Memories of Venice

In honor of the release of Amanda McCabe's first Harlequin Historical (which I just picked up at Barnes and Noble, I had the great honor of hanging out with Amanda in the Grand Lounge in Atlanta last year), I thought I would share some of my pictures from my trip to Venice a few years ago. I had long dreamed of going to Venice, hopefully with that special someone, taking a gondola ride, staying at the Danieli. Well, the years were going by and that wasn't happening (I couldn't even get ex-sweetie pie to come and visit me in London, and he wouldn't have had to pay for a hotel room) so the year I turned 40 I decided to treat myself to a trip to Venice.

So of course, I decide that the best way to see Venice is during Carnivale, that festival which literally means End of Meat, since it ocurrs before Lent. My friends and I stayed in a lovely little flat on the Fondamente Nuove right near the canal. Literally. If any of us had been too drunk and walked too far, we would have fallen right in.



This is my friend Bella and I at the final night ball during Carnivale.






A lovely view of Piazza San Marco. On left is Cafe Florian where we spent many a day sipping frothy cappucino's, and Prosecco.

Okay, I'm not sure where I took this one.

Or this one. But aren't they pretty?

Anyway, go out and pick up a copy of Amanda's book today!

Thanks for reading,

EKM

Is Hershey's the Devil?

I was a girl scout for 5 years, and every year I looked forward to selling cookies primarily because it meant getting my hands on Thin Mints. Even after I dropped out (my school didn't have enough girls interested in being cadets and I couldn't find another troop), I still managed to get my hands on some Thin Mints.

So imagine my surprise when I bought a box of York Peppermint Patty cookies and discovered that they tasted just as good as Thin Mints. In fact they reminded me of my other favorite mint cookies from the 1970's, Mystic Mint which are extremely hard to find, sort of like Mallomars.

Damn you Hershey Chocolate!

Harry Potter

Find out your Harry Potter personality at LiquidGeneration!

Sherman's March

So I went to a screening of this documentary Sherman's March on Thursday. I had never heard of this movie, but that's not saying much because there are tons of documentaries that I haven't heard of. Such is a life spent seeing movies that have roman numerals after them, along with the occasional independant film, and a huge amount of films made before 1970.

The plot is thus: After his girlfriend leaves him, McElwee takes a voyage along the original route followed by General William Sherman -- but rather than cutting a swath of destruction designed to force the Confederate South into submission, as Sherman did, McElwee searches for love, camera in hand, “training his lens with phallic resolve on every accessible woman he meets.” The movie was shot in 1980 but not released in 1986 where it won an award at Sundance.

After watching the film, I wasn't sure if I liked it or hated it. I was split down the middle. At first this movie reminded me of that new show with Scott Baio, where he goes and talks to all his old girlfriends including Erin Moran who played Joanie on Happy Days to find out why he's still single at 45, along with seeing a life coach who's supposed to help him have a break through with his emotional issues.

Fortunately this movie was a bit deeper than whether or not Scott has emotional issues because he used to be a teen star. Ross McElwee clearly indentifies with Sherman in some way. He mentions that Sherman had been a failure before the Civil War, as was Ulysses S. Grant (nice to know the Northern Army was in the hands of men who were basically incompetent in the real world. Maybe that's why we kept losing in the early days!) He emphasizes that Sherman loved the South, and hated what he was doing.

In some ways, I wish that he had included more about Sherman in the movie, than the few tidbits that we got (although there is a hilarious scene where he's dressed up as a confederate solider for a costume party) but Sherman is just a by-product of the film. Although ostensibly he's trying to find out why he's still single, the film is a valentine to the South,and Southern women, and the way he grew up.

Confession, my mother was Southern, from Suffolk, Virginia (peanut country), although she wasn't from the Deep South. My grandparents however were from North Carolina. Legend has it that we have Cherokee and Shawnee blood, which my mother was prouder of, than being from the South. Although they moved to New York when she was five, she spent every summer down South in Virginia and she was raised by her older sisters who southern women down to their fingertips. So I've always been fascinated by the breed.

Enough about me, back to the movie. My biggest problem with this film was the length. At times it felt as long as Sherman's March to the Sea. It clocked in a whopping two and a half hours. Although most of it was fascinating, there was at least a good half hour of material that could have been cut, including all the Burt Reynolds stuff. Don't ask.

I also noticed a pattern in his relationships. He seemed to gravitate towards unattainable women, women who were madly in love with men who didn't treat them very well. That whole bad boy thing rearing its ugly head again. Ross seemed like the nice guy that we often ignore for the exciting guy who doesn't call us for two weeks after a date.

While I felt for him, there were other times when I just wanted to slap him upside the head and tell him to wake up and smell the Krispy Kremes. The only women who weren't involved were both how shall I put it, a bit on the religious side? And then there was a singer that he seemed interested in but that seemed to peter out. He just seemed to float from town to town, relationship to relationship, leaving a path of destruction (or at least a broken down car).

It was frustrating and reminded me a little too much of my Impossibly Handsome British Friend. It didn't seem as if Ross knew what he was looking for in a woman or a relationship. The film ends tantalizingly with the promise of perhaps another relationship as he takes a continuing education class in music.

My favorite character was his friend Charleen who he's actually featured in a short film which I thinking of renting to watch. She's one of those straight talking women who tell it like it is, and don't give you a chance to argue. She steamrolls over Ross in a way that was absolutely hysterical.

WTF moment of the film was the woman who claimed while the South was justified in fighting the war against Northern Aggression, slavery should have been an option. As she put it, "If you want to be a slave, be a slave." Okay, who in their right mind is going to choose being a slave over freedom? Like that's even a choice.

Anyway, if you want to see an early example of what we know take for granted in confessional movie-making, rent Sherman's March. And take a break midway through to make a sandwich or a bathroom break or to take a nap.

EW does Romance

Imagine my surprise when I got home last night from work and opened my copy of Entertainment Weekly to discover that this week they've reviewed 4 romances in a special box at the top of the page. With all the controversy this past week over romance authors wearing costumes, and whether or not it set the genre back a hundred years, here were romances being reviewed by a magazine that's read by millions of people.

Of course, I was a little disappointed that the books they chose to review were by pretty well-established authors like Joanna Lindsay and Sherrilyn Kenyon (clearly wearing that swan hat in Dallas didn't hurt her a bit), but it was nice to see Meljean Brooks get reviewed. My good buddy Megan Frampton loves her books, and after reading the review I'm tempted to go out and get a copy (or just borrow Megan's hint, hint).

Here's hoping that this will be regular feature in EW (does anyone know if this is the first time they've done this? I confess I can't remember). It can only help the industry, when a magazine that deals with pop culture reviews romances. I know that People has reviewed Sandra Brown and Nora Roberts. Maybe the New York Times won't be far behind? Nah, that's too much to even hope for.

That just goes along with the other good news that Megan, along with several other friends, Lani Diane Rich, Eileen Rendahl and Michelle Cunnah had books that were included in the Complete Idiot's Guide Ultimate Reading list which just came out recently.

Oh, and I got to see Patti Lupone play Mama Rose in Gypsy today which did a great deal to alleviate the pain at knowing that not only do I have to buy a new VCR/DVD player tomorrow, but also a new answering machine, since mine just died on me today.

Well, I'm off to get ready to watch Rachael Ray tonight for work.

Thanks for reading!

EKM

TGIF - Things that I love

Since it's Friday, and I'm so happy that this week is over, I thought today's post would be about some things that I love.

Mike Rowe - See the guy to the left? That's Mike Rowe, the host of Dirty Jobs on The Discovery Channel. If you haven't watched this show, you should. The premise is that Mike Rowe goes around the country investigating the jobs that are the most people are lucky they don't have to do. Everything from cleaning out a septic tank, to standing hip deep in bat guana, this guy is game for everything. And he doesn't just stand around interviewing people, he gets right in there, and I mean literally. I think in one episode, he hand his arm up a cow's ass for some reason.

