Reading list

So, I found this on Sara Hantz's blog. The Big Read, an initiative by the National Endowment for the Arts, has estimated that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books on this list. How do you do?


1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Underline the books you LOVE.

I'm adding a #4) make blue ones you've started more than once, but never finished...

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling (cheating here. Haven't read the last 2 yet)
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible (well, bits of it. Who hasn't?)
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens (I played the title character in my high school musical, does that count?)
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry (Have had this on my TBR pile for ages...)
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Guess I'm better read than I thought. When I've seen this kind of list before, I've barely read any, but this one included more modern books and more kids books, and more stuff I read in high school, so people who didn't take English Lit in University have a chance of actually reading a few of them... A few others I'm really not sure. I feel like I've read Emma and Sense and Sensibility, and Hamlet, for example... but I think I've actually just seen the movies/plays a bunch of times...

Win lots of Books

My local RWA chapter is running a pretty cool contest.

You can win 24 Free Books!

Some are e-books and some are print books and the print books will all be signed and are from authors such as: Kelley Armstrong, Molly O'Keefe, Kayla Perrin, Michelle Rowen, Margaret Moore, Kate Bridges, Michele Ann Young, Deborah Cooke/Clair Delacroix, Brenda Harlen, Eve Silver and many more. (I'm going to be in trouble for not mentioning everyone...)

It's a great contest. I'm going to enter :-) Good luck!

Buffy Question

Okay, so I know a lot of you are big Buffy fans, so I figure posting this question here is as good a place as any.

I didn't see a whole lot of Buffy (or any Angel) when it was first out, but have been catching up over the past year on DVD. I've seen Angel Season One and I'm up to the end of Season 5 with Buffy...

But one thing I still don't get and I don't know if I missed the explanation, or if they ever explained it, but... there's only one slayer at a time right? -- the chosen one. And this was not only stated several times at the beginning of the series (not to mention the movie), but also demonstrated when Faith only becomes a slayer when Buffy dies (and comes back to life, making two of them, which causes a big conflict and all this sibling rivalry...). Then how come there's more than one watcher or a watcher council at all??? If there's only one slayer, how come so many watchers? Did I miss something? Or did Josh break/bend his rules. Only one slayer per continent or something? Or one per country? Or one per state? Per city? Per high school?

Did I miss something or am I being dumb here... (Okay, I know I was being dumb by the end of that.) But I really want to know.

(Maybe I just should have googled the question. Astonishing the answers you can get by googling a question like that... Hmmmm... Maybe I'll try and post my findings in the comments...) Or maybe I'll just watch more of my Angel DVD's... (and by my Angel DVD's I mean Sinead's)

Young People F**king

Okay, so I wimped out by not putting the title of this movie in the title of this blog post. Don't know why. I'll probably get a gazillion hits for blogging about the movie, Young People Fucking, but not necessarily hits from people curious to learn what I thought about the movie, if you know what I mean.

For those of you in the US, you've probably not heard of this film, and probably you never will. I'm being presumptuous here, but if this film got a US distributor, I'd be really surprised.

On the other hand, many people in Canada have heard of it, even if they don't go to films, because it caused a "big political controversy".

The current federal government (conservative, very) is using this film as the literal poster child of a new bill put forward to keep the government from giving grants to films "of an offensive nature". I'm sure I've got the wording wrong, (and I'm too lazy to look up the actual details), but it's something vague and subjective like that. But the new Bill is horrible and totally about censorship and big filmmakers both Canadian and American have spoken out against it. Not sure where it stands (I am a bad person. I should find out.) but I hope it never gets through Parliament. Sad if it does.

Funny thing is this film is not that daring, save the title, which is, I'm sure, why the filmmakers chose the provocative title. It screened at the TIFF last fall and I gave it a miss then, but went to see it last week. It was okay. Basically five short stories that all take place on one night, over the course of a few hours. Five couples. The titles were: The Exes, The First Date, The Couple, The Roommates, The Friends. I think I remembered them all.

Yes, there was sex in each of the stories -- that's what it's about. But very little nudity or graphic depictions of the act. I've seen way more steamy stuff in Hollywood films, not to mention other Canadian or foreign films. I guess the stories were okay, but nothing really great. I like The Friends best. Maybe because it had a happy (if predictable) ending and the characters were most likable. The filmmaker was smart to end the film with the ending of that storyline, too.

Not sure I can recommend the film though. Unless you just want to tell people you saw a film called Young People Fucking, which, I'm realizing as I write this post, may well have been my subconscious reason for going. :-)

TIFF Pulls the rug out from under me

I've been going to the Toronto International Film Festival for about 5 straight years now... and I have a system worked out. Sort of. I know the theatres I like to go to and the types of films I like to see and where to sit in each theatre both to get an unobstructed view of the film (I'm short) and see the movie stars up close (I like to gawk).

And what do they do? They change the packages on me. I did get something in the mail from the TIFF last week or the week before, but I was so neck deep in my revisions that I didn't even open the envelope.

Tonight I went to the web site to try to decide whether or not to buy a pass again and... Pout.

At first I was pleasantly surprised, because the Festival Pass, which I usually buy and is good for up to 50 films seemed cheaper, or at least not much more expensive than last year... (at $509) But then I read the details and it's no longer valid for the screenings at the Elgin Theatre. My favourite place to see films and stars. Pout. This is where I saw the premieres of Crash (2003) and Lost in Translation (2003) Brokeback Mountain (2005) and Into the Wild (2007) and many more really great films. Pout. Pout. Pout. And where I saw some big stars in crappy films (Jennifer Lopez in El Cantante 2006, Brad Pitt in The Assassination of Jesse James... 2007) This is the theatre where big stars often show up to see films they're not even in... I swear the entire Oceans 13 cast was at the Jesse James screening last summer.

I often pick both of my evening films to be at the Elgin so I didn't need to go running around the city between a 6:30 and a 9:30 screening, too. And they have this nice lounge downstairs for Visa Gold card holders where you can get in ahead of the line... Pout. Plus the Elgin's freaking gorgeous. Just a nice place to be. Fabulous place to see films. This was the first photo of the theatre I found online. Doesn't do it justice. Gorgeous old theatre. Wonderful place to see films.

Then to make things worse, the packages you can get to *just* buy tickets for the Elgin are all sold out. They usually sell out fast, but I wasn't rushing because I knew I could buy a Festival Pass and I've never had much trouble getting my picks for there...

Perhaps this is a sign. Maybe it's time to break my film fest habit. It is expensive and more to the point, it's nearly 2 weeks of my life when I get nothing else done. And I usually end up with a cold from lack of sleep and eating bad food and not exercising and breathing inside air after seeing 4-5 films a day... Hmmm...

Better decide soon or the passes I usually go for will be sold out, too.

Congrats Louisa!!

All around cool person, agency sister and friend Louisa Edwards has just sold her first book. No. Her first FOUR books!!!

This was the recent announcement in Publishers' Weekly.

Rose Hilliard at St. Martin’s Press preempted world rights to four books by editor-turned-author Louisa Edwards via Deidre Knight. Set amid the New York restaurant scene, the first book in the series is called Can’t Stand the Heat and is slated to launch in fall 2009, with subsequent titles to appear every six months. Knight is a romance author as well as agent, and Edwards was her first editor at NAL. When Edwards left New York publishing, Knight briefly worked with Hilliard, who subsequently left for SMP.

On Drunk Writer Talk a couple of weeks ago, we were speculating about what contemporary romances were going to look like when they have a resurgence... which they will.

Maybe they'll look like what Louisa's writing!!! Cool concept. Connected books. Great, hot idea.

Congrats to Louisa.

What is it about "J" names for romantic heros?

I remember hearing at some writers' workshop I attended that Harlequin romances with heros named Jake sell better than any other books.

Don't quote me on that... but I remember hearing it.

And here I am, watching the Bachelorette and the three final guys are Jesse, Jeremy and Jason. All names that start with "J".

I have also attended workshops that claim names with strong consonants are better for heroic characters... but is "J" really a strong consonant? Sure K is.. But J? I guess so, but certainly not an obviously hard consonant. Especially paired with M's and S's as in Jeremy and Jesse, and Jason.

But J's aside, all I can say is I was chanting "send Jeremy home" over and over.... and then she did. Yay, DeAnna.

Mostly because Jesse is so darn hot in a strange kind of way, and Jason, well, he'd just too sweet. I have a feeling she'll pick Jason right now... but who knows. It would be too cool if she picked Jesse. He's the only guy left where she doesn't open her eyes while kissing him.

Agent Chat Live

WHO: Lucienne Diver

WHAT: CHATTING LIVE!

WHEN: 12pm EDT, Wednesday, June 25th, 2008

WHERE: TKA CHAT ROOM

TO CHAT: Follow this link TKA CHAT ROOM, enter a screen name and simply select "log in."

