Oysters have an R

Well, here I am on a Saturday night at work, waiting to write the TLC show 'Flip that House' another home renovation show. Fall has arrived with a vengeance here in New York, it's been sunny but chilly for the past several days. Of course, I'm still walking around town in bare legs because I refuse to put on the straight jacket of pantyhose until I absolutely have to!

So, I slept late this morning because I didn't get home until almost 3 a.m. from my night job last night when there was a knock on my door, and the mailman is dropping off my DVF dress that I bought on Ebay! Yeah!!!!!! I almost forgive him for waking me up at 9:00 a.m.

After catching a few more minutes of rest, I got dressed and headed out to the Oyster Festival downtown, sponsored by this really groovy bar called Ulysses. Yummy! I have a confession to make, I never really liked raw oysters until I stopped eating meat. I don't know, it's like my taste buds came alive once I stopped eating dead animal flesh. Now I can't get enough of sushi and raw oysters.

My parents loved raw oysters and clams. Growing up, I was in charge of getting the clams and oysters whenever we went out to a clambake upstate. That was my job, and I would bring them back and watch while my parents just devoured these clams. At the time, I would only eat steamers or the fried clams at Howard Johnson. The idea of eating them raw made me sick.

See what you learn when you become an adult! Anyway the festival was really cool. I hate a 1/2 dozen raw oysters, some fried clams, some shrimp, and a really good slice of pizza, plus two awesome Bellinis (I figure it was cocktail hour somewhere in the world). Getting there was a bitch and a half. On the weekends the MTA feels free to change the train schedules willy-nilly so that it takes ingenuity to get anywhere.

The festival was pretty small, but cool. Supposedly you're only supposed to eat oysters in months that have an 'R' in them, and thankfully September qualifies. I'm definitely going to attend next year. That's the great thing about New York, there are always food festivals everywhere.

While I was downtown, I wandered in to Borders to use the bathroom, not intending to buy anything. Of course that went out the window. It's a miracle I only ended up with two books. I bought the new Ghosts of Albion book called Witchery by Amber Benson (who played Tara on Buffy) and Christopher Golden (author of the Jenna Blake YA series). This is a fabulous series set in Victorian England. Tamara and William Swift are the Protectors of Albion, their role is to protect England from ghosts, demons, any supernatural infestation. If you like Libba Bray's books, then you'll like the Ghosts of Albion series.

Oddly, the series first started as an animated series for the BBC which you can still see.

Oh, and Borders now has a savings card like Barnes and Noble, except it's free, and don't get daily discounts like the B&N card, but hey I'm willing to save money any way I can, so now I have both for each store.

Thanks for reading!

EKM

Grey Friday

You didn't think a Friday would go by without my talking about how much I love Grey's Anatomy. Seriously, I'm obssessed with this show. The day after, I have to read the EW TV Watch review, and the TV Guide Commentary, and then I have to read the Grey Writers blog to get the thoughts behind the episode.

It's sick I tell you. I did watch Ugly Betty before Grey's, and I can tell that it's going to be a guilty pleasure, simply because America Ferrara is so adorable in the role. You just want her to succeed and find a nice guy. Not necessarily her playboy boss, but a guy who really gets her, and doesn't want to change a thing about her.

I'm really hoping that they don't do a Pygmalion on her, the way they do in Devil Wears Prada. I think Betty should learn about fashion but in her own way. The way that Ivana Trump has tons of money but still doesn't know how to dress.

Now for Grey's. Was anyone as surprised as I was when McSteamy came out of the bathroom? Awesome, I totally did not see that coming. And the scene between Bailey and Izzy, where Bailey accepted part of the responsibility for what Izzy did. And Burke's mother gently chiding Cristina for calling Bailey a Nazi. Callie dancing in her underwear and getting caught by the Chief of surgery. The whole episode was just full of gems.

Sigh, I love this show. And I'm totally down with Meredith wanting to date both guys, although we both know she'll end up choosing McDreamy. Anyone who has dated two guys that she's attracted to at the same time knows that it's not quite as much fun as it might seem.

The picture? Well, that's of James Purefoy who plays Mark Antony in Rome. The ABC site didn't have new pictures from last night's episode of Grey's.

In writing news, I actually managed to write 10 pages today on my WIP. I still fell short of about 3 pages of the output I was hoping for this week (30 pages), but I at least managed to write two chapters which was awesome. Now I just have to edit the 4th chapter to post on the board on Monday.

I went back and looked at my synopsis. Boy, was I really about to go off the rails. As it is, I'm about one chapter behind on all the stuff I had planned. But I think it works out better the way that I have it. I now have a really good first act (the first three chapters). I'm hoping to have written at least 60 more pages before I head off to London on the 16th.

I've also emailed the agents who have the manuscript of my first YA, and I need to start querying again this week. I have at least 10 more agents I want to send the manuscript. It's just sheer laziness that I haven't already done it.

