Category: Fun Stuff

RWA Photos

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I had a great time last week at the RWA conference in Orlando.  It’s a wonderful opportunity to meet other authors, readers, and to catch up with my editor and others from Berkley.  And I love going to the workshops!  Julia Quinn’s workshop on dialogue contains tons of good advice, and Anne Stuart’s workshop titled “Shitty First Drafts” is both hysterical and informative.

Here are a few photos from the conference:

Me and Andrea Williamson of the Romance Dish at the literacy book signing

Me and author Beth Kery (far left) with the Romance Dish ladies after dinner Tuesday night

Me and Buffie Johnson of the Romance Dish

Dinner Thursday night-- (clockwise) myself, Lisa Childs, Pamela Palmer, Kelly Young, Holli Bertram, and Colleen Gleason

My spot at the literacy signing. Sold out all my copies of Something About You!

Me at the Literacy Signing

A surprise guest who joined myself, Beth Kery, and the Romance Dish ladies for dinner

The view from my hotel room. Not bad, huh?

Speaking of the literacy signing, if you haven’t seen it yet, be sure to check out the music video that Sarah over at Smart Bitches, Trashy Books put together.  Of course, I’m one of the “blooper” authors and apparently can’t lip synch worth a darn, but the video is fabulous.

Beyond that, the RITA awards were great (man, the Golden Heart winners made me teary-eyed), and Sherry Thomas cracked me up with her RITA acceptance speech for thanking her husband for taking their two children out of the house for twelve days while she did a frantic rewrite of her award-winning book, Not Quite a Husband.  Nora Roberts, not surprisingly, gave a very motivating key note speech where she said that while writing can be hard, romance writers “eat the hard for breakfast”.  I think I’m going to slap that on a post-it note and stick it to my laptop.

So that’s my (admittedly very brief) summary!

Top Ten Movie Contest

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**Please note: the giveaway is now closed.  Winner will be announced shortly.

We’re in the full swing of summer now. . . and you know one thing summer makes me think of?  Movies.  So Beth Kery, Lea at Closetreader, Stacy at Stacy’s Place on Earth, and myself are teaming up to bring you a fun giveaway that centers around–you guessed it–movies.

A few weeks ago, Beth came up with the idea for this giveaway: the four of us would name our Top Ten movies of all time.  Each of us would give away prizes through our blog, and all anyone has to do to enter is name three of his or her favorite movies.  Sounds fun and easy enough, right?

Wrong.

See, I love movies.  Lots of movies.  Lots of different types of movies.  And I have always said that I could never, ever name my favorite film.  My favorite book? No problem–Pride and Prejudice.  Favorite TV show?  That’s easy– Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Heck, I can even tell you my favorite episode of Buffy— Becoming, Part 2.  (And, TV-wise, Seinfeld would be a close second.)  But favorite movie?  Impossible to decide.  Some movies inspire me, some make me laugh, some make me sigh.  How does one compare the feelings evoked by the perfect romantic comedy versus those evoked by an epic special effects-laden action-adventure? Impossible.

But the more I thought about it, there definitely were certain movies that stood out to me, those movies that have continued to be my “go to” movies over the years.  The ones I can never turn off if I stumble across them on cable.  The ones I curl up with for company on those nights my husband is out of town.  Am I ready to declare these my official “Top 10 Movies of All Time”?  I don’t know. . . how about this instead?

THE SEMI-OFFICIAL LIST OF MOVIES  I REALLY, REALLY LIKE,
THAT MIGHT BE MY TOP TEN,
ALTHOUGH I’LL PROBABLY REALIZE I FORGOT SOMETHING
FIVE MINUTES AFTER POSTING THIS

Interestingly, despite the fact that I’m a big fan of many classic films, the vast majority of the movies on this list were released in the last forty years.  And since there’s no way I could ever rank the movies, this list is going to be in no particular order–except for #1.  I think there is probably a certain movie that I would likely consider my “favorite.”  So without further ado, here we go:

The Princess Bride. Bar none, some of the funniest, most memorable, lines ever spoken in a movie.  With romance.  And pirates.  This movie is so good even guys will admit to loving it.  That alone speaks volumes.