Joey and Howie on Top Chef - First these two lugs hate each other and almost come to blows, next thing you know after working with Casey, they love each other so much, I expect them to start making out at any moment. Two lunkheads making great food.

Dark Chocolate Covered M&M's, Dark Chocolate Covered Raisinets - Basically if you cover it with dark chocolate I'll eat it. You could probably cover a cockroach in dark chocolate, and if I didn't know what it was, I'd think it was just something crunchy. Barring that, with these two items, I can get my dark chocolate fix every day. And it's good for you too, plus raisins are fruit!

Anthony Bourdain - How much do I love this guy? Even though he can't stand vegetarians, I still love him, because he's witty, and smart, and he's willing to drink snake's urine, so I don't have to. Every episode of Top Chef that he guest judges is a keeper. Seriously, get rid of Padma and Gail and just have Tom, Ted, and Anthony and I would be a happy girl.

Richard Armitage as Sir Guy of Gisbourne - Is it just me or is Richard Armitage the only reason to watch the BBC's new Robin Hood? Cause it certainly isn't Robin Hood. While I like Maid Marian and the Sheriff, Robin Hood and the Merry Men are a bit boring to me. But Richard Armitage is cruel, manly and also surprisingly vulnerable. He's the classic alpha male/bad boy. Someone give this guy his own series pronto!

And finally how smoking hot are these shoes?

When Hell Breaks Loose - RWA Conference

Why is it that whenever I don't go to the RWA conference, stuff happens? I missed the conference in Reno, which was the year of the RITA awards debacle, where Nora walked out and TTQ gave the lamest apology on the planet if you can ever consider it an apology. This year, I don't go and there's RITA controversy again, and alot of stuff about readers/reviewers/bloggers attending the conference as well as what it means to dress professionally. Not to mention the changes to PAN and the publishing criteria.

Even though I wasn't there, that's never stopped me from putting my two cents in.

1) It seems that people are up in arms about the changes to the RWA policy for recognizing publishers, feeling that it means that RWA hates erotica. I don't think that the changes to the policy mean they hate erotica, I think they just want to protect writers from getting screwed since Triskelion went bankrupt and it's not the only e-publisher to go belly-up in recent years. Do I think the hate the idea of erotica and erotic romance? Well, I went to the board meeting in New York two years ago, and I had the feeling that the board at that time, had not only problems with erotica but with chick-lit as well. They felt that RWA was moving away from it's purpose which is romance writing. Remember the whole definition of romance debacle?

2) Barb Ferrer winning the RITA for Best Contemporary Romance. Poor Barb, you win a RITA and before you have time to enjoy it, the knives are out. It seems there are two issues here, should she have won the RITA for Best Contemporary Romance, and why the book was included in that category at all. My feeling is that, the preliminary judges, knowing that Barb had to enter two categories to be considered for best first book, let her slide into the Best Contemporary Romance category, since word count kept her out of Best Mainstream with Romantic Elements. They clearly liked the book and felt that she should be nominated. And she won because the final judges preferred her book over the others in the category. Instead of being mad at Barb, those naysayers should take it up with the preliminary judges.

Now I read Adios, was it a romance? No, not the way RWA or the category defines contemporary romance. And that has nothing to do with the age of the heroine. It has to do with the fact that the book is a coming of age story, with a romance. In a contemporary romance, the primary focus is supposed to be on the hero and heroine, not as a subplot.

RWA already has put measures in place so that next year the YA category is more open, which openfully will mean that there will be an RWA YA RITA awarded, and I hope that Barb's next book is one of the nominees.

3) Authors dressing up in costume during the conference. Apparently there are authors who were not happy that a few authors dressed up like their characters to promote their books during the public book signing for Literacy that RWA has each year. Correct me if I'm wrong but don't members of the Beau Monde dress up for their RWA party every year? And the book-signing was not just an RWA book signing, it was open to the public meaning readers were there, so what's the big deal? It would be one thing if they had walked around the conference the entire time like that, but they didn't. I seriously doubt that RWA is in danger of going the way of RT with Vampire Costume Balls or Faerie Balls, or Cover Model pageants.

Update: Okay, I just got done reading the rest of the comments over at Smart Bitches and I can see where Nora Roberts and Jenny Crusie are coming from, but I can also see why the two authors chose to promote their books dressed not so much as their characters but in a Manga style. The Shomi line is new, and their two books are part of the launch. The criticism stemmed partly from whether or not they turned people off from reading the other Shomi books, and whether or not it was appropriate at an RWA function.

Also, an another issue is how far should an author go to promote their books, and when does it cross a line. Frankly, I don't think the two authors crossed that line, but it is possible that they should confine their promotional efforts to other conferences that aren't RWA. They say on their web-site 'Rebels of Romance" that they want to get readers who don't read romance to try the books, and a younger audience. Great, I'm all for that, but perhaps RWA was not the appropriate forum after all.

Also, I'm not sure that publishers are going to be pressing authors to dress like their characters, but the reality is, most mid-list authors get little to no promotion from their publisher, so whatever you can do to promote your books, you need to consider. But you also have to consider what you are promoting, the book or yourself. It appears that several authors who were taken aback, felt that there was a fine line between promoting the books and the women themselves.

4) Readers/Bloggers/Reviewers attending the conference. Okay, a lot of authors who attended the conference are bloggers, as are booksellers and librarians. The only way to keep them out is if RWA requires only RWA members can attend the conference, which means that the cost will go up probably. Most conferences allow non-members to attend. I don't see what the big deal is. If they're willing to shell out about over $1,000 to attend the conference, I say more power to them. None of the bloggers have had anything bad to say about the conference. They all loved it and had a great time.

EKM

Why Spoil the Fun?

So I've been reading articles on the internet lately about certain people who''ve taken it upon themselves to spoil the ending for the final Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, some sites apparently have uploaded supposed photocopies from the book including the last page.

My question, why? Why spoil the fun for the millions of fans who have been waiting for this book since the series first began, who have waited patiently (and impatiently) for JK Rowling to finish writing the series.

And why would anyone want to read the book before it's released?

I confess I do have a habit of picking up romance novels and reading a bit of the end before I buy the book, but I have never been tempted to read the ending of my Harry Potter novels nor have I gone to any of the sites that purport to have intimate knowledge of the book.

Why? Because I want my experience of Harry Potter to be untainted. In a world where spoilers abound for everything, this is the one thing that I hold sacred. And I just don't get why people are doing it. Is it jealously of JK Rowling because she's sold millions of copies of her books and will continue to do so as new readers discover Harry Potter? Is it just sheer maliciousness?

All I know is that they're totally breaking the law, at least the people who are publishing excerpts from the book without permission, and I hope that publishing company cracks down on them for it.

The bottom line is that this is someone's lifes work. JK Rowling has sweat blood, and tears to make this series true to her vision, and I think that we owe it to her to come to the experience without judgments or prejudices, to just let her entertain us.

I will be eagerly waiting my copy of the book (I pre-ordered it way back in March) and promise you I will not be peaking at the ending to make sure that Harry lives. Not because I think that JK Rowling would never do that to her fans, she can do what she wants, but because I want that pure element of surprise.

Thanks for reading,

EKM

Jane, Jane, Everywhere

Here we are in 2007, and doesn't it seem that all of a sudden Jane Austen is everywhere. Sure, this isn't the first time there's been a plethora of Jane Austen books, and Jane Austen movies, but suddenly it's like she's on every freaking corner, or every single bookstore shelf. Not to mention television and the movies. Not since 1995 when Pride and Prejudice, Sense & Sensibility, Clueless, and Persuasion came out, have I seen such a bonanza.

Just head over to the Austen blog if you don't believe me. Not only do they have a listing of every single Jane Austen sequel, biography, paraliterature known to man that's coming out in the next few months, but they also list stage adaptations as well. New York alone is going to see 2 musical versions of Austen novels, Emma and Pride and Prejudice.

