Star Wars Chat Pack: What’s your unexpected advantage?

Welcome to Day 17 of my NaBloPoMo Challenge, in which I randomly pick a card from the Star Wars Chat Pack.

Today’s question is: Each member of the Bad Batch has qualities that give the team an edge in the field. What’s something different or unique about you, your friends, or siblings, that gives you an unexpected advantage?

When I first pulled this card, at first I saw “Bad Batch,” and I thought, Yay! Finally, a Bad Batch question! And then I read the rest of it and thought, oh crap. Can’t we just talk about the boys and Omega? Because I can’t think of a single thing to answer this question.

Advantage in what? The battlefield? (Clearly, nothing). Work? (Good customer service voice?) Life? Certainly nothing unique (or I wouldn’t be a cashier at the age of 52). I have some decent reading and writing skills, but there’s nothing unique in that.

If I dig deep, deep, deep down, I guess I could say I’m a good listener. While everyone else is jabbering away, I’m listening, observing, coming to conclusions. Maybe seeing or hearing what others don’t. That’s what writers do. And I guess that gives me an advantage if I ever buckle down and decide to pursue writing fiction seriously. Right now I’m distracted by blogging and Star Wars and other people’s creations to focus on my own. I’m having too much fun, and writing fiction with any sense of getting somewhere with it is hard, lol. But maybe someday. Before I, you know, die.

And maybe I interpreted the question wrong and it means what’s your advantage in the Star Wars universe. In which case….still nothing, lol. I’d probably be a waitress in some Outer Rim cantina. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

But enough about me. What’s your unique advantage? Don’t be shy, sing your praises! Let me know in the comments and we’ll talk about it!

And because this question referenced the Bad Batch, and because I love them beyond reason, here’s a few images of our beloved crew:

Season Three can’t come soon enough!

My Entertainment Weekend Update

Happy weekend, my friends!

So this week I’m finally reading our latest book club novel “Abigale Hall” by Lauren A. Forry. It’s a gothic tale that takes place in the aftermath of WW II in England. Seventeen year old Eliza Haverford and her troubled 12 year old sister Rebecca have lost their parents in the war; their Aunt Bess sends them to work in Abigale Hall in Wales. There they meet the stern Mrs. Pollard, the housekeeper, who takes care of the owner of the house, Mr. Brownawell. But–you guessed it–there’s something strange going on in the old run-down house: strange lights and noises, bloodied books, terrifying dreams, and mysterious predecessors. And Rebecca’s fragile mental health is getting worse. It’s a weird, spooky read, and I’m enjoying it so far.

I’m still working my way through Claudia Gray’s Master & Apprentice, but will probably finish it soon. I’m thinking I’ll reread Kenobi by John Jackson Miller, as I’m in an Obi-Wan kind of mood considering all the hype about the series coming up next year. More on that soon.

First, in movies I watched The Outsiders, based on S.E. Hinton’s book. My daughter had read in in her English class, and I read it along with her. I read it ages ago when I was a teen, and remembered liking it. My daughter’s class also watched the movie based on the book; I had never seen it, so I watched it on Youtube so we could talk about it. It was really a blast seeing all these future 80’s superstars before they were famous; it was a laundry list of 80’s teen heartthrobs, lol. The movie was actually pretty good–it stayed close to the book, and only omitted a few things for time. I would have loved to see more of the relationship between the Curtis brothers: Darry, Sodapop and Ponyboy. It’s a great story about the class divide and the futility of violence; the fact that teachers are still assigning it now, a book about youth gangs in the 1960’s, shows that the themes are still relevant today, and probably always will be. Stay gold, Ponyboy.

Recognize these faces? My daughter wrote her school essay on Johnny. I informed her Ralph Macchio just turned 60 years old, and she got a kick out of that, lol.

So there was a lot of hype about Disney+ day this past Friday, and a lot of excitement building around what revelations they may offer us. I will admit I haven’t seen everything–it wasn’t some big special but bits and pieces offered on social media. I’ve seen the sizzle reel of the Obi-Wan show, and while it’s exciting, I think most of us were hoping for a real trailer. No such luck. There was some really intriguing concept art that was shown, which people will be speculating about for the foreseeable future. We’re just going to have be patient, lol. But surprisingly, there wasn’t a lot of Star Wars stuff, which is disappointing.

I did check out the Boba Fett special Under the Helmet, a short doc on the popularity of the famous bounty hunter, leading up to the release of The Book of Boba Fett later this year. I missed the whole obsession with Boba over the years, but he’s cool and I’m on board for the show.