Reversing expectations on the Bachelorette

So, I SWORE I wasn't going to get sucked into the Bachelorette. I didn't particularly like DeAnna when she was on the Bachelor--thought she came off cold, like a robot, and really I do not need any more reality TV in my life.

But, somehow I got sucked in.

I think part of it is DeAnna's pragmatic approach -- the demeanor/approach that pissed me off when she was on the other side of the coin. It totally works when she's making the decisions and she's showing more vulnerability too. And definitely part of me getting hooked was the guys. HATED a few of them, but most of them are cute and bright and all around yummy. And again, except for that aggressive hair-cutting dude, whose name I've blocked from memory (good riddance) the guys get along, and that's fun to watch. And for the most part, I've agreed with who she's turfed off. I've been nodding my head at the end of each night. Sure, I would've kept Paul longer than Sean or haircutting jerk, but whatever.

Then, tonight was a fabulous example of a great reversal of expectations in storytelling. The producers or editors or whoever makes these decisions REALLY had us thinking she'd pick Sean. I mean, they showed pictures of his house and his mom, when the next date is to visit each guys' home. Plus, she said on their date that if she'd been giving out roses on dates that week he'd have gotten one.

Now, Sean's one of the guys I don't like. Never liked him from the first night. Found him icky. Slightly less icky since the other big jerk in the house (since turfed) gave him a much needed haircut, but seriously, this dude is way too into himself and his possessions. Compensating much???

BUT she picked adorable, underdog Jesse instead. I'm smiling. No way will she end up with Jesse, (I don't think... maybe my expectations will reverse, yet again) but way more fun to think of a home date with him than Sean who'd have spent the entire time bragging and posing and kicking blocks of wood to impress her.

Sex and the City

I wasn't sure whether I'd like this film. The hype around it was so crazy, not to mention all the faux scandal about the cast fighting. And when the trailers and promo bits for a film, seem to be more about the clothes than the plot... Well, let's just say I worried.

Then my local paper's movie reviewer HATED it. It's the first time I've seen a review in that paper with zero stars. I assume normally movies they hate that much, simply don't get reviews. ZERO STARS.

So, I went in with some trepidation. And I really liked it.

Sure, I can see how a reviewer who wasn't a fan of the show and expected more of a traditional movie structure might have been put off. Instead of having a film-like structure, it was more like watching an entire season (a short season) of episodes back to back... But I think that's why it worked. I mean, to come up with a single storyline big enough for a movie, that involved all four of those characters, would have been super contrived. As it was, each of them got their own little story and they were woven together nicely. Sure, Carrie and Big was the main story, but that in itself wouldn't have been enough. And that story line ended where you thought it would, but took a very circuitous route to get there. All good.

But the main reason I have to give this film my thumbs up is it made me cry. A few times. Okay, maybe five or six. They did a really good job of "the moments". Even some of the smaller ones, like Samantha spoon-feeding Carrie yogurt. Yes. Made me cry. I guess it's because if you watched the TV show you know so much about those characters so some of the small gestures have a lot of deep meaning.

The success of this film (for me, anyway), got me thinking about something my friend Molly always says about the "big scenes", that the readers (audience) are expecting them so you have to deliver and deliver them well.

And this film did that in spades. I don't want to post any spoilers, but if you've seen the film... the scene with the town car and the limo passing on the street and the bouquet of flowers and Big and Charlotte and Carrie!!! WOW. You knew something was coming. You kind of thought it might possibly be one thing... but it wasn't. And they totally delivered on the emotion. I didn't think Kristen Davies had that kind of raw emotion in her. SJP was good, too. And the end of the Miranda/Steve story was well done, too. Could've been so corny. Wasn't. Not for me.

Anyway... This film gets my thumbs up. I love those characters, and their menfolk, and found it a perfectly entertaining evening.

Oh, and a tiny fun thing for writers... There's a scene... not much happening. Carrie's on the phone with someone... can't even remember whom... But she's in a book store and while she's talking, she's taking other books off a front table display and replacing them with her own. :-) Talk about your great accurate details for a character who's an author. LOL

Update

For those of you deeply concerned about the weather in Toronto and how much I'm sweating... It's cooled off. LOL

For those of you who like a good rant. I blogged on DWT today.

Feelin' Hot Hot Hot

Well, it's June and I think I'm about to turn on my air conditioner. (She types while wiping sweat from her nose.)

I just realized this is the first May since I've lived in my house that I haven't turned it on for at least a few days in May.

It's been cool in Toronto this spring and I've kind of liked it. A lot to be said for leaves on trees and flowers in the garden (well, weeds in the case of my garden) but no excessive heat.

I've been sleeping with the window open and enjoying the chilly night air for at least 2 months... But no more. Today it's hot. Really hot.

Summer's here. Damn. Personally? I'd take year round spring.

Committed

I was going to title this post "over commitment" and then realized, right now, I should really be committed.

Many of you know I'm coordinating my local RWA chapter's writing contest this year, and so far, we've received 152 entries, and I'm expecting more to roll in over the week as they had to be postmarked by last Saturday.

Each of these need to be judged by 3 judges, so allocating over 450 score sheets to judges is, shall we say, a nightmare. (If anyone out there reading this is willing to help judge, let me know. :-) I have almost enough judges... but a few are having to take on more entries than I'd like.)

And what arrives in my e-mail today? (after 6 arrived in my postal mailbox) A contest entry. Ah, I think. Disqualified. The e-mail entries had to be in by midnight on Saturday.

BUT NO!!! I freaking volunteered to be the coordinator for one of the categories for the Golden Pen contest, too, and they're starting to roll in. AND, I'm the coordinator for one category for the Stiletto contest, too.

WHEN WILL I EVER FINISH MY MANUSCRIPT????

(Send the men with the straight jacket now, please.)

Indiana Jones and the Aliens

Okay, so it's been out a week, so I figure it's safe to post a blog about this film. BUT, if you haven't seen it and still want to STOP READING.

I wasn't sure of my reaction to this new Indiana Jones movie, because I'd had plans to meet up with some friends before hand and our wires got crossed, so I wasn't in a great mood going in. But after a week of thinking about it, this film didn't work for me.

Many things felt really indulgent. Like the filmmakers were including unnecessary elements--like the greaser vs the preppy kids fight in the diner--just because they're nostalgic for the 50's. And I'm sorry. Putting animatronic gophers into the scene, doesn't make an atomic bomb blast funny.

And while it's not a storytelling problem, per se, I think the over the top stunts in this film made my eyes roll just a little too often and a little to wildly. Thinking back to the first Indiana Jones film--it's been a while since I saw it--sure, the stunts were over-the-top. But while they would have taken super-strength or super-speed and timing and luck, you could understand what he'd done in each of the stunts and almost believe it was possible.

Starting with the second film and that absurd being-tossed-out-of-an-airplane-and-getting-into-an-inflatable-raft
-mid-air stunt... This franchise started to lose me a bit. And there were so many stunts like that in this film. My favorite (least favorite) was the refrigerator in the atomic bomb test thing. Even if you believe he'd survive the heat and radiation because of the "lead lining" they made sure you'd notice, ridiculous in itself, even if you believe the blast blew the fridge miles away, while no other debris seemed to have gone that far, tell me every bone in his body wouldn't have broken when that fridge hit down.

But on a storytelling level, I think the problem with this film is that we never ever understood what the heck he was trying to prevent the evil Russian chick from getting her hands on, or what she hoped to do with it if she got it. I mean... Once they did have it, no one got any great power from it. I do get that the stories around it were "just a legend", but I don't think you can build a compelling story around preventing something that's really not that dangerous or terrible to begin with. In the end, it was just ET wanting to go home. And how come ET only took the bad people with him into the portal or spaceship or whatever it was, and let all the good people be?

I wanted to love this film, I really did. But in the end, I'm not sure I even liked it.

Am I just a big Indy Grinch?

They got it right. Wow

So half-watching Idol tonight and half-working on the judges training for my local RWA chapter's contest, I was struck by just how much freaking better David Cook was than the little hobbit boy he was up against.

It's not just a matter of taste (or sexual attraction on my part) he's just better. When they sang together, C overpowered A so much it was crazy. And when they sang with the bands, it was so clear that David Cook belonged up on a stage with professional musicians and wasn't intimidated, while David A was barely visible singing with his group.

But I was convinced after the final performance show that David Archeletta was going to win. The judges clearly wanted him to win. David C was great but not goose-bump worthy for me, so I was sure David A. would win.

But the right guy won. Yea.

Funny story. I was watched the results on my DVR and it cut off the recording just as Ryan was about to announce the winner. I couldn't stop laughing. Thank goodness for the web or I'd have had to watch the Vancouver version to find out who won--and it just started.

I gots a pimp!

Did that get your attention?

