider after beaning him with the frying pan. It’s absolutely hilarious. Another favorite scene is when she sees the floating lights for the first time. I loved the wonder and magic of seeing it all unfold through her eyes. The scene where she reunites with her real family still brings tears to my eyes.

Officially the 10^th Disney princess, Rapunzel has become a favorite, second only to Belle from Beauty and the Beast.

Photo Credit: Disney Wikia

Photo Credit: http://www.awn.com

Photo Credit: Amazon.com

April 17, 2015 by Lori L MacLaughlin

Celebrate the Small Things! and A to Z Challenge: More Fictional Favorites! Day 15: Olaf from Disney’s Frozen

Today, I’m celebrating independent bookstores! Here’s my book, Lady, Thy Name Is Trouble, on an actual brick-and-mortar store bookshelf! Phoenix Books (in Vermont) is carrying it at both their locations, the Burlington store on Cherry Street and the Essex store in the Essex Cinemas shopping plaza. Yay! (Happy dancing!)

Phoenix Book Store

And now for today’s A to Z —

O is for — Olaf from Disney’s Frozen

“Hi, everyone. I’m Olaf and I like warm hugs!” Olaf, the animated snowman, stole the show in Disney’s hit movie, Frozen. Talk about comedy relief. Just about everything he said and did had me in stitches.

From the beginning when he meets Anna and Kristoff on their way to find Elsa, to his receiving his own personal snow flurry at the end of the movie to keep him from melting, Olaf infuses the story with warmth and humor and a childlike innocence that makes me smile even now as I’m thinking about it.

So many hilarious moments — that first meeting with Anna and Kristoff; Olaf’s middle and bottom parts running away from the snow monster and leaving his head behind; when Olaf tells Anna to run from the “rocks” Kristoff is talking to; and when he slides down the hill toward the town after being told by Kristoff to keep a low profile and you hear a scream from someone as Olaf says hello to them.

Olaf is one of the funniest and most endearing characters I’ve ever met. My favorite Olaf moment is when he tells Anna that “some people are worth melting for.” Wise words from a true friend.

Photo Credit: http://wondersofdisney2.yolasite.com

Photo Credit: Amazon.com

What other celebrations are going on out there?

April 14, 2015 by Lori L MacLaughlin

A to Z Challenge: More Fictional Favorites! Day 12: Long John Silver

L is for — Long John Silver from Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island

My favorite villains are those whose personalities aren’t all black. Yes, they’re bad, but they have some redeeming quality somewhere that makes you like them in spite of what they do.

Long John Silver is another such pirate of dubious distinction. He’s the main antagonist in Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island, and he shows his black nature by, among other things, instigating a mutiny aboard the Hispaniola and killing a fellow pirate in cold blood. He changes sides, depending on whoever has the upper hand, his charisma, silver tongue, and ingratiating manner smoothing the way and instilling a false sense of trust. Make no mistake, though, he’s as ruthless as they come and only out for his own gain.

And yet, his treatment of Jim Hawkins speaks of another side of him — a tiny sliver of honor and decency that offsets his treachery and inspires ambivalence of feeling toward him. Silver protects Jim from the other pirates and seems truly fond of him, treating him almost as if he were a son. When Silver escapes with a share of the treasure by sneaking off the ship in the dark of night, Jim wishes him well. And despite Silver’s villainous actions, I do, too.

I remember watching Disney’s Treasure Island as a kid and dreaming of pirate adventures. The 1950 movie starred Robert Newton, who became the quintessential Long John Silver. Later, I saw Disney’s miniseries, Return to Treasure Island, but I don’t remember much about it, except that Brian Blessed also made a good Silver. Several other movie versions of Treasure Island exist, including a Muppet version, which is quite silly, in their usual tradition. My kids enjoyed it.

Photo Credit: Amazon.com

March 27, 2015 by Lori L MacLaughlin

Celebrate the Small Things!

I took a bit of a breather this week after blogging every day for two weeks with my blog tour. Now, I’m primed and ready to go for the April A to Z Challenge! Celebrations for this week:

The snow is finally melting, and it’s warming up a little!
“Frozen Fever!” (No, I’m not sick. 🙂 ) We went to see the new live-action Cinderella movie from Disney, and at the beginning, there was an animated short with all the main characters from the “Frozen” realm that was just hilarious.
Girl Scout cookies! We bought five boxes, and they were gone in a week.

What other celebrations are going on out there?

April 2, 2014 by Lori L MacLaughlin

A to Z Challenge: Fictional Favorites, Day 2

B is for — Bilbo Baggins and Belle — from The Hobbit and Disney’s animated film, Beauty and the Beast.

Bilbo Baggins, the unlikely hero from J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit, has always been one of my all-time favorite characters. The way he goes from timid, complacent stick-in-the-mud to spider-slaying, dragon-braving adventurer inspires those (like me) who hesitate, and encourages us to go forth out our doors and into the wild.

Many times I watched the 1977 Rankin-Bass animated Hobbit, living Bilbo’s journey with him, persevering even though I’m arachnophobic and not nearly as good with riddles. One of my favorite moments from this movie is when the Dwarves are singing — “Far over misty mountains cold…” — and Gandalf and Bilbo speak:

Gandalf: “There’s a magic in that music.”

Bilbo: “And it moves through me.”

Gandalf: “You feel the love of beautiful things.”

Bilbo: “To go and see the great mountains and hear the pine trees and waterfalls.”

Gandalf: “To wear a sword instead of a walking stick.”

Bilbo: “Just once…”

Another favorite moment is when Bilbo climbs the tall tree in the middle of Mirkwood and sees all the butterflies fluttering in the sunshine and feels the breeze on his face. He doesn’t speak, but shares his thoughts: “There are moments which can change a person for all time, and I suddenly wondered if I would ever see my snug hobbit hole again. I wondered if I actually wanted to.”

Those moments always stir in me a yearning to take that step out my door and go.

Belle, from Walt Disney’s animated classic, Beauty and the Beast, is another such inspiration. The “odd” girl with her nose in a book could so be me. I admire her spunk, her courage, and her cleverness. She’s not afraid to stand against the crowd.

When I first saw this movie when it came out in 1991, I was entranced. Everything about it was magical — the exquisite colors in the opening sequence, the engaging heroine, the wonderfully quirky denizens of the enchanted castle, the rousing and romantic songs, and the Beast — a cursed prince who needed someone to find enough good in him to love. Add to that the scary scenes with the wolves, a frighteningly charismatic antagonist in Gaston, and the hilarious battle between the ensorcelled castle servants and the villagers and you get a movie that immediately became my #1 favorite Disney movie, ever. It still reigns today. Not even the excellent Tangled or Frozen could knock Beauty and the Beast from its pedestal.