Lisa Mason's Treasure Trove

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Reviews of May Movies Lisa Mason #professionalauthor #publishedauthor #filmcritic #screenplays #publishedbooks #publishedstories #sciencefiction #fantasy

Reviews of May movies.

The TV died. The TV lasted a good nine years. We’re looking for a new TV—DVD player. (Edit: We got it in three days! The new RCA is much better than the old one!) In the meantime, we watched much of “Timeless”. The motto from the DVD case is “Protect the Past. Save the Future.” Intent on destroying America in the future, a mysterious criminal, Flynn, steals a time machine, travels back to…

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Review of First BBC Series Movies Lisa Mason #professionalauthor #publishedauthor #filmcritic #screenplays #publishedbooks #publishedstories #sciencefiction #fantasy

Review of The Blenchley Circle: San Francisco.

Tom got at our wonderful local library four BBC TV series. The BBC does a great production, lively stories, and wonderful actors. First up: The Blenchley Circle: San Francisco. The story starts in London, 1942 where a group of women code-breakers try to solve the Enigma Machine, a Nazi invention. When the code-breakers succeed, one of the women goes outside, disgusted that they broke the code for…

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Reviews of April 2023 Movies—Lisa Mason #professionalauthor #publishedauthor #filmcritic #screenplays #publishedbooks #publishedstories #sciencefiction #fantasy #mainstream

Review of April movies.

We rejoined Netflix DVD (for at least a month) and rented three movies: “Last Night in Soho”, “Where the Crawdads Sing”, and “Babylon”. “Last Night in Soho” This is from the back of the DVD: Eloise, an aspiring fashion designer, is mysteriously able enter the 1960s, where she meets dazzling singer and dancer, Sandie. But the glamor is not all what appears to be, and the dreams of past to crack…

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Harpers March 2023 Article About the Traditional Publishing Business—Lisa Mason #professionalauthor #publishedauthor #filmcritic #screenplays #publishedbooks #publishedstories #sciencefiction #fantasy

A Harper's Magazine about the traditional publishing business.

Harpers March 2023 Article About the Traditional Publishing Business, “At Random: The business of books and the merger wasn’t” by Christian Lorentzen. https://harpers.org/archive/2023/03/at-random-simon-and-schuster-bertelsmann-merger-trial-penguin-random-house/ In March 2020, ViacomCBS announced its intention to sell Simon & Schuster because the publisher did not fit the company’s business…

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Reviews of March Movies Lisa Mason #professionalauthor #publishedauthor #filmcritic #screenplays #publishedbooks #publishedstories #sciencefiction #fantasy

Reviews of March Movies

Tom and I saw three movies for St. Patrick’s weekend. The first two films he bought for a nickel at our wonderful library. The third, a neighbor gave to us. He didn’t want to see the film anymore; I can see why. “Amarcord”, the title loosely means “I Remember”, is a film by Federico Fellini. The DVD comes with a booklet by a film professor. He admits the film hasn’t got much of a plot. Episodes…

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January 23, 2023 issue of The New Yorker’s Article about Alex Murdaugh Lisa Mason #publishedauthor #professionalauthor #articlecritic

New Yorker article about Alex Murdaugh.

Also in the January 23, 2023 issue of The New Yorker is “The Swamp: Could corruption have led Alex Murdaugh to murder his wife and son?” The Murdaughs were thought of as “Royalty” in South Carolina, having one or other Murdaugh been state governor for four generations back, as well as plenty of justices. I won’t restate the complications of the corruption but Alex was really bad; I’ll leave you…

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January 23, 2023 issue of The New Yorker’s Review of Prince Harry’s Memoir Lisa Mason #publishedauthor #professionalauthor #articlecritic

New Yorker review of Prince Harry's memoir

The January 23, 2023 issue of The New Yorker includes a couple of interesting articles. First up, a review of Prince Harry’s recently published memoir, “Spare”. The title of the review says it all about the memoir: “The Royal Me: In “Spare” Prince Harry Must Be Cruel to Be Kind”. (The TLS had a review of the memoir that states a similar conclusion). Harry starts out with, in the Balmoral Castle,…

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March 8, 2023 issue of The Hollywood Reporter Lisa Mason #publishedauthor #professionalauthor #moviecritic

The Hollywood Reporter's predictions for the Oscar Wins.

In the March 8, 2023 issue of The Hollywood Reporter, which I received in my mailbox two days after the Oscars ceremony, the THR thought that Austin Butler should have won Best Oscar for his portrayal of Elvis Presley. I thought so, too; he was very convincing as Elvis though in fairness to the other nominated actors, we didn’t see their movies. I was disappointed that “Elvis” didn’t win Best…

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Times Literary Supplement Article Critiquing the Biography about Shirley Hazzard Lisa Mason #lisamason #professionalauthor #publishedauthor #articlecritic

Review of TLS article about the new biography of Shirley Hazzard

In January 20, 2023 of TLS, ”Citizen of Nowhere”, comes a critique by Michael Hofman of a new biography by Brigitta Olubas of Shirley Hazzard, author of The Transit of Venus and other books. Hazzard married another writer, they lived all over the world. She died in 2016 at the age of eighty-three. I read her most famous novel, “The Transit of Venus,” in 1981, upon the enthusiastic recommendation…

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New Yorker Article About Hildegard of Bingen Lisa Mason #lisamason #professionalauthor #publishedauthor #articlecritic

Review of The New Yorker article about Hildegarde von Bingen, a genius woman who lived 1000 years ago.