Check out buddy Cindy Procter-King's blog today to understand. :-)

May Two-Four

It's a long weekend up here in Canada and it's raining. I'd feel worse for the people camping or opening their cottages if I weren't sitting in a coffee shop determined to finish the first draft of my latest WIP today, (and instead blogging).

The muscles in my lower back seized up on the drive home from Boston nearly two weeks ago and they won't let go. The pain has erased my ability to put coherent sentences together. Certainly the ability to figure out the last three or four scenes of my book.

Got close to nothing done the last two days. Sigh.

But I have gone to some movies this week. They don't need much brain power and I can stretch my back while I sit.

I will try to blog more about these films, but enjoyed them all for different reasons...

Iron Man. Robert Downey Jr. Too funny. Too cute for his own good. Ten thousand names in the credits.
Someone told me to stay for the credits and here's my tip. Unless you're seriously into comics. Don't bother. The little post credits easter egg was not worth sitting through ten thousand names going by. (I'm not exaggerating. Might have been closer to a hundred thousand people who worked on this movie. But the result was highly entertaining.)

My Blueberry Nights. Nora Jones' acting debut, surrounded by many stellar established actors: Jude Law, Natalie Portman, Rachel Weisz, David Strathairn. This film's not for everyone. In spite of the overall story being a romance it's really an "art film", certainly doesn't have the pacing or clear storytelling arc of a commercial film. But I really enjoyed it. She was kind of the weak link. A bit blank. But the others made up for it. And it's a story I keep thinking about... Someone go see it so we can tawk.


Son of Rambow I'd recommend this one to just about anyone. Really well done. It was "one that got away" for me at the TIFF last fall. Didn't see it then, but glad it got released so I could see it now. Very sweet kid as the protagonist. Very sweet story. Very funny. That cute guy who plays Chuck on Gossip Girls in a minor role. Set in the 1980's. What more could you want? Oh, and this one had a tiny easter egg after the much shorter credits. The one kid telling the other:
"You spelled it wrong."
"Really?"
"There's not supposed to be a "w" at the end."
"Oh, sorry." (or something to that effect.)

Ooops. I was going to just list the films and then blog about the long weekend and why Canada still celebrates Queen Victoria's birthday even though she's been dead for, what, 107 years? But you got movies instead. :-) (See what I mean about my brain not being able to hold onto thoughts????)

Death by Bikini

Fellow TKA client and Backspacer, Linda Gerber, is having a party to celebrate the release of her new book, DEATH BY BIKINI.

Stop on by and join the fun. (Even if you can't stay to party, stop by just to check out her cover. Tres cool.)

Tag Week part Uno

Okay, so I've been a bad blogger AND I've had at least 3 tags in the past ten days (that I know about).

Time to get down to business. My apologies to my taggers.

I decided to tackle the most recent one first, because it doesn't require much (any) thought. :-)

The wonderful Sara Hantz (author of THE SECOND VIRGINITY OF SUZY GREEN) passed me this tag. Here are the rules:


1. Pick up the nearest book.

2. Open to page 123

3. Find the fifth sentence.

4. Post the next three sentences.

5. Tag five people and post a comment to the person who tagged you once you’ve posted your three sentences.

Okay, so I guess the instructions imply fiction, but I'm in my office and the closest books on hand are writing books, so I randomly grabbed THE WRITER'S JOURNEY, by Christopher Vogler. The three sentence block straddles a mid-chapter subtitle (the perils of choosing non-fiction for this tag) so I'm not counting the subtitle as a sentence. :-) Such a rebel I am.

The young man's learning is so complete that when the movie ends, he is ready to take Barbarossa's place as a larger-than-life folk hero.

MENTOR AS EVOLVED HERO

Mentors can be regarded as heroes who have become experienced enough to teach others. They have been down the Road of Heroes one or more times, and they have acquired knowledge and skill which can be passed on.

Wow. Riveting stuff, eh? ;-)

Okay, so now I have to think of some people to tag, and I guess it would be pretty rude to tag anyone who's tagged me recently where I have yet to take up the tag... (This week, Kwana and Bev. I promise.)

I tag:

Mel Francis
Christine D'Abo
Bonnie Staring
Marilyn Brandt
Elizabeth Kerri Mahon

Best Season Ever

Okay, so I should be responding to a couple of recent tags from Kwana Minatee-Jackson and Bev Katz Rosenbaum, or even tidying my house because my sister and her family will be arriving at any moment and it's a total disaster. But I can't resist blogging about the episode of Survivor I just watched. (Nor could I resist watching it as soon as I got home, even though it was safely saved on my DVR.)

Wow. This is my favourite season ever. It's been such a lesson in manipulation and gullibility and how young men will believe just about anything a pretty woman tells them.

The women this season are proving to be masters of this game. I'm not even sure who I want to win anymore. I think I'd be happy with any of the four who are left (although Cirie is my fav).

I haven't been a big fan of the skeleton with silicone bags hanging off her chest, but I realize that's prejudiced. I shouldn't be a hater, just 'cause she's a skeleton with silicone bags hanging off her chest, but really, Nathalie is a warning for young girls everywhere. Skeleton-skinny chicks do not have boobs. Not big ones like that. If you're that skinny, fake boobs will look like silicone bags hanging off your chest. Don't do it!

But putting my fake-boob-prejudice aside, now I'm even rooting for the silicone bag toting skeleton. Any of the four can win in my mind. Wow. I can't believe what they pulled off tonight. Masterful. Men everywhere are quaking in their boots. (Or they should be.) Like Cirie said at the end, her mama always told her you can't always beat them with these (she points to her biceps) but you can always beat them with these (points to her head).

Brilliant.

Marley Gibson's Book Release Day!

Not only is it May Day, it's the day my good friend Marley Gibson's first two novels are being released under the pen name Kate Harmon.

The books are aimed at teens and are called: SORORITY 101: ZETA OR OMEGA? and SORORITY 101: THE NEW SISTERS

Cute covers, eh?

Huge congratulations to Marley!!! (I'm actually about to get in my car (after having a late breakfast/early lunch with Molly, and then heading to Boston for her release party tomorrow night! Can't wait.)

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/bookbitesforkids

She'll be on at 3 p.m. ET and people can call in. Cool!

Smart and Stupid

I did a movie night this week and saw two very different films: Smart People and Harold and Kumar: Escape from Guantanamo Bay. I liked both films, but for very different reasons.

First, H&K. Well, what can I say about a film that includes some seriously base toilet humor even before the opening credits, but then goes on to have tons of smart political satire. I suppose the clearest thing I can say is: I laughed embarrassingly loudly a few times. Hard to argue with that. I feel like I can't say much about this film without spoilers... but just wait until George Bush comes onto the scene. Killed me. And Neil Patrick Harris on the unicorn. Too funny.

Smart People I liked, too, but didn't work quite as well, even though it's probably the "better" film. It's a story of a decidedly dysfunctional family and a woman who comes into their lives, and in spite of some occasional dark humor, it was so not a comedy. Not at all. Once again, I think the ads and trailers for this film have been misleading. They were hoping, I'll bet, to get some of the audience from Juno to come out, just because Ellen Page is in it.

And Ellen Page was fabulous. And in a character very different from Juno, but just as believable. Thomas Hayden Church was great, too, and well cast. And I think the film was well written. There were four distinct character arcs and an overall storyline linking them (the lead character's arc), and it fit well, together. My problem was in the casting of the two other main characters. And I'd be willing to guess the filmmaker had pressure to cast "names" in these parts whether or not they were right for the parts. (Anyone watch Project Greenlight?)

Sarah Jessica Parker was fine, but too old for her part. Something didn't make sense about that and it kept bugging me. She was supposed to be 10 years past her undergrad days... no, ten years past being a freshman. And sorry, Jessica, it's more like 20.

But the bigger problem for me was Dennis Quaid. And I LOVE Dennis Quaid. But I just couldn't believe him playing an intellectual.

Some actors can pull off portraying characters who regularly use words the actor doesn't know the meaning of... but Dennis isn't one of them. He was supposed to be pompous and highly intelligent. And he flipped between sloppy and lethargic, to channeling his performance as Jerry Lee Lewis in Great Balls of Fire. Maybe that's the only pompous he can do. Talented pompous. He sure didn't pull off academic pompous.

This would have been an entirely different film if Jeff Daniels had been cast in that role. At least he's the first actor who popped into my mind, probably because of his role in The Squid and the Whale, which you should see if you haven't. Rent it. Or perhaps even if the two males were reversed. Yes, sure, Hayden Church does an amazing slacker. We know that. And he was good in this film. But I expect he could have played the professor, too, and lord knows Quaid would have done a good slacker. But the professor part was the "lead" so they cast Quaid and I think that's what made this film less than stellar. Oh, now that I wrote that, I am CONVINCED that reversing the male casting would have made a better film. I don't want to post a huge spoiler... warning... but the Ellen Page character hits on her uncle (played by Hayden Church) and this, too, would've been even more believable if it had been Quaid playing the part. What girl (even a seventeen year old) could resist his devilish (even in his fifties) grin.