Just recently we've had Austenland, Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict, and Me and Mr. Darcy. Last year, we had By a Lady, where in an actress from the 20th century goes back in time to 1801 Bath, and meets Jane Austen. There's even a Jane Austen mystery series which I've tried to read but couldn't get through.

Don't get me wrong, I adore Jane Austen but I sometimes wish that all this creativity could be put to, oh I don't know writing about something else? Maybe it's just because I think Jane's books are perfect on their own. I don't need to know what Darcy or Mr. Knightly were thinking if Jane didn't tell me, or what happened to them after they married Elizabeth and Emma. I'm going to assume they lived happily.

Now, this weekend, I saw a preview for 2 new movies that have connections to our Jane. One the Jane Austen Book Club based on the best selling novel (which I read and enjoyed) and Becoming Jane starring Anne Hathaway as Jane Austen.

Just from the previews, I can state unequivacably that I prefer the Jane Austen Book Club. If you're read the book, you know that Jane Austen is just the jumping off point. It's what they learn during their year of reading Jane, and how that reading impacts their lives. How reading Jane has made them a better person if you will.

Meanwhile, Becoming Jane Austen, looks like some weird romantic comedy. In fact from the preview, it kind of looks like Pride and Prejudice. Whoopsie, do you think that was the plan? Seriously, if this movie weren't about Jane Austen, I might even enjoy it. But the fact that they're taking Jane's meeting Tom Lefroy and turning into some sort of strange love story kind of bugs me. It's not like Shakespeare in Love, where since we know so little about Shakespeare's life in London away from his family, you could buy into the idea that he fell in love with a noblewoman who inspired him (i.e. Dark Lady of the Sonnets), who he couldn't be with due to differences in station, and oh the fact, that he was already married.

I just find it sad, that the only way that Jane could have written her beautiful books was if she had been disappointed in a love affair. Of course, I could be wrong, the movie could be wonderful. I'm just going by the preview. Of course, despite my misgivings, I totally plan to be there opening weekend.

I think the best comment on the recent spate of Austenmania comes from this piece entitled "Jane Austen Meets Jesus"

What do you think? Too much Jane or not enough?

Tag,

Time for a little grown up tag courtesy of Carleen! (We writers will do just about anything to put off you know actually writing.)There are rules for this game and here they are:

1. We have to post these rules before we give you the facts.
2. Players start with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
3. People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
4. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
5. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.


8 Random Things About Me:

1. I'm average height, and usually I think I'm pretty tall until I stand next to someone tall and then I realize just how short I am!

2. Eight years ago I went off meat, and giving up steak and chicken was much easier than I ever imagined it would be. Although occasionally, I miss eating liver.

3. When I was in 9th grade I received an award for Perfect Attendance.

4. I'm afraid of snakes so much, I won't even walk through the reptile house at the zoo.

5. I once Xeroxed my breasts at my temp job and faxed them to a guy I was hot for.

6. I can't stand being late. I'm almost anal about getting anywhere on time, and nothing gets me more upset than people who are habitually late. I'm talking 20-30 minutes late. I think it's rude and inconsiderate, particularly now that people have cellphones. Dude, call if you're going to be late!

7. When I was little I thought that people actually lived in the television set.

8. I hate, hate, hate going to the dentist!

So now I'm tagging, Marley, Kelly Parra, Megan , Gabrielle, Mary, Carolyn, Maureen, and Anton. You're it!

Groovy Groups

TGIF I always say! I hope everyone had a great week. Why is it that the week after a holiday week seems like the longest week on the planet? And the weather here in NY has been freaky, it's either cool or it's scorching hot, and Wednesday, all of a sudden there was a torrential rainstorm. Well, at least we're not having a typhoon like they're having in Japan. Just want to give a quick shout-out to KMJ who is recovering from surgery, and I'm happy to say that my friend's little boy came through having his tonsils shaved yesterday.

Last night, I actually went out to a reading series downtown at this groovy dive bar on the LES (Lower East Side). KGB bar is housed in an old Polish union hall and it consists not only of the bar but also a theater complex and art gallery, multi-tasking at it's finest. KGB actually stands for the Kraine Gallery and not the KGB, Russian equivalent of our FBI/CIA.

The reading series is sponsored by an organization called Behind the Book whose mission is to excite children and young adults about reading. They work with low-income students in the NYC public schoools. What they do is they bring authors and their books into individual classrooms to build literary skills and to nurture a new generation of readers. Sounds cool huh? They made about 90 schools and they have a waiting list of schools.

They not only bring authors in but they also work with the kids to help them craft stories of their own, getting them excited about the process as well as reading. Of course the minute I heard about it, I had to donate. It was only $25, but I felt good about helping the next generation of readers. Reading meant alot to me growing up, and it still is such a big part of my life.

So, I went down to KGB, and the reading got started around 7:30. I was only familiar with one of the authors, Arthur Phillips, who has a new book out called Angelica which is in my TBR pile as I write. The other two authors, Helen Schulman and Will Allison, I wasn't familiar with, although after hearing them read, I will seek out their books at the bookstore. I did know that Helen Schulman's book, P.S. had been made into a movie with Laura Linney where she played an admissions counselor at Columbia who falls for an 18 year old who may be the reincarnation of her old boyfriend, which was a lot less creepy than it sounds.

It was a good evening, and it was neat to hear Arthur Phillips read us an excerpt for what may be his next book, and to hear that after doing a book tour, he was sick of reading from his latest novel. He was wickedly funny as you would expect a former child actor, and 5 time Jeopardy champ to be.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

P.S. Skip the new dark chocolate mint 3 Muskateer bar, it tastes like cold medicine.

Thursday Fun!

I've got nothing today while I work on the revisions of my novella/potential Modern Extra novel. So here goes:


1. Men are like ..Laxatives ..... They irritate the crap out of you.
2. Men are like. Bananas . The older they get, the less firm they are.
3. Men are like Weather . Nothing can be done to change them.
4. Men are like ...Blenders You need One, but you're not quite sure why.
5. Men are like ..Chocolate Bars .... Sweet, smooth, & they usually head right for your hips.
6. Men are like .... Commercials ....... You can't believe a word they say.
7. Men are like Department Stores ..... Their clothes are always 1/2 off.
8. Men are like ......Government Bonds ..... They take soooooooo long to mature.
9. Men are like .....Mascara . They usually run at the first sign of emotion.
10. Men are like .Popcorn ..... They satisfy you, but only for a little while.
11. Men are like Snowstorms .. You never know when they're coming, how many inches you'll get or how long it will last.
12. Men are like . Lava Lamps .... Fun to look at, but not very bright.
13. Men are like Parking Spots All the good ones are taken, the rest are handicapped.

New roads to Publication

We've all heard of authors getting publishing contracts after spending their own money to self-publish, and authors who've been found the slush pile, and authors who've won contests like American Title from RT/Dorchester, but now there's another way.

Welcome to Media Predict a web-site which bills itself as an online game with very real consequences. They have something called Project Publish which is a book contest wtih Touchstone/Sime Schuster. Through Media Predict, Toughstone will select a book proposal from their site for future publication.

The whole idea is to get new ideas out there instead of the same old, same old. This includes not only publishing, but TV, movies and music as well. But it's the Project Publish that interests me. I must have been under a rock when this was first announced because I didn't know about it until I was reading SFA RWA's newsletter online and discovered that Josie Brown, an author who has published two books with Avon Trade, and has an agent was one of the authors being featured on the site.

The way Media Predict works is like the stock market. The projects have a share value and apparently when you sign up, you're given a certain amount of fake money to play with. You can buy stock in any project and that drives up the value of the book. The top 5 proposals will be finalists and from those 5, one grand prize winner will be chosen.

I was surprised that a published author like Josie Brown would need to use a site like this to get a book deal. From the except that is posted on the web-site it sounded interesting. A little different from the usual Mom battling demons books that have come out. This is Mom battling real spies, sort of if Sydney Bristow had married Michael Vaughn and they'd had kids and a car pool.