The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring. I liked all the films in the trilogy, but in my opinion, this one was the best. Granted, the story was Tolkien’s, but Peter Jackson couldn’t have brought that story to life any better.  One of the few times I’ve left a theater and just said Wow.

Shakespeare in Love.  A woman who goes against societal constraints to pursue her dreams? Star-crossed lovers?  Two big checks in my book.

Signs.  I say this to my husband every time I watch Signs–I think this movie is genius.  The tingling suspense of a Hitchcock film; excellent, amazing characters who are so well-developed they leap off the screen; and an incredible performance by Joaquin Phoenix, who stole the show virtually every scene he was in.  I know many people think The Sixth Sense is M. Night Shyamalan’s best film, but I disagree.  If you haven’t seen it, put Signs in your Netflix queue now.  Seriously.

Speaking of Hitchcock…

North By Northwest.  Hitchcock + Cary Grant = gold.  Cary Grant is perfect in this as the everyday man who’s in the wrong place at the wrong time and inadvertently becomes involved in an dangerous intrigue.  (One of Hitchcock’s favorite plots.)  And did I mention it has Cary Grant?  A man whose swoon-worthiness is timeless.

Pretty Woman.  In terms of modern-day romantic comedies, this film sets the gold standard (along with When Harry Met Sally, which just narrowly missed this list). Everything about this movie was just so. . . right.  One of the best on-screen pairings, chemistry-wise, in recent film history.  From the moment Julia Roberts saunters up to that Lotus and into the life of rich, uber-dashing Richard Gere, I was sold.

Sixteen Candles. Jake Ryan–need I say more?  (Okay, I will.)  John Hughes just nailed high school life in the eighties/early nineties. And I think almost every woman who had a crush in high school can identify with Molly Ringwald’s character.  The scene where she steps out of the church and sees Jake leaning against his red Porsche, waiting for her?  Sigh.

Clueless.  Okay, if you’re tempted to laugh out loud over this choice, I ask this:  have you seen this movie?  Because I thought it would be a silly piece of fluff–and, okay, it kind of is– but it also has some of the best, snappiest, wittiest dialogue I’ve ever heard.  An incredibly smart screenplay disguised as a teen rom/com–and it’s even based on a Jane Austen novel! (Emma)

Aliens.  A kick-ass heroine who also has a softer side.  How often do you see that? Plus special effects galore.  And one of the best lines ever uttered in an action film: “Get away from her, you bitch!”  Simply because this movie shows that heroines can save the day as well as heroes, it goes in my top ten.

So I think that brings me to the movie I probably can call my Favorite Movie of All Time. . . any last-minute guesses?  Drum roll please. . .

Star Wars, Episode IV: A New Hope.  I know that Empire Strikes Back is, in many senses, the best of the three films in the trilogy.  (Notice I don’t even mention the abominations that were the three recent Lucas movies.)  But this is the movie that started it all, and introduced us to that famous world from a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. Sure, the special effects were beyond impressive for its time, but what really makes this trilogy timeless is the characters and the story.  Heck, I grew up wanting to be Princess Leia.  As an impressionable youth, I think Princess Leia set the stage for my earliest musings on how girls should handle boys:

Princess Leia: Someone has to save our skins. Into the garbage chute, fly boy.

Han Solo: Great girl. Either I’m going to kill her or I’m beginning to like her.

***

Princess Leia: Listen, I don’t know who you are, or where you came from, but from now on, you do as I tell you. Okay?

Han Solo: Look, Your Worshipful-ness, let’s get one thing straight. I take orders from just one person: me.

Princess Leia: Then it’s a wonder you’re still alive. [about Chewbacca] Will somebody get this walking carpet out of my way?

So there you have it–my top ten list.  What do you think? Let’s hear your thoughts and comments!

