Editing Letter....

Okay, so this is pretty funny. And a very clever and different way to promote a novel. I don't know Lara Zielin but will keep an eye out for her debut Donut Days in August now I've seen this.



Particularly love the ukulele riffs. Rock on!

Thanks to Loreth Anne White for pointing me to this.

Also, blogging about human/monster action on DWT.

Put on your big girl pants

Blogging on DWT about the assertion that some romance reviewers are mean.

More reasons why 30 Rock rocks

Kenneth going into anaphylactic shock: My real name is Dick Wittman.

Okay, only funny if you watch Mad Men. But if you aren't watching Mad Men, why not??? For the smart people who are into Mad Men, here's my analysis of the first episode of Mad Men.

But back to 30 Rock... I bounced up and down in my chair clapping when Salma Hayek revealed her What the Frak? Battlestar Galactica t-shirt.

Inside jokes on one of my favourite comedies, based on two of my favourite dramas. All they needed was a Tim Riggins reference and my life would've been complete.

Gay Storms Ahead -- Beware!!

Okay... So when I first saw this on Moonrat's blog I couldn't decide whether to laugh or cry. Sure, it was funny, but I feared that its target audience would take it seriously and so it made me a little sad about the world (at least our neighbours to the South), and angry about misleading propaganda and misinformation.



And then the brilliant Steven Colbert does a parody of it and I almost died laughing. Seriously. Have watched it six times already and laugh out loud, every time. "Oh God. The homo storm got me!"




Enjoy

Blindside

Wow. Survivor tonight was the best blindside ***of the audience*** I've ever seen. Those rascally editors/producers.

They sure had me convinced they were getting rid of Coach. Maybe I just wanted to believe it, because I can't STAND Coach. I'd even started another blog post about arrogance never getting you anywhere that I had to delete to start this one after the vote. Crap. Arrogance won.

That guy defines the word arrogant. And ridiculous. And narcissistic. And immature. And misogynistic. And about a dozen other negative words I can't think of right now. (I used up my allotted vocabulary editing today.)

Brendan seemed really nice and I thought he deserved to stay, but again, it's the all about the edit. He did make a huge mistake by not staying loyal to the Exile Island alliance right from the merge. But it seems like this season NO ONE is staying loyal. To anyone. I now think/hope Debbie will win. I used to be rooting for Taj or JT.

I don't think I remember another season where this far in there weren't stronger alliances. Quite honestly, it seemed like Brendan was the only one not totally in it for himself this year. I actually believed him when he said he hoped JT would win.

All I care about is that Coach doesn't win. Get that guy out of there. He makes me crazy and not in a good way. He absolutely encapsulates the personality type I most despise.

/rant

I Love You, Man

So, enjoyed this movie. Paul Rudd, anyone? And it was fun and his character was dorkily adorable and the Seth Rogen Jason Segal* character wasn't nearly as obnoxious as I was expecting--even showed some vulnerable layers...

But I couldn't help thinking... They've done it. Hollywood has figured out how to marginalize women, even in romantic comedies. A romantic comedy where the girl is the side-kick. Even managed to make her a secondary character at her own wedding.

Sigh.

Still enjoyed it. How about you?

*(Hmm... they are slightly interchangeable. Still. Sloppy, Maureen. Sloppy!)

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.