Thanks for reading!

EKM

Celebrity Look-alikes

This was really interesting. I could see Roselyn Sanchez and Eva Longoria, but some of the other people are a little weird. Come on, Cat Deeley and Rachel McAdams. This thing even thought I slighly resembled Lindsay Lohan and Jane Curtain?

Thanks for reading!

EKM

The Flipside to Overindulgence

Sorry, I haven't blogged in a bit. I was rushing to get my fifteen pages done and edited before I posted them to the bulletin board for the on-line writing class that I've been taking for the past five weeks. Also, I'm in the middle of writing the fourth chapter for next week, and I'm hoping to get that finished and done, and chapter five started by the end of the week. Plus, my group is moving on the floor, and I need to get things packed and ready by Friday afternoon. The irony is that my group is only moving over one row. Seriously, we could just move things ourselves, instead of having to pay thousands of dollars to movers to move the boxes. I don't even think our PC's are moving, and we don't have to pack those up.

Also, feeling a bit fragile after overindulging last night at the champagne tasting that I went to. I tasted 24 different champagnes, and I got to eat blinis and caviar (not the expensive stuff). Plus lots of cheese. Reminded me of the Meg Ryan movie, French Kiss, where she overindulges in cheese, even though she's lactose intolerant, like moi. Not bad though for $37.

However, today, I have a tiny little headache, which is not going away despite the Advil I took this morning. This is what happens when you get old, you can't drink like a seventeen year old anymore. Not that I would want to be seventeen again. Yuch!

Thanks for reading!

EKM

Happy Birthday F. Scott!

Today would have been the 110th birthday of F. Scott Fitzgerald, born this day in 1896 in Minnesota. My favorite period of American History is the 1920's (and then the Gilded Age), and the writer that epitomizes that period the most and is the most identified with it, is F. Scott himself.

Considering that his first book was published in 1920, and his fame lasted throughout the 1920's, only to fall in disfavor during the 30's and the great depression. For someone who came to epitomize the jazz age, he lived a remarkably sad life. His greatest work, The Great Gatsby didn't sell all that well, the love of his life ended up in an asylum where she later tragically died, and he basically drank himself to death, in between dashing off short stories to support Zelda and their lifestyle.

He went out to Hollywood to write for the screen, but I think he ended up with only one credit for the entire time that he was out there. He finally died of a heart attack in the home of his mistress in 1940, leaving an unfinished manuscript about the movie business called The Last Tycoon.

I've read alot of books about the twenties and Fitzgerald, but he still remains some what of a cipher to me. Still, I can always read his stories and novels, trying to imagine what it must of been like after WW1, during that carefree, crazy time.

Thanks for reading!

EKM

High Cost of Entertainment

Well, I decided that this weekend, I would actually go to the movies instead of watching them on DVD in the comfort and privacy of my own home, curled up in bed in my jammies, the way I usually do. So I duly looked up movie times in the newspaper, and picked Hollywoodland for the first movie I've seen in weeks.

My first shock was when I got there and realized that movies are now $10.75 in New York. That's like two Netflix movies for me (I have the two movies at a time for $9.95 a month deal). The next shock was a small popcorn and a soda would have set me back like another $10. Fortunately, I'd smuggled in a bottle of water, and the leftovers of the Cadbury fruit and nut bar from work to munch on, otherwise I would have been flat broke, and had to hit the cash machine again.

See this is why people don't go to the movies. You figure two people x $10.75 plus snacks and then if you go to dinner beforehand, it really adds up. And it's not like there's been all that much to make you run out and go to the movies lately. I mean Jackass 2? I did see some interesting movies during the previews that I want to see, including The Prestige with Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman, with Scarlett Johanssen where she once again gets to make out with Hugh Jackman. The bitch!

Plus an interesting movie with Clive Owen and Julianne Moore set in the future where the world is dying because women can't reproduce anymore. That looked pretty cool, although the last Clive Owen movie I saw was Derailed and that stunk.

Oh, Hollywoodland was really good. Diane Lane deserves a best supporting actress nod and Ben Affleck proved that he's more than Gigli. Loved the period detail and Adrien Brody proved that The Pianist wasn't just a fluke. And dude's got a really nice body although a little too skinny for me. But Black Dahlia? Oy, what a horrible film. It reminded me of when Carol Burnett used to do the classic movie spoofs on her show like Mildred Fierce. I laughed in all the wrong places, in scenes that weren't remotely funny.

The problem was the casting. I'm sorry but Josh Hartnett, with his hair parted in the middle and the bushy eyebrows, just looked like a grown-up version of Alfalfa. And Aaron Eckhart, who's usually half-decent had no character. Neither did Scarlett Johansen, although she looked lovely in period clothes. Mia Kirshner, who played Elizabeth Short, the Black Dahlia, was compelling but she's only seen in film footage from various screen tests. The only half-way decent acting comes from Hilary Swank but she's in some kind of parody like Mildred Fierce, although her costumes were lovely. The biggest problem is that she looks nothing like Mia Kirshner, and the plot hinges on that fact.

