What Regency Romance Heroine Are You?

Ah, how sweet - you are an Ingenue. You are the

youngest of the heroines, sweet yet not

insipid, pretty but not cloying, and just out

of the schoolroom. You have been living in

the country all your life, and are part of a

large family. Your father is probably a

curate, and you are not very well off.

Despite your youth and naivety, or perhaps

because of it, you are quite fearless and

will not follow convention just because it is

the thing to do. Instead of being properly

bored at society events, you are excited just

to be there. An older and jaded member of

the Ton, who is cynical about women and had

never intended to marry, finds you refreshing

and adorable, and quickly falls under your

spell. Despite all warnings, you fall in

love with him in return. It transpires that

his black reputation and cynical exterior

hide a kind and noble, yet deeply wounded,

heart, and you marry and live happily ever

after. Make the most of this while it lasts,

because I fear your sort of heroine is quite

annoying, and rapidly falling out of favour

with modern novelists.


The Regency Romance Quiz: What kind of Romance Heroine are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Weekend Eye Candy

It's cold, and snowing right now, so I thought I'd leave you with something a little hot for the weekend.

Have a great weekend and keep warm!

Elizabeth

Random Thoughts on a Friday afternoon

What I'm thinking about now:

I can't believe I missed the repeat of Sunday's Grey's Anatomy! I mean could they have announced or something? I had no idea until I was at work last night and I happened to see it on one of the TV sets. Unfortunately, I couldn't watch it because I was stuck watching Beauty and the Geek 2, which actually isn't that bad, and I was taping Dancing with the Stars at home, which I still haven't seen because I didn't get home until 1:00 a.m. and barely had enough time to brush my teeth, and wash my face before I fell head first into bed.

I'm so peeved at Project Runway right now. Uncle Nick, my favorite from the very first episode was cut Wednesday night. However, I'm not surprised, his last few designs were uninspired and in this episode, he seemed to lose his mind. I mean who designs a men's suit without pockets or a belt loop? In pale lavendar cashmere, and this was a men's suit. Yes, Santino's jumpsuit didn't fit and it was falling apart, but Nick's looked worse. And we all know they're only keeping Santino around for entertainment value. He's this season's Wendy Pepper but with more talent.

I'm so tired from lack of sleep and lack of caffeine, that it's like I'm typing in a coma right now, but I have to finish typing the fourteen pages that I rewrote into the computer before the end of the day. I've done 6 pages so far, and I have 8 more to go.

This section totally sets up the relationships of everyone for the rest of the book. All the main characters are introduced. My job is to manage all this without drowning the audience in backstory, which is my bete noire when it comes to writing. Also show don't tell is something I'm trying to be very aware of.

So far the revisions are going okay, and I've designed a plan to keep my interest from flagging which can happen during the second and third drafts of a book.

Anyway, back to the grindstone. That thud you hear might just be my head hitting the keyboard if I can't say awake!

Chateau Voltaire

It's been awhile since I've indulged my obsession with real estate porn on this blog, but I was reading an article in the Sunday New York Times, and I had to share it with you all. The above mansion, on Long Island's Gold Coast, was once known as Chateau Voltaire. Why because it was a section of a chateau in France, that the owner believed had been lived in by Voltaire and his mistress during the 18th century.

It's actual name is Chateau des Thons, because it's an entire wing of the actual Chateau in the Vosges area of France near Dijon. The original owner, Ashbel H. Barney, was in the market for a French chateau (aren't we all?). Back in the day, the robber barons used to travel to Europe and buy whole crateloads of paintings, furniture, interiors, for their McMansions back in the States. J.P. Morgan was notorious for that.

But that wasn't good enough for Mr. Barney. He bought an entire wing, including the green moss, and the flagstones from Les Petits Thons back to New York.

The romantic story behind Chateau des Thons is that Voltaire and his mistress one Madame du Chatelet, carried on a 16 year affair in the chateau. The affair supposedly ended when she got pregnant with a third man's child and died giving birth.

However, the true story is that Voltaire never lived in the chateau with his mistress, he lived in some other chateau. That of course, didn't stop real estate agents or Gold Coast historians from repeating the story, until it became local legend.

You can buy the mansion for the relatively bargain price of $7 million dollars. It's one of the few Gold Coast Mansion still in existence. Once upon a time, particularly during the twenties this part of Long Island was covered in huge mansions, up to 450 of them, mainly built by millionaires flush with cash from various enterprises. F. Scott Fitzgerald based Jay Gatsby's house on a mansion that was unfortunately torn down during the '60's.

Huge yachts lined the harbor, some of which were unfortunately shot to pieces by the Coast Guard who mistook them for rum runners during Prohibition (can you imagine the Coast Guard shooting up Trump's yacht or the Forbes yacht today by accident? They would have their ass sued so fast). Wild parties went on for days (P. Diddy has nothing on the revelers of the 1920's).

All that ended during the Great Depression, but if you want an idea of what life was like for the rich take a look at the mansion on Sotheby's real estate site or pick up a copy of Monica Randall's "Mansions of Long Island's Gold Coast" to have a look. Some of the mansions are still open to the public.

The Shot Seen Round the World

Has Brittney lost her damn mind? That's what I want to know. First she marries some guy she grew up with for like 2 days, and then she marries another guy that any woman worth her salt would have told her was trouble.

Next thing you know she's walking into public restrooms in bare feet. And now she's seen driving with her four month old baby on her lap.

Her defense? 'To protect him from the paparazzi'. Um, Brittney, how is holding him on your lap instead of in his car seat going to help him if you're cut off by some photographer?

I don't care if your bodyguard is in the seat next to you. They invented car seats for a reason. Use one.

She says that she loves her baby, and would never do anything to harm him. I'm sure that's true, but I don't care if you're just going to the corner store to buy more pork rinds, the baby should be in his car seat. If you're worried about him, you can have the bodyguard sit in the back with him, or better yet, let him drive, while you sit in the back with your child.

Apparently, she's now under investigation for child endangerment, just like anyone who was seen driving with a baby on their lap.

I sincerely hope actions are taken, and that Brittney learns that just because you're a celebrity, you aren't above the law when it comes to children.

Black History Moment - Frank Yerby King of the Costume Novel

Since February is Black History month, I thought I'd share an article that I wrote for our newsletter on Frank Yerby.

I first heard of Frank Yerby while watching the movie version of his novel The Foxes of Harrow on late night television. Rex Harrison played Stephen Fox, a gambler, newly arrived in New Orleans. He builds "Harrow", the greatest mansion house and plantation in Louisiana. In the book, he loves three women: Odalie Orceneaux, his wife; her sister, Aurore; and Desiree, his Black mistress. Fox had a child by each of them. Of course, none of that made into the movie, it was the 1940’s after all. But it was certainly juicy stuff for an eleven year old.

When I discovered it was based on a work of fiction, I immediately sent out to find a copy in the library. This was in the seventies when writers like Frank Yerby, Catherine Cookson, John Jakes and Taylor Caldwell were still writing novels of historical fiction. I had no idea that Frank Yerby was African-American until I saw his photo on the book jacket. My limited experience with black authors back then was reading the poetry of Phyllis Wheatley and reading Toni Morrison.

Reading Frank Yerby’s novels opened up a whole new world for me. It also made me realize that I could write historical fiction, and not be limited in my subject matter.

Frank Yerby was the first African American to write a best-selling novel and to have a book purchased by a Hollywood studio for a film adaptation. During his prolific career, he wrote thirty-three novels and sold more than fifty-five million hardback and paperback books worldwide. Two other books were also adapted for Hollywood, The Golden Hawk and The Saracen Blade.

His first literary success came in 1944, when he received the O. Henry Memorial Award for his short story "Health Card," which focuses on the racial inequities faced by an African American soldier and his wife. Prior to this story, Yerby had written a protest novel about racial inequities in the South, but publishers had rejected it. Perhaps as a result, he began to write historical novels centering most often on white protagonists.

It is from these novels that his literary reputation was built. The Foxes of Harrow (1946), in particular, laid the foundation for his career as a popular novelist by becoming the first best-selling novel by an African American author and earning him the title "king of the costume novel."


Many of his novels were set in the antebellum South and feature dashing white male protagonists who experience adventures of romance, mystery, and intrigue. Also, unusual for the time, they feature interracial romances when it was still illegal in many states for blacks and whites to sit at the same lunch counter, let alone get married. He also wrote novels set during the French and American revolutions, Central America, the South, ancient Greece and Israel that were meticulously researched.

He also wasn’t exclusively a novelist; he was also a short story writer and a poet as well. His stories have been included in A Century of the Best American Short Stories, and his poems in American Negro Poetry.

He was often criticized by other African-Americans for not writing solely about black protagonists. Even though, he held the distinction of being the first best-selling black novelist, he was also disparaged for his lack of racial consciousness. His response was that a novelist shouldn’t inflict on the public his private ideas on politics, race, or religion.