Plus, as I said... Sarah Jessica Parker was supposed to be way too young for Quaid and, yes, she's at least 10 years younger than him in real life, but I expect the screenwriter wrote a film intending there to be more like 20 years between those two characters. Casting just didn't work.

At least not for me. Your mileage may vary. But I sound like I didn't enjoy it. I did, mostly.

Card counting and eyelashes

Well, I went to see the film 21 tonight. I actually wanted to see SMART PEOPLE, but got drawn in by the promise of looking at Jim Sturgess' eyelashes for 90 minutes. The eyelashes did not disappoint.

The film, on the other hand, did.

I feel like I've seen this exact story before, I'd even guess the film I'm thinking of was based on the same book, but I can't seem to remember the name of the film. It might have been a made for TV thing just shown in Canada. Ah, I finally found it on IMDB. The Last Casino. It did have virtually the same plot. And was a made for TV Canadian movie.

But my point... is the overall plot didn't fascinate me. And I had trouble with the motivation for the Kevin Spacey character, and perhaps the Larry Fishburne one, too, and the so-called romantic sub-plot was extremely poorly developed. Why even freaking bother?

The other thing was I just couldn't stop thinking about the entire card-counting phenomenon and this idea that people who do it get beaten up. Okay, I am fully aware that I am completely ignorant of how things work in Vegas, and I am not completely ignorant of the fact that organized crime is or at least has been involved in Vegas... But I also know that the gaming commission or whatever they are called are fairly strict... And not all the cops in Vegas can be corrupt. So that's where I take issue with these stories. Card counting isn't against the law. It isn't even cheating. It's just playing the game of blackjack extremely well, at a level most of us could never hope to. (And at a level where the player has an advantage over the casino.) So... if someone gets beaten for counting cards... wouldn't they just go to the cops? They didn't do anything wrong. The people who assaulted them did. It just doesn't make sense to me.

And even Jim Sturgess' eyelashes couldn't distract me from this.

Speaking of eyelashes... I'm in the middle of watching tonight's episode of LOST (have the DVR on pause) and looking at the actor who plays Ben, I am so glad I'm a girl. Why you ask? Because I can wear mascara and eyeliner to help disguise the fact I have transparent eyelashes. He can't. Too bad. He might look less freaky with eyelashes, and stronger eyebrows, too. But I guess while playing this Ben character, freaky is kind of the point.

An Engineer's Guide to Cats

Okay, I'm so not a cat person, but I must be an engineer geek person because this really cracked me up. It's kind a long.. But very funny.

I think I'm a bit in love with the one named Paul. Do you think he's single? Of course he's single. **Maureen slaps head** He's an engineer who owns 3 cats. Paul, if you can lose the cats, call me.

Stop-Loss and In the Valley of Elah

I saw Stop-Loss last week and what it really got me thinking about (in addition to the obvious political questions) was why In the Valley of Elah didn't 100% work.

I am a huge fan of Paul Haggis, was so excited to see this film in the program book for the TIFF last year, and was thrilled to get a ticket to the premiere.

But the film didn't thrill me like I'd hoped it would. It's not that I didn't like it. It's not like the performances weren't excellent. It's not like it didn't have a powerful message, and it's not like the film didn't make me think afterwards...

But, something just didn't gel for me, like it had with Crash, a film of Haggis's that I love, love, loved.

And watching Stop-Loss that has a different but similar topic, I think I might have figured it out. The main characters in Stop-Loss are soldiers. The ones things are happening to. The ones who have served proudly, are ready to get out, and are dragged back in via a back-door draft. The ones who come home from Iraq violent and addicted to drugs or alcohol and generally messed up. War does that.

In In the Valley of Elah, the film was seen through the eyes of Tommy Lee Jones' character and secondarily through the Charlize Theron's. Tommy Lee Jones plays the father of a returned vet killed after returning home, and Theron a cop who helps him investigate the crime when the army ignores him and writes it off as a drug deal gone bad (which, of course, it so wasn't). Looking at the story through the eyes of a parent was an interesting way to take a look at the syndrome of young men turning into monsters when they return from war. (Certainly nothing new to this particular war.) But while it was an interesting way to do it, I'm not sure it was the most compelling way, the best storytelling choice.

Stop-Loss, on the other hand, is told from the soldiers' points of view. In the Valley of Elah was based on a true story and I think Haggis might have done better to pick one of the soldiers involved, (or even create a fictional character to add to the group if none of the actual boys were sympathetic enough), and to tell the story through those eyes.
Not that the heartbreak of a father learning what his son has done and seen and gone through isn't heart wrenching... But I think it was more emotionally engaging to actually put ourselves in the soldiers' shoes.

Don't know... One way or another, both films are worth seeing. But I think Stop-Loss was the stronger of the two. Good performances. A subject all Americans, for sure, should know about. And it's not unpatriotic or even anti-war... It simply comes out against forcing people to do something -- particularly something dangerous and traumatic -- against their wills.

Fallen out of love

Okay, so my David Cook infatuation may have come to an end. I'm fickle that way. One bad performance -- he's out.

I hated his performance. The beginning was way too low for his voice... And I hated what he was wearing... Simon said he looked pretentious. I just thought he looked femme. And not in a good way. Yuck.

I also don't understand what the judges see in David Archuleta. Except maybe for the last fifteen seconds of the song... he sounded like what he is -- a little kid trying to do a Robbie Williams impression and sounding like a total amateur.

Why the hell do the judges want him to win? (which they so seem to) Do they really think people will buy the records he makes? I don't get it. Not at all. Then again, I'm not a 12-year-old girl... Perhaps his target audience. But even 12-year-old girls like their music to be more poppy and less schmaltzy, don't they? Maybe his target audience is actually eighty-year-old women. I'm not one of those, either.

Anyone a fan of his? What am I not getting? (And why am I watching American Idol anyway...)

Spring has sprung

Critique partner and very good buddy Molly O'Keefe guest blogged about Spring Fever over on The Debutante Ball yesterday, well, today... but it's late in the day, now. But it wasn't only her funny blog post that got me thinking about spring. It was the weather. :-)

It's been in the double digits (Celsius) since Friday or Saturday in Toronto and boy is it welcome this year. What a crappy winter. While we had very few super-cold days, we had so, so, so much snow... I didn't hear in the end if we broke the previous record held by the infamous winter of 1938-39 (everyone remember that one? LOL), but we came close.

So temps in the teens were very, very welcome. And I took advantage. In addition to raking the 4 inches of oak leaves off my garden over the weekend, tonight I started an outdoor exercise class. A week or so ago, when I realized my bootcamp started in April I figured they'd have to cancel or move it inside, because, well, outside was still buried in snow. How quickly things change.

Today was a warm day... I was walking around in short sleeves midafternoon, but once the sun started to get low in the sky, the clouds came in, and it got really chilly. And yes, that was just in time for my "bootcamp" class to start at 7:00 pm. (An aside: very surreal to be doing crunches at the base of the CN Tower... I wonder what our doggie leg-lifts looked like from the observation decks in the tower?)

But I survived. I just hope it doesn't get really nasty again. Not sure I'm up for bootcamp in temps closer to freezing... (Fingers crossed.)

Here's hoping it's spring where you are -- which, unless you live in the southern hemisphere and it's fall -- or maybe in parts of the northern US midwest or in Northern Canada, or Alaska, or Siberia... I'm sure it is.

Happy spring, everyone!

Does this giraffe print make me look taller?

I've never been a huge fan of animal prints for clothing or decor. Can't really explain why. I know lots of people who can pull them off, but for me they either look really retro and cool or really trashy... and it's a fine line I've never felt brave enough to walk. Thinking about it, my aversion makes no sense. Why is making a print inspired by the coats of animals any stranger than say flowers or fruit or paisley?

But shopping a while ago I was desperate for a new top that was not too casual but not too dressy and tried on this bright blue and black top in a haphazard kind of polka dot silk. It fit (miracle). The colour was good on me. I liked it. It was on sale. I knew it looked animal printy, but couldn't pinpoint which animal so I decided it didn't fall within the parameters of my personal animal print boycott.

Then a day or two later, I spotted a giraffe on TV.

It's a giraffe print. I bought a giraffe print top. I'll bet most three year olds could have spotted it (no pun intended). I didn't. LOL.

But seriously, does it make me look taller? (I could really use a longer neck.)

