My Super Hero

Thanks to Kwana over at KwanaWrites for leading me to this cool web-site in order to create my own superhero.

In Memoriam - Natasha Richardson

I was so sad to hear this morning that Natasha Richardson had passed away after suffering a head injury in a skiing accident on Monday. It seems like only yesterday I was watching her guest judge on Top Chef (she was awesome) and now she's gone. My heart goes out to her family, her husband Liam Neeson and especially to her two boys, Michael and Daniel. Losing their mother while still teenagers has got to be gut wrenching.


It is so important while skiing or riding a bike to wear a helmet, especially if you are a beginner. And if there is one lesson to be learned, that is to not only to tell your loved ones how you feel every day but also to be careful about head injuries. If you hit your head hard for any reason, have yourself checked out. You may be suffering from a concussion or much worse.


My dad almost died from a blood clot on the brain because he ignored a head injury. He had fallen down the stairs at our house upstate and bruised his ribs as well as hitting his head. Instead of seeing a doctor, he did nothing until he almost couldn't breathe from the pain in his ribs. It was only when he went to the emergency room and they checked him overnight, that they discovered through a CAT scan, that a blood clot had developed around the injury. It was so serious that they decided to operate right away. If they hadn't, one sneeze and my father would have died.


So, even if you think that an injury isn't severe, have it checked out, just to be on the safe side.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone! May you all hoist a glass of green beer (or for the teetotalers, the green milkshakes at McDonald's).

I personally have been in hiding while the streets are filled with too many people celebrating, singing endless choruses of 'Danny Boy'.

Oh and apparently both Obama and Ben Stiller are part Irish (Ben's mother Anne Meara is definitely of Irish descent).

Final Days in London

I can't believe that tomorrow I will be back in New York. I've had such a lovely time here in London on this trip that I hate to see it end. Leaving our lovely little flat in Earl's Court, while the sun is shining and people are out talking on their cell phones on their little balconies. I must stop or I'll cry a little.

Yesterday, I attempted to go to Leighton House which is the home of Frederick, Lord Leighton, a Victorian painter whose most famous painting is probably Flaming June. Well, after going the wrong way, I finally found the house only to discover that it closed for renovations until the end of 2009. Boo-Hoo. The notice suggested that one could check out the Linley Sambourne house instead but unfortunately due to time constraints I couldn't do that. The house is only available for viewing on a private guided tour and I had just missed one and the other didn't start until 2:00 by which time Hope and I needed to get going to attend the Romance Novelists Association meeting at The New Cavendish Club.

We arrived for the meeting just as it was starting. The New Cavendish Club is a private members only club which has several meeting rooms downstairs. The speakers for the RNA meeting were author Carole Matthews, and editor from Little Black Dress books, and a publicist for a literary PR firm who does the publicity for Mills & Boons for their centenary celebration. The topic was what could you, the author, do to help out your publicist. The general consensus was that authors, due to budget constraints at publishing houses, largely need to do their own publicity as much as possible, or come up with angles that might make them marketable.

It's important that a debut novelist have a web-site in place, and that they have a presence on facebook and myspace, as well as think about putting out a newsletter. That all seems like commonsense, but it's amazing how many authors out there don't have a web-site or who don't know about facebook etc. Carole Matthews talked about twitter but all three agreed that whatever publicity you do shouldn't keep you away from what is most important, sitting your butt in a chair and writing.

Afterwards, Hope and I went out to the pub with Julie Cohen, and several other members of the RNA for copious amounts of wine. We then went on to have dinner at a lovely Italian restaurant in Pimlico where we enjoyed more wine. Needless to say that I'm feeling a tad fragile today. I did manage to do some laundry and start packing for my trip home tomorrow.

Since it is so lovely out, I might head up to Camden market and to see the view from Primrose Hill.