In 1991, he died of congestive heart failure in Madrid, Spain, his place of residence since 1955, after he left the States to protest racial discrimination. His books are now out of print, just a footnote in literary history while other writers such as Zora Neale Hurston, and James Baldwin are still studied and talked about. Hopefully one day, he’ll receive the recognition that he deserves as a truly talented writer of historical fiction.

Query Queasiness

Another Monday has arrived. Wow, is it just me, or do the weeks seem to go by faster the older you get?

We had another successful RWA meeting this Saturday. I want to thank the goddess that is Wendy Corsi Staub for braving the monsoon that blew saturday to come speak at our meeting, when she has 5, count'em 5 deadlines to meet by June. Her talk was really inspiring. She's now on my list of writers that I admire along with Jennifer Crusie, Marley Gibson, Eileen Rendahl, Meg Cabot and Lani Diane Rich.

She shared a really difficult time that she had recently which led to her writing the book of her heart, which is now being published in December of this year, after intially being rejected by publishers. See, even writers who have published 60 books can still get their proposals rejected which made me feel slightly better. I mean this is a woman who survived writing Fabio's romance novels (Yes, Fabio didn't wrote those books. Shocking I know.)

She also suggested that we be prolific. While we're sending out one book, start another which is going to be my philosophy for now on. I have too many books in my head that I want to write, to spend more fruitless years trying to get just one book published.

I'm hoping that like Madeleine Hunter, a publisher will say to me, 'what else have you got?' and I can drag out the opus that is Nearly Famous and dust it off.

Right now, I'm working on my query letter, which for me is worse than writing the synopsis. The query letter is the first thing that an agent sees, sometimes it's the only thing they see. If they don't like the query, they may never request a partial from you, so it's crucial that the query convey your story in such a way that they can't wait to get a copy of the book in their hot little hands.

In the case of my YA 'Crazy Little Thing Called Love,' I need to convey not only the story, but let them know that my book is inspired by Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, and that there are actual fairies in my book.

Hopefully I'll post the blurb in a few days, to see what people think if I'm brave enough. Right now, I'm in the refining stage. I sat down this morning and started to write it out. It's a little choppy and needs to be edited and punched up considerably.

I've given myself a deadline of the end of the month, to get the revisions done, and to start sending out the book to agents. Mercury goes into retrograde the first three weeks of March, so it won't be a good time to start submitting.

In other news, I've sent in my form for the NEC conference in Natick, and I've signed up for an agent appointment, so keep your fingers crossed.

What Color Are You?

BLUES are motivated by INTIMACY, seek opportunities to genuinely connect with others, and need to be appreciated. They do everything with quality and are devoted and loyal friends and employers/employees. Whatever or whomever they commit to are their sole (and soul) focus. They love to serve and will give freely of themselves in order to nurture others lives.

BLUES, however, do need to be understood. They have distinct preferences and occasionally the somewhat controlling (but always fair) personality of a confident leader. Their code of ethics is remarkably strong and they expect others to live honest, committed lives as well. They enjoy sharing meaningful moments in conversation as well as remembering special life events (i.e., birthdays and anniversaries). BLUES are dependable, thoughtful, nurturing, and can also be self-righteous, a bit worry-prone, and emotionally intense. They are like sainted pit-bulls who never let go of something once they are committed. When you deal with a BLUE, be sincere, make an effort to truly understand them, and truly appreciate them.


What Color Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

This is remarkably true. I once had my aura scanned, and it was blue-green. Funny, I would have thought that my aura would be read, but that's more because it's my favorite color than anything else.

Reality Round-Up

It's Friday, so it's time for another edition of Reality Round-up where I discuss the wonderful hours of reality TV that I watched this week. Actually, I only watched 3 Reality shows this week, and only part of two of them. The below picture is of the winner of this week's Project Runway. I only saw the last twenty minutes, but I gather that the challenge was to make a dress out of natural materials, to simulate a garden party as a dress. Daniel, who has won four challenges so far, and is now guaranteed a spot in the final four, won this week's challenge, I think primarily because he actually managed to use some flowers in his dress.

I don't think the judges quite realized (amazing considering Michael Kors is a designer) that working with real flowers was a challenge. First of all, the contestants only had $100 to work with which doesn't buy you much, even if you buy wholesale in the flower district. Second, flowers die quickly particularly since this show was shot in the summer when it was like 99 degrees outside. They risked making dresses with a bunch of dead flowers. So the majority of the designers stuck with hardier materials like leaves, moss, peat etc.

Our next show up is Dancing with the Stars, which I have to admit is one of my favorite shows, although this group of celebrities are so much more competitive than the last group. They all want to win, win, win, the giant discoball trophy. The only person who is been having fun every week, is the one person who is never going to win this competition, and that's George Hamilton. He's just there to have fun. I'm sure he's amazed that anyone remembered that he was still alive to do this competition. He makes the judges laugh and I'm sure he'll be around for another week.

I'm very glad that P. Miller (aka Master P.) was finally booted off. It was criminal that Giselle Fernandez, a really good dancer, was booted off before a guy who clearly didn't want to be there, and wasn't willing to put in the time and effort to even be half-way decent, particularly when everyone was working their butts off every week. Even George Hamilton spent more time rehearsing than Master P.

The surprises this season, besides how many of the celebrities are good, are Stacey the professional wrestler and Drew Lachey, Nick's little brother. First of all, I've totally rethought my feelings about professional wrestlers. This woman could be dancing on Broadway, and she has legs that are longer than two of my arms. Her samba last night was phenomenal, and she totally deserved her perfect scores (more so than Kelly Monaco from last season).

And Drew Lachey? Well, people are now going to know his name apart from just being his more famous brother's little bro. Every week, he just brings it, despite how tired he must be. He's a true performer, just like Joey McIntyre last season. It just goes to show that boy band members have hidden talents.

Lisa Rinna? It's amazing how much her partner Louis Amstel (who must be so happy this season that he has a good partner, unlike the dud Trista Sutter he had last time) looks like a gay version of her husband. For someone who keeps reminding us she's a 42 year old mother of two, she certainly brings it every week. Unlike Tia Carrere, who seems to have lost steam these past two weeks.

My final show is The Bachelor. Why do I watch this show? Well, I could win a trip to Paris if I accurately predict who he chooses for the final rose, which is pretty much the only reason I'm watching. Oh, and they go to Venice on one of the fantasy dates. And they're living in a gorgeous house in the French countryside. The women? The same cookie-cutter women they have every season. The guy? Travis has shown as much personality as road kill and he's acting like a perfect gentleman. I think he's kissed like two of the women so far, and no heavy duty make-out sessions. A far cry from the days when Jesse Palmer made out with three women on one date.

He maybe a gentleman but it makes for boring TV when you also have no personality. I predict he'll end up with sweet, seemingly virginal Sarah from Nashville.

And hopefully I'll be wending my way to Paris.

Thursday To-Do-List

That's Punxatawny Phil, the groundhog who predicts whether or not we're going to have six more weeks of winter. According to the news ole Phil popped out of his den this morning to announce after seeing his shadow, that yes indeed we can expect six more weeks. Since I live in NYC where it snows rarely and we've been enjoying pretty good weather so far, I'm not sure what to think. Are we suddenly going to have blizzards in the next six weeks? The temperature going to drop to oh say 19 degrees?

Truthfully, I went to college upstate in Syracuse, so six more weeks of winter doesn't phase me. It's winter about 8 months of the year up there.

It just reminds me of how much I have to do in the coming six weeks.

Here's my to-do-list for the next few weeks in no particular order:

1. Go to the DMV Express to get NY State I.D.

2. Sign up for the New England Conference

3. Book hotel for New England Conference

4. Buy gift bag for Saturday's speaker

5. Look up information about logoed panties

6. Start thinking about March President's Letter for Chapter newsletter

7. Try to decide whether or not I'm going on vacation at the end of the month

8. Try to catch up on my sleep

9. Buy birthday cards for friends

10. Mail back books that I borrowed from ex-friend

11. Finish re-reading manuscript to make revisions

12. Finish watching Midsummer Night's Dream movie

13. Take advantage of tax-free week

14. Write out scenes that need to be written and purpose of scenes

15. Re-work synopsis

16. Start getting queries ready for end of month blitz (have to get this done before Mercury heads into retrograde in March)

17. Do taxes, now that I've gotten all W-4's in mail

18. Go have Tarot card reading at Enchantments to find out if there's hope with ex-friend

19. Fill out schedule for next six weeks chunk for second job.

20. See Oscar nominated films before Academy Awards in March

21. Have a massage

22. Do random act of kindness

23. Try to decide if I want to give Match.com a shot

24. Send out resumes for permanent job, preferably in creative field, that doesn't involve too much actual work.

25. Win Mega Millions

Wow, that's 25 things! I'd better get started if I'm going to accomplish them all.

Thanks for reading,

EKM

It takes a village

To quote Hillary Clinton, apparently it takes a village to fix a printer.