Married Life

One of my WIP's that's more of a WFIP (formerly in progress) is/was a series of interconnected stories about single people. And I was planning to have the audacity to to suggest that some of my characters were very happy about their marital/relationship status. I have nothing against marriage or other forms of domestic partnerships and I'm sure many people are extremely happy in their marriages. But what irks me is the assumption that many/most married people have that people who are not married are defacto unhappy or missing something in their lives. That they'd be happier if only they were married. This assumption really offends me and that's the theme I was hoping to bring out in my book. That happiness comes in all kinds of packages. It's not one-size-fits-all kind of thing. And without turning this in to a way-too-personal post when it was supposed to be a movie review... I'm not anti relationship. If the right man came along. Sure. But I so love the freedom I have now to do whatever I want whenever I want.

Now, my book never got off the ground for a variety of reasons... I may still write it some day... but watching the film Married Life made me think about it again, because it made me a little bit happier about my single status.

The Globe and Mail reviewer, Kamal Al-Solaylee suggested in his review that the film Married Life poses two questions. One: can you build your happiness on the unhappiness of others; and two: can attempted murder spice up a marriage.

All I can say to that second question is, "HUH?" Did we see the same film? Just shows how different two people's perceptions of the same film can be. I'm really curious to know if Mr. Al-Solaylee is married and my guess would be yes. And that his marriage needs some serious spicing up. For me, the second very obvious question asked in the film was: Can you ever really know what's going on in the heart and mind of the person sleeping next to you.

In fact, that question was not just implied, it was specifically asked. And to me, that's what the film was about. It was a pretty depressing take on marriage if you ask me. Now, not to get too biased the other way, at the end of the film all the characters seemed outwardly happy. Like I said before, happiness comes in all kinds of packages. But by the end of the film there were a lot of secrets never shared between all the couples. Big secrets (including an attempted murder) brushed under the rug, never to be discussed in order to save relationships.
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Hmmm... Now that I think of it, perhaps it wasn't meant to be an entirely negative look at marriage, merely a realistic one but brought to an extreme to make a point.

Interesting film, anyway. Not amazing. Didn't entirely work for me, I think mostly because of the Chris Cooper character. I normally love him in just about anything... but I found his character's motivations too much of a stretch to be believable in this story. But obviously the film got me thinking.

I'd recommend it as a rental, unless if you suspect (or know) there's a big secret between you and your significant other. Warning. Watching this film together might bring secrets to the surface, and this film certainly suggests that some things are best left buried.

Odd characters

A few years ago, I started making notes whenever I noticed odd characters or events in public, thinking some day I might use them in a book.

Haven't done that for a while.

But I just had to share something. I'm sitting across from a man at Starbucks. I'd guess he's about seventy, but might be younger. He's wearing eighties style big glasses and a paper-boy type navy cap. He's tucked a paper napkin into the buttoned except for the very top button plaid shirt that he's wearing over navy slacks. He came in wearing a decent, clean looking, Columbia sportswear ski jacket over top.
He has one of those metal framed grocery carriers with him. He bought a venti size of some kind of tea. To doctor it, he took his own liter of Silk soy milk out of his carrier and something else that looks like pepper, but I'm not sure. Must be a sweetener of some kind stored in an spice jar? Then... he took out an entire pumpkin pie and has proceeded to eat almost half of it -- straight from the pie tin with a plastic fork. Did I point out that he might weigh a hundred pounds? Tiny man. And he's not eating quickly. Just taking casual bites of pie in between looking at his paper and sipping his tea.

What's his story? I should run a contest. :-)

I should get back to my WIP, that's what I should do.

Definitely, Definitely

I went to see Definitely, Maybe one night last week. The film had already been open for about five weeks and I my expectations weren't that high.

I like Ryan Reynolds but the fact he was in it, plus the way it was advertised and the fact it opened on Valentine's Day made me expect something a bit cheesy and silly and I was okay with that.

Wow, was I wrong. I loved this movie. The characters were real. The dialogue rang true. And the writer really pulled off the mystery love story thing. As many times as I tried to guess who he'd end up with and the few times I thought I was right, the writer flipped it again and again. Nice to see Reynolds in a more serious role. His boyish charm and wit still showed through, but his character was a devoted single dad and deeply romantic and responsible, as opposed to the perpetual boy type characters he usually tends to play.

And the other performances were really good, too. The only one I wasn't sure about was Elizabeth Banks... but Rachel Weisz and Isla Fisher were both great--you could really understand why he fell in love with both women--as were all the supporting characters. Kevin Kline does an amazing small part in this movie. Really great. But he's almost always great. Another minor character of note was played by Liane Balaban. Her part in this was tiny and not all that interesting, I guess... but so nice to see her in a bigger film. Her debut, in a film called New Waterford Girl was nothing short of astounding to me. Love that movie. If you want a quirky cool rental, try it. Probably won't find it at your corner video store in the US, (it was an independent Canadian film), but at a specialty video store or netflicks should have it. And in case I haven't talked you into seeing New Waterford Girl, yet... Andrew McCarthy is in it. :-) And it's set in the 70's -- so great music... But I'm showing my age with both of those arguments, I guess.

Looking through the writer/director Adam Brooks' list of screenplay credits... I think I have a new hero. And, he's from Toronto. How cool is that? I had no idea going in. He did the second Bridget Jones movie, which was pretty good considering how silly the second book was, and Wimbledon which I thought was so smart for a rom com staring Kirsten Dunst (another low expectations, nice surprise film for me) and The Invisible Circus, (a little seen movie, in spite of Cameron Diaz being in it, but I really liked having read the book), and French Kiss (which might explain how he got Kevin Kline to do a small part in this new movie) and Practical Magic and Beloved.

Very interesting list of screenplay writing credits. All smart films that rose above genre -- or in the case of Beloved, defied genre.

Has anyone else seen Definitely, Maybe? Did it work for you?

Urban fantasy romance

I'm blogging about Urban Fantasy over on DWT today.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Since my blog is green and my website is green and I have a very Irish name... I figured I'd better wish everyone a Happy St. Patrick's Day.

I'm actually about 5/8 Irish... but it's funny, because I think the other parts of my heritage were stronger influences in my life growing up. Scottish and Welsh and a little Dutch/Flemish.

About 10 years ago (was it really 10 years???) I went on a cycling trip in Ireland. Fabulous time. I had tacked it on at the tail end of a business trip, so I had too much luggage and a few business suits mixed in with my bike shorts.

Anyway... One night, about 3 days into the trip (and 4 drinks into the evening) I was enjoying the Irish music in a pub and told our tour guide I was really feeling my Irish roots that night.
She turned to me and said, "When I saw your name on the list, I thought you'd be an Irish girl. Then I saw your hair and skin and I assumed you were, but then I saw your luggage and knew you weren't." She nudged me. "But you do drink like an Irish girl."

Never have I been so proud.

Long time no blog

I am becoming a total blog slacker. Sorry. (Or maybe no one has noticed.) I've had a lot on my mind, but somehow haven't managed to translate any of those thoughts into blog posts. Might be just as well, come to think of it...

I made a personal resolution to blog about the movies I see in theatres this year, and I haven't even managed to get to the movies much. But I did go to In Bruges last week.

What did I think of this movie? Two main things.
1) Colin Farrell is an acting god when he's got good material to work with.
2) I really wish I'd gone to Bruges when it was suggested to me on a business trip to Brussels.

But at least now I have Bruges to visit all on it's own someday and probably wouldn't have had enough time on said business trip to do it justice. What a pretty city.

Actually, one of the jokes of the movie is how unimpressed with the city the Colin Farrell character is, while the Brendan Gleeson character is amazed by it.

But back to the movie... Certainly not ever going to be a blockbuster success... But while it's a quieter, dialogue and character driven film, the story is interesting and keeps you guessing for a long time before coming to a more traditional violent, gangster-movie-type climax. But little about this film is traditional. And the characters and dialogue were amazing. Even though the language and actual dialogue is very different from Pulp Fiction, it reminded me of Pulp Fiction in a way, in that the writer shows us brutal killers as humans talking about everyday things. But these are more layered and interesting brutal killers than any Tarantino created, in my opinion. And they both have consciences and their own codes of right and wrong -- where they draw the line and how to deal with conflicting loyalties.

This film isn't for anyone easily offended, but I found bits of it hilarious and both Gleeson and Farrell gave amazing performances for Martin McDonagh, a talented Irish writer/director I've seen compared to David Mamet on a message board on imdb.com.

Slanderous Miss Snark

For those of you who don't follow such things... the websites Predators and Editors, Writer Beware, the Miss Snark blog, and others dedicated to protecting unsuspecting newbie writers from unscrupulous individuals purporting to be agents or publishers (but really charging money) exposed an agent a few years ago and put her on a 20 Worst Agents List. (I'm not going to mention her name, because I'm scared). Said agent is now suing everyone on the planet.

