You Say it's your birthday?

A very quick and brief blog....so today this author turns "50" a milestone in ones life. It causes pause and often makes one feel that today is more a day of reflection than it is celebration. You think to yourself...."Fifty? Have I done anything with my life? Have I truly accomplished anything? I mean when I think of someone like John Lennon, by the age of 40 he had done so much in his life and most of it in less than 20 years! How does one measure their accomplishments over the last 50 years?

Well to be fair...the first 5 don't really count too much as, you are learning to walk, talk, eat without having to use your fingers. Yes those are accomplishments, but you know the kind I'm talking about. 

One of the ways to see if you're getting anywhere close to your goals is make up a goal wish list. Be grandiose, let your imagination run free. Write down ten things you want to accomplish say in the next 5 years.  

I did this back in 1990 and was shocked many years later while moving I came across my list and learned I was actually able to scratch off many of the things I dreamt of!

I don't remember them all, but these were the things I thought at the time were unattainable.

1. To own my own theatre.  
That happened on May 3, 1997 and lasted until December 5, 2005

2. Own a Jaguar car.
I've since owned 2 of them. ( I don't want another.)

3. Get published
That happened April 2000
"Silence" and my play, "Bob's Your Auntie" 
Since then: "An Apple For Zoe" "Let's Get Lade" ( a play as a novella) and recently
"Forever ME".

I can't remember the others but these were at the time to me...three impossible things to accomplish.

My goal today is to write full time for a living...that is my birthday wish.
Perhaps to even see one of my novels made into a Hollywood movie.

I think the key to all of this is to not give up and realize anything worth doing takes time.

Beneath the Moon and Stars: Forever Me by Thomas Amo Review

Beneath the Moon and Stars: Forever Me by Thomas Amo Review:

Mockingbird Lane ~ Really?

As a member of what is known as television generation, I cringe at the thought of classic television shows being toyed with or remade. Friday night saw the return of The Munsters to primetime network television. Nearly 45 years after they were cancelled.  Only this time it's called Mockingbird Lane and our dear lovable family of ghouls aren't so lovable.  Nor laughable.







                                                                                     

 This show is being labeled as a drama. Heading up the family this time seems to be focused on Grandpa and not Herman. Grandpa is played by actor Eddie Izzard. While this could be a good thing as I am a fan of Eddie Izzard. He's brilliantly funny and a fine actor. I just can't get past the fact that he's, well—Eddie Izzard. I never see Grandpa, I see Eddie Izzard doing an impression of Grandpa and sounding like James Mason.

Of course If this were 1974, I think audiences would be thinking Grandpa was being played by Paul Williams.

I think part of the success of the original Munsters was that it had charm and was genuinely funny. Fred Gwynn always did a remarkable job of making Herman so silly and at times the biggest doofus on the block. He was like a big kid. So far the true actors I believe in their roles are little Eddie and Marilyn.














One thing I could't believe they did in the opening sequence where a werewolf attacks a troupe of boy scouts, a moment is completely stolen from a b-rated horror film in the late 70's called. "Prophecy" starring Robert Foxworth and Talia Shire.  The kid hopping around in his yellow sleeping bag and the monster hits him and of course the bag hit the tree and feathers everywhere. The moment I saw the kid in the yellow sleeping bag...I turned to my wife and said..the kid in the bag....about to be smacked into the tree. Bingo! Thank you...major steal. Shame you guys!

As for the rest of the cast, I'm not too keen on Jerry O'Connell, Portia De Rossi as Lily I saw at times she actually looked like Yvonne De Carlo. I was pleased to hear the original theme played in the underscore throughout the show. I will cross my fingers for something interesting to happen, since I love the set and Eddie Izzard. However I fear, it will be back to the coffin by end of season one.

YA Book Season: Giveaway of Forever Me by Thomas Amo! (Int.)

Want a chance to win a FREE copy of "Forever ME" on your choice of Kindle or NOOK? YA Book Season is offering a chance to win your own copy!

YA Book Season: Giveaway of Forever Me by Thomas Amo! (Int.): Hey Everyone! I've got another surprise today! Thomas Amo is offering a Nook or Kindle copy of his new release Forever Me! Here's some...

HOT BOOKS DAILY: A Warm Welcome to Thomas Amo!

HOT BOOKS DAILY: A Warm Welcome to Thomas Amo!: Please tell me about your book. “Forever Me” is a YA novel about sixteen-year-old, Hannah Richards. A plain Jane type of girl who lives a...