Yesterday afternoon, not one, but two of the printers that my group uses when kablooey. One printer only printed out blank pages with like a line of gibberish on top, the other printer had a document stuck in the queue, so that no one else could print.

So like any good Executive Assistant, I called the help desk. By the time I got through all the prompts, I was exhausted. Then came the ten minutes of answering questions from the guy on the other end of the line, after I got disconnected and had to call back and go through the whole prompt thing again.

They made fixing the printers a high priority which was great. Then came the waiting. Finally a technician on our floor showed up. More questions were asked. Then he went away. He came back with another guy. They looked at the printer. They left. Two more guys came and looked at the printer and then left. Finally the first two guys came back and looked at the printer. In the meantime, the printer still wasn't working.

Finally at 4:00 p.m. another guy showed up and started asking me more questions. I showed him the printer queue on my computer that showed that someone was printing something that was jamming up the printer. He had me call someone on the phone about the printer who was supposed to be working on the problem from her end.

I spent a fruitless minute playing interpreter between the two of them before I finally handed him the phone. And the printer still wasn't working. Neither of them. Because I had to open two seperate tickets for the printer, I have no idea when anyone is going to come and fix the second one.

The upshot was that finally this morning the printer is working. Which is great because I needed to print 50 more pages of my manuscript to read and revise and it would have sucked if I hadn't been able to do that.

But here's my question: why did it take like 8 people speaking printerese to fix this printer? It's like that old joke about how many [fill in the blank] does it take to screw in a lightbulb.

And all the printerese they were talking, like I had gotten a degree at APEX Tech and knew what they were talking about. Hello, I own a crappy $75 ink-jet printer. I know nothing about huge laser jet printers apart from how to change the toner, and apparently that takes forever to do here since the mail clerk guy has to be summoned to do it.

And my second question is, if you send something to print, why not go and pick it up? Is the document going to walk itself to your desk? And if it hasn't printed after about ten minutes, why not delete it from the print queue so that other people can print?

Apparently this is just too much work or too technical for some people.

Oy!

What Famous Pinup Are You?

You are Brigitte Bardot

Naurally sensual and beautiful You're an exotic beauty who turns heads everywhere You've got a look that's one of a kind

What Famous Pinup Are You?

I'm not too sure if this is true, but it cheered me up enormously!

In Memoriam

In two days, we've lost two important women. Yesterday, playwright Wendy Wasserstein died, and today it was announced that Coretta Scott King died.

I just finished reading her obituary in The New York Times. What an extraordinary woman! They say behind every man is a strong woman, and she was definitely that for Martin Luther King. Reading about their courtship, where he basically decided on their first date, that she was the one he was going to marry, and how she deliberated long and hard about marrying him, insisting that she would continue to be her own woman despite her marriage. And this was in the early fifties? She even asked that the word obey be taken out of the ceremony, and they were married by his father. What chutzpah!

She spearheaded the campaign to have a national holiday named after her husband, when so many people were totally against the idea. Even now there are some states that don't acknowledge Martin Luther King day. She even took the risk of defending the man who was widely accused of murdering her husband. Imagine Jackie O standing up for Lee Harvey Oswald. She carried on his legacy over the years, while raising 4 suddenly fatherless children. While not a civil rights leader in her own right, she carried the torch for both African-Americans and women, demanding they too have equal rights.

Wendy Wasserstein has the distinction of being one of the most successful, if not the most successful, woman playwright. Two of her plays ran for over 500 performances on Broadway, and her plays are constantly done all over the country. I first became aware of her when I saw a PBS presentation of one of her earliest plays, Uncommon Women and Others, about a group of Mount Holyoke students from before graduation and then several years down the road.

I was impressed by her talent, although I decided then and there that I was not going to ever go to an all girls college. She wrote about the choices that women make in their lives, whether it was possible to have it all. If there is such a thing as a chick-lit playwright, Wendy Wasserstein was it.

Long before Bridget Jones, she wrote about women living in the big city, dating, settling or not compromising in their dreams of what they thought there life could be. There would be no Candance Bushnell without Wendy Wasserstein.

I admired her wit, her ability to dig for deeper truths but not forgetting the humor in life. She wrote about women we could all relate to whether or no what our race or color.

She finally achieved one of her fondest dreams, which was to have a child at the age of 48, Lucy who is now 6.

I salute these two very different women of courage and class.

Mea Culpas

Well, I've done it again. Gone and offended someone with my blog. My friend, who invited me to the Burns supper, took offense to how I categorized some of the people that I met at the party. It certainly wasn't done to be offensive or to poke fun at anyone, it was simply a short-hand attempt to convey a sense of character in as few words as possible.

My whole purpose in writing the entry was to poke fun at myself, and to say that I simply don't know how to date anymore, and that I'm worried about dying alone, never having met anyone that could measure up to my ex or to my own expectations of a life partner.

Clearly I should have stated that the men were perfectly nice but not for me. I apologize for not including that in my entry for the day.

Instead, my word portraits caused offense, for which I'm truly sorry. I'm always nervous about writing about my life particularly my non-writing life. I don't know how some writers do it. I certainly haven't managed that balance. I could never write a memoir because I would spend most of my time writing apology letters to people. Not that I have anything really worth interesting to say.

It seems that you are damned if you do, and damned if you don't.

So, I guess I'm going to just have to stick to blogging about my writing, and various celebrity foibles and keep my private life to myself.

The SAG Awards, James Frey and more

So last night I work I watched the first two hours of the SAG awards, before hopping over to my favorite show of all time, Grey's Anatomy. Yes, I get paid to watch television even if I don't write about it! I was a floater last night, after I checked my one repeat. Probably a reward for having to watch Road to Perdition for 3 hours. Thank god, the computer was right next to the television, so I could throw in my questions during the commercial breaks.

Now on to the SAG awards. Sigh! After the Golden Globes, and all the other critics awards, there are no surprises. Does anyone really think that Philip Seymour Hoffmann won't win the Academy Award for Capote (by the way, it's a very good movie)? The only question is whether or not he's going to show up in a tux instead of the same suit he's been wearing to all the awards shows.

And what's up with Paul Giamatti? Can't you afford a tie? I know you're all 'I'm a indie character actor who was robbed of an Academy Award nomination for Sideways' but is it necessary to show up at these things looking like you pulled your clothes up off the floor that morning?

Amazing how many ladies almost tripped on their gowns last night. Wasn't it cute when Eva Longoria sat on Marcia Cross' lap? And wasn't Nicolette Sheridan engaged like five minutes ago and she's already back with Michael Bolton?

Aww, wasn't it cute when S. Epatha Merkeson kissed Ben Bratt and called him her baby brother. Don't you wish that were you? Julia, you were crazy to let this dude go, I don't care how happy you are with Danny Moder.

Can I just say how great it was to see Shirley Temple Black, especially since here is a woman who clearly hasn't had any work done?

Poor James Frey! Oprah opened a can of whoop ass on him on Thursday. They were rebroadcasting the episode Friday morning when I got home from work, and I taped it to watch later. How painful is it to have the woman who endorsed your book rip you a new one? I learned one thing, you do not want to piss Oprah off.

Although, as much as I love me some Oprah, her producers ignored the warning signs. I mean people were calling the show as soon as they heard he was going to appear last fall, to raise doubts about his book. Reputable people, not just crazy people who call the hotline. I do give her props for admitting that she should have thought about it more before she defended him.

And as for Nan Talese, she told Oprah that James Frey had never presented the book as fiction, which made him out to be a liar again. I agree with her though, that it's virtually impossible for publishers to vet a book for the truth before they publish it. They take an authors word that if it's a memoir, it's truthful.

I don't believe for a second though that James Frey actually believed that he was the bad ass that he wrote about. It might have been wish fulfillment on his part, or just the knowledge that his book might not get published unless he sensationalized it. I guess he just didn't realize he'd gone so far, that it raised red flags.

But I feel sorriest for the writers who may not get published because their memoirs aren't sensational enough or because the publishing industry is going to be wary right now.

She Got Game?

So I went to the Burns Supper Wednesday night at my friend's and I was greeted, not by the sight of Ewan McGregor (seen reading the Ode to the Haggis), but an adorable 3-year old wearing a kilt and a pair of cowboy boots.

I also got to meet four eligible men that evening. For a moment, I almost felt like the bachelorette.

Of course, I liked one of them and he had absolutely not interest in me. Isn't that always the way? Why is it that it's so easy to flirt with someone we have no interest in, but the minute you meet someone who has potential, you act like an idiot?

I think the problem is I've been single for so long now since ex-sweetie pie and I broke up, I have no game (can girls have game?). I mean I can flirt, no problem, but I've forgotten how to close the deal. I mean, you can't just slip a guy your phone number if he doesn't ask for it. Can you? What's the protocol?

I mean if you do, there's always the possibility he'll be polite and take it but not call, or tell you he's not interested. Either way you're screwed, and my thighs can't take the Sara Lee chocolate cakes anymore that I used to devour when I was a teenager and I'd had a romantic failure.