Check out this link, for a very funny take on this. Probably funnier for fans of Miss Snark... :-)

Vote for Trish Milburn

So, unlike the big fix in the US Presidential elections (see post below) the voting for this year's American Title contest is legit and still on. The winner gets a publishing contract with Dorchester Publishing. To vote, send an e-mail to this address: votes@romantictimes.com with the title of your favorite entry in the subject line. (Hint: Out of Sight)

Voting to choose the winner continues until March 2, 2008. Today, I'm glad to host Trish Milburn, one of the final two contenders. Welcome, Trish!

Congratulations on being in the final two for the American Title contest this year, Trish! For my blog pals who aren't familiar with this contest, how does it work?

Initially, Dorchester and Romantic Times make the call for entries. Each year, they have a special sub-genre on which they focus. This year it was paranormal romance. From there, they go through and determine which entries they want to see the full manuscripts for. Then they weed it down to 10 finalists, who compete in up to five rounds of online judging by visitors to the Romantic Times Web site. Each round focuses on some aspect of the books -- descriptions of heroes and heroines, romantic scenes, etc. Each round has a two-week voting period after which the two contestants with the fewest votes are eliminated. We're down to the final two contestants now -- the talented Helen Scott Taylor and myself.

What's your entry, Out of Sight, about?

Out of Sight is about Jenna McKay, a street cop who can make herself invisible but doesn't very often because of the fear that if the government finds out they'll turn her into a lab rat to find out why she has her ability. As you might guess, the government does find out and delivers the news of their awareness via a very sexy agent from an agency that apparently has no name and a murky agenda. But instead of shipping her off to a lab for study, they send her to the White House to go "undercover" to find out which person inside the most powerful address in America is sending threats to the president. Identifying the culprit isn't as easy as it should be,
and neither is figuring out if Agent Daniel Webster is friend or foe.

That sounds fantastic. What I wouldn't give to be invisible some days... Congratulations on your Young Adult and Series Romance book contracts this year. I was so excited when I heard about these deals. When are those books hitting the shelves?

A Firefighter in the Family is going to be out this September from Harlequin American. I don't have a date on the second American yet. My first YA book, Heartbreak River (Razorbill), will be out in the spring of 2009.

Can't wait. I know your "overnight success" came after many years of writing and lots of heartbreakingly close calls. What are your thoughts on so many things hitting for you this year? Karma? Fate? (Or did you finally sell your soul to the devil... I've had the contract on my desk for a while, but am too squeamish to prick my finger for the ink.)

LOL! No contracts that smell faintly of sulphur and with burnt edges here. I think I just refused to give up and became more and more determined to prove to myself that I could do this. My agent and I kept lots of my projects out there, and I took what opportunities presented themselves to me. The American sale came about because of a publisher-sponsored contest, and the American Title is, of course, also co-sponsored by a publisher.

Proof that contests can work! You've been on the Board of RWA for the past few years. Would you recommend this to other writers? What have you learned from the experience?

It really is a very enlightening experience. I have a whole new appreciation for how much work it takes to successfully run an organization the size of RWA, and I'm in awe of how much the staff accomplishes with so few people. I had served on my chapter board for several years before this, and I felt I contributed positively there and thought I'd try it at the national level. After all, someone has to step up to the plate and volunteer for the task of board service.
That said, it has to be an individual decision. It's a fair amount of work, particularly if really big issues pop up or during the weeks leading up to board meetings and the National Conference. But I'm glad I've had the experience.


Thanks for being here, Trish, and good luck!

Thanks, Maureen, for hosting me!

Trish

This is too funny not to post....

Who got passed over for Oscar nominations

Okay, so the Oscars are tomorrow night and I can't figure out why I feel slightly bored about the whole thing. They are all really great films this year. Really great. Maybe that's it? Maybe there aren't any nominations that make me angry, that I'd leap off my chair to yell at the TV if that actor or film won?

There are a few underdogs that could make me leap up if they won, I guess, but they are such incredible long shots, I don't hold out any hope... Like Sarah Polley for directing Away from Her. That would be so cool. But she won't win. I guess I'd like the Coens to win that, because I think their acceptance speech might be fun. I'd also like to see Ellen Page win. She's amazingly talented. (Okay, I may be biased. I've just listed two Canadian nominees.)

So, who isn't on the list that I think should be?

The glaring omission in the Best Picture, Best Director (Sean Penn), Best Actor (Emile Hirsch), Best Score (Eddie Vedder) and Best Song (Eddie Vedder) categories are all Into the Wild. Maybe Best Supporting Actress (Catherine Keener), too. I really don't understand why this movie got so ignored. I felt sure it was going to make Emile Hirsch into a huge star.

David Cronenberg for directing Eastern Promises. I don't know if this was my favourite Cronenberg film ever... but it was his most accessible while still being daring (people will be taking about that Turkish bath scene forever) and I'd love to have seen him nominated.

Gorden Pinsent for best actor in Away from Her. Yes, Julie Christie was great, but he was the heart and the core of that lovely film and his performance was fabulous. But he's not well known outside of Canada (maybe not even well known inside Canada since the 1970's) so not surprising he didn't get a nomination. But that would have been exciting.

Finally, I'd have liked to have seen Josh Brolin get a nomination for No Country for Old Men. Javier Bardem is getting all the attention for that film for playing a psychopath. Yes, he made a great psychopath, but Brolin's was the more interesting, more subtle, more real character. The one we could identify with, who takes a chance and lets greed take over his common sense. And then kindness, too. He might not have been caught if he hadn't gone back with that water...
The night that film premiered in Toronto at the TIFF, the paparazzi outside were all, "Diane, over her. Diane," when Brolin arrived on the red carpet (with his wife, Diane Lane). I kind of thought it was funny that night. To me, Josh Brolin was the son of a guy famous for being attractive and married to a much more famous and powerful woman (Barbra Streisand), who also married an attractive and famous woman (Diane Lane). To me, the Brolin men were boy toys to Barbra and Diane. But this year Brolin-the-younger proved he's not just a trophy husband in both this film and in American Gangster. I'm very interested to see what he'll do as George dubya in the upcoming Bush.

Who do you think got passed over?

Is Harold Perrineau Lost?

Has anyone else noticed that Harold Perrineau's name has been in the opening credits of every episode of Lost this season to date, but we haven't actually seen him in an episode since, what? The second season? Was the Michael character even in Season 3? I don't think so.

I was so excited to see his name show up in the credits and keep expecting Michael to jump from behind some tree, or to be hidden in the strange, moving cabin, or locked in a cell in the barracks. So far nothing... Is he on the ship???We've had a mention of Walt... But no Michael. And I can't even remember exactly what happened to Michael. Did the others let him leave the island on a boat or something? Can't recall.

Theories?

Anyone else still loving Lost?

I'm actually typing while watching tonight's episode... I guess this post'll be kinda dumb if he finally appeared tonight. Oh, well.

Editorial meetings online?

Okay, so this was the bit of the Penguin press release that caught my attention, and I kind of buried it...

"In addition, during the last week in February, the public will have the unique opportunity to get an inside peek into the editorial selection process, when video clips of actual editorial staff discussions at Penguin Group (USA) will be posted online."

The remote chance that some editors might be debating the pros and cons of publishing my book online for the world to see simultaneously thrills and terrifies me. Mostly the latter.

Do you think they'll really show actual editorial meeting???

Penguin press release about contest

Okay, I just think this is interesting... Then again, I'm in the contest. Why wouldn't I find it interesting....



NEW YORK, Feb. 19 /PRNewswire/ -- Penguin Group (USA) announced today that it will now have the privilege of selecting the Top 10 finalists from among the Top 100 semifinalists for the first Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award (ABNA), the international writing competition in search of the next popular novel. These 100 semifinalists were ranked by Amazon Top Reviewers and Publishers Weekly and selected by Penguin Group in the previous stage of the competition which was originally launched in October of 2007. A list of all 100 submissions progressing in the semifinal round is posted at http://www.amazon.com/abna. The top 100 contestants represent all walks of life and parts of the world, from Ypsilanti, Michigan to Tokyo, Japan and numerous stops in-between. The public is embracing the contest and forming long- lasting relationships as they continue to flood the Amazon.com message boards with critiques, encouragement, and advice. One contestant even recommended forming an "ABNA Alumni" group to sustain the conversation about reading and writing, a suggestion that was met with enthusiasm. Other entrants are selecting dream casts for film versions of their novels, with Queen Latifah, Adrien Brody and Reese Witherspoon topping several wish lists.

And the competition is heating up as the field of contestants grows smaller. Contestants are getting creative to generate support for their novels on social networking sites. One contestant has set up a global group on Facebook entitled "Find the next great novel." Many are leveraging their MySpace connections to garner votes. And bloggers are mobilizing their readers in anticipation of the upcoming voting period. These aspiring writers are not averse to using the power of video to advance their causes.