I read an article recently with the screenwriter, and he talked about adapting the book. It was very interesting because none of what he was talking about was in the script that was filmed.

Thanks for reading!

EKM

Grey Matters

How excited was I that last night was the season premiere of Grey's Anatomy? Try ecstatic. It's the one show that I'm being look forward to all summer long.

I have a confession to make. I didn't jump on the Grey's Anatomy bandwagon right away. No, it took the episode with the train wreck to get me on board. But once I did, boy, I didn't miss an episode. I even bought the season one DVD to catch up, and then when season 2 came out, first one on line at Barnes and Noble to buy the darn thing.

I was devastated when Denny died, but I understood why Shonda did it, besides the fact that the yummy Jeffrey Dean Morgan gets his own Shonda Rimes created show. How awesome is that? Last night totally lived up to my expectations.

Loved, loved the flashback sequence to the cocktail party before the interns started. You got to see Izzy, all bright-eyed and optimistic, and then contrast it with her prostrate on the bathroom floor (but how big did that bathroom suddenly get? it looked alot smaller in previous episodes). I had to laugh at everyone called Meredith dark and twisted, when previously she was just scary and damaged.

Bailey saying good-bye to Denny after she identified the body just broke my heart, and then it broke again when she was talking to Omar who was in quarantine and she had to tell him that his wife died. And can I just say that I love Callie? and how much she loves the George?

But the best by far were the two scenes with Derek, the one where we got to see the night they met, and then the night that Derek caught Addison with McSteamy. My heart is breaking for Addison. She really loves Derek, but she knows that she's been fighting an uphill battle against Meredith.

Shonda Rimes deserves credit for making Addison sympathetic, instead of the evil bitch wife, who ruined Derek and Meredith's love story. It makes sense though, if she were a flat out bitch, we'd wonder why Derek married her in the first place. Very clever that Shonda.

All the layers that she reveals about the characters is what draws you in, besides what it's like to be an intern. Cristina crying in Burke's arms, and asking him not to die, telling Meredith and Izzy about sitting shiva.

I could literally talk about this show all day, but I won't bore you guys!

Thanks for reading!

EKM

The Plight of the Independent Woman

I just read an article on the actress Ellen Barkin, who just recently was divorced abruptly by her billionaire husband Ron Perelman because she dared to take a small part in a film and left him for a few days. Yeah, Ron couldn't be alone while she went off to make a movie. Don't ask me why, he's a grown man, I'm sure he travels on business alot but for some reason that was okay.

I guess he needed her for trophy wife duties. She made a comment that was telling, that what attracted Ron Perelman to her was the fact that she was a glamorous movie star, and then what ended the relationship was that she was a glamorous movie star. As long as she looked the part on his arm, that was okay, but god forbid she should actually ply her craft.

Jane Fonda made a similar comment when she was married to Ted Turner. She said that one of the reasons why she retired and moved to Atlanta was Ted couldn't be left alone for like more than a day. Otherwise, I dont' know, he'd cheat on her or stop taking his lithium, who knows.

I know I've had the same problem, as my friends have pointed out to me, no doubt trying to be helpful, but of course it comes across as 'no man will ever want to marry you, until you learn to be more needy' which can turn around and bite you in the butt as well. I know that ex-sweetie pie always said he liked the fact that I was idependent and had friends and interests, but it was tough when I was acting in show after show and he wasn't. At one point, during our relationship, I did like four shows in a row. I was also taking continuing education classes, and working full-time, as well as writing.

Now of course, I have like ten jobs. I know that fun guy was kind of intimidated at the fact that I was working alot while he was still unemployed. Of course, the fact that I was fun and independent was why he liked me in the first place, until he realized that by my working alot that meant less time for us to have sex.

So what do I do? I don't feel intimidating. As far as I'm concerned, I'm a pussycat, who's just looking for a friend. I'm not looking for a man to take care of monetarily, I can do that myself, but I am looking for a man to love me.

I love that Destiny's Child song, "Independent Woman, Part II," from the Charlie's Angel movie (the first one). It's such a female empowerment song. It's my anthem, but apparently maybe I should pick another one, some fluffy song like anything Jessica Simpson sings. Hey, even Nick Lachey got tired of her whining, needy ass.

I'm so confused.

There has got to be a man out there secure enough in his masculinity to want to take me on. I can't be that much woman, come on.

Thanks for reading!

EKM

What Retro Gal are you?

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Whitney Houston - American Hero

So now that Whitney and Bobby Brown are kaputs, isn't it time that Whitney stepped up to the plate and did something for her country? Yes, I'm talking of offering herself up to trap Osama bin Laden.