Sounds high concept to me, so I'm unsure as to why it hasn't been snapped up, and why her agent feels that this would be the way to go.

I have to confess that I'm thinking about submitting my YA proposal to the site, but then again, I have no agent nor have I been published, so the stakes would be higher for me.

I'll post if I decide to go ahead.

EKM

Well Wonders Never Cease

so I found this astrology site called The Astrologer and they have this section where they match you according to your birth date with your celebrity matches. Well, guess who I'm the most compatible with? Yes, Mr. "I dumped my pregnant girlfriend for Claire Danes" Billy Crudup.

Jeez, you have to be kidding me! But apparently on the Harmony Scale, we score a 10 for so easy, it's dull, and a 2 on Tension, which means that we have healthy tension.

Oh, and apparently, I'm really compatible with Brad Pitt as well, so Angie better watch out!

I'm apparently also incompatible with Fred Durst. Well, that's a relief.

EKM

Mercury in Retrograde is kicking my ass!

For those who don't believe in astrology, please feel free to ignore this post, for those who do, perhaps you feel my pain.

Mercury in Retrograde means that the planet Mercury which governs communication, etc. is traveling backwards in the sky meaning that things have a tendency to get screwed up.

Little things, like losing documents on the computer, emails that never show up, phone calls that never get returned. In my case, its included a DVD that is now stuck in the player, losing my iPod, getting stuck in traffic for over an hour on the way back from New Jersey, I can't get into the web-site to schedule my next cycle for my night job, the list goes on.

I'm distraught at losing my iPod, but the biggest pain is having the DVD stuck. I can't get it out, it's from the library, so I may have to pay for it, if it stays stuck. Oy!

Not to mention the bitch of a time I've had at my day job trying to get computer applications approved for the new hire on the sales desk. My biggest pet peeve with this job is that the assistants have to do all this stuff ourselves, and it involves dealing with multiple groups, instead of one central group. Every other investment bank I've worked for as had office managers or floor administrators who dealt with all this stuff.


The Italian Stallion who I've been corresponding with on Match.com for the past several weeks blew me off when I tried to schedule a lunch date with him this Sunday. I even gave this guy my cell phone number to call. Nada. Which is funny since for weeks he's been emailing about how sexy I am, my stunning smile, my eyes etc. To the point where it was getting kind of creepy, but I thought hey, he's Italian. And still no word from the sweetie pie I have a crush on.

And I'm not the only one affected. Apparently Miss New Jersey is being blackmailed into giving up her crown. Wow, I had no idea that someone could want to be Miss New Jersey that badly.

Sad note, Kathleen Woodiwiss passed away on Friday. She was one of the first historical romance authors that I read after Rosemary Rogers from what we now call the Golden Age of historicals. Back in the days when authors could write 600 page epics that spanned years. The Flame and the Flower was one of my favorites that I read over and over, despite that whole rape thing between Heather and Brandon in the first chapters.

There was a time when I read everything she wrote from the Wolf and the Dove, through Shanna. I can still remember sitting in class in high school, book bag on my desk, as I devoured her books. Sadly, I felt the quality of her work suffered in the past several years, as the market changed, so I haven't read anything she's written since the late eighties. Still, I remember her fondly and my fumbling attempts to write like her when I first started writing romance in high school.

Thanks for reading!

EKM

This Day in History: Anne Frank

I had planned on blogging about how Mercury in retrograde is kicking my ass until I read on historychannel.com that today was the day that Anne Frank and her family went into hiding.

13 year old Anne Frank and her family were forced to take refuge in a secret annex in the Amsterdam warehouse where Mr. Frank worked. The day before Anne's older sister Margot had received a call-up noticed to be deported to a Nazi "work camp." Anne had recently begun a dairy relating her everyday experiences, and observations about the increasingly dangerous world that she lived in.

Anne and her family had moved from Germany to Amsterdam after the Nazis gained power. They lived in the Annex for two years until they were betrayed and transported to the camps.

I read the Diary of Anne Frank for the first time when I was ten years old. Immediately I felt like I had found a friend in Anne, even though our lives were so different, our emotions weren't. I felt for her having to live in this small space, with strangers, having her first real crush on Peter, her difficult relationship with her mother, and her close relationship with her father. I loved the fact that she wanted to be a writer, and that she kept pictures of movie stars on her walls, the way I had pictures of Parker Stevenson, and pictures from Star Wars up on mine.

I kept hoping after I read it, that things had turned out differently, that she had managed to survive the camps, that her life hadn't ended at 15. I couldn't believe that someone who had effected me so deeply hadn't lived to grow up, have a family, to live her life in freedom. I could understand now why so many people wanted to believe that Anna Anderson was really Anastasia because it meant that what happened in that basement in Ekaterinburg hadn't wiped out an entire family.

I remember scouring the library at my school looking for any other books I could find on Anne Frank. I managed to find a book that not only had the diary but also her other writings that had been saved by Miep Gies. I read the play and I eagerly watched the movie when it was shown on the 4:30 movie on Channel 7 in New York.

She wrote in her diary that she still believed that people were good at heart. I try to remind myself of that when I read about some atrocity taking place in the world, or the latest policies of the Bush administration (by the way it's our fearless leader's birthday as well), or I read about how people in New Orleans are still suffering even two years after Katrina. I want to believe that those words are true.

If Anne could have that kind of faith, living in that tiny attic annex with seven other people, knowing what awaited her if they were caught, than I should be able to find it within myself to have faith too.

EKM

Bramwell

I've always been fascinated with medicine, despite the fact that I have absolutely no aptitude for science, and doing dissection in 7th grade, I was nauseous all the time, even though we were just dissecting frogs and fish. The smell of formaldehyde to this day makes me gag. Still, I find myself watching medical shows like "ER" and "Grey's Anatomy" eagerly. I used to love to play that medical game where you had to remove the body parts with like tweezers without touching the sides. I used to devour this medical encylopedia that we had. Of course, every disease I read about, I thought that I had.

It finally dawned on me, that I liked playing a doctor, I didn't actually want to be one! Still, it made wonder what it must have been like for the first woman to try and enter the medical profession or the first woman to every try and get a law degree. I remember reading about Elizabeth Blackwell, and her struggles to get accepted by a medical school in this country, until finally a college up in Geneva, NY accepted her totally as a joke. They never expected her to actually succeed as a doctor.

That's why I loved the series Bramwell on PBS. Jemma Redgrave (one of the Redgrave clan) starred as Eleanor Bramwell. Eleanor came from an upper middle class family where her father was also a doctor. She ends up running a free hospital in the East End where she encounters prejudice from not only her staff but also the poor who utilize the clinic. She ends up falling in love with an Irish doctor who marries someone else, when he goes to America.

This series was wonderful for depicting what it was like for a woman not only to get a medical degree but also to set up a practice. I found it much more interesting than Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, and not just because I'm not a huge Jane Seymour fan. Eleanor has to deal with men who don't like the fact that she's not only a competent doctor but also might be better than they are. Even her father is not always as supportive as she would like. She also has to deal with the prejudices of women, like Nurse Carr, who has never worked with a woman doctor and who might have wanted to be a doctor herself. Also the fact that Eleanor is upper middle class when women of the era were only raised to be wives and mothers, not to work.

I would love to read an American version of Bramwell, one that's not a mystery series like Victoria Thompson's wonderful books. I actually love reading historicals where the women break out of the confines and actually have careers whether through necessity or because they want something more than just being decorative. If I read the back cover of a historical and discover that the heroine wants to be an architect or a lawyer, I'm totally there. Millie Criswell wrote a historical that had a lawyer heroine.

Anyone else out there like historicals where the heroine is pursuing a career?

EKM

Happy Fourth of July!

I'm sitting here watching the fireworks reflected in the windows of the building across the street while I'm at work.