Forever Me Launch Day.

Hannah Richards isn't your typical 16 year-old at Wichita Falls High. Fashions, trends, cosmetics and style are unimportant to her. An avid reader, guitar player, classic movie and television buff, Hannah marches to the beat of her own drum. Visible only to her Father the town Sheriff, and her two best friends. Hannah lives a simple, un-pampered life as an "Eastie."

After coming to the aide of Taylor Monroe, a popular member of the ultra snobby "Stilettos" at school, Hannah's life beings spiraling out of control. As she starts spending more time with Taylor, her best friends abandon her, after a series of misunderstandings, causing Hannah to re-invent herself.

Hannah quickly gets caught up in a life much different than the one she knows, where status, glamour, makeup, appearance and acceptance become her masters.

Can Hannah survive the lies, deceit, jealousy and rage that are now waiting for her behind every corner? Will she succumb to the pressures of popularity? Or will she be crushed under the heels of the "Stilettos"?

~High school is hard enough just being yourself, let alone trying to be someone you're not~

Get your very own Kindle Copy of "Forever Me" Kindle  

Thomas Amo took up the pen and began his writing career after a trip to Disneyland's Haunted Mansion. From that day on he knew he wanted to write and tell stories. During the late 90s he became a full time theatrical producer and began writing plays for this theatre, Smiler's Comedy Playhouse. Since that time he has returned to doing what he loves most which is writing novels. His latest release is the YA novel, "Forever Me."
Available on Kindle KDP Select. 

Connect with Thomas Amo online.

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Roger Corman—It's All Your Fault!

As I get closer to finishing my next novel, the YA drama, FOREVER ME, and 5 months and 3 days from turning 50! I began to think about how was it, I became a writer? In most interviews I tell about the tale of being taken to Disney's Haunted Mansion in 1973 and how my experience there made me want to write scary stories so I could make enough money to buy my mom a house. While that story is true, it's not completely accurate as to how and why I truly ended up becoming an author. Oh sure I always wanted to be an actor too. I followed that dream, and worked in movies, independent television and even became a full time theatrical producer for about a decade. But outside of my love for acting, film editing, directing and producing. I always come back to being a writer. And while perusing NetFlix yesterday, I saw an old gem of a movie that takes me back to where for me, it all began.
It's 1971 and my older sister is on a date with her boyfriend at the time. Where do most couples go in the age of post hippies, and free love? Where else, to the Drive-In. Well my mom was no fool, she knew what couples do at the Drive-In, and so, guess who got to see a whole bunch of R Rated movies at the age of 8? I guess my mom should have known they weren't going to see the latest kid flick, and certainly not at The Motor Movies on old Hwy 50! (That's where they show all the booby movies!) Well it was also where you could see all the scariest movies of the time too. I remember seeing the trailers for, Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte in Re-Release co featured with the new Alan Alda film, The Mephisto Waltz.

Anyway, I digress. The whole point of sending me was so my sister couldn't shag in the car. I think maybe perhaps they were always hoping I'd fall asleep, but I'm television generation baby! I don't go to sleep when there's scary stuff and boobs on the screen!  So tonight's feature is Roger Corman's exploitation drama, The Big Doll House, starring a very unknown at the time, Pam Grier. (Yep Rosie's cousin for those of you who follow football and knitting.) Now I haven't seen this picture since 1971 and I'm sure by today's movie standards, it's pretty much a turd. Hell even then it probably was too. But who's keeping score. It's a basic woman's prison movie, only it was set in the Philippines. But it had this crazy lady warden who used some sort of electric device to shock women into submission..and oddly enough shocking them in well...shall we say specific regions. (I'm thinking Frankenstein here kids and nothing more.)
Anyway there's guns, boobs, girl fights, boobs, explosions and yep...more boobs. However, not to be infantile about my mammaries of days gone by. (boob joke in case you missed it.) You have to remember on a screen that big, every girl is Chesty Morgan! The girl with the 73 inch set of knockers. The basic story always stayed with me. A group of people caught in a bad situation forced to die or form a plan to escape. So for me I have to say, thanks, Roger Corman, for making a cheap movie, shown on a cheaper screen in the cheapest of seats, an 8 year old boy was inspired to one day become an author and learn to not objectify woman in spite of the frontal assaults on my eyes. So love or hate my work, either way, it's all Roger Corman's fault. And when I cash my first five figure royalty check, I'm going to tell him so!