I started to feel like Sarah from Nashville on The Bachelor. You know coming up with reasons why Poster Guy and I were a perfect match. He's from NY, I'm from NY, He went to Cornell, I got into Ithaca, we both studied in England. He's lived in Prague, I've thought of going to Prague. I mean, E-Harmony had nothing on me, the way my thoughts were going.


That's the problem with being fairly independent. On the one hand, I'm quite capable of going out to dinner or a movie by myself or traveling, but social interaction with the male of the species still eludes me.

What was even more depressing was the conversation, I had with one of the other guests, who stated that if he hadn't met his wife in college, he would never have gotten married because dating was just too hard?

You think? I swear Speed Dating should be an Olympic Event.

Oh, here' s funny addendum to Robert Burns. Apparently, the National Portrait Gallery in Scotland unveiled a new painting of Burns in an Armani suit which pissed off Tommy Hilfiger who claims to be a descendent of the Bard. Which could be true, considering he had 13 acknowledged children by 5 women that we know of.

The above picture of Gerard Butler is for Mary.

Enjoy while I sign up for remedial dating lessons.

Hallelujah!

Hallelujah, they've given actress Hattie McDaniel a stamp, just in time for Black History Month. For those you who may not be familiar with her, Hattie was the first African-American ever to win an Academy Award, when she won for playing Mammy in GTW in 1940.

Congratulations Hattie. I'm sure you're smiling down from heaven.

2006 Edition of Getting to Know A Little Bit More About Me

Hey! I'm a little under the weather today due to the Burns Supper. So forgive me if I cheat a little today with this blog.


WELCOME TO THE 2006 EDITION OF GETTING TO KNOW A LITTLE ! MORE ABOUT YOUR
FRIENDS.

DIRECTIONS: Read and then delete my answers and put in your own and
forward to anyone you think might want to play along, INCLUDING returning it
to the person who sent it to you so they can see your answers!
1. WHAT TIME DID YOU GET UP THIS MORNING? 5:55 AM

2. WHAT WAS THE LAST FILM YOU SAW AT THEATER? Matchpoint

3. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE T.V. SHOW? Project Runway, Grey's Anatomy, America's Next Top Model, House, American Idol, Charmed, Law & Order: SVU. Actors Studio, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, The Surreal Life, Alias.

4. RECENT BOOK YOU READ AND ENJOYED? Katie Macalister's Blow Me Down
5. WHAT DID YOU HAVE FOR BREAKFAST? Egg Whites, Tomato, Whole Wheat Toast

6. WHAT IS YOUR MIDDLE NAME? Kerri (first name is Elizabeth)

7. FAVORITE CUISINE? Anything seafood related particularly Lobster

8. WHAT FOODS DO YOU DISLIKE? Peas, and lima beans, because of the fuzzy cover

9. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE QUICK SNACK? raisins

10. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE MUSIC AT THE MOMENT? Keith Urban, James Blunt

11. YOUR FAVORITE COLOR? Red

12. FAVORITE SANDWICH? Lobster, avocado, and artichoke hearts

13. WHAT CHARACTERISTIC DO YOU DESPISE? Egomaniacs

14. FAVORITE ITEM OF CLOTHING? My purple Natori pajamas

15. IF YOU COULD GO ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD ON VACATION, WHERE WOULD YOU GO? Venice

16. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE PERSONAL PHYSICAL FEATURE? My hair, when it cooperates

17. TO WHERE WOU! LD YOU LIKE TO RETIRE? London

18. WHAT WAS YOUR MOST MEMORABLE BIRTHDAY? My 40th ...in London.

19. FAVORITE SPORT TO WATCH? Michelle Kwan, Figure Skating

20. FURTHEST PLACE YOU ARE SENDING THIS? Germany

21. WHAT PERSON DO YOU LEAST EXPECT TO SEND IT BACK TO YOU? Simon

22. PERSON YOU EXPECT TO SEND IT BACK FIRST? Roberta

23. GOAL YOU HAVE FOR YOURSELF? Save more money!

24. IF YOU COULD DO ANYTHING TO YOUR HOME ENVIRONMENT, WHAT WOULD IT BE? Sit on my @ss and write all day.

25. ARE YOU A MORNING PERSON OR A NIGHT PERSON? Night.

26. PETS? Sadly...none currently...I wish I had a puppy but I'm never home.

27. WHAT DID YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU WERE LITTLE? Prima ballerina, and a rock star

28. HOW ARE YOU TODAY? Tired, I've had 3 1/2 hours of sleep

29. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CANDY? Dark Chocolate raisin clusters

3O. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE FLOWER? Lilac

31. WHAT DAY ON THE CALENDAR ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO? Friday!

32. WHERE IS THE FURTHEST YOU HAVE EVER BEEN FROM HOME? Italy

33. A SMALL THING YOU REALLY ENJOY? Writing a really good scene, or making a really great dish and sharing it with friends.

34. ANY NEW AND EXCITING NEWS YOU'D LIKE TO SHARE WITH US? Set up a booksigning for two great authors/Finished first YA novel.


Thanks for your patience!
Elizabeth

Robert Burns - The Bard of Scotland

Tonight I'm attending a supper in honor of Robert Burns. Who is Robert Burns you say? Well here are some of his greatest hits:

O, my luve is like a red, red rose,

That's newly sprung in June.

O, my luve is like a melodie,

That's sweetly play'd in tune.

Or maybe you've heard this ditty sung on New Year's Eve:

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,

And never brought to mind?

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,

And auld lang syne?

(By the way, does anyone know the rest of the lyrics, or do you just hum along or mumble the words?)

Robert Burns is pretty much the patron saint of Scotland (along with St. Andrew and Sean Connery, professional Scotsman) or near enough. A poet and chick magnet (what is with women and poets?), who grew up poor on a farm but well read. His poems are written chiefly in Scottish dialect. Besides writing poetry, his interests included drinking a lot of whisky and shagging many women.

Apparently, he was such a dude with the ladies, that other men used to have Burns write love letters for them like Cyrano de Bergerac. Looking at the above picture, he wasn't half bad.

He moved to Edinburgh after his first collection of poems was published, where he became a national celebrity. Although famous, he was still broke, not having such things as royalties back then. So he took a job as an exciseman (like another writer Herman Melville who was forced to toil at the Customs House in New York). He died at the rather young age of 37 of heart disease exacerbated by a life of excess and hard manual labor.

When he died, 10,000 people came to watch and pay their respects. This was back when Scotland wasn’t exactly running over with people. He was the equivalent of a modern day rock star. Can you imagine 10,000 people turning up for a poet’s death today?

Every year on the anniversary of his death, Scots celebrate Burns with a supper, where they address the haggis, and drink lots of whiskey. Really just an ordinary day in Scotland, but they dress it up for Robert Burns.

This is the ode to the haggis, which is basically a sheep's stomach filled with rolled oats, spices, and other bits that I don't even want to know.

Fair fa' your honest, sonsie face,

Great chieftain o the puddin'-race!

Aboon them a' ye tak your place,

Painch, tripe, or thairm:

Weel are ye wordy of a grace

As lang's my arm.

(I have no idea what that all means since it's a Scottish dialect but you get the drift).

Impossibly handsome British friend (who celebrated his birthday yesterday) is none to fond of RB. He once declared that Burns’ poems were ‘crap.’ Being the sarcastic cow that I am, I suggested that he dress up in a kilt, and do a one man show called “Crap, and other crap, the poems of Robert Burns.’ I think it would have been a big hit at the Edinburgh Festival don't you think?

Slainte!

Drowning in a sea of Books

That's Travis. He's The Bachelor. He actually has nothing to do with my topic, because apart from medical journals and textbooks, I don't think he's actually read a book, but I watched the show last night against my better judgement, and all I have to say, is that the phrase 'we have a connection' has got to be the most overused phrase in the history of the world. And Sarah, just because y'all come from the same town, does not mean that you're meant to be together. If that were true, than I should be any number of people just because we both live in New York City.

Enough said. Now on for today's topic. Yesterday, I made my final decisions about what books to buy with my Amazon gift certificate. I ordered the companion volume to Regency House Party, and a new biography of Consuelo Vanderbilt Balsan, the former Duchess of Marlborough and her mother Alva Vanderbilt Belmont called appropriately Consuleo and Alva, plus several CD's. I really struggled with what to buy, and I decided that it had to be books that I wouldn't ordinarily purchase because they were expensive. Plus, they can be used as research books for the future.

I've seen a few people post about what they're read so far this year, and I'm happy to report that I have read a total of 8 books so far this year.