And now here’s the giveaway part:  I’m giving away a $25 gift card to Amazon, Borders, or Barnes & Noble, at the winner’s choosing.  All you have to do to enter is leave a comment below that lists at least three of your favorite movies of all time.  Feel free to tell us all why you chose the movies you did (although that’s not required for entry in the giveaway).

THEN, you should head over to Beth, Lea, and Stacy’s blogs and check out the lists of their Top Ten Movies.  Each of them is running a separate giveaway with fun prizes, so you should feel free to leave comments (and enter) at all four blogs.  My contest here will remain open until 10pm CST on Friday, July 16th, and the winner will be announced Saturday, July 17th.

So good luck–and let’s start the movie discussion!

Fun with Revisions (and a mini-rant)

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So I’m plugging along with the revisions for A Lot Like Love. . .

I’ve finished revising the first half of the book and it hasn’t fallen apart yet, so that’s good.  Actually, I’m really liking the changes–it’s amazing how stepping away from a manuscript for a few weeks can give you a new perspective on things.  Among other things, I changed the first kiss.  Important to get that one right–the first kiss says a lot, doesn’t it?

On another note, I’ve received all sorts of great news from my editor this week. Both Just the Sexiest Man Alive and Practice Makes Perfect have gone into a third printing, and Something About You is about to go into a second printing after only three months. Yippee!  And I have other news about Berkley, but, well, the superstitious side of me won’t say anything until everything is final.  But things are good on the publishing front. : )

And more fun stuff: I was lucky to receive an advance copy of Fatal Affair by Marie Force, one of the books being released by Carina Press as part of its June launch.  I just started the book and am really enjoying it so far. It’s great to have a good book to turn to after a long day of revisions!

Finally, on a totally random note, is anyone else watching So You Think You Can Dance this season?  Usually, I really look forward to SYTYCD as one of my fun summer shows, but I’m not liking the changes they made this season.  Still haven’t figured out the point of bringing back the “all stars”.  They don’t actually compete, they don’t choreograph the routines, so they’re just kind of… stand ins.  Plus, it means there were nine less spots for people who are actually competing, people for whom this competition actually matters.  Humph.

Okay, end of rant.

And don’t even get me started on the Lost and 24 series finales.  Although at least Lost has this going for it:

How about you guys?  What are you reading? Watching? Got any books/television shows/movies you want to rant about?

Your Questions Answered, Part 2

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I hope everyone is having a lovely Memorial Day weekend!

Now, on to more of your questions. . . (in case you missed Part 1, I’m answering questions readers posed to me in an earlier blog):

Q.  While the sexual tension between the H&H in “Practice Makes Perfect” and “Something About You” is certainly equal in it’s intensity, the later and most recent book is more sexually explicit. Did you find the more graphic love scenes more difficult to write?

A.  Yes and no.  Because there was a suspense subplot to Something About You, it felt right for the love scenes to be more intense and descriptive.  But I did drink wine while writing those scenes.  : )

Q.  In Practice Makes Perfect, was the socioeconomic differences between the upbringing of the hero and heroine planned out or was it something that just developed?

A.  That was planned.  On the outside, I wanted Payton and J.D. to seem like polar opposites.  But once they start to get to know each other, they realize they have a lot more in common than they’d originally thought.

Q.  In Something About You, I often wondered how the trial turned out…if Jack got his vindication?

A.  Actually, the Martino case continues in my next book, A Lot Like Love.  That book centers around an undercover investigation into a wealthy nightclub and restaurant owner who is laundering money for Martino.  Both Cameron and Jack have supporting roles in the story.

Q.  I just want to know ii it’s based on real events…
and if you’ll have a movie adaptation of your novels, what director would you prefer?

A.  The idea for Practice Makes Perfect is very loosely based on my experience working at my former firm.  There was a male associate in my group who was the same year as me, and because my group had never before made two associates partner in the same year, I often wondered what would happen when he and I came up for consideration.  From there, my overactive imagination ran wild.

