Follow Friday (5)

Follow Friday

Follow Friday is hosted by Rachel of Parajunkie.com and Alison of Alison Can Read  If you want to join in the fun just head over the blogs mentioned above and start checking out the various answer for today's question:

Q: Do you have a favorite series that you read over and over again? Tell us a bit about it and why you keep on revisiting it? 

This could be taken in two parts. ☺ During my grade school years, I was positively drawn to Nancy Drew's world and every summer, I re-read the books because Nancy's character was teaching me (a young kid) to be self-reliant, calm in the face of danger, observant etc. The older published books also  had illustrated pages in them so that always got my imagination to go overdrive and I pictured that I was with Nancy, Bess and George. ☺ Thanks to mom who introduced me to the series and passed the love for the super sleuth's adventures to me too. She still love the books if her eyes weren't a problem.

Second shelf

The next series that I loved going back during my high school and college days was Star Trek: The Next Generation books series because obviously, the show was a huge fave back then and here, I loved reading characters who are confident and thought solutions to the problems facing them. Some authors were gentle to the readers and didn't pepper the story with techno-babble like this one below which was one of my faves. Unfortunately, like all things, I simply moved on and now, post-college and during this phase we call working 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM, I don't know yet. ☺Although I seemed to be building MCH books and Heather Graham books. ☺

Teaser Tuesdays

Hosted by MizB should be Reading is a weekly bookish meme. Anyone can play along. Just do the following.

• Grab your current read 
• Open to a RANDOM page 
• Share two (2) teaser sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS (make sure what you share doesn't give too much away. You don't want to ruin the books for others. 
• Share the title and author too so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teaser.

They were silent for a few minutes it took them to drive around the lake and for St. Catherine's Church to come into view. It was an exquisite doomed Romanesque structure.

Find Mary Higgins Clark books

Mary Higgins Clark: Where are you now?

It took quite a while to finish the book since my interest wavered a bit during the first half of book which, was devoted in piecing the mysterious disappearance of Mack Jr, his lingering promise to his mother, Olivia MacKenzie, who he always calls on Mother's Day without fail. This went on for ten years and Carolyn (his younger sister) is fed up with the absurd arrangement her brother has made them put through so she devoted her time to finding him.

Thoughts

It was never easy reaching out to the past because you don't know what else you'll shift through the dormant dust accumulated through the years but Carolyn went through her brother's last footsteps, reconnected with his old college roommates, reading about the new kidnapping incidences that reflected the same situation as Mack Jr, which led the police to believe that Mack Jr is alive and that he had gone off the deep end by kidnapping women.

However, Carolyn believed her brother was innocent and strove to the truth. I was half expecting from  Carolyn to start as quickly as she could  instead she was shown to plan out who she needed to talk to in her own pace. She also had to contend with the horde of reporters camping outside her apartment and despite having scenes where she came home to an empty apartment and feeling frustrated, I felt more story movement went on whenever the kidnapper made his moves.

The scene at the basement of a decrepit building was heart-wrenching and the revelation who was behind it left me a little winded. I didn't expect it at all. Of course, the epilogue was also a heart-tugging chapter since a piece of Mack Jr lived but to Carolyn and her mom that piece seemed too far. I imagined that once Barbara Galbraith finally told her son, Gary about his other family affiliations, Carolyn and her Mom will finally have the closure they needed. I thought that chapter can even inspire a TV movie. ☺


Extras

I went over to Storycasting to place my cast choices since during the time I was reading it, I thought of who might portray the characters. I always do that when I read books. I think it was just a way for me to visualize the story.

Here are some of my choices and the  rest are below since I was experiencing limitations. *grins* I hope more actor names will be added in Storycasting site database. :D

Story Cast....

Have you ever had the discussion with your friends about your favorite book and share your dream casts with each other? I always get a kick out of it whenever I hear someone casting choice.  Even in mailing lists or forums, they hold similar discussions for our respective favorite books. Well, a site takes it up a notch to gather everyone's dream casting into one location.  For example:

Storycast for The Fire Within (Elemental Knights Chronicles 1)

I haven't found this book at the book shop or I might not be looking very hard. These days, I'm very much into Mary Higgins Clark and I'm planning to contribute my casts too as soon as I remember who's who since for the book, "On the Street Where You Live," I was able to come up with three choices. Tsk. The main character, the perp, and the detective, which hardly constitutes a complete cast of characters for the book. I also find it interesting to see other peoples cast choices too, wouldn't you?  :)

I haven't periodically visited Storycast after stumbling into it about a couple years back but I've read that they've increased the casting number to 25. I don't recall how many you could cast before though.  There are still books aching to be cast so if you've read one, why not give it a try. 

If you're an avid fan of Cassandra Clare's work, you can add your cast faves too.  The site also offers forum for book fans to chat with other fans who have read the same books and share also their cast faves with the group.

This seems to be a good respite from screenwriting and throw in your two cents for casting choices.  Who knows, it might even spark an idea. *grins*  Everywhere this is story waiting to be told, it's a matter of finding it and weaving an interesting tapestry. Good luck and keep writing.