Posted by Kimberlee Morrison on Feb 7, 2010 in Books, My Life
I’ve had several people ask me what is “freedom writing” and what are “Freedom Writers.” It started as a bunch of kids writing their stories in the hopes that someone might read and find hope. Funny thing is that sometimes I have to go back to my own story when I’m looking for hope and motivation to persevere through hard times and achieve my goals. To wit, I share with you this excerpt from The Freedom Writer’s Diary: 10th Anniversary Edition.
Dear Diary,
I was five months pregnant when I graduated from high school. I wasn’t worried, though, because I had a plan. I was going to college and I was going to make something of myself. For a while the plan worked and I worked the plan. Spring semester came around and I jumped in full speed ahead, ready to conquer the world. But as time went on, and the plan didn’t seem to be taking me any closer to my goal of graduating from college, my vision started to grow dimmer and dimmer.
It was 30 minutes before my intro to mass media class; a course from which I was on the verge of being dropped because I was either late or absent on a regular basis. I spent the previous 30 minutes trying to scrounge up a few bucks to put gas in my car. I dumped my change jar and counted almost four dollars in pennies. Then I dug in the couch, under beds, in junk drawers, in my purse, and checked every pants or coat pocket until I had exactly five dollars. I put them in a ziplock bag and headed to the gas station, hoping I could get to class on time.
“I can’t take that,” said the little Asian woman, when I went to hand her the bag. She didn’t even move to it. “How do I know it’s five dollars?” Read more…
The only thing I knew was that Jet Li was in it, that was enough for me to want to see Fearless. I don’t know what I expected. I had been looking for House of Flying Dagers; something epic and beautiful. What I got in my selection was beautiful, not for the landscape or the elaborately romantic plot.
Fearless was a vulnerable true story of Chinese Martial Arts Master Huo Yuanjia Huo Yuan Jia (Li) and his spiritual journey in which he learned the true meaning of honor and sportsmanship at a tragically high price.
As he became a more famed master, Huo Yuanjia’s pride grew. Slowly his pride became his fall. In his thirst for fame and championship, Yuanjia eventually had to face the lesson he hadn’t heeded as a child; winning at all costs is not winning at all.
This movie is thrilling, heart breaking, inspiring and vulnerable.
Posted by Kimberlee Morrison on Sep 12, 2009 in Entertainment
Just a few short months ago I wrote about being lonely and feeling isolated and this week I realized that whatever dark cloud had been following me has lifted…at least for the time being.
I won’t go through a full run-down of everything I’ve been doing lately, I’ll just say that I’ve been tired all week because I’ve been super busy. And not just with work; my social calendar has been full. I was almost wondering what happened that could cause such a change. Maybe it was just me deciding I was tired of being sad and lonely. I started accepting invitations even when I thought I was tired.
Today was awesome. Y’know, some people you work with are just co-workers but I’ve actually become friends with some of the girls I work with. I mean, why not? We’ve been sitting right next to each other for almost a year and while we all started at the same time, we are the survivors of the turmoil that had our department in a stranglehold. After all of the craziness, we actually like to get together outside of work and its becoming more frequent.
So, today I went to San Diego with one of the girls Art Walk at the Bay and a class at Culture Shock Dance Center. The dance class was fantastic; we got sweaty and started our day right with an aerobic workout. I’m sure I’ll be sore tomorrow, but I’m also pretty sure I’m going to sign up for more classes so we can go back again.
Art walk was alright…Mind you I love the arts, but most of the stuff presented was so…unoriginal. That’s not to say that there weren’t any talented artists, because there certainly were. However, most of what was being shown just looked like I had seen it before. One artist and a friend of the friend with whom I was traveling today, Corey Rice, had quite possibly the most unique paintings and prints at the festival. His work is at once humorous, quirky and surreal. The little guy to the left is one from a multi-frame piece one of which depicted the wooden doll, dancing.
Anyway, I’m tired, but in a great mood because I spent all day in the sun walking around along the bay. It was great; now I’m going to crash.
A while back, author Claudia Hall Christian graced my humble blog on her virtual book tour for her novel The Fey. I hadn’t read the book at the time, but Claudia sent me a copy and, I must say, The Fey was one of the most thrilling books I have read in a long, long time.
From beginning to end, you are pulled into this intriguing story of Alex “The Fey;” a femme fatal intelligence expert, trying to pull together the shattered pieces of her life, while enduring continued psychological torture.
Truthfully, I’ve never been much into mysteries or even fiction for that matter. But The Fey’s quick pace with harrowing details, romantic subplots, and remarkable clarity made it an intensely compelling read.
I couldn’t put it down!
Every time I stopped reading, even for a second, I wandered what was coming next. Once after I had already gone to bed, I was so curious that I turned the light back on to read just one more chapter…
Claudia Hall Christian has a gift for intrigue and for creating intricate yet easy to read story lines. For anyone looking for something fun to read, The Fey is a page turner that will make your heart race and even when it’s over, you’ll want to know more about the dynamic cast of characters you’ll no doubt have grown to love.
You can read The Fey online or purchase a hard copy (don’t forget the discount code: XQGB8SVR). Whatever you do, make sure you set aside a good block of time; once you get started, you won’t want to put The Fey down.