They are as follows:

Dueling Princes by Tyne O'Connell
Size 12 is not Fat by Meg Cabot
City of Falling Angels by John Berendt
The lastest Gossip Girl by Cecily von Ziegesar
Blow Me Down by Katie Macalister
The Movie Lover's Guide to Hollywood
This Must Be Love by Tui Sutherland
The Ex-Factor by Tracey Kelleher (a novella)
A Murder Solved by Charles Higham

In the TBR pile:

A biography of the Mitford Sisters by Mary Lovell
Rebel Angels by Libba Bray
Jane Millionaire by Janice Lynn
Don't Know Much about Mythology by Kenneth Davis
Julie & Julia
The It Girl by Cecily von Ziegesar
Boy Meets Girl by Meg Cabot

And that's just this week!

What's in your TBR pile?

Random Thoughts on a Monday morning

What's on my mind right now:

How in the world did Giselle Fernandez get booted off Dancing with the Stars and P. Miller (aka Master P.) is still on? The guy has two left feet and he dances in sneakers.

Will Tempest Bledsoe ever stop being a whiny, complaining witch and just get with the program on Celebrity Fitness?

Is Paris Hilton really as stupid as she appears to be in her court testimony in the slander trial?

I really need a maid to clean my apartment, but I'm afraid any maid sue me for emotional distress if they saw my apartment.

I'm madly in love with George in Grey's Anatomy! Isn't he just the cutest thing on the planet. He reminds me of a cuddly black lab puppy.

Katie Macalister is either a genius or Satan because I can't stop reading her books, now matter how hard I try.

I've finally come up with a title for my YA thanks to Freddie Mercury and Queen. Say hello to "Crazy Little Thing Called Love." Hopefully one day coming to a bookstore near you.

I had a strange dream that Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes had written a Celebrity Scientology cookbook and all the money was going to a foundation to eradicate pyschiatry.

If you eat a huge pizza all by yourself but drink a diet soda, are you really saving calories?

Banana pudding with 'nilla wafers is the most sublime dish on the planet.

I want to be Nora Roberts or at least have her productivity and consistency. And I want to write funny like Jennifer Crusie.

Will Brangelina's baby be the most beautiful baby on the planet?

A life without bread, is not a life worth living. Marie Antoinette should have said 'let them eat a really good croissant or crusty bread with butter' not 'let them eat cake' (although apparently she didn't say that either).

I'm really upset that the whale in the Thames died. Didn't everyone hope there would be a 'Free Willy' ending to the story?

The Golden Globes - Update

Okay, so last night, I finally got to watch the entire Golden Globes awards show. Wow, it was long and painful trying to watch celebrities banter with each other. Kudos to Harrison Ford for bringing his drink up on stage with him, and handing it to Virginia Madsen while he read the nominees.

Question: how many presenters do we think had been hitting the sauce pretty heavily before their category? I mean, come on John Travolta, you can't tell you don't how to pronounce Pierce Brosnan's name. And how many people mispronounced David Strathairn's name?

I was really happy that Reese won for Walk the Line, but how embarrassing was it the next day with all the magazines and newspapers published photos of Kirsten Dunst wearing the same dress at the 2003 Golden Globes? Particularly when apparently Reese was told that her dress was Vintage Chanel. Hmm, 3 years is not really vintage.

Drew, Drew, Drew. You should fire your stylist for letting you go up there on stage without a bra on. Note to all the ladies out there. If you're over 30 or more than a B cup, you need to keep the girls in a bra.

I can't wait for the Academy Awards. I still have to see Brokeback Mountain and Transamerica.

Psst! Guilty Secrets

I confess, I have a secret. I like to enter sweepstakes. Yes, I've never met a sweepstakes entry that I haven't filled out, all in the vain hope that I too can win trips, cash, and home make-overs.

I don't play the lottery that often. For one thing, picking lucky numbers eludes me. Do you study the statistics of what's been played, or do you just pick randomly? What about letting the machine pick? Plus, it costs money.

Sweepstakes cost you nothing but the time to fill out the form, and if you enter on-line, sometimes the computer saves your information for you, making it easier. Just today, I entered about 7 sweepstakes, that all offered trips to Europe as their grand prize. And everyday, I go to www.iwon.com and make my 100 entries for the day for the daily grand prize of $10,000.

I'm also totally into home improvement sweepstakes. What better way to fix up my apartment than to have someone do it for me. I've event thought about signing up for those shows on HGTV and the Style Network. Anything rather than have to do the work myself! I even once spent a month trying to win 400 pairs of Manolo Blahnik shoes!

Occasionally, I even win one. Twice, I've won the Time Out offers & competitions. The first prize I won was dinner at Eleven Madison Park and two tickets to see John Lithgow and Eileen Atkins in Return to Moscow. The second time was last summer when I won a night at the Times Square Hilton, and two tickets to see John Lithgow (again) in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. Apparently, Mr. Lithgow is like some kind of good luck charm for me.

If I didn't work for the company, I would be all over www.rewardtv.com but it's kind of unethical for me since I wrote some of the questions!

I'm addicted. I wonder if there's a twelve step program for it? But hey I'm not the only one. Julianne Moore was just in a movie where she played a woman who supported her ten children by winning commercial jingle contests.

Anyone else find themselves filling out those little forms on line?

When Movies Go Bad!

I think I watched probably one of the worst movies ever made last night called Teen Witch. I rented this movie from Netflix because I'd heard it had like a cult following. After watching it, I'm not really sure why unless it's for the sheer awfulness of it.

Robin Lively (Savannah) plays Louise, who is your typical nerdy but ubersmart teen. Even though she's sophomore, she's in the senior English class. She pines for Brad, the sensitive, popular football player (why does everyone go for the football player?) but he's dating the uber-popular Randa who is a cheerleader (could this be more cliched?).

She's so nerdy, no one comes to her 16th birthday party, and she has only one friend (shades of Square Pegs).

One night Brad almost runs Louise down with his car as she's riding her bike home from school.

Since she has a flat, and being pre-cell phone, she stumbles upon a mysterious house run by the little woman from the Poltergeist movies, Serena who tells Louise that she is a witch who will come into her powers on her 16th birthday, after realizing she's not the usual shill. Something to do with a locket that she wears.

Louise happily takes to being a witch, particularly since she can torture her awful younger brother. She's set up on a date by Randa, and she discovers she can make her horrible date disappear just by saying 'disappear.' Soon she's doing spells to make herself popular, and to get Brad to fall in love with her.

Of course, she has the epiphany that being popular is not all it's cracked up to be, and that she wants Brad to love her for herself. And that she regrets treating her only friend like crap. But what makes this movie truly bad are the eighties fashions, and the song and dance sequences. Noah Blake (Robert Blake's son) plays the cute white rapper who Louise's friend longs for. Thanks to a spell, she can rap with the best of them.

Then there's this long montage where all the boys in town sing and dance as they follow Louise around who now has big Jersey hair and wears pouffy tutu skirts to school. Even Madonna had stopped dressing like by 1988.

This movie was just torture, although I couldn't stop laughing at how bad it was. Poor Dick Sargent from Bewitched played the kind but bewildered dad. Somehow no one figured out that this girl was a witch, not even her parents, although she ran around spouting gobbledy-gook through-out the movie.

It wasn't even a good guilty pleasure movie that's how bad this one was (for example Valley Girl with Nick Cage).

Thanks for sharing my shame,
Elizabeth

Blog Round-Up

I've got nothing today, so I thought I tell you about some great blogs that I've read lately:

If you hop over to Vanessa Virtue here, you can read all about her debauched weekend.

Diana Peterfreund always has something interesting to say about writing and the industry. You can read it here.

Kelly Parra over at Words of a Writer had a really good post on emotional depth, something that I've been thinking about as I contemplate revisions on my YA. You can read it here.

Over at the Austen blog, you can see the new covers that Headline has planned for the six novels.

Meg Cabot found her pink bike. You can read about how she recovered it here.

Another Meg, Megan Frampton has a cute post about her printer.

And finally, the always entertaining Jennifer Crusie has two blogs! You can read about her working relationship with Bob Mayer here. And there is her regular blog which you can read here.

Happy Reading!

Overworked and Underpaid

Yeah, I made 6,000 hits!

I know you're all eager to find out what I thought of the Golden Globes last night, but unfortunately, I only got to watch the first hour before I had to watch a hideous tv movie on Lifetime starring Dean Cain, Stephanie Zimbalist and some actress I've never heard of and probably never will again. This movie was so bad that Internet Movie Database had no information on it, and it wasn't listed there under any of the actors. It's almost as the actors wanted to forget about this movie as much as I did. I'll spare you the details but I will tell you that it was called Truth which was pretty funny considering all the articles on James Frey lately. It was the type of movie where I would rather have chewed broken glass than watch this thing.

So I'll have to watch the rest of the Globes on Saturday night on Bravo which is thankfully repeating the whole thing without the annoying pre-show. I did catch Sandra Oh's speech and also Hugh Laurie's as well as Rachel Weisz, George Clooney, and Geena Davis who was hilarious. I'm not sure what was going on with Melanie Griffith who is the poster child for why you shouldn't have plastic surgery and who told Pamela Anderson to cover up her boobs? She looked ridiculous more because the dress didn't fit than anything else.