As you may recall, according to his ex-mistress, Osama had quite the thing for Ms. Houston. He considers her to have an Islamic soul, and feels that she would make an excellent fourth wife. So I say, let the CIA, the FBI, MI-5, and Interpol use Whitney as bait.

Can't you just see it? There's a knock on the door at Whitney's Bel-Air mansion. Several Men In Black are at the door. Whitney answers and the men usher in George W. Bush aka Shrub to make a personal plea to Whiney's patriotism. I mean, after all, didn't she sing the Star Spangled Banner?

Bush: Ms. Houston, your country needs you. It's been 5 years since Osama sent those men to blow up the World Trade Center, and we're still no closer to finding him. We need you to perform a concert in Dubai, where Osama bin Laden will then attempt to kidnap you and take you to his mountain lair. But before he does, the CIA will swoop in and capture him, thereby finally dismantling the Al-Queda network. And you will receive the Medal of Freedom for your efforts.

Whitney: Hell to the No!

If nothing else, wouldn't that be a great sequel to the Bodyguard. Kevin Costner has to come out of retirement to save Whitney once again, this time from Art Malik playing some Osama bin clone. It could resurrect both their careers. Diane Warren could write some power ballad for Whitney to sing, only this she and Kevin can walk off into the sunset. Oh, and it turns out that Rachel (Whitney's character) gave birth to Kevin's child after the last movie.

What do you think?

Thanks for reading!

EKM

Stalking Meg Cabot

So I stalked, I mean went to see Meg Cabot speak at the 92nd St. Y here in New York over the weekend, which made up for the disappointment of not attaining Tim Gunn's signature on Saturday. Yes, Tim was signing bobble head dolls and T-shirts at Emmett McCarthy's (Season 2) store down in Nolita. I got there late and by the time I managed to get into the store, Tim had to leave to continue filming the season finale of the show. I did however get to see Nick Verraros, Kayne, and Allison, along with Malan who looked exactly like he did on the show.

I lost my ticket to the Meg Cabot event but luckily they issued me a new one to replace it and I was able to see her. Of course once again I was late, this time because the crosstown bus at 96th Street took forever. Seriously it took me about 40 minutes to go across town. Traffic was murderous. I finally got there at 7:20 and by the time I made it through the ticket line and got upstairs it was 7:30.

So I missed her stories about her dad Vic Cabot, which I'm sure would have been great. I did however get to hear her talk about how the little old ladies in her old neighborhood put out their own newspaper and featured her dad on the front page.

Of course Meg looked fabulous. She's certainly spending on that Disney loot on clothes. Last night, she wore a black D&G dress, and a fantabulous pair of black suede platform sandals from Betsey Johnson, which I told her I coveted. I didn't mention that I had met her in Atlanta or that she had talked to RWA NYC after we gave her our second ever Author of the Year award. The line of teenage and tweener girls was a mile long, and I'm sure the poor thing was probably tired.

Her agent was with her, which I thought was fabulous. The one thing that struck me in her talk, some of which I'd already heard in Atlanta, was the fact that she sent out a query a day for like a year. She went through the Jeff Herman guide and just went down the list of agents that she thought might be interested in her work. By the time she was done, she had a mail bag full of rejections. Ouch! It sort of puts all my rejections into perspective. I haven't collected a mail bag full although sometimes it feels like I have.

I'm off to finish Chapter 2 before I submit it for class. Lots of tweaking on this chapter.

Thanks for reading!

EKM

Oops! She did it again!

Even more good news. Our RWA NYC diva extraordinaire, Patt Milhailoff just had another sale, this time to Ellora's Cave for her medieval fantasy, THE RING DANCER'S DESTINY and a contract is in the mail.

Congratulations Patt! You deserve it! Champagne at the next chapter meeting!!!!

Thanks for reading.

EKM

It's Raining Men!

No, it's not really raining men here in New York, although it is raining. I just love that song by the Weather Girls. Just the idea that it could be raining men, and all you had to do was go outside and wait for one to land on you. If he wasn't too heavy!

Of course, according to the new ABC Series Men in Trees, all the eligible men are in Alaska. But according to Lani Diane Rich over at the Literary Chicks, there is a reason all those men in Alaska aren't married. You just knew there had to be a trick!

This is Ioan Gruffud (pronounced Yo-an Griffith). He's Welsh and adorable. Perhaps you've seen in Fantastic Four which was a piece of crap but he was lovely in it. Or the Hornblower movies on A&E, where he's stalwart and handsome. Sort of the naval equivalent of Sharpe.

He's now the new face for Burberry London for Men. If you buy the new issue of Vanity Fair with Tom, Katie and Suri on the cover, you can see his lovely ads with the equally beautiful Rachel Weisz. I often like to spritz myself with Burberry London when I'm in Sephora just to remind myself of my spiritual home.