I hope that everyone had a happy, healthy Fourth of July, and like Paris Hilton says "Don't Drink and Drive!"

EKM

Bashing New York Women

I've been in a really unhappy mood over the past few days, partly because of my sunburn that made me look like a rotisserie chicken on Saturday, and partly because I lost my beloved iPod. 330 songs down the tubes until I get a replacement, and I can upload everything that I lost. I hadn't realized how dependent I had become on it, until I lost it.

So I wasn't in the best of moods when I read actor Justin Theroux's comments about New York women in New York magazine. All I could think of was WTF? That would be Mr. Theroux to the left.

Here are his comments:

“New York chicks, girls who are really from here, are the fastest women around,” he says. “They were all at Danceteria and dating 30-year-olds when they were 14.” Can he spot one on sight? “No,” he says, “you can only tell that after talking for about fifteen minutes. By then, they’re usually bored and have seven other places to go. If she ditches you to meet some guy named Marco, she’s from New York.”

Again I say WTF? Where is this coming from and what sort of New York women does he know? I'm getting a little tired of the bad rap New York women get. First there was Toby Young's book How To Lose Friends etc. where he details the several years he spent in New York chasing models and socialites instead of normal New York women who have like jobs. And now this crap?

I'm a native New Yorker and I have never been to Danceteria and I have never dated a 30 year old when I was a teenager. In fact the girls I grew up with? The oldest guy they dated when we were in high school was a 21 year old, and we thought that was racy. Maybe those Brearly girls and Spence girls were like that, but the average New York girl? Not so much.

Seriously, it's New York men that are the problem, not the women. Anyone read the article in the New York Times style section about 40 and 50 year old men chasing 20 year olds in share houses in the Hamptons? Or how they break up with their girlfriends so that they can spend the summer getting laid in their share houses instead of oh, I don't know, spending the summer with their girlfriends?

Truthfully, finding an honest guy who will treat you well is nigh near impossible in this city. That's why I've been corresponding with guys who live in Canada. They're polite and well-mannered arent' they?

EKM

Harriette Wilson - Detective?

I love historical mysteries. Just the idea of what it was like to solve a crime without our modern forensics intrigues me, makes me think. Of course, the greatest of all historical detectives is Sherlock Holmes (although at the time that Conan Doyle was writing, he was a contemporary detective).

Whenever I see a new historical mystery, I have to buy it. Nowadays, there are so many, I can't believe it. Everything from Ancient Rome to turn of the century New York has been featured in a mystery novel. Some have been great like Anne Perry's Thomas and Charlotte Pitt series, some have not been so great (I won't name names). For a long time, I've been toying with the idea of writing a historical mystery series of my own.

But who would be the detective? Well a good friend of mine once said, "If you want to know where the bodies are buried, ask a whore!" And who was the most famous courtesan of the Regency period? Harriette Wilson according to my friend. He was actually the one who suggested that Harriette would be perfect as the heroine of a series of Regency mystery novels.

There's only one problem, Harriette was a blackmailer, when she wasn't whoring. Not the most attractive quality to have in a detective. See, she would threaten to name names in her future memoirs unless the client paid up. Some like the Duke of Wellington told her to "publish and be damned." Others paid up several times.

Who was Harriette Wilson? Well, she was born the daughter of a Swiss clockmaker, and was working as a prostitute by the age of 12. By 15, she was courtesan. It was something of a family industry, both her sisters were also courtesans, her sister Sophia actually married into the aristocracy.

Harriette's usual modus operandi was to seduce a lover, and then write him an intriguing letter. Then after they were lovers, she would threaten him with exposure unless he paid up. This practice eventually led to her downfall.

I suppose I could get around the whole blackmailing thing by having it that Harriette was actually working for the government. Or the whole first mystery could be Harriette working to clear her name after one of her lovers is found murdered and she's a suspect. I suppose if Jane Austen can be a detective, then a courtesan like Harriette Wilson could as well.

The question is would anyone want to read a mystery series about a detective/whore?

EKM

Movie Review: Evening

Thursday night after work I went to a free screening of the new movie Evening starring Vanessa Redgrave, Claire Danes, Toni Collette, Meryl Streep and Glenn Close.

Just a quick word about screenings in New York, they are a mad house. The movie started at 7 p.m. but if you hadn't gotten on line by 6 p.m. you probably weren't going to get in to the movie. Plus they were doing a screening of Transformers the same night so the two lines kept getting confused.

I knew almost nothing about this movie, which is a good thing, just that it was probably going to be sad.

Evening is the story of a woman on her deathbed who amidst the delirium and images of her past full life relives a love affair she had forty years earlier, when at twenty-five she attended the wedding of her best friend on an island in Maine. As her children wait and tend to her, she remembers minutely the details of those three days when she met a man, a time which emerges from marriages and divorces and children as being the high point of her life.

The screenplay was written by Michael Cunningham who wrote The Hours. If you didn't like that movie, you are definitely not going to like Evening.

I actually liked it alot. It wasn't perfect but it managed to capture a time and a place in a very real way. The only thing I didn't like was why everyone was so obsessed with Harris. I just didn't get and I'm not sure if it's the character in the book or the performance of Patrick Wilson. We only hear about his relationships with Buddy and Lila, there's only a quick glimpse in the wedding scenes.

Also, it's never spoken why Ann and Harris don't get together. Is it because of what happened to Buddy? The guilt? You never know or why she ends up married to the best man at the wedding.

Casting Meryl Streep's daughter Mamie to play the younger version of her character was an inspired choice. What surprised me the most about this movie was the performance of Hugh Dancy as Buddy, Lila's brother. He's always seemed sort of a light weight actor to me, but his performance in this movie moved beyond the shallow. I even liked Claire Danes which is unusual for me. Like Natalie Portman, she's a little bit hit or miss in her performances. It was great to see Barry Bostwick and Glenn Close in small but pivotal parts in the movie and the great Eileen Atkins.

Of course, I know have to go out and buy the book, to see how different it is than the movie, and what they had to leave out. Still, I would give this movie a B+. I'm surprised actually that they released in the summer amidst all the summer sequels and fluff. It would be shame if Vanessa Redgrave's performance got lost in the shuffle at awards time. Watching her was like watching a master class in acting.

Thanks for reading!

EKM

Spice Girls Reunite - Who cares?

So the Spice Girls announced today that they were reunited for an 11 city concert tour. Why? According to Geri Halliwell aka Ginger Spice, the fans demanded it.

Really? Are these the same fans who didn't buy their final album? How much did they have to pay Mel C to do this considering she's the only one who remotely has had a solo career?

This reminds me of this VH-1 show called Bands Reunited, where Amer Haleem tried to reunite bands from Berlin to Kajagoogoo. Seriously. Was anyone out there waiting for that reunion?

No offense to the girls, I even admit to owning Spice Girl CD's back in the day, but the Police reuniting is a big deal. Not you five.

Frankly I would rather see Andrew Ridgely and George Michael reunite Wham for one night.

Anyone out there excited to see the original Fab Five reunite?

EKM

It's Getting Hot in Herre!

Oh MY GOD! It was 90 degrees today here in New York but it felt like 97. Walking through the streets was like wading through pea soup. I like it when it's hot but disgusting and muggy. It's so bad that the Upper East Side had a brief power outage. In fact the lights in my office building flickered on and off briefly this afternoon. That wacky Mercury in Retrograde is at it again.

Wow, I can't believe that I've had over 17,000 hits to this blog since I started it two years ago. Now that might not sound like alot (I'm sure Meg Cabot gets that many in a week) but for me, it's pretty darn good. When I started this blog, I was happy if I could get my friends to read it, so the fact that there are people out there who I don't even know reading the blog is pretty awesome.

