Horizontal Rain: Memoirs From Middle Earth [Paperback]

Mona-Lia Ventress (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 15, 2008

Mona-Lia and Mark are two ex-scenesters living in Hollywood who uproot their recording studio, two dogs and burgeoning Internet company and move to New Zealand where Mark has landed a visual effects job working on Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Both of their lives change completely for better and worse. Mark begins working inhuman hours and is swallowed whole by his new job while Mona-Lia travels around the Southern Hemisphere to escape the domestic stress and strain his new job causes. Mona-Lia and Mark rediscover themselves and each other in their quest to explore new and exotic lands such as Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Tokyo, Samoa, Fiji and Bali. This three year journey is filled with detailed accounts of the making of the visual effects of The Lord of the Rings films along with in depth observations on what it is they learned about leaving their home, friends and family in California to live and work in a new country.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Mona-Lia Ventress is a composer/sound designer and co-founder of the online music distribution company Partners In Rhyme. She has been writing full time for the past five years as well as composing music and recording sound effects. Born in Hollywood, California, Mona-Lia Ventress was educated in Florence, Italy, and began writing in boarding school at the age of 11, trying to combat what she remembers as an intense period of isolation. She received a B.A. in English from Immaculate Heart College and soon began contributing articles to the Los Angeles Weekly and other literary outlets. She is an accomplished musician as well as a writer and was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Composition in 1992. As of January 2nd, 2008 Mona-Lia has been living in Barcelona, Spain and focusing on completing her second non fiction.

Product Details

• Paperback: 180 pages
• Publisher: CreateSpace (May 15, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1434830098
• ISBN-13: 978-1434830098
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.3 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,796,957 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A personal memoir, June 4, 2008

By 

Dan Dugan "Secretary, PLANS, Inc." (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Horizontal Rain: Memoirs From Middle Earth (Paperback)

This easy read is like spending the evening in a coffee house with Mona-Lia. It's a gentle, personal tale that doesn't blink at ugly truths, but overall affirms that love of life and creative spirits can not only survive, they can prosper in the world of internet and high-pressure jobs. I was disappointed that there wasn't much detail about Mark's work as a compositor on the films, but the technical aspects are covered in books like The Lord of the Rings: The Making of the Movie Trilogy and Gollum: A Behind the Scenes Guide of the Making of Gollum (The Lord of the Rings).

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A warmhearted good read, November 26, 2009

By 

Cornelia Benavidez - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Horizontal Rain: Memoirs From Middle Earth (Paperback)

In Horizontal Rain you have the pleasure of becoming someone else. Through the eyes and feelings of the writer Mona Lea Ventress you get take on a great adventure to another country and to another world. This is an easy read book with a lot of heart and depth. It eases you into seeing through the eyes of another and gives you a taste of what it could be like to follow your dreams without being heavy handed or pretentious.A warmhearted good read.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A human weather report..., January 9, 2009

By 

Jenifer J. (Barcelona, Spain) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Horizontal Rain: Memoirs From Middle Earth (Paperback)

I thoroughly enjoyed this book on many levels. I chose "weather" as a metaphor inspired by how the author plays with climatic conditions throughout the narrative - from poetry to television-speak. With an easy, non-conspicuous tone, she also teaches the reader quite a bit about a fascinating part of the world, New Zealand, and lets her quirky and sophisticated humour fly at times as we get to know her character, the many personalities coming in and out of the picture, her partner, her dogs, her daily surroundings, several neighboring countries, and even her LA-does-New-Zealand wardrobe. I love the comfort of being able to see into people's lives, thoughts, art, and human weather, from the quiet of my own sofa. While reading, I traveled through countries, jobs, love, crisis, and very different states of nature's forces. It had a funny kind of grip on me, I actually didn't want to put it down. Perhaps it was because the parts that were truly lived by the author and her partner give the book a spirit that connects with the reader on a very intimate, human level. Then again, maybe I just really dug the weather reports.