The Cozy Mystery List Blog

Cozy Mystery (and Other Favorite) Books, Movies, and TV

How to Train Your Dragon: Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III & Toothless…

Last year, my daughter recommended a movie that I wasn’t quite sure I wanted to watch. This year I FINALLY watched it.

I just finished watching the 2010 DreamWorks Animation movie How to Train Your Dragon, and my daughter was right! This movie IS a joyous, colorful, and whimsical ride. (Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois directed this beautiful, fun movie, and joined Will Davies in writing the screenplay. To them, I say thank you!) 

The movie is based on the children’s books by Cressida Cowell, an Oxford English Literature major. While I haven’t read any of the nine books in her How to Train Your Dragon book series, I can tell you this: If they had been available when my children were young, they would have been a staple in our home! They truly look like a whole lot of fun for children, and let’s face it, reading should be a whole lot of fun!

Getting back to the movie… The premise is a “coming of age” story, where becoming a Viking means slaying your first dragon. Unfortunately for our hero (Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III), his dad (Stoick the Vast) happens to be the chief of the village, which in Viking terms mean his dad is TOUGH! 

Hiccup just doesn’t fit into the Viking mentality… He is sensitive and inquisitive, by no means TOUGH! When given the opportunity to complete the dragon-slaying task, Hiccup has a difficult time wrestling with the dilemma of letting his father down or not being true to his beliefs. 

As I don’t want to spoil the movie by saying too much, I won’t go into the movie’s details. What I will say is that I join my daughter in recommending this PG movie. There aren’t hidden “adult innuendos” (at least I didn’t pick up on any!) and the movie doesn’t need them to keep the adults entertained… It is that good! I will say that there are some “scarey” dragon scenes, which would be the reason the movie is PG and not G.

PS>>> I loved that Toothless (a Night Fury dragon) wasn’t a brightly colored, comical dragon. I also loved watching Toothless move>>> I wondered if the artists used a dog as their point of reference…

Cozy Mystery Books Written in 1st OR 3rd Person…

I just received this letter from Charlotte, a site reader who will be writing a Cozy Mystery. She has “a great character in the bag, ready to go.”  Charlotte would like to know the following:

“What I’m doing at the moment is deciding whether to approach the stories in 1st person or 3rd person. I’ve read both and have no problem with either, in general.

The question I’m hoping you may have an answer to… is this:

Naturally, 1st person requires everything to be told via the protagonist’s point of view. Obviously. But I can’t, for the life of me, remember how 3rd person POV books handle other characters — do you know… if it is permissible in a cozy to allow other characters to take center stage once in a while, when the book is written in 3rd person? Giving background details to the reader that the protagonist still has to work to find out? Or is it imperative, even in 3rd person, that the protagonist’s be the only viewpoint?

…  If you have any suggestions of 3rd-person POV books you think I’d enjoy, that might illuminate my question, please free free to share.”

 If you have an opinions or preferences, please post a comment. (I am telling Charlotte about the entry so she can use your input.) Thank you!

NBC’s New Lawyer: Kathy Bates: From Misery to Harry’s Law

Here’s hoping!!! And, I really am hoping!!!

I have already added Harry’s Law to my television queue… This is a case of sight unseen, but, being a huge Kathy Bates fan, I doubt I am going wrong on this one! From Misery, to Fried Green Tomatoes, Dolores Claiborne, Primary Colors, to… well, the list of Kathy Bates movies goes on and on, and on some more!

This coming Monday, Kathy Bates will be adding being the star of a television show to her repertoire, and I am so anxiously waiting to see what she does with her prime time show on NBC, that I have (quite literally) already  programmed our two modes of taping off of the television.

This Monday night, Kathy Bates (along with Brittany Snow, Nate Corddry, and Aml Ameen) will be starring in Harry’s Law, the newest “lawyer” show that I know about. But, there is a twist on this one: Harry isn’t a brilliant lawyer working in a gorgeous-looking building with even more gorgeous-looking attorneys. Harry (Harriet Korn) is a patent lawyer who, upon being fired from her job, sets up her own law practice on a shoestring… actually, in an old shoe store.