Posted by Kimberlee Morrison on Jun 29, 2009 in Entertainment
Hey guess what LA Times: they didn’t.
They had the information, knew it was correct and reported the news of Michael Jackson’s death first.
I suppose there are people who don’t “expect” TMZ to have accurate information. Those people either forget or don’t know that Harvey Levin–the man behind TMZ–is both a lawyer and entertainment journalist.
That story would not have run if it were not accurate.
Granted, the LA Times and CNN perhaps have a bit more credibility than a celebrity gossip site like TMZ; unless of course you know Levin’s credentials. It has been my experience though that Harvey Levin is a good journalist and expects the same from his team.
It would seem that TMZ was the dark horse in a race for quick and accurate information. He came out on top and the only defense the other mainstream media (as if anyone who’s into US pop culture and celebrity gossip doesn’t consider TMZ kinda mainstream and the whole idea of people in the media being surprised that TMZ broke the story accurately is such bullshit) has is, “but what if they had gotten it wrong?”
TMZ got it first, got it right, and you–dear “mainstream media”–had your ass handed to you. `
When I met Claudia Hall Christian a few months back on a social network, she quickly became one of my favorite people. She put out a call for bloggers to host her on a blog tour for her new book The Fey, and I told her I’d be honored if she’d share her story on my awesomely tiny corner of the web.
I haven’t read the book yet – I’m anxiously awaiting the hard copy. I read online all day every day, a hard copy will be a welcome escape for the internets – but every review I have read thus far has been supremely positive and Mrs. Christian is developing a cult following. She’s done this by using building an online community of both readers and writers and by leveraging the power of social networking.
I asked her about her journey to becoming a successful book author but before we get to that, a few goodies for you my dear readers:
Win a free copy of The Fey. The lucky winner selected from comments on this post. I don’t get many comments, so anyone who comments has a pretty good chance of getting a free copy of the book.
Purchase the book from Create Space and get a 10% discount. Just enter this discount code: XQGB8SVR.
And now, without further ado, inspirational words from author, Claudia Hall Christian.
Your blog mentioned giving up everything familiar to pursue your dream of being a writer. What has that journey been like and what have you learned in your pursuit?
It’s been a long and winding journey to become an author. When I started working on the first edition of The Fey, I was simply filling my time on sabbatical with a good story. I figured writing a book was a worthy pursuit for a year long sabbatical. It never occurred to me that writing fiction would become my life. I completed a draft and left for a month long backpacking trip down the Colorado Trail. Read more…
Truth be told, it’s been a long time since any music caught my ear enough to compelled to write about it. You can be sure I would have never thought it would end up being Ciara.
I always dug her sexy style but kinda wrote her off as another flash in the pan. She’s on her third album and while she may not be in the tabloids constantly, the girl is hot hot hot. And the way she moves reminds me of a slim young Janet with the sensuality kicked way up.
This weekend she was on SNL and her performance was melt you into your chair sexy. That is all. You check it out yourself.
I hadn’t seen any previews or anything, just went to Hulu one day and saw a “Dollhouse” front page feature. I recognized the star, Eliza Dushku, and though I had never been impressed with her talent, I decided to watch.
The story orbited around this Dollhouse active “Echo” who was apparently the best. She’s super adaptable and no matter what type of engagement they send her on, she does even better than expected.
Meanwhile there’s an FBI agent getting tips about this very active, tips which make him fixate on this girl and treat her being a “doll” – as the actives were called – like a missing persons case.
Though predictable at times, the show did eventually begin to build momentum. However, after the first few episodes I bored of this neat little package and began longing for the show to evolve faster and become more complicated. I’m sure other people felt the same way, which is why they forgot about the show and ultimately, why it was canceled.
There was something about it that I liked. I watched 10 episodes of the show because I was waiting for the sub-plots to kick in, knowing that it was more complicated than its start. Knowing that I waited, thinking all the while that this show could turn out to be really good.
As the last three episodes built to the finale, I was given confirmation. The show got all tangled and while it remained pretty predictable, as the story line became more entangled, that predictability would have given way to a very complicated and thrilling drama.
Why couldn’t they just let it be that from the beginning?!
Note to the people who created, produced and ultimately decided on letting the show evolve so slowly: People like complicated television. Look at the “Lost” phenomenon. They like suspense and stuff that engages their brain in trying to figure out what the hell is going on.
This is what Dollhouse should have been billed as. A puzzle to be solved. Unfortunately the progression didn’t happen before the show was canceled and it even began to show its bones. Oh well…another one bites the dust, only to be replaced with more vapid reality programming.
Art walk was alright…Mind you I love the arts, but most of the stuff presented was so…unoriginal. That’s not to say that there weren’t any talented artists, because there certainly were. However, most of what was being shown just looked like I had seen it before. One artist and a friend of the friend with whom I was traveling today, Corey Rice, had quite possibly the most unique paintings and prints at the festival. His work is at once humorous, quirky and surreal. The little guy to the left is one from a multi-frame piece one of which depicted the wooden doll, dancing. 
A while back, author Claudia Hall Christian 