More from London

I'm back at ye old Internet cafe, twittering, facebooking and blogging. My trip here is almost at an end and the depression is about to sink in. I have had a fabu time here in London. Went to see the always wonderful Dame Judi Dench in Yukio Mishima's 1965 play Madame de Sade. She didn't play Madame de Sade but her mother. I thought the acting for the most part was wonderful but the play left something to be desired. Not because it wasn't well written but because it was hard to understand Madame de Sade's motivations. We had standing room seats which were brutal but only £10. Fortunately the play was 90 minutes without an intermission but towards the middle it was getting pretty hard to stand. The costumes I have to say were stunning. Each actress wore a variation on the same palate for each scene.

Had an intimate tour of the Theater Royal Drury Lane in Convent Garden. Hope and I had booked the 2:15 tour which was supposed to be full. However, the school group that had also booked was late, so the tour guide just took us on a tour. It was lovely to talk to a fellow actor and to learn more about theater history in London. It gave me some interesting ideas for future projects that I'm keeping in the vault for a moment.

I had to head over to the National Portrait Gallery which is one of my favorite musuems in London. There is nothing like being able to look at the faces who have influenced history, particularly for me since I write about Scandalous Women. Saw an interesting painting of Lady Jane Grey and one of Emily Bronte that was new to me. Before I knew it, I had spent almost two hours in the museum and had only gotten to 1900!

I'm off to Leighton House today, the home of painter Frederick, Lord Leighton, and then off to the Romance Novelist Association meeting.

I'll write more tomorrow before I leave on Monday.

London Calling Update

I'm sitting here in an internet cafe in London near the flat where I'm staying. For only a pound ($1.50ish) I have a whole hour of time to surf the internet, check facebook, and write this post. So far, I'm having a grand time here in the UK with the lovely Hope Tarr and Liz Maverick. I couldn't ask for two better traveling companions. I arrived on Monday from the US and Hope and Liz took the chunnel from Paris and we met up in our glamourous flat in Earl's Court.

We're sharing a two bedroom/2 1/2 bathroom flat for the princely sum of $199 a night which is frankly a steal. The flat is centrally located to the Earl's Court tube station. We have an M&S Simple Foods nearby along with a Boots Chemist and several delicious restaurants. So far we've been to the V&A museum, which I could spent all day in frankly, and yesterday I went to the Cortauld Institute which is a lovely little museum with a lot of gorgeous Impressionist Art. I have bought way too many books, but it's hard when they keep offering them for half price of buy 2 get one free kind of thing.

I've bought Kate Williams new biography of the Young Queen Victoria, a book on Dining in history, books on Princess Margaret, Penelope Deveraux and a few more. I had to throw in some fiction just to balance it out. I was bummed that Janet Mullany's book won't be out until August even though the Little Black Dress sight says that it was supposed to be out in March. Oh well.

Trying not to buy any clothes because despite the pound being lower than it has been in awhile, clothes are still incredibly expensive here. I saw some lovely tops in Oasis and Monsoon but they were like £65 pounds, stuff that we could buy at Old Navy for $25. A great dress in French Connection was £130. I know that sometimes the French Connection in Europe like the H&M here have different stuff than we get in the states but it is still pricey.

Saw James McAvoy in Three Days of Rain. He was lovely and the play was surprisingly good. Well that is my update for today. I'll try to blog again before I leave.

London Calling

I'm off to London for a week for research (LOL!), many cups of tea, and prawn sandwiches. I'll be back with news of my trip and my thoughts on Watchmen, the Bachelor and other subjects.

I officially hate this show!

Anyone who reads this blog knows that I knew the whole story about what went down last night on The Bachelor two weeks ago, but watching it last night was painful. Seriously, Jason Mesnick has now surpassed Prince Lorenzo Borghese and Alex Michel as the worst bachelor in history. In fact I have more respect for even Brad Womack now.