I taped only the last hour of The Bachelor because I really didn't need to see a play-by-play of Allie G's meltdown. In the end, I had to see most of it anyway.

I'm so overworked right now, that I forgot to have my bosses flights ticketed. Oops! Fortunately he was able to get a flight out this morning anyway. Oh well, I can always blame it on travel, not that I should make a habit of that.

I've finished the YA, and now I'm taking time off to let it percolate before I do another round of revisions. I have a huge project at work right now, looking up 400 potential clients for info on the Internet, so I need to concentrate on the day job for awhile I'll be looking for a new one.

Time Management has always been my problem. I always wait until the last minute, and then I push until it gets done. It's what I did last Friday where I not only managed to write a semi-coherent President's letter but also an article for our newsletter, and finish the last twenty pages of my YA.

I really need a vacation.

A Cautionary Tale

So I'm watching Grey's Anatomy last night, my favorite show of all time, (can't believe Meredith and Dr. McDreamy aren't back together and isn't George a cutie?) and one of the plots hit home to me as a writer. A man is brought into the hospital with a blocked intestine, because he ATE his novel. Yes, after many years of rejection, he decided to eat his novel.

Now, I've done some crazy things with my novel, but eating it never occured to me. Shredding it, papering my walls with the rejection letters, making paper airplanes, putting in the recyle bin or using the paper on the other side, but eating it? Never.

Not only did this guy end up with a blocked intestine, but he also ended up with mercury poisoning. Just because he was fed up with all the pain and frustration of being an unpublished writer.

Ouch!

So the moral of the story is don't eat your novel, no matter how bad a day you have. It's not worth it. If you really believe in your talent, you'll find a way, even if it mean's taking matters into your own hands and self-publishing.

The Procrastinating Writer

Well, it's that time of the month again. No, not that time of the month! Get your mind out of the gutter. No, the time of the month where I have to write my President's letter for our chapter newsletter.

In the year since I've been President, I've written 13 letters, and guess what? It doesn't get easier. Every month, I have to decide what I can write that inspire, anger, provoke thought, amusement in our membership. And every month, the same things happen. I start thinking I know what I want to write about, I sit down to write, and something completely different ends up on the screen.

I agonize over this letter, almost more than I do my own writing. Who would have thought that 750 words could have so much power? But they do. Well, this month I thought I would write about a historical fiction writer who unfortunately is little known today, but instead of writing, I've been doing everything else.

Surfing the internet reading news stories about the Brangelina baby. I'm ashamed to admit that I actually bought a copy of People magazine to read the cover story. Wow, she really is pregnant. I think I didn't really believe it until I saw the evidence with my own eyes. Angelina must be about 4 months, at least from the pictures. She's wearing a tight spaghetti top and she's got quite the belly going on there. I'm really feeling for Jennifer Aniston right now. It's one thing to know your ex has a new girlfriend, it's another that he's knocked her up and adopted her two kids as well in the year since you split up.

Or thinking about this TV show I had to watch at work last night on MTV called Next. The concept behind this dating show is that instead of having to sit through a boring date, you can just say Next! and another hottie gets off the bus for you to date. Each show consists of two bachelor/bachelorettes and their five potential victims, I mean dates. Last night's show was gay night. Bryan had 5 bachelors to choose from. One he dumped because he couldn't dance, the other guy he dumped because he'd never voted, leading to the best quote of the night when dumpee Anthony declared he would vote if someone hot like George Clooney ran, and the third he dumped on sight before finally settling on John, the cutie from a conservative Christian family who wants to be a fashion designer.

The other twist is that the dates get paid for however many minutes they spend on the date, so if you're on the date for an hour, you could potentially get paid $60 for being dumped. Also, if the date is going well, the date has the choice of taking the money or accepting a second date. John accepted a second date.

Next up was Ashley and her posse of chicks. This just goes to show you how different men and women are. Why the boys on the bus were being all bitchy while waiting for their dates, the girls discussed the pros and cons of vibrators and then made out with each other.

Well, I'd better get back to my President's letter, now that I have Sean to inspire me.

Dreaming of Swan Lake

So, last night to cheer myself up, I went over to Lincoln Center and bought myself a ticket to the most romantic ballet of all time, Swan Lake. Now there are people out there who might quibble that Sleeping Beauty or Romeo & Juliet are more romantic but for my money, it's the Swan Queen all the way.

For one thing, it has the most lush and romantic score by Tchaikovsky. Who can't help but be moved by the love between the doomed Swan Queen, Odette and her prince Sigfried? A little brief synopsis: It's Siggy's 21st birthday, and he's a little down despite all the festivities, so his pal Benno suggests they go hunting, because nothing perks up the spirit like shooting a defenseless animal. Nowadays, they'd just prescribe him Zoloft and call it a day.

Well Siggy and Benno stumble upon a flock of swans who turn out to be women. Odette, the Queen of the Swans tells Siggy that she's been cursed by the evil von Rothbart to only be able to retain her human form between the hours of midnight and dawn. Don't ask me what Siggy and his friend are doing out hunting at midnight. Siggy falls in love and gives his promise that he will love her forever. At Siggy's birthday ball, he's tricked by Von Rothbart and Odette's doppelganger, Odile, a sexy chick in a black tutu, who makes him believe she's his beloved Odette. He's fooled, and proposes marriage. The trick is exposed, and Siggy runs off to the lake to beg forgiveness. Odette forgives him, and they decide to throw themselves in the lake. Their sacrifice frees the other swans from Von Rothbarts spell, and destroy him forever.

At least that's how it's supposed to go. In City Ballet's version, Odette forgives him but it's too late and she's doomed to be a swan forever, with Sigfried mourning his lost love and his own studpidity. Probably more realistic, but much less romantic.

Despite the ending and the crayola colored costumes, I really liked the production but then as I said, I'm a sucker for Swan Lake. When I studied ballet at ABT, I would see every single performance of Swan Lake. My goal was just to be good enough to join a corps so that I could be in Swan Lake. I could have danced it every day and been a happy camper. I used to starve myself and take two classes a day to achieve my goal (sound familiar?), until I realized that no matter how little I ate, I was never going to be a pinhead like Gelsey Kirkland. Unfortunately, after 7 years, I realized that I didn't have a ballet body but it didn't kill my love for Swan Lake.

From the poignant strings that signal the beginning of the White Swan Pas De Deux through the 32 fouettes of the Black Swan, I'm in Swan heaven. Hard to believe that the first production of the ballet was a failure, devastating Tchaikovsky who didn't compose another ballet score for 12 years. It wasn't until 2 years after his death, that the Swan Lake we know now was created as a memorial to Tchaikovsky.

What a fitting tribute to one of the most romantic and tortured composers of all time.

After seeing the ballet, and a lovely glass of champagne during the interval, my heart was so much lighter, I literally danced home in the rain.

Mid-Week Blues

I don't know about y'all but I've been suffering from the mid-week blues that started ironically enough on Monday when I got home and found a package containing the partial I'd sent an agent way back in July with a rejection letter saying the usual 'writing not fresh, story not interesting enough' yada yada yada. So my decision to put Nearly Famous on the back burner for awhile is totally justified.

So of course, I was plenty depressed. I mean I could wallpaper my bedroom with rejection letters now. Then I was reading a book by an author friend of mine, and I just marveled at her sparkling dialogue. Which made me think that I suck big time.

Watching The Bachelor which is usually a guilty pleasure of mine, was painful Monday night. You can read Vanessa Virtue's take on it here.

Then yesterday at work, one of the guys who works on the floor came by to chat with my guys. Two of them started ragging on him about his haircut, claiming that he would never get any dates. This was the kicker, both these guys are married men who've been out of the dating scene for years. What would they know about what a woman finds attractive?

And hello, I'm sitting right here! Am I an oil painting? I finally spoke up and said 'hey, why don't you ask the attractive single woman sitting here what she thinks?' They looked astonished at that idea. So I told them I thought he looked fine. Considering the dearth of available men in this city, I think Henry will do fine. I mean he has a cute English accent, he's got a very good job, and his own apartment. What's not to like? Frankly I'd date the UPS man right now if he had stock options and owned his own apartment.

So, instead to perk myself up, I have a new pretend boyfriend. Mr. Sean Bean (see photo above). Mr. Bean has been in many movies including Lord of the Rings, Troy (where he was the only reason to watch the movie), National Treasure, Flightplan etc. He normally plays villains as he did in Golden Eye. But if you want to catch him being heroic and manly, you'll have to rent the Sharpe series. Set during the Napoleonic wars, which means tight breeches, guns, and damsels in distress.

Some one should hire him to play the lead in The Prisoner of Zenda pronto.

Yes, I know he's a Brit, not to mention an actor, and thrice divorced with three daughters (can I pick him or what?), but he's got the rugged thing going on, plus he's an Aries and I'm fatally attracted to Aries men. Must be all the Libra in my chart.