Some have posted videos of themselves on YouTube (see
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnKnK0OqvH8) to rally voters.

Grass-roots support is thriving offline as well, with the home team effect in evidence. The Indianapolis Star ran a piece about a local music teacher's semifinalist status; the Manila (Phillippines) Times proudly plugged the entry of a Filipino-American emigrant living in California; and a teacher blogged about his pride over a former student's ascension to the ranks of semifinalist, just to name a few.

"That writers and readers everywhere have responded so enthusiastically to this competition is an inspiration to us all," said Susan Petersen Kennedy, President, Penguin Group (USA). "Our editors are carefully going over these manuscripts and making the hard choices that will ultimately determine the Top Ten. This exciting process helps further our commitment to finding, publishing and bringing new literary voices to people around the world.

"As the competition continues, the public is encouraged to participate by reading, rating and commenting on the posted excerpts. In addition, during the last week in February, the public will have the unique opportunity to get an inside peek into the editorial selection process, when video clips of actual editorial staff discussions at Penguin Group (USA) will be posted online. On March 3, the resulting top 10 contestants will be announced, and from March 3 until March 31, the public can log on to officially vote for their favorite writer to win the grand prize.

NOTE TO THE PRESS:

The Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award competition, sponsored by Amazon, Penguin Group (USA), Hewlett-Packard, and CreateSpace, launched on October 1, 2007 and received nearly 5,000 qualified submissions, with representation from approximately 2,000 cities around the world and in every state in the U.S. All submissions were first read by Amazon.com Top Reviewers-individuals recognized for the high quality and frequency of their comments on the site- who generated over 10,000 ratings in selecting 836 submissions to advance to the next round. In January and February, publishing trade magazine Publishers Weekly reviewed each of these submissions. Based on these reviews and the feedback from Amazon Top reviewers, editors from Penguin Group (USA) narrowed the field to the 100 semi-finalists now in the running for the top prize. Penguin Group (USA)'s editorial staff will read and evaluate each of the semi- finalist entries, and ultimately select 10 finalists, to be announced on March 3. Amazon customers will then vote to choose the grand prize winner to be announced April 7, 2008.

The grand prize winner will receive a publishing contract with Penguin,
which includes a $25,000 advance; and an entertainment technology package from Hewlett-Packard that will include an HP 50-inch Plasma TV, Digital Entertainment Center, HP Pavilion Notebook, HP LaserJet All-in-One and HP PhotoSmart Digital camera.

The Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award is sponsored by Penguin Group (USA), Hewlett-Packard and CreateSpace.

For complete terms and conditions on the Amazon Breakthrough Novel
Award as well as to read, rate and review the top 100 semi-finalists,
please visit http://www.amazon.com/abna.

About Penguin Group (USA)

Penguin Group (USA) Inc. is the U.S. member of the internationally renowned Penguin Group. Penguin Group (USA) is one of the leading U.S. adult and children's trade book publishers, owning a wide range of imprints and trademarks, including Viking, G. P. Putnam's Sons, The Penguin Press,
Riverhead Books, Dutton, Penguin Books, Berkley Books, Gotham Books, Portfolio, New American Library, Plume, Tarcher, Philomel, Grosset & Dunlap, Puffin, and Frederick Warne, among others. The Penguin Group (http://www.penguin.com) is part of Pearson plc, the international media company.

SOURCE Penguin Group (USA)

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/02-19-2008/0004758614&EDATE=

Top 100!

Wow.

I made it into the top 100 of this Amazon Breakout Novel contest. I'm a little surprised but very happy. My goal when entering this contest was hoping to get on the desk of a Penguin editor. And I've reached that goal. So, yay!

If you haven't checked out the excerpt and would like to, here's the link.

THE MISEDUCATION OF APRIL HILLSON

Here's the main link for the contest if you want to check out the competition. There are great prizes for writing lots of high quality reviews.

Is facebook turning me into a spammer?

Okay, so I admit I probably haven't spent enough time on Facebook to totally get what's going on... And maybe I'm at least twenty years beyond their target demographic, but certain things are making me crazy.

Like those "click here and see what happens" messages. Am I missing something or are those just nuisance posts, or worse, something where our facebook ID's are getting captured for nefarious purposes. They make you think someone you know has sent you something, but then...

Nothing happens right??? Except, if you're not careful, you end up sending the same damn thing to all your Facebook friends? A spammer.

Please someone tell me if I'm missing something here.

I love certain elements of Facebook. I've reconnected with some people from high school and it's been pretty cool that way. But I could do without all the crap.

Unimportant Meme

Okay, so I don't mean it's an unimportant meme... It's a meme about unimportant facts... Hmmm.. Kind of challenging. I mean, are trivial things unimportant or merely trivial... I can't think of a thing to put on this list. Not that I think anything about me is particularly "important"... I'm just flummoxed. (I love that word -- hey, can that count as one of my things?)

Thanks to Louisa Edwards for tagging me. :-)

So, here are the rules and my attempt at the meme.

Rules:
1. Link back to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Share six unimportant things about yourself.
4. Tag six random people at the end of your blog entry.
5. Let the tagged people know by leaving a comment on their blogs.

SIX UNIMPORTANT THINGS ABOUT MYSELF:

1. My dad has 3 brothers. Each of the four brothers had 3 daughters. 12 McGowan girls. I know. Scary.

2. I'm a pack rat. I live in a 3 storey house. By myself. I need this much space for all my stuff. Important stuff. Really.

3. I just sold a car I owned for seventeen years. (Suffering from separation anxiety but I sold it to my brother, so I can still visit.)

4. I'm watching Britain's Next Top Model while coming up with this fascinating list.

5. I was born in Saskatchewan.

6. I'm missing a tear duct on my left eye, and the one I have is 80% blocked, so my eye tears all the time. (Messes up my makeup and makes people think I'm crying.)

Phew.

Now, who to tag, who to tag...

Christine D'Abo, Diana Peterfreund, Misty Simon, Kwana, Barrie Summy, and Bonnie Staring.

What not to write

Over on Drunk Writer Talk, we've often discussed how much we've all learned as writers from watching certain well written (in our opinions) TV shows.

In contrast, I've had a few "what not to write" moments watching movies...

I blogged about the horrible Penelope when I saw it at the 2006 Film festival. They really blew that movie in so many ways. So sad since it starred the adorable James McAvoy.

And tonight I saw 27 Dresses. Didn't hate it... but was far from loving it and haven't completely analyzed why yet.

But one thing... And my take-away lesson from the movies tonight. Do not write a scene where one character expresses their undying love -- basically the most pivotal and emotional (should be) scene of your story -- with one character on stage in front of a crowd and using a microphone. Not unless you've got a really compelling and unquestionable reason for said character to do it this way rather than in private.

Crazy storytelling choice. Crazy. I think the movie had already lost me--zero chemistry between the leads--but that stuck several nails in the coffin. Okay, maybe I did hate it.

Anyone else see this movie? Was I just in a bad mood?

SAG Awards

Okay, tells you how much I've been paying attention to something I claim to care about that I didn't even realize that the SAG awards were being broadcast tonight. Luckily I noticed in time to set my digital recorder.

And it makes sense that they'd be the one show on the air this year... I mean why wouldn't a striking union let another supportive union televise their award show? Especially when they've blocked the televising of all the other competing awards shows. It's called solidarity...

And are the SAG awards even normally televised? I'm not sure. I don't think I've ever watched them before. Hmmmmm... Maybe this will permanently increase the popularity and importance of the SAG awards. Really, when you think about all these award shows, the public really only cares about the actor categories... and maybe the best movie ones.... but the SAG awards have the best ensemble categories which in a way is kind of similar to best movie... Okay, I'm certainly not trying to diminish the roles of the writer and director and cinematographer, and make-up artist, etc... but really, we all like to see the actors on these award shows. And more to the point... This year, the SAG awards seem to be the only ones recognizing my fav movie of the year, Into the Wild... So obviously they're smart. :-) Emile Hirsch... you probably don't have a chance in hell of winning best actor, (I'm writing this near the start of the show), but I hope you win. (I've already seen Javier Bardem beat Hal Holbrook... and I guess I can't really argue... but Hal Holbrook was so damned good in Into the Wild.)

Back slightly on track...

Wouldn't it be interesting if a side-effect of this strange award season were to be the elevation of the SAG awards to surpass the Oscars in popularity with the public? Okay, might not happen... but an interesting idea. To me, anyway.

Okay, back really on track... What made me pause the broadcast to pick up my laptop was Tina Fey... Who thanked Alec Baldwin in her acceptance speech, saying that in their scenes together it was like Fred Astaire dancing with a coat rack, and her winning was people saying, "Hey, that coat rack's not bad, either."