Harry’s Law has David E. Kelly at the helm (behind the scenes), which is quite promising. HOWEVER>>> There is one very UNpromising thing!!! NBC has deemed it their responsibility to put Harry’s Law up against an already-established, and very popular “cop show”>>> That’s right! Think about your already established Monday night television viewing… and, if you’re anything like me, there is only one show on Monday nights (now that The Closer is on hiatus!) Harry’s Law will be taking on Castle… (As if there aren’t other hour slots on Monday night NBC could have programmed this new show into!)

PS>>> Having watched the first two episodes of Harry’s Law, I have taken it off of our SageTV taping queue. I simply couldn’t not get over all of the “sermonizing” NOR the totally absurd lawyers’ arguments in front of both the judges and the juries. I realize that this is only a television show, but come on! As for a lawyer telling a jury that she only wants/needs one person to vote not guilty, so that her cocaine addict gets a chance to go to college… Is that even legal?!? And, if it isn’t, why don’t they have a consulting lawyer on the production set?!?

At least I won’t have a problem picking between Castle and Harry’s Law. As much as I enjoy Kathy Bates, this is a no-brainer!

February 2011 Mystery Book New Releases

The following mystery books will be released in February 2011:

Barbara Allan: Antiques Knock-Off (This will be the 5th in the Trash ’n’ Treasures Mystery Series…)

Nancy Atherton: Aunt Dimity and the Family Tree (This will be the 16th in the Aunt Dimity Mystery Series…)

Lorraine Bartlett (aka Lorna Barrett & L. L. Bartlett): A Crafty Killing (This will be the 1st in the NEW Victoria Square Mystery Series…)

D. B. Barton: The Singing Sleuth Crosses the Pond (This will be the 4th in the Singing Sleuth Mystery Series…)

M. C. Beaton: Death of a Chimney Sweep (This will be the 27th in the Hamish Macbeth Mystery Series…)

Ellen Byerrum: Shot through Velvet (This will be the 7th in the Crime of Fashion Mystery Series…)

Jennifer Chiaverini: The Union Quilters (This will be the 17th in the Elm Creek Quilts Mystery Series…)

Ann Cleeves: Silent Voices (This will be the 4th in the Vera Stanhope Mystery Series…)

Lila Dare: Polished Off (This will be the 2nd in the Southern Beauty Shop Mystery Series…)

Christy Evans: Drip Dead (This will be the 3rd in the Georgiana Neverall Mystery Series…)

Joanne Fluke: Devil’s Food Cake Murder (This will be the 14th in the Cookie Jar Mystery Series…)

Martha Grimes: Fadeaway Girl (This will be the 4th in the Emma Graham Mystery Series…)

B. B. Haywood: Town in a Lobster Stew (This will be the 2nd in the Candy Holliday Mystery Series…)

Victoria Houston: Dead Deceiver (This will be the 11th in the Loon Lake Fishing Mystery Series…)

Sue Ann Jaffarian: Ghost in the Polka Dot Bikini (This will be the 2nd in the Ghost of Granny Apples Mystery Series…)

J. A. Jance: Fatal Error (This will be the 6th in the Alison Reynolds Mystery Series…)

Toni L. P. Kelner: Blast from the Past (This will be the 3rd in the Where Are They Now? Mystery Series…)

Amanda Lee (aka Gayle Trent): Stitch Me Deadly (This will be the 2nd in the Embroidery Mystery Series…)

James Patterson: Angel (This will be the 7th in his Teen/Young Adult Maximum Ride Series…)

J. D. Robb: Treachery in Death (This will be the 33rd in the Eve Dallas Mystery Series…)

Dana Stabenow: Though Not Dead (This will be the 18th in the Kate Shugak Mystery Series…)

Mary Stanton (aka Claudia Bishop): Angel’s Verdict (This will be the 4th in the Beaufort & Company Mystery Series…)

Heather Webber: Absolutely, Positively (This will be the 3rd in the Lucy Valentine Mystery Series…)

♦To go back to the Cozy Mystery New Book Release page, click here.♦

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