Hey, a girl's got to do whatever she can to cheer herself up.

What's your remedy for the blues?

Which Teen Movie Heroine are you?

I got this over at Meg Cabot's website:

Congratulations!You are a BRAINY BEAUTY.
The 80s teen film heroine you are most like is IONE SKYE from SAY ANYTHING. Your good grades and preppie style make you the classic overachiever. Still, you long to shed your good-girl image and have some fun, but are afraid of what everyone will think. May we suggest you find a kick-boxing iconoclast along the lines of JOHN CUSACK's Lloyd Dobbler to show you that can make straight As and still have time for making out?

Truth vs. Fiction

The Smoking Gun has accused James Frey to task for what they claim are inaccuracies, and falsehoods in his best-selling memoir, A Million Little Lies. According to them, the title is more than appropriate. You can read the article here or in the New York Daily News here. According to them, pretty much everything in the book is a lie, including an and the to quote Mary McCarthy on Lillian Helman, another author who was accused of lying in her memoir Pentimento. Anyone remember the movie Julia with Jane Fonda and Vanessa Redgrave? Vanessa Redgrave won an Academy Award for portraying Julia, a woman who may never even have existed.

The website charges that he either wholly fabricated or wildly embellished the stories in his book. They've had investigators searching for evidence of the arrest records of Frey who claims to have been wanted in 3 states at one point. The whole matter has spooked James Frey so much that his lawyer has threatened to sue The Smoking Gun. You can see a copy of the letter on the site.

This brings up a whole kettle of worms about what is non-fiction. If you are writing a memoir, and you embellish the story, change facts around, inflate situations, deflate situations, are you still writing non-fiction or are you writing fiction? Should you punch up the story for dramatic reasons? In this day and age, when it's very easy to check facts, like the Smoking Gun, are you shooting yourself in the foot by not being truthful? Should there be a disclaimer in the front stating that's what you've done?

So far, the Smoking Gun has only been able to find two mug shots for James Frey which you can see on the website. One where he clearly has chicken pox which is why he was released from custody. But what really pissed off the Smoking Gun was James Frey's claim in his book that he felt responsible for a friend getting killed in a car accident, where her boyfriend's car was struck by a train. Apparently, that story had nothing whatsoever to do with him.

Does it matter than James Frey may have made most of A Million Little Lies up, if he's able to send a message to others who may be suffering from drug addiction? If you, as a reader, were moved by his story, does it matter if it's true or not. The message boards on his site are filled with messages of support from people who don't really care whether or not the book is true. They responded to the message of getting off drugs and reclaiming your life.

Is he any different from other writer's like Lillian Hellman who also clearly fabricated portions of her memoirs to sell books? James Frey has said that he initially had intended the book to be published as fiction, but it was his publisher's decision to publish it as non-fiction. Perhaps they would have been wiser to do so.

The irony of all this, is that the book will probably sell more copies now. Nothing like a scandal to make books fly off shelves.

What do other people think? And what response to we think Oprah will have to all of this?

Great News!

Kelly Parra over at Words of a Writer just sold to Silhouette Bombshell in a two-book deal. Way to go Kelly! What a great start to the New Year! I'm keeping my fingers crossed for all my blog friends out there that the good news keeps rolling in.

Manic Monday

Well, the weekend is over, and it's another day on the job. Is it just me or do the weekends seem to go by quicker the older you get? Not that I actually did that much. I had a chapter meeting on Saturday, with a critique session afterwards, then I went to work. Sunday, I went to my exercise class, tried to watch Mr. & Mrs. Smith again to no avail. I just could not get into this movie despite all the chemistry between Brangelina. It just bored me to the point of falling asleep during the first 30 minutes, twice! Then I had to return a sweater to Ann Taylor loft for an exchange. My evening was spent watching the new episode of Desperate Housewives, and the catch-up episode of Grey's Anatomy. Pretty boring.

I did actually do some thinking about my current manuscript, little things that I have to tweak in the next draft before I feel ready to start submitting. I know that I definitely have to beef up the guys in the book, delineate their characters better, also add my heroines parents more as well. Since my manuscript is based on a Shakespeare play, I also need to go back to my original source material before I do my next rewrite.

I read on Diana Peterfreund's blog this morning about where the next break-out stars are going to come from. It's actually a response to Karen Templeton's blog. She made some good points in response to Karen's post. Many of the authors that Karen talked about have only been writing for ten years, not the 10-20 that she talks about.

I can think of at least 2 or 3 authors who have break-out potential. I think that Roxanne St. Claire is one of them. Alesia Holliday has sold like 9 books in the past two years. I think that Eileen Rendahl and Lani Diane Rich have huge break-out potential. I think we have to remember that Linda Lael Miller, Linda Howard, Catherine Coulter, as well as Nora had written for years before they were deemed worthy for hard cover. Even Meg Cabot had written several historicals before she broke out with the Princess Diaries.

With so many more books being published every month, I'm not sure that any writer is going to be able to break-out unless she has something spectacular up her sleeve. The publshing industry changes so rapidly, I think it's useless to speculate.

Instead of worrying about who is going to be the next break-out author, we should just worry about what we're writing. Making our work the best it can be. Thinking about longevity in our careers.

Weekend Paranoia

So I'm here at work without a show to watch yet again, because this time they forgot to assign me anything. Yep, I walked into work and there was nothing on the table with my name on it. This is the second time this has happened to me, and I'm getting a little paranoid. Are they trying to tell me something? I shouldn't complain since I still get paid anyway. I mean after all it was there fault, and I'd schlepped all the way downtown for nothing.

I've included a photo of the ex-pretend boyfriend. He wants me back. The 21 year old he's been dating isn't intellectually stimulating enough for him, so he's been emailing me, and calling me up. It seems that she thought the philospher Plato was Mickey Mouse's dog! I've been very polite but distant. He's going to have to woo me back.

Had my first RWA NYC meeting of the year. I think it went pretty well. We had Erin Cartwright-Niumata who is the editor of Avalon Books. She was a hoot when she talked about being sandwiched between Raelene Gorlinksy and Anna Genoese at conferences and they're talking about how sexy their books are and Avalon Books have no sex in them. At least not the romances. In the mysteries, you can have a whiff of sex off camera as it were.

We got alot done business wise at the meeting. Let the members know what our top 2 choices were for T-shirts, and now I just have to set it up with Cafe Press once we get the actual logo design. I'll be posting info here if anyone wants to take a walk over to see our stuff.

I've added a few new blogs to the list, and deleted a few others. A little New Year's cleaning. I'm hoping to have more author interviews. I just need to figure out how to archive them so that they are easily accessible. If any one has an idea of how to do that with blogger it would much appreciated.

Have a great weekend!

-E

TGIF

Happy Friday everybody. God, I can't believe it's only been a week in 2006, and already I'm tired! And it's been a four day week, and we have another one coming up week after next. Is it just me or is it harder to go back to work after a long weekend then it is normally? It's like you get so used to having that time off, that you have to work up the motivation to go back to work. Think paycheck!

I discovered after wearing it, that my new sweater from Ann Taylor loft was falling apart. And so far, I haven't found another one in any of the stores to replace it with which sucks big time. This is what can happen when you buy stuff on sale.

Nothing much to say today, except aren't these a gorgeous pair of summer sandals? I saw these in the J. Crew window last night as I walked to my second job, fulfilling my promise to be more physically active the new year. I figure walking a mile two times a week plus my other work-outs should help get me into fighting shape. I'm thinking of wearing these lovely little shoes with a light summer skirt or jeans.

My short-term bout with a stomach virus has left me a little bit light. Not Lindsay Lohan in the hospital for a week on just fluids light but lighter. Ooh, I just read in Vanity Fair last night that she was riding the bulimia train to sticksville last year. Wow, what a shocker! Who would have thought that drugs and ralphing would lead to severe weight loss? Anna Nicole Smith anyone?

Who watched Dancing with the Stars? I was floating last night at work so I got to see the whole thing. I was really suprised by how good Tatum O'Neal was. Of course the men stunk apart from Drew Lachey. I'm predicting that Master P is one of the first ones to go.

I need to write my ten pages today but I'm not feeling it, so it might just be a slog through the mud to get them done. I started late and so far I've only written 2 1/2 pages. 7 1/2 more to go. I'm rethinking stuff as I go, which makes it difficult. I'm hoping to have this baby finished by next week, so keep your fingers crossed.

But there is a bright spot on the horizon. I'm planning on traveling at the end of February. I'll keep you all posted on where I'm going. Unfortunately, no where I can wear those delectable shoes, although that could change!

Wanted: An Interesting Life

Well, I seemed to have caught some kind of 24 hour virus. I started feeling sick yesterday morning, but it really didn't hit me until the afternoon when I had an argument with my lunch and my lunch won. Still despite my nausea, I still managed to write 11 pages on my YA in progress. I rock!