Seriously, if Jason was so broken up about letting Molly go, he should never have proposed to Melissa. He should have done what Charlie O'Connell did and dated them both in the real world before he made his decision. There was no reason for him to tell Molly that he was in love with Melissa, then tell Melissa how much in love with her he was, and then two months later break up with her on national television.

I don't care what his contract said. He should have manned up and refused to break up with Melissa in front of the cameras. And you could tell from Melissa's reaction that she had no idea why he was breaking up with her. Jason told Jimmy Kimmel that he and Melissa had already broken up before the show, but if that were true, he did as lousy a job of it in private as he did on TV, because clearly Melissa was blind-sided. And all that crying? Seriously, I have never seen a man cry so much in my life. The guy should keep his day job because he is the worst actor in the world. From on the look on Chris Harrison's face, I'm amazed that he refrained from either punching Jason or telling him off. He just looked so uncomfortable to have to listen to that conversation.

And then the whole spiel with Molly? Do the producers really expect us to believe that Jason and Molly have had no contact via email or phone since the show ended? Either that or she's the world's biggest wimp to take him back so easily. She paid lip-service to being confused and having so many questions, but it didn't take long for her hand to be on his knee, and for them to be swapping spit on camera.

I believe that Jason told the producers that he wanted to break up with Melissa, and why, that he still had feelings for Molly. They sounded Molly out before the show, because how embarrassing would that have been if Molly had rejected Jason (which she should have)? Jason and Molly started emailing or talking and then they filmed the ATFR rose special.

Jason said on People.com, that he and Melissa just couldn't communicate after they left New Zealand, that the conversations were different. You mean, because producers were no longer feeding them topics? Seriously they spent the night together in the fantasy suite. Unless they were schtupping, I assume they talked that night. The ony reason conversations would have been difficult was because Jason soon realized that he had made a mistake and wanted Molly or Reality Steve's version which is that he wanted Molly all along and just picked Melissa because producer's asked him too, and he couldn't continue to go along with the charade.

Either way, Jason is the most fickle individual on the planet. And I wouldn't trust him so easily if I were Molly.

The Perfect Day

I had the joy and the privilege of speaking with historical biographer Flora Fraser yesterday at Idlewild Bookstore here in New York. She was in town promoting her new biography of Pauline Bonaparte which was just released yesterday. I couldn't help thinking about the fact that not only is her mother Lady Antonia Fraser, noted biographer and mystery novelist, but that her grandmother Elizabeth Longford was also a biographer of some note. It must be in the genes!

Afterwards, I went up to have my copy of her book signed (I'd gotten a free copy from Random House since I'm reviewing it for Scandalous Women). When I mentioned that I had written about Pauline Bonaparte, Ms. Fraser said, "Oh, Scandalous Women! We were just talking about you last night!"

I almost started hyperventilating at the idea that Flora Fraser was talking about little ole me. We talked a little bit more about the blog and Pauline Bonaparte, and then she gave me her card with her email address. I fairly floated down the street after it was over.

Sigh! It was a perfect day.

Behold the Oscars!

I know, I know, I've been a very bad blogger. I just realized that I have blogged since before Valentine's Day. Well in my defense, I've been very busy. I had to re-edit the first part of my book proposal for my agent which took some time. I'm still waiting her response to the sample chapters but I already know that I need to write a whole new chapter and cut the other two by at least 15 pages. All this before I leave for London in two weeks.

I went with the lovely Hope Tarr to see a mutual friend Leslie Nipkow read at KGB Bar here in New York on Valentine's day. Leslie read a great piece about how the actor Randolph Mantooth contributed to her awakening as a woman. It was nice to know that I wasn't the only woman who found her mother's copy of the Sensuous Woman as a kid.

Last night watched the Oscars of course. No real suprises what with the other 400 award ceremonies that came before. I was hoping Mickey Rourke would win Best Actor just so I could hear what he would say for an acceptance speech. The one he gave at the BAFTA's was hysterical.