I once had the privilege of seeing Mr. Gruffud at the Ivy, a rather posh restaurant in the West End of London. He was having dinner with his now fiancee Alice Evans, whom he starred with in 102 Dalmatians and Man about Town, Nicky Haslam. We made eye contact and he smiled at me. Sigh!

Can I just say that he's just as lovely in person as he appears in these pictures?

So since it's Friday, and it's quite nasty out and I still have to finish the second chapter of my WIP, I leave you with these lovely photos of Ioan.

Thanks for reading!

EKM

Wanted One Soulmate

I was reading this blog on the UK Glamour Magazine site, where she was detailing what she was looking for in a man. Reading it inspired me to come up with my own list, so here goes:

I want a man who respects me for for wanting to wait to sleep with him the first time. I need more than three dates, okay?

I want a man who pats me on the head because he thinks I'm adorable, not just because I'm giving him a blow job.

I want a man who is cleverer than me but doesn't realise it, because he's not so competitive and insecure for that kind of thing to cross his mind.

I want a man who thinks that women can be funny.

I want a man who understands that I have good reason to be angry, and that reason isn't 'I'm on the rag'.

I want a man who doesn't think that my asking him to do basic, decent things, such as putting down the toilet seat, is nagging.

I want a man who forgoes St Valentine's Day and goes out of his way on Tuesdays, because nothing ever happens on a Tuesday.

A man who understands that, unless I give permission, there's only one entrance. And it's a bit further forward, thank you very much.

A man who understands that saying "a morning fuck is better than an alarm clock" isn't particularly sexy or clever.

A man who isn't repulsed by periods and childbirth.

A man who can accept the bad things I've done in the past (and realise they're not all that bad really and that anyone would have done the same if they'd drunk as much).

A man who realizes that sometimes once a night, is not enough. And is willing to sleep in the wet spot.

A man who is willing to wear a condom, instead of giving some sob story about it not "enhancing his experience."

A man who realizes that just because I wear a skirt, and sexy high heels doesn't mean I'm stupid or easy.

A man who realises that, once the situation is established, saying "I love you" is no bad thing.

A man who pulls the chair out, but only after I've got up. Who holds the door because it's chivalrous, not just so he can get a better look at my ass.

A man who knows the difference between my nipple and the AM/FM dial on the radio.

A man who will understand if I don't want dinner because I feel like a fat cow, and is happy to let pick off his plate without getting upset.

I want a man who will give me space and let me do my own thing, but be there at my beck and call if my own thing includes him.

I want a man who understands that while lingerie is nice (as long as it's Victoria's Secret or La Perla and not some cheap shit from Frederick's) jewelry is better.

I want a man who understands that sometimes a hug is just a hug and not a prelude to sex.

I want a man who isn't afraid to do things the old fashioned way: to telephone (not text), invite me to dinner and, no less, actually suggest a restaurant because he is a decisive person.

Who wants to know all about my family and my job, not just my bra size. And who listens because he's interested, not just to get me into bed.

I want a man who buys me flowers just because he knows that lilacs are my favorite, not because we've had a fight or it's a special occasion.

Someone who occasionally patronises me, but in an affectionate way, and sometimes makes me feel like a little girl who needs looking after.

I want a man who I am attracted to for longer than it takes the alcohol to leave my blood system.

I want a man who adores every inch of me, good and bad, flabby and firm, thin and thick, happy and sad, clever and stupid, cranky and crampy, consistent and then not so, confused yet certain.

Am I asking too much?

Thanks for reading!

EKM

What do Readers want?

I've been thinking about a discussion that was started at our chapter meeting this weekend. Two of our members were sort of lamenting the restrictions they felt were placed on heroines in romance novels. You know, not too many lovers in her past, no past addictions, not too snarky, bitchy or sarcastic. As if any of the above takes away from the likeability of a character. Both of these writers couldn't understand why it was okay for a man in a romance novel to be an alpha male bastard (I'm thinking here of the heroes of most Harlequin Presents novels that I've ever read), who have slept around, had babies with other women, and/or been in jail (always for a crime they didn't commit), drank too much etc.

Diana Peterfreund then hit the nail on the head when she said that for most readers they want to identify with the heroine. In some ways, they actually want to be able to imagine themselves in the heroine's shoes. So a heroine, who at one point in her life might have been a bit of a ho-bag, is not going to be attractive to most readers in the read states. Ditto, a heroine with a past drug addiction, who used to be a stripper (although I did read one once where she was a Las Vegas showgirl, but in the nudie shows), likes to drink too much or had a baby by more than one man (although I did once read a Danielle Steel who of course says she doesn't write romance novels, where the heroine married like 5 guys in one book and this was a contemporary!).