Can I tell you there is nothing more embarrassing than hurling in the bathroom at work? I just had visions of the other occupants in the stalls thinking I'd jumped on the bulimia train. I was so nauseous that all I couldn't even eat, so you know I had to be sick. The only thing that made me feel better was reading the new issue of In Touch magazine. Yeah, I know that I said I was giving up the tabloids in 2006, but this was an emergency. I just watched several hours of craptastic television, and then slept on my back, because my stomach was too tender.

Today, I'm feeling a little better, but I'm a little cautious about what I'm putting in my stomach. Anyway, I started my second book of 2006, Chloe does Yale. As anyone read this book? Apparently the woman who wrote it also wrote a sex column when she was at Yale, so the book is kind of a roman a clef. Or as Pam Anderson would say 'Roman who?'

So it got me thinking about all the books lately that have been inspired by their real lives. Think The Devil Wears Prada or the spate of books by bloggers from Washingtonienne and Wonkette. Not to mention two women who've written novels based on their lives as bartenders, and Rachel Pine who wrote the Twins of Tribeca based on he rexperiences at Miramax.

Not to mention the celebutantes like Paris Hilton and Nicole Ritchie, and stars like Pam Anderson, Britney Spears, and Alicia Keys who've all published books recently. What's a struggling former actress/Executive Secretary/former SAT tutor to do?

I mean have I had an interesting enough life to write a book? Should I go out and rob a bank and then write about it? Attempt to climb Mount Everest? Well, I'm afraid of heights so that won't work. Perhaps head off to Alaska to find a man? I don't know. With everyone talking about high concept, I sometimes feel at a loss.

Yeah, I know some books just rest on the high concept and don't have the writing talent to back it up. But it still annoys me.

Oh, and Chloe Does Yale? I'm actually enjoying it. Although I don't think we had a sex column at Syracuse, and it was the 80's when people were still having casual sex.

A Kinder, Gentler Lady Novelist

Hi! We interrupt our regularly scheduled blog, Whinging Wednesday, because it's only day 4 in 2006 and I feel that I shouldn't be complaining yet. I mean, the more good karma I put out there in the universe, the more it's supposed to come back to me right? Or at least that's what Madonna says, and you know that I do everything that she suggests. Although Meg Cabot says in her blog today, ' that the more you complain, the more God lets you live." So at the rate I'm going (according to the Meg Cabot principle), I should live to be 150.

Speaking of Meg Cabot, I just finished reading the first novel in her new mystery series, Size 12 is not fat, which is also the first book I've read in 2006. Her heroine, Heather Wells, is a former teen star who has now been forced to take a job as an Assistant Administrator in a Residence Hall (or dorm as they used to call them back in the olden days when I was in college). I really liked this book. It was a fast read, cute, and nobody does pop culture references like Meg Cabot. Plus her lyrics for the songs that were on Heather Wells albums are hysterical. They are just so bad. Although I have to say they beat anything the Backstreet Boys ever sang.

I mean what kind of song is 'Show me the meaning of being lonely?" I'm sorry you have to have someone show you that? And the meaning of being lonely? There is no meaning, it's just depressing and sad to be lonely, kind of like that song.

The only quibble I had with the book is her reference to Phil Collins as the singer of 'Circle of Life' when we all know it was Mr. Elton John the composer of said song. Remember the cartoon video?

I mean what is there to complain about when I have good books to read, my YA is going swimmingly and Tom Jones is going to be in town next month at the new Nokia theater which replaced the Loews Astor Plaza where I first saw Star Wars and was one of the only few remaining single movie theaters in the city. I mean what's to complain about there?

Of course, if I were to start complaining already in 2006, I could complain about how cheap my bosses are at work considering how much money they make. I think I mentioned that I thought I had been Scrooged for Xmas? Well, I was. I'm sorry but a bottle of wine, and an Amazon gift certificate just doesn't cut it.

Or I could complain about what a putz David Cassidy is. Apparently Mr. Cassidy who should know better being the son of Broadway stars, and having appeared on Broadway, was casting a show at the Supper Club here in New York, which is notably hostile to hiring Equity performers. Well, Mr. Cassidy inadvertently hired a few for his review at the club. When the club found out, they forced him to cancel the show, and he fled back to wherever he lives, leaving the actors broke and unemployed. Shame on you, David Cassidy. I used to love you on the Partridge Family even though you said in your autobiography that Susan Dey wasn't slutty enough for you to sleep with.

Oooh, you should totally check out this show on Bravo if they repeat it. I forget the name but it's where stars like Cheryl Hines and Jay Mohr read from Celebrity autobiographies. It was hilarious!

So, no complaining for me this year. Yet.

Namaste,
Elizabeth

Movie Madness

I decided to celebrate the second day of the New Year by having a mini-movie marathon which meant seeing two movies somewhat back to back. Of course, this being New Year and the fact that I hate paying the surcharge to Fandango or Moviefone on top of the extortionate amount of money that they are charging to see movies nowadays ($12.75 anyone for the Producers at the Ziegfeld?), it ended up not being quite as back to back as I had hoped.

I decided to see Good Night, and Good Luck and then Match Point, the new Woody Allen movie. Good Night, and Good Luck was only playing uptown at the Lincoln Plaza Cinemas which is this small multi-plex that only shows foreign and independent movies. They also don't do ticketing on-line, so you have to get there early if you want to buy tickets. I got on-line around 12:15 and got my ticket around 12:20 which is pretty great. I had to dodge the passers-by who kept standing in front of people on-line to see the movie times, as well as people who were just walking by.

I really liked Good Night, and Good Luck, although I'm sure every conservative in the country hated it, including Ann Coulter who thinks that McCarthy got a bad rap. Ann, eat a cheeseburger and wear a longer skirt and spare us right-wing leanings! If you haven't seen this movie, I urge you to see it. It's about the McCarthy era during the 50's where people believed there were communists lurking under the mattresses or under every rock which McCarthy exploited to make a name for himself. That's not to say that there weren't genuine threats to national security, but McCarthy was accusing everyone. There was a strong climate of fear in this country. Seemingly innocent associations back when you were 20 could come back to bite you on the ass in a big way. I thought the movie captured the mood of the times very well. Plus it was in black and white which I love.

This movie actually made me miss my parents a great deal, because it was the type of movie that I would have loved to talk to them about since they lived through that period of time. I know my mother, the rabid Democract, would have had quite a bit to say about McCarthy. She probably would have swooned a little over Mr. Clooney too.

The most interesting part of the movie is the end where Murrow exhorts his colleagues to not let the news degenerate into mass entertainment. You have to wonder what he would have thought about the plethora of infortainment shows and all the news magazines on the air right now.

One weird thing, I noticed my high school boyfriend's parents also went to see the film. How weird is that? I didn't say anything to them, I mean what would I say? Hi, you haven't seen me in 23 years but I used to date your son?

Match Point was a different kettle of fish. It's clearly Woody Allen's best film in a decade. It takes him back to the territory he mined in Crimes and Misdemeanors and Husbands and Wives, and not the crap he's been slinging like Curse of the Jade Scorpion, and Hollywood Ending. Plus, he's not in it, so we don't have to endure the painful sight of him and a love interest who could be his granddaughter.

Match Point is the story of Chris Wilton, a tennis pro who becomes involved with a wealthy family, to the point that he marries the daughter and takes a job in the family business. But he falls for Nola Rice, the sexy messed up ex-fiancee of his brother-in-law. I won't give too much away, only to say that the film has echoes of An American Tragedy and Crime and Punishment. It was really good. Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Scarlett Johansen have two of the sexiest pair of lips in film today, but the real revelation was Matthew Goode has Tom Hewett who brings the two together. He's like a young Rupert Everett, except straight. I now have to watch Chasing Liberty with him and Mandy Moore.

I only had one reservation with this film, and that was with the ending. I'm of two minds about it. I'd like to know what other people thought if they've seen the film. Also, due to my important work with IAG, I also noted the product placements in the film. I counted about 20 by the end of the film, everything from Cartier to Samsung.

So, I'd have to give Good Night and Good Luck, an A and Match Point, a B+

Flavor of Love

I'm suffering from one of the worst hangovers in the history of hangovers after a very fun party on New Year's Eve. Can I just say that champagne, although I love it, is not as much fun the next day when you're feeling the effects?
So I'm watching VH-1, I love the 80's and 9o's when they show a preview for Flavor of Love. I nearly lost my cookies. Again.

The guy in the picture is Flavor Flav. He wears a giant time piece around his neck. When I saygiant, I mean almost as big as he is. He has a mouthful of gold teeth. He's scrawny, and I'm not sure about his hygiene. But yet 20 women are vying to be his new love.

Okay, are we as women so desperate for a man, that we're willing to go on TV, and embarass ourselves for this guy? Flavor Flav, rapper and star of the Surreal Life 3 and Strange Love with Stallone's ex Birgitte Nielson. A man called Foofy, Foofy by Birgitte.

No offense to Mr. Flav, he may well be a nice man, but if he were the last man on earth, I'd turn gay first.