Upcoming ghost movies

I've already tweeted this news, but I thought I'd also mention here that there are two highly intriguing-sounding ghost movies in the works:

THE HAUNTED MANSION
Directed by Guillermo del Toro
Yes, there's already been a less-than-successful Eddie Murphy movie version of Disney's Haunted Mansion ride, so it may not seem like another such a film would be a wise idea. However, the man behind the new version is the Pan's Labyrinth writer/director, whose films are a far cry from Eddie Murphy comedies. According to MTV.com, the Disneyland ride is "a way of life" for del Toro.  As a person who grew up a half hour away from Disneyland and fell in love with the ride at an early age, I can completely understand. Here's a clip of del Toro discussing his ideas for the movie at Comic-Con:

Movie Trailers - Movies Blog

THE WOMAN IN BLACK
Starring Danielle Radcliffe
I saw a stage adaptation of Susan Hill's chilling Victorian ghost story when I studied theater in London, and I remember absolutely loving the gothic tale.  Daniel Radcliffe will star as a young lawyer who's hired to settle an estate at the sinister Eel Marsh House. According to the The Woman in Black's IMDB site, filming will begin this fall and the film is scheduled to be released in 2011.

Keep the spooky tales coming, filmmakers!  We could use more of the ghostly ones.

First critique partner almost through reading

My first (non-family-member) reader has only two chapters left to go on Blackbirds. It sounds like I need to work on my ghost character more, but the plot seems to be passing the test with everyone so far. This is the first book in which I created a tight, detailed outline before writing, and I feel like it really helped keep the story on course.

I'll be spending August revising, and then I'll swap books with another critique partner in September and receive more feedback. After that, I plan to polish everything up for the rest of the year and still meet my goal of sending the book off to my agent in early 2011.

Is it really the last day of July already? June crept by for me, but July was a fast one.

Haiku for my current week

To demonstrate why blogging and summers don't always mix well, here's an eloquent haiku that describes my current week.

Revising like mad,
Kids home, guests coming; I still
need to clean toilets.

Feel free to share your own current adventures, in haiku form or regular prose. :-)