Hugh Jackman, what can I say. I adore every hair on his Australian head. I think he is gorgeous, talented and witty and I hope they ask him to host again. I could have done without the middle production number directed by Baz Luhrmann, but all in all it was a great night. Jennifer Aniston and Angelina did not get into a cat fight but that might have been because Jennifer Aniston skipped the red carpet.

What was the deal with Javier Bardem and Daniel Day-Lewis not showing up to give out Best Supporting Actor and Best Actor? Isn't that usually tradition? Normally Best Supporting Actor gives out actor and vice-versa. Still I thought the idea of having 5 prior winners give out the award was kind of nice, although it would have been nice to see clips of the Best Actor and Actress nominees.

So what did everyone think? Any disasters? Any undeserving winners?

Soaps and Romance Novels

I was very interested yesterday to pick up the new issue of Soap Opera Weekly. In the letter from the Editor, news editor Mala Bhattacharjee wrote about how soaps could take a leaf from the romance novels about how to grow and change with the times. She used Harlequin as an example with their line of NASCAR novels and how successful they've been. She suggested that soaps should take a look at what romance is doing to keep their audience as well as attract new readers who may never have picked up a romance before.

It was really exciting to read the editorial because I have often thought that soaps should look to romance for a way of keeping their audience. When I first started watching soaps, they were all about romance. Greg and Jenny on AMC, Patch and Kayla on Days of Our Lives, Luke and Laura on GH, Tad and Dixie on AMC, and Erica Kane and all her many husbands. It was couples coming together and than being pulled apart. Now soaps are all about mob bosses and people coming back from the dead. Where is the romance?

I think that every soap should have at least one romance novelist as a consultant, especially one who writes romantic suspense, since the weakest thing soaps do is mysteries. Actually Another World had hired Katherine Sutcliffe to be a consultant on their show at one point. Every soap always does the "who killed so and so storyline." Recently on GH is was the Cellphone Stalker. Guess who the killer turned out to be? A guy who had been killed off the year before! Yeah, apparently he wasn't dead after all, although the audience saw his dead body on camera. Diego Alcazar patiently waited for over a year before coming back to Port Charles. His motive to revenge his father's death! And they pulled this same crap on AMC with the Satin Slayer. Again the killer turned out to be someone who was dead, who conveniently came back to life.

What soaps need are couples that people can root for, whose love story we have watched unfold. Give us lush romance, couples who have obstacles thrown at them, watch them fight those obstacles and come together. This what soaps used to do so beautifully before they started believing they had to do crazy stunts to get viewers. Romance is what viewers remember, not crazy storylines.

Bring back romance and hire me to write for you!

The Bachelor Conspiracy

Sorry I've been such a lazy blogger. Between looking for a job, posting over at Scandalous Women, and working on the changes my agent wants on my book proposal, I just haven't had the energy to blog regularly.

But The Bachelor has been pretty darn good this season. And now a certain blogger named Reality Steve has ignited a bit of controversy over on his blog. He claims that he has inside information about how the whole season went down and why Jason picks the woman he does and what happens afterwards. He's been threatening whether or not to reveal all before the season finale and the two After the Final Rose specials that ABC has scheduled.

Seriously I haven't seen so many theories since I used to read books about the conspiracies behind the assassination of JFK. People are going crazy leaving comments on Reality Steve's blog and on other message boards speculating on what really went down. Everything from Jason knew one of the contestants before the show started, he gets engaged to one woman, and then gets engaged to someone else, why Deanna has come back, one woman gets pregnant, no another woman gets pregnant, all the contestants are plants etc.

It is so fascinating to read, it's better than a thriller. I've never seen so much interest in a Bachelor before. For some reason, people are particularly invested this season, probably because Jason is a single dad and they feel for him. Ratings are up for this installment of The Bachelor after several lackluster seasons (Prince Lorenzo anyone?).

