Smart Bitches on DWT

Candy Tan and Sarah Wendell of Smart Bitches, Trashy Books are visiting Drunk Writer Talk, today! Come on by and make a comment. There's a prize. :-)

Sold!

No, not me. But bet I got your attention! ;-)

My good friend Nelsa Roberto sold her YA novel ILLEGALLY BLONDE!

Nelsa and I have been on this ride together for a while and I cannot wait to see her book in print!

Go visit her blog and read the story of her call.

Multiples

Are there movies you can watch multiple times and still enjoy?

My good friend Molly has this theory that really great movies you can only watch once, while the merely "good" ones you can watch over and over... and I think there is something in that. The overwhelming emotional experience of the truly great movie is hard to recreate once you already know where it's going.

But right now, I'm watching Clueless and it's one movie I can watch whenever it shows up on TV and will repeatedly laugh out loud, will repeatedly be impressed at how Amy Heckerling so cleverly adapted Emma, and will undoubtedly swoon when Paul Rudd finally kisses Cher at the end. All I know is I still enjoy it each time I see it, although I'm probably near my twentieth viewing.

Do you have movies you can watch over and over?



PS. This isn't the kiss I was talking about... I like the one on the stairs in her house. Though this one was nice, too.... Paul Rudd. Just saying...

UK Paper to go Twitter only.

The Guardian newspaper in the UK will now be released in twitter form only. "Experts say any story can be told in 140 characters."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/apr/01/guardian-twitter-media-technology

One of my fav bits:

A mammoth project is also under way to rewrite the whole of the newspaper's archive, stretching back to 1821, in the form of tweets. Major stories already completed include "1832 Reform Act gives voting rights to one in five adult males yay!!!"; "OMG Hitler invades Poland, allies declare war see tinyurl.com/b5x6e for more"; and "JFK assassin8d @ Dallas, def. heard second gunshot from grassy knoll WTF?"

Okay, so these guys did a way better job of doing an April Fool's joke than I did.

At least I assume it's a joke... ;-)

In other news... You can follow me on Twitter. :-) Not that I ever say anything interesting. But I might. Some day. It's possible.

Editorial Ass: Hedging Your Bets (or, Why, God?!)

Editorial Ass: Hedging Your Bets (or, Why, God?!)

Love this post by Moonrat.

Also, I'm blogging on DWT today. Kind of a related post... Okay, in my mind it's related.

Moonrat's post is just another reminder of how freaking hard this business is. At least my recent revelations have shown me I'm willing to give up a few things in order to keep trying to beat the odds.

Casting J.R. Ward's Brothers

Too fun. Not sure about Wentworth Miller as Zsadist. He's so not Zsadist. Must think on who is... Too bad Jackie Earle Haley's not bigger/more gorgeous. He could play a good Zsadist... just doesn't look like him. Jason Lewis is cute enough for Rhage, just think he doesn't have enough range as an actor to do, well, rage.

Laughed out loud (and then drooled) at Taylor Kitsch as Phury. Note to self: Must find that bare-chested photo. Finally... Mark Walhberg as Butch is inspired casting. Inspired.

Okay, who knew there were a bunch of these things? Clearly I'm leading a sheltered life. I like a couple of these choices better... Plus they cast the heroines--I mean Shellans

Sarah of SB

Great interview with Sarah of Smart Bitches => here.

Some interesting insights on online marketing and the romance genre among other things.

Online Chat Tonight

The lovely and talented Lauren Baratz-Logsted and the equally talented (and I'm sure lovely, though I've never met the dude), Greg Logsted, are chatting live at the TKA Chat Room tonight. The husband and wife team, along with their young daughter, have written a series of children's books called Sister's Eight, about Eight little girls trying to solve the mystery of their parents' disappearance. Here's a link to the very cool website for the books. The third installment, GEORGIA'S GREATNESS, hits the shelves next week.