To celebrate, I took myself off to Lord and Taylor to look for a bathing suit. Pretty strange way to celebrate right? Well, I won a scavenger hunt this past Sunday and the prize was a trip going tubing down the Delaware river. I can't wait, sunshine, water, and barbecue! The scavenger hunt was alot of fun. We had to scour the Metropolitan Museum of Art for clues relating to Leonardo Da Vinci and his contemporaries, plus we had a list of about 30 pictures that we had to take, everything from getting a team member to pose as the Vitruvian Man to taking a picture with a man or woman of the cloth (we solved that by having our picture taken by a statue of a monk).

No cute guys on the hunt, apart from the guy who was the point person from the company that runs them, and the bartender at the Mad River Bar and Grille. Ah well! But we came in first which was tres cool. This was actually the second scavenger hunt that I've won with a team, so I guess that I must be good luck.

Anyway back to the great bathing suit hunt. It was extremely hard to find a flattering one piece suit. Most of the bathing suits were two pieces, and at my age, it's just not happening. I'm not one of those women who will wear a bikini with their belly hanging over the bottom. I tried on the so-called 'Miracle Suit' and all I can say is it's a miracle I was able to get it off again. It was like wearing a vise around my middle. Not fun or comfortable. So I will be wearing a bathing suit that I already own.

In other news, can I just say that there are no words to describe how vile I think Ann Coulter is? I don't wish harm to anyone, but with her, I'm sorely tempted. It's hard to remember that karma will eventually come back and bite her on the but for all the hate that she spews. I sometimes wonder if she really believes all the stuff that comes out of her mouth? Her response to Elizabeth Edwards, who just wanted her to lay off the personal attacks, was so inappropriate I won't even repeat it in this blog.

On a lighter note, I so far have managed to write at least 12 pages on my novella for the Brava contest.

Yeah me!

EKM

Would You Buy This?

So I'm perusing Amazon.com daily when I saw this. Apparently it was created by a designer in London who was inspired by the way that pigeons create private spaces for themselves in public areas. She created as you can see a bookshelf/slash seat so that readers can now sit among their books like in a library.

What do people think of this? It's not cheap, it costs about $7,045. And the light bulb looks awfully small. Would you feel comfortable or a little claustrophobic?

I personally prefer a couch or a chaise longue surrounded by comfy pillows and a place to put a cup of tea.

EKM

Favorite Books from Childhood - The Diamond in the Window

Have you ever read a book that stayed with you years after you read it? The Diamond in the Window by Jane Langton is one of those books for me. It was one of the first slightly paranormal books that I remember reading. In fact the book stayed with me long after I forgot the title. Il oved this book so much that I remember reading it over and over again. I never wanted it to end.

Recently I read an article in The New York Times about Concord, MA and the number of writers over the years that have made the town home. The article mentioned that Gregory McGuire (Wicked) read The Diamond in the Window as a child and was so entranced that he wrote Jane Langton, the author, a fan letter. She told him to write fantasty books for children when he grew up, which he did. So I'm not the only one who was entranced by this book.

Here is the blurb from the back cover:

"A very unusual house... Eddy and Eleanor Hall have always known that their family was a bit out of the ordinary. After all, they live in one of the most remarkable houses in all of Concord. But they never guessed just how extraordinary their house really is, or what tremendous secrets about their family's past it holds. That is, until they discover the magical attic room with its beautiful stained-glass window, abandoned toys, and two perfectly made-up, empty beds that seem to be waiting perhaps for two children just like themselves...."

Doesn't that just grab you? From this book, I learned all about Emerson and Thoreau, transcendentalism, and how houses can be magical. If you've read the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, you will love this book, although it's not quite as fantastical. Instead, it's more of a time travel novel or parallel worlds.

I'm surprised that no one has ever tried to make a movie about this book. Although that might be a good thing. Jane Langton has written several books in the series. I've only read one other in the series but I'm eager to read all of them now. She's also written a series of historical mystery novels that seem intriguing which will probably go into the pile of books that are teetering on the floor near my bed, and on the bench in my bedroom.

Thanks for reading!

EKM

My iPod! (Hall of Shame edition)

Okay, I've only been downloading music onto my iPod for about two months now, and I'm totally obsessed with it. I'm beginning to wish that I had gotten the iPod that holds 2,000 songs instead of 1,000. Right now, I'm up to 239 and I have a list of about 150 songs that I still want to download. Now you know why I have two jobs; to support my iPod habit!

So in the realm of full disclosure, I'm going to reveal the top 5 most embarassing songs that I have on my iPod. I got the idea from the Entertainment Weekly Pop Blog. So here goes in no particular order:

1. Never Going to Give You Up; Rick Astley - My defence for this once is that it reminds me of the time I spend on a post-graduate acting course in London in 1987 when this song came out. My friends and I loved it. Go figure. If you haven't heard it, imagine if Archie Andrews sang like a black soul singer and you have Rick Astley.

2. Wake Me Up Before You Go Go - Wham! How can you not bounce around your apartment listening to this song? Yeah, George Michael in the powder blue and orange short-shorts is a bit much but it's a totally catchy pop song.

3. I Just Want to Be Your Everything - Andy Gibb: I had a crush on him when I was eleven. He died tragically too young. Enough said.

4. Power of Love - Celine Dion - This was my song with Ex-sweetie Pie. Cheesy but beautiful.

5. Open Arms - Journey - Against, cheesy and gooey like a grilled cheese sandwich on white bread.

So what shameful songs exist on your iPod?

Thanks for reading!

EKM

What Tarot Card Are You?

You are The Empress

Beauty, happiness, pleasure, success, luxury, dissipation.

The Empress is associated with Venus, the feminine planet, so it represents,
beauty, charm, pleasure, luxury, and delight. You may be good at home
decorating, art or anything to do with making things beautiful.

The Empress is a creator, be it creation of life, of romance, of art or business. While the Magician is the primal spark, the idea made real, and the High Priestess is the one who gives the idea a form, the Empress is the womb where it gestates and grows till it is ready to be born. This is why her symbol is Venus, goddess of beautiful things as well as love. Even so, the Empress is more Demeter, goddess of abundance, then sensual Venus. She is the giver of Earthly gifts, yet at the same time, she can, in anger withhold, as Demeter did when her daughter, Persephone, was kidnapped. In fury and grief, she kept the Earth barren till her child was returned to her.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

Why Actors Should Shut Up

So after weeks of giving contradictory interviews to the media, including one to Entertainment Weekly, Isaiah Washington has now told the Houston Chronicle that the wrong actor was fired. He contends that T.R. Knight who plays George has used the whole called him the "F-word" as a bargaining chip to get a bigger role on the show and a raise.

Now call me madcap but as far as I know, apart from coming out an and an interview with Ellen de Generes, T.R. Knight has been remarkably silent about the whole situation. And it doesn't excuse Isaiah Washington's use of the F-word not once but twice, the second time when he denied ever saying it. In the article, he denies using the word to refer to specifically to T.R. Knight as if that makes what he said to Patrick Dempsey and the fact that apparently he put his hands on him okay. In fact, T.R. Knight was one of the last people to resign with the show, and it wasn't even clear that he was coming back. And no mention has been made of how much more he's making on the show. Katherine Heigel is the one who has been very vocal about the fact that she feels that ABC should be paying her more. I'm surprised Isaiah didn't accuse her of using the incident to get a bigger role on the show and more money. She was quite vocal about how she felt about him after the whole Golden Globes incident.

He also claims that he tried to get out of his contract twice during this whole thing. So if he tried to get out of his contract, why is he so pissed off that ABC finally decided to take him up on it? He goes on and on about how he did everything that they asked of him to save his job. I'm confused, is he saying that he wasn't contrite about what he said? That he only did it to save his job? If so, then he's not going to be winning friends after that statement.

See this is why most actors need to listen to their publicists or just shut up unless they have a movie to promote and then stick to what it is they're promoting. Or get some media training. I remember working atAmerican Express when they signed Tiger Woods as a spokesperson and a memo went around recommending that they have someone work with him on dealing with the media.

