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Jacob_David
I fell in love with creative writing as early as young as 12 years old. I remember my dad giving me a short 200-page novel size, notebook when I visited Doha, Qatar, in the Middle East. He asked me to write about my experience of visiting there. I immediately took upon myself that task of writing non-fiction. I wrote about the city's culture, along with hand-drawn, crude illustrations of what the people wore and their lifestyle. I somehow lost that journal.
When I was 16, my dad bought me a Brother's typewriter. This got my creative juices flowing. I churned out three plays:
1. Fear & the Fiddle,
2. Guys & Dolls (after an American play), and
3. Here They Meet (Shakespearean characters from different plays meeting on stage).
I also wrote 70 poems "Pennies on the Moon." I do not remember what happened to that typewriter. But I do miss it. My dad passed away on May 26, 2016, due to lung cancer, God rest his soul. Love you dad. The sad part is that he did not even smoke a single cigarette. That shows me that there is no rhyme, reason, or logic, to life.
What got me interested in creative writing is when I discovered novels. I started reading The Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, Agatha Christie, James Hadley Chase, Dean Koontz, Stephen King, Irving Wallace, Fredrick Forsyth, Sidney Sheldon, Robert Ludlum, John Grisham, and Michael Crichton.
I read a ton more authors from different world literature like E.M.Forster and V.S.Naipaul. E.M.Forster's essay on Tolerance, and novel, "A Passage to India," really made an impact on me when I took my Bachelor's and Master's Degrees in American and English Literature. I studied at Bishop Heber College, Pondicherry University and the University of Houston, Texas. (On a side note, I remember vividly that I had to keep a dictionary by my side to read Robert Ludlum's novels. Lol).
Another factor that propelled me to Creative writing was watching English movies as a teen. Like every other teen, I fell in love with movies. The earliest movies that left a lasting impression on me were JAWS, The Love Bug, Nightmare on Elm Street, Poltergeist, E.T, The Gremlins, Splash, Ghost Busters, The Omen, Die Hard, Jurassic Park, A Few Good Men, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Alien, just to name a few of my absolute favorites, all before I turned 22. I came to the U.S when I was 25.
In Houston, Texas, I worked at Sysco Foods before joining two local newspapers - where I worked collectively for 14 years, writing Community news, Business news, and Food reviews. Between 1995 and 2017, I wrote and self-published 3 novels, available on Amazon.com
1. Wild Fear,
2. The Cross Roads (a collection of 6 short stories), and
3. Death Bridge.
Non-Fiction:
1. Money Trade Stocks. (on Amazon)
2. Keeping your Husband Close to Your Heart.
I loved writing "The Farm" a screenplay about a stealthy alien invasion upon humans, where aliens visit Earth with a plan to farm human beings for food.
I spend time writing articles I love to write about, on social and political issues that interest me. You can read them on Linkedin. (Link below).
I love watching comedy: M*A*S*H my all-time favorite show, Everybody Loves Raymond, King of Queens, The Love Boat, Two and a Half Men among others.
What I've learned: Writing is like talking. Keep it natural, talk on the page, and it will turn to life. Writing is a carefully managed craft that gets better as you keep practicing it. Like Joel Saltzman says in the title of his book, "If you can talk, you can write."
All I am looking for is to work alongside honest, talented individuals, who have a great love for film. I love movies, love it a lot. I would love to direct someday.
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jdavidhomes/
Reviews
The Mistress of Spices (2005)
Amateurish Plot! Mistress of Spices does not hold up to the standards.
Mistress of Spices can be watched just once. The story line is downright amateurish. The Mistress of Spices has weird rules. Aishwarya Rai looks pretty, but has no role to play. She just stands and twinkles her eyes, coy and shy, reserved, steeped in age old tradition and modesty, wrapped in Indian sarees.
Doug (McDermott) acts much better, has more expression to his face, delivers his lines well.
The customers to her shop add color, contrast and variety. But they have no serious roles. They all look lost and scattered, like little kids who have memorized their lines and come to get a pound of garlic or some crushed almond powder.
It is like when you know which spices provide what relief, I would not visit that store again. Would you? Garlic - an aphrodisiac, okay. Lotus Root - for love eternal, and so on.
The lines in the script are so artificial and do not hold up. They are so weak. The narration by Aishywarya Rai just does not cut it. It is so poorly delivered without any inflections to tone of voice and plain.
In the middle of the story, the plot deviates to some Indian hut (for no reason) and comes back. The story did not do the movie justice and the script poorly written.
The actors looked lost except Doug (McDermott). The Mistress of Spices if forever locked up in her store. Hmm! A Cinderella Motif without relief.
Jacob David.