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Movie Review of Shutter Island
Review of Shutter Island

Director: Martin Scorsese
Writers: Laeta Kalogridis (screenplay), Dennis Lehane (novel)
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Movie Review of Avatar
Review of Avatar

Director: James Cameron
Writers: James Cameron
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Movie Review of Ever After
Review of Ever After

Director: Andy Tennant
Writers: Charles Perrault (1729 story), Susannah Grant (screenplay), Andy Tennant (screenplay), and Rick Parks (screenplay)
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Movie Review of The In-Laws
Review of The In-Laws (2003 version)

Director: Andrew Fleming
Writers: Andrew Bergman (screenplay), Nat Mauldin (screenplay), Ed Solomon (screenplay)
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Mary Muldoon (1885-1958), educator – Waverly Junior and Senior High School

Information courtesy of National Park Service

The Waverly School is known for its association with Mary Muldoon, a pioneering educator and administrator who served as the school’s principal for 22 years. The school, typical of educational designs of the period with its use of Tudor Revival style, served as the productive center for much of Muldoon’s work as she provided leadership for the community, teachers, and students. Muldoon encouraged the school system to take an active role in the community and her energy made the school one of Waverly’s foremost civic institutions. She was instrumental in the campaign for teacher’s benefits, establishing a state Teachers Retirement Fund, as well as the Mary Muldoon Teacher Assistance Fund, designed to supplement the pensions of retired teachers who are in need. Muldoon defined the progressive spirit of her era, introducing industrial and domestic sciences into the school’s curriculum while shifting away from classical programs oriented toward the needs of only a small number of students. Her emphasis on industrial education was designed to meet the employment needs of many, and was coupled with an emphasis on the value of individual citizenship. Muldoon also authored respected works on instructional methods and the incorporation of values in the classroom. Mary Muldoon’s lasting legacy reflects her importance to both her community and profession and is a tribute to her positive impact on a generation of Waverly’s children.

The Waverly Junior and Senior High School is located at 443 Pennsylvania Ave. in Waverly, NY. The property is a private residence and not open to the public.

Edith Wharton (1862-1937), novelist – The Mount

Information courtesy of National Park Service

The Mount, designed by Edith Wharton in 1902, documents the wide ranging talents of one of the finest American novelists of the 20th century. In 1897, Edith Wharton, the first woman to win a Pulitzer Prize for fiction, co-authored The Decoration of Houses, with Boston architect Ogden Codman, Jr. Now considered one of the seminal works of professional interior design, this book clearly presents Wharton’s strong views about good taste and moderation. These views were successfully translated into her own new home, The Mount. During an era of flamboyant house decoration, Wharton designed an airy, informal mansion with many design elements drawn from the houses of continental Europe. Wharton also collaborated with her niece Beatrix Farrand, an acclaimed landscape architect, to design the gardens and landscaping of The Mount. One of America’s great writers, Wharton wrote her first major work, The House of Mirth (1905), “a novel of manners” that described the tensions between New York’s “old” 19th-century elite society and the emerging economic power of industrialists and financiers while at The Mount. The cold Massachusetts’ winters spent there inspired Wharton’s 1911 Ethan Frome. After Wharton and her husband sold The Mount in 1911, Wharton refused to visit the house as “a stranger.” She continued to write in her new home in Europe and in 1921 was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for The Age of Innocence. In 1923, Wharton became the first woman to receive an honorary degree of doctorate of letters from Yale University. The Mount survived as the Foxhollow School for Girls until the 1970s and was later purchased and saved from neglect by Edith Wharton Restoration, Inc. through a grant from the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

The Mount, a National Historic Landmark, is located in Lenox, MA, at the corner of Plunkett St. and Route 7. The Mount is a house museum and is open to the public for guided tours 9am to 4pm daily from May through June. For more information call 413-637-1899.