That's why you generally find women who are a little more complex and human in women's fiction. One of my favorite books is Marian Keye's novel, Rachel's Holiday where Rachel spends about 3/4 of the book in denial that she has a serious drug addiction. Another favorite book is A Little Help from Above, where the main character is still angry and bitter over her mother's early death from ovarian cancer, and the fact that her father married her aunt less than a year later and had another child. Oh, and he also cheated on the mother one night with the sister-in-law while his wife was sick. The character is sarcastic, bitchy and mean to her sister, not to mention her stepmother/aunt. Yet, I still found myself symphathizing with her. Did I want to be her? No way!

Diana also said that flawed heroes bring out the maternal instincts in the reader. You know, that old "I can save him with my love," which we all know never works in real life, but somehow always manages to work out in romances. Think of Sarah's Child by Linda Howard. Through Sarah's unselfish love, Rome finally heals and is able to love both her and Melissa. Now was I able to identify with a woman who loved her best friend's husband from afar and was still a virgin at the age of 34, who had given up basically any chance at a normal life until her best friend and her kids die in a car accident (I hope I haven't spoiled this book for anyone. If you haven't read it, you should)? NO! But I enjoyed reading their love story, although I was frustrated with both of them during the book.

Now, there have been books that occasionally have somehow slipped through the cracks that didn't adhere to the formula. I've heard of Harlequin Superromances, where the heroine was a former teenage runaway/prostitute and even a book where the heroine had breast cancer (oh, diseases also seem to be verboten as well). I even remember reading a Mills & Boon where the heroine got hit by a car at the end of the book, and never walked again. The ending paragraph is of the hero helping the heroine into her wheelchair.

But rarely do you see the blind/ill/crippled heroine in books nowadays. Not even a heroine living with diabetes or plump. Long gone are the days where LaVryle Spencer could write a Temptation where the heroine has a breast reduction because her boobs were too big.

I don't know. I don't read a lot of series romance precisely because of the virgin/baby/amnesia thing but readers love them.

Is there a place in romance where the heroines can be as flawed as the heros?

Thanks for reading!

EKM

Playing catch-up

I'm exhausted. I'm off caffeine for five days due to that time of the moon, so I'm cranky, crampy and bitchy. Plus I have fifteen pages to upload for my class and I'm behind. The pages are written but I'm feeling nervous about letting 15 strangers that I've never even met judge my work. Actually when you think about it, it's no different than letting fifteen agents or editors I don't know read my work, so I just need to get over it and do it. I'm not sure why I'm so reluctant or why I'm feeling so needy lately in terms of my work.

Maybe it's because I still haven't heard from the four agents who have either the partials or the full manuscript and I'm kind of getting antsy. I mean, if they really liked it, they would have gotten back to me by now, right?

Sigh!

Saturday was fun. It was RWA NYC's monthly meeting and we had the wonderful Diana Peterfreund come all the way from our nation's capital as a speaker. We also had a mini celebration for Patt, our latest member to sell, which was very sweet and totally unexpected.

Another surprise (particularly for me who was wearing absolutely no make-up) was finding a team from Allure Magazine at the meeting. Apparently Danielle Steel has a new perfume that's coming out soon, and the magazine wanted our reactions to it. It's actually a lovely fragrance that I would go out and buy, then I'm also a perfume whore. One of my favorite things is to go in to Sephora and spritz myself with fragrance.

Watched the Antonio Banderas movie about ballroom dancing. You know the one where he plays a ballroom dancing instructor who decides to teach a group of public school kids in detention to dance as a way of lifting their spirits and inspiring them to achieve. The theory being if you can fox-trot than you can do anything, kind of thing. Can I just say that Antonio Banderas is hot, hot, hot? I mean smoking hot!

I now want to take tango lessons, because it just looked so sensual and fantastic. I can see why Robert Duvall fell under it's spell and ran off with a tango instructor.

My new goals, besides increasing my writing output, is to do things that give me joy. Like dancing, learning to sail, shooting a gun, etc. I'm going on the theory that if you find joy, then other stuff will follow. Frankly I'm getting a little tired of myself, always being depressed and down about not meeting anyone.

So I've decided to choose joy instead!

Thanks for reading.

EKM

In Memoriam

Since today is the 5th year since the World Trade Center tragedy, there will be no blog today out of respect and in memoriam for all the lives that were lost that horrible day.

Thanks for reading,

EKM

TGIF

Thank god, it's Friday. I'm beyond tired, and I've been taking my vitamins, go figure. I think my body has been running on fumes for the past 9 months, that it's finally catching up with me. I'm not sure how much longer I can continue this work two jobs, be president of RWA NYC, write, and try to have a life, without ending up in the loony bin. Well, at least there, I'd get some rest, in between therapy and taking my anti-depressants.

A vacation is seriously called for, and I mean a real one. National was not a vacation, although I had a lot of fun. My big problem is I hate to feel like I'm missing something.

