I recently had a chance to interview William Mosely (Peter) and James McAvoy (Mr. Tumnus) from The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Here's what they had to say about the movie and their experience filming it. William Moseley plays Peter, the oldest brother in the Pevenise family. James McAvoy plays Mister Tumnus, a fawn and Lucy Pevensie's first friend in Narnia.

A deep and dark closet. Four children. A game of hide-and-seek. Put all of these ingredients together, and you have the beginnings of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, the beloved children’s classic by British author C. S. Lewis.

Now, more than 50 years after its publication, the fantasy adventure tale has finally made its way to the big screen. The much-awaited movie The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe opened on Friday, December 9, amidst roars and flurries of excitement in book and movie circles alike.

Well, the holidays are definitely upon us. The candles are lit, the eggnog is flowing, and Writing magazine's student writing contest's deadline has come and gone. Time's up, my friends! I hope you got your entry in!

We got so many contest entries this year! Guess how many? Go ahead and guess! Nope, too low. Guess again. What?!? 15,000?!? Are you nuts? That's way too high, guess again! Did you say 1,400? Bingo!

A little while ago, I found myself in R.L. Stine's living room. A friend of mine who's a friend of his extended an impromptu invitation to me. Talk about six degrees of separation!

R.L. Stine was wearing a guitar-printed shirt and looked relaxed. He welcomed me into his apartment, and introduced me to his wife, Jane and his dog Nadine.

Stine is a prolific author who tells great scary stories. In person, he's a good storyteller too.

He told me that the Weekly Reader was the first magazine he ever read. "When I was a kid, they used to print the Weekly Reader in Columbus, OH. Every year, our school would take us on a school trip to the Weekly Reader publishing plant. There we would watch how the papers were printed."

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you will join us
And the world will live as one

25 years ago today, December 8, 1980, John Lennon was shot and killed by a crazed fan in front of his New York City home, The Dakota. At the time, I was three. I do not remember the tragedy.

As I grew older, I started to hear about this band called The Beatles.I heard my mom talking from time to time about these four lads from Liverpool, England who, in the 1960's (an ancient time that meant absolutely nothing to me) made such fantastic music that it left girls screaming and swooning, gave even the shyest boy the courage to sing along, and drove the world into a crazy frenzy that could only be described in one word: Beatlemania.

Kids! What do you want for Christmas and/or Hanukkah? This past weekend, I started thinking about holiday shopping. (Yes, I know it's late.) On my list, I have my two sons, and I also have a slew of nieces and nephews. I don't know what to get for any of them. But I do know what they don't want -- BOOKS!

I'm talking about kids of all ages, from toddlerhood to college sophisticate. My experience has been that a kid unwrapping a gift and finding a book is about as happy as a kid finding ... I don't know ... socks? underwear? pajamas? No, even those items elicit more joy. Especially if they are plastered with images of Hello, Kitty, or Bionicals, or Kakashi Hatake.

Today, my friends, is Lucy Liu’s birthday. I’ve had it marked on my calendar for a few months and had completely forgotten about it—until Bryon pointed it out to me this morning.

“It’s Lucy Liu’s birthday today,” he said. “You wrote it on the calendar with a big exclamation mark. Do you really like her that much?”

“Yeah, I guess so,” I laughed, somewhat embarrassed. “She’s pretty cool.”

Ummm… yeah … well, come to think of it … I really don’t know too much about Ms. Liu. All I know is that after I walked out of Charlie’s Angels, I was in awe. I wanted to leap up and slice through the air like her. I felt the same way after watching Kill Bill I. I went home and dreamed I was a mighty martial arts diva—with a pen in my hand.  

So, anyway, Lucy Liu’s 37th birthday today got me thinking that in fact, this has been the week of Lucys for me: 

A couple of days ago I went to an advance screening of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. (Check back here for a review next week!) … While watching the movie, I was completely captivated by Lucy Pevensie’s character. She’s curious, adventurous, faithful, and courageous. Just like I want to be. 

There’s another literary Lucy who creeped into my life this week—when I was reading Snoopy’s Guide to the Writing Life.

That’s the Peanut Gang's Lucy (Van Pelt)—in many ways, the opposite of Lucy Pevensie. She’s crabby and loud and loves to give unsolicited advice. Just like I sometimes can be. (So my family tells me!)

Hmmm…I guess I have a little bit of many Lucys in me. ....

"She made us see and agree that everyone should be free." – Bill Clinton at Rosa Parks's funeral on November 2, 2005

Sometimes when important things happen, it takes a while for history to get the story right. For 50 years now, people have said that Rosa Parks was a poor seamstress who was too tired to give up her seat on the bus in Montgomery, Alabama. They even said it in the movie Barbershop. But that isn’t the whole story. The facts are very different. Rosa Parks was tired. She was tired of living in a world where the white people told the black people where they could go and what they could do. She was tired of segregation. She wanted it to help end it.