Women Made History at the Elmira College Old Campus

Information courtesy of National Park Service

The nine brick and stone buildings of the Elmira College Old Campus represent an important milestone in the history of women’s struggle for equality. Before the rise of female-centered institutions such as Elmira and Vassar, seminaries were the standard-and only-access women had to higher education. Lack of resources and an emphasis on male educational facilities weakened the quality of a seminarian education, with esteemed facilities such as Mt. Holyoke still below the standards of men’s schools. Evolving out of the Elmira Female Seminary, the Elmira Female College was granted its charter in April 1855 and became the first educational institution in the United States to have admission and degree requirements for women that were equal to those of men’s colleges. Clarissa Thurston was one of New York’s leading advocates of higher education for women and her Elmira Female Seminary was an important precursor to Elmira College. Elmira College-the word “female” was removed from the school’s name in 1856 after being deemed vulgar-occupies the site of the seminary and was a manifestation of the reformist zeal begun by Thurston and accepted by the citizens of Elmira. The College also houses Mark Twain’s personal study, designed to resemble a Mississippi steamboat’s pilot house and moved to the campus in 1952. Twain produced several of his most famous works here, including the Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Life on the Mississippi.

The Elmira College Old Campus is located in Elmira, NY at Washington Ave. and Main St. The grounds are open to the public.

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Maria Mitchell (1818-1889), astronomer

Information courtesy of National Park Service – Women Who Made History Section

Maria Mitchell – Astronomer – Property of the National Park ServiceMaria Mitchell, astronomer, professor and the first woman elected to both the Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society, was born on Nantucket in 1818. The childhood home of Maria Mitchell defines Mitchell’s origins and the development of her independence in the unique atmosphere of a 19th-century whaling town, where for most of the year, the men were at sea. Her early interest in science and the stars came from her father who, besides being a bank officer, rated chronometers for use by the Nantucket whaling fleet in celestial navigation. When Mitchell was 12, she assisted her father in recording the time of an eclipse, and at the age of 17, she created her own school for girls, training them in science and mathematics. In 1838, she became the librarian at the Nantucket Athenaeum, where she gained exposure to great literary and scientific personages. She spent her evenings in an observatory her father had built on the roof of the Pacific Bank, his employer’s firm. When, on October 1, 1847, Mitchell telescopically sighted a comet using her father’s two-inch telescope in the rooftop observatory, she became the first person to record a comet sighting in America. Her quiet life on Nantucket immediately changed. She received international fame, she was elected to prestigious academic organizations and she became the first woman to see the Vatican observatory. Maria Mitchell – Astronomer – Property of the National Park ServiceIn 1860, she and her father moved to Lynn, New York, where Matthew Vassar asked her to become a professor at his new college for women. Today, the Nantucket Maria Mitchell Association preserves the Maria Mitchell house as a museum that contains many of Mitchell family heirlooms. A domed observatory and a library and research center for young scientists was added to the house after her death.

The Maria Mitchell House, a National Historic Landmark, is located at One Vestal St. on Nantucket Island, MA. The property is open to the public 10am-4pm Tue-Sat, June 15-Sept. 1. For more information, call 508-228-2896.

How To Develop Characters

You are the puppet master and your character is the puppet, remember this when developing your characters. If you don’t like what’s going on with your character, you alone have the ability to change the character and actions going on around them.

Developing a character is rather like designing anything else. You will need to think about your character’s part of your book and then decide some basic physical characteristics such as; eye & hair color, age, male or female, weight, height, facial features, any distinguishing characteristic that make them stand out, etc…

Another important thing to blend into the description of your character that develops and defines their true inward character is their background. Here is a list of some questions you can ask yourself about your character:

1. What type of childhood did they have that would affect them now?
2. What about their early teenage years that would affect them now?
3. Who are their parents and what type of affect does that have on their personality and life?
4. What town, city, state, county, and country did they grow up in and what type of affect does that have on their personality and life?
5. What type of things or characteristics makes your character unique and has played a part in their personality?
6. Do they have flaws in their personality or imperfections in their eyes even if not in someone else’s eyes?
7. Do they have flaws in their personal body or imperfections and how has this affected their personality?
8. What type of relationship do they have with their family?
9. Do they have a family?
10. What type of moral beliefs do they have and how has this affected their personality?
11. What makes them likeable?
12. What makes them dislikeable?
13. What things in their life are important to them?
14. Does their career define who they are or does their life define their career?

Do you see how you can develop a whole story based around that one character’s beliefs and past and present history? Start jotting down information on each of your characters and developing their own back-story or life, which then you’ll blend into your story with the rest of the characters and their back-stories.