The same goes for Paris Hilton. Apparently, she just realized that the media has been making fun of her for the past 5 or so years. Really? She had no clue? Does she know how to read? She's a celebutante with no discernable talent. The media created her!

If you're actor, just act. That's your job. Keep your head down and keep your mouth shut. Don't explain and don't complain, that's what my acting teacher used to always say when we were being critiqued in a scene. I think it's a lesson that certain actors and celebrities need to learn. There's a reason why the old studio system kept the actors on such a tight leash when it came to publicity. Sheesh.

EKM

Now I've seen everything Part Two!

So anyone who reads this blog regularly knows that I have a wicked crush on Josh Bernstein, the host of Digging for the Truth on the Discovery Channel. So imagine my surprise when I was surfing the available men on Match.com and found out that his twin brother Andrew had posted a profile online.

Cool, I thought, and clicked on more to read what the other Mr. Bernstein was looking for. Imagine my surprise when I read his snarky profile. The gist of it was that he'd moved back to New York from LA, and he was looking for some one. His friends had suggested he try Match.com. Apparently he'd tried it a few years ago, and thought it was full of freaks. However, he'd been assured that things had changed.

What's he looking for in a woman? A non-drinker between the ages of 22 and 32, with either a graduate degree or who likes dogs. Oh, and if you're out of that age range, don't even bother him. What I'd like to know is which is more important; the graduate degree or the liking dogs? And why not go even further and ask for their IQ and cup size? The whole age range thing didn't bother me nearly as much as the requirement of a graduate degree. However, after that whole Mark Phillapousis show Age of Love where older woman are called cougars, and he practically freaks out when they show up and then has the nerve to be amazed that they look good, my hackles were raised.

So the cheeky cougar that I am; I emailed him to say that it's too bad that he's not interested in older women because we can be just as much fun as our younger counterparts. I also told him that I wished him well in his search, since he seemed like an interesting guy. I'm pretty sure he won't respond since after all I'm a full decade older than what he's looking for.

I did find it interesting that his brother also has quite clear requirements for the woman of his dreams. According to an article in the NY Times, he's looking for a six foot tall blonde who's not only Jewish but who likes to go hiking, and camping and all that other outdoorsy stuff.

Good luck with that!

EKM

A Taste of Pinkberry

So after reading about Pinkberry in various magazines, how people are lining up in LA like crack whores waiting for a fix, I decided I had to try it for myself. Normally, I'm suspicious of anything that's too popular. When Jamba Juice came to New York, I was all like "I've already had that in LA." Who knew that those things would multiply like rabbits here in New York?

Last night, after dancing the samba for an hour in my dance class (I now know why Brazilians wear so few clothes when they do this dance. Seriously Gisele could put out a Samba workout tape and make even more millions than she did with Victoria's Secret), I decided to take myself around the corner on 32nd Street to Little Korea to the Pinkberry store.

If you don't know about Pinkberry for some reason, the company was founded by a young Korean woman named Shelly Hwang in LA about two years ago, and now they've expanded into New York, opening two stores so far and planning on opening even more in the next few years. They've even spawned imitators that's how successful Pinkberry has become. Get this, she initially had planned on opening an English Tea Room, but after crunching some numbers and having problems getting licenses for liquor and outdoor seating, she decided on frozen yogurt instead.

Unlike Tasti-Delite or Crema-Lite, Pinkberry only has two flavors, original and green tea. And the decor of the shop is very mod and the place is small. The walls are painted a pale green and the tables and chairs are white. I got there last night at about 7:40 at there was a huge line. Normally I hate waiting on line, but I decided to suck it up in order to do this review. Oh, and it was hotter than Hades inside. I guess they forgot a simple thing like air conditioning or it was on the fritz.

After about seven minutes, I placed my order for a 5 oz original with strawberries and bananas. Then I waited another couple of minutes for my order. FYI to the manager of the 32nd Street store, your people need to move a lot quicker when they serve. I'm telling you the way they were piling up the fruit on the yogurt, you would have thought they were creating art. Oh, and you can get other toppings besides fresh fruit. They also have toppings like Cocoa Pebbles and Capt'n Crunch.

So is it any good? Um yeah. At first I was like "I think this is sour" but then I realized oh it tastes like actual yogurt as opposed to the chemically induced version that you normally get when you buy frozen yogurt. Before I knew it, I had eaten the whole thing. Was it worth it? Um yeah. I don't think I'd go back to the 32nd Street store, I might try the one downtown on 8th Street.

Anyone else tried Pinkberry?

EKM

Changes Afoot at RWA

Last night I attended a preview of the Mythic Creatures exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History with my fellow board members. Talk quickly turned to the changes in RWA's PAN policy as well as the decision by the board to eliminate the mainstream fiction with romantic elements category in the RITA's but to keep the category in the Golden Heart's.

For anyone reading this blog who is not a member of RWA, PAN is the published authors network of RWA. Typically once you have signed a contract with an RWA approved publisher, you are eligible to join PAN. But now apparently they want to change the rules and make it that you have to have been paid a certain advance by your RWA approved publisher in order to join PAN.

What this means is that new authors who are being published by RWA approved ebook publishers may not be eligible to join PAN because their advances may not be big enough. What is the point of this? You finally get that book contract, your book is going to be in print (for those publishers who do both), and you can't join PAN? My understanding was that for a publisher to be approved by RWA they had to pay a certain amount in royalties and advances. Am I wrong about this? If so, how does excluding a portion of your membership strengthen PAN?

I'm even more confused about eliminating the mainstream fiction with romantic elements category from the RITA's but keeping it for the Golden Hearts. Why is is good enough for the Golden Heart but not the RITA's anymore? What about all those finalists who then go on to be published? They will no longer be able to enter that winning manuscript or finalist manuscript in their own organizations awards.

While I know that RWA is ROMANCE writers of America, the reality is that many of the members are being published in YA or mainstream fiction. Both Nora Roberts and Suzanne Brockmann are still strong supporters of RWA, but I wouldn't call Suzanne Brockmann's books romances, although they do have a strong romantic element in them.

I started out writing romance, and I still continue to plug away at writing romance. However, what most agents that I've queried seem to be interested in from me are my YA novels. I would love to be published in romance, but that's not all I write, and I find it disconcerting to know that if I move into women's fiction, there won't be a place for me in my own organization's awards.

Sure, there are always the RT Awards, but those are decided by the editorial staff of RT. It's not quite the same as the RITA's.

I personally would like to see the mainstream category continue, with an additional category for straight historical fiction, and also erotic romance. Whether that's ever going to happen, depends on who the next President and board are.

Thanks for reading,

EKM

The Pirate Queen

Yesterday was Father's Day. Since my dad is no longer living, I thought would spend the day doing something that we had loved to do together. My dad took me to see my first Broadway musical. It was Sweeney Todd starring Len Cariou and Angela Lansbury. Not exactly the type of show that you would expect a father to take his daughter, the tale of a murdering barber intent on revenging the rape of his wife and the abduction of his daughter. But we loved it, and since I'm such a history geek it was the perfect show, combining history and musical theater.

So I headed downtown to the TKTS booth and bought a ticket for the final performance of The Pirate Queen. Wow, I wish I could tell you that the critics were wrong and the show undeservedly had a short run, but the truth is, this show blew chunks. Seriously, from the first song, I knew this show was going to be painful and it was. I have no idea what made 2 frenchmen think they could write a show about an Irish legend. Don't get me wrong, Les Miserables is one of my favorite musicals (I cry everytime I listen to Colm Wilkinson sing 'Bring Him Home') and Miss Saigon wasn't bad although the helicopter and the statue of Ho Chi Minh got bigger press, but the music for this was unmemorable and unremarkable. And not even particularly Irish for that matter. Plus every dance number was an Irish step dance. The first time, it was pretty cool when the men came out with the oars and danced. By the fifth time, I was bored out of my skull, and I hated Riverdance.