What: Online Chat with Lauren Baratz-Logsted & Greg Logsted (and giveaway of Sister’s Eight: ANNIE’S ADVENTURES, signed by all three authors, as well as an autographed copy of Greg Logsted’s SOMETHING HAPPENED!)

When: Thursday, March 19th @ 9pm ET

Where: The TKA Chat Room

How Do You Chat: Visit the chat room here: http://client1.addonchat.com/sc.php?id=115545. Enter a username and password (this can be any combination). Your computer must be Java enabled to chat.

I've got a class tonight :-( but am hoping to stop by if the class ends early.

Lauren is very knowledgeable about the publishing business having worked in almost every capacity in it before becoming an author and she has published over a dozen books for adults, teens and kids.

Keeping your chin up

Blogging at DWT today about how hard it can be to keep your chin up in this business.

So Say We All

Admiral Adama and President Roslin speaking at the UN today.

Sigh

I've been a bad blogger. I even missed my day on DWT this week. Actually, I wrote one for there, but decided not to post it. Sounded like I was seeking sympathy, and I'm not.

Just a little crazy these days. And really, really, want these shoes.

I do love me some Fluevogs. I want them in orange, too.

The Bachelorette: Quest for a Greencard

The nice Canadian girl is the new bachelorette? And she's going to have 25 hunky guys going after her? Okay, so how am I going to resist that?

I will.

I will stay strong.

I will not watch the very appealing Jillian just for another chance to hear her talk about the Ogopogo living in Lake Okanagan. I will not.

(Even to find out if she gets a green card as part of the deal.)

Things I learned from The Bachelor

So this show is one of my most embarrassing and hypocritical guilty pleasures, because frankly, The Bachelor is reality TV at its worst.

Sure, there are cheesier shows that exploit people of low intelligence and morals... but in my mind The Bachelor is worse, because it pretends to be serious, as if the producers believe the show is actually about finding love.

And because it pretends to be real, it has fewer redeeming values in my mind. (I mean, no one really thought Tila Tequila or Flava Flav or that ass on those Rock of Love shows were going to find true love, did they? Even the producers couldn't have been that stupid... Shows like that know what they are: silly, shocking entertainment.

But The Bachelor pretends to be something different, and in that it trivializes human emotion, screws with the participants minds, relishes embarrassment and hurt feelings... (Oh, goody, she's crying, let's get a shot of that.)

It's basically emotional porn. (And still I watch. Hypocrite much?)

And here are some things I learned while watching the most ridiculous outcome for a season of this show yet.

1) Falling in love is fun, relationships are hard.

I really wanted to smack Jason tonight. And I really hope that Molly presses him to justify why he gave up so quickly with Melissa. I hope she has the brains to call Melissa and talk. I mean, the guy's divorced and after saying he was so in love, he gave up after 6 weeks. It made me want to puke a little hearing him tell Molly he'd continue to keep falling in love with her for the rest of his life. (More like, for the rest of my life, or until it stops being this huge endorphin rush.) "It's different, now," he kept saying about Melissa since the show ended. Well, d'uh, you f*cking jerk. You're no longer on camera, going on hugely contrived dates for the cameras. And she's no longer kissing your ass every second, fearful she'll lose you to the 24 other girls you're dating at the same time. It's real life now. Of course it's different! What makes you think it won't be "different" with Molly in a week or so, too!

2) There's a really good reason why it's considered bad form to seriously date more than one person at a time.

One thing that I think I have believed on this and previous seasons of this ridiculous show, is that some of the the bachelors and bachelorettes, as the case may be, have actually fallen for more than one person and found it hard to choose between the "contestants".

3) It's not possible to build a lasting relationship based on a few dream dates with a camera crew along for the ride.

