"Inkheart" is Finished, and Writing Goals...

I just finished reading "Inkheart" yesterday. I've noticed subtle differences between the book and the movie, but some things are still making me scratch my head.  My reaction: Why did they leave that out?  Then as the story progressed: Oh, it would've hampered the main plot of the story being retold on film.  I am still scratching my head over the movie producers leaving out some characters that were in the book.  The movie made this particular character out to be an old bachelor when in the book he clearly isn't one.  In the book, he's widowed with his grandchildren hanging around when the main characters show up at his doorstep.  It left me wondering why they left out the grandchildren.  Surely there isn't a shortage of child actors in Hollywood!

I started reading "Inkspell" after finishing up with the first book in the trilogy.  I am now starting on chapter 5.  An additional difference I noticed between the book and movie versions of "Inkheart" is that the character Dustfinger doesn't return to the book "Inkheart" until the beginning of "Inkspell."  And Resa, who lost her voice being read back out of "Inkheart" by a stammerer still doesn't have her voice back in the beginning of "Inkspell."  At the end of the movie "Inkheart," Resa's voice was restored to her and Dustfinger and all the other "Inkheart" book characters were back where they should be.

On Another Note...

I find out this coming week the results of one of the poetry contests I entered.  The deadline for notification is June 1st.  I've been on the edge of my seat the past couple weeks in anticipation.  I could really use the $1,000 Grand Prize.

I spent some time last weekend working on "The Shepherdess Princess" once again.  I didn't make as much progress with it as I had hoped, but it's a start for the next time I work on it.  I have four pre-written chapters I've been working on getting back into the manuscript, but I haven't been able to fit any of them back into the story line until now.  I've been spending time this week thinking about how I can edit one of the pre-written chapters to fit in with where I'm at in the story now.  I hope to get all that situated later today.