I started a writing class last week with Media Bistro that I'm excited about. It's on-line, 12 weeks, writing the YA novel. I thought that I was going to continue in this vein, I might as well take a class. I was having such a hard time with the book I had been writing. I managed to get up to chapter 6 before I ran out of steam.

I do plan on going back to that book at some point, but right now I'm working on the second book in a series that I pictured to super duper agent back in August. A very good friend of mine suggested that I work on that book instead, and I'm glad that I took her advice. Not that the writing has been easy. It's been awhile since I've written in third person, but it's necessary because I need to have the hero's POV (although limited), and a certain amount of POV from a few other characters as well.

I seriously don't know how Cecily von Ziegesar (or whoever is writing the Gossip Girl/It Girl series now) writes from the POV of so many characters. I read Melissa de la Cruz's book Blue Blood and there were at least three or four characters POV in that.

I don't want to make this book too hard on myself, but since the third book in the series is going to have even more POV from the guy, I need to start slowly with this book and then work my way into it.

Oh and just for fun, I've include a cute picture of the RWA NYC cuties from National. From left to right, Sapna, me, Kwana and Megan.

Have a good weekend, and thanks for reading!

EKM

Random Thoughts

This was the horoscope that I found in my in box this morning:


"Do you have an urge to howl at the Moon? With the September 7 full Moon lunar eclipse in sensitive Pisces you may feel a bit thin-skinned. Yet, there isn’t a better time to tune into yourself and take stock of where you are and what you want. See if you can take some time away from your busy schedule. Turn off your cell phone, hire a babysitter or take a personal day from work."

Gee, do you think I could use that as an excuse for not going to work tomorrow? I'm mean I've been feeling pretty run down, and my allergies are acting up. Or maybe I'm just allergic to the bad acting on last night's episode of Fashion House. You know your show is in trouble when the only one who can act is Bo Derek.

I mean this show was ludicrous, and I'm not talking in a good way. The best bit was when Nikki, a fashion model, hands over her friend's design to the head designers at the House of Gianni for them to use in the next fashion show. And her friend wasn't upset about it! She wasn't even looking for a job in fashion since she was too busy ironing her husband's shirts in a poor imitation of a Stepford wife.

I don't care what anyone says, Tom Cruise releasing pictures of baby Suri is a totally to change the public's perception of him as a lunatic. Let's face it, a Vanity Fair cover is a little more prestigious than just releasing the pictures to the media or to People Magazine. The same thing with Brooke Shield's telling Jay Leno that Tom Cruise apologized to her. This was a whole year after he made those comments about her in the press. You can't tell me that this timing is a little odd. First Paramount announces they haven't renewed his deal, and then Brooke is telling everyone he apologized.

All this in a week where we learned that the nutjob who claimed to have killed Jon Benet Ramsay didn't, and poor Steve Irwin died. At least he died doing what he loved, working with animals. Poor Jon Benet still hasn't received justice ten years after her death.

Thanks for reading!

EKM

Pale Immortal by Anne Frasier

USA Today bestselling author Anne Frasier has kept her readers on the edge of their seats... Now she delivers a tale that will have them looking over their shoulders. In her new novel, Anne Frasier flirts with the paranormal when a town's horrific legacy gives rise to shadows of fear and suspicion.

Welcome to Tuonela, a sleepy Wisconsin town haunted by events of 100 years ago, when a man who may have been a vampire slaughtered the town's citizens and drank their blood. Now, another murderer is killing the most vulnerable...and draining their bodies of blood.

Evan Stroud lives in darkness. The pale prisoner of a strange disease that prevents him from ever seeing the light of day, he lives in tragic solitude, taunted for being a "vampire." When troubled teenager Graham Stroud appears on Evan's doorstep, claiming to be his long-lost son, Evan's uneasy solitude is shattered.Having escaped Tuonela's mysterious pull for several years, Rachel Burton is now back in town, filling in as coroner. Even as she seeks to identify the killer, and uncover the source of the evil that seems to pervade the town, she is drawn to Evan by a power she's helpless to understand or resist...As Graham is pulled deeper and deeper into Tuonela's depraved, vampire-obsessed underworld, Rachel and Evan team up to save him. But the force they are fighting is both powerful and elusive...and willing to take them to the very mouth of hell.

Anne's Pale Immortal is hitting shelves across the US, at a retailer near you. I think I read somewhere that is her first paranormal book. I've read her other books, and I'm dying to read this one.

Here's Anne's Pale Immortal book video below brought to you by You Tube. Unfortunately, I had a hard time linking to it. Here's a link to her website to check it out.

Video's are now a new way for authors to promote themselves. Stephanie Bond has done it, Marianne Mancusi and a host of others.

Obsession

Not just a Calvin Klein fragrance!

Mary F. had a great post on her obsessions, and it made me think about the things I've been obsessed with in my life.