Okay, I didn't so much learn this (or any of these things) watching The Bachelor, but had my beliefs confirmed. And this one also ties into #2. While I don't think you can build a lasting relationship in this environment, I do think you can get those "falling in love" feelings. The situations are ridiculously romantic. And clearly, when you're on dream dates with people who want to "win you", and drinking champagne, and sitting in hot tubs, and wearing barely any clothes and necking, you can develop those "falling in love" feelings for more than one person at a time.

4) Most of the people who go on this show are just out for a good time.

I assume the producers have stopped even pretending that this isn't true, as evidenced by that segment last week where they showed previous groups of men and women from the show partying, sleeping around with, and serial dating each other.

5) The participants in this show will sell their souls to have their 15 minutes of fame.

I mean Jason really, REALLY... Even if you realized you'd made a mistake and chose the wrong girl... why not wait a few weeks and do it off the fraking cameras? Why not??? Because the producers were salivating over the drama (I mean emotional porn). And worse, they teased us all season with those misleading clips involving DeAnna... Oh, yes, I am angry.... And okay, maybe I'm blaming the wrong person. Maybe he has some contract saying he can never contact the girls he kicked off the show... so maybe this was the only way he could see her again. But still. That just makes me transfer my anger onto the producers. How horrible and cruel. How manipulative.

6) And perhaps the #1 thing I learned tonight--and just learned this very moment: If I'm so worked up about this, I seriously need to stop watching so much reality TV. :-)

I heart Tina Fey

30 Rock never disappoints -- 30 minutes (okay, 22) of pure fun with at least one big laugh a night... but when Liz started singing "99 Red Balloons" as a proxy for her fake dead grandmother's lullaby... I lost it.

And Elisa's line:

"I don't want to get all all Mark Anthony on you"

was pretty funny, too.

Not to mention Jack, coming into Liz's office for advice:

"You're a woman."

Liz, responding all in one breath:

"Of-course-I-am-that-doctor-was-a-quack-I-don't-even-know-why-my-parents-listened-to-him."

And Jack:

But she keeps confusing me with this notion that love and sex are somehow connected.

I love me some 30 Rock.

Warning. Do not play this at work

Or around your kids...
Or around your elderly parents or grandparents...
Or around the parents of your kids' friends (if you don't know them well)...
Or if your minister or priest is over for tea...
Or if you're otherwise offended by copious amounts of swearing...

But I laughed so hard when my brother sent this to me, I had to share.

Tagged

Kristen Painter tagged me to play a game called 6 by 6.

"The mission, should you choose to accept it, is to find the sixth image in your sixth image folder, and then tag another six people to do the same."



I have to admit I cheated... I have a lot of family photos on my computer and don't believe in a) posting people's pictures in public without their permission, or b) posting people's pictures in public without their permission. (I was sure I had 2 things when I started that sentence... It's late.)

But I'm sure Jasper would give his permission... He is such a ham and a total celebrity in his own mind... So there is my image :-)

As for tagging others.... Hmmmm...

Why doesn't anyone who takes up the challenge post here to let me know they've done it. (Kind of a cop out, I know...)

Mike White's on the Amazing Race!

How fun is that? I'm a big fan. He may be goofy looking. He may be gay (and therefore never my future husband). But great writers are sexy and cool in my mind.

And the dude who wrote both School of Rock and The Good Girl (and many other varied things) is on the Amazing Race! That rocks. I'm even willing to forgive him for Nacho Libre because the other stuff he's done is so fabulous. (Plus, I've been led to believe that perhaps I simply wasn't in the right mood (not drunk enough?) when I saw Nacho Libre. Perhaps I should give it another chance....)

Anyway, back to the Amazing Race. Hoping he and his Dad last for a while.

Meanwhile the hill-billy pair seem doomed and I just want to hug her and tell her to leave her scary-looking mean-as-hell husband. I'm only a third of the way through the episode, but have a strong feeling their first venture outside the USA is not going to last long...

Friday Nights In

When did Friday become the best night on TV? Have my tastes changed or has TV changed.

Used to be that there was absolutely NOTHING worth watching on Friday nights.