Personally, I'm rooting for Jillian but I suspect she gets booted next week, and he's left with Molly and Melissa. I already sense there is more to Melissa's story than we are getting, particularly since her parents didn't appear on the Hometown Dates. None of her friends seem to know her family and her brother didn't even show up. She mentioned that her parents never even went to a Dallas Cowboys game when she cheered for them. Also her friends seemed to indicate that she hadn't been truthful about her relationships, since she stated that she was with someone for 7 years but hadn't dated in three (she's only 25) but her friends made it seem like she'd dated alot of jerky guys.

Oh and interesting that Jason didn't mention to Naomi's dad when he was going on about Jesus, that he was Jewish.

Arrgh, Calgon Take Me Away!

So my new laptop has a virus! Despite the freezing cold temperatures, I schlepped all the way down to the LES (lower East Side) to have it repaired. Unfortunately, they are backed up and won't get to it until Monday, so I'm forced to find other ways to blog, like using the computers at the Career Center.

Then I schlepped out to Forest Hills, Queens, to audition for Princeton Review. Anyone who has teenagers who are about to take their SAT's probably know who they are. We had to prepare a 3-5 minute audition teaching something. I decided to teach astrology. Others taught how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, how to open a bank account, do improv, make pancakes and speak Filipino. Then we had to take a mini-SAT test, which was unfortunate because I suck at Math. Seriously if they didn't give you 200 points for signing your name, I would have been really screwed on the SAT's. And get this, teachers now have to teach both Verbal and Math! When I first taught for the company in the dark ages, you could teach one or the other, or both. Now its mandatory that you teach both. How can I teach something I don't even understand?

The biggest shocker? If you make it into the training program that starts on Sunday, you have to take a 4 hour SAT test and then bring into the Center today!

Arrgh!

Disgusting Habits

I think this picture expresses exactly how I feel about the guy sitting in the cubicle behind me who is insisting on slurping his coffee. Not to mention the chick I had to sit next to on the subway who kept popping her gum to the point that I wanted to pop her.

Lady Jane's Salon, a Triumph!

Last night was the first night of many for the new romance reading series, Lady Jane's Salon, at the sexy bar Madame X downtown in Soho. The decor lent itself well for the reading, imagine a Victorian living room in a bordello, and you'll get the picture, red walls, comfy velvet sofas, slightly erotic pictures on the wall. I think it is safe to say from the turnout that it was a smashing success. Andrea Pickens read from her latest book in her trilogy, The Scarlet Spy from Grand Central publishing, and one of the co-founders, the lovely Hope Tarr read from her latest Harlequin Blaze, Every Breath You Take.

The drinks were cheap but delicious. I drank several Indecent Proposals, a concoction of champagne, and peach schnapps. Katrina Tipton brought her adorable son, who I'm very much in love with. We drooled over co-founder Maya Rodale's hunky British boyfriend, who seemed very nice and very attentive to our girl.

Check out Barbara Vey's blog over at Publisher's Weekly for more, as well as the blogs of founders Hope Tarr, Leanna Renee Heiber and Maya Rodale for more dish as well as photos. The lovely ladies will be chatting over at Romance Novel TV this Friday as well. Also check out Kwana Writes for her take on the evening.

Next month, NYTimes bestselling author Lauren Willig and Jenna Peterson will be reading.

Hope to see everyone there.

Are You Kidding Me with this America?

Recently I've seen in the tabloids the headline "Is Jessica Simpson Fat?" Really America? Do we have to keep chastizing celebrities for gaining a few pounds? And what do we really mean by fat? She's not a size 2, so therefore she must be fat? Seriously is there anyone out there looking at this picture who thinks that Jessica Simpson is anywhere near fat or even obese? At most she's maybe gained ten pounds, as most people do over the holidays.

Secondly that outfit wouldn't flatter anyone, not even Heidi Klum. She's wearing high-waisted jeans with two belts. Not a good look for anyone. Frankly after seeing these pictures, I would fire my stylist, if I were her.