First was Donny Osmond when I was seven. While other kids went for David Cassidy, Bobby Sherman or Michael Jackson, Donny was my man. Even when he wore platform boots, I didn't waver in my devotion. I knew all the words to Puppy Love, played his solo albums incessantly, and even watched the Donny and Marie Show. Purple became my favorite color. But it all had to end when I read in Tiger Beat what being a Morman meant and how much his religion meant to him. I knew even at the tender age of nine, that there was no way that smoking, drinking, and having premarital sex were not going to be part of my life. Plus you couldn't even drink a Coke! (this was pre-caffeine free Coke). How Joseph Smith figured out that caffeine was bad for back in 1820, I have no idea.

Next up for me was both the Little House books and Nancy Drew. I devoured the Little House books, and boycotted the TV series because as far as I was concerned Michael Landon was not Pa. Plus they spent the entire series in Plum Creek, and everyone knew that the Ingalls family ended up in South Dakoka! Remember the Long, Hard Winter? And Nancy Drew, I read all 57 of the original series, plus the originals before they were rewritten.

That lead me to my other obsession in the seventies. Parker Stevenson (sorry Mary!). While other girls drooled over Shaun Cassidy, Parker had me at hello. He seemed so mature and wordly compared to Mr. Da Do Run Run Cassidy.

Then I rediscovered ballet via Barishnykov and the Turning Point. I threw myself into ballet lessons, and attending the ballet. I had a huge crush on one of the principals at ABT, Patrick Bissell. I starved myself trying to become a pin head like Gelsey Kirkland, often eating one meal a day and taking two ballet classes. That ended when I realized there was no way in the world, I was ever going to be as thin as Gelsey Kirkland, and I would be lucky to be hired to dance in the corps of a regional ballet company. And then Patrick Bissell died of a drug overdose in 1987, and my love affair with ballet dimmed.

But then I discovered the Royal family (the Windsors) and Figure Skating. I watched the U.S. Figure Skating championships and the World Championships religiously. I became a huge fan of Kristi Yamaguchi, Brian Boitano, Michelle Kwan, and Elvis Stojko. Not to mention the beautiful duo of Sergei Grinkov and Ekaterina Gordeeva.

I read about the royal family incessantly. I was in London the summer that Charles and Diana got married, and when Harry was born. I got up early to watch Fergie and Andrew get married. Andrew Morton's book was on the top of my must buy list when it came out. I was torn between Charles and Diana. I could see both sides. And then when Diana was killed a few weeks after I came back from London yet again, I got up at 5 a.m. to watch the funeral. Now it's Harry and William that I'm interested in, who they're dating, their lives.

Television shows? Buffy of course. When I was unemployed (thanks to TNT), I got hooked on Charmed (only the Shannon Doherty) years, and now it's Grey's Anatomy and Project Runway. I guess it's the relationships that I'm attracted to on all these shows. When Denny and Pru died, when Buffy came back from the dead, who did she love more, Spike or Angel?

What are you obsessed (besides Clive Owen, Megan!)?

Thanks for reading!

Elizabeth

Buy vs. Borrow

I've been reading the comments lately on line about whether or not to buy books vs. borrowing from the library or used books. I love books, and if I had my way I would have a whole room full of books. Wait a minute I do, but seriously I would have a room that was just my library. As it is, I now have books on the floor, books piled on the tables and in bookshelves. I have no place to put any more books.

Every year for Christmas, I would ask my parents for books. Even now I have a huge Amazon wish list of books. But unfortunately I can't afford to buy all the books that I want. Not if I want to pay my rent, eat, and occasionally travel or go to the movies. I just can't. Three years ago, I was unemployed for most of the year, so I had to make some changes in the way I spent money. Which meant taking more books out of the library and not buying as many books.

I still buy new books from authors that I know, and authors that I love that I want to support. However with new authors, I usually will buy them either from the Strand or take them out of the library. If I like them, then they go automatically into the to buy column. I donate my books to the library to either be sold or to be part of the collection, given that the public libraries in New York are suffering under a budget crunch.

Libraries were very important to me growing up. I read my way through both the junior library and the senior libraries at school, discovering many authors. Of course, there were no romances in my school library so I had to get my fix at the public library. I read my way through Jean Plaidy that way since most of her historical novels weren't published yet in paperback.

Even though I now have a permanent job, I still have to be careful with money in order to afford to attend conferences, and to send out my manuscripts, so I have to budget carefully when I buy books.

Right now, I've just bought Julie Leto's new book, and Susan Elizabeth Philip's latest paperback, even though I still have a huge pile of books that I bought at the literacy signing in Atlanta.

I totally understand authors worrying that if consumers buy used books from Amazon, and from used bookstores, that it might be fewer print runs, and the possibility of series being cut. And I know that I will probably feel the same way when I'm published but authors should know that we don't do it to be malicious, we worry about feeding our reading habit without breaking the bank.

Thanks for reading!

EKM