So modest. And, you know... I guess I have to agree with her that she's not that amazing as an actor. Not an incredible range of emotion. But she knows this. She recognizes that her real talent isn't as an actor. Her real talent lies in writing and humor and storytelling... and Alec, should he have shown up to accept his own SAG award (which he won just after) should have acknowledged in his speech (and might have) that he couldn't be Fred Astaire without music and choreography, and that Tina Fey is largely responsible for those two things on 30 Rock.

Again. Tina Rocks. See Molly's post on DWT if you haven't already about her conviction that Tina really wants to be Molly's best friend.

Update at 2:00 am...

Okay, so it's not just me who's never paid much attention to the SAG awards before this year... Here's a quote from the NYT.

"...in a year when a writers’ strike has all but shut down much of Hollywood, the Screen Actors Guild Awards — as anonymous in most years as “Cop No. 3” in a summer blockbuster — took top billing Sunday and drew an inordinate amount of star wattage."

Too funny.

Oh, and Daniel Day Lewis dedicated his award to Heath Ledger, who he's never met... just been very moved (as have I) with the man's performances.

I miss Heath already

Okay, I meant to post something about Heath Ledger's death the day it happened, but I think part of me didn't really believe it yet.

It's sad when anyone dies, certainly devastating when someone we know and love dies, but with celebrities, some deaths hit me so much harder than others. And this was one.

I had the thrill of being in the same room as him a couple of times at the TIFF, first for The Four Feathers (which I wasn't crazy about)... and then for Brokeback Mountain (which I was crazy about) and most recently for Candy which was super dark and sad... but he was great in it. I blogged about that day, actually. I almost got roughed up by a security guard when I snapped his picture while he was introducing the film.

Yes, I was that close. No zoom. And as an aside... This year, 2007, they seemed to be fine with photos before and after the films again. Go figure. But they did have guards with night vision watching everyone during the films and the police actually came into one screening at the end... I think it was actually The Assassination of Jesse James... but I'm not 100% sure, anymore... to check out the camera of a guy who was sitting right behind me. I was hoping they were going to arrest him for talking to his girlfriend during the movie, but whatever.

Heath Ledger's death, however it happened, is so tragic. I think he was incredibly talented and I believe we would have been seeing interesting work from him for fifty years to come. Tragic.

Gotta love the entertainment press

Just had to pass this on... ET Canada covered Kiefer Sutherland's release from jail tonight. Okay, fine. I guess that's news. Canadian boy who's made good, does bad, goes to jail, gets released.

But turns out none of the photographers managed to get a snap of Mr. Sutherland coming out of the jail... so what do they use on all those annoying teaser bits leading up to the story? A shot of Kiefer as Jack Bauer coming off the Chinese plane, after however many years of torture it was, at the beginning of the last season of 24.

It was so sad and misleading I just couldn't stop laughing.

Piece of trivia for you non-Canadian readers. Kiefer's late grandfather, Tommy Douglas, was voted "Greatest Canadian" of all time on a TV show/internet voting thing a couple of years ago. He was the preacher turned politician who's largely responsible for Canada having a universal health care system.

Double tagged

Is that like being double dog dared?

The lovely and talented Louisa Edwards tagged me earlier in the week and then the equally lovely and talented Kwana did the same.

So, I guess I'd better get off my you know what and take the tag (before everyone we mutually know is already tagged. )

The rules of this MEME:

Link to the person who tagged you.
Leave a comment on their blog, so their readers can visit you.
Post the rules on your blog.
Share 7 random and/or weird facts about yourself on your blog.
Tag 7 random people at the end of your blog.
Include links to their blogs and let each of them know they've been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

Okay... so I feel like I may have revealed some of these things before... but here goes.

Random Facts about Maureen McGowan....

1. I played the lead in the musical Oliver in high school. Yes. Me as a 9 year old boy. Singing.
2. By the time I was 10, I'd moved 10 times.
3. I ruptured my achilles tendon playing volleyball about 15 years ago. I know. Me. Five feet tall. Playing volleyball. Crazy. ;-)
4. I've hiked in and out of the Grand Canyon. Twice.
5. I've been above the arctic circle -- on the ground, not just on a plane.
6. My nine year old niece is the same height as I am.
7. I can still do the splits. (But it hurts now. Never used to hurt, damn it.)

Okay, so I tag: Marilyn Brant, Christine D'Abo, Nadine Dajani, Michelle Rowen, Margaret Moore, Misty Simon, and Eileen Cook.

Booooring....

Boring... That's my summary for the Golden Globe awards this year. And I'm not even convinced it was the lack of a real show that was so disappointing, or the annoying inane play-by-play, I think it was the winners themselves.

Maybe it's because I still haven't seen a few of the major nominees and winners. I meant to go see There Will be Blood this weekend, but didn't get there. Damages hasn't been shown on TV in Canada yet. Nor has Mad Men to my knowledge. Although I think I can get AMC, so maybe it was there and I just didn't know. Damages starts up here on Feb 18 on either Bravo or Showcase and I expect we'll get Mad Men, too.

A few comments about some winners in films you might not have seen...

Best director for Julian Schnabel for The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. Great film. Loved it. And I do think he probably deserves this award. It's a pretty challenging idea. The main character has "locked in syndrome" so the only part of this entire body the main character is able to move is his left eyelid. And the movie is in his POV. And it's a true story. So to turn that into a gripping film... Kudos to the director. Kudos too to Canadian actor Marie Josee Croze who plays his speech therapist. Because we're in his POV and only one eye works.. We see a lot of her face and hear a lot of her reciting the alphabet. And still. Gripping. And not sappy at all. This isn't my original thought, but one reviewer said something like "it could've degenerated into My Left Eyelid, but didn't" And that about sums it up for me. A tear jerker idea, but not tear jerker execution. A really great film.

Julie Christie in Away from Her. Again. A great film. A quiet film to be sure. (A Canadian film.) But well worth seeing and so romantic and sad. And the directorial debut of Sarah Polley. This must be coming out on DVD soon. Rent it.

Marion Cotillard in La Vie en Rose. This film was showing on the tiny screen (theatre 7) at my local 12 screen cinema for ages and finally I decided to check it out. And wow. This actress truly deserved to win something. But one piece of inane banter I did agree with, is that the movie is so not either a musical or a comedy... But there was tons of music in it and I suppose the producers thought she'd have a better chance in this category, especially since it was for a bio pic in French... But really powerful performance. I knew nothing about Edith Piaf going in and I was almost sobbing at the end. Very tragic life that woman lead. And while she wasn't entirely sympathetic, the actress at least made her very interesting.

A quick word on the supporting actress in a drama category. Cate totally deserved this in my opinion. But so did Amy Ryan and so did little Saoirse Ronan who I'm sure we'll be seeing a lot of soon. (I heard she was cast in The Lovely Bones and was in at least one other film I saw at the festival this year, playing not only a completely different character, but using a different accent, and she was great in both.)
Also, Tilda Swinton deserved this. I still haven't seen Charlie Wilson's War, so I can't really comment on Julia Roberts, but this was certainly a talent packed list of nominees this year.

Okay. Enough commentary on a snoresville poor excuse for an awards show. Everyone involved, please, please figure out a way to give us the Oscars. I totally support the strike and can understand why actors wouldn't want to cross picket lines... but the Oscars. Please!

(Oh, and talking about actors and writers in the same sentence reminded me of another nice surprise. Tina Fey. Go, Tina. You Rock. (Pun intended.))

Demon Barbers and all that jazz

Is there nothing Johnny Depp can't do???

I swear, after seeing the initial trailers (that made it look like they'd turned the musical into a non-musical) and then the ads where they show a few talking through a song bits from Depp, I was prepared to be underwhelmed by Sweeny Todd.

I've seen the musical on stage a few times and it's my all time fav. Stephen Sondheim's challenging yet unforgettable music and lyrics. The dark, dark humour and the incredible irony of a broadway cast singing and dancing about murder and blood and canibalism. Love it.

And I really enjoyed the movie. Sure, it's super gory. I had to look away a few times even though Burton made the blood quite unrealistic looking. Kind of like water stained with fire engine red paint most of the time. Probably a smart move on Burton's point. People might have barfed otherwise.

And Johhny Depp can sing. Sure, he's not likely to have a career as a singer, but he was in tune, and had a nice clear tone and more to the point sang with true emotion -- which I guess you'd expect from a talented actor, but sometimes actors fall apart when they try to sing. (Helena Bonham Carter's voice, on the other hand, I found a bit shrill and thin... But it's a shrill character and very difficult music, so maybe I should give her more credit. She was good in the part. And it's a great part. Gotta love Mrs. Lovett. "Have a little Priest.")

If you like musicals at all (or at least don't hate them). And you don't mind a little blood (okay, quite a bit of blood). Go see this tragic story of the Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

Oh, and I saw Juno again. Held up on second viewing. Pretty sure that movie won't ever get old for me.