But don't we have more important things like the Middle-East imploding and the economy being in the toilet than to pick on poor Jessica Simpson because she ate too many buffalo wings at Cowboy's game?

The Last Templar

I started watching this last night after I watched the SAG Awards, and now I'm sorry that I did. Oy, what a horrible adaptation of a best selling novel. It was like watching an extended episode of the TV series BONES but without the wit and acting talent. If the Templars knew all the crap and conspiracy theories that have come up around their demise, they would probably roll over in their graves.

The other problem is that this storyline is old. We've all seen the DaVinci Code and read other books that feature the same storyline of an ancient secret having to do with Jesus. We pretty much know where this storyline is going from the minute Dr. Vance mentions what the Templar treasure might be.

For someone who went to Harvard and speaks Chinese fluently, Mira Sorvino comes across as a bimbo who likes expensive shoes in this TV mini-series. There is nothing about her mannerisms or attitude that suggests that she is an archeologist with a PhD. She screams Valley Girl. Scott Foley comes across a little better, but the banter and sexual tension is done much better in BONES. All you have to do is watch any episode, and you can see how this TV miniseries could have been done better.

And Mira Sorvino, if your agents think that your career would suffer from doing Dancing with the Stars and not this, you should fire your agents.

Scandalous Women nominated for Lady Blog Award

My lovely agent just let me know that my other blog Scandalous Women has been nominated for a Lady Blog Award in the Pop Culture/Entertainment Category.

http://www.culture11.com/article/36557

The voting ends January 26th, so please vote and vote often!

Something's Rotten in the State of New York

Sorry I've been such a bad blogger, but I'm deep in the job search, since I can't live off the $405 that New York States offers per week for unemployment. And I just read that the state is so broke now that they are borrowing money from Washington to pay unemployment claims! Yes, 500,000 people in this state so far this year have filed claims. And we don't even pay as much per week as NJ, CT or Massachussetts. NJ pays almost two hundred dollars more per week than NY. I take back all the awful things I've ever said about NJ. At least I'd be able to live off unemployment if I lived there. NY has not raised the unemployment check rate since 2000 people! And they defeated a bill to raise it last year.

New York sucks!

Hail to the New Chief!

I sit here writing this as I listen to our new President give his inaugural speech on BBC America (I had to watch it again). Despite the fact that I have crappy dial up service, I felt that I had to weigh in on such a historic moment, a moment that I wish that my parents could have lived to see.

My paternal grandparents were British citizens, born in Barbados, who came to this country to have a better life for their children. In fact, my grandfather didn't become an American citizen until after my father and uncle were born. And now almost a hundred years after my father was born, an African-American man, the son of a Kenyan immigrant, and a young woman from Kansas, is now the 44th president of the United States.

The first President to be born in the 1960's, a president of my generation (how ironic that he was elected the 44th President, the year that I turned 44!). There are no words to describe how I felt standing downtown on Wall Street watching the ceremony on the jumbo screen. I'm not ashamed to say that I cried watching him stand so calmly in the capitol building waiting to be announced. And how I loved listening to Aretha Franklin sing "My Country tis of thee" sung to the tune of 'God Save the Queen,' which funnily enough BBC America didn't pick up on (the commentator called it our national anthem. Ah, no, that would be the Star Spangled Banner).

I looked through the crowd hoping to catch a glimpse of the lovely Leanna Heiber and her significant other, who won tickets to go to the inauguration through Chuck Schumer's office. I was also interested to see that members of Congress gave the new first family gifts. I wonder what New York got the Obamas!

I only have two quibbles. 1) Given how many Starbucks there are in the Wall Street area, they couldn't have sprung for some hot chocolate for all of us who were standing outside? and 2) if George H. W. Bush who had hip surgery could toddle his way to the inauguration, Dick Cheney couldn't hauled his ass out of his wheelchair.

God save our new President Barack H. Obama!