As for what director I would prefer in the movie adaptation of my novels. . . my answer is the one who is most likely to get the film made. : )

Q.  How would you rate your books? PG, PG 13? R? X?

A.  I would say that Just the Sexiest Man Alive and Practice Makes Perfect are PG-13, and Something About You is R-rated.

There are a few remaining questions, which I’ll get to next week. On a different note, I just finished Dark Lover (book 1 in the Black Dagger Brotherhood series), which I enjoyed.  Now I’m curious about Zsadist’s story–oh, and Darius.  Luckily I already own the next two books in the series.  : )

I just started my book club book, The Scent of Rain and Lightning by Nancy Pickard.  A mystery set in a small town in Kansas, but that’s all I really know so far.

How about the rest of you?  What are you reading?

Your Questions Answered

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I noticed that several of you had questions for me about Something About You and Practice Makes Perfect in my previous blog about reading guides/discussion questions.  So I thought I’d go ahead and answer a few of those:

Q. I was wondering what inspired you to include more sex in Something About You?

A. Lots of wine.  Just kidding.  (Well, sort of.)  Something About You was steamier than my first two books because it felt like the right thing to do.  By adding a suspense subplot, there was a little more “grit” to the book, and the higher sensuality seemed a better fit for that.  Plus, there was such a build up of sexual tension between Cameron and Jack, I thought readers might kill me if I didn’t show the culmination of that.  : )

Q.  Do your characters take over – meaning have a mind of their own and if so, do they take you to a very surprising journey?

A.  Yes and no.  Sometimes I set out to write a certain scene and I write and rewrite and rewrite it again and it just doesn’t work, and usually that’s because I’m trying to get the characters to do something that would be, no pun intended, out of character.  And what also happens is that, as I get into the book, the characters will become so vivid in my mind that I can “hear” their voices and the back-and-forth dialogue really begins to flow.  I don’t know that I’ve ever been completely surprised by any character’s actions, though.

Q.  I am curious as to how your ‘past life’ as a lawyer pushed your books ahead and have you had to do more research as you write new books?

A.  Being a lawyer has certainly been a plus in writing lawyer heroines, I can say that.  : )  Although I did have to do more research for Something About You, since I was a civil litigator and Cameron is a criminal prosecutor.  So I emailed a friend who is an Assistant U.S. Attorney for help.  I suspect he thought that I was going to have all these sexy, thought-provoking questions about his job and then instead I asked him things like, “How many people do you share a secretary with?”  “When you meet with FBI agents, do you meet at your office or theirs?”  I knew the big-picture aspects of the job, I just needed help with the details.

With respect to Book 4, the upcoming A Lot Like Love, I had to do a lot of research.  Neither the heroine nor the hero is a lawyer–imagine that!  The heroine owns a wine store, so I shadowed the owner of my local wine shop for a day, I took a wine appreciation course (not exactly a hardship), and I read a couple books on wine.  Plus I took a trip to Napa Valley last year, and I was able to draw on that experience.

Q.  While writing the one book, did you start to get ideas for the next book and if so, are you able you write more than one book at a time?

A.  Not with my first three books.  Those were written entirely as stand-alone books, without any cross over in the characters.  But with A Lot Like Love, not only do I bring back characters from Something About You, but a supporting character in ALLL will be the hero in Book 5.  So when writing A Lot Like Love, yes–I definitely began to get ideas for the next book, because I already know who the hero will be.   That being said, I don’t actually write more than one book at a time.  I get very entrenched in the book I’m writing and need to focus only on that.

There were more questions, and I’ll get to those next time.  I think I like this Q&A idea!  So if you have questions you’d like answered in a future blog, feel free to post them below.

On an entirely different note, I started the first book in J.R. Ward’s Black Dagger Brotherhood series, and I’m enjoying it so far. For those of you who have read the BDB books–and I know there are many of you–what did you think?  (No spoilers please!)

Happy reading!