Now, between Friday Night Lights, Battlestar Galactica, Flashpoint, and now Dollhouse... who needs to go out?

And there are new episodes of the Sarah Connor Chronicles starting tonight, too... But sadly, I think I've missed an entire season right now, so want to wait until I can fill in the gaps.

Guest on DWT

I'm interviewing Florence Case on Drunk Writer Talk. Stop on by. There's a prize. :-)

I so don't do book reviews, but I'm willing to try

Hey, kids! Guess what? I joined a new club!
The Book Review Club, organized by the wonderful Barrie Summy.

Now, full disclosure: I'm not much of a book reviewer. Sure, I sometimes babble on this blog or on Drunk Writer Talk about books I've liked, and I do have critical discussions about books with my writer buddies and friends, but a full-on-official-type book review? Ummm... Not so much. I don't think I've done one since grade school.
However, regular readers of my blog will know how often I babble about movies -- and some people are generous enough to refer to those movie-babbles as reviews. This must be why Barrie thought I could pull off a book review. Won't she be surprised when some months I review movies instead of books for this club. 'Cause I'm a rebel. ;-)

But for this inaugural month, I figured I should do an actual book. Once I thought through the books I've read in the past few months, the choice was obvious: Barrie Summy's wonderful debut, I SO DON'T DO MYSTERIES, released in hardcover, by Delacorte Press in December 2008. Buy it here. (Okay, buy it anywhere, just buy it.)

I SO DON'T DO MYSTERIES is aimed at the middle grade reader but I think teenaged girls looking for a fun read would enjoy it, too. (Not to mention adults...) While I think many boys would love this book, given the female protagonist, and more significantly, the adorable graphics on the dustcover (and the bubble-gum pink cover under that) I think this book is mostly for girls. (or boys willing to pick up a book with a pink cover.) I also think it will be enjoyed by reluctant and avid readers alike. The fun, mystery plot and bright, bubbly, first-person voice are a delight to read. Granted I'm a little older than middle-grade (try middle-aged?) but I zipped through this book in one sitting. Fun. Fun. Fun. And my 10-year-old niece gave it her thumbs up, too.

Sherry Holmes Baldwin is a innovative and brave detective in the great tradition of her namesake Sherlock Holmes and probably more on point -- Nancy Drew. But while I loved the Nancy Drew books when I was young, I wish I'd had a series of Sherry Holmes Baldwin books to read instead. Sure, both Nancy and Sherry are bright, resourceful girls who get into and out of dangerous situations as they sift through clues to find the bad guy, but Sherry has something Nancy Drew never had -- Sherry is hilarious.

I laughed out loud so many times while reading this book it was slightly embarrassing. (Note to self: don't read Barrie's next book in public.)

Another difference between this and most mystery novels is the addition of a paranormal element. Sherry, her BFF Junie, and major crush Josh, are helped along the way by Sherry's late mother -- now a ghost -- who was a cop while alive, and also a detective in the afterlife. Sherry's also helped by her late grandfather, who has taken the form of a wren.

I loved this little touch of magic in the story, but what I most loved was that Summy didn't rely on magic or any supernatural ghost powers to solve the mystery. In fact, the ghost and bird had so many limits on what the could do, that Sherry was helping them, more than the other way around. Sure, her mother and grandfather play their parts, but solving the mystery and capturing the bad guy is all Sherry.

Along the way, Sherry and her mother get to discuss some of the issues they never had a chance to resolve before her mother's tragic death. But while these moments were emotional and touching, Summy never let them get too heavy or change the light tone of the story. (And I have to say the idea of her mother's ghost both smelling like and being attracted to coffee made me a little misty... as that's the scent I most associate with my own mother. )

Oh, and did I mention there are rhinoceroses, movie stars and an evil French Chef?
Um... Was I supposed to start with a summary? (I told you I wasn't a very good book reviewer...)

B'ah. You can read the summary on Amazon.