February 6, 2023 issue of The New Yorker, has an article, “The First Composer: Hildegard of Bingen’s visionary music” by Alex Ross. Hildegard von Bingen, was an amazing woman (1098—1179). A genius. She lived in Germany’s Rhineland Valley. She was the youngest of ten children and her parents donated her to the Church (I guess parents could do that in those days.) She became a nun when she was a…

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Analysis of “Spat” by Lisa Mason #lisamason #professionalwriter #professionalcritic

Analysis of "Spat"

Spat. No, I don’t mean the past tense verb, “to spit”. I mean the noun. Webster’s Tenth says the noun entered the language in 1804. I don’t know how Webster’s knows it, but if the dictionary says it, I believe that. Origin unknown. The word means “a brief quarrel”. I picture cats hissing at each other. I love the word because it “sounds” exactly what it means. I love the word “murmur” because of…

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Reviews of February Weekend Movies by Lisa Mason #professionalauthor #publishedauthor #filmcritic #screenplays #publishedbooks #publishedstories #sciencefiction #fantasy

Reviews of February movies!

Over the pre-Valentine’s weekend, Tom and I saw one British TV series Season 1, that he borrowed for free from our wonderful local library, one documentary he bought for a nickel from the library, and three films we borrowed from Netflix. “North by Northwest”: In the ancient days, we used to own a decent collection of movies on videotape. (Remember videotape?) About thirty movies, including the…

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Review of the Second Avatar in The New Yorker Lisa Mason #professionalpublishedauthor #bookcritic #filmcritic #screenplays #publishedbooks #publishedstories #sciencefiction #fantasy

Review of Avatar 2 in The New Yorker

I decided not to see the second “Avatar: The Way of Water”. The first movie was stupid and had several logical flaws. The story would not sell to a pennies-per-word magazine. That makes two three-hour new movies (the first is “Babylon”) I don’t want to see. In the December 26, 2022 issue of The New Yorker, Anthony Lane’s review of “Avatar” confirms my conviction. Lane’s review is peppered with…

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Reviews of January Weekend Movies by Lisa Mason #professionalauthor #publishedauthor #filmcritic #screenplays #publishedbooks #publishedstories #sciencefiction #fantasy

Reviews of January movies.

Over the New Moon—Lunar Year of the Rabbit weekend, Tom and I saw several movies I sent from Netflix. Tom borrowed two films for free from our wonderful local library. We’d never seen any of them before so each movie was a new experience for us. A sad coincidence: the day after I received “Elvis” from Netflix, Lisa Marie Presley died of cardiac arrest at the age of fifty-four. Elvis Presley was…

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Two New Novels by Cormac McCarthy in The New Yorker Lisa Mason #professionalpublishedauthor #bookcritic #filmcritic #screenplays #publishedbooks #publishedstories #sciencefiction #fantasy

A review of two new novels by Cormac McCarthy.

Are you a reader, even a fan, of Cormac McCarthy? You’re in luck—at age 90, McCarthy has published two new, inter-related novels. The review of both novels is by James Wood in the December 19. 2022 issue of The New Yorker. “The Passenger” is about a man, a mathematics genius, in a relationship with his sister, mentally disturbed, seriously suicidal. “Stella Maris” is told from the point of his…

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Reviews of Christmas Weekend Movies by Lisa Mason #professionalauthor #publishedauthor #filmcritic #screenplays #publishedbooks #publishedstories #sciencefiction #fantasy

Reviews of Christmas Weekend Movies.

Over the Christmas weekend, Tom and I saw several movies he borrowed for free from our wonderful local library. We’d never seen any of them before so each movie was a new experience for us. “Roman Holiday” This delightful film was released in 1953 and features Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn in her first role. The story was Gregory Peck viewed the film before its release; the producers had put…

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Arachne, Published by William Morrow, Debuted on the Locus Hardcover Bestseller List, Is Back in Print and an Ebook Worldwide! Updated with New Reviews! Compared to William Gibson and Philip K. Dick! Lisa Mason #Lisa Mason #professionalauthor #publishedauthor #novel #cyberpunk #sciencefiction #artificialintelligence #womenssciencefiction #futuristic

Reviews of ARACHNE, my first SF novel.

HAPPY 2023!ARACHNE, my first novel, is back in print in eight countries and an ebook in eighteen markets worldwide. We’ve updated both editions for 2021 changes.I can’t think of a better way to begin again than with a new review at the Libreture Website, of ARACHNE. I found this on Twitter at https://twitter.com/libreture/status/1052661778436505603. The reviewer was kind enough to tag me.“Arachne…

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