The other thing that got me was why was the lead actress the only one doing an Irish accent? My rule of thumb when I was acting was, everyone in the show had to do the acccent or none of us did. Having one person doing an Irish accent while everyone else who is supposed to be Irish was doing an American accent was like, WTF?

What made it even worse, I read the notes in the souvenir program in the gift shop about the real Grace O'Malley and the true story was so much more interesting than the musical. The writers created this character called Tiernan who was supposed to be her one true love, instead of using the real man that she ended up with. I totally understand why they cut her other two kids out of the show, but they could have used the legend that when her father refused to let her sail with him, she cut off her long hair. That would certainly have been a dramatic moment.

Clearly, I was being punished for accidentally cutting the TKTS line. Oops! My bad.

The real Grace O'Malley (Grannia) was born in 1530, three years before her nemesis, Queen Elizabeth. At the time, England had virtually ignored Ireland for years after their initial conquest during the reign of Henry II. The Irish chieftains and the Anglo-Irish pretty much co-existed somewhat uneasily. Like the Scottish clans, the Irish chieftains warred with each other constantly (which is how the English/Normas found it so easy to step in). Grace's father was the O'Malley and the family were seafarers which was actually unusual for a clan. They taxed anyone who fished in their waters including the English. Unlike the musical, when her father died, she did not become the clan chieftain because women were not allowed to hold that position. She engaged in constant revolutionary activity against the crown, which is barely hinted at in the musical. In fact, she becomes the Pirate Queen literally in one scene, when she helps her father defeat the British who are attempting to take over their ship. In the next scene, we see a young Queen Elizabeth telling Richard Bingham to take care of Grace and get rid of her. Huh?

Of course the musical has a happy ending with Grace and Tiernan reunited with her son Eoin, having come to terms with Queen Elizabeth, with lots of happy step dancing to end the evening. In reality, Grace went on warring against the English crown until she died at the age of 73, 3 years before Queen Elizabeth.

Bertrice Small used quite a huge chunk of Grace's story when she created Skye O'Malley, right down to her husband's first name, and the names of her children, to their overlords the Burkes. Like Skye's fourth husband Adam de Marisco of Lundy Island, Grace's second husband Richard Burke owned a castle on an island. In fact, Skye O'Malley would have made a better musical than The Pirate Queen.

The one good thing that came out of seeing this musical was my desire to read more about Grace O'Malley, so I'll be picking up a copy of Robin Maxwell's book as well as Morgan Llewellyn. However, I won't be listening to the cast album of The Pirate Queen anytime soon.

Thanks for reading!

EKM

Historical Fiction vs. Historical Romance

There's been a lot of buzz lately about what the difference is between Historical Fiction and Historical Romance, so I thought I would add my two cents in since I read a great deal of both. In my opinion, Historical Romance is a genre wherein the romance is essential to the book. If you took it out, you'd have no book, whereas historical fiction, while it may have elements of romance to it, has a wider scope. Think of Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe series, or the Hornblower series on A&E (by C.S. Forster who also wrote the African Queen).

I think the confusion is coming because historical fiction is once again on the rise. In the last five or six years there seems to be an explosion of historical fiction, everything from books like Sarah Waters books Tipping the Velvet and Fingerprints which are kind of lesbian historical fiction to huge bestsellers like Crimson Petal, Philippa Gregory's Tudor series, and books by Susan Vreeland, and Dava Sobel.

I remember reading a book by Virginia Henley about Henry III's sister Eleanor and her marriage to Simon de Montfort. Although the book was about real people, it was written as a romance, set against the turbulent backdrop of the period.

Whereas, Sharon Kay Penman who wrote a book set in the same time period with the same characters (Falls the Shadow) was concerned more with the history of the period, the conflict between Henry III and the barson, the relationship between Eleanor and Simon was just a small part of a bigger canvas.

A lot of historical romances use the history strictly as a backdrop. How many regency romances have you read that seemed to exist in a bubble? That don't even tell you what year they are set in? What's going on outside the four walls of the ballroom or the great country estates, doesn't seem to exist. Of course, most women of the time, unless they were married to politicians, probably weren't that aware either (and that goes for some contemporary women also).

In historical fiction, authors can take the reader from cradle to grave, where is historical romance, you're giving them a happy ending, letting the reader know that the hero and heroine will live happily ever after. Time is much more compressed in a historical romance. In historical fiction, the story can continue over several volumes. Think of Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series, which was initially marketed as a romance, but is really more historical fiction (confession, I stopped reading the series after Jaime and Claire reunited in Voyager. As far as I was concerned that was all I cared about). Or Bernard Cornwell's series about King Arthur.

But what about books that seem to be hybrid's like Diana Gabaldon's or even Anya Seton's? When I was growing up Anya Seton's books were shelved in romance at the Coliseum bookstore in New York, not fiction, the way they are today. As were all of Jean Plaidy's books on the Plantagents and Tudors. I certainly thought they were romances at the time, particularly Green Darkness and Dragonwyck.

But looking back on it now, That Winthrop Woman and My Theodosia were definitely not romances, although they both had romantic elements in them.

Now fictional biographies of historical figures are back. I was at Barnes & Noble and there was like a whole table of books from Margaret George's book on Helen of Troy, to Diane Haeger's book on Diane de Poitiers. These books while historical fiction, also tend to feature a lot of the romances these women were famous for.

I think they're coming back in vogue because they can bring the period alive for readers by involving them emotionally in the story, as to opposed to a dry biography full of footnotes (apart from Carolly Erickson who's books always read like fiction even though they weren't).

Personally, I'm awe of anyone writes both historical fiction or romance. Just to do the research alone is amazing.

I know that several members of RWA write historical fiction as well as romance, but where would their books fall in terms of the RITA? Eloisa James Desperate Duchesses competing with a historical fiction book like India Edgehill's books? Why not a historical fiction with romantic elements category?

Not likely to happen since the board wants to do away with the mainstream with romantic elements category.

Thanks for reading!

EKM

Introducing the Delta Male

As romance writers, we've all heard of the Alpha Male (Russell Crowe), the Beta Male (think of Al Gore), and even the Gamma Male (a Beta who turns Alpha when his woman or family are threatened).

Well, I give you the Delta Male! You know who they are, think all the guys that you know who pledged a fraternity in college (or a secret society) and twenty years later still act as if they're in one. Still use words like "Dude," they wear their college ring with pride, and as far as they're concerned it was the best four or five years of their lives (what they can remember of it).

Their humor is sophomoric (think of all those National Lampoon movies), and they probably have a file cabinet in HR from all the inappropriate comments that they've made mainly to female colleagues over the years. They are frequently Republican, although there are a few that are Democrats (think Roger Clinton).

Most of them work as investment bankers, and live on the Upper East Side, where they frequent bars like Brother Jimmy's BBQ. They thrive on being 'politically incorrect'. In the summer you can find them out in the Hamptons, where they have not one but two summer shares. During the day at work, they like to throw a football at each other, despite the fact that the aisles on the trading floor are narrow. They talk sports constantly or how hot certain women like Jessica Alba are.

I once worked at an IB, where two of the salesman actually stood in front of one the assistants desk talking about how much they liked to have sex with their wives while they were pregnant.

In books and movies, they are usually the hero's best friend, the annoying guy that the girlfriend has to tolerate. But they can also be the hero, witness any movie starring Will Ferrell, Vince Vaughn, or Owen Wilson. The Wedding Crashers, total Delta Male movie.

A prime example of the Delta Male in real life is one George Walker Bush, our 44th President, or Ty Pennington from Extreme Makeover.

Can the Delta Male be tamed? Well, Laura Bush supposedly told W that it was either Jim Beam or her. It takes a strong woman to put up with a Delta Male. A beta female could probably win him with her love and brownies, but I'm thinking that a Delta Male needs an Alpha female to truly whip into shape. Think of Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck.

Who do you know who is a Delta Male?

EKM