Marvel seems to have a TON of stuff coming out next year and beyond, and while I probably won’t watch all of it, I’ll definitely be watching some: Loki Season Two is at the top of the list, as well as What If Season Two. Of the new shows, only Hawkeye has caught my attention (very soon!) and something I’d never heard of called Moon Knight with Oscar Isaac. I’m not sure if I’m interested in Agatha: House of Harkness yet. Maybe, we’ll see. I think I can live without She-Hulk and Ms. Marvel, etc. And I’ll be busy with all the Star Wars shows coming out, too, namely Obi-Wan, Andor and The Bad Batch Season Two. There’s only so many hours in the day, lol.

Also, I suspect I’ll still be busy writing my Star Wars fan fiction. I’m still only in the development stage: taking notes and doing character sketches, putting together a rough outline, and doing a LOT of research on Wookieepedia and Youtube. I’d like to think I know a lot about Star Wars, but when you decide to write about that universe, you realize just how much you don’t know. Writing fanfic is a great way to learn about all the stuff you never knew about. It always amazes me how rich and complex the world of Star Wars is. Sometimes I get a little overwhelmed, thinking I can’t do this, I’ll never get it right, there’s too much, what have I gotten myself into, etc. But I’m determined. I’m going to see it through, and you know what? I’ll learn something, definitely about Star Wars, but also about writing, and myself as a writer. As daunting as it is, it’s also been great fun, too.

Oh, and I’ll be watching Shang-Chi and the Ten Rings on D+ tonight. I’ve heard good things about it, and it should be fun. I’ll write about that in next week’s post.

That’s it for this week. What’s been entertaining you? Let me know in the comments and we’ll talk about it!

My Star Wars Weekend Update

Happy weekend, my Star Wars friends!

So I FINALLY finished The Rising Storm, and I have to say that, although it seemed to take me forever, it was a really good book. Well, the first half of the book took a little too long to get going, in my opinion, but once it did, it was great. The main Jedi of this book were Stellan Gios, Elzar Mann, and Padawan Bell Zettifar, all great characters; but I especially find Elzar Mann interesting. The leader of the Nihil, Marchion Ro, continues to be intriguing and mysterious, and I want to know more about his history with the Jedi. One of the themes of the High Republic novels seems to be how the Jedi of this period deal with temptation, attachment, grief, anger, and the pull of the dark side, and I find it fascinating.

I’ve just started the YA book of “Wave 2,” Out of the Shadows by Justina Ireland, and can’t really tell you much about it yet. Recently there was an announcement about the “Wave 3” books coming out next year, and I’m excited that Claudia Gray will be writing the adult novel, called The Fallen Star. I’ve loved everything Gray has written in Star Wars, and I’m certain this book will be no exception.

On Kindle, I’m about two-thirds of the way through Freefall by Alex Segura, a YA novel about a young Poe Dameron during his spice-runner days. It’s pretty good, fairly entertaining, and delivers what most YA books do: a young person finding out who they are and what they want, a little bit of romance, and a whole lot of adventure. A fun book.

The latest Bad Batch episode “War Mantle” was quite good, after a few weeks of “meh” episodes. I won’t go into details in case you haven’t watched it, but I finally feel like we’re getting somewhere here, lol.

On the Marvel front, I’d say I’m about two-thirds of the way through my Marvel movie/show marathon. I just finished Black Panther last night, and it’s truly exceptional. I’d heard great things about it when it came out and I thought I’d go see it, but I’m glad I waited until I’d seen the other movies for context. Just fantastic. I just started re-watching Avengers: Infinity War, and will probably finish that tonight. Loki’s death in the first ten minutes just deflates me, but it’s still a great movie, even though they fail at the end, lol.

I’m hoping to finish my Marvel journey by the time my daughter goes back to school in September (which I think will happen), and then I’ll start my “Fall Plan.” What I want to do is to get back into writing in some way, and usually my first steps into that is by journalling and doing some writing practice (I’m a bit rusty, lol). I want to write a few hours in the morning after my daughter goes to school, and then go hiking with my husband (when neither of us is working, that is, lol). Hiking is something we used to do all the time before we had our daughter, but since her birth 12 years ago it’s dwindled down to almost nothing on my part. I miss it. I’m hoping the weather in the fall is much drier than it’s been this summer.

Anyway, there’s a book that’s been on my shelf for a long time that I want to use for my writing practice, called A Writer’s Book of Days. I love it. It’s got essays on writing and the writing life, author quotes, and most importantly, writing prompts to use. I’m so ready to get back into it. I LOVE blogging, and will continue to blog about Star Wars, but will scale back on it significantly. I’ll probably do what I’ve been doing lately: a weekly post on what I’ve been reading and watching, and anything else that proves interesting to me. I will certainly continue to read Star Wars books, and look forward to all the Star Wars shows that will be coming out in the future, and I’ll definitely write about those here (and probably Marvel, too).

So a lot to look forward to, and a lot of fun to be had, with Marvel, Star Wars, and writing!

What have you been up to lately? Let me know in the comments, and we’ll talk about it!